average human’s Reviews > Visions > Status Update

Which may just very well be why I’m so attracted to Vanessa. Considering that Artemis was around her from a young age, I can see the influence.
Ignoring the twins, I watch the tornado—yes, tornado—in the fucking desert just stay in one place. The funnel walls swell as though breathing. I can’t make out Vanessa in the center, but that’s where she has to be.
I refuse to believe anything else.
The pain in my chest increases, and though I can’t see him, I know Pim stands right beside me. The eerie brush of his presence is a balm to the fear building within me.
“She’s fine,” Artemis mocks Apollo, bringing their conversation to the forefront of my mind. “A tornado swallowed her whole, brother. I should skin you for that.”
“Can you not feel your dearest Vanessa in there?” Apollo sneers. One of these days, I’m going to punch that god in the face and enjoy every second. Then I’ll do it again.
“There we are.” Artemis walks forward, her bow in her hand. “Who is that?”
“Who?” I glance up, seeing the tornado die, but that isn’t what stops my heart from beating.
Vanessa falls to her knees, slumping forward. Screams rent the air. Mine? Apollo’s? I swear I hear Pim from wherever his spirit is.
My legs burn as I dart forward, my heart in my throat.
She only just now admitted to wanting me, me.
My knees skid along the hard earth as I catch her, her damn worthless guardian perched on her legs—with wings, no less.
“Vanessa?” I rest her head in my lap, pressing my fingers to the wound in her side.
Memories surge inside me.
No, not now. Not now.
I can’t keep them back any more than I can keep Vanessa from bleeding out.
Blasts rock in my ears, and I slap my hands to them, peering around as adrenaline floods my system.
Granger bleeds in my mind’s eye, wounded as I drag his body behind a shed while I talk to him about hanging on.
Liam passes out in a desert much deadlier than this.
“You poor mortal.” Artemis flicks my forehead as coolness washes through me at her touch. The memories ease, and my hands slap back to Vanessa’s wound. “That’s better.”
“Where’s the knife?” Apollo questions with that terrifying calmness his sister exhibits.
“Now, brother, does it matter right this moment?”
“She’s dying.” Confusion clouds on Apollo’s face as though it is all her fault.
“What do we do?” I focus on Artemis, who smiles at me, her head dipping low as she crouches before me.
“Why, we kill her.”
“I don’t think so.” Heart thundering in my chest, I struggle to move backwards, but I’m nothing more than a lost soldier playing in the world of gods. I will fight for this woman with my dying breath, even against a goddess.
Inside me, something awakens a long dormant rage.
“None of that now, Greyson,” she coos, reaching for me.
Cold flows through my body again, and I hold onto Vanessa, pulling her against my chest as darkness dots my vision. All at once, it vanishes.
“Why are we here, sister?” Apollo looks around at the snow, impervious to the blistering cold.
“Enter.”
“This?”
“Yes.” Artemis strides into a large obsidian stone and moves right through it.
Reaching down, Apollo lifts Vanessa, her blood still oozing from her wounds.
“Why isn’t the wound healing?” I struggle to stand, my body shaking with fear and unspent rage.
Ignoring me, Apollo walks through the stone, leaving me alone on a ledge overlooking a valley. There’s nothing but snow for as far as the eye can see.
I feel him then, stronger. Pim is urging me on.
“Not like I’m going to stay out in this cold.” My teeth chatter as I walk toward the stone. I reach out, and my fingertips fall right through, so with one sure step, I press through the stone and pop out on the other side.
I smell it first, the stench, then I hear the low whine of a dog. A path leads toward a dark archway where I can just make out the others’ shadows.
To the left sits a canine, one I’ve heard of on more than one occasion. Cerberus.
“He won’t hurt you.” I jump at Pim’s voice. He’s standing beside the three-headed dog with his hand on his belly. “He mourns her. Hurry on through.” He jerks his head at the path stretching out before me.
I know exactly where I am—the entrance to the Underworld.
But why did they bring Vanessa here?
I don’t think about it too deeply before I run toward the inky black and allow it to swallow me whole. Pins and needles rock my body, but I push through. Artemis said the next move was to kill Vanessa, and here we are at the entrance to the Underworld. One not involving a ferryman.
I move through the darkness with one purpose—to keep her from killing Vanessa. A light gleams ahead, and I stumble into a library. My momentum shoves me into a chair as a beaten, broken man pours a vial of liquid into Vanessa’s mouth.
I’m too late.