Annoyed further by my own tantrum, I kicked half of the useless thing to the side. Azita did not flinch. It reminded me of how well I’d trained her. The strength and respect she displayed calmed me. I concentrated on my breathing, calming myself further. “You were volunteered to come in and handle me?” I asked.
We drove it hard, taking control of the hunt. We finally hurt it badly enough to prevent it from escaping and healing at the last ambush. It came around an outcropping and ran into a wall of maidens. Arrows flew, and I got under it, slicing a chunk of its leg off before it leaped from the rock wall, but it seemed to disappear again.
It was good to feel the minds of these animals again. They were old friends, and this was home even if I didn’t come back often. After the long night, all I wanted to do was wander through the park, check in on all the animals there, and relax past the waterfall. But, alas, I had work to do.
The bar was darker than the woods and filled with beards. Mostly they are long and grey with one lonely goatee. Clearly, it belongs to a hiker from the south, judging from the rolled-up skinny jeans and tech pad things scattered on the table. He does seem a bit on guard around the grizzled old men. Honestly, it is cute. I will make sure they do not play with him like cats with their prey.
“Regroup and expand our search parameters. It will take longer, and we’ll be gone for extended periods. I can’t keep sending crews out. It’s detrimental to the business. If I had concrete evidence that Kara was in one particular area, then I’d take every single person with me. We’d raid the place, rescue her, and then deal with the perpetrators appropriately.”
“You mean go into full God of War mode and kill them all?”
I just looked at him.
I no longer worried about the storm raging inside. I opened my eyes and looked at the controlled chaos around me.
I placed my hands on the smooth scales of Sayeh’s back and took a deep breath. As I let it out, I tried to call back the stone that ran over her body, but it resisted. I pulled harder, fighting against an unseen force. Her body had been wrapped in the stone for too long, and it didn’t want to let go.
I opened the folder. On top was a contract. I scanned it and a few words stood out. Proprietary…holder…board voted…Nike of Olympus will now be the legal blah blah blah of Dark Sparks. My eyes grew wide as I scanned the document again before looking up at him. “Dad, seriously? You’re giving me the company?”
Quietly, I walked through the graveyard and looked at the old and crumbling headstones. Leave it to the pirates to have the most interesting names. Honestly, I was surprised that there weren’t any Seymore-Butts…oh, wait, nevermind. There it is.
They still saw the illusion, and I had a feeling no matter how many times they walked across the bridge, they’d end up at the beginning. “You have to trust me. I think this is part of a test. We have to trust each other and have enough faith to get through each challenge.”
“Oh, but I am. I am you. The real you. What would your precious family say if they saw the real you? Do you think they would still love you? Would they love the Athena we both know you really are? Take a good look! This is who you really are. Who WE are.”
“So tag and bag, or should we just kill them? Because honestly, I am good either way.”
I could feel pain radiating from Sayeh, such a bone-deep pain that I felt like I was being crushed under the weight of it. I hoped Artemis wasn’t able to feel this.
She wore a triumphant sneer on her face and in her hand, her silver bow and arrow were aimed at me.
