Haunted || Leo Valdez

99 - We Have a Heart-to-Heart With the Roman Praetor

The giant's first shot would have skewered Reyna, but Hylla was fast. She sliced the arrow out of the air and lunged at Orion. Reyna stabbed at his chest. Rebecca blasted hellfire at him when Reyna jumped out of the way. The giant intercepted both sisters' attacks with his bow and dodged the fire. He kicked Hylla backwards into the hood of an old Chevy. Half a dozen cats scattered from underneath it. The giant spun, a dagger suddenly in his hand, and Reyna just managed to dodge the blade. She stabbed again, ripping through his leather jerkin, but only managed to graze his chest.

"You fight well, Praetor," he admitted. "But not well enough to live."

Reyna willed her blade to extend into a pilum. "My death means nothing."

If her friends could continue their quest in peace, she was fully prepared to go down fighting. But first she intended to hurt this giant so badly he would never forget her name.

"What about your sister's death?" Orion asked. "Does that mean something?"

He sent an arrow flying towards Hylla's chest. Rebecca lunged to stop it, but somehow Hylla caught the arrow.

Hylla slid off the hood of the car and snapped the arrow with one hand. "I am the queen of the Amazons, you idiot. I wear the royal belt. With the strength it gives me, I will avenge the Amazons you killed today."

Hylla grabbed the front bumper of the Chevy and flipped the entire car towards Orion, as easily as if she were splashing him with water in a swimming pool. The Chevy sandwiched Orion against the wall of the nearest house. Stucco cracked. A banana tree toppled. More cats fled. Rebecca and Reyna ran towards the wreckage, but the giant bellowed and shoved away the car.

"You will die together!" he promised. Two arrows appeared nocked in his bow, the string fully drawn back.

Then the rooftops exploded with noise.

"DIE!" Screaming his famous mantra, Gleeson Hedge dropped directly behind Orion, smacking his baseball bat over the giant's head so hard the Louisville Slugger cracked in half.

At the same time, Nico dropped in front. He slashed his Stygian sword across the giant's bowstring, causing pulleys and gears to zip and creak, the string recoiling with hundreds of pounds of force until it whacked Orion in the nose like a hydraulic bullwhip.

"OOOOOOOOW!!" Orion staggered backwards, dropping his bow.

Hunters of Artemis appeared along the rooftops, shooting Orion full of silver arrows until he resembled a glowing. He staggered blindly, holding his nose, his face streaming with golden ichor.

Someone grabbed Rebecca's arm. She tensed but looked up and saw that it was just Thalia. "Come on!"

"Go with her!" Hylla ordered.

Reyna looked torn. "Sister —"

"You have to leave! NOW! I'll delay Orion as long as possible."

Hylla grabbed one of the giant's legs. She yanked him off balance and tossed him several blocks down the Calle San Jose, to the general consternation of several dozen more cats. The Hunters ran after him along the rooftops, shooting arrows that exploded in Greek fire, wreathing the giant in flames.

"Your sister's right," Thalia said to Reyna. "You need to go."

Nico and Hedge fell in alongside Reyna and Rebecca, both looking very pleased with themselves. They had apparently gone shopping at the Barrachina souvenir shop, where they'd replaced their dirty tattered shirts with loud tropical numbers.

"Nico," Rebecca said, "you look —"

"Not a word about the shirt," he warned. "Not one word."

"Why did you come looking for us?" Reyna demanded. "You could have got away free. The giant has been tracking me. If you had just left —"