Chapter 30

Herry paced the living room as the rest of his team conversed. He had stopped listening a long time ago. How could he have put Opal in this situation? He could only imagine the terror she was in right now, but he tried not to, it only added to the anger he felt towards himself.

"This is getting us nowhere," he exploded, tossing out his arms, "Come on Jay we need to go after her."

"We don't know where she is," was his calm response, "All we can do is wait. He'll use her as bate." Herry groaned and began pacing again. His phone buzzed in his pocket, but everyone that called him was with him.

He answered with reserved anticipation, "Hello?"

"Herry?" the voice was a man's, but he didn't recognize it.

"Yeah."

"It's John," Herry's stomach plummeted, "Do you know where my daughter is?"

"Ah, sort of," he said, frozen in terror. Theresa waved her hands in front of his face and he blinked her into focus. She pointed up and mouthed 'upstairs.' He repeated it into the phone.

"Sorry?" John asked.

Theresa rolled her eyes and snatched away his phone, "Hi, John?"

"Yes, who is this?"

"I'm Theresa, Herry's housemate. Opal fell asleep in my bed while we were watching a movie. I was just going to let her stay there overnight."

"Okay, I guess that's alright," he said.

"Sorry to make you worry."

"Not at all, just get her to call home in the morning would you?" he asked.

"Sure," Theresa said and snapped the phone shut. She passed it back to Herry and said, "You have until tomorrow before you lose all of her father's trust."

"Great," Herry groaned in sarcasm and dropped down into the couch, bouncing up Atlanta on the opposite end. He hid his face in his hands while Jay continued to ramble on about strategy, useless strategy in Herry's mind because they weren't trying to figure out where she was. He gripped his hair at the roots, forcing himself to stay seated while Jay spoke. The minutes kept adding up, pulling on his hair for so long was giving him a headache.

It was the silence that pulled him out of his skull, not the slam in the entryway of the brownstone. Herry looked up to Jay in confusion, his leader's face was a mirror of his own, looking to the hallway. Jay recognized the gray haired man that appeared in the doorway of the living room instantly.

"How did you know where we lived?" Jay demanded from Percival.

Percival blatantly ignored Jay's question and bellowed his own demand to the teen on the couch, "What have you done?"

Herry wished the couch would swallow him whole. He gave Percival a slack jawed stare, his heart ceasing all movement in his chest.

"Gods damn it, I promised," Perceval yelled, his voice echoing off the walls. Fists clenched at his sides and chest heaving, his nose scrunched up in a scowl. His voice became low, but all the power of his delivery never swayed, "Promised her I wouldn't let her family get drawn into all of this…" he tossed his hands up to the air, stumbling over his words in his anger, "this… this shit.

"And then you," Percival shot an accusing finger towards Herry, "You had to come along and ruin it all. I should have done something about you and Opal the second I realized who you were. Now she's gone and it's all because of you!"

The sting of tears behind Herry's eyes gave him back his voice. He shook his head and whispered, "You're right."

"Damn right," Percival stomped his foot into the floorboards and turned on his heel, yelling to himself as he stormed back out of the brownstone, "Oriole, I'm so sorry, I'll find her. I'll get your granddaughter out of this gods damned mess."

The whole room turned to silence. Silence that became deafening as everyone looked to Herry and waited for his reaction. He didn't say a word. He just got to his feet and somehow managed to place one in front of the other till he was out of the room.

"Herry," Theresa shot out a hand to catch his arm as he brushed past her and into the hallway. He paused but he didn't turn his gaze from the floor, "Herry I'm sorry, this wouldn't have happened –"

"Don't," he shot.

Theresa snatched back her hand from his arm.

"Don't say anything," he said, "I'm going for a drive."

"Herry?" Jay said, a warning edge to his voice.

"I'm just going for a drive," he said, his voice deep and even. He grabbed his keys from the ceramic bowl on the landing on his way out the door. He knew exactly where he was headed. His Granny always gave him good advice.

Jay waited till the front door was back in its frame before he said, "Someone follow him."

"Now why would they have you join their little glee club?" Cronus muttered as he paced around the cage Opal was huddled in. She hadn't said a word since she was brought to this cavern, musky and dim. He tried to prod her for answers but she just shied away from him, only building on the god's anger. Cronus continued speaking as he paced, "Thinking they can increase their odds if they have eight instead of seven."

Opal just stared with wide eyes. She had no idea what he was talking about. She didn't understand how she got from the top of a mountain to a cavern. He glared down at where she sat shivering, her arms around her legs in the very middle of her confine. His hands shot out to grab the bars, causing them to vibrate and reverberate across the entire structure. She flinched, but still didn't make a noise.

"You think you're being brave?" he growled at her, but she didn't meet his eyes, "I can tell you're terrified. Why would they add you to their team, you're obviously only hindering them. I could slice your throat in two seconds flat if I didn't need you to lure out the others."

She blinked back her tears and trapped the cry in her throat. She would not give him the satisfaction.

"Maybe they'd be up for a trade," he said, "Do you know what they did with Empusa?"

She didn't know who that was.

He narrowed his eyes, crouched down and leaned his arm through the bar to caress her hand. She jumped and jerked away to the far edge of the cage. He laughed and said with a sickening slick of sweetness, "In that case, I'm going to kill them, one by one and I'll leave your boyfriend for last." She buried her face in her crossed arms over her knees, hiding her face as it contorted with hysteria. Cronus stepped back in satisfaction. The girl's sobs the sweetest music.

She listened to his footsteps echo from the cavity her enclosure was placed. The God of Time paused in the entranceway, turning off whatever the dim light source had been. The darkness crashed in on her like a tsunami. She screamed. Launching herself for the bars of her cage she reefed on the solid fixtures, panic ridding herself of the rationality it was pointless. Her eyes were wide open but there was not a glimmer of light in the cave, she was completely blind.

The noises started to heighten her imagination. The drips of water from stalactites were the clipping of claws. She screamed her throat raw. She was shaking so hard she could hardly keep the bars in her grip.

There was the sound of metal on metal, the pop of the lock opening. Opal wedged herself between to bars, desperate for escape. Rusted hinges groaned as the door was inched open. She held her breath till her lungs burned.

"Opal it's me," the voice was a man's she couldn't place, especially with her mind warped by the dark.

"Who?" she said, her throat tight with panic.

"Percival," he said, fingertips of his outstretched hand brushing her shoulder. He gripped her shirt and tugged her out of her confines.

"How," she stumbled after him, her head in a whirl, "How did you find me?"

"GPS," he said, "I didn't trust that boy to keep you safe, I knew he wouldn't be able to keep you out of this."

"What?" she whispered, none of his words fitting into any kind of since in her brain.

"Shh," he jarred her to the side, dragging her to the wall of the cavern. The gravel crunched under her uncoordinated feet. She staggered along with Percival in the pitch. He pulled her down into a hole and they crouched into a wedge between two damp rocks. The lights whirled on. Opal could see the gray rock of the cavern wall in front of her face. She looked up to Percival, his face furrowed in deep wrinkles as he peeked out of a crack into the room trough his green goggles.

"Agnon!" Opal jumped at the bellow, Percival pressed his hand down harder on her arm, pushing her up against the chilled rock. Cronus continued his rant as his footsteps echoed out of the cavern, "I knew it sounded too quiet in here. It was those teens. They've got to be close still. Get the scorpion! We can't wait till tomorrow."

Percival waited until any sounds of the god had long dissipated before he dare whisper, "Let's go."

"What is happening?" Opal mimicked his tone, "Who is that man?"

"Cronus," Percival said, pulling her along the wall of the cave, "He's the Greek God of Time."

"No," she said, "There's no such thing."

"Do you really believe that?" he said.

She didn't answer.

"The gods are real," he continued, "I'm sorry you had to find out, I'm sorry I broke my promise."

"Who are you?" she dug her heels into the rock floor.

"Opal, I'm your grandmother's friend," he said, tugging her along, "We need to get out of here."

"How do you know this?" her demand was getting higher than a whisper.

"Shh," he said, continuing his trail outside, "I know because I am a descendant of Perseus and your grandmother was a descendant of Orpheus. I know because together we located and patched a rip in the underworld while we hunted all the horrors that escaped through it into the living world."

"What?" she asked as they stepped out into the cool air of dusk, "You did that, for real?"

"Yes," he turned to her, shrugging of his black leather jacket for her to put on. He grabbed an extra helmet off the back of his motor bike and pressed it into her hands.

"Orpheus," she muttered to herself, if her grandmother was a descendent of the hero than she was as well.

"Yes," Percival said.

"So, Herry," she asked, her cheeks flushing with his name.

"Hercules," Percival said in short response, hopping onto his bike, "Get on."

She followed his orders, gripping his middle tight when he tore off down the road. The wind roared in her ears, discouraging any further conversation. She wasn't sure how she felt about the vehicle, everything dangerously whipping buy. The solid walls of a car seemed more secure, safer to be transporting yourself in. Percival handled the bike with skill, maneuvering around corners faster than any car could.

The signs of Cronus' scorpion became evident once they reached town from the mountains. Cars were flipped on their sides and light posts were clipped right in two. If the trail of carnage wasn't already easy enough to follow the screams of panic helped to guide Percival's way.