CHAPTER THREE

As a demigod, I tended to have weird dreams. And I hated them, because they always seemed to show me something that had happened, what was happening, or what was going to happen.

In my dream, I was in a jungle. It was so thick with green plants and trees that I could barely see what was in front of me. I was jogging through them, not knowing where I was going, but I felt like I needed to get there as soon as possible. I crashed through some huge palm leaves and froze. I was standing next to the entrance of a cave. It gaped at me, like a mouth ready to consume me. Coming from within it, I could hear voices. They echoed off of the walls, making it hard to tell how many people were talking. I crept closer, debating if I should go in or not.

"You will do as I say!" a voice screeched.

I jumped back and got ready to bolt. The voice sounded really angry.

"No! I'm not telling you anything!" another voice said.

That voice sounded really familiar, and I racked my brain for who the owner was.

From within the cave, I could hear a sound like a whip cracking. Someone cried out in pain. Another voice said, "Leave him alone! You're going to kill him!"

I gasped. I knew that voice anywhere. It was Archer. And if Archer was there, then the other boy must be Ben!

Without thinking, I jogged as quietly as I could into the cave. Inside, I had to navigate my way through rocks that had piled up on the cave floor. I tried as best as I could not to make any fall.

"Tell me, now!" the woman's voice said.

I now knew that it was Isis. The thought of her made me so angry. She had whisked away my boyfriend the moment I had gotten him, all because she wanted to be in complete control over all of the gods.

Another crack of the whip. Archer cried out in pain, and I had to keep myself from crying out with him.

"You better do as she says," a new voice said.

It was Dakota's. That traitor, abandoning us all because Tamara didn't feel the same way about him as he did her. I wanted to slap him so hard he would see double for a week.

"What will you do if we don't?" Archer questioned.

"Tamara and Tina? Yeah, I'll find them. Hunt them down and kill them right when they don't see it coming."

"You wouldn't dare," Ben said angrily. "I thought you loved Tamara."
"Not anymore! Not after she took my heart and broke it into a million pieces! But maybe I'll keep her alive. Hurting you would inflict more pain on her than dying," Dakota said wickedly.

I sucked in a sharp breath. This sounded nothing at all like the Dakota I had met a few days ago. The Old Dakota had been kind and caring and protective. This New Dakota sounded just as evil as Isis. He was willing to kill me and Tamara just to get revenge for his pain. It made me sick, and I questioned if he had really loved Tamara as much as he claimed. If he truly had loved her, then he would not have betrayed her like this.

There was silence, and finally Ben said, "Fine, we'll talk. Just don't hurt Tamara or Tina."

"I thought you would come around," Isis said, pleased.

I made my way through the rocks and sneaked up along a wall. A fire's light danced along one wall, and I saw Isis's shadow. I crept around the corner, and what I saw made my heart hurt.

It was a small cavern within the cave. Along the walls, someone had painted hieroglyphics in red paint. At least, I hoped it was paint. Assorted weapons were piled up in the back. Axes, Egyptian swords, called khopeshes, knives. . . . They all looked extremely sharp, and I could imagine how painful it would be if one cut your skin.

Standing in the center of the cavern was Isis. The last time I had seen her, she had been wearing a white dress with a golden crown perched on her head. (A crown that Tamara had risked her life to retrieve.) Now, the goddess was dressed in a blood red dress. She no longer had her golden crown on her head, but a black one that seemed to be moving. I stared at it, and realized that three slimy black snakes had been woven together and placed on her head. They hissed and flicked their black tongues, like they were laughing. In Isis's hand, she held a whip. It was black leather, probably six-feet long. At the end, the whip split into two, and each end had huge nails strapped to them.

I felt myself cringe. Isis was hitting Archer and Ben with that? I couldn't believe that they weren't dead already.

I tore my gaze away from Isis and looked at the back wall. I sobbed. Archer and Ben were there, hanging from steel cuffs that clung to the ceiling. Their shirts had been torn off and lay at their feet in shreds. Their faces glistened with sweat, and all over their bodies were cuts. I'm not talking about little tiny cuts either. These were long and deep, blood gushing out of them, flowing down their bodies, and pooling on the cave floor. Both of the boys' ribs were showing. They looked determined though, their eyes hard and cold as they fought their pain.

I wanted so badly to go run to Archer, but then I reminded myself that I couldn't. Though this was a dream, I had learned a while ago that a part of me was actually there, watching this. Isis or Dakota could hurt me if I suddenly jumped out into their sight and they sensed my presence.

Speaking of Dakota . . . I looked around the cavern and finally spotted him. He was leaning up against the last wall of the cavern, watching as Isis whipped Archer and Ben. A pleased smile was on his face, like he enjoyed the pain the boys were receiving. He no longer wore jeans and a tee shirt. Now, Dakota was dressed in black pants and black combat boots. Over his black shirt, he wore black leather armor. Strapped to his side was his khopesh, except instead of the blade being gold, now it was as black as night. This guy had completely changed his allegiance. If Tamara had even a shred of hope that he was still good, she needed to forget it. Dakota didn't even look like Dakota anymore. He didn't even sound like him. His voice was now low and cruel, every word coming out of his mouth hateful.

"Now," Isis said. "you're going to tell me exactly where I can find Zeus's source of power. Don't deny it that he has one; every god does."

"Look, we have no clue as to where it is!" Ben said.

"Liar!" Isis snapped, whipping him. The whip slashed across his face, leaving a gash across his jawline.

"I'm not lying!" he cried. "We really have no clue as to where it is!"

Isis raised her hand to whip him again when Dakota said, "Stop! I don't think they know where it is."

Isis glared at him and then finally consented. "Alright, well then why do I need these boys? If they don't have the information I need, then it's time for them to die."

"You're forgetting one thing," Dakota pointed out. "They're leading Tamara and Tina straight to us. Two of the most powerful demigods are willingly coming to you."

Isis slowly smiled and nodded in understanding. "Then we'll let them come. Keep these boys alive, but just barely."

Archer and Ben struggled against their cuffs, shouting at Isis to leave me and Tamara alone. Isis laughed evilly, and the dream started to dissolve.

"Tina," someone said. "Tina, wake up."

I was so taken by surprise that I snapped my eyes open and jumped to my feet. "What? What's going on?"

"Tina, it's me," Tamara said.

I looked at her, my heart racing. That dream had definitely been the weirdest and scariest dream I had ever had.

"What's going on?" I asked again.

"You were having a bad dream. Like, a really bad one," Tamara said. "You kept crying out Archer's name in your sleep, and mumbling about khopeshes, whips, knives . . . what happened?"

I breathed in and out deeply, trying to calm my racing heart. I sat down next to Tamara and looked into her worry-filled eyes. "I had a dream about where Archer and Ben are," I started.

"You did?" Tamara asked excitedly. "Where are they?"

"I don't know the exact location," I said. "They're being kept in a cave somewhere deep within a jungle."

"A cave?" Tamara asked. "How many caves are there in Puerto Rico?"

I looked at her gravely. "A lot."

Tamara's shoulders slumped, some of her hope fading away. "Okay, so what happened in this cave?"

"I saw Archer and Ben. They're hanging from the ceiling by these steel cuffs. They look bad, Tamara. You can see their ribs and they have gashes all over their bodies."

"Gashes? From what?"

"Isis. She's been whipping them with this whip that has nails on the end of it."

Tamara face paled. "Go on."

"They looked exhausted. They're fighting the pain, but barely. Right before my dream ended, Isis's whipped Ben across the face. He's got a cut along his jawline now."

Tamara, without realizing it, traced her jawline with her fingers. "And Isis?"
"She's changed. She's wearing a red dress and has a crown of snakes on her head. She looks nothing like what she did a few days ago."

"Did you see Dakota?" Tamara finally asked.

I detected a tone of hope in her voice.

"I did. Tamara, he's gone, for good. He's wearing black armor, his khopesh's blade is black now. And the way he talks, everything he says is cruel."

Tamara stared past me and out at the ocean. I knew I had torn down her hope of Dakota still being good, but she needed to know.

"Maybe he's possessed," Tamara finally said. "Maybe Isis planted a demon in him like she did to Horus."

I looked at her, doubtful. "Maybe," I said for her sake. I looked away from her piercing-hazel eyes and at our surroundings.

We were sitting under the pink umbrella that Aphrodite had provided us. Not many people were out, I could see a few surfers out in the ocean, but otherwise, the beach was empty. Judging by the amount of light, I guessed that it was early in the morning. Aphrodite had supplied us with my backpack and Tamara's leather Egyptian bag. She sighed with relief when she saw it, obviously more relaxed now that she had her wand and staff. Between us was Tamara's sword, the silver blade shimmering with magic.

"So, what do we do now?" Tamara asked.

"Well, first of all, we need food. It wouldn't be very wise to go hunting for a cave on an empty stomach."

"True that. And then?"

"We need a map. We can circle the locations of all the caves in Puerto Rico and go search for them."

"Every one of them?" Tamara questioned. "Tina, that's a lot of caves to go check. Some of them may be hard to get to, and we could be wasting valuable time checking all of them. From the sound of it, Isis is just barely keeping the boys alive."

"Well, how do you suggest we find the cave?" I asked her. "I wouldn't know which one it is unless I saw it."

Tamara sighed in frustration. I looked up as an older woman walked by us. She held the leashes of six dogs, all little Chihuahuas. They growled at me and Tamara.

"Oh, that's not very nice, now is it?" the woman said to her dogs. She turned to us and smiled. "I'm sorry, I guess they just got hungry."

I smiled up at the older woman. "That's okay. I know I feel like them when I'm hungry."

The woman looked us over, her eyes flickering over our bags and wet clothes.

"Did you dears sleep out here last night?" she asked in a concerned voice.

"Yes," Tamara said cautiously.

I could see her gears turning as she tried to come up with a cover story.

"We had friends camp out here with us last night, but they had to leave early for something."

The woman nodded her head. "Do you girls need a place to wash up and eat?"

I quivered at the thought of taking a hot shower. That sounded like heaven right now, and a hot meal would be nice.

"Yes, please," Tamara said.

We gathered ours things and followed the lady. She walked down the beach and turned to her left around a huge rock. We followed her, and saw that she was leading us to a wooden shack in the jungle. The whole time we were walking, the lady's six dogs kept trying to run up and bite us. They growled and barked and drool flew from their mouths. We kept asking if the dogs were okay, but the lady only responded with, "They're just hungry. Don't worry."

I began to get a nervous feeling in my stomach. I had never seen dogs act like that when they were hungry. Maybe going with this lady had been a bad idea.

We made it to her little shack, and the lady opened the door for us to enter. Tamara and I glanced at each other nervously before stepping into the dark house. I blinked my eyes, trying to adjust to the lack of light. The main room was small. A tiny kitchen was placed off to the right. It had a small, dirty-white fridge and a huge white cooler placed next to a rusty sink. On the left wall, I saw six tiny little kennels. I assumed that they were for the dogs. A hallway ahead of us led to two rooms. One had a worn down unmade bed in it. The other was a bathroom. The bathtub was rusty and cracked, and all thoughts of having a hot shower evaporated.

"I'm so glad you could come up here!" the woman said cheerfully as she shut the door. "Now I can feed my babies!"

Tamara and I whirled around to look at her.

"Did you say you can feed the dogs now, because we're here?" I asked.

The woman nodded excitedly. "I've been having to feed them cow meat, which tastes similar to demigod flesh. But demigods just have that special, magical taste."

Tamara and I stared at each other with horror filled eyes. We had just walked straight into the home of some monsters. What the monsters were though, I didn't know. I mean, yes I was sure the little Chihuahuas' bites would hurt a little bit, but not enough to kill us.

The dogs were jumping out at us, snarling with their teeth bared. They looked very hungry.

"Okay dears, hold on!" the woman said. She clipped the leashes off of the dogs and they bolted to each other.

Tamara and I stared at them. Had they gotten confused as to who they wanted to eat?

As we watched them, I noticed that they were morphing together and changing. Their legs melted together and started getting bigger. Brown slimy scales replaced their dog fur. Their necks grew longer and longer, and all melted together. The thing grew, and grew, and grew, until finally, we were staring up at a huge, six headed reptile. It hissed at us angrily.

"Um . . . Tina? What is that?" Tamara asked weakly.

"A hydra," I said weakly. "We've walked straight into a hydra's lair."