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Chapter 20: Midas Blood.

"You reckless idiot!" Thalia shoved me the second we got out of the cage. "You could've gotten yourself and her killed!"

"Well, nice to see you too," I said, brushing dust off my shirt. "Sorry for not dying, Your Royal Huntressness."

Thalia looked like she wanted to punch me again, but she just let out a sharp breath through her nose and stalked a few steps away. Rey and Sasha wisely kept their mouths shut.

Zoe stood quietly behind me, cradling her injured hand. She looked like she wished she could disappear into the wreckage.

"Enough," Rey finally said, her voice hard. "We need answers. Now."

Everyone's attention snapped to Zoe. She shrank under the weight of it.
I shifted closer to her without thinking—girl just saved our lives. Last thing she needed was a firing squad.

"How?" Thalia demanded. "How can your blood turn metal into gold?"

Zoe hugged herself, like she could hold the truth in a little longer.
But it spilled out anyway.

"After centuries trapped as a golden statue," she said, voice barely above a whisper, "the magic... it got into me. Into my blood. I'm not fully human anymore. Maybe I never was."

The air around us grew heavy.
I felt my stomach turn.
She said it like it disgusted her.

"So that's why Orion wants you," I said, voice harsher than I meant. "You're basically the golden goose."

Zoe flinched.
Rey shot me a sharp look.
Right. Maybe less sarcasm. Maybe.

"We need more," Thalia said, scanning the wrecked remains of the facility. "There has to be survivors. Files. Anything."

"We'll be lucky if we find anything still breathing," I muttered, kicking aside a piece of broken ceiling. "Big Mama Bear didn't exactly leave the place in move-in condition."

We fanned out, weapons ready. Most of the people we found were—yeah, well. Past tense.
Some were still clutching syringes, vials, and bloody notes.

"This wasn't just a hideout," Sasha said grimly. "This was a research base."

"And they were using Zoe like a lab rat," Rey added.

Anger boiled under my skin. I tried not to think about it too much, or I was going to start breaking things.Morethings.

I was about to call it when Thalia shouted from a side room.

"Guys—over here."

We hurried over.
The door had been ripped off its hinges, the room behind it lit only by the sickly green flicker of a broken emergency light.

And the smell.
Gods, the smell hit me first—bleach, blood, and something metallic and wrong.

The room was lined with tables and machines I didn't recognize—some looked like they belonged in a hospital, others like they were stolen straight out of a horror movie.
Rusted IV poles. Thick restraints bolted to gurneys.
And blood bags—dozens of them—lined up neatly along one wall like grotesque trophies.

Some were fresh.
Some were still dripping.

In the center of the room was a giant golden cage—the same kind we had just been hiding in—but this one had tubes connected to it. Tubes that led to machines humming softly. Machines meant to harvest.

Zoe stepped into the room behind us—and froze.
Her face went pale as chalk.

I followed her gaze—and saw it.

A journal left open on the nearest table.
Detailed sketches of veins.
Notes scribbled in frantic handwriting:

Subject #01: Blood Extraction Successful.
Concentration of Imperial Essence: 87%.
Recommendation: Further bleeding required for mass production.

Further bleeding.

Mass production.

They hadn't just wanted a sample.
They wanted to drain her dry.

My fists clenched at my sides.

"This is sick," Rey said, her voice shaking with fury. "This is beyond sick."

Thalia put a hand on Zoe's shoulder, steady and firm.
But even she couldn't hide the anger in her eyes.

Zoe was staring at the machines, the blood bags—her body's essence, ripped from her and bottled up like it was just another commodity. Her face didn't change, but I could see the edge of the horror creeping in. She'd already been through enough, hadn't she?

I stepped forward, trying to control my breathing, but all I could feel was the weight of the blood that had been taken from her. The way it had been done so casually, without any care for the person beneath it.

They had turned her into a resource.

"We need to find a survivor," I said, looking around the room.

I was about to call it when I heard a weak cough near a pile of rubble.

"Found one!" I shouted.

We rushed over.
Buried halfway under a collapsed table was a guy in a torn lab coat, face bruised but breathing.

Sasha yanked him out by the collar.
The guy groaned, blinking blearily up at us—until he saw Zoe. Then he tried to bolt.

"Not so fast," Rey said, her sword flashing out to rest lightly against his neck.

The guy whimpered.

"You know who she is," Thalia said, voice cold as steel. "Tell us why you're after her."

The man stammered. "I—I don't know much! I just followed orders!"

"Try again," Rey growled.

I crossed my arms and gave him my bestI'm-so-done-with-todaylook. "Start talking, Doc. Or I'm sending you to go play tag with the bear."

He blanched. Good.

His eyes focused on Zoe. Then back at us. His voice lowered, barely audible. "Orion... he... he's the one who wanted it. All of it. He... He wanted to turn her blood into a cure—something to bring people back from the dead."

I leaned in, every muscle tensed. "How?"

He shuddered. "He thought if he could replicate the power... if he could make the blood immortal, he could... he could cure anything. Even death itself. Immortalize the soul."

Rey's eyes widened. "Wait. You're telling me he wants to turn the dead into zombies?"

"No... not zombies," the man gasped, his voice growing weaker. "He wanted to bring them back. Fully. Fix their bodies, everything."

Zoe's expression faltered. "And what does that have to do with me?"

"Your blood," the man said with a rasp. "After thousands of years... of the Midas touch sinking into you... your blood has become a source of that power. The same power that makes things turn to gold. It's in you now. He... he thought if he could drink it, he could...live forever."

Rey gave a disgusted laugh. "That son of a—"

Zoe looked down at her hands, then at the bloodstained table where her essence had been siphoned into countless vials. "So... they wanted my blood to live forever?"

"That sick bastard," I muttered.

"He's desperate," Rey said. "And dangerous. If he succeeds—"

"He won't," Thalia said, cutting her off. "Not while I'm still breathing."

"And me," I added.

"And me," said Rey and Sasha together.

I turned back to the scientist. "You got any secret labs or evil potions stashed somewhere?"

He shook his head furiously.

"Good." I punched him in the face anyway.
He crumpled like a paper bag.

"What?" I said when the girls stared at me. "He deserved it."

Thalia just rolled her eyes. "Come on. Let's grab whatever we can find. Apollo might know what to do with it."

We scavenged through the ruins, picking up cracked vials filled with shimmering golden liquid, broken files with half-burnt diagrams, and a couple of twisted syringes.
Rey wrapped it all in a Hunter's satchel like it was toxic waste—which, honestly, it probably was.

"If Apollo can't figure this out," Sasha muttered, "we're screwed."

"No pressure," I said, shoving a few more vials into the bag.

When we regrouped outside, under the darkening sky, there was a long, heavy silence.

Then Rey cleared her throat and turned to Zoe.

"You should come with us," she said, not quite looking at her.

Zoe blinked. "W-where?"

"Back to our camp," Rey said carefully. "We can protect you."

"And maybe..." Sasha chimed in with a little too much casualness. "If you want... maybe you could join us."

My heart dropped into my stomach.

Zoe looked between us, wide-eyed and unsure.

"You don't have to decide now," Rey said quickly. "Just... think about it."

I muttered under my breath, "Yeah, think about giving up your whole life and joining a bunch of immortal moon girls. Sounds totally fun."

Thalia elbowed me in the ribs. Hard.

Zoe hesitated, then gave a small, shaky nod.

I sighed, looking up at the stars just starting to poke through the clouds

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