The Last Hunter: Collected Edition (Antarktos Saga #1-5)

A look of fear stitches across his face a moment before I bring Whipsnap’s razor sharp blade down, decapitating the monster.

I step away from the growing pool of purple blood, catching my breath. Kainda steps up next to me. “Now you’ve killed two of them.”

“I had help,” I admit.

“Yes,” she says, looking at me with a look of satisfaction, “You did.”

Em rushes up to us. Adoni inspects the scene.

“Are you all right?” Em asks.

Kainda huffs like it’s a ridiculous question. I answer for both of us, “We’re fine.”

Adoni whispers something in another language, but I can tell by the sound that it’s a curse. He’s looking at half of Krane’s shed face. His voice shakes with horror as he asks, “This was Krane?”

“A shifter,” I say. “He was trying to speak to the fathers.”

“A shifter?” Em says. “I didn’t think—”

“Nor did I,” Kainda says, her back to us as she stares into the jungle. “But they are real. And among us.”

Trust no one. Xin’s words now make sense. If a shifter can take human form, they can probably take any human form, even those of people I trust. But Kainda, Em and Adoni have proven themselves to me tonight through their actions.

“We need to leave,” Adoni says. “If he made contact—”

“He didn’t,” Kainda says. “He had just begun the ritual.”

Adoni stands, shaking his head. “It doesn’t matter. The Fathers will know he tried to initiate contact. They will know that his ritual was interrupted. And they will know the mission with which he was tasked. They will come for him. His blood will be easy to track.”

“We’ll head underground,” Em says. “We’ve planned for this.”

Em is right. The hunters need to flee. It is not yet time to strike. Our numbers are too few, and we need help from the outside world. But I cannot join them. Not while the Clarks are here, and in danger. And not until I find Hades and the Jericho Shofar.

“Go,” I say. “But I cannot go with you.”

“What? Why not?” Em says quickly, a hint of anger rising in her voice.

“I need to go to Olympus.”

“His friend is there,” Adoni says, but he’s not defending me. “The teacher.”

“Aimee?” Em says. She met Aimee once, in the Norse library. She knows how much Aimee means to me.

“Solomon, you can’t—”

“Mira is here, too. And Merrill.”

Like with Aimee, Em knows all about Mira and Merrill. She knows about the photograph. About the note that Mira left behind for me. She knows.

“Sol…”

“I also need to find Hades,” I say.

Adoni staggers back, eyes wide with fear. “Hades! Why?”

“He is not like the others,” I say.

“No,” Adoni says. “He is far worse.”

His fear begins to infect me. I can’t let it. “It doesn’t matter. Cronus said he would help us.”

Adoni is confused. “Cronus?”

“The Titan,” I say.

“You met…a Titan?”

“In Tartarus.” My patience wears thin. “It’s a long story and we don’t have the time. But I need to find Hades.” I look at Em. “And I need to save my friends. Both are at Olympus.”

“I’m going with him,” Kainda says, attaching her hammer to her belt and crouching by the purple pool of blood. She takes a leather wineskin and carefully scoops up some of the blood.

Collecting Nephilim blood strikes me as revolting. My nose crinkles in disgust and I ask, “What are you doing?”

Kainda caps the skin and wipes away the blood on the outside with a leaf. “It saves lives,” Kainda says. “It could save yours.”

I can tell she finds it as revolting as me by the way she pinches the skin between two fingers and quickly ties it to her belt. She’d rather not be taking it, but she’s right. The blood could save a life. At least the Nephilim are good for something.

“Then I’m coming, too,” Em says.

“Em,” I say, shaking my head.

“You can’t,” says Adoni.

“What about Luca?” I ask.

She turns to Adoni. “Take Luca and the others underground. Six groups. Six different paths. When you reach the gathering place, wait for us.”

I raise my voice. “No, Em, you need to stay—”

“She needs to come,” Kainda says. She bends down to Eshu’s severed head and yanks out the knife still buried in his eye. “We need her help.”

I know how impossibly hard that admission is for Kainda to make. So hard, in fact, that it quickly convinces me she’s right. I sigh. “Adoni, do as she says. We will find you.”

Adoni looks like he might argue, but he’s outnumbered three to one. And, I suspect, he’s outranked by Em, Kainda and now by me. He bows in defeat and backs toward the jungle.