Empire of Secrets: A New Adult Paranormal Romance with Young Adult Appeal (God of Secrets Book 2) by L. R. W. Lee

Author:L. R. W. Lee [Lee, L. R. W.]
Language: eng
Format: epub, azw3
Publisher: Woodgate Publishing
Published: 2020-10-19T06:00:00+00:00

Chapter Twenty-Five

“Hey, guys?” I squat beside my find.

Harpoc illuminates the area, and Aura bends to get a closer look.

“Am I imagining things or do these unusually large hoof prints go with those paw prints?” I’m not sure what to think, because nothing makes sense.

A large goat cat… no, a fire-breathing goat cat did this. Right. I laugh to myself.

“Shit,” Harpoc exclaims half a minute later, throwing a hand to the back of his neck.

Aura exhales heavily the next second, standing erect.

“What?” Despite Harpoc’s shitty exclamation, all thoughts of dung of any sort evaporate as I stand.

Harpoc shakes his head. “It’s a chimera.”

He and Aura’s gazes lock, and I know she agrees.

A chimera? I know I’ve heard of it. My brain’s digging, full speed ahead to recall the specifics.

Harpoc beats me to it. “A chimera is a creature with the front end of a lion, the middle and back end of a goat and a serpent’s head for a tail.” He looks at the dark ground and starts pacing, hand still on the back of his neck.

The memory bursts from the recesses of my brain and my stomach twists. “The goat’s head that’s in the middle of its back, breathes fire.”

“It does,” Aura says.

My breathing hitches. I wish I didn’t remember, because if there’s a chimera loose, we’re in deep, deep doo-doo. It’s already burned two villages to the ground.

“Harpoc…,” My voice quivers. “… you sealed a secret for a chimera?”

What was he thinking? No, what was secret magic thinking? Clearly it wasn’t. What secret would a beast like that even have? I incinerated a bazillion beings, and I don’t want to face the music? Ha.

Harpoc says, “I did, once, way back when.” His laugh is bitter. “Funny, I sealed a secret for a Cerberus the other day.”

A Cerberus? My stomach clenches, I don’t want to know. “Why’s it funny?”

“Just that they’re both multiheaded.”

When it rains, it pours.

So there are two beasts that’ll kill us quick like, because why have just one mouth when you can have two or more to rip you to shreds? Or breathe fire in this case. My heart starts to sprint.

Gold eye, silver eye.

Aura surveys the forest at the end of the street, frowning.

Does she sense this monster? Is it nearby? My heart pounds faster.

My thoughts are scaring me shitless, pardon the pun, and I need to redirect or I’ll be a quivering mess. “So this is a creature that’s been brought back like the three we dealt with?”

Harpoc bobs his head.

My brain’s still digging up artifacts, and I recall a story where a chimera terrorized Lycia in southern Turkey.

Some young, snot-nosed brat, Bellerophon, got too full of himself and totally torked off King Iobates in his court at Lycia, to the point that the king decided to have him killed.

But rather than just outright executing him, the king decided Bellerophon would have to kill the chimera that, every night, swept down on the land and carried his people and animals away—the bones of its victims were strewn across the mountainsides.

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