DoW chapter 15

Nika was shaking me awake. LURA!! Wake up! We have a problem! She says
frantically. What? What’s wrong? I ask her sitting up. Nika points to a golden
arrow on the ﬂoor. Uh oh. I grab the arrow and ﬁnd the note attached. I
frantically unroll it and Read it. Hey! There’s a horde of Monsters headed your
way. You need to get out of there. Astraea. We need to get out of here. You get
the boys, I’ll go talk to George and Jewel. I tell her seriously and run out the
door. I skip the elevator and go straight for the stairs. I race down them and
burst through the lobby door. Jewel was reading at the desk and looked up at
me. Oh Lura! What’s wrong? Is the elevator broken? She asks me. I bite my lip,
not knowing how to explain a army of monsters coming to get us. No, I just
needed to get down here fast. Jewel, I don’t know how to explain this but there’s
an army of monsters coming to get me and my friends and we have to leave. I
tell her, the truth sounding absurd. She laughs and I hesitate. She ﬁnally stops
and looks at me. Oh sweetie, who do you think told them you were here? She
says and my blood runs cold. She smiled a sinister grin and stood up. I take a
step back and take off my glasses. My sword morphs in my hands and Jewel
laughs. Cute stick but you can’t win. She says and I watch in horror as she turns
before my eyes. Once a sweet older lady was now a bald winged creature with
blood red eyes. It screeched and lunged. All the training I had just learned
came into mind and I dodged and slashed. It was a good move but the creature
was fast and narrowly missed it. This thing is fast. I think and change tactics. I
charge it and manage to clip one of its wings. I hear another screech And ﬁnd
another thing ﬂying toward me. I duck as it skims my head and I thrust up. It
screeches in pain and turns to golden dust. It falls all over me. Gross. Wait. That
was George. The thought sickened me but I had no time to thing about it. Jewel,
or whatever she was, roared in fury. Her voice was like a snake that had been
chocked. You will pay for thissss daughter of Athena. She says and ﬂies at me. I
duck but it clips my shoulder. I grit my teeth in pain as pain ﬂares from the cut.
It lunges for me again but before I can react, red light blinds me. Fear me beast.
For your not going to a feast! I familiar voice says. The creature screams and
vanishes in golden dust. Cole?! I ask him. He waves. He didnt say anything. What’s
wrong? I ask him. She cursed me you see. The one with eyes like the deep blue
see. He says and crosses his arms over his chest. I can’t help but laugh. Astraea
curse you with a rhyming curse?! Nika is going tease you about this for the rest

Of your life. I say. He glares at me. While that may be true, this is a poem for
you. Im here to ﬁght, to do what’s right. He says. Great then lets get to it. Nika,
Devin, and Jacob will need help. I tell him and we both race upstairs. Im out of
breath when we reach the top but Cole looks ﬁne. We run to my room and ﬁnd
both doors open. All three of them were running back and forth with different
stuff. Lura! Devin says runnnig up to me. Cole?! He asks. Cole nods. Silence.
What’s up with him? Devin asks me. I smile. Astraea cursed him so he can only
speak in rhymes. I tell him and Devin smiles. Well, a god on our side is always a
plus. Nika was just ﬁnishing up with everything. Jacob went to the roof and
spotted the army. And boy will we have our hands full. How bad is it? I ask him.
He puts his hand on his neck like he does when he’s nervous. A lot. At least a
dozen or more. All different. He says. He looks at me again. Lura, your shoulder!
He says. I had forgotten about it in the heat of everything. I looked at the
bloody tear in my skin That had already stained my clothes. As soon as I
remembered it, the pain came back. I gritted my teeth. Its ﬁne, we need to get
ready. I tell him. No, you will not ﬁght like this. I wont allow it. He says. Dev,
there’s no way I’m not ﬁghting. I tell him but my shoulder was killing me. Devin
shakes his head. I know but promise me you wont ﬁght until I look at it. He
says. I promise. I tell him. Great, then its time we get ready. Go to your room
and pack your stuff up and change your shirt so germs don’t infect the wound.
He says, going all doctor on me. Ok Doc. I tell him and sit down on my Bed. I
didnt want to tell him that it felt like my shoulder was on ﬁre and I had to take
deep breathes to help the pain. He came back with some ambrosia and handed it
to me. Eat this. He says and I gladly take it. The sweet food instantly dulled the
pain. Ok, now I have to stitch it up. Devin says. I see the tiny needle and cringe.
I hated needles. Devin saw me hesitatE. I’ll be quick just don’t move. He says.
Easier said then done. When the tiny metal touched my skin I almost moved my
arm away. The tiny pricks and pulls on my skin hurt. Not too bad but still. It
made my skin crawl. When he ﬁnally was ready to stitch it fully closed, he took
a deep breath. This is gonna hurt, just warning you. Try not to scream. He says.
Ok just make it quick. I tell him and grit my teeth. On three, one, two three!
He says and pulls the strings. Pain ripped through me and I almost screamed.
Tears sprung to eyes. There, that should hold. He says and looks at me. He sees
the tears in my eyes. He wraps me in a hug and I feel inﬁnitely Better. Thanks.

I tell him. No problem. Everyone needs a hug every once in a while. He says.
Yeah. I tell him. We sit in each other’s arms for a while, enjoying each other’s
company. I knew even witH Cole on Our side it would still be a ﬁght. The
thought that I may not see my friends again made a lump in my throat. When
we ﬁnally pull away, we both turn serious. Ready? I ask him with a smile. As
ready as I’ll ever be. He says matching my smile. We grab our backpacks and
head out the door where Nika was waiting for us. She rolled her eyes. Took you
long enough. She says. I roll my eyes at her and we all run to the roof. When
we open the hatch, wind and rain try to push us back. I carefully climb up and
look around. Jacob and Cole were watching the monsters approach and talking
to one another. I heard snippets of rhymes and smiled. Alright, how many are
There? I ask Jacob. He looks up at me. At least a dozeN, maybe more. Its hard
to tell with the rain And wind. He yells. Ok! Let’s head down and meet them in
the parking lot! I yell back and we all walk to the hatch. We are all soaked
but it didnt matter. We raced down the stairs and pried open the doors. We ran
out into the rain again and walked to the back of the hotel. I hear massive
footfalls and roars of the upcoming army. I stood next to all my friends. Pride
swelled in me as we took up our ﬁghting positions. Devin stood next to me. I
took his hand and he squeezed it. We go when they hit the asphalt! I yell to
my friends. Cole’s red glow lit up in the rain. Thunder crashed overhead. I see
ﬁgures not 30 feet awaY. I hope the lessons come in handy. I think as I pull
off my glasses and they shift into my sword. No or never. That’s when I heard
it. Ghostly howls ﬁlled the air and it made my hair stand on end. I knew that
howl anywhere. The same creature that killed my father had come to kill me. I
started to panic. Devin squeezed my hand again. Its ok, we got this. He tells
me. I hoped he was right. That’s when the ﬁrst monster hit the road and I
yelled CHARGE!!