The Demigod Diaries (The Heroes of Olympus)(52)

A reason to live, Claymore thought. A way for one mortal man with no special powers to affect the world of gods and monsters.

Claymore smiled. “That sounds like a challenge. Very well, I accept. And though I will be only a Mistform, I’ll make sure he succeeds.”

He stood, about to walk out the doors of the church, but then he stopped.

Even if he was dead, the answer he was seeking was right in front of him.

“I have one more question to ask you, Hecate.” He steeled his tongue, just as Alabaster must have done in front of the audience at his lecture. “If you yourself are a deity, who are you praying to?”

She paused for a moment, turned to him, and opened her brilliant green eyes. Then, as though the answer were obvious, she smiled and said, “I hope you find out.”

Alabaster woke up in a field. All of the runes on his clothing had been shattered, and his bulletproof vest was slashed past the point of being usable.

Surprisingly, though, he felt fine.

He lay there in the grass for a minute, trying to figure out where he was. His last memories were of Claymore slamming into the monster, Lamia’s claws closing on the doctor’s neck, the burning notebook, the incantation…He’d been ready to cast the spell, and then…he’d woken up here.

He reached into his pocket and pulled out his Mistform cards; but all the inscriptions had turned to black smudges—spent, along with the rest of his magic.

Then a man’s shape appeared over him, blocking the sunlight. A hand reached down to help him up.

“Claymore?” Alabaster’s spirits lifted immediately. “What happened? I thought…What are you doing here?”

Claymore gave Alabaster a smile that would last him the rest of his life. “Come on,” he said. “I think the two of us have some research to do.”