Annabeth sighed as Jason unknowingly wiggled his cute little ass before gncing at the fountain and walking out of the room.

  Okay, maybe she’d pushed him too far. They might’ve ughed, flirted, or even experimented a month ago. But now? He was always so angry, and she had no clue how to fix it.

  Worse, this new body had a mind of its own. It was insane—every five seconds, she was hard again. How did Jason, or any guy, deal with this? Just watching him walk away made her want to throw him to the floor and screw his brains out.

  Admittedly, her new body's strength, stamina, and energy felt incredible. Jason had always been fit, and it showed. Sure, she hit the gym regurly, but she hadn’t felt truly in shape since her cheer days in high school. So really, who could bme her for wanting to take this body out for a spin?

  Still, part of her wanted Jason to also feel comfortable in his new body. He was struggling. She might be adjusting better, but in a week, he’d be dealing with more than just the awkwardness of wearing a bra. He’d be facing something women endured monthly. Annabeth was worried he wouldn’t take the whole experience well and feared for his mental health.

  Thank God for the parvo shot. Her flow had always been heavy, so the drug helped—but it wouldn’t do much for the cramps. Maybe, if she was lucky, he’d remember how much period sex used to ease hers.

  With another sigh, she followed him. God, she loved him. No matter how strange this was, it could be a good thing—a new world, new bodies, or maybe even a new beginning. That was, if he would let her fix what she’d broken.

  Jason frowned, then stopped, interrupting her musing. “Notice something about the walls?”

  The stone was lighter, almost pale, with little to no mosaics.

  They’d briefly discussed which direction to take. Plenty of unexplored passageways remained, but lingering anywhere near the corpse chamber made their skin crawl. Moving away from that nightmare felt like the smarter choice, even if it meant leaving potential paths behind.

  “They’re not so morbid?” Annabeth frowned, running her fingers along the stone. “Less necropolis. Does that make sense?”

  “Yeah, it does. I don’t know why, but I expected even the administration area to look the same.”

  “Still doesn’t make this pce any less creepy,” Annabeth muttered.

  Jason chuckled. “True.”

  Two rooms over, everything erupted into chaos.

  Teeth—that was all Jason could process as he arched his back, barely dodging the squat monstrosity lunging at him. Something told him to move—and thank God he listened. The beast’s bck-scaled body blended into the shadows, nearly invisible until its massive jaws snapped shut where he’d just been standing.

  Annabeth cursed, backing up as the creature’s cws shredded the stone beside her. Jason dodged again, swinging the crystal rod and releasing a bst of magic, which did absolutely nothing.

  He ducked, wishing for anything with more reach. A spear. Hell, even a gun.

  Annabeth smmed her bde down, but it skidded across the beast’s scales. “Shit.”

  Jason parried the next blow with surprising ease, barely registering his increased speed before striking with his dagger. It, too, skidded off the bck scales.

  Spinning to the side, he smmed the crystal rod against its snout. The beast hissed—it didn’t like that—snapping at him with alligator-like jaws.

  Then, in a sudden shift, Jason’s left hand ended inside its mouth.

  For a split second, both he and the beast froze—locked in an absurd struggle as it choked on the crystal rod while trying to bite his arm off. The enchanted gloves and magic shield held, but the pressure was terrifying. Then it began to shake him like a dog trying to tear his arm off.

  Annabeth tried to help, but Jason had had enough. Their weapons couldn’t pierce the scales—but from inside its mouth? That was a different story. Magic burst from his trapped hand, blowing a hole through the beast’s head. It staggered, tried to retreat, but Jason cast again. And again. With a final, violent shudder, the creature colpsed, dragging him down with it.

  Lying on the cold stone floor, his arm still inside the monster’s jaws, Jason muttered, “That would’ve been funny if it hadn’t been trying to kill me.”

  He yanked his hand free and flexed his fingers—no real damage. Somehow, the gloves and his magic had kept him from becoming lunch. But his shoulder hurt from being tossed like a ragdoll.

  “You okay?” Annabeth asked, kneeling beside him, checking for wounds.

  “Yeah. You?”

  “It pretty much ignored me. Now, what the hell was that?”

  “Bipedal alligator?” Jason looked down. “Sort of. Gd there weren’t two.”

  Annabeth exhaled, wiping down her bde. “No arguments.”

  Neither wanted to press their luck, but sitting beside a dead creature wasn’t particurly appealing either. Moving cautiously into an adjacent room, they were gd they did—but rest came first. Jason cleared a spot on the floor, tucked the crystal rod away, and let the darkness swallow them.

  Later, feeling somewhat recovered, he reignited the rod and stretched out the stiffness.

  “Ouch,” he muttered, spinning around.

  “Let me look,” Annabeth said, spping his hand away and lifting the back of his shirt. “That’s going to be a nice bruise in the morning.”

  “Great. I’ll deal with it ter. Let’s search the room.”

  Lady Luck had at least some mercy—another crystal rod was discovered. Only eight hours, but that was plenty. Better yet, inside a rotted box, they uncovered a score of intact ceramic bottles, perfect for storing water.

  “This’ll be useful,” Annabeth said happily.

  “Definitely extends our search range.” Jason nodded, gathering a handful of the ceramic tops. “Back to the fountain.”

  After thoroughly washing the bottles and scrubbing off years of grime, they filled three and set the rest near the pool. Then they wrapped the cloth stoppers in bandages to prevent spills, packed them carefully, and slung the bag over Annabeth’s shoulder.

  “Let’s move on,” Jason smiled, feeling like they accomplished something.

  Once past the dead lizard beast, he raised the crystal rod. “Living quarters?”

  Annabeth looked around and nodded slowly. “Maybe it was the home for the priests, caretakers… or whoever maintained the crypt.”

  In a rger chamber—beyond where the beast still y—was a horror smelling of death. Bones were littered everywhere on the blood-stained floor. Adventuring parties, or even perhaps workers and mourners, had become food for the beast.

  The two stood staring, not wanting to disturb the remains, but there was a pressing need. Later, they would convince themselves that the dead did not need the items left in the ir.

  “So, the monster must have wandered in from the outside. Which might be a good thing for us,” Annabeth offered, stepping forward and pushing some of the bones away with her feet.

  “Why do you think that?” Not that her ex disagreed, but he wanted to hear her thoughts.

  “Well, this doesn’t look like a kennel—or whatever one would call it.”

  Jason nodded. “True. More like a storage room.”

  “And there is a water source close by.”

  “Right, the fountain room,” he frowned. The thought of the lizard creature sneaking up to them while they slept made him shiver.

  “But I bet there are others close by.” Annabeth knelt and started sorting through the remains. “Torches.”

  “Could have been summoned like we were,” Jason pointed out, respectfully moving some of the bones off to the side, some with still bits of rotted meat attached. “I think some of its victims were recent.”

  “I noticed,” she grimaced. “But you're right. We don’t know the creatures of this world. Those weren’t rats we ran into a few days ago, even though they looked like one.”

  Silently, they worked, piling the bones and sorting through the rest.

  “Flint,” Annabeth smiled, then struck it against a bit of metal, bringing up sparks. “Maybe we should save the crystal rods for a while.”

  “Here.” Jason passed her scabbard. The leather was somewhat rotted, but the weapon still looked serviceable.

  Taking the bde, she set aside the scabbard and moved off to examine it. Reaching into the backpack, she pulled a bit of cloth and rubbed it down.

  “Thing’s razor sharp,” Annabeth nodded approvingly, then raised the sword, sshing down.

  Jason watched for a few moments, observing what could only be assumed to be weapon forms, before returning to the remains.

  Wiping off his hands, the two pced the items to be looked at ter into a second, one of the least damaged, backpacks. Most of the clothing discovered was covered in blood, ripped to shreds, or falling apart. However, they managed to scavenge a couple of tunics, books, belts, and other bits of clothes among the rest.

  All of it was brought back to the fountain room. Only there did they feel truly safe.

  -A move, a new job, and a broken computer, sorry for the wait