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My brows rose as I glanced at Aiden "Well, that’s not freaky or anything"

"Yeah," he said, his gaze darting over the tree line and the empty, narrow south lane

Seth shut the Huain, I’m not a Titan"

Perses chuckled deeply as he walked toward the front of the vehicle "I as"

Doors opened and closed behind us "What’s going on?" Luke called, joined by Olivia Both had daggers in their hands Sentinels fro a potty break or so?"

Aiden turned toward theround beneath our feet tre "What the…?"

The vibration continued, growing in intensity, shaking the vehicles and rattling the trees that crowded the road Asphalt cracked like an ear-piercing gunshot A fissure spread along the side of the road, spreading toward the guardrail I whipped around, following the progress of the crevice as it widened along the land, splitting open Loose soil pebbled and rolled as giant elround

"Deacon!" Aiden shouted, spinning His brother was already out of the car, his eyes wide "Stay near Luke!"

"Earthquake?" Olivia asked, one hand braced on the hood of the Expedition

I shookabout this"

"Ditto," Seth said, joining us

The tre with my stomach The reprieve lasted seconds Froround, rich, dark soil spewed into the air like fro as the dirt arced up and shot back down, landing in twenty or so different piles

"Yeah," Luke drawled the word out "That crap ain’t norround in circles, then rose up, rapidly taking fors appeared, thick and well-muscled, followed by torsos, broad chests and shoulders, and finally heads

I blinked once and then twice "What in the hell?"

The things resembled human males--human males who could’ve easily been pro wrestlers in another life Soil traveled down their ar over the hands Axes appeared in their hands, blades sharpened into deadly edges Like, axes bigger than what I is used to carry once upon a screwed-up tis…they were made of dirt, but the axes were very, very real

"The Spartoi!" shouted Perses "Warriors born of soil--sons of Ares!"

"Oh, shit," Aiden said, eyes flaring with recognition

I had no idea what the Spartoi were, but seeing that full-grown men made of dirt had just popped out the earth heavily ar to assume this was a very bad situation

Theirbattle roar that was matched only by the sound that came out of Perses’ mouth He launched himself forward, over the crack in the road, and met the first Dirt Man head-to-head

"Yeah, screw this," Seth said, lifting his hand The htened and akasha blasted fro one of the manifestations in the chest

Dirt Man Two exploded outward, but all the tiny,The thing laughed, spewing tiny pebbles from its openopen

"The heads," Perses grunted, engaging his sickle blade "You must remove their heads!"

I unhooked my sickle blade as Dirt Man Two threw his axe It whipped through the air, narrowly avoiding Aiden, and s deep A second later, a red film covered theit whole When the red haze disappeared, nothing of the tree remained

"Holy crap," Luke said

Another axe appeared in Dirt Man Two’s hands

Perses whirled, cleaving the head off of his Dirt Man’s body The creature collapsed into itself, the axe disappearing along with it The Titan’s laugh was disturbingly joyful

Dirt Man Two charged forward, and I used the air ele shattered and ca the broad sweep of the axe as he brought the sickle around sharply, catching it under the chin

"Tn," Aiden said, springing to the side as another axe flew by our heads