Read Underworlds #3: Revenge of the Scorpion King for Free Online

I’ll try.” He turned to Dana. “Do you think you can?”
    Her face was lined with pain, her arm hung limp at her side, the once-silver glove now gray and lifeless. But when she took a deep breath and said, “I’m ready,” I knew that Dana was a true hero, and I was so proud to be with her.
    “Okay, then?” I said.
    And just like that, we broke through the trees and out into the open, rushing, stumbling, and hurling ourselves across the clearing. Even though he was high in the sky, it took less than an instant for Birdman to spot us. With a mocking shriek and insane speed, he dived. As he came closer, I could see that his beak was two feet long from base to point and red as blood, streaked with dark ribbons of black.
    Angry human eyes, large and dark and shadowed, stared out beneath a brow of bone and feathers as red as the beak.
    “KAAAA!” Birdman snarled. Flames licked the tip of his beak.
    I so wished that Dana’s glove was working, but all we had was the damaged lyre. With a big whoosh , Birdman swooped, his daggerlike talons flashing. We scattered across the clearing, but the wind from his wings almost blew us right off the edge of the tower. We zigzagged as if we were racing through a minefield until we reached the turret.
    “Up! Up!” Jon said. “It’ll be easy for Birdman to pick us off, so we have to climb fast!”
    Great idea. But when we grabbed the vines coiling up the side of the turret, they were so sharp they sliced our fingers. You know, because being attacked by a monster wasn’t deadly enough.
    Circling upward to gain speed, Birdman then dived at Sydney and Jon. His razor talons swiped and grasped, and flame flickered from his beak.
    I kicked out at his head. He recoiled, then lunged at me, opening his beak wide and clamping it shut just inches from my arm. I felt the hot breeze on my face.
    “No, you don’t!” Dana yelled. She swung her gloved fist with the force of a hammer and struck Birdman where his ugly beak met his even uglier head. Crack! The upper beak split and flames leaked out. Birdman twisted back in pain, seized the glove on Dana’s hand, and pulled.
    She screamed.
    Birdman hooted in victory. I twisted the tuner on my lyre to match the pitch of the sound and slammed on the string as hard as I could. As the note rang in the air, Birdman screeched but didn’t let go of Dana’s hand. Sydney grabbed Dana by the waist. Jon swung his foot out and kicked Birdman where his beak was cracked.
    Birdman pulled back for a second.
    Loki’s glove was in his beak.
    Dana cried out and went limp. Jon and Sydney held her close to the tower to keep her from falling. Birdman flapped in a rage nearby, but he wouldn’t come any closer because of the sound of the lyre. He finally scratched the air harmlessly, then fluttered away, Dana’s glove still in his beak.

    “Dana, are you all right?” I called frantically.
    She came to and stared at her hand, then at us. “I’m free …” she said. “I’m free. Come on!”
    Just then, Loki emerged from the level below. His rune’s silver glow enveloped Birdman, and the beast fluttered down to him, dropping the glove at his feet.
    “Keep going!” Dana cried, taking the lead, her hand scratched red and raw. “One last climb, and we’ll be on the summit.”
    After what seemed like hours, we made it to within a few feet of the top. I paused to catch my breath, but there was no time. Instead, I grabbed a vine and wrapped it around my hand. Finding footing, I tugged myself up.
    Even in the unfamiliar night air of the desert, the air on the summit smelled strange.
    Then I remembered that smell. It was the unmistakable scent of scorpion venom.

A RING OF TORCHES BLAZED AROUND THE EDGE OF the high parapet.
    The Scorpion King stood in the midst of them, his giant head hanging low. As far as I could tell, he was staring at the exact center of the summit roof, at a stone carved with exotic characters.
    Panu bowed before him. “My king!”
    I stood