52 pages • 1 hour read
Jasmine MasBlood of Hercules (Villains of Lore, #1)
Fiction | Novel | Adult | Published in 2024A modern alternative to SparkNotes and CliffsNotes, SuperSummary offers high-quality Study Guides with detailed chapter summaries and analysis of major themes, characters, and more.
Chapters 8-15Chapter Summaries & Analyses
Chapter 8 Summary: “The Spartan War Academy—Alexis”
General Cleandro leads Alexis and the other initiates to a carved-out mountain, which includes a classroom, a library, and an animal menagerie. He explains that because of their Spartan lineage, they are meant to surpass human limitations and will be denied food, rest, or access to baths. They will spend two weeks at the Spartan War Academy and then return to their mentors for three days before returning to the academy for another two weeks. This cycle will continue for the next six months, until their graduation in January. Their studies begin immediately. Cleandro announces that their teachers will be General Pine and General Augustus, while General Kharon will oversee the circuit—the hiking trail used to punish the whole class whenever a student answers a question incorrectly. Drex Chen asks about the possibility of seeing Titans on the trail, but Cleandro states that meeting one there is either impossible or fortuitous, as such an encounter would eliminate weak initiates. Pine arrives and begins his class on Thagorean, or advanced mathematics. When a student named Alessander gives the wrong answer to a question, Pine sends the class to complete the circuit. Vorex, Alessander’s mentor, leads them, and Alexis scrapes her palms but manages to climb up the mountain despite the bullying of Titus, another initiate.
Chapter 9 Summary: “The Crucible—Alexis”
On the climb down, an initiate named Christos approaches Alexis, intending to befriend her because he believes that they are both from the House of Zeus. When they arrive at the River Styx, Vorex announces that they must swim across while Kharon waits to catch and kill them if they stop swimming. Kharon stares at Alexis. As they begin to swim, Alexis feels the scrapes on her hands reopen, and pain shoots through her chest. Suddenly, Christos begs for help and behaves as if he is being tortured. Alexis tries to go back and save him, but he kicks at her, and she leaves him behind as Kharon approaches. She hears Christos die and feels awful for rejecting his offer of friendship.
Kharon then follows her, and Alexis swims for dear life until she reaches the edge. All remaining initiates are ushered to their next class with Augustus. When he arrives, Alexis is intimidated by his physical presence, though she finds his animal protector, a raccoon named Poco, to be endearing. Augustus focuses on Alexis and asks her opinion about women participating in the crucible. When she hazards that such participation is a good thing, Augustus becomes furious, as he believes that it will have massive consequences for other Spartan women. As they review the story of the Minotaurs in Latin, Augustus questions Alexis, doubting that she can understand the language. Although she gives the correct answers, her responses reflect the societal bias against Chthonics.
Chapter 10 Summary: “Torture—Kharon: A Few Hours Earlier”
Kharon stands in his ferry with his invisible hounds in the moments before the initiates enter the River Styx, wishing that he could be hunting Titans instead. He fumes over the new marriage law and reflects that it is meant to incapacitate him and the other Chthonics before they inevitably resume the Great War. He is unimpressed with the initiates, but his hellhounds pay attention to Alexis. He remembers having to force-feed her pills while she recovered from her injuries and delirium, and he now takes an interest in uncovering her secrets. When the initiates begin to swim, Christos screams, and as Kharon watches, he realizes that Alexis is unknowingly killing the boy. Kharon gives Christos the killing blow and begins to plot how best to “devour” Alexis.
Chapter 11 Summary: “Hell—Alexis”
When the initiates attend another class with Augustus, he attempts to shame Alexis by implying that she has no honor. He then explains that Olympians and Chthonics become immortal and more powerful at the age of 20, when they gain the ability to leap to domus (home), and they also are made to take a Spartan oath—a binding contract so intense that it changes the neural pathways of those involved. Augustus then explains that animal protectors are the ones to choose their masters, not the other way around. He warns that if a Spartan tries to force the bond, their brain will boil from the inside.
He leads the initiates into meditation, but Alexis falls asleep while the others feel a pleasurable tingle in their heads. As classes switch and information blurs, Alexis begins to lose track of herself and asks to go to the bathroom so that she can conceal a rising panic attack. As she despairs about her prospects, Nyx encourages her to endure for Charlie’s sake. Alexis returns, and more classes go by. Augustus calls on Leo from the House of Apollo to answer a question, but Leo is fast asleep, so Augustus orders them all to run the circuit again. Alexis struggles through the hike and the swim but makes it back to the classroom only to find that the initiates must now complete their first test. Despite her exhaustion, she succeeds, but an initiate named Iason is made to run the circuit in punishment for coming in last and never returns. Throughout the following classes, Alexis begins to lose her grasp on reality when she must complete multiple tests and runs through the circuit until the first two weeks are over. Finally, when Patro and Achilles come to collect her for the three-day rest period, they are disturbed to behold her weakened state.
Chapter 12 Summary: “Mentor Days—Alexis”
Back in Corfu, Alexis sleeps. Patro tries to wake her in order to strategize with her, but when she won’t wake up, he drags her out of bed and drops her into the sea. Alexis panics, believing herself back in the River Styx. Patro tries to bring her back inside, but she kicks him in the groin because he keeps touching her. She demands that he stop calling her “Alex,” the nickname that her foster parents used, but he doesn’t respect her wishes. They make her eat to refuel her body, and Alexis feels guilty for having so much food when Charlie is still starving.
They discuss her return to the academy, and she remarks that their fate to become generals rests in her hands. Threatened, they have a standoff, and she dares them to kill her. Eventually, they propose that she either kill the other initiates or have sex with them to maintain alliances. Alexis refuses both options. Suddenly, Kharon leaps into the villa. He and Patro discuss the marriage law, and Alexis feels watched as Kharon claims to have found a solution to a problem over which he has been obsessed. He, Patro, and Achilles leave, and Patro orders Alexis to rest. However, Kharon reappears and threatens Alexis, saying that if she harms herself, he will bring her back to life and torture her for all eternity. He reminds her that Chthonic lives are important and tells her that he knows she killed Christos. He leaves Alexis mystified and disturbed, and she later has a nightmare in which the devil asks her why she is lying about who she is. Over the next few days, she rests, eats, and swims in the sea. She always feels watched and believes that she has become prey for someone or something.
Chapter 13 Summary: “Tests—Alexis”
Back at the academy, only eight of the 10 initiates are left. For dozens of classes, they manage to avoid running the circuit, and everyone is on edge. When Augustus next appears, he brings Theros to demonstrate how to feel and master their power. Theros explains that his power creates an impenetrable shield and is best channeled when he imagines a growing light around him. Meanwhile, Alexis believes that Augustus might have the power to read her mind. When she is unable to channel her power using Theros’s instructions, she believes that she is powerless. Theros explains the limitation of his power and states that if someone is in close proximity to him when he erects the shield, both of them will be trapped inside together. Later, Augustus lectures the group about sirens, stating that the creatures can only communicate in their own incomprehensible language. The initiates then take another test on all subjects, and Alexis ranks second. Because Dimitrios is ranked last, he is sent to run the circuit alone. However, instead of returning to their mentors to rest, the initiates are forced to remain for another two weeks.
Chapter 14 Summary: “Alliances—Alexis”
To try to bolster their spirits, Augustus tells the remaining initiates that they will be allowed to attend a symposium at the end of the two extra weeks and that they will then be allowed to eat. He sends them to study for five hours in the library. There, Drex proposes an alliance to Alexis. In exchange for tutoring him in math, he offers to help her survive the circuits and resist Titus’s bullying. Alexis remains silent. In class, Dimitrios never returns, and Titus tells Alexis that she will be the next to die.
Days later, Pine calls on Leo to answer a question, but once again, he is fast asleep, so the class is sent to run the circuit. This time, Alexis struggles more than ever, but Drex helps her. Far away, they hear a Titan’s scream, and Titus tells Alexis that she should kill herself. When they return to the library, Titus begins to insult Alexis. She ignores him, but when he grabs her wrist, she punches him. He retaliates and breaks her nose, and she kicks him in the groin and vomits on him. His friends, Leo and Alessander, come to help. While Drex overcomes Leo, Alexis knocks Alessander out with a chair. Cleandro comes in, but everyone denies fighting, even Titus. Cleandro leaves, but Augustus corners Alexis and demands to know why she is putting herself in danger. She waves off his concern, but he threatens to take action if she doesn’t take better care of herself. Nyx implies that Augustus wants to sleep with her. Alexis offers to tutor Drex and accepts his proposal of an alliance.
Chapter 15 Summary: “Obsession—Augustus”
The narrative shifts to Augustus’s perspective. When he hears the crash in the library, he goes to investigate and rages over Alexis’s injuries. He is also displeased that she is participating in the crucible because she reminds him of his sister, Helen. He is proud to realize that she beat Titus and Alessander, but he wrongly believes that she wants to make a political statement that Spartan women should be allowed to participate in the crucible. He also feels an uncomfortable sense of attraction for her. Later, when Patro and Achilles collect Alexis, Augustus finds Alessander and Titus and uses his power to break their minds and order them not to harm Alexis again. When he returns home, he agrees to follow Kharon’s plan.
Chapters 8-15 Analysis
In this section of the novel, Mas uses multiple perspectives to complicate the narrative and introduce hints of hidden agendas. Although the majority of the novel focuses on Alexis as the protagonist, Mas adds strategic chapters to capture a glimpse of Augustus’s inner frustration and Kharon’s half-articulated scheming. These interludes collectively serve to add layers of intrigue and uncertainty to the narrative. Additionally, Mas uses these scenes to strengthen the sense of dramatic irony surrounding Alexis’s struggles to survive; despite her courage, she does not yet have access to the complete political landscape that governs her life.
While the chapter from Kharon’s perspective indicates that his motives are not entirely straightforward, it also identifies both Alexis and Kharon as partially unreliable narrators. Although Kharon has a more accurate understanding of the reasons for Christos’s death than Alexis does, he wrongly assumes. Specifically, when Christos screams in pain, Alexis instinctively assumes that Alexis is actively trying to kill her fellow initiate. When both characters’ perceptions are directly compared, the discrepancies in their understanding become very clear. While Alexis perceives Christos “fighting against an invisible monster” and feels fear upon Kharon’s sudden appearance (129), Kharon interprets Alexis’s attempts to help Christos as an aggressive “lunge” and thinks, “Oh my Kronos—she’s killing him” (141). Though Kharon does command his hellhounds to kill Christos in the end, his perspective reveals that he is not at fault for the initial pain that Christos experiences. In this way, Mas deliberately juxtaposes Alexis’s and Kharon’s perspectives to create multiple uncertainties in the narrative, as neither Alexis nor Kharon willingly hurts Christos, and the chapter misleadingly suggests the existence of a malicious third party. However, Mas’s repetitive descriptions of Alexis’s chest pain, which arises whenever people mysteriously die around her, does suggest that Alexis herself is unknowingly causing these deaths by wielding a power that she does not yet realize she has. This impression is strengthened when Kharon—a known Chthonic—also notes that “pain [stabs] through [his] chest” when he uses his powers on Christos (142). However, these subtle hints are the only indications that something deeper is at work, and Alexis will not discover the true nature of her abilities until much later in the narrative.
Mas’s use of multiple perspectives also creates nuance in the roles of Kharon and Augustus. From Alexis’s perspective, both men are perpetually angry and often threaten her for reasons that she does not understand; she therefore succumbs to the effects of Mythology as Political Propaganda and ascribes their poor behavior to their innate Chthonic nature. Thus, in Alexis’s eyes, both Kharon and Augustus act as villains rather than allies. However, the chapters from Kharon’s and Augustus’s viewpoints create a subtler version of events and directly contradict Alexis’s perspective. While both men are violent, Augustus particularly reveals a genuine (if chauvinistic) worry that Alexis’s actions will jeopardize the safety of all Spartan women. As he reflects,
Alexis blundered through life […] with no thought for the consequences. Mix in her sanctimonious need to prove women should fight along Spartan men, and you had my worst nightmare […]. But I was here. […] I was going to keep her, and all the women under my charge, safe, whether she […] wanted it or not (200).
This inner declaration reveals that Augustus is deeply worried about the safety of the rare women under his charge; his anger, while sometimes inappropriate, therefore rises from an honest need to protect others. Additionally, Augustus’s perspective reveals the beginnings of his attraction to Alexis, but it is also important to note that despite this brief foreshadowing, he and Kharon do not yet qualify as love interests for Alexis. Although Alexis is implied to feel a physical attraction to both men, Kharon and Augustus’s attraction for her merely enhances their interest in going through with their existing scheme. As Augustus reluctantly admits to himself, “Alexis Hert is going to be the death of me. Kharon was right; his plan [for both men to marry Alexis] [is] the only acceptable path forward” (203). Thus, despite their outward shows of ire, both Kharon and Augustus have a vested interest in guarding Alexis’s safety. However, their interest is heavily mitigated by their coercive plot, which is ultimately designed to force Alexis to help them circumvent the new marriage law. This problematic dynamic therefore leaves Kharon and Augustus straddling the line between villain and ally, as they find themselves in the uniquely discomfiting position of being both potential love interests and sexual predators where Alexis is concerned.
