Elementals 3: The Head of Medusa (11 page)

CHAPTER TWENTY-THREE

As we ate, we answered all of Hypatia’s and Darius’s questions about our adventure in Chione’s ice palace.

“I can’t believe she didn’t let you go after Danielle pulled out the sword,” Hypatia said—she’d been repeating that sentiment a lot since hearing the story. “Chione isn’t known for being the most warm-hearted goddess, but you would
think
she would be glad to finally be rid of the Golden Sword. Now that she doesn’t have to keep watch over it, she’s free to leave the ice palace as she pleases.”

“She did seem to be rather… cooped up there,” I said. “But who knows—maybe she wants the Titans to win this war.”

“In which case, we’ll have made
another
god angry at us,” Blake said. “First Helios, and now Chione. We don’t have the best track record here.”

“At least Helios hasn’t come after you,” Darius pointed out. “I have to admit—I was worried after hearing that you’d accidentally killed one of his immortal cattle while you were on his island. That’s a prime way to anger Helios. But since he hasn’t sent his wrath upon you, we can only assume that the other gods have him under control.”

“Let’s hope so,” Kate said, although she didn’t sound convinced.

“And as long as the Olympians remain in control, I would assume that they’ll keep Chione from causing you further harm, too,” Hypatia added. “Chione’s powerful, but she’s only a minor goddess. It’s her job to follow the orders of the Olympians.”

“Which could explain why she would want the Titans in power,” I said. “Maybe after all these years of being confined to her ice palace, she’s sick of following the rules of the Olympians.”

“Perhaps,” Hypatia said. “But as the Olympians
are
in power, she has to play by their rules, so I doubt she’ll be a problem for you. Now, it’s time that we update you on what’s been going on here in the time you’ve been gone.”

“Has another monster escaped?” Chris asked, sitting straighter. “If so, let us know where it is, and we’ll crush it.” He smacked his fist into his palm for emphasis.

“No, no, nothing like that,” Darius said. “But we did have a visitor while you were gone.”

“Who?” I asked.

“I think it’s best that you talk to him yourselves,” he said.

“All right,” Danielle said, still holding tight onto the sword. I had a feeling that she was never going to let it out of her sight—even if that meant sleeping with it and showering with it. “Since you’re obviously not going to tell us anything more, how long will it be until he gets here?”

“I’ll go fetch him.” Hypatia stood and walked up the steps—apparently this visitor was staying in one of Darius’s guest bedrooms. I couldn’t imagine who this person could be. My best guess was another Head Elder who had heard about our quest and wanted to meet us.

Instead, she returned with a tall, blond, and tanned Australian that I thought I would never see again.

CHAPTER TWENTY-FOUR

“Ethan?” I said, not bothering to hide my shock. “What are you doing here?”

He smiled, and if I didn’t know any better, I would have thought it was a
flirty
smile. “Surprised to see me?” he asked, plopping down next to me on the couch and making himself comfortable.

Blake’s arm went around my shoulders, and I scooted closer to him. I didn’t want either of them to get any ideas that I was interested in anyone except for Blake. Sure, I might have kissed Ethan in the Land of the Lotus Eaters, but that was only because I was under the influence of the lotus fruit. Everyone knew I wouldn’t have done that if I were thinking clearly. Plus, Ethan was supposed to be angry with me for saving Blake’s life instead of his sister’s in the hydra’s cave. So I had no idea why he would sit next to me instead of in the empty armchair next to Danielle.

But of course, I couldn’t say all of that. So I said what I thought was the next best thing.

“I just thought you would be spending time at home right now,” I said. “It hasn’t even been three weeks since you went back, and you hadn’t seen your mom in over two years.”

“It’s hard to relax when you know that the world’s in danger of the Titans returning from their prison world,” he said. “Especially since I know I can help.”

Danielle raised an eyebrow, looking as shocked as I felt. “You want to help us?” she asked. “Even after what happened in Greece?”

“Zeus came to visit me a few days ago,” he said. “He told me about Typhon’s soul escaping to find his body, and about your quest to find the Golden Sword so you can behead Medusa and turn Typhon to stone. I see that I’m too late to help you get the sword—” He glanced at the sword in Danielle’s hand and gave her a respectful nod. “But I’d like to join in on the quest from here on out. If you’ll all have me, of course.”

“Zeus came to visit you?” I asked, toying with the sun pendant on my necklace. “Really?”

“Yeah,” Ethan said. “Why so shocked? You met him yourself on the yacht in Greece.”

“I don’t know,” I mumbled, even though it wasn’t true. I was shocked because when we were on the yacht, Ethan and Rachael told us that Zeus had only visited them once before, since he only came for emergencies. Also—while I would never admit it out loud—I was jealous. Why had Ethan gotten to see his dad three times, and I hadn’t even been able to
meet
mine yet? It didn’t seem fair.

“Well, he
did
visit me,” Ethan said. “And now I want to help. I can’t relax at home when I know a world-ending war is on the verge of starting. Especially when there’s a chance I might be able to help stop it.”

“We did have some close calls in Antarctica,” Kate said. “But are you sure you’re up for this? You saw some of the monsters we had to fight in Greece. Beheading Medusa isn’t going to be any easier.”

“I might not be gifted with powers over the elements, but I
am
a demigod.” He sat straighter, puffing out his chest. “As a son of Zeus, I’m strong and fast. I’m good with a sword—or with any other weapon you put in my hand. And I’ve heard that people find me intimidating, too. I can help you in this fight.”

“Nyx said that the
five
of us could stop the war with the Titans,” Blake said, his voice uncharacteristically frosty. “She didn’t say anything about outside help.”

“As I recall, she told you that the five of you needed to make the choices that would lead to stopping this war,” Hypatia said. “What if having Ethan fight with you is one of the choices that will help you succeed?”

I didn’t respond at first, instead taking a few seconds to think. It wasn’t that I didn’t think Ethan would help us succeed. He was a good fighter and quick on his feet—I knew that after fighting with him in Greece. But this was all so… unexpected. Before he’d left Greece to go back home, he turned around and looked at me as if he hated me. After what happened to his sister, I didn’t blame him. But now he was back and acting like he was our best friend. As if Rachael’s death hadn’t even
happened
. It didn’t feel right.

But at the same time, Hypatia had a good point. Ethan had fought well with us in Greece. And we weren’t in a position to be turning down help—especially from another demigod.

“We
will
have a better chance if we have more people behind us,” I finally said. “Since Ethan wants to help us, I don’t see why we shouldn’t let him.”

“My thoughts exactly.” Ethan smiled and shook his hair out of his eyes, looking closely at each of us. “So… let’s stop wasting time, and get down to business. Who knows where we can find Medusa?”

CHAPTER TWENTY-FIVE

“We’ve been kind of busy getting the sword,” Danielle said, raising it for emphasis. “We haven’t had time to sit down and research Medusa’s whereabouts.”

“But we planned on doing it when we got back,” Kate added. “Meaning now. We just got a bit side-tracked by finding out you were here.”

“You’re about to be even happier that I
am
here.” Ethan leaned forward and held his hands together, as if he were about to tell us something huge. “Because I know where Medusa is.”

“How?” I asked. “The Book of Shadows only answers to me.”

“I don’t doubt that.” He smirked and held up his phone. “But luckily for me, the Internet answers everyone.”

“You mean you figured out where Medusa is… from searching for her online?” Chris sounded as skeptical as I felt, but then Ethan nodded, and Chris dropped his hands onto the couch. “Why didn’t we think of that?” he asked.

“We
would
have thought of that,” Blake said. “If we had time to discuss it after returning from Antarctica. But since Ethan had time to do the research for us, then by all means, tell us—where can we find Medusa?”

“Finding her wasn’t easy,” he said. “It took me a few hours, since most searches gave me information from thousands of years ago—the story about why she was turned into a monster, how Perseus killed her, etcetera. And I’ve gotta tell you, the story about why she was turned from a beautiful human into a monster seems unfair. Poseidon raped Medusa in Athena’s temple, and Athena was so angry that she turned Medusa into a monster to punish her. I get that Athena was mad, but wasn’t that
Poseidon’s
fault and not Medusa’s?”

“That story isn’t true,” Kate said, staring Ethan down for dissing her godly ancestor. “I’ve heard it, of course, but it wasn’t created until much after the fact. Some sources say that Medusa was simply born a monster. Others, and the ones that I think are most accurate, say that Medusa was so beautiful that it made her extremely vain. She bragged about her beauty constantly, and when she was in Athena’s temple, she claimed that she was more beautiful than Athena herself. Athena had enough of Medusa’s vanity and turned her into a monster to teach her a lesson.”

“Still seems extreme.” Ethan shrugged. “And the story that I told was more popular online…”

“It might be,” Kate said. “But it wouldn’t be the first time that a fake story got more attention simply because it was more entertaining.”

“Enough with the fighting,” I said, since I doubted we would ever know which version of the story was true without hearing it from the gods themselves. I turned to Ethan and asked, “Do you know where Medusa is or not?”

“I do,” he said. “She’s in LA.”

“LA?” I repeated, since that was one of the last places I’d expected. After our recent adventures, I’d expected someplace more… exotic. “The city in
California
? Why?”

“The city turns souls to stone as it is, so she must feel right at home there,” he joked. “Anyway, it was difficult to track her, because most of the websites were talking about ancient history. But then I stumbled across a site about a current day sculptor in LA who goes by the name ‘Medusa.’ She bought a shop in January, and while it hasn’t opened yet, her sculptures are being well received by early viewers because they’re so realistic. The opening for the gallery is this Saturday night.”

“That’s great and all,” Kate said, clasping her hands in her lap. “But how can you know that this is
the
Medusa? Couldn’t she be a regular human who took on a pen name based on the story of the actual Medusa?”

“There were some pictures and interviews of her online.” Ethan didn’t miss a beat, as if he’d already wondered the same thing himself. “Not many, but in every one of them, she’s wearing sunglasses and a head wrap. As if she has something to hide.”

“Or, if Kate’s right, she could be using the story of Medusa as a public persona,” Danielle said. “The sunglasses and head wraps could be an act.”

“Or she could be covering up her snake hair and eyes that turn people to stone,” Ethan said.

“We’re forgetting something important.” Kate held out her hands and scrunched her eyebrows, as if putting a puzzle together in her mind. “The Book told us that Medusa made a deal with Athena—Medusa promised that she would fight for the Olympians and stop turning people to stone if Athena made her skin indestructible
to
anything except for the Golden Sword. If this sculptor is the actual Medusa, then we can only assume that she’s not creating her sculptures from a slab of rock. She would be turning living creatures to stone with her powers and passing it off as art that she created.”

“Technically, it still
would
be art that she created, even if she didn’t sculpt it by hand…” Chris said.

“Perhaps,” Kate said, smiling slightly at him. “But my point is that
if
she’s the actual Medusa, she’s breaking a promise to the gods. Why would she take a risk like that?”

“And why now?” I added. “After all these years.”

“It can’t be a coincidence,” Blake said, turning to Ethan. “You said she bought her shop in January. Right?”

“Yep.” Ethan nodded. “In an interview, she said she made a New Year’s resolution to ‘turn her passion into a reality and start sharing her creations with the world.’ Or something like that.”

“January’s when the Olympian Comet showed up again,” Blake said. “It weakened the portal to Kerberos. If this actually
is
Medusa, her decision must have something to do with the possibility that the Titans might return.”

“You think she’s switching sides?” Danielle asked. “That since the portal’s weakening, she’s hoping that the Titans will come back and win, so she’s going against her promise to Athena?”

“I was more thinking that she thought the gods would be too distracted by the portal weakening to care about her turning a few people to stone, but yeah, that’s possible too,” he said. “Either way, it’s too much of a coincidence to not check it out. So… it sounds like we’ll be going to LA.”