Elementals 3: The Head of Medusa (4 page)

CHAPTER SEVEN

“Good plan.” Danielle laughed, and it was clear from her tone that she was being sarcastic. “Let’s stroll on over to the end of the world—wherever
that
might be—and storm past a goddess and her nymphs to steal this sword.” She rolled her eyes and leaned her elbows on her legs. “Now… let’s be serious,” she continued. “What other options do we have?”

“This might sound crazy,” Chris started. “But maybe we could just
ask
Medusa to work with us? She might want to turn Typhon to stone as much as we do. Then we wouldn’t have to worry about beheading her at all.”

“Maybe…” I shifted in place, the idea of working with Medusa making me uneasy.

“Absolutely not,” Kate broke in. “Medusa is an ancient monster—we would be naïve to trust her, knowing that she could turn any of us to stone with a single glance. We can’t risk it. We need to get her head.”

“Which brings us back to Nicole’s idea,” Blake said, turning to Darius. “You said that the Golden Sword is at the end of the world. Do you know where that is?”

“That I do.” Darius smiled, as if remembering an adventure long past. “The snow goddess Chione resides at the geographic South Pole itself, in the continent of Antarctica.”

“So we can portal there and get the sword,” I said. “And who knows—there’s a chance that Chione wants Typhon gone as much as we do. She might
want
to give us the sword.”

“I wouldn’t count on it,” Darius said. “Chione is a very… diplomatic goddess. She has her palace in Antarctica where she guards the sword, and it’s understood that as long as she bothers no one, no one will bother her. She’s peaceful, and she doesn’t take sides.” 

“If she’s peaceful, then maybe she’ll at least
talk
to us,” I said. “If she hears us out, we could convince her to work with us. After all, if what Nyx said is true and the return of Typhon means that the entire
world
will be destroyed, that would affect Chione on Antarctica, too.”

“To talk to Chione, you have to
get
to Chione,” Darius said. “And since a portal can’t be created that will drop you off in her palace—the gods have protection spells for the sake of privacy—you’ll have to get past her guards first.”

“The ice nymphs you mentioned earlier,” Kate said. “Well… this will be an adventure, to say the least.”

“A very
cold
adventure,” said Danielle, who had been playing around on her phone for the past minute. “It’s negative forty degrees there right now—and that’s considered warm for this time of year. Even if we
could
beat the ice nymphs—which, for the record, I believe we could in normal conditions—in that kind of weather, we would freeze before we had the chance.”

“I could keep a fire going,” Blake suggested. “But since we’re fighting ice nymphs, they might be able to use their powers to put out the fire.” He glanced at me, his eyes ablaze. “I won’t let any of you get hurt because we weren’t careful enough.”

Even though the statement was directed toward everyone, I knew he was thinking about me. Which I understood completely. I wouldn’t want to put any of us—especially Blake—in any unnecessary danger. If we were going to do this, we needed a better plan. Something less risky.

“You all are forgetting something important,” Danielle said, and we looked at her to continue. “Nicole can kill with a touch. Why don’t we get her close enough to Medusa to touch her, and kill her that way? Then we won’t need the sword at all.”

“And haul Medusa’s whole body to Italy with us when we go to turn Typhon into stone?” Blake asked, taking off his leather jacket and laying it down next to him. I took off my hoodie as well—it was getting hot in here. Or else we were both thinking so hard that it was making our blood race. “I guess it’s feasible…”

“No.” Kate pushed her sleeves up, fanning her face. “It’s not. The Book says that Medusa’s powers still work when she’s
beheaded
. We don’t know what will happen to her if Nicole uses her powers on her. What if the black energy that Nicole uses to kill destroys the part of Medusa that turns living creatures to stone? Then we’ve ruined our one chance of doing this right. We have to get the sword. It’s our only option.”

Sweat gathered on my brow, and I wiped it off, wishing I had more layers to remove. My long-sleeve shirt felt more stifling than ever. “Is the heater broken?” I asked Darius. “It feels like it’s a hundred degrees in here.”

“Yeah, it does,” Blake agreed. “If it gets any hotter, I’ll have no choice but to take off my shirt.”

I raised an eyebrow, unable to keep myself from smiling at the thought of him shirtless. If he was trying to get me to
not
want the heater fixed, then he’d certainly succeeded.

“Don’t remove any more articles of clothing,” Darius said, standing up and rubbing his hairline. “I’ll check it out and see what the problem is.”

“There’s no need for that,” Chris said, and at the sound of his voice, I realized how uncharacteristically quiet he’d been for the past few minutes. “The heater isn’t broken.”

“How do you know?” I asked him. “It definitely feels broken to me.”

“Because
I’m
the reason why it’s so hot in here.” He smirked.

“Really, Chris?” Kate rolled her eyes. “You’re going there? I always thought
Blake
had the biggest ego of the group.”

“I actually have quite a nice sized ego of my own, thank you very much,” Danielle said with a flip of her hair.

“Good point,” Kate agreed. “It’s a toss up between the two of you.”

“I didn’t mean it like
that
.” Chris laughed. “I meant it literally. I’m using my power over the air to make the molecules in it move faster.”

Kate’s eyes lit up in instant understanding. “And because heating up air molecules makes them move faster, you’re using your powers to imitate the effect,” she said, beaming at him. “You’re heating up the room.”

“You got it,” Chris said. Thankfully, he must have stopped doing whatever he was doing, because the room returned to normal temperature. “I can do the same thing in Antarctica. I’ll heat up the air around us so we’re able to fight without freezing to death.”

“You’ll be able to focus enough to keep that up
and
defend yourself at the same time?” I asked.

“Probably not,” he said. “But I trust the four of you to take care of the fighting. Unless one of you has a better plan?”

A few seconds passed, and no one said a word.

“This seems to be the best option,” Darius finally said. “We’ll need you to test this outside, to make sure you can do it in an open area.”

“It works outside,” Chris assured him. “I’ve been practicing since we got back from Greece. As long as everyone is within sight of me, I’ll be able to keep the air around them warm.”

“In that case, as long as you’re able to get past the ice nymphs—I believe this plan will work.”

“We’ll get past the ice nymphs—especially with my power over water to help us out.” Danielle leaned forward and pressed the pads of her fingers together, her eyes gleaming with determination. “Hopefully they can only control water when it’s in
solid
form. Because I can control it in
any
form. Which will give me a big advantage over them.”

“And don’t forget my power over fire,” Blake added. “They’ll melt before they know what hit them.”

“Okay.” I took a deep breath and clasped my hands together. “So we need to portal to Antarctica, fight our way past the ice nymphs, talk Chione into giving us the Golden Sword of Athena, hunt down Medusa, cut off her head using the Golden Sword, and then bring her head to Mount Etna so we can turn Typhon to stone—all before the spring equinox.”

I could barely get it all out in one breath. How were we supposed to get all of that done in two weeks? But then again, our mission to Greece had been crazy too, and we’d managed to accomplish that. Plus, if we didn’t do this, then the world would be lost to the Titans—and it would be our fault. I couldn’t live with myself if that happened.

I also wouldn’t be able to live with myself if anything happened to my friends. I still thought about what Rachael’s body looked like after the hydra poison had killed her. Her death was my fault, because I hadn’t gotten to her fast enough. Memories of that moment had haunted my dreams every night since.

I refused to make a mistake like that again. We would
all
make it out of this—I would use my powers to make sure of it. I’d been given my abilities for a reason, and I was positive that this was it. To make sure that the five of us made it through this alive. I’d already let Rachael down. I refused to let the others down, too.

“I’ll call Hypatia so she can come over and create the portal to Antarctica.” Darius nodded. “Gather your weapons—you’ll leave as soon as she’s ready.”

“Wait,” I said, and everyone looked at me, apparently surprised by my sudden outburst. “We’re leaving
now
? We won’t have a chance to go home and see our families first?”

“We have fifteen days until the spring equinox,” Darius said. “We have no time to waste.”

“I understand that,” I told him. “But I can’t leave now. Not without talking to my family. They’re still clueless about everything—they don’t know about witches, or demigods, or the Titans, or any of this.”

“I thought you wanted to keep them out of this?” Blake asked.

“I thought I did,” I said. “But I can’t ignore the possibility that we might not make it out of this alive. If that happens—I want my family to know the truth. And I want to have been the one who told them.”

Darius didn’t say anything for a few seconds, and I pulled at the threads of the rug, fearing he would say no.

“While I do wish you’d discussed this with them earlier, I understand why you wish you tell them now,” he finally said. “And this is ultimately not my decision—it’s yours to make, as a group. So I’ll leave it to the five of you to discuss. Do you wish to leave immediately, or will you allow Nicole time to return home and speak to her family, and leave tomorrow morning?”

Everyone unanimously agreed to wait until tomorrow morning. I appreciated their understanding, but I also suspected that they hadn’t agreed to it just because of me. They wanted a chance to see their families again, too. None of us wanted to believe that this trip to Antarctica could be the last trip for one—or all—of us, but as Nyx had said, the future was never set in stone. We all wanted time to say goodbye. 

“Do you want me to come with you when you talk to your family?” Blake asked me once we were in his car, on the way back to my house.

My first instinct was to say yes. Because how would my family react? Would they even
believe
me? I couldn’t be sure. I also couldn’t be sure if they would support my decision to go forward with this mission. If Blake were there, at least one person in that room would be on my side.

But while I would love to have Blake there—and as much as I appreciated his wanting to be there to support me—I didn’t
need
him there with me. I could do this alone. And since it was a family matter, it might be intrusive to have someone who wasn’t family there to witness it.

“As tempting as that sounds, I think it’s best that I do this myself,” I finally said. “They’re my family, and they should hear it from me. But I’m really glad that you offered. It means a lot.”

“Of course,” he said with a smile, warming my heart with how much he meant it. “Anything for you. Just promise me one thing.”

I looked at him to continue, not wanting to make a promise before knowing what it was.

“If anything goes wrong, or if you change your mind and want me there for support, call me,” he said. “I don’t care what time it is—I’ll be there as fast as I can.”

“Of course,” I told him. “And after I’m done talking with them, I’ll call you no matter what. To tell you how it went.”

“I’m counting on it.”

He dropped me off at home and gave me one last kiss, wishing me luck before I made my way inside.

CHAPTER EIGHT

When I walked into the living room, my mom was already there waiting for me. She had a pencil in hand and was focused on drawing, but the moment she heard me come in, she put down her sketchpad and smiled at me. I knew what she was going to say before the words came out of her mouth.

“How was the big date with Blake?” she asked, twirling the pencil around with her fingers.

I hadn’t dated anyone in Georgia, much to my mom’s dismay. None of the guys had ever asked me. They had no problems asking out the other girls, but around me they seemed completely disinterested. My mom always claimed that I intimidated them. I’d thought that was silly. But since moving to Kinsley and learning that I’m a demigod, I suspected she was right. Witches and demigods intimidate humans. There’s a mystical quality about us that makes humans realize we’re different from them, even though they don’t quite understand why. At Kinsley High, the humans at school rarely talked to the witches unless one of us spoke to them first. I’d had a few friends at my old school, but only because I put forth the effort. With guys, you could forget about it.
I was completely not on their radar.

So, this date with Blake was a big deal. Because it was my first date
ever
.

“It was great,” I said, since it was the truth. The actual date part
was
fantastic. And I wished that I could give my mom the girly, gossipy detailed conversation that she wanted—I would have, if the night had played out as expected. But given the current circumstances, I didn’t have time for that, so I got straight to the point. “Where are Dad and Becca?”

Technically, Jerry was my step-dad, but he married my mom before I was born and had helped her raise me, so I called him my dad. My mom rarely talked about Aidan—who was actually Apollo—but in the rare times that she did, she referred to him as my “bio-dad.” Because up until recently, that’s all he’d been. Someone who happened to share genetic material with me.

I had no idea how much that genetic material would affect my life until now.

“Becca went to the movies with some friends tonight,” she said. “Dad’s picking her up now. They should be back soon.”

“Good,” I said, dropping my bag onto the couch. “Because once they’re back, there’s something important I need to tell you.”

* * *

While we waited, I kept my mom entertained by telling her about my date with Blake. But I could tell she was worried about what I needed to say that required the entire family here to listen. She tried coaxing the information out of me, but I refused to budge. It was going to be hard enough to say it all once. I
had
to wait until everyone was here.

Luckily, Dad and Becca were back in twenty minutes. Becca was chit-chatting away as they walked to the door. Dad followed behind, listening attentively. Becca could talk forever as long as someone was there to listen.

“Hey.” Mom stood up when they walked in, and Becca stopped talking when she saw the alarm in Mom’s eyes, freezing in place. “I’m glad you’re back. Nicole has something important she needs to tell us, and she refused to tell me what it was before you were both home.”

“What happened?” Dad asked. “That boy you were out with tonight didn’t do something we need to worry about, did he?”

“No, nothing like that,” I said quickly. “The date was great. Blake’s amazing. I need to talk with you about … something else.”

“How mysterious.” Becca raised her eyebrows and situated herself on the armchair, watching me and waiting for me to continue.

Once I told them the truth, would she remember when the harpy had kidnapped her two months ago? Darius had wiped her memory of the event, and up until now, I’d been grateful for that. I hadn’t wanted her to live in fear.

But it was time for her—and for my parents—to understand what was at stake.

Dad sat down next to me, and they all watched me expectantly. I pulled my sleeves over my hands and took a deep breath—it was now or never. But I stared down at my shoes, having no idea where to begin. They were going to think I was crazy. That’s what I thought when I walked into homeroom on my first day at Kinsley High and Darius told me the truth of what I was.

It was probably best to get it all out there as
quickly
as possible, like Darius did when he told me. Once they saw what I could do, they would
have
to believe me. They couldn’t deny what they saw in front of their eyes.

“You’re never going to believe what I’m about to tell you,” I said slowly, rubbing my hands over my legs. “It’s best that I just show you. But you have to promise that you won’t freak out, okay?”

“Okay,” my mom said, nodding for me to continue.

I reached into my boot, pulling out the knife that I kept there at all times. It had become second nature to put it there while getting dressed in the morning, and to sleep with it under my pillow at night. I only removed it while at school, because weapons weren’t allowed inside the building, and it would set off the metal detector.

Mom and Becca gasped when they saw it.

“What are you doing with
that
?” Dad asked, his voice raised in alarm.

“I’m about to show you.” I did my best to remain calm, not wanting them to panic more than they already were. “But remember—don’t freak out. I know what I’m doing.”

With that, I ran the knife along the inside of my arm, slicing it deeply enough to draw blood.

“
What
are you doing?” Mom shrieked, jumping up to stop me. She tried to wrangle the knife from my hand, but I was faster than her. Before she could blink, I was standing on the coffee table, holding the knife out of her reach. “Jerry—call 911, now!” she screamed. He reached for his cell phone, but then stared at me and back at the screen, as if hesitant to dial.

“Don’t call anyone,” I said as I pressed my hand over the cut, using white energy to heal it. “I asked you not to freak out. Remember?”

“That was before you took a knife out of your boot and sliced your arm open!” Mom said, the words coming out in a jumbled panic. She wrung her hands around each other and took a few deep breaths, looking at me as if I were a crazy person. “We need to get you help,” she said, calmer this time. “Just… leave the knife here, and come with us to the hospital. The doctors will stitch that up for you, and then… you’ll need to get help. Okay?” She spoke hesitantly, as if afraid that one wrong word would set me off.

“There’s nothing to stitch up.” I removed my hand from my arm and showed it to them, my gaze calm and steady. The blood was still there, but the skin was smooth. “
Because t
he cut’s gone. I healed it.”