Prophecy of the Most Beautiful (39 page)

"Oh, enough of this," Joy growled.

She raised her sword, as if to strike. Chloe brought her dagger up to defend. She realized a second too late that it was a diversion and could only brace herself for the roundabout kick Joy delivered to her chest.

She flew and her dagger slipped from her fingers. The landing seized whatever air that Joy hadn't kicked out of her lungs. She heard the Grace chuckle as she writhed around on the ground trying to collect oxygen and suffer through the feeling that her chest had just caved in on her heart.

"Chloe!" Dropper exclaimed, running to her side. She was glad all he did was take her hand. If he had tried to move her, she would've passed right out, the pain was so intense.

Ace had seen it all happen, and as she turned her head to get her bearings again, her entire upper body screaming with pain, she watched him tackle Joy to the ground.

The Grace cursed as they rolled and at the same time, Blossom punched Swindle so hard the sound of it ricocheted off of the trees.

But worst, Radiance bested Strafford, getting close enough to bury a dagger in his chest.

"
Strafford!
", She gasped, as he collapsed to his knees, blood gushing out of the wound. Managing to summon some sort of strength from somewhere within, she found her footing with Dropper's help. Holding her throbbing ribcage, she was stumbling towards Strafford before she could even think about what she was doing. Dropper called after her, but she ignored him. Thoughts of Strafford bleeding to death fueled her and then anger consumed her.

"Don't do it, Red," Strafford growled, holding his gushing pec. "Do as I say and don't come any closer!"

She ignored him too. Radiance was grinning, waiting for her to approach. She braced herself. She knew the second she was close enough, the Grace would––

Or not. Radiance came to meet her, leaping through the air like some angelic assassin, her sword poised to kill.

Her dagger was gone. She knew she would be getting more than a kick to the chest this time.

Strafford's body flew between them, and Radiance's sword and Aor collided once again, blasting her onto her back. She almost blacked out from the pain.

Surprisingly, when they landed, Radiance lost a hold of her sword and it went flying, spinning to a stop a dozen feet away. She and Strafford wrestled a bit and she managed a few blows that left Strafford with no choice but to summon away Aor to defend himself. As the other demigods were still getting beaten to a pulp around her and Dropper watched with wide eyes from where she had first gone down, keeping his word and staying away from the fighting, Radiance lifted Strafford up by his neck with her amazing strength and threw him into a tree. Bark and limbs broke against the impact and Strafford crumbled onto the cold ground.

That instinct to protect the ones she loved snapped to life. She was losing it, slowly but surely, and the only thing she could think was:
Radiance has to die.
If she didn't, they were going to lose this battle and that couldn't happen.

Still riddled with pain, she dragged to her feet and started limping for Radiance's sword, gaining speed with every step. It looked gold, sharp and fatal just lying there––ready to kill a Grace. The sword was in her sights and as she dragged towards it as fast as she could, Radiance caught sight of
her
. The Grace shrieked curses when she realized what Chloe was after. But Chloe was determined and pushed her legs as hard as they could go, despite the excruciating pain she was suffering from. She
would
claim that sword. Just a few more feet now…

She leapt, hands stretched outward. Radiance was near. She could feel her. Radiance was the deadly one, the Grace that her sisters wanted to be. They wanted to have inside them what Chloe felt now: that lethal, cold-hearted blood lust. Radiance reeked of it.

She landed and all the air flew out of her lungs again. Excruciating pain attacked her chest. She had never felt anything so horrible in her life. But her hand was right where she needed it to be––gripped around the hilt of the sword.

She glanced back and saw Radiance leaping out for her, hands turned into claws. Then, she disappeared.

Chloe grimaced and flipped. There was a blinding flash. Radiance reappeared. On top of her. With the sword impaled through her abdomen.

She shared one look with Radiance's surprised eyes and watched in terror as the Grace screamed with agony like Chloe had never heard and burst into a shower of black mist, the sword with her. The sound associated with the death of a divine being was almost deafening. Like a bomb going off in a sealed room.

The exploding sound did not linger. Screams erupted around her.

"You killed her!"
Joy screeched, spinning in tortured circles, pulling at her braided hair.

"
Our sister! Our poor sister!
" Blossom bellowed.

"You evil, worthless mortal!"

"You will pay for this, human!"

"Your life will be ours!
"

With more screams of grief and anger, the two hysterical Graces exploded into flares of blinding light, and were gone.

*****

XXIX. Strafford and Chloe

Chloe had killed a Grace.

A Grace
. And Radiance at that, the most powerful of the three, the one that couldn't be defeated. Until now.

And she'd done it all for him.

"Nice kill, Red."

She had a wild, bewildered look in her eyes. "Th-Thanks."

"How much pain are you in?" He knelt beside her.

"Lots," She managed, "Chest…collapsed?"

He chuckled. "Nah. But I bet every rib you have is broken."

She cringed and groaned. "The others…"

The others were beat to hell. He already had Ace's pack in hand. "They'll be fine after a lil' medical attention." He reached down to lift her.

She cringed, held him off and immediately began examining him. When she couldn't find the evidence of him being stabbed besides his bloodied shirt, she punched him. "You can heal yourself!" She accused him, hissing in agony.

He smiled and nodded. "As long as I'm not skewered through the heart or somethin', I'm good, Red." He began to lift her and she let him. To spare her snapped ribs, he was gentle.

Ace had a broken arm, a bruised jaw, and a couple of cracked ribs himself. He popped a few pharmakon pills and a few laurel leaves, and splinted his own arm while directing him on how to care for Swindle and Chloe. Swindle had a broken nose, a very black eye, a sprained ankle and three fractured fingers. Ace prescribed
bindweed
juice and herbal balm for him, gum of the
frankincense
tree and Delphi spring water for Chloe's ribs, a little balm for her cut arm and a round of pharmakon pills for everyone, including another round for himself. Only after Strafford had made sure everyone was healing properly––Chloe's ribs had been wrapped and Swindle's fingers and nose had been set––did he finally let Dropper approach.

"You saved our lives!" Dropper told Chloe, kneeling down to kiss her cheek. "You were absolutely amazing!"

Strafford didn't punch him. But he wanted to. Whether Chloe liked him or not, she was his and as long as he was alive, she would
always
be his.

"I didn't even mean to kill her," Chloe said, downplaying her heroics––her kick-ass heroics, "It was self-defense."

"Either way, well done," Ace said, cringing as he tied up his splint.

"You're very fast too," Swindle said, sipping his juice, "We should race sometime. I won't even use the
swift
."

Chloe giggled and cringed. "You're on."

"So now tha' we've thoroughly had our asses kicked by the Graces, where do we go from here?" Ace asked.

"We're going to Los Atlas," Strafford said, having already made up his mind. He had a plan. "You still have a hideout there?" He asked Swindle. The boy gave him the thumbs up with the thumb that wasn't broken. "Brilliant."

"Why are we going to Los Atlas?" Ace questioned.

"You'll see. Now heal up so we can leg it out of here."

"Where
is
Los Atlas?" Chloe asked.

"In the heavens, o' course. Currently, right above the Pacific Ocean."

"How are we getting there?" Swindle questioned, now looking Bill over to make sure he was uninjured.

All the bloody questions were pissing him off. He was a Prince. He shouldn't have to tolerate being interrogated, disgraced or not. "Through the portals. We're gonna have to summon the Conductor."

"Not Janus," Ace groaned, his arm splinted and suspended from his neck. "I can't bloody stand him anymore than the twins can."

"Ah, dry your arse," He said, "It's the only way to get there from down here."

"Yeah, yeah, I know."

"What about the rangers?" Chloe asked, managing to sit up. Delphi spring water was good for her. Her ribs were already healing. "We can't just leave them here. They might have families."

He blinked. "The Graces don't leave behind evidence, wan."

She didn't ask him to explain. He was grateful.

"So how do we summon the Conductor then?" She asked instead.

He smiled and whispered into her ear.

"You've got to be kidding me!" She guffawed.

"Say it," He demanded. "Out loud."

She stared at him. "Double your pleasure, double your fun?"

They heard the high-pitched whirring of the approaching train before they saw it.

The clouds broke open and the wind started blowing like crazy. "Watch out!" He shouted, "Janus’s driving skills are crap!"

He saw it then and pointed it out to her, the long, sleek train, the
Whip
, snaking down towards them on a trail of clouds at a speed that no mortal train could go. It neared Earth within seconds. Blowing the horn and turning trees to firewood as it mowed them down, the
Whip
roared and came to a shaky stop in front of them. The Conductor's window flew open.

"Where to?" Janus snapped with his husky voice, his bearded face scrunched up with irritation. The Roman god of Portals hated to veer off course and always gave passengers a hard time about making him.

"Los Atlas," He said. The others were gathering up their things, but watching their interaction. He'd made sure to help Chloe up and had her cradled underneath his arm. The Dropper had already planted one kiss too many on his wan and things would get ugly if he tired to land another one.

Janus hiked up his overalls and sniffed. "How many?"

He rolled his eyes because Janus could clearly see how many of them there were. "Five," He replied.

Janus's mouth formed what was probably supposed to be a smile. It wasn't. "Two drachmas each. Ten for you, Prince, and ten for the Oracle. Precious cargo."

It was thievery at its finest. "Jus' bend me over, why don't you?" He grumbled, forking over the
twenty-six pure gold drachmas
the god was robbing him of. It was the first time he'd ever had to pay Janus. Royalty rode for free. Unless you had shamed your name and destroyed all your honor as he had, then you paid.

"
All aboard
!" Janus bellowed, turning to the other side to fumble with the train's gears and showcasing his right face to them.

Clearly having forgotten Hector mentioning that Janus had two faces, Chloe yelped with surprise and Janus's right face frowned. Usually the right face was the happy face and the left, the grumpy one, but it seemed both of the beards were cheesed off today. Strafford didn't bother to wonder why. Janus was a god, that was explanation enough.

"All aboard, Left said!" Right shouted at them. The window slammed shut.

The doors to the fourth car down slid open and they boarded. Swindle had barely limped aboard before the door banged closed behind him.

"I
really
hate Janus," He said, yanking his jacket out of the door. Bill squawked in agreement.

"
I heard that
!" Janus barked over the intercom. Swindle flicked off the speaker. "
Saw that too!"
Swindle gave up and sat down on a chaise lounge with the others near the only other passenger aboard––a priest wearing a hooded cloak.

"I get the double part," Chloe whispered to him, glancing up at the speaker, "But pleasure? Fun? Janus is neither of those things."

He laughed. "Irony. It's all
Myth
is abou'. Hold on tight, Red."

The
Whip
jerked away causing them all to groan from the impact it had on their remaining injuries, then shot off into the sky, trailing the river of clouds back into the heavens. He smiled, pleased that Chloe had chosen to hold onto him rather than the railing beside her.

"Father!" Swindle exclaimed a moment later, making everyone jump, including Bill who pecked him on the head with his beak. "
Ow!
What are you doing here?"

The priest tossed back his hood and raised his head. Strafford cursed to himself.

"
Uncle Hades
…I worked hard on this disguise…what gave me away?" Hermes grinned.

"Your shoes," Swindle pointed out, "What priest have you ever seen wearing Air Jordans?
And
they have wings on them."

"I knew I forgot to change something," With a wave of his hand, Hermes changed back into his jersey and shorts. He studied them. "Who beat the crap out of you?"

"The Graces," The others answered in unison.

"'Nuff said," The god replied with a snort, "So, where are you headed to now?"

"Los Atlas," Swindle said.

"Los Atlas, huh? Is the Governor expecting you, Your Highness?"

He tightened his hand around Chloe's. "No," He answered, stiffly, wondering why Hermes was pretending he hadn't known that. Gods could see whatever they focused their sole attention on and he knew the gods were watching them. He had felt their eyes on them, even in Corinth, and it unnerved him. He didn't like being watched by the gods.
Not at all.