The Blood of the Hydra (26 page)

“Can you all please stop fighting about this?” Kate broke in, so strongly that her voice filled the cave. We all stopped talking and stared at her. I’d never heard Kate speak so loudly, ever. Her cheeks flushed, and when she spoke again, it was at her normal volume. “What happened to Rachael was horrible,” she continued. “Ethan—you have to know that none of us wanted this for her. And while I know that nothing will ever be able to make this better, I hope that this will help.”

She walked silently over to Rachael’s body, kneeled down next to her, and placed her hands on the ground. Ethan stood next to her, his arms crossed as he watched her. The two of them blocked my view of Rachael, but soon the cave started to rumble, as if the ground was shifting. The ceiling broke apart into a small circle overhead, sunlight shining upon them.

Soon the rumbling stopped, and Kate moved away, revealing what she’d done.

Rachael’s body was now buried under a mound of dirt, and on top of it grew flowers in every color you could imagine. In the center was a stone, and I stepped closer to see what it said.

Here lies Rachael Thompson, Daughter of Zeus and Bella Thompson. At seventeen years old, her life was taken in this cave while she was helping to slay the hydra. The blood of the hydra she helped destroy will aid in saving the world as we know it. May her bravery always be remembered.

“The flowers will never die,” Kate said, brushing her fingers over a yellow rose. “I know it can’t bring her back, but I hated the thought of leaving her here the way she was.”

“Thank you,” Ethan said. His voice was devoid of emotion—I couldn’t imagine what he was feeling right now—but he did give Kate a small nod of appreciation. The rest of us remained silent. There was nothing we could say or do to fix this. Instead, we lowered our heads and paid our respects to Rachael.

I wished more than anything that I could promise myself to never let anyone die on my watch again. But that would be impossible. Accidents happened. Choices would always have to be made. I didn’t regret saving Blake, and I wouldn’t always be able to save everyone, no matter how much I wished otherwise. What happened today would always remind me of that unfortunate truth.

After a few minutes, Danielle finally spoke. “The longer we’re gone, the more Hypatia will worry,” she said softly. “Let’s collect what we came here for and head back.”

Kate handed out the zip lock bags she’d brought with her, and we used them to collect as much blood from the hydra as we could manage. Since the blood was poisonous, we were careful not to touch it. Once the bags were full, we packed them up and walked silently back to the yacht, one less than we’d been when we’d arrived.

It was crazy to realize that the secret I’d kept guarded for so long was now out in the open. I’d feared that once the others knew, they would be scared of me. That they would be afraid to even touch me.

But for the entire way back, Blake’s hand never left mine.

Hypatia’s face fell the moment she saw our group. “Is Rachael…” she started, although she must have figured it out, because she stopped speaking and raised her hand to her mouth, unable to complete the sentence.

“She didn’t make it,” Ethan said, walking past her without meeting her eyes. As if in a trance, he continued through the living area and disappeared down the steps to the rooms, not looking behind him once.

“He hasn’t had time to process it,” I explained. “He probably needs some time alone.”

“Yes.” Hypatia nodded. “I’ll get a staff member to prepare a meal for him and drop it off in his room, in case he gets hungry.”

Once she did that, we filled her in on everything that had happened with the hydra—including what I’d told the others about my ability.

“This is all true?” she asked once we’d finished. “You kept the truth a secret for so long because you were afraid we would punish you for what you can do?”

“Yes.” I bowed my head, ready for whatever was coming next. “It’s in the laws—any witch found using black energy will be sent to trial, and if found guilty, the punishment is that they will be stripped of their powers, or worse, death.”

Blake dropped his gun on the table and stepped closer to Hypatia. “Who cares about the law?” he said. “Nicole’s only used her powers to save lives. You can’t punish her for that.”

“Please, back down.” Hypatia spoke calmly, but threateningly enough that Blake did as she said. “We have these laws in place for a reason,” she continued. “Without them, chaos could ensue, and we couldn’t have that. As a Head Elder, I’ve taken an oath to honor the law no matter what.”

“You can’t be serious!” Danielle exclaimed. “We were only able to slay the hydra
because
of Nicole’s ability. Without her, more than one of us might not have made it back today.”

“I am perfectly serious,” Hypatia said, although when I finally got the courage to look back up at her, her lips twitched with the hint of a smile. “But luckily for us, Nicole is a demigod—not a witch. So according to the wording of the law, which specifically states that any
witch
who uses black energy must be punished, it doesn’t apply to her.”

It took a few seconds for what she was saying to sink in. “Seriously?” I finally said, letting out a long breath of relief. “I’m not going to get in trouble?”

“Not at all,” she said. “As I’m sure you know, when witches use black energy, it tortures—it doesn’t kill. What you can do is unique to your element of aether, the spirit of life. Your ability—all of your abilities—have been gifted to you from the gods themselves. It’s not up to me, or any other Head Elder, to question the plans of the gods.”

“Thank you,” I said, and without a second thought, I pulled Hypatia into a hug. I couldn’t believe that all of my worries for the past month had been for nothing. I didn’t have to hide what I could do anymore. I could use my power to help myself, the others, and everyone else in the world whose lives would be at risk if the Titans returned.

She relaxed and returned my hug. But when she pulled away she straightened her shoulders, becoming a serious, authoritative Head Elder once more. “I know it’s been a long day,” she said. “But now that we have all three of the required ingredients, I think it’s best that we create the formula and apply it to your weapons. You shouldn’t have to go one more minute without being armed to the fullest.”

We all agreed, and as the yacht pulled away from the island, we set to work.

“First, we have to coat the tip of the weapon with the sacred milk,” Kate said, doing so with one of my arrows. “The milk will keep the weapon from decaying due to the poison from the blood. Then add a drop of the hydra blood/lotus seed mixture…” She took a dropper and let one drop of the mixture fall onto the place where she’d coated the arrow with the milk. It hissed, and dried on contact, turning a deep, rusty red. “Now, whenever any creature is killed with this arrow, it will be sent to limbo for an entire year,” she said, handing the arrow to me.

I held the arrow up to the light and inspected it. “It’ll work like that forever?” I asked.

“It’ll have to be refreshed after a month,” she said. “But once we close the portal to Kerberos, we won’t need to use the formula anymore. And we gathered more than enough of each ingredient than we could possibly need. We shouldn’t have to worry about running out.”

“Of course Nicole’s weapon got to go first,” Danielle said, rolling her eyes. “Can one of us lowly, non-demigods have a turn now?”

I wasn’t sure if I was imagining it or not, but was Danielle’s snark not coming off as mean as usual? If I didn’t know any better, I would think she was talking to me in the way she might tease a friend.

I shook the thought away. Danielle might be learning to tolerate me, but there was no chance she actually
liked
me.

Now that the potion was ready, we took turns putting the formula on our weapons. Once we finished and were packing everything up, the yawns started.

“It’s been a long day,” Danielle said in between yawns. “I’m gonna head to bed.”

“Me, too,” Kate said. “Chris—will you help me bring the weapons downstairs?”

He pointed to the kitchen. “I actually wanted to grab some more food first—”

“
Chris
.” Kate repeated his name, glancing at Blake and me and then back to Chris again. Her cheeks turned bright pink—she couldn’t have been more obvious about her intention to give Blake and me some alone time if she’d tried. “Just come downstairs and help me with the weapons. Okay?”

“Right,” he said sheepishly, gathering a huge bundle of arrows in his arms. “Let’s bring these all downstairs.”

Soon enough, the three of them were gone, and Blake and I were finally alone.

“So…” he said, smirking and leaning back against the table. “Want to go up to the top deck?”

“Is that your way of asking if I want to go make out?” I teased. “Like when a guy asks to sit in the back row of the movie thea—”

I didn’t get to finish my sentence, because the next thing I knew, Blake’s lips were on mine, and whatever else I was thinking about was erased from my mind. I melted into his kiss, and it was like that one kiss made up for the tons of kisses we’d missed this past month when I was being so stubborn about keeping my distance from him. I couldn’t believe I’d been such an idiot.

But I was more thankful than ever that I was here with him now, and after losing Rachael today, I was determined not to let one more second go by when I would take Blake’s being here for granted again.

“I don’t need to bring you to the top deck to kiss you,” he said when he finally pulled away. “But I did think it might be a nice place to hang out.”

“A ‘nice place to hang out’”? I quoted, chuckling. “You mean… you thought it would be romantic?”

“That’s another way to put it.” He reached for my hand and pulled me toward the steps, a mischievous glint in his eyes. “Come on. I don’t know if you’ve noticed, given all of the monster slaying we’ve been doing, but for the past few days we’ve been on a private yacht in Greece. I think it’s about time we enjoyed it.”

The next morning I woke up to the heat of the sun on my face. I opened my eyes, and saw Blake sprawled out on the cushion next to me, still fast asleep. I smiled as I thought about what we’d talked about last night—how we’d agreed to officially be together. When we weren’t talking, we spent the rest of the night kissing, making up for lost time. I didn’t remember laying down and closing my eyes, but we must have been so exhausted from slaying the hydra that we’d fallen asleep up here.

Not wanting to wake him, I tiptoed across the deck and went downstairs to indulge in an extra long, hot shower. It was the first time since our arrival that we weren’t rushing to complete the next task on our mission, and it was nice to finally have some time to myself.

Once I emerged, everyone else was up and about, and I went upstairs to join them for breakfast. I sat next to Blake, and we shared a secret smile. If anyone else noticed, they didn’t say a thing.

The only person who wasn’t there was Ethan. No one spoke of him, but his absence weighed on me for the entire meal. He shouldn’t be left alone during such a hard time.

“How’s Ethan doing?” I asked once we’d finished eating. “Has anyone talked to him?”

“I did last night,” Hypatia said. “He requested to be sent back home as soon as possible.”

“How soon?” I asked.

“He asked me to get him after breakfast, so he could say goodbye to all of you.”

“Wow,” Kate said. “So… he’s going home right now?”

“Yes.” She nodded. “I spoke with the Head Elder of Perth a few hours ago, and she’ll be waiting for him at the exit of the portal. I filled her in on everything that happened to him, so she’ll be prepared to help him adjust back to his regular life. It’s going to be difficult for him, but he’s a strong boy. I trust he’ll make it out of this okay.”

“I hope so,” I said, although when I remembered the emptiness in his eyes when his sister died, and the accusation in his voice when he blamed me for her death, I knew he would never be the same.

Hypatia went downstairs to tell him it was time to leave. I was nervous to see him—I’d expected him to be a mess, and to still be angry with me. But when he joined us in the main area, I was surprised by how strong he looked. He’d showered, put on fresh clothes, and he had his sword at his hip—every bit a son of Zeus.

“I assume Hypatia already told you that I’m leaving,” he said, his voice surprisingly steady. “But before I go, I wanted to thank all of you. If you hadn’t come to the Land of the Lotus Eaters, Rachael and I would have been stuck on that island for eternity, under the spell of the lotus fruit, having no idea who we were or where we came from.” His voice choked up when he said his sister’s name, and I looked down at my hands, guilt filling my chest as I replayed what had happened to her.

Rachael should be here with him now, going home to see their mom for the first time in over two years. Instead, she was buried in the cave of the hydra. Her family would never see her again. And there was nothing that any of us could do to bring her back.

“And Nicole,” Ethan continued, and I whipped my head up, surprised that he was talking to me. “I know you would have saved Rachael if you could have. I’m sorry that it wasn’t possible.”