by Nicole Thorn
“Keep all body parts off the goods,” I warned him. “I’ve got a dagger, and I’m not afraid to use it.” Only a partial lie. I was totally afraid to use it, because using it meant killing someone, and I didn’t know if I could do that. I mean physically. Emotionally, it would probably have been hard as hell, but I didn’t know if I could physically hit where the person would need to get hit.
Zander wound an arm around my waist, and brought me against his body. He felt incredibly warm . . . “Don’t worry, Jazz. I only have eyes for you. As for the rest of you,” and he started using that voice on them again. The one that told them what to do. It made gooseflesh spread across my arms, and not for good reasons. “You.” He pointed to one-half of the group. “Kill the chimeras. The rest of you, help us find Arachne.”
They all nodded dazedly, and went off to do what they had been told.
I looked up at Zander. “I trust you with my entire being, but that is the creepiest thing I’ve ever seen.”
He gave a little grimace meant to be a smile. “I know.” Some darkness crept into his eyes. Despite the danger, I took his face into my hands, so that his entire focus would be on me. “You’re doing what you have to do,” I told him. “It sucks hard, and we’ll never be able to forget this day, but just remember that you’re doing precisely what you’re supposed to be doing.”
He nodded after a moment. That darkness still lingered in his eyes, and there I couldn’t do much about it. He had killed someone that day, and Zander, despite what he liked to think about himself, was a big marshmallow-hearted guy. He wouldn’t ever forget this day, or what it meant to him. “You’re right,” he said, stretching his neck from one side to another while everything erupted into chaos around us. “There will be plenty of time to deal with these things later.”
“Exactly,” I told him.
He straightened up, and we looked to our siblings. They had been splitting their attention between what happened around us, and me and Zander. There was such chaos already. So many people ran at the chimeras, but they were such large, brutal animals that it felt like watching people walk into fire.
The largest chimera lifted someone up, like a cat tossing a toy into the air. As the person came back down, the chimera batted at him. He went flying into a tree, and I heard a sickening crunch upon impact. I turned away, because the chimera hadn’t finished yet. It had so many bodies to play with
“Arachne,” I said. “This is her camp, she’s the reason all of this is happening. Let’s find her.”
Zander nodded, and looked at his remaining troops thoughtfully. We had ten of them left. He pointed to five of them, “You five, search that half of the camp. If you find Arachne, hold her down, and one of you come for me. You five, do the same thing with that half of camp.”
They all nodded, and rushed off, leaving me, Zander, and our siblings together. “Kizzy,” Zander said, “You should probably follow them, in case the Charm wears off. Take Juniper and Jasper with you.”
Her eyes narrowed. “All right, but be careful.” The three of them took off, and then we followed our half.
“Why split them up like that if we were just going to follow them?” I asked quietly.
Zander glanced at me. “If the Charm does wear off, we’ll see it, and we’ll have an advantage. It’ll hopefully be just enough to keep us all from dying.”
Something crashed from behind me. I jumped about a foot into the air, and whirled around. One of the chimeras looked directly at us. It had just charged through a pile of lumber, leaving the firewood to scatter, and it still came for us. Huge paws dug mercilessly into the dirt.
“Zander,” I said, tugging on his sleeve.
He glanced over, and cursed. “I’ve got the magic sword, let me handle this.”
“Well, with that logic . . . ” I mumbled about two seconds before he jumped in front of me. I stepped back, trying to get out of his way. Something landed about two centimeters from where I had been standing. It took me a precious two seconds to realize it had been an arrow. Someone started shooting at us.
I whirled around, putting my back to Zander’s, so that I could see what came for us. A girl. She couldn’t have been more than a few years older than me, and she was petite. It looked like she couldn’t lift a soda can without breaking a sweat, but she carried a bow like she knew how to use it. Her hair was brown, and her eyes were dark, her skin naturally tan.
“Shit,” I whispered. I had a measly dagger. She had a bow with a whole quiver of arrows. If she hit Zander with one of those, he’d bounce back. Me, I’d just be bleeding, possibly profusely depending on where it landed.
I felt movement behind me, and glanced over my shoulder just in time to see Zander swing his sword. It whistled through the air, and slid right through the front of the chimera’s chest. A thin line of blood appeared, leaking down the thick, tan fur, but it didn’t slow the creature down much. He stopped his charge, snarling, and hissing, pacing.
Another arrow landed a foot from me.
“Fuck!” I shouted on accident.
Zander turned around to see what happened, and his eyes landed on the demigod in front of us. He turned around, putting his back to the chimera—which I thought was stupid—and said, “You don’t want to do this,” in that soothing, dark voice of his. The one that made people want to do as he wished.
The girl sneered. “That won’t work on me,” she said.
“Fuck,” Zander echoed me.
“You deal with chimera,” I urged, pushing him towards the creature as it started gearing up for another attack. “I’ll handle her.”
“How the hell are you going to do that?” Zander asked, but he did turn around. He noticed the chimera’s attitude as well. So, Zander wasn’t completely helpless. Good to know.
“I’ll figure it out,” I ground between my teeth.
The demigod started pulling back on her bow, aiming for me. I took a deep, deep breath, and did the only thing I could think of. I ran at the bitch, with a war cry. It sounded like hell erupting from my mouth, and she blinked in surprise. I didn’t need anything else. That one second of disorientation saved me. I slammed into her, but it felt like a bad shot. I never learned how to tackle someone.
My shoulder took her hip, and that ended up hurting me almost as much as it hurt her. My arm went numb, while I scrambled around, trying to get on top of the demigod, or at least control her quiver of arrows. She recovered from the shock just as my arm started to get feeling back in it. Yay for not having permanent damage!
I scrambled to get on top of her, but I moved too slow, and she was too inhuman. The demigod rolled to her feet, knocking me out of the way in the process. I hit the ground on my ass, and it dazed me for several seconds while she got her arrows out. I couldn’t let her shoot me. That would be a bummer, to go out just when I got my shit together.
The girl wouldn’t fall for me running at her again. I hadn’t thought that’d work the first time, I wasn’t about to press my luck a second time. But I could go low. I rolled away from her, and she tracked the movement. I rolled to the other side, and she did the same thing. Her eyes stayed focused, and her face looked empty. She could kill me, and she wouldn’t feel a thing while she did it.
Plan C.
I jumped to my feet, and started running. Not at her, but away. I felt her tracking me as I changed my direction. That arrow still pointed at me, even as I started to come full circle. I slowed down on purpose, and I felt her getting ready to take the shot. As she let loose the arrow, I picked up speed, and dropped to the ground again, at the same time. The projectile went wild, hitting the grass.
The demigod cursed, and started reaching for another one, but fast and agile, she was not. She wasn’t used to the weapon she used, and it became obvious enough that I could tell. Me, who had no weapons training whatsoever. I took that moment of fumbling with her weapon, and used it to my advantage by running for her again.
She looked up at me as I bore down on her. The girl pulled
an arrow out of the quiver. I had enough time to think, she’ll get it out and stab me with it. This was a mistake. I slammed into her, knocking her to the ground again. No arrowhead pushed through my skin, making me bleed.
The demigod’s head snapped back, and she gave me dazed eyes. I took that quiver, and ripped it from her body. She stared at me, blankly. “Sorry,” I whispered back to her. I took an arrow out before throwing the quiver as hard as I could, as far as I could. Arrows went everywhere, and the bag fell to the ground, immediately getting hidden in so much grass.
The arrow I had stolen from her looked to be nicely made. Not that I knew much about them, but this one looked like it’d be hard to break. I slammed it into her shoulder, and the demigod screeched. I kept pushing through muscle and tendons, waiting to feel bone resisting me, but I must have gotten lucky and hit just right. The arrow slid right through her shoulder, and into the ground. Pinning her.
Panting, I rose to my feet. My dagger suddenly appeared in my hands, like I still feared that she’d come at me. I stared at her, and she at me, but I saw enough pain in her eyes that I thought she didn’t see, but something far away. I glanced at her shoulder, and then had to swallow, hard.
Demigods healed fast. One of the benefits of being what they were. Apparently, they could heal so fast that they healed around something. Her skin bunched up on the arrow, almost like it tried to grow up the shaft. It looked painful, excruciating, and disgusting. I didn’t think she’d be attacking me anytime soon. I turned around, worried about Zander.
He had worn the chimera down with a dozen shallow cuts across his chest. They all bled, making the animal weaker, and weaker, until he had lowered himself down to the ground. His breath came out in a painful sounding sigh. The beast put his head down, and Zander hesitated for a second, only one, before slicing through the animal’s throat. It hadn’t done anything wrong, but . . . we couldn’t take the chance that it would attack us again.
As the chimera breathed its last, Zander whipped around, looking frantically for me. His eyes landed on me instantly, and he raked them down my body. I hadn’t been hurt. A few bruises maybe, but I could feel my short hair sticking up in complete disorder, and there were grass stains all over me. I probably looked wild-eyed as well.
He glanced behind me, and those blue eyes landed on the other demigod. They grew hot with anger almost immediately. I scrambled over to him. “Don’t worry. She’s down for now.”
“She tried to kill you,” he snarled.
“But she didn’t,” I said, grinning.
Zander ignored me, and stopped by the girl’s head. It looked like she had gone into shock. I hadn’t even been aware that a demigod could do that until I looked into her eyes. Her fingers had wrapped around the arrow, but she hadn’t pulled it out, yet. She tugged weakly against it, but her movements didn’t do anything.
Zander lifted the sword up, and I knew what he would do. I could see it. Not in a vision, but my mind’s eye. I could see him slamming the sword against girl’s throat, making sure that it bit through her neck, muscles, and bones, severing her head. Even demigods couldn’t survive that.
I put my hand on Zander’s wrist before he could do it, making him look over at me. “Don’t,” I whispered. “She’s trapped for now, and maybe she’s just misguided. We shouldn’t have to kill her if we don’t have to.”
He stared into my eyes, and I watched the darkness coming back into his. Like he slowly woke up, and looked at himself in the mirror. Zander didn’t see himself accurately. I knew that with my whole being, because he wasn’t the monster he thought. He loved so hard, that anyone who threatened to take that away from him . . . they became fair game. I didn’t have to save the girl on the ground, but he’d feel guilty about it later if I didn’t.
Zander stepped back, and I could tell it cost him something to do it. He wanted to kill her for what she tried to do. Every hard line of his body screamed that it wanted to turn around and fix this fallacy, but his eyes told a different story. I took his hand in mine, and we stepped aside.
The chaos raged around us as we started rushing forward. Someone plowed into me, and we went tumbling. My back screamed in pain as we hit the ground. My elbow slammed into the dirt, and I clenched my teeth to keep from screaming. I didn’t think the bone had broken, but it hurt, and my arm wouldn’t work right anymore. I rolled into the side of a building, and my head collided with it.
Dazed, I stared up into the face of a man I had never seen before. Zander screamed my name, but I focused on the man. A slow smile started to stretch across his face. It looked like a cruel smile. I thought of the guilt that Zander would have if he had to kill this man.
He started reaching for me, and I did the only thing I could. I stabbed him. My hand clenched so tightly around the dagger that my knuckles turned white. I had injured my dominant arm, so I had to use my left arm. The shot was bad. The blade slid straight into his side, breaking the skin, but it went out his back, instead of into his body. It looked mostly like a fleshy hit. The man screamed in frustrated pain, and started trashing.
The blade tore into his skin, and more blood fell from the wound. I blinked, and came back to myself. No longer dazed. I scrambled out from underneath the man, and managed to plant my foot into his stomach. I shoved with everything in me. He went over backward, and landed on his ass.
I regained my feet, and stumbled towards him. I didn’t reach the man before Zander’s sword came down, and sliced clean through his chest. The look in Zander’s eyes . . . I’d seen dark looks, and cold ones, but this expression was something completely different. Almost like he enjoyed what he had done.
Zander’s eyes shifted to me, and to my hairline. I felt the small trickle of blood dripping down my forehead. I touched it, and marveled at how tacky it looked.
Zander’s jaw clenched. He looked down at the body. I had another one of those moments of perfect clarity, where I could see what would happen. He would cut through that body like butter. Slice, and stab until all that remained was bloody bits and chunks. I wouldn’t stop him, because I didn’t think I could.
Zander raised the sword, probably to do just that, when people surrounded us. I gripped my bloody dagger, ready to fight them, until I saw the looks in their eyes. The creepy, not all there look, as they all turned to stare at Zander like he was their god.
“We have found her,” one of the Charmed people said. He looked at Zander with his heart in his eyes. “We left her with your sister, ready for you to see her.”
Zander glanced at the body once more, and then turned his back on it, recognizing the more important task. “Take us to her. Make sure that no one attacks while we move, understand?”
“Yes sir,” the man said, and we took off. We rushed across the camp, back the way we had come.
Other came to attack us, and the Charmed people circled the wagons, protecting us. They fought their own. It got bloody. It got messy. It felt like war. As people fell, I saw that Zander paid more attention to me than them. He made sure that I hadn’t been hurt too badly. I took his hand, and whispered, “You’d be a hell of a general, ya know.”
He smiled at me.
It wasn’t hard finding Arachne. Kizzy had set up her little prison. Vines wrapped so tightly around Arachne that movement looked damn near impossible. She could breathe, and that was about it. Arachne’s black hair looked slick with blood, and streaks of the stuff stretched across her face. Something looked off about the blood, but I couldn’t tell what. Almost grainy looking, I thought, and very dark.
“She was killing gorgons,” Jasper said, like he could sense what I wondered. His cudgel had gotten bloody, and dripped dark liquid onto the ground. Juniper still clung to her crossbow, but I noticed that she had much fewer arrows than she did the last time I saw her. Her eyes looked a little wide. Blood smeared her pants and shirt. I wanted to clean her up, just because I knew how much that bothered her.
We surrounded Arachne with her own people. Her eyes glared at al
l of us, her body curled up on the ground, as she struggled to free herself from her prison. “Let me out of here!” she snarled. Webs dropped from seemingly nowhere, and wrapped around one of her people. They started to struggle, and the more they struggled, the more entangled they seemed to get.
“No,” Zander said simply. He dropped down to eye level with the woman, cocking his head to the side. “Why should I?”
Arachne stared at him. “You don’t know the games that are being played all around you,” she whispered. “You should let me go, because I’m the only one who might tell you. At the very least, you should let me go to distract the gods while you run, because you should run.”
“Why is that?” Kizzy asked, stepping forward. She had her bow leveled on Arachne, ready to fire an arrow the second she needed to. Her eyes hardened, and looked more brown than green.
“You play around with the gods, and you’ll be punished,” Arachne said, simply. “You think all of those cautionary tales were because we were stupid? The gods get bored, little girl. They do things when they’re bored that would make anyone cringe. Just ask Medusa. You’ve met her recently, I believe.”
My eyes narrowed. Medusa didn’t tell us to run from the gods, and I didn’t appreciate Arachne putting words into her mouth. After everything that Medusa had been through, too. I leaned against Zander. “I want to kick her, but I worry about all the spiders that she’s probably hiding. Can you do it for me?”
He turned to give me a look filled with so much love that I felt like blushing.
He patted my side lovingly. “Maybe later, Jasmine.”
I pouted at him.
Arachne glared at all of us.
“Why were you trying so hard to kill us?” I asked her. “And the Oracle for that matter.”
Arachne cocked her head. “Really? You’re wondering why I was trying to kill you? You’ve ruined everything, and I was trying to keep you from doing just that! I thought you’d ruin it by telling the wrong people what I was doing. I had no way of knowing you’d do it by simply barging in and wrecking the place.”