Elementals 3: The Head of Medusa

by Michelle Madow

  “There’s three of them and six of us,” Blake said, readying his lighter. He spoke quietly enough that only we could hear him. “Two of us for each of them. Nicole—we’ll take the tall one with red snakes. We need to get you close enough to kill her. Chris and Kate can hold off the short one until Nicole’s ready to get to her next. And Danielle and Ethan—”

  “We’ll go for Medusa,” Danielle finished his sentence, doing a practice swish with the Golden Sword. “I’ll take the first chance for her head that I get.”

  Blake flicked his lighter on and sent two fireballs flying over his shoulder, straight for the snakes on Stheno and Euryale’s heads. They both wailed, the tops of their heads ablaze, the snakes trying and failing to escape.

  “Don’t do that to Medusa,” Kate said. “We can’t risk damaging her head.”

  “This is too easy.” Ethan laughed. “They had no idea what they were up against.”

  But then the gorgons slipped slightly, their feet nearly reaching the floor.

  “Chris?” I said, concerned. I’d never seen him lose energy this early in the fight. “What’s going on?”

  “Whatever you said earlier about your head being fuzzy is hitting me too,” he said, his voice strained. “I can’t hold them up for much longer. When I let them down, we run for them and fight, got it?”

  “Got it,” I repeated. I worried about whatever was affecting our powers, but with the gorgons ready to kill us, there was nothing we could do about it now. All we could do was fight the best that we could.

  We held our weapons ready, and the moment Chris dropped his hold on the gorgons, we ran toward our assigned sister. I looked down at my feet as I ran, unable to see past the visor guarding my eyes. I wanted to flick the visor away—I hated going into this blind—but the risk of meeting Medusa’s eyes was too great.

  I centered in on the red snaked sister’s throat, aimed an arrow over my shoulder with my back facing my target, and sent the arrow flying in her direction.

  It missed her throat, embedding itself in the wall.

  I gasped, shocked that I’d missed. In practice, I’d mastered shooting arrows over my shoulder. Blake must have been surprised too, because he paused while running for the gorgon, but only for a second. She hissed and reached for his sword, but he sliced her in half before she had a chance.

  “Kill her—quickly,” Blake told me. “Before she regenerates.”

  I focused on gathering black energy, but it felt far away—distant. Whatever was going on with me wasn’t just affecting my aim, but apparently my ability to channel my power, too. If my original thought was correct, and it was gray energy, then I should be able to use white energy to push it out of my system , l ike I’d done when Danielle had put gray energy into my tennis racket during try-outs. I tried to call on the white energy, but just like the black energy, it was barely there. I was blocked from fully reaching it.

  There was only one explanation—if this was gray energy, then whoever had used it on me was strong. Either as strong as I was, or stronger.

  The bottom half of the sister’s body skittered towards her top half, but Blake cut it again, and set both pieces ablaze. The gorgon lay helplessly on the floor, and she screamed, as if she could feel the unattached part of her body burning.

  “Kill her now,” Blake said. “What are you waiting for?”

  “My head… it’s fuzzy,” I explained, rubbing my temples. “I can’t focus.”

  “You have to fight through it.” He flicked on his lighter and threw a fireball at the gorgon’s face, but it fizzled out before reaching her. He flexed his hand—had he not let the fire go out on purpose?—and shoved his lighter into his pocket. “I would do this for you if I could, but I can’t. You’re the only one who can use black energy.”

  In the mirror, I saw the gorgon’s bottom half weld with her top half again. All of the fire around her was out, her skin healed. Before she could stand, Blake swung his sword at her and chopped her in half again. I heard the sounds of the others fighting—I had no idea what was going on with them, and I couldn’t risk taking my eyes away from our gorgon to check. But I knew one thing—we couldn’t hold the three of them off forever. I needed to kill her. Otherwise, we would have no choice but to run. If we left without Medusa’s head, we wouldn’t be able to stop Typhon, and this would all have been for nothing.

  “Okay.” I took a deep breath, trying to focus. “I’ll try.”

  I reached for the black energy again, and even though it fought me, I managed to grasp some of it and absorb it into my palms. The smoky tendrils hovered below the surface of my skin, threatening to escape at any moment. I couldn’t hold onto it much longer, so I dove toward the gorgon, placed my hand on her chest, and shoved the small amount of black energy into her body, hoping it would be enough.

  She let out a long breath, and then she was still. I looked down at her past my mirror—her eyes stared blankly up at the ceiling. Dead.

  “She’s dead,” Blake confirmed. He leaned forward, balancing his hands on his legs and taking a few deep breaths.

  “Are you okay?” I asked, reaching for his hand.

  “Just dizzy,” he said, and then he straightened, steadying his breathing. “It’s nothing. It’ll pass.”

  “Whatever’s affecting Chris and me is affecting you, too, isn’t it?”

  “If it is, there’s nothing we can do about it,” he said, holding his sword up higher. “Other than finish this fight as fast as we can. And as much as I want to stick together, it’ll be best if we split up, to add numbers to both of the other groups.”

  “I don’t want to split up, either,” I said. “But you’re right. It makes the most sense.”

  “Of course I’m right.” He smirked, and if I hadn’t seen him falter earlier, I would have had no idea he was affected by the gray energy, too. “You go take care of the other sister—you’re the only one who can kill her. I’ll help Danielle and Ethan with Medusa.”

  CHAPTER FORTY

  I zeroed in on Chris and Kate, who were engaged in a sword fight with the other gorgon sister. They’d cornered her into the wall, which was good, because at some point during the fight the gorgon must have ripped the mirrored visor off of Chris’s hat. He couldn’t risk turning around now, since there was a chance he might accidentally meet Medusa’s eyes. They were fighting hard, but the gorgon was strong, and it was clear from the way Chris and Kate were sweating and breathing heavily that they couldn’t hold her off for much longer.

  Hoping to help them out from afar, I positioned my bow, aimed for the gorgon’s throat, and fired over my shoulder. But instead of hitting my target, the arrow sunk into the wall behind her.

  “Nicole!” Kate shouted my name over the clashing of swords. “Thank God. We need you!” The gorgon took a swing at her, but Chris moved fast and blocked her sword.

  “Why aren’t you using your powers?” I asked them.

  “We can’t.” Kate gasped for breath and pushed a sweaty strand of hair that had escaped her ponytail away from her face. “Gray energy.” That was all she could manage before the gorgon swung at her again—but it was all I needed to know. Their powers were blocked just like Blake’s and mine. I didn’t know if Danielle and Ethan were affected too, but at this rate, I would say there was a good chance. Hopefully I could manage to hold onto enough black energy to kill this gorgon… but other than that, we were going to have to fight her the old fashioned way. Without our powers.

  I steadied my bow, determined not to miss again. The room spun around me, and I took a few deep breaths, trying to relax. I needed to focus. I didn’t have another choice.

  This time, I would aim for the gorgon’s eye. It wouldn’t kill her—only black energy could do that—but it might blind her, if only temporarily. Which would give Kate or Chris a chance to knock her sword out of her hand. I wished more than anything that I could rip this visor off my eyes and shoot normally, but it wasn’t worth the risk. I wouldn’t be any use to anyone if I were
turned into stone.

  After taking extra time to zero in on my target, I shot the arrow over my back. But instead of embedding itself in the gorgon’s eye, it sunk straight into Chris’s shoulder.

  He screamed, his sword falling out of his hand. The gorgon sister he was fighting—Euryale—grabbed him and held him in front of her, raising her sword to his neck.

  I froze and took a sharp breath inward. How had I messed up that badly? How had I shot Chris?

  I wanted to take another shot at the gorgon—if I could get her in her sword arm, maybe she would release Chris—but my aim was too off to risk it. So I gathered the small amount of black energy that I could and ran for her. Before reaching her, I turned around to get a view of her in the mirror so I didn’t accidentally touch Chris instead of Euryale. But turning made the world spin around me, and the gorgon took advantage of my slight pause by kicking me in the chest, knocking the breath out of my lungs and sending me flying into the wall. Pain wracked through my body at the impact, blinding light flashing across my eyes.

  The next thing I knew, I was on the ground. The mirror in my visor had cracked, but it still worked, so I angled it to see the gorgon. She still held onto Chris, her sword at his throat. Kate froze, her face pale, as if she was afraid that one wrong move would make the gorgon slash that sword across Chris’s neck.

  I tried to stand, but only managed to lift myself up an inch before collapsing back to the floor. My lungs felt like they’d been crushed—I had to strain to breathe, and even then, it was barely enough air. I searched for white energy to heal myself, but my mind was so clouded that I could barely sense it around me. It was like digging through quicksand.

  “Oh, Medusa,” Euryale called her sister’s name in a chilling, singsong voice. “Look over here for a second—I have a prize for your collection.”

  Medusa whipped her head around to look at Chris, effortlessly using her sword to protect herself against the others. They were coming at her, their shields guarding their backs, but Medusa had a clear advantage, since she was able to look at her opponents when she fought them.

  “Open his eyes, you idiot!” Medusa screeched. “I can’t do anything with his eyes closed.” She easily fended off a blow from Danielle, pushing her to the wall. Danielle collided with one of the statues and collapsed. Ethan and Blake were fading too, their movements slower, their breathing labored. The gray energy was weakening us too much. At this rate, it wouldn’t be long until the gorgons slaughtered us.

  Chris fought against Euryale’s grip, but weakened with gray energy, struggling was futile. The gorgon felt around his eye, trying to pry it open.

  “No!” Kate ran toward Euryale, sword in hand, stopping in front of Chris to block his line of sight. She turned to get a view of Euryale in the mirror, but before she could strike, Euryale removed her hand from Chris’s face and ripped Kate’s visor off her hat.

  Kate’s eyes were wide open, and without the visor protecting her, she was staring straight into the gaze of Medusa.

  CHAPTER FORTY-ONE

  Kate screamed—the loudest, most tormented scream I’d ever heard—her face twisting in agony.

  Then there was nothing. No sound. Nothing.

  Just a stone statue of Kate, frozen in her final, tortured moment.

  Before I could process what had happened, blood splashed onto the statue, and Chris collapsed at Kate’s stone feet, gripping his throat with his hands. His eyes were wide in panic, and he took gasping, gurgling breaths, blood gushing from his neck and collecting in a pool around him.

  How was this happening? Kate was dead. Chris was dying. And here I was, pathetic and suffocating in my own body, blocked from accessing my powers.

  “No!” I screamed, refusing to let it end like this. We weren’t supposed to lose this fight. We were supposed to win. Nyx had said it was possible. She said we had the strength to succeed. We just had to look within ourselves to make it happen. The gray energy had polluted my mind tonight, making me lose sight of my strength. But I had to fight it. I owed it to myself, to the others, to my family, and to the world.

  Please, Nyx. I pictured her serene face as I gazed up at the ceiling, which was covered in twinkling lights resembling the stars. Give us the strength to get through this.

  With that final thought, I closed my eyes and forced through the gray energy barrier, collecting enough white energy to heal myself on the spot. I bolted forward, gathering white energy in one hand and black in the other, falling to the floor and placing one hand on Chris, reaching the other one up to the gorgon’s stomach.

  The gorgon thumped to the floor—dead. Chris’s breathing turned normal, and he dropped his hands from his throat, catching his breath. His eyes remained closed—from fear of seeing Medusa, or seeing what had become of Kate, I didn’t know.

  Next I reached for Kate, wrapping my hands around her cold, stone ankles and gathering as much white energy as I could. This had to work—it had to. Kate couldn’t be dead. This was just an injury. A terrible, awful injury. She could be healed from this. I had to believe she could be healed from this.

  But as hard as I tried, nothing happened.

  I should have known it wouldn’t. Kate—or the statue that used to be Kate—emitted no aura of life. Her spirit wasn’t there anymore. At least, not anywhere I could reach. The white energy had nowhere to go, and the statue remained as solid as ever. I watched as blood dripped down the stone and onto the floor—Chris’s blood, which had spurted all over Kate after Euryale had sliced his throat. How had this night ended up such a mess?

  I reached for my necklace, holding the sun pendant between my fingers. If there was ever a time that I needed Apollo, it was now.

  But of course, he didn’t come.

  “Is it working?” Chris asked, his voice so low and raspy I could barely hear him. “Can you heal her?”

  I just stayed there, frozen, staring at my hand wrapped around Kate’s stone leg. Tears streamed down my face, and I couldn’t bring myself to say it. I’d already been through this once, with Rachael, when I’d told Ethan I couldn’t save her. How was I supposed to say it again now? About Kate? I couldn’t. Because if I said it, then it would be true. And I wasn’t ready for it to be true. Maybe if I just tried harder…

  I closed my eyes, focusing on the white energy around me, gathering more and more of it until it wasn’t possible to hold it in my body for a second longer. Once there was no more containing it, I released it, trying to force it to flow into Kate’s stone body. I thought of Nyx again, picturing her face in my mind, since that had helped me break past the barrier before. Maybe she would help again now.

  But it didn’t work. The energy wouldn’t absorb into the stone, no matter how hard I tried. Instead, it released back into the Universe, unchanged.

  Before I could admit defeat, someone else screamed nearby—Danielle. I stared down at the floor, unable to move, unable to think. If Danielle had been turned to stone too, I couldn’t bring myself to look.

  There was another thump, and then, all was silent.

  CHAPTER FORTY-TWO

  “Make sure her eyes are shut,” someone said—Blake. “Look at her in the mirror to close her eyes.”

  “I know,” Danielle snapped. She was talking—she wasn’t dead. “It was drilled into my mind enough in practice.” She rummaged around for a few seconds, but I didn’t look up to see what was going on. My gaze was stuck on Kate’s stone feet. I refused to look up at Kate—refused to see her face. It would make this too real. I wasn’t ready to give up hope that I could save her. Maybe… if I could figure out a way to gather more energy…

  “We can take our visors off now,” Blake said, his voice devoid of emotion. “Danielle has Medusa’s head.”

  I pulled the hat off my head and tossed it to the floor. I blinked a few times—adjusting to being able to see normally again—and stared at Danielle, who was holding Medusa’s head in one hand, the Golden Sword dangling to the ground from the other.

  “Wh
en…?” I somehow managed to say. “How?” I tasted salt on my lips—tears. The salty streams had dried and cracked over my cheeks, too.

  “Medusa let her guard down for a second to admire…” Danielle paused, her voice catching in her throat. She didn’t need to say it for me to understand what she meant. Medusa had let her guard down to admire how she’d turned Kate to stone. “That second was all I needed,” Danielle continued. “She didn’t realize I’d gotten up until the sword was slicing through her neck.”

  I nodded, so dazed that I could barely process what had happened. I didn’t even care that we’d gotten Medusa’s head. All I wanted was to heal Kate. She might not have been the strongest of the five of us, but she was the smartest. The kindest. No one deserved to die, but Kate deserved it least of all.

  When I was younger, I believed that everything happened for a reason. I still believed that everything happened for a reason.

  But there was no reason for this to be the end for Kate.

  Which meant it couldn’t be the end. The only reason I could possibly think of was that I was supposed to push myself to a new level with my power. That I was supposed to save her.

  The world spun around me again—probably because I’d already used so much energy trying to heal Kate—but I didn’t care. I still had some juice left in me. Which meant I could still do this.

  I forced myself up and walked around to look at Kate from the front. Her mouth was open, mid-scream, her face twisted with the agony of her final moment. She still held her sword—the sword had been turned to stone, too. Her other hand reached forward, her fingers curled in front of her, as if trying to protect herself from Medusa’s gaze.

  Someone came up behind me and reached for my hand—Blake. His cheek was bruised, as if someone had whacked him in the face, and blood dripped from a cut above his forehead. I wanted to reach forward and heal his injuries, but his injuries were minor. I could heal him later. My energy had to be reserved for Kate.