She grunted and then laughed. "Game on, Grace. Let's see how much you've retained." Athena battled with dual short swords that were sharper than obsidian glass. She didn't materialize hers like the rest of us did. Hephaestus had made them and when she went into battle, she carried them in dual scabbards that rested on her hips.
She whipped the swords from their coverings and whirled on me. My kukri barely parried in time as she dove forward and into me, whipping the sword faster than I'd ever seen her move. In that moment, I got nervous. Shit, I was out of my league.
Still on my knees, I bent backward, dodging another blow. Not fast enough, steel grazed my ribs and sliced into the underside of my breast. I hissed with the pain and brought my knee up to shove her back off of me before rolling over with my kukris crossed, trying to disarm her.
It didn't work. Sounds of a battle reached my ears and I realized why nobody had intervened yet. They were all engaged with the missing Hunters. You could see that their minds were being controlled by their jerky movements. My team spent more time in defensive mode than offensive, trying not to hurt anyone permanently.
"Pay attention to ME, Grace!" Athena growled and punctuated her statement with a thrust through my shoulder.
"Fuck!" I yelled in pain and jabbed with my other sword, catching her in the side. My speed reflexes kicked in, faster than I had anticipated. It caught her off guard and my sword pierced through the skin and muscle and slid out her back.
She shrugged it off, pulled her sword out of my shoulder and stabbed again. I ducked the move and, rather than cleanly pull my sword from her flesh, I hacked it out the side leaving a bloody dripping gash. She grunted and smiled. "Hmm, you're getting better at this. I didn't think you had it in you to fight dirty."
"I'm a dirty girl," I replied before punching her in the face. Cartilage snapped as her nose broke. Blood poured down in a fountain.
"Aren't you curious why?" she asked swinging for my neck.
My body twisted at an unnatural angle to dodge and I breathed a quick, "Nope."
"Not at all? That's unlike you. Usually your mind doesn't stop long enough to actually 'think.'"
"Are you going to monologue me, Athena - or are you going to fight?" I shot back.
"You're such a crybaby little bitch. You get everything handed to you and you just want to whine about it," she said with acid.
"Says the paramount of wisdom and beauty that kidnapped someone else's kid and went fucking insane." I swung with my left hand and followed through with a round house kick that knocked her back. My leg didn't come down in time and she sliced through the meat of my thigh.
'Heal,’ I thought. The flesh knit back together and I felt profound relief. Thank God the nanites were back in working order. I didn't need any new scars.
"Don’t think that your healing powers are going to save you. I can cut you faster than you can heal," she taunted.
"Yes, I see you doing that now." Fuck, I spoke too soon. Her elbow struck my neck and I bent over trying to catch my breath. I could feel the blow before it connected and dipped further, missing her blade slicing through my neck by inches.
I turned the bend into a roll and kicked out with my feet, catching her in the knee that I'd already damaged. She went down but not without scoring another cut along the side of the face.
"Hey!" I yelled. "I just got pretty. Quit fucking with the face."
The words and tone caught her off guard. For a moment, I saw my best friend in those eyes. She looked confused. I hesitated. Big mistake. She rammed her sword into my stomach so hard that her fist punched through the skin and into my entrails.
Oh God, the pain was excruciating. I screamed with it. "You lose," she whispered.
As she began to pull back on the hand fisted in my intestines, the ground began to rumble. She lost her balance, let go of my innards and fell back. My hands clenched over my stomach and I prayed that Scooter had gotten Dylan to safety.
"Drew!" I called out.
"I'm here!" he answered.
"I think I need rescuing."
"Finally! I get to be Superman," he joked. I would have laughed if I weren't afraid that the contents of my midsection would’ve fallen out. The ground continued to shake. I stared around in confusion and saw gallons of water pouring into the room through one of the partitions.
My mouth opened in horror. Holy crap on a stick! Atlantis was rising from the bottom of the Ocean.
Drew flew over me as he engaged Athena. "Heal, you stupid fucking body!" I cried out. It was, but the damage to my midsection was severe and it was knitting together slowly. I rolled my head to the side looking for any sign of Scooter or my son. They were both gone. I just prayed that they'd made it back to Olympus.
"Ares!" I called out.
"I see it, Grace. We're almost finished here and then we can figure out what in the seven Hells is going on." He replied.
There was nothing for me to do but heal my stomach and watch as Drew and Athena fought. It was poetry in motion. Their movements were graceful and precise. Sparks flew from their weapons as they dueled. The movements were like hummingbirds in action. Each ring of steel, each spark set off a thunderous explosion. They were evenly matched. They'd been training together for a thousand years. He wasn't going to be able to defeat her alone.
That one spark I'd seen in her had caused me to hesitate, but my mother was right. She was too dangerous to leave alive at this point. I tested the skin around my wound, called it good and got unsteadily to my feet. A cold nose pushed me upright and I looked down at Scooter. "Did you get him home?" I asked intently.
He nodded his head and I breathed a sigh of relief. "Okay then. Let's kick her ass."
Scooter didn't transform slowly, he just shifted into a seven foot tall monster. Horns protruded from his face and his arms and hands were spikes. "Good enough for me," I said and dove into the fight between their dancing feet.
My elbow caught her in the thigh, throwing her off balance so Drew could slide deeply into her chest. His sword pierced through to the other side and he did what I'd done earlier and jerked it the other side.
Scooter's spikes slammed into her neck and before he wrenched upward, she looked down at me with such shock and confusion that I cried out "No! Scooter, wait!" But it was too late. He took her head off in one powerful jerk. Her spine - still attached - shone wet and metallic in the watery light.
Of course she wasn't made of flesh and bone. Zeus had actually created her. Her eyes continued to stare forward, frozen in death. Drew reached inside her body and pulled out a glowing crystal. It pulsed brightly with light before he threw it on the floor in front of Scooter, who slammed down a powerful foot, shattering it.
"Are you okay?" I asked Drew, breathless.
"Yeah, I'll be fine. We need to find my father and find out why Atlantis is rising from the sea."
He'd grabbed my hand and was pulling me after Ares when an explosion rocked the room. Water came pouring in faster, rising quickly throughout. He looked at me and said "Hold your breath."
I took a big gulp of air and kept eye contact with him as we submerged. His hand came up in front of my face and signed 'Ok?’
I nodded and jerked my thumb upward, letting him know it was time to get the Hell out of there. He nodded his assent and ‘ported us.
I gulped in air and looked around to see if any of the others had followed us. "We have to go back," I cried.
He grabbed my face in his hands and shook his head. "It's too late. They're coming to us. Hold your breath again."
"What?" I looked to where he'd been staring and saw what looked like a mile-high tsunami headed directly for us. It was too late. Hypnos was raising Atlantis.
I reached up to caress his jaw. "Well," I said with a grim smile. "This is why we can't have nice things," and I took a deep breath.
To be continued…
Acknowledgements
First I need to thank Sarajean for getting me through yet another book. This one was cr
azy and you rocked it. Honestly, I don't know how I could do this without you. <3 Just when I think that I'm the worst writer in the world, you pull me out of my hate spiral and make it all better.
Also thank you to Emily for being the 2nd proof reader. This book has much more win because of her.
Gina Van Meurs rocked yet another cover. I think that she outdid herself. The look on Grace's face is exactly how I pictured it as she steps through that rift for the first time.
To Alex who has just come to accept the fact that Mom is always busy writing but will switch his schedule around so we get Glee and Minecraft time together. I love you bubby. You make it all worth it.
And finally, to my Andy Brown, this story is everything that it is because of you. No matter what, thank you for this one. Don't get hit by a bus. ~ Your Lucy.
Letter from the Author
I couldn't possibly have imagined that I'd be publishing my second book this year. Everything has really taken off and I am entirely grateful for all of the words of encouragement, the great reviews and the messages from people telling me that they couldn't wait for this book.
Thank you so, so very much!
I'm writing the next installment now. I think that you'll be happy with the result because I know that I did the ultimate shitty Author trick and ended Rifts on a cliffhanger. Yep, I know. I suck. J
You can follow the progress of the new one, Volcanoes, on www.nicolehamlett.com
I promise to actually blog more often this time.
Rifts Page 23