Medusa: The Wronged

by JJ King

  “You don’t have to explain yourself to me.” Thea laid her hand over Em’s and squeezed back, “We have to go back to Athens.”

  Em nodded grimly and tapped the passport in Thea’s hand. “We are. Right now, in fact. Stacey found us seats on a flight leaving in four hours. There’s a car waiting for us downstairs.”

  Thea blinked, then nodded slowly. “I need to pack.” She started walking towards her bedroom, then stopped in front of the door where Em had placed her packed suitcase. Thea turned to her with a mixture of anxiety and gratefulness on her face. “Thanks.”

  Em did a sweep of her home as Thea pulled their things to the elevator. All safe, she clicked the last lock into place. Please, gods, let Eury be safe, too.

  CHAPTER TWO

  Em slept for most of the trip across the ocean, thanks to the Ambien Thea provided and the champagne the nice flight attendant brought as soon as they boarded. By the time they arrived, the sun was shining brightly in the Mediterranean sky, welcoming them like long lost souls, or the proverbial prodigal daughters.

  Thea’s hand on her arm woke Em from a deep and dreamless sleep. She pulled her eye mask off and blinked, blinded by the brightness, as she yawned and stretched out her muscles. “What?” She asked on a sigh.

  “We’re here.” Thea looked past her to the window, her eyes filling with tears that only took a second to spill free and rush down her face. Em took a deep breath, knowing what she would see, and turned to look.

  There it was, her city, their city. From above, it looked like an intricate pattern of lines and boxes, with green spaces interspersed, but she knew it was so much more. It was history and mythology, love and loss, life and death. In Athens, she and her sisters had found their passion and lost everything dear to them besides each other. She hadn’t been back for a very long time, and for good reason.

  They crowded the window, watching the approach in complete awe. Flying wasn’t new to either of them, it was the way of the world now, but it had been such a long time since they’d been home, that this type of travel hadn’t existed as it did now. The last time they’d approached their home had been by sea, but that was before their lives had been irrevocably changed.

  Nervous anticipation filled Em’s stomach as the plane’s wheels came down and they landed on the tarmac. She wasn’t afraid of flying, being immortal gave you a one-up on fear. There were reasons they hadn’t returned, good reasons, but their sister was in trouble and even good, valid reasons weren’t good enough when family was concerned.

  Em slipped a pair of designer sunglasses from her purse and fit them over her eyes just in time to step free of the airplane into the warm air of her birth. She stopped, unable to take another step, and lifted her face to the sun. No, she thought, remembering her appraisal of the New York sun, the sun isn’t universal. It was just a lie she told herself to feel better. This is sunshine.

  After hours of being in the air with her phone on airplane mode, Em hurried to turn it back on in case she’d gotten more calls from Eury. As it came to life, she gasped. “Thea!” She rushed forward to grab her sister’s hand.

  She’d miss three more calls, all from an unknown number.

  Em bit back the fear that spiked in her heart and took a deep breath. “If she’s calling us, she’s alive. And if she’s alive, we can fix whatever’s wrong.” She tugged Thea’s hand. “Right?”

  Thea twined their hands together pulling it up and tucking it over her heart. “We’re going to find her. Just breathe.”

  Em knew her reaction wasn’t just about Eury, it was about coming home. She exhaled slowly, willing herself to calm the fuck down, then nodded and took back her hand. “Get us a car, will you?” she asked Thea, then lifted her phone and pulled up the number of the private investigator she’d called immediately after booking their flights. They needed information only he could provide right now.

  The deep resonant voice answered in Greek, then switched to English when Em said “Hello.” She rarely spoke Greek anymore, not even to Thea. The conversation was short, with a great deal of grunting. Em worried she’d trusted the wrong man with the job until he said, “I just emailed you directions,” and demanded payment.

  Em disconnected and waited for what seemed like forever for the email to pop up. Then, there it was, the address and directions to where her sister was staying. Sighing in relief and praying Eury was still there, Em slid into the back seat of the cab Thea had flagged down and gave the driver the address.

  Thea looked surprised and more than a little afraid. “That’s really close to…”

  “I know,” Em cut her off, not wanting to acknowledge the danger.

  The ride took forever since it was Athens and the city thrived on people zooming in and out of the tiny, narrow streets, on cars and scooters. Em sat rigidly in the back seat, next to her sister, and watched as Athens whipped by outside her window. It wasn’t exactly the Athens she remembered, this version was modern and filled with bright and shiny technology. Still, the ancient was there, tucked away behind the dazzling surface, for those who wished to see it. Em wished she didn’t see it.

  “Propileon 17.” The cab pulled to a stop outside a building.

  “Efharisto,” the word slipped from Em’s mouth. She cringed, not because it felt wrong to speak her native tongue, but because it felt so right. Em climbed free of the cramped cab and retrieved the luggage from the back. As the cab sped away, she swayed, struck by the momentousness of the moment. They were about to reunite with their sister after nearly thirty years. Squaring her shoulders, Em grabbed her bag and started toward the front door of the apartment.

  “Wait,” Thea hissed, sounding a lot like her snakes, “we’re not in New York anymore. Don’t just barge into unfamiliar places without some kind of protection.”

  “Shit,” Em muttered, realizing her sister was right. There were real dangers here, things and people who could hurt them, who could actually kill them. Immortality wasn’t without its loopholes when it came down to it.

  Em guarded Thea while she slipped off her sunglasses and carefully lifted the protective contacts she wore every day from her eyes, the contacts that kept their deadly eyes from turning anyone in their gaze to stone. Thea put her contacts in their case, careful to keep them safe, then lowered her dark glasses once more. They would protect anyone she didn’t care to harm and still allowed her easy access to her greatest weapon.

  Em lifted a hand to the front buzzer and let it hover there for a moment before dropping the final inch. The sound of a loud buzz filled the air, and she shivered in anticipation and nerves.

  Moments later, Em heard the sound of footsteps on tile floors and the click of locks being undone. She smoothed out the worry etched on her face and breathed, waiting. Then the door swung open and the oxygen in her lungs swooshed out, leaving her breathless.

  “Mom?”

  Em’s heart exploded into action inside her chest. She stared at the startlingly beautiful woman in front of her and her body reacted without her permission. She gasped in utter shock then threw herself into Ceto’s arms a split second before Thea did the same.

  Em buried her face in her mother’s hair, breathing in her familiar scent of orange blossoms and lavender. Memories surged to the surface, fighting to be relived. Em saw her sisters as small children, playing with their father on the beach while their mother walked out into the ocean to scoop her into her arms and spin her around.

  The memories swarmed her, making her head buzz like too much electricity. Em squeezed her eyes shut and tried to block them out, they were just too much. She pulled her mother in tighter, holding onto her as if Ceto would disappear at any moment. Ceto hugged her back with a surprising strength for one so petite, as if she’d never let them go again.

  “My girls,” she sobbed, stroking their backs, pulling them into the building. “My beautiful girls!” Ceto touched them, stroking their faces, their arms, covering them in kisses. Em’s head spun.

  “Mom,” she i
nterrupted another hug and stepped back to hold her mother at arm’s length, “Where’s Eury? Is she alright?”

  Ceto’s gorgeous face dropped, her expressive eyes switching from joy to worry in an instant. She shook her head, “No, Euryale is…” Ceto sucked in a deep breath, “we don’t know what’s wrong with her.” She reached for each of her daughter’s hands and pulled them toward a staircase at the back of the room. “Come.”

  Em let herself be pulled along, lost in the memory of holding her mother’s hand as a child, so very long ago. Her trepidation over seeing Eury after their years apart dimmed in comparison to seeing her mother. It had been more than a lifetime since they’d seen one another. Not since…

  Em shook her head and focused on the moment, letting her mother lead her to Eury. At the top of the stairs they turned right, moving into a large room filled with comfortable furniture, a fireplace, and her father. Em’s already overtaxed heart squeezed tight and she ran, as fast as her feet could carry her, across the room and into the giant of a man’s open arms. Again, Thea was there a second later, burying her face next to Em’s, in their father’s broad chest as he lifted them and cradled them, rocking back and forth as he had when they were girls.

  Phorcys held onto them, his thick body shaking with emotion as they reunited, a family again, less Eury. Pulling back, Em laid her forehead on her father’s and just breathed, balancing herself. “Eury?”

  Her father shook his head and frowned. “We don’t know what has happened to her my little Medusa.” He stroked a hand over her damp cheek, up to her scarf, then looked away, closing his eyes.

  Em’s heart sank. He still saw her as a monster, saw them as monsters. She glanced over at Thea who was staring, her eyes darting between their parents. She looked uncertain, anxious, then she looked at Em and her eyes asked a million questions. Silently, Em understood. She nodded and reached up to her head, unraveling the scarf that hid her curse, and Thea did the same.

  Hissing filled the room as their snakes, so long confined, stretched and moved about freely, dancing over their heads. Em and Thea soothed them, humming softly to apologize and quiet them. Em watched as her parents both avoided looking at them, staring awkwardly at their feet, the walls, anywhere but at their daughter’s snakes, and it dug up a fury from deep inside her.

  She opened her mouth to rail against the injustice done to her and her sisters. To blame the gods, the goddess Athena specifically, for the wrongs inflicted upon three innocent girls and to scream in aggravation at her parents for abandoning them in their time of need. They’d been lost, damned to walk the earth as monsters after a lifetime of walking it as daughters of the sea god and goddess, Phorcys and Ceto. They’d been beautiful and spoiled, beloved by all and cherished. They’d been special, not just to their parents, but to Athens, and their goddess. Then they’d had it all stripped from them because they’d dared to fall in love.

  The sound of footsteps stopped the words in Em’s throat, smothering them for the moment, as she turned to see who else was here.

  The man was large, larger than her father, and broad. Whereas her father was light and golden-skinned, this man was dark and deliciously tanned a deep bronze. Em stared, in wonder, and horror, and a million other emotions she couldn’t begin to identify as the man who’d changed her life strode into the room and stopped dead in his tracks, gaping at her.

  “Medusa?” His deep voice broke as he said her name.

  Em blinked slowly and nodded, needing the extra seconds to find her voice. When she was sure her legs would stay steady beneath her, she opened her mouth and whispered his name, “Poseidon.”

  CHAPTER THREE

  Em felt like she was drowning. The seconds ticked by, moving slower and slower until she swore they were moving backwards, and still, she couldn’t move. Memories, good and bad, flooded her mind, dragging her down and crushing her. It was too much. She did the only thing she could and pushed it down.

  She tore her eyes off his face and let her eyelids fall shut as she suppressed everything. It was nearly impossible and incredibly painful, but dealing with it all right here, right now, wasn’t an option. Her sister was ill and that was more important than her apparent emotional breakdown.

  Em opened her eyes and looked back up at Poseidon who was still gaping at her with every emotion he was feeling showing in his big dark eyes. She gritted her teeth and swallowed the pain. “I need to see Eury.”

  Poseidon blinked, once, twice, then he nodded slowly and moved to the side to let her pass. Without another word, Em walked past him with Thea at her heel and made her way down the hall to the one open door.

  Eury lay asleep on a big bed in the center of the room, her face relaxed in sleep. Em bit down hard on her lip as she looked at the gauntness in her sister’s usually stunning face. She was still beautiful, still young, but whatever was happening to her had robbed her of the vitality that made her who she was.

  Eury had always been the most passionate of them. She’d cursed the gods and everyone else when they’d been damned, even her, especially her. That anger and bitterness had never really left, not completely, and over the years it had seeped into their relationship, poisoning it from the inside out, like a rotten apple. Em had never blamed her sister, though. It was no one’s fault but her own.

  Thea’s hand slipped into hers and the pressure helped center Em’s world. They moved together, as they always had, and sat on either side of the bed, reaching out instinctively for Eury. Her skin was clammy and pale, and Em could feel the erratic skip of her heartbeat when she touched her wrist. She bent forward and pressed a kiss to Eury’s forehead.

  “Don’t leave us, Eury,” she whispered softly, praying her sister could hear her, “we need you. We love you.”

  Em reached for the scarf that was wrapped around Eury’s snakes and began unfurling it with Thea’s aid. The more she unwrapped, the angrier she felt toward those in the next room. Here Eury was suffering from gods knows what and they had part of her, a living part of her covered so they could feel more… comfortable, in her presence. She bit back the anger and curled up beside Eury, forcing a smile at Thea as she took the other side. “Three sisters back together again,” she said wistfully, wishing it were under different circumstances.

  Thea watched her closely, her scrutiny making Em feel self-conscious. She ignored it, focusing solely on Eury, but after a few minutes she couldn’t stand it anymore. “Just say it.”

  It was as if a dam had burst. In a low voice that was barely a whisper, Thea rushed the words out, “How the hell are you being so calm right now? Oh, my gods, Em, it’s him!”

  The ache flayed at the inside of her heart and soul, demanding to be let out, but it still wasn’t the time or place. He was just outside the door, so close. She wouldn’t allow herself to look weak in front of him. With an urgent tone she pushed out her reply, “I can’t Thea. Please,” she begged, a tear slipping free, “I can’t right now.”

  As only a sister could, Thea nodded, her eyes showing that she understood, and reached across their sleeping sister to take her hand. As one, they laid their joined hands on top of Eury’s abdomen, and prayed that she would be alright.

  *****

  A gentle knock woke Em from a sound sleep. Opening her eyes, she blinked and saw her sister lying still as the dead, on the bed between her and Thea. With a gasp, she sprang up and reached for Eury’s neck, feeling for a pulse.

  It was there, weak but there. Em berated herself for falling asleep. Thea opened her eyes slowly and yawned. Em guessed the trip had been exhausting after all, despite the Ambien.

  “Hey,” she murmured, “how is she?”

  “Same as before, I think.” Em pressed the flat of her wrist against Eury’s forehead and nodded. “No change in temperature.”

  The door swung open quietly and their mother stepped inside. Em watched her mother’s face, still so soft and beautiful, look down on her sleeping daughter with love and worry. Then, one of Eury’s silver snakes his
sed to life, sliding down to slither across Ceto’s hand and the look in her eyes changed to horror. She snatched back her hand and turned her back on Em and Thea.

  The fury returned in an instant. Em jumped to her feet, her hands balled into fists, and prepared for a fight. “Look at her.” She ground out between her teeth.

  Ceto turned slowly, avoiding eye contact.

  “Look at her!” Em demanded, keeping her voice low, “Look at me, look at Thea!”

  Ceto lifted her eyes from the floor, her gaze moving swiftly between her three daughters. Em watched and saw the revulsion there, the hatred, the pain, and it doubled her over in agony. Her heart crushed inside her chest.

  Thea moved across the room to her side, wrapping her arms around her and they sank onto the bed to protect Eury from harm. Em looked at their mother and sobbed, “Get out!”

  Ceto’s face fell and tears spilled freely. She hesitated, swaying on her feet, then rushed across the room and fell on her knees by the bed, reaching for Em’s and Thea’s hands. “No,” she cried, “no, I won’t leave you again! I left you once and look what happened!”