Medusa: The Wronged

by JJ King

  She'd done well for herself, without anyone’s help, especially in this incarnation of her life. She was happy, or as happy as anyone could be and, now that she had her family back, well, almost all her family...

  The thought of Eury lying helpless in bed, dying from some unknown curse, sent a shiver of steel up Em's backbone. she jerked back from Poseidon, and stared straight ahead, unwilling to focus on anything but her sister.

  The world ground to a halt around them, swinging Em against Poseidon's chest once more. She gasped in deep breaths as white lights exploded inside her mind. Pushing away from him, she doubled over, placing your hands on her knees for support, and tried not to vomit. she might not want to restart their love affair, but she also didn't want to have her ex-lover see her vomit twice in one day.

  “Are you okay?” He reached out and touched her gently on the small of her back.

  Em bit back a moan; his hand on her skin felt so good even while she was still reeling from their mode of transportation. Fighting her own instincts, Em shrugged away from his touch, and forced herself to straighten. “I'm fine,” she said, wiping the corners of her mouth delicately.

  “Medusa…” the tone of his voice was so broken, so vulnerable, that Em couldn't help herself, she raised her eyes and met his gaze.

  He looked hurt. She could tell by the strain in his eyes that he was holding back, trying not to show her just how much she affected him. The juxtaposition of god and man hit her and she felt her thick emotional armor crack. Em sucked her lower lip into her mouth and bit down on it so hard that for a moment she thought she'd taste blood, but the small pain helped center her and remind her of why she was here. She darted her gaze away and turned from him.

  “Why did you leave me?” His question came out strained, as if forced through solid granite, and the rawness of it raked at her soul for a moment before his words sunk in.

  Shock, pure and simple, surged through her, leaving Em slightly nauseated and completely furious. Why had she left him? He wanted to know why she’d left? “What do you mean ‘why did I leave you’?” Her voice rose an octave with each word. Em raised a hand that was shaking with fury and pointed to the emerald snakes moving about in agitation on top of her head as if it were answer enough.

  Poseidon shook his head and growled low in his throat, “I’m a god, Medusa, did you think I would be put off by some snakes? Did you think I’d love you any less for taking a stand against my niece’s fucking pettiness?” He raked a hand through his long hair. “Why did you leave me?” This time his question came with accusation.

  Em reared on him, eyes flashing, “I didn’t leave you! Just like I didn’t volunteer to be banished from my home or torn away from my parents,” Em heard her voice rising and couldn’t help it. She was glad for their isolated location now. “In fact, I didn’t volunteer for any of it. These ‘snakes,’ my eyes – this was all done to me… by your niece” She lunged forward and punched him in the chest as hard as she could.

  His eyes flashed but he didn’t budge. “What are you talking about ‘banished’?” He threw up his hands and the rocks around them began to shake. Water, hidden deep beneath the surface of the mountain filtered through the sediment and rose to pool around Em’s feet, but she barely noticed. All she could see was Poseidon through the red haze of her fury.

  The buzz of her cell phone didn't register at first, but as the seconds ticked by with the infuriating sound of Baby Got Back echoing through the tension-filled air between them, it broke through and got her attention. Cursing, Em reached into her back pocket and pulled her cell phone free, frowning at the screen where a text from Thea read simply, "Hurry. She's getting worse."

  Fear shot through Em's veins, cooling the fire of her anger and replacing her blood with terror for her sister. She inhaled sharply, and blinked back the tears that sprang to her eyes, then closed her eyes for a second to gather her wits.

  "I can't do this," Em whispered, her voice sounding rough even to her own ears. "Eury needs me, and this," she motioned between them, pointing at their chests, "can wait."

  Poseidon stared at her, his jaw set, his eyes flashing, then his expression shifted and he simply nodded in agreement. He didn't stop her when she brushed by him and began walking up the mountain as fast as she could.

  With every step she took towards Hecate's lair, Em's stomach trembled with doubt. There was no certainty they'd find a cure at the top of this mountain and no reason to believe that they could convince the queen of the witches to cooperate with them, but she had to do something and this was their best bet.

  After a few minutes of pushing hard, Em slowed her pace, figuring she’d last longer if she didn’t burn out. Instantly, Poseidon moved up behind her, stepping so close that she could feel her skin buzz from his proximity. She stiffened, holding herself so tightly that the muscles in her body seized, and prayed he wouldn't touch her again. She had to stay focused on Eury. She’d let her attraction to Poseidon lead her actions once before and it had damned her sisters to a lifetime as monsters. It was impossible, though, her body seemed determined to betray her mind at every turn.

  He didn't touch her, he didn’t have to to make her knees weak, and murmured, “We will talk, Medusa, and soon. Even you can’t deny fate.”

  She shivered, swallowing against the sharp tang of hope that leapt into her throat at his persistence. He wasn’t going to give up, she realized, until she heard him out, until he changed her mind. Em forced herself to breathe evenly and think, to remember the decades of insanity she’d slowly but steadily worked her way through on her own, or with the help of her sisters. She’d learned to live again, to breathe again, to wake up in the morning and not be torn in two by the realization that love had so completely ruined her life and the lives of those she cherished most. Just look what it had done to her parents, to Eury. There was nothing good that could come from their being connected, even if denying it was killing her.

  When he pulled away, putting distance between them, Em pulled herself together and continued up the mountain.

  They’d arrived roughly halfway up Mount Latmus, as close as Poseidon could get them, on a rocky path that looked to be intimidating even for seasoned hikers, which Em was not. She paused for a moment to catch her breath and let Poseidon pull past her. She watched him as he picked his way carefully over boulders and past prickly bushes, looking so distinctly out of place this far from his oceans that it tugged at her heart. Biting down on her lip, Em started forward, hoping they’d make it to the cave by nightfall.

  “How long do you think this will take?” She asked, attempting to sound casual as she skirted a pile of loose rocks that looked like a recipe for a twisted ankle. She may be immortal, but she wasn’t immune to broken bones.

  Poseidon glanced up at the sun, which was moving steadily lower in the sky and answered without turning his head. “I’d say we have about three hours left before the sun sets and this hike shouldn’t take more than two hours.” He sounded confident, which lifted Em’s spirits. The sooner they got to Hecate, the closer they were to saving Eury.

  They climbed in silence, each panting in exertion under the still-hot sun. Em struggled to keep up with Poseidon’s long strides, pushing herself out of sheer spite and frustration. There was no way she’d let him best her.

  Sweat poured into her eyes, stinging them until tears ran like rain over her cheeks to ease the pain. Angry hisses surrounded her head, making her temples pound as her snakes made their discomfort known. With a swear, Em reached up and pulled the scarf from her head, freeing her snakes. They stretched and slithered about, still angry, but happier than they’d been covered up. Em stopped and used the scarf to mop up her face, then lowered herself onto the nearest boulder to rest. “Stop,” she called out, reluctantly.

  “Thank the gods,” she heard Poseidon mutter under his breath as he came to an abrupt stop and collapsed onto a rock.

  “I need water,” Em’s tongue felt like sandpaper in the Mojave Desert. �
�Why didn’t we bring any?”

  “Because I can do this,” Poseidon snapped his fingers and a frosty water bottle appeared in his hand, followed by another in hers. Em couldn’t stop the amused giggle that escaped her lips. Poseidon’s responding grin made the butterflies in her stomach come to life and flutter about wildly. So much for staying aloof.

  They both snapped the bottles open and drank long and hard in silence. The cold water sluiced down Em’s throat, relieving her discomfort and reviving her for the remainder of the hike. She forced herself not to finish the entire thing.

  They began up the mountain again, still in silence, but something had changed. Em couldn’t put her finger on it, but something had shifted between them, something… intangible. It caught at her heart and slipped into the crack that had appeared in her armour the moment she’d laid eyes on Poseidon again. With each passing moment, with each yearning look or kind word, hell, with each glimpse she got of his granite hard ass, the crack in her armour widened. Em swallowed, recognizing the futility of her attempts. There was no way in Tartarus that she’d be able to walk away from all this without a broken heart.

  Logically then, she reasoned, the only solution was to not walk away from it at all.

  For the first time, Em gave in and let herself wonder about what could be. Poseidon hadn’t run away from her, far from it, he’d been trying to get her alone to talk since the moment they’d seen one another. His persistence and intense stares had been chipping away at her determination, which had set off all her alarm bells. She’d responded the only way she knew how, by closing herself off from even the smallest hope that anything could happen. Obviously, her attempts had fallen a bit short.

  Em chewed her lip and let the memories come. They’d been so in love, so wonderfully naïve about what their life together would ever amount to, she recalled. They’d lived in a bubble of stolen kisses, long, slow dances under the midnight moon, and skin searing sex. Their love had been all consuming, so much so that in the millennia since, she’d convinced herself that it had been all flash, all hormones and infatuation. She’d comforted herself with the fact that those infatuations most often come to a natural end. Her story was sad, yes, but she hadn’t lost the love of her life.

  Those thoughts burned a bitter hole in her stomach now as she watched him climb, glancing back occasionally to check on her with a look on his rugged face that was hard to understand. She saw relief in his eyes at times and frustration at others, but through it all she saw a sort of nervousness, crawling through his muscles, making them twitch when he didn’t think she was looking. But she was always watching, and it was time to accept the truth.

  She loved him more than she needed to breathe.

  The pain of that truth was almost crippling. It took every ounce of strength she had to remain upright and sensible. All the lies she’d told herself to make it through the dark times crumbled before her, leaving her defenseless and vulnerable in a way she hadn’t been since the moment she’d woken in that cave with her life over and a new life before her.

  Em gritted her teeth through the agonizing cacophony of her thoughts and steeled herself. She’d pulled herself together back then and she’d be damned if she’d do any less now. She loved him, but she loved herself now, too.

  Poseidon stopped suddenly and lifted a hand to his lips, then crouched down behind a boulder. Em moved quickly to join him. “That’s the cave,” he pointed ahead of them to a rock wall that scaled an almost 90 degrees up to the peak of Mount Latmus.

  Em peeked her head out and studied it, frowning at the decided lack of a cave opening, but then a shimmer of light refracted off the rock and she smiled grimly. “Of course,” she muttered, “what else would you expect from a witch?”

  “I’d expect traps, actually.” Poseidon grumbled, his dark eyes shadowing with worry. “I’ve been watching and waiting the entire way up and, so far, we’ve hit nothing. Which tells me,” he inclined his head toward the cave mouth, “that there’s a whole boatload of trouble waiting for us in there.”

  Em worried her bottom lip, remembering how still and pale Eury had been when they’d left. She’d been fading quickly, too quickly, and that had been hours ago. There was no time for playing games, even the deadly games of the Queen of witches. She took a deep breath and stood. She wavered, then reached out a hand to the one man capable of destroying her, and waited.

  He stared at her outstretched hand for a long moment, then his gaze shifted and those dark orbs looked into her very soul. They moved rapidly, searching for something in her eyes, in her expression. She didn’t know what he saw in her, but his eyes changed, turning completely onyx and incredibly intense, and he engulfed her hand in his.

  Strength spread through their combined hands and up Em’s arm, filling her chest with an overwhelming pressure. She sucked in a lungful of oxygen, overcome by the power of his touch. Her mouth opened in wonder and she saw her reaction mirrored on his face. Tears sprang to her eyes and threatened to spill but she blinked them back, nodding silently to Poseidon as they stepped together toward Hecate’s cave.

  CHAPTER SEVEN

  The façade of the rock wall was just that, a façade. They stepped through it together, hands grasped, and froze just inside.

  Em braced herself and scanned the cave, waiting for the inevitable. Seconds ticked by and nothing happened, setting her already furiously beating heart even further on edge. Em’s eyes adjusted immediately to the dark, it was, after all, her natural habitat. She noticed the smooth lines of the stone walls and the worn path beneath their feet. It wasn’t a huge cavern, she noted, but tall enough that Poseidon could stand tall without having to stoop.

  She stepped forward slowly, waiting for a giant boulder to come descending from an elaborate series of… Em shook her head, she’d watched way too many Indiana Jones movies in her lifetime. But, in her defense, Harrison Ford. She nearly chuckled.

  When no poison-tipped arrows or deadly curses rained down on her, Em continued, stepping carefully with Poseidon by her side. As they moved further into the cave, Em noticed a dull glow emanated from the back wall.

  “There,” she pointed, pitching her voice low, “the cavern continues around the corner.”

  Poseidon nodded silently and pulled ahead, releasing her hand so he could step in front of her. Em’s eyebrows shot up on her forehead as she stared at the back of his over-protective head.

  Annoyance and spite surged, flooding her blood with a heated rage that overwhelmed her in an instant. Em’s lips curled back as she remembered all the time in those first days that she’d prayed for him to show up, to protect her from the darkness. But, he hadn’t.

  Red tinged her vision as manic thoughts spilled like water into her mind.

  So, he thought he could walk back into her life and just step in front of her? Push her behind him so he could be the big strong man?

  Well, fuck that!

  Em’s snakes swarmed around her face, hissing angrily as she lunged forward and shoved Poseidon with all her strength, sending him stumbling into a solid wall of rock.

  He whirled around, fists raised, eyes wild and ready to fight. When he saw her crouched and ready to pounce on him again, his eyebrows furrowed. “What the hell, Medusa?”

  A sound of raw fury ripped free from deep within her, “I told you,” she slashed out with nails that were suddenly sharp and long, “it’s Em!” One of her hands caught his bicep and slashed through his shirt, shredding his skin. The sight of his blood filled her with a rush of power and need for more. More violence, more destruction. She sprang forward, screaming wildly.

  He caught her in mid-air and spun, pressing her up against the wall she’d just shoved him into. His breath was hot against her ear, “What’s wrong? Medusa, stop!”

  She felt his arms around her like a vice and struggled to free herself. Panic and fury mixed like ice and fire, sending her spiraling toward a cliff that was all too familiar. Darkness pressed in on her, draining her control, chargin
g her with power.

  Her snakes flung out, snapping at Poseidon’s face, tearing at his flesh. He roared and let go of her to get out of their reach. Em ducked beneath his arms and came out beside him, using his distraction to gouge his side with her talons. She grinned maniacally as her nails dripped with his blood.

  He advanced with his hands held out before him, never breaking eye contact. She glared, trying to ignore the tug of familiarity, knowing though, that she’d looked into those blue eyes before and felt safe.

  His voice, too, was familiar. It stirred something inside her that was hard to understand, especially through the haze of confusion and rage that seemed to be pressing down on her in equal parts. She struggled to clear her mind, curling her hands into fists that pierced her palms.

  “Medusa…” his voice was soft, insistent but non-threatening. “Em, look at me. It’s me, Poseidon. You know me.” He blinked and she saw a vulnerability in his gaze that made her coil and long to attack, but at the same time…

  “You used to love me,” he whispered in a husky tone that seemed to stroke her raw nerves and calm them. She sucked in a deep breath as he advanced a step.