Apollo's Protection

by Anna Edwards

  “Ok, what the fuck just happened?” Fontus stares at me.

  “I think I just embraced my inner water goddess.”

  We both turn sharply as Apollo screams, and the chimera attacking him roars victoriously.

  “No.” We both run toward our companion. The water races past me, heading for the creature. It doesn’t reach it, though, for out of the shadows, a third monster appears. A giant at least twice our size, he wields a wooden club embedded with iron points like nails. He looks down at us with his one eye before swinging the club above his head, and bringing it down straight into the body of the chimera.

  All I can do is scream.

  I’m not entirely certain what I’ve just witnessed, coming from Eva. I’ve only ever seen control over water like that from one other person before, and that’s her father: the King of the Sea. I’m not sure if I should be elated or terrified. She’s finding new strength on this island, hidden in the depths of her soul. I just hope she’ll be able to return to the Eva I know when she leaves, and the sorrows she’s seen and felt don’t destroy her. The leviathan is dead. I’m injured, again, but we now need to save Apollo. The chimera stands over his battered, bleeding body. My first thought is to flood the water over the creature to destroy it, but we don’t get a chance when the gigantic figure appears. My sense of victory at beating one creature deflates until I watch the enormous cyclops send his club into the body of the chimera.

  “Move,” the cyclops orders us in a deep voice, which sounds menacing in the cave. He swings again at the chimera, and the creature’s pincers flare. Its fanged mouth roars out a warning to the cyclops to stop—he doesn’t, though. Instead, he sends his club back into the creature’s face. The chimera pounces at the cyclops, and they begin to trade blows. The distraction has worked, and Apollo is forgotten. Eva calls the water forth and cocoons the broken god in it, protecting him while we join the cyclops in his fight. I form my own water club and send it into the back of the chimera’s head. He turns, snarling at me and is rewarded for his momentary distraction with two quick blows to the head from the cyclops. His pincers break, and he howls in pain.

  Eva sends another thundering blast of water into the chimera, and the creature hits the wall hard and falls to the ground. The cyclops steps closer and raises his club, but the golden lion paw strikes out at the giant’s leg. Eva twists her hand, and water manacles bind all four of the chimera’s legs and shackle them to the ground.

  “Must die,” the cyclops says. “Mine.”

  “Please, be our guest,” Eva replies.

  The cyclops delivers five quick smashes into the chimera with his club. The creature tries to rear up again. But it loses the fight when the sixth blow descends, and it takes its last breath. I fall to the ground with exhaustion and blood loss, but then quickly get up when the cyclops bears down on Eva with his club raised.

  “Human?” the giant asks.

  Eva shakes her head.

  “I’m a demigoddess of the sea.”

  “Bad one?” The cyclops raises his club, and I prepare to send a blast of water into him if he goes to hurt her.

  “No, a prisoner here like the others.”

  The cyclops looks at her and sniffs, his one eyes focused intently on her.

  “Hurt by the bad man who take my home?”

  Eva brings her hands down in front of her and wrings them together nervously. What Pluto did to her still weighs heavily on her mind despite the magic of the island drawing us together.

  “Pluto hurt me badly.”

  The cyclops nods and lowers his club.

  “Friend?” he asks.

  “I would like that.” Eva holds her hand out to the cyclops, and he shakes it. His massive fingers wrap around Eva’s tiny ones, dwarfing them.

  “Me called Nalos,” the giant informs us. “Men, good or bad?”

  I get to my feet and go closer to where Nalos still holds Eva’s hand. It’s a protective gesture now, and I worry for a moment he’s fallen under the spell of the island and will try to take her from me.

  “They are good.” Eva turns to where Apollo is still cocooned in the water. She waves her free hand, and the watery protection lowers him to the ground and flows away, leaving Apollo unmoving and bloody on the floor. My heart skips a beat seeing him that way. He’s our strength, but at the moment he looks weak, half dead.

  “He sick?” Nalos questions, and both Eva and I run to Apollo’s side. I check first for a pulse. It’s weak but still there.

  “He’s really hurt.” Eva surveys the slashes across his chest and arm with the skin torn aside and bleeding. “I don’t know how to fix this.”

  “Can you clean out his wounds with your powers and make sure there’s no dirt in them?” I ask, and she nods. “We need to get some warmth in here too.” I look toward Nalos, hoping he’ll be able to start a fire for us.

  “No.” He shakes his head and closes his eye.

  “Please,” I plead with him as Eva starts to wash out Apollo’s wounds.

  “He sick.” Nalos repeats. What is he trying to say to me. Why can’t I understand him?

  “I don’t understand. Please, explain more.”

  Nalos goes over to the now dead chimera. I follow him.

  “Bad, bad, creature.”

  “You don’t need to tell me.” I can’t help but say a little prayer in my head for Apollo. As a god, he should be immortal, but on this island he may not be. He chose to stay with us knowing that he was powerless. I hope he hasn’t sacrificed himself, trying to find out what Pluto is doing with the children he’s breeding.

  “No, bad, bad, creature. These.” Nalos taps at what remains of the creature’s pincers with his club. “Bad.”

  “They’re what has hurt Apollo. They caused the marks on his body.”

  The Cyclops nods his head in agreement.

  “Make friend sick.”

  “Yes, they’ve injured him. We need to get him warm, and his wounds cleaned. Will you help me by lighting a fire?”

  “Won’t help.” Nalos is still being obstinate, and it’s really starting to grate on me. All I want to do is save the man I care for, but I can’t without the giant’s help. I can barely walk. My leg is hurting so much I’m unable to go out of the cave and get more kindling to start a fire.

  “Please. I don’t want him to die.” The words leave my lips in a desperate plea before I can withhold them.

  “Love him?” Cyclops looks at me in confusion.

  “I love them both,” I freely admit.

  “Bad, bad creature.” Nalos looks sadly down at the chimera. He bites his lip, and it seems to me as though he’s thinking about something, but I can’t make out what. He takes his club and hits one of the pincers—a black liquid oozes from it, and I reach out to touch it, intrigued by the jet colored flow.

  “No, bad, bad, friend sick, bad, bad.” Nalos places his club between me and the flow. He points at the contents of the pincer and then at Apollo. “Bad, sick, friend dead.”

  I desperately try to figure out what he’s saying. The creature attacked Apollo. It created his wounds. I repeat the cyclops words back in my head.

  ‘Bad, sick, friend dead.’

  It’s then that it dawns on me what he’s trying to say.

  “This is poison?”

  He nods.

  “Eva makes sure you clean the wounds out well. They are poisoned.”

  “No good,” Nalos informs me. “Need good.”

  “Is there an antidote? Where is it?”

  Nalos looks toward the lake.

  “Down.” He points to the lake and motions swimming. “Deep leaf.”

  “There is a plant in the lake that will save him?” I ask.

  Nalos nods his agreement.

  I push up to my feet and hobble over to the lake. The water is no longer crystal clear, and I can’t see to the bottom. The blood of the dead leviathan has stained it a muddy green.

  “Eva, keep cleaning Apollo’s wounds. Nalos, please, start
a fire to keep everyone warm.”

  This time the cyclops agrees.

  “I’ll be back as soon as I can?”

  I prepare to dive into the water, hoping my injured leg will allow me to swim. All I can think of is saving Apollo. I have to trust that Nalos is telling me the truth and won’t hurt Eva when I’m gone. Mind you, with her current abilities, her powers are stronger than they’ve ever been, so I think she’ll be safe.

  “Wait.” Eva touches my shoulder. “Let me go. I can swim faster.”

  “No, stay with Apollo. You can protect him better than me from anything else that may appear.”

  “And what if there are other leviathans in the water?”

  I laugh.

  “When has anybody or anything ever out-swum me?”

  “Be careful.” Eva stands on her tiptoes and presses a kiss to my lips.

  “Look after him for us.”

  “I will…” her voice cracks as she speaks.

  I can’t bear to see her cry now, so I turn away and dive straight into lake. I don’t know what is down there, but I have to find the cure to heal Apollo.

  Diving deeper and deeper, I see bits of the dead leviathan floating past me. Little fish swim up to the flesh. A couple take a bite but quickly swim away. It’s hopefully a good sign that there’s nothing else carnivorous in the water. Eventually I reach the bottom of the lake. Just as Nalos said, there is a green plant growing there. I grab a handful of leaves and prepare to go back to the surface when a movement of a larger scale catches my eye. A nest of baby leviathans stare out at me. Their mouths open, squawking for food. My instant thought goes to the sea creature we killed. Was it the mother or the father? I push off the lake bed in a hurry and swim as fast as I can back to the surface. When I get to the top, a fire is already burning. Eva stands over Apollo, her eyes red-rimmed with tears. Nalos is nowhere to be seen.

  I climb out of the lake and hand her the plant. She starts to lay it over his wounds, pushing it into the deep cuts.

  “Where is our new friend?” I ask, standing by the fire to dry myself off. She points to the chimera now missing one of its bear hind legs.

  “He pulled the leg off and mumbled something about ‘more bad, protect friends’. I think he’s standing watch at the mouth of the cave.”

  “I’m glad he’s on our side.”

  “Me too.” Eva finishes placing the leaves on Apollo’s wounds before reaching over to check his pulse. Her face goes white, and she moves to another point. She places her hand over his mouth and turns to me, tears streaming down her face. My world falls apart in that instant for I already know what she’s about to say.

  “We’re too late, Fontus. He’s stopped breathing.”

  A blue glow bathes me—my body feels light as a feather. Awareness seeping in, I find myself hovering in the air. Eva is weeping, tears trailing down her beautiful face, her body bowed in inner pain. Beside her, Fontus falls to his knees, his own eyes glistening as tears break free. He gives a cry of torment.

  Panicked by their distress, I turn my attention to the body beneath me. No heartbeat sounds in its chest. No breath leaves its nose or lips. The pale handsome man has no flicker of life about him. There’s something familiar … his features remind me of somebody, but my fog-filled mind doesn’t recognize who.

  “No.” Eva grasps the dead man’s shoulders. Leaning over him, she kisses his lips with her tear stained mouth. “You can’t leave us. Please, not when we’ve just found you.”

  My lips tingle with sensation. It feels strange.

  Fontus takes the corpse’s hand, kissing it gently before laying it against his cheek. “Come back, please come back.”

  Flexing my hand, I feel the sense of someone’s fingers around mine.

  Confusion thickens inside my skull. Memories fade. What had I been doing? Who are these people, and why am I here? I don’t understand. I needed to do something. It was important.

  Snagging on to that certainty, I tightly keep a hold of it. I need help.

  Before I even realize it, I’m flying fast and high. The world passes around me in a blur of color, sound, and movement. Just as quickly, everything stops. Hovering again, I glance around the room. I’m in a rustic villa. Beyond the window, I can see a sprawling vineyard—the thick green vines are heavy with grapes.

  “You’re going to be the death of me, beauty.”

  The sound of the lust-filled male voice catches my attention. Gliding from the room, I float through the open door, across the hallway, and into a bedroom. A couple are in the middle of fucking on the bed. The man is thrusting hard and fast into the heavily pregnant woman, his backside clenching with each movement.

  The blonde beneath him moans. Her long legs are wrapped around his waist, and her dainty hands claw at his back. “Harder, Mars! Fuck me harder!”

  “We’re going to break the bed again,” he warns, drilling her deeper. “And I don’t want to hurt the baby….”

  “It’s fine, trust me,” she growls, her fingernails drawing blood along his shoulder blades. “If you stop now, I will kill you!”

  Shuddering, he quickens his pace, sending the bedframe rattling. Just as predicted, there’s the sound of cracking as the legs on one side of the bed give out. As the mattress falls downward into a wonky slant, they both start laughing.

  I know this man.

  Mars.

  My brother.

  I’m the god Apollo, and if I’m not mistaken, I’ve just died.

  Fuck.

  Eva and Fontus!

  The thought of them alone on the island in danger tears me apart. I need to find them help. Did our message reach Neptune? My father? Did Pluto intercept it before it could reach them?

  “Mars stop fucking your wife. I need your help!” I shout, but he doesn’t seem to hear me. I roll my eyes. Of course, he can’t talk to the dead. What I need is someone familiar with talking to spirits.

  Gathering my ethereal energy, I center it on where I need to be. Time and space quicken around me in a dazzle of colors. When it finally lulls to a standstill, I’m in a room surrounded by masks with colorful beads adorning the walls. Selene’s apartment in New Orleans is just the same as I left it.

  The oracle herself is seated at a round table, a deck of tarot cards in her experienced hands, and her lips pursed. The tendrils of her deep red hair are tumbling into her eyes, escaping the headband she’s slid on to contain it. Her flowing, blue cotton summer dress clings to her slender body, revealing every enticing curve.

  “Well?” the woman opposite Selene asks, her tone laced in impatience. She is sitting in a chair that is tipped back, so she can rest her legs on the table with her ankles crossed. A top of the range crossbow rests on her lap, and she is dressed in combat pants and a green tank top. With her blonde hair tied up in a bun, and her blue eyes sparkling dangerously my twin sister, Diana, looks extremely annoyed.

  Selene wets her lips nervously with the tip of her tongue. “The cards cannot find what you seek.”

  “Uh huh.” The Goddess of the Hunt caresses her weapon. “Look, you’re the closest thing I have to a celestial blood hound. I felt my brother’s pain through our twin bond, which pisses me off to no end. I need to know where the idiot is, so I can rescue his irritating ass.”

  I make a scoffing sound. She’s the infuriating one, not me, with her obsession for hunting and taking in stray animals including the shifting kind.

  Selene’s brows dip together. “I sense a spirit.”

  “Are you about to get possessed or something?” Diana questions, one fine eyebrow raising. “Just letting you know my trigger finger can get twitchy.”

  “No.” The oracle shakes her head. “I sense … Apollo.”

  “Here? Now?”

  “Yes.”

  My sister swears under her breath eyeing the room. “Why the hell am I not surprised?”

  “Selene, can you hear me?” I ask, ignoring my twin and wishing it had been anyone else but her here in New Orleans.r />
  Placing her fingers to her forehead, the red head closes her eyes. “I think he’s trying to communicate with us.”

  “Well, what is he saying?” Diana snaps, dragging her feet off the table to land on the floor with a thud.

  Selene’s lips turn down in a grimace. “I don’t know.”

  “I thought you were psychic!”

  Eyes snapping open, Selene fixes them on the other woman with a glare. “I’m an oracle, and there’s a huge difference in what I can tap into. I can’t just wiggle my fingers and give you what you want.”

  “Then what use are you to Apollo now?”

  The oracles eye’s flash with a simmering anger. “You’re a goddess, what about your powers, hmm?”

  Sighing, my shoulders slump. Of course, my sister has to rub everyone she meets up the wrong way. Our looks are about all we share in the sibling department.

  I don’t know how long I lay cradled in Fontus’ arms, drifting halfway between awake and crying for the loss of the man lying dead in front of us, but the sun now rises at the mouth of the cave. I thought it was the magic of the island that had given me the feelings of love I’ve developed for him, but it wasn’t. It was my heart, and now it’s broken. We should have left while we had the chance, saved ourselves, and allowed Jupiter and Neptune to come back to the island and destroy Pluto’s plans, but we wanted to be heroes, and now we’ve lost the man who completes us.

  Fontus strokes absentmindedly at the top of my head. I don’t think he’s slept much at all. He just sits staring at Apollo’s body. His eyes are red rimmed from where he’s been crying, immersed in his own feelings of loss.

  “We should get moving. Nalos seems to think there are other chimera around here. Pluto must have created them to stop his prisoners wandering. They’ll have discovered that we’re missing by now and will be looking for us,” Fontus speaks, but I sense no urgency from him to actually get going. If we could stay hidden away here in this cave forever, I think both of us would.