Chapter Seven

I woke up with a creepy goddess staring at my face (don't tell her I said that). Most of the coldness had gone away from me and though I was still holding the scythes, I simply felt a little chilly. The only reason I could tell she was a goddess, was because she radiated power and she was dressed as one.

Long black hair flew down to her elbows and I couldn't tell if her pinwheel eyes were amber, green, or blue. A long, decorated chiton was layered on top of her pale skin.

"It's swell that those nuisance of boys didn't come. I wasn't sure what I'd do with them if you arrived with them tagging along…" she sighed dramatically, then smiled. "Oh, of course… I must introduce myself," she said coldly, giving me a smile that sent shivers down my spine, "My name is Khione, the goddess of snow." to prove her point, she waved her hand, making snow swirl in the air.

It took me a moment to find the words.

"So… You're basically like Elsa, just immortal? And with black hair?" I reached out and took a strand of her hair, tugging it slightly.

She wouldn't kill me, right?

Khione growled and glared at me.

"It's too bad that I'm saving you for someone else…" her eyes glided over my scythes and she smiled and began to talk again. "I see you've gotten my weapons! Aw… You're just meant for them!" she patted my cheek and I flinched at the coldness.

"Where are my friends?" I demanded, stumbling to stand up and dropping my duffle bag in the process. Whatever. Who needed that?

"That… That is none of your concern. You are here simply to be my servant. Or ice sculpture. You'd be great as both. How about you choose? And in the end I'll hand you over to Loki! So win-win!" she grinned, flipping her hair annoyingly.

Anger coursed through me, making the air crackle with electricity. The entrance to the tunnel was right behind her, so I figured, why not try and get past her?

"But of course, you, being dense, wouldn't even be able to dust something! I'm not sure why he wants you…"

Loki? I couldn't let this happen…

"What did you do with my friends?" I growled, taking a step toward her.

"I've done nothing, relax." she picked her nails, making me incredibly frustrated.

Suddenly, all of my anger and frustration bubbled inside of me, making the air become toxic.

Khione coughed, waving the air around her, "What are you doing? No little Zeus tricks in my home!"

Harnessing all of the electricity I could, everything burst at once, singeing both Khione and I. It became a whirlwind of lightning and snow from her.

"You really think you can escape?" Khione cackled, carelessly holding her hands out.

My eyes burned as I used my power, but I pressured myself to continue, watching as her pretty black hair and chiton began to crumble from the force of power.

"You think you're more powerful than me?" she attempted to growl, but she sounded slightly out of breath, a bead of frozen sweat slipping down her face and shattering on the ground.

I didn't answer for fear that I would lose all the momentum I'd built up. At one moment, the room blasted through with a bright flash; something that was so bright, that it could probably momentarily blind anyone.

My vision darkened for a moment and as I looked around, I noticed everything was black and falling apart in her pretty home. Voices came from outside and taking one look at the goddesses' singed and gasping body, I decided to make a run for it. Quickly, I dropped my scythes and hoped they wouldn't come after me. As soon as I took a step forward, however, my vision darkened again.

This was going to be tough…

Gritting my teeth because my body felt like it was on fire, I weakly made a run for it, feeling like I was running through darkness because I could barely see anything. Just the blur of walls passing me.

Yelling came from behind me, but I harnessed the rest of my powers so I could run faster, using something I had never used before and something I didn't know existed: superspeed. It lasted for about ten seconds and by the time I'd stopped, my feet were burning like I'd stepped on hot coals.

I was worn to the bone and gasping for air at that point, resisting crumpling on the floor. Everything looked blurry but I was able to see enough in the darkness that my arms were stained red. I was sure the rest of me was too. I could still feel like something was hitting me hard. It took me a moment to see the glint of ice buried deep across my legs. Gods… Khione had thrown ice shards at me…

My weak hands flew to my face and I pulled the shards I could feel out, feeling fresh blood drip down my face. Trying to find where I was, I concentrated my powers for a moment to create a flash of light. Unfortunately, my eyesight was still too blurry to see anything. Slowly, I crumpled against a wall and put my hands to my face, blankly staring into the darkness.

…

The next moment I was able to regain consciousness, feeling a little better and finding Peter and Paxton holding me up, I was attacked by the same freaking goddess.

Welcome to the life of a demigod. When you finally wake up and think, wow, I'm finally out of that, I must be safe, a whole new danger just hits you right in the face.

When Khione lunged, I forced myself out of the boy's hands, ignoring the aching around me and stood in front of them, diving onto the goddess myself and letting my body heat with light, making her screech and sending us wrestling all over the floor.

This was my fight, not theirs, and I couldn't put them in danger because some stupid goddess who wanted to kill me.

"Don't use your little light tricks on me, little girl." she spat, her arm swinging to punch my face.

I avoided it. She wouldn't be able to kill me; if she did, she'd have to face the wrath of Loki. It didn't mean she couldn't hurt me though. I was anchoring all my powers to the ground, so when I felt her try to teleport with me away, we stayed in the same spot, our forms flickering a little.

"Don't use your little light tricks on me, little girl," I imitated, making my voice much higher, "Screw my 'little light' tricks. How about a big light trick, meant for a big girl."

I focused my draining energy on lightning, searing her and giving her a new scar from the bolt that hit her on the middle of her forehead. Her brain would be the best way to shock her.

"Hey lookit you, you might be the next Harry Potter." her fist connected with my jaw and I spat out blood, feeling like my tongue was swollen.

I swung my arm around, only to get my bicep pummeled by a dagger. I gritted my teeth and my eyes narrowed.

"How would you feel about losing an arm, maybe a leg too? Seems only fair seeing what you've done to my home!" she hissed, flicking her knife around my head. Luckily, I dodged it just barely.

"How about no. I kind of like my arms and legs, thanks," I slipped my hand into a hole in my pant leg, pulling out the dagger that was strapped to my leg, "Besides, how would I fight with no limbs?"

"You won't." Khione screeched and was about to shove her dagnabbit dagger into my chest when Peter decided to intervene.

I felt the word 'stop' bubbling in my throat, but I knew without his help, I'd probably die anyway.

"You little-" he let out a string of Greek curses to Khione, some that I hadn't heard and that I quickly noted down for future references.

Khione quickly knocked him down and I did my best to scramble up and kick her square into the chest, sending pain up my leg. I ignored it and slammed my dagger as hard as I could into the shoulder of her dress, shoving the blade into the concrete as best I could before I zapped her again, making sure she would be busy for a while.

"Now would be a helpful time for some fire, Paxton, or for Peter to teleport us out of here." I grumbled, taking a piece of ambrosia that Peter held out and shoving it into my mouth, happy to feel my jaw go back to normal, though I was sure it was bruised a little.

"Monstrous little demigod children! JUST WAIT UNTIL LO-" I shut her up, slamming my foot into her jaw and watching in joy as she sputtered.

"Oh, gods, it felt good to shut her up."

"I'm sure it did. Now, can we find a way to get out of here?" Paxton asked, pulling up Peter.

"Once again Hot Guy -and don't think I mean it that way- you're the one with fire powers in an ice enclosed space."

He rubbed his temples, looking annoyed, "As I've said once today, unless you want the room to explode and to become a scorched body, it's best I don't."

"Okay, Fifi. Peter, think you can teleport us out?"

"Uh… Yeah, but I might be unconscious when we get out. I mean, if you want to deal with that." he responded, shrugging.

"Okay, so not an option. Can't have you getting hurt at all," I glanced up at the ceiling of the tunnel, "You guys don't happen to have some friend who happens to know how to get through rock that you can summon, do you?"

The goddess growled from her spot, struggling against the knife and beginning to freeze it so she could fix it.

"Oh for the love of celestial bronze…" I muttered, sighing, "Alright. Whatever works, works. We just need to get out of here before Psycho here kills you two and brings me to her boss," I blabbered -since when was I talkative?- on, "I'll fill you guys in later."

"So assuming you're up to it, couldn't we all just teleport ourselves out of here? Seeing as how we can all do that." Paxton said, stating the obvious.

Oh, yeah. I'd forgotten about that.

"Mhm… Yep, that'd work. See you guys then." I nodded and glared once at Khione before I concentrated the rest of my limited power on teleporting out of the cave.

The wind swirled around my head as I appeared in the alley, leaving me to breathe hard for a moment, laying down on the pavement and shutting my eyes.

When I heard two noises, I sat up, to find Peter passed out on the ground and Paxton teleported just soon after, glancing at us both.

"What'd you do?" I asked, studying his expression and swearing I saw a small bit of mischief glint in his green eyes.

He shrugged and a small smile came across his face, "Just set a little fire before I left, nothing too serious."

"Nice." I stood up to give him a high-five.

He gave me one and then sat against a wall. "Now what?"

"Uh… Now we catch our breath and then… Maybe just start looking again?"

"Do we even know what we're looking for? It kind of seems like we're just on a wild goose chase." he raised an eyebrow.

"I do. Not sure what it's called- But I-" I sorta froze, not prepared to talk about what had happened all those years ago, "I've had experiences with it. I can sense when it's near." I prayed to the gods that he wouldn't ask about it.

"Okay, care to describe it? Or does it bring back bad memories?" he asked, making me wince.

I had to get away from those thoughts for a while and the only logical way would probably be to tell someone. Unfortunately for Paxton, he got to be the unlucky guy.

"Well… I think I have enough time to simply show you. Seeing how Peter's passed out. But you have to promise not to tell anyone how you saw this."

Alright… Well, here came the time where I'd get to show him a little secret power of mine. Courtesies of one of my dads, Poseidon. He'd given me this power specifically I guess, just to make the fates happy. I guess they thought it would come in handy one day.

"Sure, why not? How are you going to do that though?" he asked.

I didn't answer, just grabbed him by the arm and traveled to the first puddle I could find.

"It's not completely clear, so the vision will be a little blurry…" I muttered, then concentrated on it, thinking of my memories until I felt like warm water was entering my brain.

Pulling Paxton in along with me to the memories, I warned him, "This is disturbing and we're going to look like we've passed out in real life. Be warned."

We were brought into the memory of when I was almost four, and I stammered to the monster as it closed in on me.

"MOM!" my little voice screamed and it was obvious it was me, with the hair and eyes, even though I was clutching a doll.

"Listen- People outside- Go-" a monster circled her and her eyes went blank when it sucked in a deep breath. Suddenly, it ripped her to pieces spreading it across the room and causing my torso to be splattered with my mother's blood.

"G-Go away! I-I don't l-like m-meanies!" I stammered, hurrying back as the thing turned on me.

Horror struck my young eyes as I looked around, looking at the torn pieces of my mother's dead body.

I closed my eyes and suddenly, all the outlets in the room burst into flames, electricity making them bigger and putting the whole house on fire. The creature screeched and disappeared into thin air as my doll caught on fire, making wails come out of my mouth. A darkened figure wrapped it's hands around me and I disappeared.

The flames engulfed Paxton and I from our watching spot and we appeared on the sidewalk again, above the puddle and me shaking.

"W-Well… That's it," I muttered. "Hope you've enjoyed the ride and please don't come again." I joked, trying to lighten the thick air before I dragged him back to the unconscious Peter.

Of course, my automatic assumption was that Peter was unconscious. Turns out, he wasn't. And he was really panicked that we'd just disappeared…

As we neared the alley, he ran to me and grabbed my shoulders, slightly shaking them saying, "Where have you been?! I've been alone here for, like, an hour!"

I was going to say something back, but Paxton beat me to it, his voice loud and his eyes glaring, "And are you dead? No, so stop freaking out like the world is ending and let's get on with this quest."

Peter stepped away from me and Paxton stepped back, leaning on the brick wall and looking dazed.

I raised my eyebrows, shook my head because of the weakness I felt, then clapped my hands together to get their attention, "Well, obviously, Parker is done with people, and so am I right now actually, so Peter, - sweet unsuspecting Peter -, would you let us pass out without making a fuss?" I requested/commanded, my eyes begging him to allow me to do so because I knew my legs would give out any moment anyway.

Peter nodded slowly and he jumped to grab me as I fell forward, falling asleep in merely a couple seconds (I really had no energy left).