Page 29 of Zeus' Spark
A girl with emerald-green hair and light-green skin waves her hands around frantically. I recognize her as one of the dryads who live in the forest.
“Help. Please, help. Save my tree. They blew up my tree,” she wails.
“Did you see who did it?” I stop in front of the dryad, but she shakes her head frantically. “We will do everything we can, okay? Go help bring water to stop the fire from spreading.”
The dryad runs toward the lake, and I turn, making my way to where Jayden and Raven are.
“Where are the naiads? Do you think they will help?” I ask Jayden over the roar of fire and the yelling of the other students.
He stares at the chaos and shrugs. “Doubtful. They don’t really ever leave the lake and aren’t particularly fond of the dryads.”
Helplessness washes through me and a weighted ball lodges in my gut. I turn to run to the lake to see if I can convince the naiads to help when Jayden touches my arm, pulling my attention back to him.
“Beth, can you change the weather like you did before?” Jayden says.
My magic responds immediately and buzzes beneath my skin. “I don’t think I can call rain. Only lightning, and that’s not going to help us in this situation.”
Raven jogs up, pointing at the other side of the clearing where a huge sphynx stands ready and waiting to pounce. “It could help us with that.”
I throw my hands in the air, eyeing the sphynx. “What is with all the fucking lions’ bodies?”
It has the head of a woman with sharp teeth, wings of an eagle, and the body of another damn lion.
“What the fuck is she doing?” Jayden jogs over to the sphynx where Mia is headed.
She’s carrying a sword clumsily toward the creature.
“Fucking dumbass is about to get herself killed,” I grumble, and Raven and I rush after Jayden.
The sphynx stares me down with eerie yellow eyes. “No riddles for you, daughter of Zeus. Someone wants you very, very dead.”
I smirk. “Yeah, well, we can’t always get what we want.”
Mia bellows in rage, striking out clumsily, and a huge lion’s paw swipes out. The sphinx hits her in the chest and sends her flying into a tree ten feet away.
Jayden flinches. “Ouch. I know how that feels.”
I scan the area, knowing I can’t take Mia out of here, and the other two won’t leave me to fight the beast alone. I spot Dax with a bucket on each shoulder running to the fire.
“Dax. Get Mia,” I yell.
The man looks in our direction and grimaces at the lump of idiot next to the tree.
“Give me a minute.” Dax runs over and hands the huge buckets to an Apollo kid who nearly drops them before sprinting over to the tree and scooping up Mia.
The tail of the lion swishes, nearly taking him out.
“C’mon, bitch. It’s me you want,” I yell at the sphynx as we circle it.
“Beth, what the fuck are you doing?” Jayden hisses, trying to step in front of me, but I sidestep him.
I roll my eyes, widening my stance. “I’m giving Dax time to get her out of here.”
Jayden throws his hands up in the air. “Stop drawing attention to yourself.”
The sphynx growls and swishes her tail in our direction.
“Jayden, watch out.” I push him to the side before ducking underneath the tail, just barely missing it.
