Page 105 of Poseidon's Trident
“Beth…”
“No, Jayden. I have to do this.” I pull away from him and call my sword.
This bitch thinks she can fuck with me? I’ll prove to her why you don’t fuck with the daughter of Zeus. I grip my sword in my hand as I stalk to my friends. They all appear to be exhausted but uninjured. Echidna has taken most of the damage. Several of Adrian’s arrows are lodged in various places in her body.
One of the snake heads on her feet is gone completely and I grin. My friends are formidable in their own right, even if they’re exhausted right now.
I step around Echidna with my sword in hand. She screams in fury as she sees me alive and well. She turns to the decapitated hydra and back to me, eyes blazing with fury.
“Mother will not be merciful now that you killed my brother.”
Thad steps forward. “Ceto has always been neutral. It’s how she and Pontius kept their positions within the sea. You think she will go against Zeus now when it doesn’t suit her?”
“She cares not for Zeus or the mutts you call demigods. Only for terrorizing the sea and her children,” Echidna roars.
“You really think she cares? She only cares about maintaining her power or she would have stood with the Titans when the Titan war happened.” Thad crosses his arms.
“Enough talk. We need to fucking get out of here,” I shout.
All the attention turns to me and I grimace. Yeah, I shouted but everyone’s eyes are wide as they stare at me.
“What’s going on?” I ask, turning to Jayden.
“You’re glowing. Like a goddess.”
“Fuck. No. How do I turn it off?” I panic but it somehow brightens.
I hold out a hand instinctively and a lightning bolt sails from me into Echidna’s broad chest. The mother of all monsters sails back into the far wall and chains wrap around her, glowing gold and white-hot.
“You will never escape my prison,” I yell.
Was that my voice? It sounds off and full of power I shouldn’t be able to contain. What the fuck is happening to me? I turn to Jayden with wide panicked eyes as Echidna screams. The chains fasten to the wall but her screams rock the foundation of the cave. I stumble into Jayden and my shoulders slump with exhaustion.
“What the fuck was that, Beth?” Jayden wraps his arms around me and picks me up as we flee the crumbling cave.
I don’t have a clue what that was and as I peer down at my hands and arms, the glowing fades until my skin is back to normal.
Surely I imagined the glow, right? I can’t be changing into a goddess. I just can’t.
We reach the others and Jayden is still carrying me, my energy sapping from my body. I’m still not sure how I used that much power. Did I really just chain Echidna to a wall? How is that even possible?
I bat at Jayden’s arms. If I’m some kind of goddess now, I can’t appear weak. Reluctantly, he lets me down just as the ceiling is about to cave in over Raven. I lunge for my friend and push her aside but I’m too slow to help myself as a pile of rocks lands on top of me, throwing everything into darkness.
What in the actual fuck have I gotten myself into now?
25
Darkness is everywhere as I take in my surroundings. A group of boulders creates a dome over my head but the water leaks between the cracks.
“Beth?” Jayden’s terrified voice meets my ears. “Are you okay?”
“I’m not injured but I’m trapped under a dome of rocks,” I call back.
“Thad, can you get her out?” Jayden asks and I smile.
He’s finally trusting a demigod that he didn’t like for so long. It’s progress, or maybe his need to keep me safe overrides his distrust of Thad. Either way, I’ll take it as a win.
“I can’t move the earth, only reform it with my earth shaker abilities,” he says sadly.
