Page 104 of Poseidon's Trident
“You’re not fine.” Jayden glares at me.
Two of the hydra heads lunge for us and we dive away from each other. I bring my sword up in a wide arc and take the head off the one closest to me with a yell of fury.
“Jayden. Hellfire,” I shout, but Jayden is still dodging the other head.
I jump up from the wet cave floor and call on my whip midair. My magic sizzles through it as it wraps around the hydra neck. The skin of the neck sizzles and burns but it’s not fast enough. I’m weightless as I fall back to the ground and I only have seconds to pull my magic back before I get electrocuted from the water at my feet.
“Jayden. It’s growing back. Hurry,” I scream.
My electricity isn’t doing the trick fast enough and I’m going to hit the water at any second. If I don’t want to electrocute every single person in the water, I have to let go but Jayden is still fighting off the other head with his hellfire.
Two necks split off from where my whip is frying the neck. Somehow, it’s not on the ground in the water yet. I rock my body through the air trying desperately to gain some momentum as the ground rumbles and a stalagmite rises from the ground beneath me. What the fuck? I turn and Thad smirks as he sprays Echidna with a stream of water.
How did he do that? I nod my thanks and steady myself on the rock as two heads sprout from the neck I just severed. “Fuck.”
At least from my spot on the rock formation there’s no chance of me electrocuting everyone unless they can’t keep Echidna distracted. The newly formed hydra heads snap at me in unison and I duck below them. The heads smack into each other, dazing them both.
“Beth,” Jayden screams.
He’s finally defeated the head but quickly gains the interest of one of the newly formed heads and dodges it and one of the others. We’re back down to four with the one he destroyed but the hydra’s body is slower to move, dragging for necks behind it.
Two heads lunge at me from my place on top of the rock formation and I light up my sword with electricity as they shake the dizziness away from the headbutt they both just suffered.
I swing my blade in a circle to get both of them, but one head tears back at the last second. My blade sizzles with electricity as it slices through the other one and cauterizes the neck immediately, sending both the head and the neck crashing to the ground and shaking the cave. I stumble but barely catch myself before falling to my doom.
I glance at the ground where Jayden shoots his hellfire chains at the other head. We are down to two and I sigh with relief before fangs snap on my leg and I cry out in agony.
Fuck. That thing got me. I swing my blade again and take the head from its neck but tumble off the stalagmite to the shallow water below. My sword slips from my hand and I let it because there’s no way I can control the power with the poison of the hydra’s bite flooding my system.
“Thad,” Raven bellows from somewhere far off.
I can’t see anything with the black spots tinting my vision. My stomach jolts as I hit something hard and cry out as freezing water meets my back. I’m brought slowly to the ground and Jayden’s black eyes fill what’s left of my vision.
“Jayden, did we get it?” I mumble.
He pulls my pack off his shoulder and grabs for the vial of red liquid, but I bat his hand away. “Can’t too much.”
“You’ve been burned and poisoned, Beth. Take the fucking elixir,” Jayden says.
He doesn’t give me an option as he shoves the dropper in my mouth and squeezes it. Ambrosia fills my mouth way more than is safe for a demigod and I try to spit it back out but he covers my mouth with one hand. I have no choice but to let it dissolve on my tongue. Did he just damn me to a lifetime addiction to this substance?
The black spots fade from my vision as tingles race down my arms where I was burned and scratched by the hydra. I blink as Jayden’s face comes into full view and glance at his hands. Golden ichor coats his skin where his hand clamps on my leg. Did I turn into a god? Why did my blood turn that color? Is that even my blood?
“Jayden, what is that?” I ask.
“You’re turning into a goddess, I think, Beth. That’s your blood.” Jayden hangs his head.
“No, that’s not possible.” But even as the words come out of my mouth, there’s a finality deep in my soul that says he’s right.
I’m gods touched and now I’m becoming one of them. Will this be my friends’ fate too? My leg stitches itself back together, my healing much quicker than before, and I bat Jayden away, needing to stand and end this fucking fight with Echidna. Raven and our friends are holding their own, but we need to hurry the fuck up and get out of here.
“Let’s end this,” I growl but Jayden grips my side.
“You’re injured, baby. You need to sit this one out.” Jayden shakes his head.
“I’m fine. The elixir healed me.” I roll my shoulders back.
There’s no pain from the burn or the scrape anymore.
