Page 68 of Poseidon's Trident
“She can’t.” Raven turns her gaze on me. “So, this means we have to watch our backs double time.”
“How the hell do you bring a constellation from the sky back into existence and why did it burst into ash again once it died like the rest of the monsters that were brought back?” I lean my head against Jayden’s shoulder but suck in a sharp breath when my back and shoulder sting.
“Stop that,” Jayden hisses in my ear. “You’re hurting yourself.”
“I’m not trying to but we already had it bad enough without her gunning for us too. Is this part of her own scheme to punish Zeus and get rid of me since she knows that I’m important to my father? I don’t know that we can handle her bullshit along with finding Poseidon’s trident and stopping whoever is trying to take down the gods.”
“We’ll figure it out, but we have to make sure you’re healed first.” Jayden grips my good hand in his.
I nod because it’s the only thing I can do without hurting myself further. Jayden is keeping me at arm’s length so I don’t bump my shredded back to his chest. My skin tingles at my back with healing energy and I glance over my shoulder to Adrian with a frown. He’s getting a lot better in his healing abilities.
“Are you healing me without touching me?” I ask.
“What?” Adrian asks and shakes his head. “I’m not healing anyone.”
I pull at the shirt covering my shredded back. It needs to come off. What the fuck is going on with my back? Tingles race down my back. The skin knits itself back together as we race through the ocean on the back of a giant sea serpent. How did my life become like this?
“What are you doing?” Jayden asks. “You can’t take that off.”
“It hurts,” I cry.
It doesn’t exactly hurt but it does itch like crazy. What the fuck is happening to me? My back arches as the tingles become more and more painful.
“Thad, can we get to shore any faster? Something is going on with Beth,” Greyson calls but he sounds like he’s underwater.
Are we underwater? How the fuck did that happen? There’s no icy chill of the Pacific Ocean and as I glance around, everyone appears to be dry. The sun is shining over our heads. How is that possible when everything sounds so garbled?
“What’s happening?” I slump forward and the tingles in my back erupt more forcefully.
Thad turns from his spot in front of Greyson and his eyes widen. I glance down at my injured shoulder and shimmering gold blood pours from the wound.
“What the fuck?” Greyson says as he places a hand on my shoulder to staunch the flow.
“No, don’t touch,” I groan, attempting to bat his hand away with my good hand.
Jayden pulls up the back of my shirt and gasps. “You’re healing but everything on your back is shimmering gold as it does. That didn’t happen when my wounds healed.”
“I don’t know what’s happening. I got hit full force with Cancer’s blood.” I shake my head.
“It’s going to be okay.” Jayden flexes his fingers on my stomach since it’s really the only place he can touch me without hurting me. “You were already gods touched, so maybe defeating Cancer just sped up the process.”
“I’m bleeding ichor, Jayden. I would say the process is pretty close to complete.”
What the fuck is going on here and if I’m gods touched and have ichor running through my veins now, then why the fuck am I not healed already?
“Easy,” Jayden says. “We’ll figure this out.”
He strokes my stomach with soothing fingers. They are all staring at me like I’ve grown a second head. What the fuck am I? What am I going to do now? Am I even still a demigod or am I something else entirely? For the first time since I became a demigod and started these crazy missions, I wish Artemis was here.
“I need Artemis,” I breathe.
My whole body is shutting down and I can barely think straight. Convulsions rack my body as I slump forward into Greyson. His eyes are wide as I glance up at him.
“We’re almost there, Beth. You gotta hold on for a while longer.” He grips my arms to hold me up. “You look like you’re healing quickly.”
“No, this doesn’t feel like I’m healing. It feels like I’m dying.”
“You’re not fucking dying,” Jayden growls. “Remember what I told you?”
