Page 49 of The Shadow Gods

The god lifted one foot from the water, stepped over the lip of the fountain, and stood on the stone piazza. “Medusa, you have proven a difficult fish to catch.”

A shadow suddenly stood between us as Pollux moved in front of me. Poseidon's gaze tripped to him, and he smiled. “Nephew.”

Pollux didn't answer, but he seemed to grow larger and broader in front of me.

My stomach clenched and my throat tightened. I wanted to scream and fight and cry all at the same time. This...this...assholehad stolen from me. He'd taken my sense of self, my safety, my purpose, my body. All because he’d wanted something that wasn't his. I wasn't his.

I wasn't a fish in his sea or notch in his belt. I was an unwilling woman he'd stolen from.

And. I.

Was.

Pissed.

Rage flooded my body, heating me from the inside out. My skin went hot and tight, like I was standing at the mouth of a volcano, absorbing the fire.

The thing inside me—the twisting, turning otherness that had hovered at the edge of my consciousness—cracked through its shell to revel in the flames of my fury.

A voice I didn't recognize as mine pushed past my vocal folds as I touched Pollux on the back. “Close your eyes.”

Hissing filled my ears, but so did the laughter of the god.

But he didn't know, not really, what Athena had made me. Pollux didn't hesitate. He shut his eyes tight and spun away from the god.

I wasn't a fragile flower or a delicate, finned creature who glided through the clear blue waves.

I wasn't helpless. Poseidon had tried to break me, and then Athena had reshaped me into something she thought was a punishment.

But it wasn't.

She'd made me graceful and powerful and venomous.

I didn't need protection from this god. Poseidon needed protection from me.

Whispers filled the air as the ghosts of my serpents surrounded me. I grew, changing from the woman I was to the one who wasother.

Poseidon's face changed. Those blue eyes went wide before he tried to hide it.

“Look at me,” I said. The voice still wasn't mine, but I knew who it belonged to.

Medusa.

Poseidon shook his head as if he had the power to stop me.

“Leo!” Hector.

“Shut your eyes!” Pollux screamed.

Poseidon wanted to look away.Don't.I sent the desire into the universe.Watch.He wasn't allowed to close his eyes or look away. This was the punishment for his crime.

The change began slowly. Poseidon's golden skin hardened, grayed, and cracked.

But he wasn't some half-mortal hero, seeking his glory. Poseidon was a god. He had created plains of existence and shaped nothingness into a new world.

Like a wave covering the sand, his skin went from gray back to gold. His blue eyes blazed. “Pathetic.” But his hands fisted, as if assuring himself he wasn't stone, and right then I knew—I scared him.

I had never been pathetic. Pathetic was beating a woman because she refused to give in. It was breaking your toys because you could.

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