My Evil Eye, page 21
Cora leaves the room as though she’s going alone.
No way. I follow right behind her.
Back in the living room, one of the guys in surgical gowns walks up to her. He has blood all over his blue gown.
“The man is prepped but the woman has a lot of metal lodged around the heart,” he says. “We’ve done all we could, but we stopped at the heart. There’s too much damage. If that heart becomes whole with all that debris, it’s unlikely she’ll survive.”
“You should have removed it then,” Cora says. “It will have to be completely regenerated. Show me where most of the metal is, we’re running out of time.”
The surgeon walks over to the table and points at Grace’s pale, naked chest. I jump as Cora thrusts her hand through Grace’s ribs and digs inside her thorax. Blood sprays and pools around her chest. Cora digs and digs, with her head turned away, yanking out pieces of bloody flesh, seemingly randomly. Then she pulls out her bloodied hand and points at Grace’s head.
“The bullet went through?” Cora asks, shaking pieces of her best friend’s heart from her fingers. “Nothing else needs to be removed?”
Cora acts tough but I’ve never seen her fair skin so pale before. And she stumbles a little as she walks closer to Gabe. I feel sick too.
The surgeon shakes his head.
“Clear the room,” Cora says to all of them. “Everyone except Gorgi and Hashan. The rest of you, get out.”
All the soldiers and doctors leave.
Cora lays a hand on Ash’s chest. I snatch her wrist.
“No, Cora, do Grace first. Please.”
“You know I came to you in Sarpedon. When I heard the tale of what my family had done to you,” Cora says. “I felt I owed you. Now I owe you again. I got us into this mess. This young kid should never have been hurt.” I’m about to speak, but she puts a hand up. “Look, Gorgi, Ash has a knife wound to the neck. He stands the best chance of awakening.”
I shake my head again, but Cora yanks her wrist from my grasp. She stands over Ash. She wipes her bloodied hand over the white sheets, then she places it over Ash’s neck. She takes a deep breath and closes her eyes.
Then she cries out in pain.
It’s so hard for me to watch her suffer. I know, you think I’m this terrible monster, right? You’re remembering me going on a rampage at Dellon’s lair and wondering why I’m suddenly so sensitive. It’s because I was Medusa then. Now I’m Gorgiana. And Cora is writhing in so much pain. God, it’s terrible! Even if her pain were the only reason for her hesitation, I’d believe she had every right to fear it as I watch her thrash up and down, struggling to breathe, over Ash’s body.
She lets go of him and clutches her own neck. I grab her hand from her neck, and I hold it in mine. She squeezes my fingers so tightly I think she’ll break my bones. I think if I were human, she would have.
Then I watch the miracle unfold. Her other hand, still touching Ash’s neck, closes and seals the cut, as if it were never there. The bullet wounds close too. But as the wounds close, Cora collapses over Ash.
“Cora?” I shake her. “Cora.”
Ash’s eyelids flicker!
But in the midst of my joy, my snakes smell something stinky, but familiar. It’s not just the putrid smell of blood; it’s something else. Something I loathe. It’s like this old grandma smell…
29
THE PROTECTOR
As Cora sleeps and all is quiet, I hear a gunshot. Then another. Then an explosion. These aren’t far off; they’re right out the window. People are shouting outside. But, in the midst of yells, I hear Gabe’s voice. My ears perk up. “Stay away from her! Stay away!”
A little girl screams. It’s Moros! There’s an explosion so close that it shakes the house and rattles the windows. To my left, I see smoke rising from nearby trees, darker than the surrounding gray fog. A guard that was outside patrolling the deck brandishes his automatic rifle and jumps over the rail, down the hill, into the trees.
“Momma! Momma!” Moros cries.
“Cora!” I say, yanking at her, but she’s unconscious lying over Ash’s body. “Cora! Wake up! It’s Moros!”
I run. Just when I see Ash’s arm move in my periphery—a glorious movement I would have given anything in the world to watch a moment ago—I ignore it and run up the double stairs and down the hallway, following the little girl’s screams. I think they’re still in the kitchen.
I must be too late. There’s no way Athena hasn’t killed them. But how is Athena even here? Maybe my nose is wrong. Maybe it’s someone else. Perhaps the scent is a memory of fear or some other old lady. Perhaps Imada is here, and only humans are threatening Cora’s family?
“Daddy! No! Daddy!”
I hear something crash against a wall. Then the sound of wood cracking. Glass shatters.
I’m near the kitchen. My cobras are searching in all directions. My green eyes are shining over the walls. The light travels through a window and bounces back, reflected on the outdoor fog and smoke. I’m clenching my fists. One more turn toward the dining room and—
“No!”
Athena is standing in front of a couch holding Moros’s little body over her head. Gabe’s body is lying motionless under a glass window. Dead? I don’t know. Moros is screaming and jerking in Minerva’s grasp. The goddess props her knee against the sofa. I think she intends to break the girl in half.
The witch turns and looks at me. So does Moros. For a moment, the little girl grows a smile on her face as she gazes upon me. This is super strange because I am in full-on Medusa mode, wrinkled and crouched over with fangs and slithering, hissing snakes on my head. And at the sight of Athena, even stranger, my monster trembles.
Athena squints at me and then the bitch smiles.
I shake my head.
No!
Athena opens her eyes wide and screams. Her blue eyes rapidly turn red and shine on one of her sandals. Her foot is bleeding; a shiny red kitchen knife has punctured it.
This is my chance. I leap with all my might, the greatest long jump ever attempted, one that might even put good ole Jesse Owens to shame. I grab Moros midair, curling the girl into my body like a pill bug. Then I crash into the wall across the room with her safe in my arms. Looking back—no, smelling back—I’m aware of Minerva crouching over her foot, yanking the knife out and hopping up and down on her other leg. I’m holding Moros against the wall, shielding her with my body. Gabriel wisely made a run for it after stabbing Athena. Now he’s on our side of the room. He runs to Moros and scoops her in his arms. But our victory is short lived. Athena will nurse her wounds for only so long.
Athena spins around and scowls at, not me but Gabriel. I suppose she hates him even more than me right now. Of course, there’s no choice but to fight. But I’ve been in this position many times before. I have no chance against her.
“Leave them alone!” I shout, standing in front of them. My voice, always perversely sweet and Gorgiana, even when I’ve turned to Medusa, somehow sounds a little menacing for the first time before the goddess.
“You protect nymphs like Kore? Persephone’s always made friends with strange things. Nymphs. Vermin. Now snakes like you.” She looks down again at her foot. She shakes it and closes her eyes. “A nymph cuts me again. But you, nymph-man, shall be the last one. I promise you that.”
I’m breathing heavily. Staring. Sniffing. Panting. Waiting. I don’t dare let down my guard, even for a second. All my attention is focused on protecting them. But that leap I did for sweet Moros is nothing compared to what this goddess is capable of doing.
“How did you even get here?” I ask.
“I hitched a ride on your plane,” Athena says. “You do recall I can change into an owl? But listen.” She pauses and turns her head, smiling. The sound of gunfire and explosions is everywhere. “Hear that? That’s Imada. I was ready for your capture to fail, Medusa. I hoped you and Cora’s friend would die if it did, because that left these two vulnerable. You see, now there’s no one to protect Cora’s family. Only a confused ugly gorgon.”
I growl at her. My ancient fear is gone because, at this moment, little Moros is shaking and clutching at my leg. Athena laughs. I want to tear the bitch’s lips right off!
I charge, hurdling over the sofa, throwing my body at her. My snakes bite. My sharp claws hack.
I’m hurled back across the room, crashing through another glass wall! And it…really…fucking hurts! Why am I always going through windows?
I clutch my head. Then my body. I’m on Cora’s upper wooden deck. My wigglies are licking my wounds. That wall didn’t feel like glass. Shit, it felt like a brick wall.
Someone screams. I whirl around and look inside the house. That bitch is grabbing Moros by her long hair!
I rush through the glass wall and grab Athena’s arm, but it’s like when I held her knife away from stabbing Ash. Even leaning with my whole body, I can’t move her arm. She flicks me off like a bug, and I slide across the carpet, knocking down a lamp and crashing into the wall.
Then there are gunshots, but they’re not outside. Things are exploding inside the room. A lamp bursts into pieces. More windows are blown open.
Two soldiers in green run through the hole my body made through the window. They fire on Athena with machine guns. The goddess takes, like, a whole round of bullets. Somehow, she still manages to rush a soldier through the gunfire, bash his body against the wall, and then fight off another.
She leaps after Moros again! She raises her hand to strike the child. One strike could kill her. I rush to her, but before I reach her, Athena is tackled by a figure moving at incredible speed. She’s knocked down and slides against a wall. Then the assailant, in a green uniform, flicks his wrist in her direction and her body is again tossed against the wall by some invisible force.
Athena rises in a fighting stance. She lunges at him. They fight so fast it’s hard to track, even for my A+ predator eyes. But I can smell the attacker. I’d know that smelly smell anywhere. It’s Hades.
I run to Moros and Gabe again, but they’re fine now. Cora has her arms around Moros. Gabriel is hugging both of them. Athena might have planned the perfect attack, but it had one flaw—time. Apparently, my hopeless battle with her wasn’t for nothing.
I hear dishes break as the two gods start smashing everything around them in the adjoining kitchen.
“Thanks, Gorgi,” Cora says, rushing by me.
Cora rushes across the room and joins the melee in the kitchen. Then the three gods hurl each other back and forth against the walls. They all crash through a wall, and I hear the fighting continue in the adjacent rooms.
Moros is crying now. I look at Gabe. And, of course, with all the excitement he looks right into my eyes. He freezes. It doesn’t stop the poor tyke from remaining in his arms crying.
The violence in the other rooms is terrible. It sounds like they’re literally breaking the house down. They keep slamming each other against walls.
“Medusa!” shouts Hades. “Medusa! Come here!”
I run out of the kitchen and down the hallway.
Of all places, they’ve led each other back to where Ash and Grace were. It wouldn’t surprise me, in Athena’s sick plans, if she led them there to kill the two humans again. But both bodies are missing from the tables.
“Medusa!” It’s Hades again.
Cora is holding Athena by one arm. Hades is grasping for the other. When he gets it, they drag the goddess, kicking, to one of the beds. They throw her on the bed and each one holds an arm down.
“Medusa!” Hades shouts again. “Come here quick!” They’re staring at each other with bright red eyes.
“Turn her,” Hades says, fighting to breathe. He cocks his head at me. “We have her pinned. Turn her, Medusa. Do it now!”
“No!” cries Athena, squirming on the bed.
“You had your chance,” Hades says to her, panting. “You overstepped your bounds. Now you must be bound. Turned to stone.”
“If anyone should be bound, it’s you, Uncle!” Athena shouts. “And that harlot who destroyed our home.” She looks over at Cora. “He still loves you, you know. That’s why he’s willing to destroy the world over you.”
“There’s no destruction of my world as long as the two of them live,” Cora says.
“Nephrea’s long dead, lunatic,” Athena replies. “The two of them barely have any nymph blood left. We’ve already destroyed the Ambrosia line. That man is just a mutant, like your snake friend. But whether they die or not, the fate of this world shouldn’t be based on precarious madness.” She turns to Hades. “And you know it. She’s unstable. She makes friends with spiders and snakes. Animals. Monsters. How can you help her if you care about this world!”
“You made Gorgi into that beast!” Cora cries.
“Because she dared to call herself better than us. Because there once was a time when that was a crime. When there was order and justice in Gaia. When there was respect for gods. Before you sank Olympus into the sea!”
“Shut her up, Medusa,” Hades says, cocking his head back at me. “Enough of this. Turn her to stone.”
I shake my head.
“Gorgi,” Cora says. “You have to. She ruined your life.”
“I worshipped her,” I say.
“She had Poseidon rape you!” cries Hades. “Then she transformed you into one of Apollo’s snakes. Now be done with her so I can bury her in the ground where she belongs!”
“Your home?” Athena asks. “That’s where you belong, God of the Underworld!” And she spits in Hades’s face. She winces as he throws his whole body against her arm.
“Thirty seconds,” says Hades to Athena. “Just thirty seconds, Athene. That’s all it will take for even you, a goddess, to be stilled and stoned forever. And I’ll never have to hear your fucking drivel again.”
“Freeze her, Gorgi,” Cora says with a nod. Athena loosens from her grip, but then Cora pins down her arm. “Please. Hurry. I’m weak. I don’t know how long I can hold her. Freeze her. Turn her to stone.”
I come to the bedside, and Athena squirms even more. She launches her whole body up against both gods, but she is thrown back down on the bed.
“No!” cries Athena. “Get her away from me! Get her away!”
I look into her eyes. She closes them and screams.
“Pry open her eyelids,” Cora says to me. “She won’t be able to fight your fingers. Open her eyes, Gorge, with your fingers. Do it.”
I obey my friend. Even Athena’s eyelids, the eyelids of a goddess, are almost stronger than my fingers. But I can’t keep them steady. I gaze into her red eyes, and a green glow surrounds her.
“No! Please!” cries Athena. “Please! Don’t do this!”
“Bitch!” snaps Cora. “Come to my house and try to murder the only people left in my family? What makes you think you’re any better than this girl who you cursed?”
Athena’s writhing, struggling to move her head from my grip. But we have her in our grasp.
“You destroyed your true family, Persephone,” says Athena.
I look into her bulging eyes and see something on Athena’s face I’ve never seen in my entire life. Fear. No…terror. It’s the same feeling she’s instilled in me since I was a little girl working in her temple.
“Please, Gorgiana,” Athena pleads. Tears stream from her eyes. “No. Please, don’t do this to me.” She’s never called me Gorgiana. Like, never.
“Hurry,” Hades says. “Stare and be done with this, Medusa. We can’t hold her forever.”
I hesitate. Cora turns and looks at me, nodding. I look back into Athena’s eyes. I ready myself to look upon her for the last time.
“Please!” she pleads. Her tears make her eyelids slippery. Their strength is nearly equal to the strength in my hands. I pull them again. And I glare deeply into her eyes. “Please, don’t, Gorgiana.”
Sarpedon, Gorgiana. Sarpedon. Cora destroyed every statue for you because you couldn’t do it. You couldn’t do it yourself because you thought they were your friends. And you couldn’t face the truth.
And I forbade you to ever stone anyone again.
I turn my gaze from Athena.
“She destroyed your life!” shouts Hades. “Does she not deserve the same fate? Look back upon her and help rid this world of this beast, Medusa.”
“I can’t,” I say.
I shake my head and walk up the two steps away from her. There’s complete silence. I don’t even hear Athena squirming anymore. It seems like everyone is in shock.
“Thank you,” Athena mutters. Then I hear the goddess whimper.
“I swore to never turn anyone to stone ever again,” I say.
“You did it in Sarpedon!” cries Hades. “You froze innocents and spoke to them in madness. Now you can’t do it to your jailor? The goddess who ruined your life? We will hold her down and you can finally take your revenge. Now do it!”
I shake my head again.
“Do it! Turn her to stone!” cries Hades.
“There must be another way,” Cora says gently.
“She’s weak,” Hades chides me. “She’s always been weak.”
“And you always use others to do your bidding,” Cora says. “Leave her alone.”
It’s so quiet. This is bizarre, but Athena’s stopped fighting. She’s crying as they continue to hold her down on the hospital bed.
“Don’t let go of her, Kore! This will be so much harder. If we can’t turn her to stone, she’ll escape.” Then he turns to me. I’m standing with one foot on the steps to the living room, ready to leave. “I want you to think about this for a moment, Medusa. Think hard. Think about what you’re walking away from. There will never be a chance like this again.”
“She has thought about it,” Cora says. “Now leave her alone.”
“Think about how you’re showing mercy to the one who’s sentenced you to hell,” Hades says to me. “You will never be pretty. You will never see sunlight. You will never be normal. And it is all because of this woman lying before you. She is the one who sent my brother to defile you. She, the goddess you worshipped, turned her back on her priestess to curse her. And why? Imperious jealousy. That sickening arrogance of my family that once ruled this world. Now you can be an instrument of her own justice. Turn her to stone, Medusa. Petrify her. Give her what she deserves.”
