annais min was the god among mortals, the death that came along with life. now more than ever, she knew the cost of her existence, of what hades had done when he chose to pursue her mother. everything came down to her and the four other min girls, t...
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CHAPTER TWELVE: LIKE REAL PEOPLE DO
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UNFORTUNATELY, WHEN KHIONE'S BODY turned to dust, so did her head. The only sign the Goddess and her minions had ever been on board was the sudden overpowering gust of wind that blasted them halfway across the Mediterranean. If it wasn't for Piper directing the sphere... By the time the ship settled in the rocking waves and Annais remembered how to breathe over the erratic hammering of her heart, they were well and truly knocked off course. The ice around Jason melted. The others ventured above deck in various states of shock and horror to discover that not only were they off course, but Leo was missing and they had no idea where Khione had sent him.
A place he could never return from.
Mel hadn't come out of her room in three days. Five days had passed since Annais' stand down with Khione, and she couldn't quite believe it. So much had changed now, for the prophecies but for her too. With Khione pinned beneath her and rage blooming in her chest like a bruise, something had unlocked in her. She didn't dare name it, that feeling of anger that burned like fire, that threaded the shadows of Death she'd spent her whole life seeing into a weapon that could be wielded in the physical realm. Her shadows were supposed to be confined to her brain. No one else was supposed to see them, to feel them.
It scared her.
And no one but Piper knew.
Sure, she promised to keep it a secret beneath the heat of Annais' stare, but she urged the daughter of Hades to confide in the others. We can help, she said before Annais silenced her with a glare. If you just let us.
She didn't understand.
Now more than ever, Annais had become a stranger to her own body's limitations. She feared what her hands could do, the destruction she could cause. She hadn't even hesitated in killing Khione. What if one of her friends, her sisters, Jason... she couldn't even bear the thought. It hung over her head like a noose that swung every time Jason kissed her, every time her friends snapped at each other as they tried and failed to repair the damage the blast across the Mediterranean had caused.
In the present, with that noose still swinging, Annais was shouting orders from her vantage point at the mainmast. She sat with her legs hanging over the edge, eyes scanning the rows of oars. Several were smashed beyond repair, but most of the dents could be fixed with some care.
Of course, they put Hea and Gleeson on the job.
"Hea, that's Coach's leg," Annais called down as her sister narrowly avoided shattering Gleeson's shin with the club he'd given her. The two of them were balanced on the other side of the railing, feet dangling over the glistening waters of the bay they'd landed in. Hea either didn't hear Annais or just decided to ignore her. Her bat only skimmed the satyr's right leg but he still let out a howl in response. "Hades, kill me now."
