The Shadow Summoner | Book Three - PJO Universe

eight

MEDEA

Medea's twin pets snarled and snapped, their fangs like porcelain in the fiery kilns of their mouths.

Heat rippled off their golden scales. Their wings, folded against their backs, flashed like solar panels. Worst of all were their glowing orange eyes....

Ariana shoved Apollo, breaking his gaze. "Don't stare," she warned. "They'll paralyze you."

"I know that," Apollo muttered, though his legs had been in the process of turning to rock.

Piper elbowed Meg. "Hey. You too."

Meg blinked, coming out of her stupor. "What? They're pretty."

"Thank you, my dear!" Medea's voice turned gentle and soothing. "We haven't formerly met. I'm Medea. And you're obviously Meg McCaffrey.
I've heard so much about you." She patted the chariot rail next to her. "Come up, darling. You needn't fear me. I'm friends with your stepfather. I'll take you to him."

Meg frowned, confused. The points of her swords dipped. "What?"

"She's charmspeaking." Piper's voice hit Ariana like a glass of ice water in the face. "Meg, don't listen to her. Ariana, Apollo, you neither."

Medea sighed. "Really, Piper McLean? Are we going to have another charmspeak battle?"

"No need." Piper said. "I'd just win again."

"She would." Ariana agreed, glaring at the sorcerer.

Medea curled her lip in a good imitation of her sun dragons' snarls. "Meg belongs with her stepfather." She swept a hand toward Apollo as if pushing away some trash. "Not with this sorry excuse for a god."

"Hey!" Apollo protested. "If I had my powers-"

"But you don't," Medea said. "Look at yourself, Apollo. Look what your father has done to you! Not to worry, though. Your misery is at an end. I'll squeeze out whatever power is left and put it to good use!"

Meg's knuckles turned white on the grips of her swords. "What does she mean?" she muttered.
"Hey, Magic Lady, what do you mean?"

The sorceress smiled. She no longer wore the crown of her birthright as princess of Colchis, but at her throat a golden pendant still gleamed-the crossed torches of Hecate. "Shall I tell her, Apollo, or should you? Surely you know why I've brought you here."

Apollos's knees buckled.

"Apollo!" Ariana barked. "Get up!"

He hunched over on all fours and exhaled an undignified moan of pain and terror. Medea was giving him a polite round of applause.

"There it is." She chuckled. "It took you a while, but even your slow brain got there eventually."

Ariana crouched down beside him, trying to figure out what was wrong with him. "Sunshine."

Meg grabbed his arm. "You're not giving in, Apollo," she ordered. "Tell me what's going on."

The pair hauled him to his feet.

Apollo made the mistake of looking at Medea, whose eyes were as transfixing as her dragons'. In her face, Ariana saw a vicious glee and bright violence.

"Caligula's always had the same goal." Apollo croaked, reaching for Ariana who held onto his sweaty hand - but she didn't care. "He wants to be the center of creation, the new god of the sun. He wants to supplant me, the way I supplanted Helios."

Medea smiled. "And it really couldn't happen to a nicer god."

Piper shifted. "What do you mean...supplant?"