The Sixth Life of Medusa

2. Learn Obedience

Perseus casually pulled a pistol from his shoulder holster. "It's good you chose a secluded hovel to live in. And so separate from the main house? Nice." He flashed another white smile.

After retrieving a silencer from one of his men, Perseus began twisting it on with complete focus. "This is necessary. I find the loudness of gunshots... uncomfortable."

"P-please," Medusa managed to say for the first time since this nightmare began. Her tongue was bitter with fear and her head throbbed in time with her heavy heartbeat. Forming coherent thoughts was hard. Coming up with a plan was impossible.

"I can see you have a thing growing in you like that time we met." He gave her belly a pointed look. Nothing in his expression gave away what he was thinking, but Medusa did not need to read his expression to know what he thought of her.

"I promise not to hit a major artery... yet."

When Perseus aimed the gun at Antonii, strength left Medusa's legs. "I beg you—"

Perseus glanced her way. "I need you to watch."

The suppressed sound of a gunshot.

Medusa muffled a horrified yell with a hand as her knees buckled. Blood oozed from the wound in Antonii's thigh. His smothered groans battered her heart, clawed at it, ripping it to shreds.

Shoot me instead. Shoot me. "Why?" Medusa managed to whisper.

"It is not for a beast to understand why it is punished or slain." Perseus' voice was flat, emotionless. "Receive your destiny with obedience."

Another shot. This time in the second thigh. Medusa crawled forward, desperate to reach Antonii, but she was snatched by the hair. She hadn't even noticed when one of the men moved.

As the hand squeezed and pulled, Medusa was hauled back to that awful moment in the cave. That helplessness and swelling sense of inevitable doom.

Though Antonii's eyes appeared unfocused, his chest was moving. He was dying before her eyes and she could do nothing. This man whose only crime was loving her was dying and she was absolutely powerless.

Tossing the gun aside, Perseus flicked his wrist and without ceremony a familiar sword materialised in his grip. Its golden hilt was wrapped in black leather, and the air around its sharpened edge moved like mirages from heat. Medusa blinked at the weapon. Memories. Horrid memories pressed in.

"I see the recognition in your eyes. That is good." Resting the flat of the sword on his shoulder, Perseus strolled over to Antonii and hunkered down. "Let me give you a revelation about the thing you married."

Medusa froze. Don't say it. Please, do not tell him. Please! She yelled on the inside. Wailing. Begging for time to stop.

"May is not your wife's true name. Do you know what a gorgon is?" Perseus cocked his head to the side, thick brown hair shifting across his forehead. "The real name of the thing you married is Medusa and she is a twisted version of a gorgon—an aberration of the species marked for death."

Medusa held Antonii's eyes, begging. This one secret she had kept from him, this hesitation that stretched through seven years was back in its most hideous naked form.

"I perceive that you wish to speak." Perseus untied the cloth keeping Antonii from speaking. "If you plead right, I may spare your life."

Wheezing, Antonii glared at Perseus. The rage in his eyes. "I do not know who you are, but I know my wife. You have done enough to show me who the monster is."

Oh, Antonii. Medusa's heart broke. Bitter tears spilled down her cheeks.

"Hmmm..." Appearing in deep thought, the corner of Perseus' lip dipped as he tapped a finger against the hilt of his sword. "I presume you are correct," he said with a nod.