Earthrumbler

Chapter Thirteen: Revenge and Restart

I flailed up. Terror coursed through me, but the boiling rage masked it. “No, no, no. I…I have to go back. I have to.” I started toward the ocean, but found tears in my eyes. My knees trembled when I stood. My hands shook so badly that I could not even form a fist. So, tell me all about your brilliant rescue when you can barely stand up. My eyes grazed over the gauze wrapped around my body, the scabs underneath itching and pulsing. The bones in my wrists jutted out. I ran my fingers along my rib cage, feeling each individual bone. Lifting my arms was a struggle. How could I help her at all?

As I lifted my head to scan across the water, I heaved a sigh. The water glistened; a mesmerizing tapestry sprawled out for miles until it faded into a haze. I crumbled to my knees. “I can’t.” I buried my face in my hands. “I’m so sorry.” I pounded my fist in the sand. The relief that had flooded me earlier had disintegrated like leaves.

Poseidon had caged me, trapped me in a space tighter than the cell in the western hall. His deception had taken more of my dignity than his insistence on my pleading. He had my mother, and he was torturing her. He’d played me, knowing that I was too weak to even fight against him, anticipating the shame at the very same weakness that would lead me right down into the ocean. Each grain of hopelessness trickled into my gut.

Heat filled the crevices of my body, a burbling rage that I had never experienced. My muscles coiled. “What you’re doing to her will not even compare to what I’ll do to you.” I fought the exhaustion that pinched at me. “I promise you, Lord Poseidon.” I stood and kicked up sand in my wake. Stalking toward the shore, I passed through wild grasses.

They tickled my legs and swayed in the gentle breeze. When I tried to step out of them, I fell forward into the dirt and sand. “What the…” I tried to lift myself to my feet, only to find my ankle stubborn. I pulled on it; a grass had tied itself around my ankle. My stomach twisted. “This is not my day.” Without fighting against it, I allowed the plant to pull me back into the center of the grasses. They curled around my wrists and my neck, pinning me to the ground. One rose up and whipped across my face.

White smoke funneled around me. “Well, well, well, look who’s back to dry land,” Persephone sneered. There was a small cut on her cheek.

“You’re a tad bit late, actually. Poseidon has already decided to invade my dreams, a feat he’s accomplishing by torturing your sister. Now, before guilt can consume me entirely, I would like to eat a decent meal and to wear shoes again.”

The vine around my neck tightened. “I almost forgot what a delight you were. If you should know, I am not here on my uncle’s business. He needs neither of us now that he has Athena.” She twirled her hand, and the vine around my neck constricted. “Oh, no, I’m here for you. You see, Genevieve, I have you right where I want you.” Persephone flicked her wrist up and a vine slithered up toward the sun. When she opened her hand, a flower bloomed, hovering right above my face. Dust sprinkled out of it.

I squeezed my eyes shut as the powder dusted my cheeks and tickled my nostrils. “What is that?” I coughed; the vine tautened around my neck, making breathing impossible. Blood filled my face. My skin itched, and my throat burned.

Persephone raised her arm, and the plants listened. She conducted them. Thorns scraped at me, and vines whipped across my skin. They weaved into one another.

“Persephone.” The voice was that of a man, but was enticing and melodic.

At the sound of her name, Persephone’s face darkened. She pulled the vines over me in a wave, covering me like a quilt and blocking the sun entirely. “Brother,” she said with feigned enthusiasm. “What brings you here?”