Heroes of Olympus (The Throne of Stone)

Chapter 50 I Insult A Moon Goddess

Chapter 50

I Insult A Moon Goddess

Autumn

    So yeah, you’re probably wondering what the heck happened to Emma. But in this particular moment I had no idea that anything had happened to her. You see, my eyes were full of both salt water, regular water, and tears caused by the burning of the salt water. So it was true, I could barely see!

I could hear though. Emma’s scream and Leo’s yelling, and then utter silence, except of course, for the churning waves and rumbling thunder. Like there was paper shoved in my ears, they crackled and crunched. What happened? I blinked hard getting the water out of my eyes. I blinked even more, there’s no way that the scene before me was actually real. Leo had jumped overboard and was now soaking wet, even more so than what he was before. He struggled to get back to the surface. I sliced off a tentacle and then leaned over the side.

Oh my gods. It wasn’t the waves that were churning, it was the creatures below us. Don’t get me wrong, the weather was the worst I had ever seen in my whole life, even in the storm chaser tv shows, but the crashing and the constantly near collapse of the ship was caused by the crazy number of sea monsters below us. Tentacles, scales, claws, and some unknown pointy object pulled and pushed against the side.

Leo kept trying to burn the obstacles that tried to grasp him but it was more than obvious that he was fighting a losing battle. A tentacle lurched forward and wrapped around his waist. Leo was pulled under, without thinking about it I threw myself over the side to save him. But even before I touched the water I was thrown back on deck by my wrist. Someone without icy cold hands was holding onto my wrist. I opened my eyes and blinked quickly. It was Stephanie, oh my gods, I almost forgot she was here. What had she been doing this whole time? Without a glance at me she jumped over the side.

The shaking of the ship stopped suddenly, I got off my butt and looked back over the side. My eyes grew wide, All of the water below the ship was ice. For hundreds of feet down and across the ocean it was frozen in ice. Stephanie and Leo were on top of the ice and safe. I felt a gasp go through my clenched teeth, there was a corpse next to them. White and not moving or breathing was the body of my friend, Emma Tracy.

“No.”

I dropped to my knees the power that I felt before vanished leaving me empty. There was nothing inside of me, I was a shell, my stomach dropped and a lump raised in my throat. Even before I could launch an attempt to stop the lump lodged in my throat I let out a heart broken sob. Leo clambered back over the side and with help from Stephanie he lifted Emma onto the deck. I felt so worthless for not helping them get back on board. Stephanie got back on board all by herself. Her face was smooth, expressionless, her eyes offered no tears for the loss of Emma. Leo’s eyes were wide open, as if he were still searching for someone who wasn’t there. His entire body shook with grief.

Emma was entirely white and stiff as a board. Her face captured the terror of her last moments. She wasn’t ready to die, she didn’t deserve to die this way. Her limp hair splayed out in all directions. Even through her terror, she was still beautiful, she was so young. She was only 15 and yet she died so suddenly like this. Why is this world so unfair...

I lurched forward and grabbed Emma’s limp wrist, I felt for a pulse, there was none. No, no, no, no, no. I found myself muttering this in between my sobs. Stephanie glanced at Emma and then headed back downstairs. But before she left she touched my shoulder with her freakishly cold hands and whispered,

“Pray for her.” She turned and disappeared. I kneeled over her and clasped my hands and prayed silently and then aloud.

“Mother, I may not know who you are, but please, to make up for all the time you lost with me, save Emma. She is one of my only friends, and even though I may not have known her for very long, she’s become very close to me. Please just save her.” I opened my eyes and was suddenly filled with rage,