The Next Generation

Chapter 20 - Zara

The darkness swallowed us up immediately after I willed the shadow to bend. I held onto Ethan's limp wrist and Kas's hand. As soon as we were immersed into the shadow my eyelids drooped. Gosh! Why do I have to get too tired when I use my powers? The temperature around us dropped and got close to freezing. I took breaths, warm breaths, warming the air around my face to a toasty warm. Kas's had cold sweat on her palm, and I squeezed it, showing her I was still conscious. I felt myself shake like a buzzing phone. I heard the breaths get ragged around me. I had to save them!

I willed us to go faster. Burning all the energy I had left. We had to be in the middle of the Gulf of Mexico by now. If I could just make it to Louisiana...I could save them. My thoughts started to get clouded up and my eyes drooped all the way down. I shook my head to keep myself awake.

"Agh!" I screamed. Just a little longer...I felt my eyes roll in the back of my head and all I remember is falling onto soft squishy stuff.

My mind went straight into a dream after that. It really wasn't a dream at all, it was more like a dream call. I got one of these from Nico for my thirteenth birthday...Nico!! The dream came into focus, and beaten up Nico was in front of me.

"Nico?" I ask, looking up and down at him. His cheek bones were hollow and he looked like he hadn't eaten in days, which was probably true.

"I'm here," He said raggedly. His limbs were covered in bruises and cuts. His usual aviators jacket was ripped to shreds and his stygian iron sword was nowhere in sight. And, he looked like he was limping. I went towards him to give him a hug. He stumbled backward. "We don't have much time, dad drained our powers even more, and some of us..." He gulped air down, "Are dying," Tears streamed down his cheeks. I had never seen him cry before, and that might just be the saddest thing ever. Watching a sad person cry.

"Wait-you're not talking about yourself, are you?" I ask, on the verge of tears. He gives me a sad smile.

"I'm not in worse shape, if you want to see someone bad, I would go to Percy," I cup my hand to my mouth. "I know, after all he's been through. I can hold off dad for a few more days, but you need to get here soon. I don't know what I would do if I can't see Bee one more time." A shutter went through his body and his eyes rolled back in his head. I scream and try to run to him, but my legs wouldn't move, it's like they were stuck in mud. Tears streamed down my cheek as I screamed. All of the sudden I feel like a little girl again, raised in the gloom of the Underworld. Playing with Cerberus in the shadows, climbing up towers of bones and calling them white mountains. My small black ram wool bed in my dark cold room in Hades palace. I grew up like no other demi-god. I grew up like a god. Like a god. If only I knew my mother.

My head and throat started hurting from screaming, and when I woke up, all I saw was white.

"Are you trying to suffocate her?" asked someone irritated.

"I was trying to get the temperature in her whole face down at the same time. Dabbing takes too long." The girl, who I think was Riley, said. Uncurling my shaking and balled up my hands, I peel the wet cloth off my face. I stretch and sit up.

I was sitting on a couch in someone's living room. At first I had a panic attack thinking we were in the Lotus Casino, and started hyperventilating. Before I even said a word, Riley reassured me we were not. Looking over at the couch across from me, I found Ethan sitting up and drinking a green smoothie of some sort. I almost fell off the cushions when I saw him smiling at me. He looked freshly showered and almost happy.

"Hey Zara, nice to see you conscious," Kas says when she walks into the room. I frown and she raises an eyebrow. "Well, ladies and gentlemen, Zara Jean is back to normal." She laughs. Here flowy hair pressed down under a beanie.