Elementals 2: The Blood of the Hydra

by Michelle Madow

  Melina seemed to enjoy the scent as well, because she sniffed a few times, and her ears perked up. She walked over to me and nudged the fruit with her nose, gobbling it up in one bite. Once finished, she licked my hand until the juice was gone, and then she looked at me, as if thirsty for more. But we’d left the rest of the fruit near the door, so we could use it on the other cows if it worked.

  “I think she liked it,” Lampetia observed.

  “I’m not surprised,” I said. “It’s impossible to resist the lotus fruit.”

  Melina’s eyes glazed over—clearly the fruit had taken effect. She started to lie down, but Ethan rushed over and wrapped his arms around her neck, his muscles tightening as he held her up.

  “No, you don’t,” he said sternly. “You’re going to stay standing so that we can get your milk.”

  “Are you seriously holding that cow up by yourself?” Danielle asked him.

  “I’m strong,” he said, winking at her. “I’m a son of Zeus.”

  “How typical.” Lampetia laughed. “Sons of Zeus are always so arrogant.”

  “Can you blame us?” he asked. “Our father is the king of the gods, after all.”

  “As I said,” Lampetia said, although she smiled at him. “So arrogant.” Then she motioned for us to proceed, which reminded me that we didn’t have endless time here.

  “Is it okay if I try milking her?” I asked Kate, reaching out to stroke Melina’s nose again. The cow let out a long breath of what seemed like appreciation.

  “Go ahead,” Kate said. “Do you have any questions about what to do?”

  “I think I’ve got it,” I said. “I watched the video, too.” I walked around to Melina’s backside and sat down, positioning the pail under her udder. Like the video instructed, I nudged the udder a few times to make sure the milk had dropped. The cow didn’t kick my face or buck back, which I took as a good sign. So I held onto the teat like the video said—by “clamping” it off with my index finger and thumb—and squeezed. I hadn’t expected anything to happen, so I hadn’t given much thought to aim, but out came a small squirt of milk—straight onto my face and hair.

  “It worked!” I exclaimed, wiping the milk off my face. “I did it!”

  “Now try getting it in the pail,” Danielle said. “Although, who knows? Maybe the sacred immortal milk is a good conditioner.”

  I didn’t reply to her, instead continuing to squirt out the milk—and making sure that it landed in the pail. The whole process was taking quite a bit of time, so eventually Kate kneeled down next to me and milked one of the other teats, so we could work together. It didn’t take long for us to get a steady rhythm going.

  “This is kind of fun,” she said, continuing to squirt one teat after the other. “I don’t know why Melina wouldn’t let us milk her before. It doesn’t seem to bother her at all.”

  “Who knows?” I asked. “I’m just glad the lotus fruit worked.”

  After about fifteen minutes, the milk production slowed down, until her udder was dry. Two of our pails were now full of milk. It wouldn’t take long to do this to a few more cows, especially if we split up. Then we could take the milk and get out of there.

  “Ummm you guys?” Ethan said, still standing with his arms wrapped around Melina’s neck. “I don’t think Melina’s doing too well.”

  I stood up, brushing my hands off on my jeans. “What do you mean?” I asked, walking around to check on her. But he didn’t need to answer, because I saw it for myself. Melina’s eyes were halfway closed, and her breathing was labored, as if each breath was painful for her to take. She continued like that for a few more seconds, until she let out one long breath and collapsed to the ground.

  “My cow!” Lampetia shrieked, shooting up from the sofa and rushing over to her. She fell to Melina’s side and tried to shake her awake, but the animal was unresponsive. She nudged her a few more times, and then looked back up at me, her eyes wide. “What did you do to my cow?”

  “She’ll be okay,” I assured her, joining her at Melina’s side. “I don’t know what happened to her, but I can heal her. She’ll be fine.”

  “Yes,” Lameptia said, her voice soft with desperation. “Heal her. Now.”

  But when I placed my hands on Melina’s body, I couldn’t sense her spirit. I searched harder—for a pulse, for the light that was her soul, for something—but no matter how hard I strained, there was nothing. She was beyond my help.

  I pulled my hands off Melina’s body and leaned back on my heels, blinking away tears at the sight of the fallen cow. “I can’t heal her.” I shook my head hopelessly, unable to meet Lampetia’s eyes. “She’s gone. I’m sorry.”

  “Gone?” Lampetia snarled. “Do you mean to say that you slaughtered one of Helios’s sacred cattle?”

  Blake stepped forward to stand next to me, resting his hand on my shoulder. “We didn’t slaughter your cow,” he said. His other hand was wrapped around his lighter, as if he were worried that Lampetia might strike out at me at any second. “You were here the entire time. You saw everything we did. You approved of it all.”

  “What I saw was that you milked Melina dry,” she spat, her eyes narrowed into slits of anger. “And now I finally know why the cows refuse to let anyone milk them. Because once they’re milked, they die. Just like poor Melina here.”

  “I’m sorry,” I told her again, my voice catching in my throat. “I didn’t know. If we’d known, we never would have taken all of her milk…”

  “There’s no point in apologies now,” she said, standing up and crossing her arms over her chest. “I’ll have to tell my father about this.”

  “You mean Helios?” Kate asked, her eyes wide. “You’re going to tell Helios that one of his cows died?”

  “Yes,” Lampetia said. “More precisely—I’m going to tell him that you and your band of cursed witches were the ones responsible.”

  “But it wasn’t our fault,” Danielle said, her gaze level with Lampetia’s. “You were on our side—you helped us get the milk! Obviously none of us knew that it would end up killing the cow. If you’d known, you wouldn’t have let us do it.”

  “But she’s dead, nonetheless.” Lampetia sniffed. “So I need to tell my father—now.”

  “Just give us enough time to bring the milk to the boat and get off the island,” I pleaded. “Please. We need this milk. Without it, we can’t make the potion that we need to stop the Titans and their supporters from escaping Kerberos—”

  “Blah, blah, blah,” Lampetia said, rolling her eyes. “You’ve already told me about the milk and your special potion. But you’ve forgotten one important detail—my father Helios is a Titan. Sure, he sided with the Olympians during the Second Rebellion, but who’s to say he won’t switch sides if the Titans come out ahead? And I’ve always been neutral in all of this war stuff. None of the gods care what I do, as long as they and the demigods and the witches and any other magical creatures out there have a grand old time on my island resort. So you’re going to need to leave that milk here, at least until I return from telling my father, so he can judge you as he pleases. I will leave it to him to determine what to do with you all.”

  Kate’s eyes widened in panic, and she didn’t need to say anything to get the message across—Helios’s decision wouldn’t be in our favor. So I did the only thing I could think to do—I grabbed an arrow from my quiver, stabbed it through the remaining part of the lotus fruit, and threw it straight into Lampetia’s shoulder.

  Her eyes went wide, and she stared at the arrow embedded into her skin, her mouth dropped open in shock. I’d purposefully aimed for a non-fatal spot, since I didn’t want to kill her—if it were even possible to kill an immortal goddess. I just wanted to get the lotus fruit in her system. Since she wasn’t going to eat it voluntarily, shooting her with it was the best way to do that.

  She held my gaze for a few more seconds, but then her eyelids fluttered, and she gave me a loopy smile. “Ow,” she said, sitting down and pulling the arrow
from her shoulder. She held it up and laughed, as if this were the most amusing thing to happen all day. “That hurt.”

  “Sorry.” I walked over to her and plucked the key ring out of her pocket, twirling it around my finger. “But thanks for this.” I flipped my hair over my shoulder and turned to the others, who were watching me with expressions of shock and awe. “Let’s take the milk and get out of here,” I told them, looking at the pails we’d filled. “We have to bring it to the boat as fast as possible.”

  “And what are you going to do with her?” Danielle pointed to Lampetia, who was massaging the place where she’d been punctured with the arrow. “Lock her in here with the dead cow?”

  Sadness filled my heart as I looked at Melina’s body. She was a sweet cow. If I’d known that taking all of her milk was going to kill her, I never would have done it.

  But it was too late now—we couldn’t take back what we’d already done. All we could do was make sure the sacrifice hadn’t been in vain.

  “Yes, we’ll lock her in here,” I said, marching toward the door. “By the time she snaps back into focus and manages to escape, we’ll be long gone from this island.”

  CHAPTER FORTY-ONE

  Once back on the yacht, we secured the milk and told Hypatia, Chris, and Rachael the story of what had happened on the island.

  “I warned you not to slaughter any of Helios’s cattle,” Hypatia reminded us. “Once Lampetia tells her father about this, you all are going to be in serious trouble with him.”

  “What’s he going to do?” I asked.

  “I can’t be sure,” she said. “Back when Odysseus’s men slaughtered the cattle, Helios told Zeus and the Olympians that if they didn’t take their vengeance, he would shine the sun in Hades instead of on Earth. The gods couldn’t have that, so to calm Helios, Zeus struck Odysseus’s boat with a lightning bolt and destroyed it. Odysseus escaped by swimming to Calypso’s island, and he remained there for seven years.”

  “I think we can be pretty confident that Zeus won’t destroy our ship,” Rachael said. “Not with two of his children and one of his descendants onboard, and with him being so vested in helping us on our mission.”

  “I agree that Zeus wouldn’t harm us,” Hypatia said. “But what about the other gods? They can be… unpredictable.”

  “The Olympians are on our side,” Blake pointed out. “They’re counting on us to reseal the portal to Kerberos to stop the Titans from returning to Earth. Helios can beg all he wants, but I can’t imagine what would convince the Olympians to stop us from completing our mission.”

  “I can’t, either,” I agreed. “But we’ll still have to worry about Helios himself.”

  “Nicole’s right,” Hypatia said. “Helios might not be an Olympian, but he’s still powerful. Once he finds out about what happened, this could be a huge problem for the group of you.”

  “But it’s not our fault,” Danielle said. “We didn’t know that the stupid cow would die.”

  “The gods are rarely logical when it comes to their wrath,” Hypatia said. “Unfortunately, we have no way of predicting what Helios might do. All we can do is focus on completing the final task of this journey.”

  Blake nodded, his jaw muscles tense. “Which means it’s time to discuss slaying the hydra.”

  “Yes.” Hypatia nodded. “While you’ve been out on the islands completing the first parts of the mission, I’ve been doing some research to find whatever I can to help you. And this is not going to be an easy task.”

  “Figured as much.” I removed my bow and quiver and sat down at the table, clasping my hands in front of me. “So, what’s the plan?”

  With that, the others joined us at the table, and we strategized for the rest of the night.

  CHAPTER FORTY-TWO

  We discussed our plan for the next few hours, and since we needed to be rested for the task ahead, we eventually headed off to bed. But despite needing my rest, it was impossible to sleep. So I went upstairs to grab a snack, and found none other than Danielle there as well, apparently doing the same thing.

  “Hey,” she said to me, taking a sip of her drink. “You can’t sleep, either?”

  “Nope.” I shrugged. “I just wanted to grab a snack and take it outside—I thought some fresh air would be nice. I’ll be out of your way in a minute.”

  “Can I join you?” she asked. “If you don’t mind?”

  “Sure,” I said immediately, the word getting stuck in my throat. Because why would Danielle want to have a snack with me? Neither of us had ever pretended that we were friends. In fact, in all the time I’d known her, Danielle and I had never once spent time together one-on-one.

  I didn’t know what she wanted to talk with me about, but I doubted it would be good.

  We didn’t talk much as we made sandwiches and took them up to the top deck. The wind against my cheeks felt refreshing, and I sucked in a deep breath, loving the smell of salt in the air. It was too bad that this trip to Greece had been all business—I would have liked some time to enjoy my first trip abroad.

  “So, what’s going on with you and Blake?” Danielle asked immediately after we sat down.

  My heart stopped at her question, and I looked down, studying my sandwich. There had to be a reason why she was asking. What did she know? I’d been trying so hard this past month to act like my feelings for Blake were nothing more than friendship. I thought I’d been convincing.

  “What do you mean?” I asked, figuring it was as safe of an answer as any.

  “When we were on the Land of the Lotus Eaters, seeing you kissing Ethan made Blake so angry that he was able to fight past the haze of the lotus fruit,” she said. “I’d suspected there was something between you two, but that made me realize that I was right. You’re the reason why Blake dumped me.”

  “No!” I gasped and sat back. “I would never ask him to do that. We’re not together. I promise.”

  “As much as I wish you were lying, I can’t help but believe you.” She sighed. “Things were ending between me and Blake before you even moved to town. You might not be the reason why he broke up with me, but you certainly helped moved things along.”

  I pressed my lips together, not sure what to say. Because as much as I wished I could tell her otherwise, she was right.

  “Blake and are I just friends,” I said, since it was the truth. But the words felt like knives in my throat as I spoke them. Because while they were true, I wished more than anything that they weren’t.

  “But you want more.” She held my gaze, as if daring me to claim otherwise. “Don’t you?”

  “It doesn’t matter.” I shrugged. “Because it’s not going to happen.”

  “Why?” she asked. “And please don’t say it’s because you don’t think he would be interested. I see the way he looks at you. He’s interested, and we both know it.”

  I couldn’t help but smile slightly at her observation, but I did my best to force the feeling away. Instead, I held my gaze with Danielle’s and told her, “It’s because I wouldn’t do that to you.”

  “What do you mean?” she asked. “It’s not like we’re friends. You don’t owe me anything.”

  “We might not be friends, but the five of us—me, you, Blake, Chris, and Kate—we’re a team,” I said. “So much rests on us being able to work together. If we fail…” I trailed off, not wanting to think about what would happen if we failed. “We can’t fail. I’ll do everything in my power not to let that happen.”

  “So you’re ignoring your feelings for Blake because you think that being with him would distract you from our mission?”

  “No!” I said. “Not at all.”

  Actually, I thought that if Blake and I were together, it might make us fight even better together. But there was no way I was telling that to Danielle.

  “Then why?” she asked.

  “The truth?” I asked, and she nodded. I took a deep breath—I had to tell her something. And while it couldn’t be the entire truth, it had to
be convincing, and still include some truth. “It’s because I didn’t want to make you angry,” I said, picking at the crust of my sandwich. “How could I make you see me and Blake together every day and still expect you to want to work with us?”

  “Back up,” she said, dropping her sandwich onto her plate. “You seriously think that I would be so upset over seeing you and Blake together that I would ditch out on helping to save the world?”

  “Maybe?” I shrugged. “I don’t know. But I didn’t want to risk it.”

  Then she did something that surprised me—she laughed. “I might be selfish, but I’m not that selfish,” she said. “I wouldn’t leave the four of you to seal the portal to Kerberos alone, just because it hurts to see my ex-boyfriend with the new girl.”

  “Oh,” I said, since when she put it like that, it did sound extreme. “But even so, I couldn’t imagine how that wouldn’t be distracting for you. We all need to be as focused as possible. One wrong move, and any of these monsters could kill us.”

  Danielle flicked her hair over her shoulder and smiled, as if completely unbothered by this all. “My life—and the lives of everyone else on this planet—are more important than my hurt feelings about my ex-boyfriend,” she said. “Come on. Give me some credit here.”

  “Right.” Heat rushed to my face, and I focused on removing the crust of my sandwich. “But you don’t mean… you don’t want me and Blake to be together?” I asked. “Do you?”

  “Of course not.” She scoffed. “But I think it’s lame that you’re keeping your distance from him because of me. After all, like both of us know—we’re not friends. You should do what you want. I would, if I were you.”

  “I don’t know,” I said. “I was actually thinking that it might be best if the five of us all agreed not to date anyone in the group. It would be easiest that way.”

  “Come on.” Danielle laughed. “Have you seen the way Kate looks at Chris? She’s crushing on him hard.”