Illusions: A Grace Murphy Novel

by Nicole Hamlett

  She blinked out of sight and appeared a hundred yards down the ledge where we'd been lying. She gave the Gorgon a small salute and then glanced at the battle with gleeful intensity before vanishing again. She popped back into sight fifty yards away from her last position.

  Absently I ducked under a swinging sword and sprinted toward where the goddess had last been. Maybe if I could just get that crystal, we could call it a day, blow up the barrier and go home. A shrill cry of rage sounded behind me, and I stopped dead in my tracks. That had been Georgie.

  "You stabbed me!" she bellowed. Her voice was deeper, louder.

  I didn't want to take my eyes of Hecate. I knew if I did, she'd disappear and we'd never get that necklace, but I couldn't just leave Georgie defenseless. My shoulders tensed as I took a deep breath, closed my eyes, and then turned around. I had to duck another swipe at my neck, but when I came back up, all I could do was stare dumbly at my friend.

  You know, it's easy to forget that George is the spawn of Ares. She's so sweet and calm. However, she'd more than quadrupled in size and was now towering over the soldier that had cut her. The wound looked like a small scratch across her arm now, and it was mostly healed. But her face was masked in rage as she plucked him off the ground and shook him around like a rag doll.

  "I have to believe that you were raised better than this." She punctuated each word with a shake. "What would your mother say about you attacking young women?"

  The glade went quiet as Georgie ranted on. "You are hurting people. You are blindly following orders and not thinking for yourself. You. Are. Hurting. People." Tears slipped down her face, and I knew that it bothered her that she had let her anger take over. "Good people!"

  Sending George into battle was a mistake. She could handle herself, sure, but she could also read the minds of every single person on the field. She knew their innermost desires. She knew when they had doubts. Technically, she could use those to defeat an entire army, but she sympathized with them. She was too kind of a person.

  "George," Medusa called quietly. "You need to put him down, or you're going to snap his neck, darling."

  "Oh," Georgie said miserably. "I'm sorry. I didn't want to hurt you." She set the man down and waved her hand over the clearing. "Sleep."

  I whistled in surprise. "Damn." Every single soldier that Hecate had brought with her was laying on the ground, out like a light. "I didn't know you could do that."

  Her giant shoulder shrugged. "Only when I'm in this form. Get it from my Dad's side of the family." She plunked herself down on the ground, barely missing the soldier she'd dropped. "I'm good at fighting and battling. But I don't enjoy it. It makes me feel so horrible. I mean, I don’t like to hurt people." She sniffed.

  "Oh honey," I loped over to her, forgetting about Hecate for now and wrapped my arms around her knee squeezing tight. "Sometimes it's unavoidable. You're not a horrible person for hurting them. You could never be a horrible person."

  "George, you're going to need to either go to sleep to get back to normal, or you're going to have to cause some destruction. You know the rules." Medusa called out.

  My friend's face fell. "I know."

  "Why don't you go over to the bridge and topple that fricken thing," Medusa suggested. "Send it into the ocean; then we can drop some concussion grenades on it and shatter it into a million pieces. That will feel good, won't it?" she cajoled.

  "It will feel pretty damn good," Georgie replied with a sniff and a nod.

  "Okay, then. You go on, and Grace and I will secure these men so they can't hurt anyone else while we're taking care of things."

  George scrambled up to her feet and made her way to the bridge. In this form, it was unlikely anything could hurt her, and if she needed to wreak some destruction to get back to normal, this was as good a way as any.

  "Good call."

  Medusa shrugged. "It's a good outlet for her energy. I don't think these men are going to go anywhere for a while."

  "Yeah, she packed a punch. I almost went down myself."

  "You will learn that while George is an incredible person, loving and generous, you do not want to piss her off enough that her father's gifts come out. It will help in the fight with Nyx, but it kills her to hurt people. She's going to be remorseful for a week at this point. We're not going to get much done with her."

  I grimaced. "We'll have to work on that. Hecate got away."

  Medusa shrugged. "We didn't expect to catch her off guard out here anyway. We're going to have to go into that palace. There's a spell she's using to fuel those obelisks. It wouldn't have been out here."

  "She's got a crystal around her neck that was pulsing as the fighting increased. Could that, be it?"

  “Damn. It’s likely, yeah.”

  "They know we're coming now."

  "Yep." She placed a hand over her brow and scanned the area. "And now we'll have Apollo to deal with as well."

  "Are we going to kill him?" I looked around for Dmitri, but he was on the ground with the rest of soldiers, snoozing away.

  "He deserves a good killing, but I don't think it's the best idea. The people of this world have been following his rule for hundreds of years. It would send the hierarchy into chaos."

  "So, what do we do to him? Ask George to put him to sleep?"

  Medusa laughed. "I don't think she's powerful enough for that. You leave Apollo to me. I'll deal with him. You get to Hecate. And Grace? Get that necklace. That thing is too dangerous to leave lying around for some other fool to use."

  "But we don't even know what it is."

  She gave me a look that said I was clearly an idiot and shook her head. "I know what it is. It's the most powerful weapon on this planet. She could quite literally suck the magic from every soul on this world if she wished to. That she hasn't yet gives me hope for her sanity."

  "What's the goal?" I asked quietly. "Do we kill her or try to bring her back alive? Imprisoning people obviously isn't working so well, considering that my sister has escaped.”

  "Let me take care of it. Once the barrier is down, I can handle Hecate. But I need you to find her and keep her busy while I find Apollo. It’s not his usual M.O. to stay out of the action."

  The look on my face let her know how dubious I thought her plan was. "I'd love to imagine that I can keep her busy without her killing me or draining me, but do you honestly think that's how it's going to go down?"

  "Grace, it has to. "Do you want someone capable of doing what she did to Serena

  running around free?"

  My face hardened. "No."

  "Then take her down, but don't kill her. At the very least, we'll need to question her. I'll put her with my collection. I can communicate with them even when they're turned to stone."

  "You don't think that will exacerbate her madness?"

  She paused for a few moments, mulling the question over in her mind. "I'll put her in a public place where she can be worshiped. That's all she's ever really wanted - acknowledgment for her greatness. Love."

  I sighed and shook my head. "Okay, if you think it's the best way to go, then let's do it."

  A crack sounded across the clearing, and we turned to watch Georgie plow a giant fist through the foundation holding the obelisks in place. She punched and kicked a few more times until each of the stones cracked and fell into the ocean below, then stood back and watched what her destruction had wrought. The pleasure from her action was evident on her face, even from this far away and the bridge shook as she did a little happy dance.

  "She's like a gods-damned puppy; she's so freakin' cute." Medusa rolled her eyes and swept up a discarded sword. "We better get over there, or we're not going to have a way to get into a palace." She looked back at me, but I'd dropped to my knees.

  The wave of power that hit me was crippling. It felt like my body had been starved of power for so long that every single one of my cells was heaving breaths to take it in. If it didn't stop, I'd explode from the force of it.

  CHAPTER
TWENTY-THREE

  "Grace?"

  "I'm going to die," I grunted out. Exploding seemed eminent.

  "Well expend some of that energy. Jesus, you're such a noob."

  "I," I stopped to pant. "Don't know how to do that."

  "Well don't set everything on fire. Maybe move some dirt around?" Medusa sounded as baffled as I felt.

  I'd love to create a bridge for us, but this power didn't seem like flame or earth. It felt lighter, more ethereal.

  "Grace," a sharp crack sounded, and my cheek screamed in protest of the pain. "You need to push it out."

  "I don't know what it is," I grit out.

  "Shit, this is a bad time for you to get a new power." She gave me an accusing glare, and I threw my hands up to ward off whatever attack she was going to lay out for me next.

  "Don't hit me again. God - blammit! I'm trying to figure it out!" The panic actually lessened some of the pressure, and I was able to take a deep breath. However, when I blew it out, the force sent the leaves in front of me skittering through the air. What? No! I'd been trying to channel my Air power for months. Nearly a year, actually. Poseidon, Cupid - well everyone had been trying to get me to access that part of my brain. None of it had worked, and they'd finally just given up. Diana and Zeus knew that I had more powers in my arsenal, but until my brain and body were willing to access them, I was a two-trick pony. Medusa was right. Now wasn't the best time to have this happen. It took me awhile to control new powers, as evidenced by my inability to stop myself from bursting into flames, and the thought that I could accidentally create tornadoes or suck the oxygen out of the room terrified me.

  "Damn it. I didn't think I'd have to do this here. Why couldn't you do this during your adolescence like the rest of the Atlancean kids?" She sliced back and forth through the leaves and dirt. The snakes on her head, haloed around her face, jerking back and forth with agitation. "Okay. Take a deep breath and try to visualize what this power looks like."

  "You mean what kind of rubber band it is?"

  "What?" she asked, confused.

  "My powers look like a rubber band ball - All clogged together and twisted. I've been able to pick out the fire and earth as well as my tele— you know what? You don't need all that information. But, is that what you mean?"

  She blew out a breath and looked outward, thinking. "Yeah if that's how you visualize your powers, go for it. But find it and follow it. See how it looks within you so you can relax whatever 'it' is."

  "Do we have time for that?"

  "No." She snapped. "But it's that, or you're incapacitated for the fight, and frankly I need you, or we're not getting home. So, pull your shit together Grace, and figure it out." Near the end, she'd begun roaring at me. The T snapped at the end of her diatribe, and the smaller snakes shuddered and coiled tightly against her head.

  I didn't think that Medusa would kill me here, but I wasn't going to take that chance. Ugh. This was the worst time for this to happen. With that said, I hadn't had such an infusion of power, well, ever. Maybe it knocked a few somethings loose.

  "Shit. Okay. Just give me five minutes. Get Mistress Destructo over there to calm down or sweep through the palace to displace that nervous energy."

  We both looked over to Georgie hopping and skipping across the bridge, delighting in the panicked screams of the guards trying to guard the entrance to the palace.

  Medusa snickered. "She looks like she's having so much fun. I almost hate to stop her."

  "Well, we're going to need that bridge. So, if she knocks it all down, we're gonna have a hell of a time getting inside."

  "With that barrier down, we don’t need the bridge. But damned if she doesn’t need to be reined in," she snapped before darting off to contain George.

  I looked around the clearing and spotted my giant Porcupine laying on top of several soldiers. He was rolling back and forth trying to get comfortable. “Don’t kill any of them if you can help it,” I hollered.

  He chittered back at me and wiggled a bit more. Porkchop would keep an eye on the soldiers for us. That was one less thing we had to worry about, thank the gods.

  When I first discovered my rubber band ball, it was compressed and tangled up. It had taken a few hours of meditation to get it untangled enough that I could discover my teleportation powers. I learned a few other things about myself in there too. But I hadn't revisited it in a long time. I don't know why not. Maybe the thought of how powerful I could become scared me more than my curiosity. Having been raised as a human, I feared what I could do now. Sure, I was lazy enough that I took my teleportation and internal heater for granted. It was scads easier to teleport than walk, and who needed a fireplace when I had myself? But the other stuff, well it was a bit overwhelming.

  The thing was, I knew myself. I knew that I could be flighty, irrational, cowardly and quick to knee-jerk. Working on those was always a priority. That was part of being human, right? You continued to work on the flaws and be better than you were the day before. Sure, I wasn't human, but that core set of values hadn't disappeared with my gene wipe. What I really wanted was someone to hold my hand and get me through this. Unfortunately, nobody was around to do that. It was on me, and I needed to follow Medusa's advice and pull it together.

  I closed my eyes and looked inward. The ball was an expanded wreck. Things that had been untwisted - my family life, my dreams for the future, were all tangled again. The fire band was bright red and glowing, the aggressive little bugger. The brown band that represented my earth powers was stable and robust, it bridged the rest, and many of the bands twined against it. There was my stability.

  Off to the side, growing brighter was a white band. I'd thought it was teleportation when I first saw it and I'd stroked it, hoping to bring it to life. Now I realized that it wasn't teleportation, but air instead. That burst of power had strengthened the tensile band, and it glowed and twitched as it strained against the bonds around it.

  The last thing we wanted was for it to snap.

  Reaching in, I gathered it closer to the other two bright bands and adjusted it, so it was more secure. I was admiring my work, when my awareness was suddenly jerked back into reality, snapping me out of my meditation. Blinking at the sudden shock, I looked down to see a sword sticking through my chest.

  "Well that was unexpected," I gurgled, blood spilling from my lip.

  Dmitri was standing triumphantly over my body, sneering down at me. "You should never have turned your back on me. I am her scorpion, left to sting."

  "What?" I breathed, giving him an irritated scowl. How had Georgie missed this? He should have projected this in living color when she’d scanned him. Was it yet another of Nemesis’ time bombs?

  You know what really pisses me off about the bad guys? It's not that they're crazy. It's not even that they do horrific things. I mean, without a doubt, that's enough to piss anybody off. But it seems programmed into their makeup that they have monologue you to death. They make these wild proclamations that excuse all their bad behavior and then expect you to admire them for it. You never see Bob Smith walking around telling people that he's a scorpion left to sting. Bob’s more worried about whether he's going to get bitched at for not mowing the lawn; or if his favorite football team is going to make it to the finals that year.

  Villains have these delusions of grandeur. They need to be special, different. Worse, we fetishize their bad behavior. You see people in the news that slaughter their families, other people's families. Instantly they're macabre superstars. Maybe if we started quietly putting them down and moving on with our day, they'd stop creating these spectacles.

  Buddy, we all want to be special and different. Doesn't mean we need to make a three-ringed circus act out of our lives!

  "You will meet your doom at the hands of my mistress. Now that the barrier is down, she's going to return for the prize. She's going to boil your bones and eat your—"

  He stopped at my disgusted look and looked uncertain. I raised my hand toward him, try
ing to keep it from shaking and said, "Shut the fuck up, already. Should have…. cut my head off…" The last came out as a gasp as my lungs struggled to inflate.

  His body flew backward and cracked against a tree. The tree bent but didn't break. The same could not be said for his neck. Dmitri's head hung at an odd angle on his shoulders, as if the spine holding it up had been obliterated completely.

  I can safely say that his demise didn't produce any feelings of guilt. But I still had a sword poking through my lung, and I needed that gone.

  The hilt was too far back for me to reach so in the end, I just left it in there and poured all of my concentration on keeping my lung inflated. How fortuitous that I'd just discovered a power that allowed me to do that. It was like my body was one step ahead of me. My biggest fear right now was that my flesh would heal around the sword and I'd have a crap time getting it out and having to heal again.

  "Oh George, I really need you." I sagged against a trunk and tried to take a couple of deep breaths.

  The air around me shimmered, and like a genie, Georgie was standing before me, bending down and peering at the sword sticking out of my back.

  "Damn, Grace. That looks like it hurts."

  "It does," I said. If my voice was a little high pitched, we both ignored it.

  "Want me to help you out with that?"

  I nodded slowly. "Yeah, I could use some help with it."

  She grimaced. "It's gonna hurt. I'm sorry for that."

  "Sorry for interrupting your play time." And I was. She really did look like she was having a lot of fun.

  "Well, I left Medusa there to play. You know how she is, if there's destruction to be wrought, she's going to have a good time with it. Did you know that her little snakes have individual thoughts? They're kind of bas—"

  She yanked the sword out without warning, and I let out a shriek. "SON OF A BISCUIT!"

  "—ic thoughts." She continued as if I hadn't made a peep. "But they're amusing. One of them is a little neurotic, and I'm dying to poke at it to see if it affects her reasoning."