Sweet Legacy (Sweet Venom)

by Tera Lynn Childs

  The world around me blurs and I squeeze my eyes open and shut in an attempt to clear the picture. I can’t save Grace if I can’t see.

  Desperation drives me. I push to my feet, fighting dizziness and nausea as twin sets of Grace and the clawed woman—bladed hand still around my sister’s neck—move in and out of focus. When the two images finally converge, I gasp as I see the claws of the other hand moving toward Grace’s throat.

  I try to shout for help, but the nausea overpowers me and I bend over, clutching my stomach.

  I look up, my vision spinning, expecting—fearing—that I’ll see Grace eviscerated by the woman’s claws. Instead, I see Thane running. Sword held high, he swings it in a sideways arc, connecting the flat edge with the woman’s head.

  Her hand slacks and Grace falls from her grip as the clawed woman crumples to the ground in an unconscious heap.

  I want to cry with relief. Every lesson Mother ever taught me about maintaining my composure in the face of crisis evaporates, and I’m overcome by emotion. I let it overtake me.

  “Are you okay?” Thane demands of his sister.

  Tears tickle at the corners of my eyes and I blink them away, trying to regain control. Grace is alive. Everything is going to be all right.

  “Yes, I’m—” She shakes her head. “Greer,” she says. “Help Greer.”

  Help me? I don’t need help. I try to tell them I’m fine now that my vision has come true, but it sounds muffled and weak.

  My tongue feels like a sponge, growing and expanding in my mouth until I feel like it’s going to choke me from within. I frown, trying to comprehend this strange sensation.

  Thane is at my side instantly, pulling his backpack off and digging around inside. He’s frowning. He’s worried about me. No one ever worries about me. Greer can take of herself, Mother always says. If she cannot, she will not learn how by being coddled.

  I can’t take my eyes off Thane’s face, the serious and concerned look wrinkling his forehead. It’s a good forehead. Strong, solid. Loyal.

  What an odd thought.

  The boy is loyal, a faint, foreign voice echoes in my mind.

  “She’s been scratched,” Thane says to Grace.

  She asks, “Is that bad?”

  He doesn’t answer.

  I don’t even care.

  He saved her. He saved Grace and my vision came true. I have to let him know, have to tell him about the vision. He should know that he’s supposed to be here, that I knew what would happen. I have to at least smile. My mouth refuses to cooperate.

  “Damn it,” he curses as he pulls a bottle out of small zippered bag. “Forgot cotton balls.”

  “Here,” Grace says, followed by the sound of fabric ripping. “Use this.”

  Thane takes the piece of shirt Grace offers him. He twists the cap off the bottle, pours some of its contents onto the cloth, and then reaches for my face.

  Stormy gray eyes meet mine, and I’m transfixed.

  “You’re going to be fine,” he says. “But this is going to sting.”

  The instant he dabs the cloth on my cheek, I see stars. Bright, bold streaks of light flash across my vision even though my eyes are open, like shooting stars inside my head. Like when I held the pendant of Apollo in my palm to seek out how to get Gretchen back from this awful place.

  The pain is so sharp, I feel my consciousness fading.

  “What happened?” I hear Gretchen ask.

  Thane replies, “Keres venom.”

  “Hell,” Nick utters.

  “She’ll be fine,” Thane says, like he won’t allow anything less.

  Grace insists, “Of course she will.”

  I can hear the fear in her voice, but I refuse to be frightened. I refuse to drag my attention away from Thane’s eyes, sure and steady and focused on me. He keeps dabbing the wet cloth on my face—on my forehead, my chin, my lips—but his gaze doesn’t shift. Something in his eyes pulls at me. I need him. I know nothing about him except that he’s Grace’s adopted brother, but I feel myself getting drawn, deeper and deeper, into the dark gray of his eyes.

  As the liquid sears my face, his eyes anchor me, keeping me strong.

  Soon, though, even that is not enough.

  Finally the pain gets to be too much, and I succumb to the lure of the unconscious. As I close my eyes, I whisper, “You saved her.”

  He whispers back, “You knew I would.”

  I open my eyes, but nothing changes. I saw black, and I still see black. Blinking several times does nothing to change my vision. Natasha must have drawn the blackout shades. I have asked her countless times not to do that without alerting me. Waking up to sunlight is far preferable to encountering utter darkness.

  Perhaps I will have Mother speak with her this time.

  No, I will handle it myself. No need to bother Mother.

  I draw in a deep breath—and practically choke on the stench. Why does my room smell like decaying garbage?

  When I try to move, pain pulses through my body.

  Oh, yes. Now I remember. Not my room. Not my house or even my realm. Memories wash through my brain like a vision, but these things have already happened. The monsters. The battles. The creature that almost killed Grace and knocked me off my feet.

  “Ugh,” I groan. That explains the throbbing pain.

  “Greer?” a male voice asks in the dark.

  I smile.

  “Thane?” I realize I’m lying down and attempt to sit up. “Where are you?”

  “Shhhh,” Grace says.

  An instant later the world around me lights up with a warm yellow glow. Grace, flashlight in hand, appears in front of me. Strands of hair hang loose from her ponytail, but she is smiling and unhurt.

  We’re in a tiny space, barely tall enough for her to sit up without brushing her head on the ceiling.

  “What’s going—”

  She pushes a hand over my mouth before I can finish the question. “We’re in a cave,” she whispers, “waiting for Gretchen and Nick to get back.”

  Thane appears in the glow next to her, bent over in the cramped space. He fills the cave with his body and the energy of his presence—strong and certain, not afraid like before I blacked out. He looks relieved.

  “Stay still,” he warns. “The poison is still in your system.”

  “Poison?” At Grace’s warning look I lower my volume. “What poison?”

  He leans closer. “The antidote to the Keres venom,” he whispers right next to my ear. “It’s a poison your system can process, but it takes time.”

  Grace moves to my side. “Thane saved you. He knew exactly what to do.”

  I don’t miss the look she gives her brother, but his eyes don’t leave my face. She’s asking a question he isn’t ready to answer yet. I have the same question—and then some.

  He reaches out and gently touches my face. I wince at the slight sting.

  “The wounds are healing,” he says. “Shouldn’t be much longer.”

  He drops his hand, but he doesn’t pull it away. I feel the heat of it right next to mine, like he wants me to know he’s right there if I need him.

  “How did I get here?” I ask. “What happened to all those monsters?”

  There were so many of them. I know we were holding our own, but Grace and Thane had to stop to take care of me.

  Grace shrugs. “They’re gone. A few of them are dead. Some ran away. Gretchen and Nick are dragging the unconscious ones into another cave and tying them up so they can’t bring back reinforcements.”

  She says it casually—a few of them are dead—but I can tell the deaths bother her. She’s too kindhearted for them not to. They don’t bother me. After seeing one of those horrible creatures nearly slice Grace’s throat open, I’d be happy to see every last one of them drawn and quartered.

  “After they finish, Gretchen and Nick are going to scout around,” she continues, “to make sure there aren’t any more in waiting.” She nods at her brother. “We brought you here so y
ou could recover somewhere safe.”

  “The antidote is almost as bad as the venom,” Thane says. His thumb brushes against my palm, and a shiver races up my arm. “But it was the only way.”

  I hear his unspoken meaning. It might hurt like hell, but it’s worth the pain. Better the unpleasant side effects of the antivenom than the alternative—death. He didn’t just save Grace’s life, I know. He saved mine.

  And he barely knows me.

  I have to thank him. I have to tell him—about the vision and our strange connection and my gratitude. But not in front of my sister—his sister. My head aches. I hope that’s not as complicated as it seems. He’s not my brother.

  I glance at Grace and find her watching me. She flicks her gaze at Thane and then back at me, raising her brows in silent question. I don’t know how to answer. I don’t understand what’s going on between me and her brother any more than she does.

  She flashes me a quick smile and then twists her head toward the cave entrance.

  “Hey, did you guys hear something?”

  Thane shakes his head, and I say, “No.”

  “I’m sure I did,” she says, turning back to me with a wink. “I’d better go check. I’ll be right back.”

  She hands the flashlight to Thane and then turns to crawl to the front of the cave. She’s giving us some privacy.

  The moment she’s out of the light, I say, “Thank y—”

  His mouth brushes over mine before I can finish, strong but soft. It’s gone just as quickly, but he stays close, his face hovering inches above mine.

  “Don’t thank me.”

  I shake my head. It makes no sense—he saved our lives and we should be thanking him—but if he doesn’t want my gratitude, then I won’t force it on him. He’s earned that consideration.

  I won’t keep the rest of it inside, though. I won’t keep my vision—and his fulfillment of it—a secret. I have to share it with him, so he understands. So he knows why I needed him to come with us, why he’s supposed to be here.

  Why I know he’s supposed to be part of this story.

  “I saw it.” My voice is barely a whisper. I don’t want Grace to overhear, but I need to say it out loud to Thane.

  Even if he already knows.

  I can’t stop the tears stinging my eyes. “I saw you save her. Back in the apartment, when you said you wanted to come with us. I saw precisely what just happened. I knew you were going to save Grace.” I blink away the moisture. “I didn’t know you were going to save me.”

  “I know.”

  That is the craziest part. He does know.

  “But how?” I ask.

  I have no idea how or why I see what I see. The entire process is a mystery that feels more like chance than skill. I know I inherited Medusa’s power of second sight, while Gretchen got Sthenno’s super strength and Grace got Euryale’s autoporting ability. I know that I have visions of things and that those visions are coming true. I have no control over it, not yet. And I have no idea how Thane fits into the picture.

  “How?” I repeat.

  “Greer, I—” His gray eyes shadow over. “It’s complicated.”

  “I have an IQ of 154. Try me.”

  He takes a deep breath and looks me in the eye. “I . . . don’t know how to.”

  “There was nothing there.” Grace’s cheerful whisper cuts through the darkness, but not the tension. “Guess I was hearing things.”

  If she was trying to leave us alone to talk, she didn’t give it enough time.

  Thane pulls away to a less intimate distance. The space between us feels like miles.

  Grace crawls back to my side.

  “Here,” she says, pressing a water bottle into my hand. “You should probably stay hydrated.”

  I cast one more look at Thane, who is staring toward the cave entrance, lost in thought. We will finish this conversation later.

  “Thanks,” I tell Grace. I twist the cap off and take a drink.

  The water is cool and crisp and I feel it hit my stomach, spreading out in an icy wave. If my stomach is this empty, hours must have passed since I forced down a protein bar before we opened the portal. This is time wasted. We didn’t venture into the abyss to sit around in a cave recuperating.

  “We need to get moving.” I shift, testing the pain. It’s a little better. My body isn’t one hundred percent, but my mind knows we should be doing something.

  “You need to rest for a little longer,” Grace replies.

  “I’m fine,” I insist.

  “Besides,” she says, giving me a scolding look, “Gretchen and Nick are coming back here when they’re done scouting. We have to stay put.”

  I am not a particularly patient person. Sitting around waiting goes against my nature. But a small part of me is relieved—I am nowhere near full strength yet. Besides, we can’t do this alone. We need to remain where Gretchen and Nick left us until they return. Which means that, for now, we wait.

  My questions for Thane wait, too. In the dim glow of the flashlight, I watch him while he pretends not to watch me.

  CHAPTER 3

  GRETCHEN

  Even with my eyes fully adjusted to the practically nonexistent light of the abyss, I can barely make out our surroundings. Black, black, and more black, with a greenish tint, just in case it wasn’t revolting enough. Good to see nothing’s changed since last time.

  The beastie ambush was a surprise. I’d like to know how they knew we were coming and where we’d come out—especially since we didn’t even know we were coming until a few hours ago.

  Luckily, my sisters held their own, and the boys turned out to be more useful than I expected. Not that I’d admit it to them, but I’m glad they came.

  “Looks like the coast is clear,” I say when I’m pretty sure none of the monsters have stuck around for a second try. The last thing we need is a repeat performance now that Greer is injured and we’re down by one while she recovers.

  If Thane hadn’t acted quickly with the antidote, we’d be down by one permanently.

  I turn to head back to where we left him and my sisters—I don’t like the idea of them being out of my sight in this place—and run smack into Nick.

  His hands wrap around my arms and he holds me in place.

  “Gretchen . . .” His dark blue eyes narrow in pain. “I had nothing to do with that attack. I was just as surprised as you were.”

  I watch him for a moment, checking for some reaction in his face and for some flicker of doubt in my gut. His face remains completely steady, and my gut is more worried about getting back to my sisters than the boy in front of me.

  Question answered.

  Finally, I nod. “Yeah, I know.”

  He flashes me a cocky grin, like he knew I’d believe him. I see the relief below the surface, though. He’s worried that I’m still not convinced he’s on our side. To be honest, I’m worried too, a little—worried that maybe I’m putting my feelings first. In any case, I’ve decided to trust him, and my gut agrees. Decision made.

  Without another word, we turn and start back for the cave where we left the rest of our group. We haven’t gone five steps when I hear something. I raise a hand, wordlessly telling Nick to stop. He freezes behind me, and I tune my ears to listen. Vast silence, punctuated by moans and groans from the depths of the abyss, nothing more. Maybe I only imagined—

  Then I hear it—a soft shuffle. Quiet footsteps on the cave floor. More than one set—at least five that I can count. The swish of something dragging across the ground.

  Whatever it is, it’s coming toward us from the other side of the rock formation just ahead.

  I place my hand around Nick’s wrist and—without waiting for him to respond—pull him after me. Seeking a better strategic position, I move up, over onto the nearest boulder. He follows right behind, and I release my grip so I can move stealthily.

  Belly-crawling across the smooth surface, I inch toward the edge of the rock, toward the sound that could be a million t
hings. A million dark and nasties.

  Whatever it is, I have to draw it away from my sisters.

  As I lean forward out over the edge to get a better view, I hold my breath. Surprise is a crucial advantage. Whatever is coming doesn’t know we’re here yet, and I don’t want to give away our position until I’m ready.

  I peer down, but I can’t see anything in the inky space below. The shufflings stop—all but one. Then I hear a loud “Oof!” followed by a vehement “Shh!”

  “Sorry,” a small voice says. “Not know we stopping.”

  “Shhhh!” Louder, and more irritated.

  “If you no want Sillus—”

  A loud smack, followed by an angry “Shut. Up.”

  Then a muffled “Sorry” that sounds more like “Rawry.”

  I smile. Leaning out as far over the edge as possible, I can barely make out several shapes below in the faint glow. One gleams in the green light, golden, metallic.

  The golden maiden.

  I hadn’t realized how tense I was at the prospect of another battle this soon after the first until now, when the relief washes over me. The creatures below are no threat. For now, the fighting can wait.

  I turn to grin at Nick, throwing a playful punch at his shoulder. Pushing to my feet, I scramble back down the way we came, leaving him to catch up.

  Back on ground level, I have to smother a laugh when I see one of the onyx guards struggling to hold a palm over Sillus’s little furry mouth—or, I should say, his big furry mouth. The group of seven creatures is trying so hard to be quiet—and they’re failing miserably. As I step out in front of them, I say, “You guys suck at stealth.”

  “Aaaack!”

  “Shhhhh! For the love of Zeus, Sillus,” the golden maiden blurts. “Do you want the entire Nychtian Army to hear you?”

  The little monkey monster peers out from under one of the pegasus’s silver-gray wings. “Sorry. Sillus say sorry. How many times?”

  The golden maiden rolls her shiny metal eyes at him. Huffing out a tight breath, she turns to face me as Nick steps to my side. “Gretchen, we—” She blinks. “Wait—are you Gretchen?”

  “The one and only.”