The Blood of the Hydra (19 page)

“How…?” Calliope said, her eyes darting around the room. Finally, she focused back on Danielle. “How did you do that?”

Danielle smiled smugly, and for once I was glad that she always looked haughty no matter what. “My friends and I aren’t just any common witches,” she said. “The gods have gifted us with powers over the elements. As you saw, my element is water.”

“I’m fire,” Blake said, flicking on his lighter. He balanced the flame in his hand until it was the size of a basketball. He divided it into four and sent each one flying into a waterfall, where they sizzled out in the water.

Then, all of the rocks that decorated the waterfalls began to shake, until the rumbling filled the entire room. With a wave of Kate’s hand, they stilled again, and it was silent. “Earth,” she said simply.

Calliope just nodded in response.

“And I’m the aether,” I said, stepping forward and taking Calliope’s hands in mine. I gathered white energy, sending it out of my palms and into hers, the warmth of it buzzing through my veins. When I pulled my hands away, the scabs around her fingernails were gone, her skin now soft and smooth. “The central element,” I explained. “Otherwise known as spirit. I have the ability to heal.”

“Wow.” Calliope examined her hands, awestruck. “Thank you. Not even the best milk treatments have been able to do that.” Then she turned to Ethan, her face relatively calm given everything we’d just thrown at her. “I would assume that you’re air?” she asked him.

“Actually, no,” he said, smiling sheepishly. “I’m a son of Zeus. The Elementals rescued me from the Land of the Lotus Eaters. My sister and I were trapped there for two and a half years… well, it’s a long story. But the guy who’s air is resting right now. He needed to recharge after he flew our yacht over Charybdis.”

Calliope opened her mouth, then closed it, and then opened it again. “He flew… a yacht… over
Charybdis
?” she finally said. “Our guests are all allowed to portal in.”

“Why take a portal when we can fly the yacht?” I waved away the feat, as if it were no big deal. No need to bring her attention to the fact that we weren’t approved guests. “Once Scylla noticed, she got mad and tried to attack us, so we blinded one of her heads and blew up another one. That held her off long enough for us to pass through the strait. Anyway, we’re on an important mission for the gods, and we need to talk to Lampetia.” I leveled my gaze with Calliope’s, hoping I looked intimidating and commanding. “Now.”

“Of course,” she said, taking her phone out of her bag. “I’ll call her on her private line. Just… give me a second.” She hurried toward the back room, her heels clacking against the tile. She only looked back at us once, and when she did, I swear I saw fear in her eyes.

“Do you think it worked?” Kate asked after a few seconds.

“Well, she’s calling
someone
,” Danielle said, resting her hand on the hilt of her sword. “If not Lampetia, then I’m guessing it’s security.”

“If she
does
call security, we’ll fight them,” I said, ready to grab my bow at a moment’s notice. “Because we’re not leaving this island without that milk.”

Calliope came out ten minutes later, looking markedly less frazzled than she had when she’d rushed out of the lobby. “Lampetia will meet with you in thirty minutes,” she said. “Cars aren’t allowed on the island—the exhaust is
terrible
for the skin—so like everyone who lives here, she travels by golf cart. She hopes you understand. In the meantime, you can wait in our deluxe overwater bungalow suite. I’ll lead you there, so please, follow me.”

She led us out of the lobby and onto an overwater dock that passed by the bungalows. The water around us was topaz blue—so bright that it hardly seemed real. The dock curved farther and farther out into the sea, until we reached the largest bungalow at the very end.

“Here we are,” she said, opening the door and motioning for us to enter. “This is the nicest room we have to offer—a few celebrities have stayed here, although of course I can’t name names.” She winked, as if we should know who she was talking about. “Make yourselves at home. There’s food and drinks in the fridge, and a plunge pool on the back deck. Lampetia should be here shortly. In the meantime, is there anything else I can get for you?”

“No,” I said, walking to the back and sliding open the door. The stunning view took my breath away. The crystalline sea appeared to go on forever, the sky was perfectly clear, and the towering green mountains looked like they’d come straight out of a fairy tale. “This is great. Thank you.”

She just smiled in response, and then she left the bungalow, closing the door with a quiet click.

“It’s too bad Chris isn’t here,” Kate said. “He would have loved this.”

“Why don’t you take some pictures?” I suggested. “Then when we get back, you can show him what he missed.”

And that’s how, despite the pressure of being here on a dangerous mission to save the world from wrathful gods, the group of us spent the next half hour taking silly photos together in the bungalow. After all, we were in one of the most luxurious resorts in the world. This bungalow probably cost more for one night than most apartments did for an entire month. It would be a crime to leave without photographic evidence that we were here.

Although, we would never be able to
show
the photos to anyone, since our parents all thought we were on a school trip to Washington DC. I hated not being able to be honest with my family, but it was for their own safety. I had to remind myself of that to keep myself from feeling
too
guilty.

Eventually someone knocked on the door, and we put our phones away, sitting quietly on the sofas as if we’d been waiting patiently this entire time.

“Come in,” Danielle said, as cool and refined as ever.

A woman walked inside, and she was so beautiful that we could do nothing but stare in awe. Her skin glowed with ethereal luminance, her frost-blonde hair flowed down to her thighs, and her eyes gleamed as if they held the light of the sun within them. Her long, white gown flowed and shimmered behind her as she walked, like she was a Grecian princess who’d stepped right out of the ancient times.

She stopped in front of us, clasped her hands together, and met each of our eyes. Her pleasant expression didn’t falter for a second. “Hello,” she said, her voice light and musical. “I hear you’ve requested my presence—and that you have quite an interesting story to share with me.”

“Yes,” I said, sitting straighter and taking the lead. “Although, it’s kind of a long story. We know you’re super busy, and we don’t want to take up too much of your time, so maybe we should get straight to it and tell you why we’re here.”

“Don’t be silly.” She laughed—the most tinkling, lovely laugh I’d ever heard. “Here on Thrinacia, we strive to bring happiness and serenity to every guest who stays with us. And what makes people happier than hearing an entertaining story? So please—tell me your story. I would so love to hear it.”

Ethan got up from his armchair, tripping slightly as he stood. His gaze was so fixated on Lampetia that I supposed the location of the floor was the last thing on his mind. “Would you like to sit?” he offered, motioning to his chair.

“Yes.” She nodded, giving him an approving smile. “Thank you.”

She situated herself on the armchair, and Ethan headed to the dining room to bring over another seat. He placed it right next to Lampetia and sat down. He was transfixed by her—he hadn’t seen anyone else in this room since she’d entered.

Lampetia sat straight on the chair, as if she were a queen and it was her throne. “Now,” she said, turning her focus back to me. “You said it was a long story. So please, start at the beginning. I want to hear it all.”

Together, the four of us—me, Blake, Danielle, and Kate—told Lampetia about who we were and how we’d gotten there. We started from the beginning—the day I’d first arrived in Kinsley—and continued on from there. The sun had finished setting by the time we’d completed the story, the last hints of light sneaking their final peeks over the horizon.

“And now we’re here on Thrinacia so we can retrieve the second ingredient we need—the milk from Helios’s immortal cattle,” I concluded. “We thought you might get angry at us if we tried to steal it, so we figured it was best to speak with you directly to see if you would be willing to help.”

She eyed me up for a few seconds, and I feared she might say no. “It was a risky move, coming to me,” she finally said. “Since, as I’m sure you know, my father Helios is a Titan.”

My stomach dropped, and I said nothing. I’d always assumed that Helios was a minor Olympian god. Why did no one mention that he was a
Titan
?

I reached for my bow, ready for a fight. We might not stand much of a chance against a goddess, but we owed it to ourselves to try. After all, we weren’t supposed to have a chance against Scylla, and we’d blown up one of her heads. Who knew the full extent of what we could do?

“It’s not risky at all,” Kate said, although her voice shook slightly. “Helios fought with the Olympians in both the Battle of the Titans
and
the Second Rebellion. And since you’re here and not in Kerberos, you must have fought with him, too.”

“Correct.” Lampetia laughed, shaking her hair over her shoulders. “I didn’t mean to frighten you. It’s just… things get rather dull around here sometimes, and your reactions to that were quite entertaining. Although, fierce daughter of Apollo, it would take more than an arrow to slay me.”

I dropped my hands onto my lap. “I would never do that,” I said, although my voice faltered.

“Yes, you would.” Lampetia’s small, amused smile never left her lips. “And I would expect nothing less of you. But don’t worry! Of course I’ll help you. Or at least I’ll try. I take it you want me to give you access to the immortal milk, do you not?”

“Yes,” I said. “We keep hearing about your milk spa treatments. So the immortal milk must be in the resort, right?”

Lampetia threw her head back and laughed, loud and musical, filling the entire room. “Silly girl,” she said between breaths. She finally managed to get ahold of herself, but her eyes still danced in amusement. “You don’t want
that
milk. It’s powdered garbage that we ship in from the mainland!”

Danielle arched an eyebrow. “You’re supposed to have the best milk treatments in the world,” she said, pointing to the brochure on the coffee table. “I read about it in there. ‘Bathe in the sacred milk, and then have it massaged deep into your skin to unveil a fresh, youthful glow like the immortal gods themselves.’ Everyone who comes here expects the milk to be from Helios’s cattle. But you’re ripping them off?”

“It sounds so awful when you say it like that.” Lampetia flicked her hand in the air, as if tossing the thought away. “I’m not ‘ripping them off.’ I’m simply making a smart business decision. Our spa treatments make us the prime destination for witches all over the world. If people knew that Helios’s sacred cows refused to share their milk with anyone… no one would come here anymore! They would jet off to Tahiti, or Bora Bora, or somewhere trendy like that. We had to do
something
to make us stand out. And what stands out more than an exclusive opportunity to bathe in the milk of Helios’s immortal cows themselves?”

“Except the milk isn’t
really
from the immortal cattle,” I reminded her. “It’s powder from a bag.”

“Details, details,” Lampetia said, laughing again. “It takes
so
much milk to fill up a Jacuzzi. Powdered milk is much more economical. Throw in a few bath bombs, and no one knows the difference! The bath will still leave you feeling youthful and refreshed—which is what they want, anyway. Who cares if the milk comes from a bag or from the udders of the sacred immortal cows?”

Blake pressed the pads of his fingers together, watching Lampetia with suspicion. “Except that from what you told us, it would be impossible to get the milk from the cows at all,” he said. “Since they refuse to share their milk with anyone.”

“Which is
exactly
why we have to resort to powdered milk!” She smiled and nodded at him, so enthusiastic that her hair bounced around her face. “I like this one,” she said, pointing to Blake. “He gets it.”

Ethan pressed his lips together, his hands curled into fists. “I don’t think Blake was trying to support your spa treatments,” he said. “It sounds more like he’s pointing out that you said you would help us get the milk from Helios’s cattle… but how are you going to do that when the cows refuse to be milked?”

“Since the gods sent you here for the milk, I figured they also told you how to go about getting it,” she replied. “But I’m more than happy to lead you to the cattle! It’s truly perfect timing. My sister is in charge of caring for them throughout the day—she really is quite protective of them—and since the sun has set, by now she’ll have brought them to the barn and retired to bed. You know how those farm girls are—early to bed, early to rise! So it’ll be easy to lead you to the cattle without her asking what I’m doing. I’m the only other person on this island who has access to them, so you did the right thing in coming to me!”

“At least it’s a start,” Danielle muttered.

“You
do
know how to milk the cows,” Lampetia said. “Do you not?”