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I’m surprised when she lifts the scepter in her hand and shakes it like it’s a dog toy. “This is all you want?”
“I want that and your God Killer blade. I want you tofree the souls,” I demand. My eyes stay trained on the scepter and how carelessly she’s waving it about. I doubt it’s fragile, but it’s not like I want to fuck around and find out at this moment.
She throws it hard at the ground, and while we’re all distracted watching the scepter fall, we miss Posey’s actual attack. Whoever came with her appears out of the shadows, cloaked somehow. There is no time to question how she’s able to glamour her allies, because everything falls apart at once. Two of them break the circle by carving out one of the stones holding Ellie, who grins at me like she’s just won the lottery. I know the form of that body that’s helping her. Cassius, the god I thought I loved a very long time ago. The god I mourned when I thought Posey had killed him. The god who betrayed us. He gives me a wink before grabbing his accomplice, Lucky, and disappearing from the battle. I shouldn’t be surprised they’re both cowards.
I’m stepping toward the scepter, hoping to catch it before it hits the ground, but Essos grips my upper arm with a bruising strength, yanking me backward.
The moment feels like it’s in slow motion, but I see that it’s only us that have slowed, because out of the corner of my eye, Kai is reaching behind his back for his sword as the mele starts.
While the scepter descends to the ground, Posey throws a dagger, and not just any dagger, but the God Killer, at her husband. Xavier doesn’t see it because, like me, he’s trying to reach for the scepter. There is nothing I can do but watch in horror as it flips through the air toward its intended target. My body might be moving slowly, but my mind is going at a normal speed and all I can consider is how it will destroy Cat if Xavier dies. No amount of trying to force my body to move to block it will let me stop the weapon from its trajectory.
I’m not the only one whose notices because as I’m being tugged backward, Essos is trying to shoulder-check his brother out of the way, and it’s nothing but tragic as I feel my eyes widen at what is going to be the end result of Essos pushing his brother out of the way.
It won’t be Cat’s heartbreak. It will be mine. It takes me back to the moment I had to watch in horror as Cat took a dagger meant for me, only now I have to watch my husband be the one to take the brunt of the impact. Even though he’s been shoved, Xavier gets his hand on the scepter, stopping it from hitting the ground.
My scream shatters whatever Posey did to slow us all down. Ellie has made it to Posey’s side. Posey gathers Ellie into her arms for a moment, looking her over for damage. I can only watch the blade as it makes contact with my husband. His momentum to save his brother’s life sends him out of reach of me, so I do the thing that is within my reach.
If Posey thinks she can take away those I love, I can do the same to her.
Posey watches in horror as Ellie shrivels down until she is a small green plant, growing out of my floor. Even from where I stand, the scent of mint reaches me, but I don’t let my vengeance stop there. I speed through the life cycle of the garnish I promised I would turn her into. I watch as Ellie the mint shrivels up then I ground her down into nothing.
Posey’s shriek rattles the whole room, knocking candles from the wall. She falls to her knees, the rest of us seemingly forgotten as she grabs at all that is left of her daughter.
This woman has struck at Essos, the person I care most about, and if she thinks that she can do this, harm him, she’s wrong. I can’t think. I can’t look because I know that I’ll never be able to unsee my husband with a knife sticking out of his chest. It’s a horrible twist the way the Fates play with us. He had to watch me die with that very weapon and now I’ll have to see it, forever haunted by this memory.
I make myself look, and I nearly sag with relief. Posey is not a marksman. The hilt protrudes from Essos’s chest, closer to his shoulder in almost the same spot I stabbed her. His blue eyes find me before he gives me a slow blink, confirming that he’s okay.
Essos grunts when he pulls it out, letting it clatter to the ground. I want to rush toward him and tell him not to do that, especially when the wound releases a horrifying gush of blood. The need to protect him overrides my desire to be by his side.
Around us, the fighting continues and I realize that we’re outnumbered three to one. I glimpse numerous nymphs and dryads and other gods fighting. We may be outnumbered, but we’re stronger than the average god, and this is like child’s play for Bria, Kai, and Galen, who are in their element. Even if Posey stripped Helene and Kai’s powers, they’re unstoppable with how they fight. There are a few too many familiar faces on Posey’s side who are just as skilled, like Renner, the Goddess of Marksmen, and Hadeon, God of Disasters.
From the belt Essos wears, I tug loose the seed of a Redwood and grow it large to protect him while he gets to his feet. I pull the seeds out of my pocket and hurl them in the air, making the seeds grow into weapons that target any enemy that’s not a nymph or dryad. Those enemies would just absorb the plants into themselves and use them as fortification or as their own weapon. I want to scream when a nymph jumps in front of a spray and absorbs my weapons with a saucy grin. Her victory is short-lived because Helene spins her sword and slices the nymph’s head off with ease.
Dave, Spot, and Shadow have formed themselves into one, and I take a sick delight watching Dave grab for Renner. Shadow growls at him for taking what should have been her snack, but she snatches someone else up instead.
Galen gets punched in the nose, and he only laughs, with blood gushing down his face. He’s truly fearsome, snapping necks and ripping spines from Posey’s cohorts. He meets my gaze from across the room for a split second and although I’ve been around him plenty during the last few weeks, there is something about him wearing someone else’s blood that makes my blood run cold. I’m frozen to the spot, unable to do anything when he grabs a dagger and launches it in my direction. The breeze created by the small weapon kisses my cheek as it passes my face. The gurgling sound from behind me tells me his aim was true. When I spin, I find a minor deity falling to the ground, holding his throat until he stills, his eyes vacant. His limp hand falls away, exposing the dagger Galen threw.
Knowing that enemies are coming at us from all sides, I run back to my husband and press a hand to his chest. His blood seeps between my fingers too easily, and I have to blink away the tears in my eyes. Essos already looks so pale, his breathing more ragged than I would like. I want to yell and scream that you’re not supposed to pull the weapon out, but it’s past the point of making a difference.
Essos isn’t focused on his own wound. Instead, he presses my gloves into my hands.
“I’ll be all right,” he swears, but he’s breathless when he says it. He takes over pressing on his wound, but I can see it’s not enough pressure. I touch his belt, trying to see if there is anything I can use to pack the wound. I may not know much about first aid, but Cat and I binged enoughGrey’s Anatomythat I know Essos needs pressure. My thoughts keep spiraling on how I should know more, and how useless the things I did learn are.
“Put the gloves on,” Essos orders and it’s weaker than I want his voice to be. It’s enough to clear my head, for Essos and for Pom. My hands are shaking as I try to slide them on. Around me, a battle is waging, and all I can hear is Essos’s labored breathing and my own shaky breaths. He needs help, better help than I can give him. He needs Callie. Essos presses his hand to my cheek. “You’re a badass, and I love you.”
I can’t read into why he would say that, because I can hear Posey’s crying stop behind me.
“I’m going to fucking kill you,” Posey howls. She starts to progress toward me, and I throw vines up to grab her, but she’s in full control of her powers. The chip on her forehead seems to grow, and I realize that maybe it’s not that she’s in full control, but that her powers and emotions are too much. The wind whips around the room and the earth trembles.
I shoot vines out from my gloves, poison ivy and creeping Charlie, hoping to grab a hold of her and bind her up with it, but she sends fire burning up the vines and to my hands. I can’t get the gloves off fast enough before she burns me. The flames lick at my skin, and once the gloves are off, I see the pinkening of my skin.
I can see how this will play out. She can freeze time at any moment. Like me, she can’t think clearly; her grief is overriding her coherent thoughts. It’s my only advantage and maybe my only shot at saving my husband. If I can clear the battlefield and make this fight queen versus queen, I think I can do this. This moment, even if we didn’t know it, is what Kai and Finn and Essos have been training me for.
Essos gets to his feet, staggering as he does. With one look at me and my stomach, I can see his resolve hardens as he stands up straighter. He has one hand pressed to his wound, and blood is seeping out. I wish he was wearing black because I can see all the blood coating his grey suit.
It’s that resolve I see in my husband that solidifies my own. “Posey might be a Fate, but I am the daughter of Titans, and I have so much more to fight for. She’s unfocused right now. It’s my chance.” The words spill out of my mouth as I rationalize to him what I’m about to do.
Once Posey realizes what she can do, she’ll kill us all in the blink of an eye. The memory of Titus having his throat slit rises unbidden to my mind.
