Mystic Island

☼☼18☼☼

Raine

Piper crawled out of the waters when I reached a blockade of fallen trees. Whether or not the breaking of the palms had been intentional or not, it completely kept us from even seeing the fight that I could hear. I had lost sight of the silver-feathered hawk that had watched me from above, but I had to guess it was there. The watery being of Piper, was nearly transparent, and little droplets of water were thrown onto me by standing near her. Soon, she was skin and bones once more. She glanced at me.
“Wonderful,” Piper growled. “This wasn’t here before. The monsters must have the entire set of trees here felled. Just great.”
I stared up, but the pile of trees was too high for me to climb safely. I supposed that if I was careful, I could do it, but I would be spotted and shot down before I even reached the other side. Up there, I’d be a sitting duck. I looked to the water. “We could swim around.”
“I could maybe,” Piper remarked.
“I can swim, you know. Just because I’m a sky demigod doesn’t mean…”
“No, I don’t have any doubts in your swimming skills,” Piper said. “But the whole water right there ends with a huge jagged boulder. There is a small crack I could slip through if I was in my water form, but you…you’d sooner drown.”
Imagining drowning suddenly clenched my heart with an emotion for the idea I’d never felt before so intensely. Fear. Plain fear. My fear for magic, I noticed, was ebbing at a rate I’d never expected, but I was glad to rid of that phobia. But staring at those dark, churning waters…I had to gulp before I screamed.
What’s happening to me? I’ve always feared magic, or as far as I can remember, I have, but never have I feared water. Now, looking at it, I feel like I’m drowning now… I nodded. “Alright, you have another idea?”
Piper sighed. “I can hear Conor. Maybe we can go all the way around…”
“That’ll take forever!”
“So will standing here.”
“Well, maybe I can cut a hole in the wood for me to get through,” I said, drawing Lightning Strike again. But before I swiped, a bird cry echoed through the trees. The huge silver hawk swooped down over my head and two talon-toed feet grabbed my shoulders and carried me up.
This works too, I said to the animal.
Yes, you’re welcome, Artemis said. The yellow eyes of the bird scanned the trees, and I could faintly see Piper diving into the waves. I saw another girl, a dark-skinned one fending off a red-haired demigod. “Kayla!” I soundlessly screamed.
I’ll have to dive, the hawk told me. Do you trust me?
Do I have a choice?
No, not now. The hawk tightened its grip around me and pressed its wings against its sides. And soon, we were both zooming towards the earth at speeds I could have never imagined. When the ground appeared at an alarming rate, filled with demigods, I held my breath. But the gray bird opened its wide wings and we gently touched down to the sands. The hawk herself shimmered and shifted into Artemis, who had a bow with many arrows notched and ready to fire. I had my sword ready and charged a male demigod who was advancing on Jacob with his back turned. The boy yelled, “Traitor!” and raised his weapon to strike the poor red-headed demigod. But before he did, I cut him down at the neck, his head rolling gruesomely in the sands. Jacob finished off his enemy, and stared sadly at the boy I’d killed.
He was once my friend,” the shy demigod said solemnly. “Until I turned against him.” He smiled at me. “Raine. You saved my life.”
He stared at me with gratitude, and I uncomfortably nodded, and ran to take on another demigod. I allowed my power to fall to my instincts only, and I met the new enemy’s sword with superior swings. Yes, this one was no fool when it came to swordplay, but I cut her down soon. I had only stabbed her, but she was weakened as it was. I stared with little remorse for the older demigod who’d just been attacking Brooke, but had been driven off.
Artemis pulled the bowstring back, where we’d been standing before. She held it, waiting, and I stared at her exasperated. Someone would die if she waited too long. What was she waiting for? But then, when Rose had moved back and the new demigod was facing her with his back turned to the goddess, her fingers released the string.
With a flick noise, arrows screamed towards the clustering demigods. One stabbed Rose’s attacker in the back. Another brought a blonde girl down. Two more killed a couple pirates coming in on Kayla.
Nearly every demigod was dead, all except for Lea and young Caden. Our side’s warriors were tired, especially Rose, Brooke, and Kayla, who’d been fighting longer. They began to limp or walk, closing in the two, who had their weapons ready with hard expressions. I walked in front of the tired demigods protectively, and some who had not seen me before smiled gratefully. Lea opened her mouth, hissing in her surprisingly familiar voice, “So the wimp does show her face. You’ve killed all of my warriors. They were my friends! And you’ve killed them all!”
“Look, I didn’t kill them all,” I began, not trusting or liking the look that was flooding into Lea’s red face.
“Shut up!” Lea screeched. She had a long-bladed, silver iron sword, trembling in her anger-shaken hands. Caden had two long hunting knives in his littler fingers, gripping them so hard his knuckles were white. Each of them was a dark red, the color of metal stained with blood. His head was ducked down, the shadows giving him an evil look, and his wings were spotted with blood---but I assumed it wasn’t his blood.
Lea’s eyes flicked back to the trees and I could see movement…just not a specific shape. Well, whatever it was, it gave her a nod. Lea growled, and she said darkly, “Do you see the blood on my sword, Raine?”
“What about it?”
Lea put a hand across it, letting blood smear over her hand, and she gave me a sly look, an evil smile spreading out on her face. “I have battled every one of you. The daughter of Hades, Brooke, Rose…and my five little escapees.” She threw a wild glare at her former followers. “How are the little traitors? Bleeding externally, dying internally? I’m glad to hear it.” Caden smiled at that.
“But I do not have your blood,” the child of Iris said suddenly, looking up at me with glowing, hungry eyes. And with that, the fury-stricken demigod flew at me, swinging her long sword. Following my instincts, I ducked my head back, leaning far backward. I’m sure in slow motion that would have been epic…if only I’d stuck the landing and not tripped and fallen. Lea held her sword with two hands high over me, and I wondered why my friends did not come to my aid. I’d learned later that they had been held back by magic…stupid magic. Lea stabbed downward, the tip nearly piercing my heart, nearly. A loud roar erupted from behind the lines of my magic-gripped friends, and a huge, sandy-colored mountain lion slid around the lines to tackle Lea. Memories of Thanatus on the moonlit deck flooded over me and I saw Lea’s bloodied sword dropped onto the sands beside me. I grabbed it and held it clenched in my hand. If for some reason Lea should’ve escaped Artemis’s paws, then she would be defenseless. Caden yelled, “No!” and ran towards Artemis in her lioness form, but it was too late. The lioness bit down on her throat, and leaped away, dark blood on her muzzle. But then the cougar shook her feline head and rubbed the blood off onto the sand. The lioness stared right at me, still lying on the ground. Her thoughts rang in my head. Don’t ever let it come that close again, Raine Strike, do you hear me? I don’t know what she’s been eating, but that blood was bad. That was disgusting!
“Then why’d you do it?” I whispered.
I promised to protect you, didn’t I? I do not break my promises.
“I could have taken care of myself!”
The lion, although she was an animal, gave me a very human expression, one of pure sarcasm and disbelief. Uh huh. Brooke gave me a hand up.
Caden was at his foster sister’s side, weeping over her dead body. Then, through tears, he stared at the sandy lion with a look of pure hate. “How could you? Stupid goddess! I hate you!” He charged the immortal creature, which coiled her body into a pounce, tail lashing. She bared her teeth, and I could hear her thoughts directed at the furious boy. Come on then!
The son of Hermes brought his knives down upon Artemis’ pelt, which, being merely iron and meant for injuring demigods, bounced off, and she laughed, a purr as it seemed from her feline form, and stared at the teary child amusedly. But her purrs ended, and her ears pricked. Her blood-stained muzzle was pointed to the palms and a low growl began in her throat. Kayla’s dark eyes opened wide, and I remembered her ability to see ‘lights’, which were really the life fires of other beings, human or not. Brooke had her bow ready and Rose had her Cascade in hand. But instead of an army leaping out of the wood, one figure emerged from the shadows. Her very dark hair blew weakly across her face, making her devilish eyes even scarier. She clapped slowly, smiling almost in a congratulatory way, but it was too evil to really think of it as that. “Well, well,” Hecate purred. “It seems that my little demigod warriors have lost the battle. All I seem to have left is this young brat.” She gazed upon the red-faced wing-foot boy coldly. Her form drifted to where he was kneeling by Lea. “Even the whiny and stubborn leader couldn’t survive.”
“Lea was not whiny and stubborn!” Caden yelled, running stupidly towards Hecate with his two bloody knives. Hecate’s rainbow eyes glowed with amusement, but somehow not as light as Artemis’ had been. Caden didn’t think about what he did, and before he struck her, she held out a hand. A wave of magic trapped Caden in midair. He could not move, but unlike the bubble I’d once been trapped in, this was solid magic. He could not blink, speak…or breathe. While the boy inwardly struggled for air, I stared with horror. Eventually, the color emptied from his face, and Kayla whispered to me, “His light is gone.” Hecate had killed the nine year old boy.
Hecate dropped the lifeless Caden from her grasp and didn’t give him a second glance. Couldn’t have done it better myself, said a voice in my head. I stared at the lion, but she shrugged. Sorry, but it’s true!
Hecate’s cold eyes flashed. She turned her head towards the lion, and she bared her fangs. “I do not believe it. It cannot be!”
Artemis growled from within her lioness form. Hecate hissed, “Artemis, goddess of the Hunt. What are you doing among these idiot demigods?”
The mountain lion’s black ears pressed against her head and she hissed with fury. The animal’s yellow eyes were dark with hate.
“I have waited so long for this day,” Hecate purred. “So long have I waited to see you here. Why didn’t you ever come? Not for three thousand years? Are you afraid of a little challenge?”
The lion’s form flashed, and Artemis, in her regular form, stood beside me. “I can’t say I’m afraid of you, Hecate.”
“Oh no? You aren’t afraid of me? Why do you come here, so vulnerably? Are you wishing for death?”
“Are you just going to keep stalling by asking questions?”
“You’re right,” the witch goddess agreed. She opened her bat wings, and motioned to something in the darkness. Lines of monsters moved to stand at the foot of the forest. “We should end this without all of these half-blooded spectators.” She called to a pack of shinytongues. “Nixta, your pack. Dispose of the demigods.” Twenty hellhounds leaped out of the forest, but, while we braced ourselves for combat, there was a stream of moonlight dash before me and washed over the leaping dogs. Dying howls cried out through the lines where the devils had run, and now there were pawprints in the sand, becoming gone by the gentle breeze.
Hecate gave no second thoughts to her dead companions. She stared at Artemis with eyes of bloodlust. She bared her teeth, and she murmured, “Why do you protect these demigods, Artemis? You have no connections with them; you only try to please your father, as always.”
Those words seemed stinging, for they caused Artemis to flinch. She moved before me protectively. “I told you then, and I’m telling you now. I pleaded with my family to allow you to join. But you know how the three are. They are the most stubborn ever, and you know they all despise me.”
I felt a nudge behind me. I didn’t take my eyes off of the confrontation between the two so similar to twins. I saw out of the corner of my eye a dark, frightful face with even darker eyes. “Raine. Is she talking about you, Brooke, and Rose? ‘Cause Rose said that you’re the Epic Three…”
“No, Kayla.”
“Oh okay.” When Kayla spoke again, Hecate gave us a very shimmering smile. “Have something to say, daughter of the death lord?”
Kayla’s face grew pale, but she pursed her lips, and stood still, staring at Hecate with the hardest expression. Hecate rolled her eyes. “Yes, you’re quite the brave one,” she sneered.
Hecate’s own form flashed, and the ghost-like witch slithered by Artemis, the yellow-eyed goddess turning her eyes only stonily. The glow of red reflected on the huntress’ pale skin, and the fangs glinted in the light of the sun that dappled the ground through the leaves. “If only this could become more interesting.” She began in a hiss, and Artemis turned to her with a python-like hiss, fangs spread wide apart. Hecate slipped back to the line of the forest. “Now, now. Don’t do anything rash, huntress. You wouldn’t want any harm to come to your little friend.” She glared at me hungrily. “Becoming quite attached to that demigod, aren’t you?” Artemis built a growl within her throat, and Hecate snarled with laughter.
“While fighting fate to keep this death-ready idiot alive,” Hecate purred, “have you forgotten about the one you’d come here for? The one you’d lost? The one my hellhound had stolen in her sleep?”
Artemis’ form rippled as she nearly lost control to shift into some dangerous creature that could hopefully tear Hecate in half…actually, I wouldn’t have minded that. I held Lightning Strike ready against my side when Hecate took a step forward…but she stopped. She held a hand out to the blockade of fallen palms. A coven of empousae floated to the trees, and they tore the palms down. I gasped. Though I had originally thought that the dam had been solid, when the empousae collapsed it, there was one pole standing. And tied to it was a girl, a girl with a glowing milk chocolate face, eyes of complete contrast---snow-white eyes with nearly black brown eyes---and clothes of silver and gray. Or…that was once what she looked like. The immortal girl was sickly pale and her eyes were dull. Her clothes were tattered and ragged. Her ink black hair pulled back into a bun, most of it, hung dirtily around her face. I’d never seen her with her hair down before.
A short cry of pain was released from near me; Artemis was ashen-faced, but ichor rose to her face and she was bright gold. She whipped around with the fieriest fury to be seen, her dark hair flying outward around her face. I heard her furious thoughts, some not suitable to younger children (all of her words not suitable for anyone with innocent ears) and I knew what she planned to do. I saw it coming before it happened, and I hissed, grabbing her arm. It was a good thing I was strong, because she was a hell of a lot more powerful than I was, and she could’ve torn my arm out of its socket the way she was trying to dart. She turned on me, baring fangs and she was about to strike before she acknowledged me. This was all in seconds, of course. In a flat, strained voice, she warned, “Let me go, Raine. I don’t want to hurt you.”
“She wants you to attack her!” I said swiftly. “That’s just what she wants you to do!”
“Good! It’s a lot easier without any resistance on the other side!”
“Easier for what! To die!” I hissed, frustrated. Artemis goldened deeper as Hecate’s resilient gaze never left her. “Let. Me. Go,” Artemis growled lowly.
“Will you run away?”
“Damn it, no!”
“Fine!” I held up my hands. “See? You’re free!” Artemis rolled her eyes, and I spat, “Well then!”
Hecate coughed. “If you’ll excuse me…” Two pairs of yellow eyes turned on her. “…I have a demigod to kill.” She drifted towards the defeated Heather and this time, Artemis was too quick for me to stop. I lunged after her, but it was too late. She leaped into the air and landed a tiger, a form I’d never seen from her before. The orange and black fur was perfectly dappled under the sunny leaves. The beast slammed a paw into the witch, throwing her into another tree. That poor palm joined its fallen twins on the sandy dirt. With blinding speed, Hecate rejoined the fearsome orange cat and spread her wings. She lashed out at Artemis, slashing a wound with her grown talons. The claws battered the wild feline, but the tigress struck back, sinking her teeth into Hecate’s arm. Gold teeth marks appeared on her snow skin, but it didn’t stop her. Artemis pounced again, but this time Hecate spread out her arms. Two little flames appeared in her palms, but before I could cry out a warning, the fire became a chain. Now, the tiger was loping towards Heather, silver claws only sinking into the wood before Hecate released the magic.
The magic net was tossed at the immortal creature, and when Artemis began to spring out of the way, the flames caught her. The sturdy orange she-cat fell to the ground, her limbs folding out from her. The cat’s liquid gold eyes were spread wide with pain.
“No!” The cry died in my throat. I grew Lightning Strike and ran to save her. But someone caught me and dragged me back as I was running. I turned on my captor, who turned out to be Kayla. I struggled away from her, but her grasp was powerful. “Wow, you’re strong!” I hissed.
“Stay here, Raine,” Kayla said firmly. “This isn’t your fight.”
“Artemis will die if I don’t!”
“I’m the daughter of the death lord…”
“Wonderful! Now get the hell away from me!”
She didn’t hear my comment. “…which means I know death. I foresee someone dying. And, oh Raine, I don’t want it to be you!”
I growled with fury. I heard a feline screech behind me and felt a shadowy whisper of wind. Little time was on my hands. “If Artemis dies, we all die!”
“Thank you for having so much faith in our ability to defend ourselves.” Two chilling blue eyes stared me down, and I gawked in astonishment. Never, not in the three years I’d known her, had I ever heard Rose so cold. Not ever.
Kayla’s dark eyes were round with pleading. “Please, please, Raine.”
I gave her a dark glare. “Aren’t we brave?” I asked in a shady, sarcastic tone. Kayla stared at me like I slapped her. I tore myself away from her and dashed to the fallen tiger. When I was only a few feet away from Artemis, a bright light blinded me for a moment. As it faded, I noticed my vision saw everything through loopy and vibrant colors. This is what it must be like to take LSD, thought my impulsively sarcastic self. I was trapped inside of the magic bubble once again. Infuriated, I looked to Hecate, but the witch was watching the yellow-eyed moon tigress’ struggles for escape become fainter. I myself felt a surge of vehemence, and I growled at a dark shape that brought a multi-colored sword up to my magic-covered throat. “Sierra,” I hissed. “Damn you to hell, let me out of here!”
“I can’t be damned with my leader the death god,” Sierra pointed out smugly.
“You want to try, you worthless little piece of crap?!”
“Oh? You think you can escape from my magic cage? You know, my mother is not the only sorceress who has saved her magic for this day.” Sierra’s azure irises glinted evilly.
“Go to hell.”
“I’m good.” Sierra walked gracefully to stand next to her witch mother. She looked down upon the tiger that bled gold ichor where the enchanted chains bound her. “This whole thing came out a lot easier than I’d thought, Lady.”
Hecate bared her fangs. “Do not underestimate your enemies, young one. Undermine them, taunt them, kill them, but do not underestimate them.” She did not look at me, but she pointed with perfect direction. “Let me deal with the daughter of the sky lord. Call the army out of the palms. Do not shed a drop of blood from this demigod, but run the hills red with the half blood of the others.” Sierra grinned, and spread her own enchantress wings and screeched in Greek. It was a noise, even through my LSD-bubble that injured my ears terribly. And so the waves of certain doom flooded out of the forest. Our eight remaining warriors faced them with courage about them as the empousae and the shinytongues and the hellhounds and the Wonderables, beasts of mythological name that could not be named, leaped, slithered, flew, and loped through the trees, flying at the demigods. Kayla slashed her sword and a hellhound body fell dead to the ground. The first blood of the new war had been spilled.
Hecate circled me with sinister air, and then flounced to the growling tigress. “So, young fool, you dare defy me? After three thousand years, I’ve found you, and you do not have your usual wits to escape? It seems Strike and you have a common trait.” She hissed towards me, “You both run from a challenge.”
I thought furiously, Even if I did want to run, how the hell could I, you idiot witch?! Artemis listened to my thoughts and snorted, which angered the goddess Hecate. The black-clothed demon slipped over the tigress, and growled, “What is funny, huntress? Do I amuse you?”
I heard the animal goddess’ thoughts clear as day. Truly yes. Hecate enflamed with rage and she hissed loudly, smacking the weakened tiger into a wide tree. The magic attached to the bark and the animal was trapped as an easy target. The tiger’s form shifted, and bleeding Artemis was chained to the palm. I silently cried out, and lashed my sword against the magic. Even when the blade cut through, the wound sealed back up swiftly. I scowled at the magic demigod who fluttered to the ground.
“Damn it Sierra! Stop being a coward and release me!” I yelled.
Sierra frowned. “I am no coward.”
An idea lit up. “Oh really? Your mother’s army fights my friends, your witch of a mother battles Artemis alone while you stand there and watch. Selfish! Wimp!”
Sierra’s face reddened. “Watch it, Raine…”
“Coward! Imbecile! Lazy!”
“Alright!” Sierra shrieked. With her weapon of many colors, she sliced through my prison, freeing me to the sand. The sorcery shattered into shards and I laughed. “All of those words are true, Sierra. Here I am, free as can be, while you stand there just realizing what you’ve done.”
Sierra burst into anger and charged. “You idiot! You tricked me! How could I fall for that?”
“I must be smarter than you if I won.”
Sierra screeched and the entire clearing echoed with her cry. The monsters looked away from their enemies to find where that fury had sounded from. The screech confused them, and the leader of the charge roared a command, which must have been a retreat signal. Hecate darted to her daughter’s side, hissing, glancing at me, free. “What have you done, you imbecile? You have ordered our charge to retreat? Are you mad?”
Sierra trembled under her mother’s deadly glare. “I’m sorry, Lady Hecate. I did not so such things on purpose.”
“Silence, fool!” Hecate yelped. She whacked her child across the face and turned to the still strong band of demigods. “If the executions of every one of cannot occur together thanks to the incompetence of my forces and my daughter…” she said, whipping venomous stares at all of them, “…I shall destroy the goddess myself. You can then all watch the daughter of Demeter die and then with the rest of you demigods, starting with you.” She approached me, pointing a shaking finger. “You, Raine Strike, have caused nothing but trouble since I learned of your existence. Always escaping, always surviving. The runoff, the gods that have become Hades’ Minors call you. Not anymore. I will finish this once and for all, and end the prophecy of the Epic Three forever!”
“I shall assist you, mother,” Sierra said, trying to redeem herself.
“Do not speak, you little worm! After your ineptitude, I should drown you in the gorge! Never speak in my presence again! I shall kill everyone myself.”
“You, Hecate, are psychologically insane,” said a soft voice from near a creek. Artemis stared at her cousin with leveled gold eyes.
“You of all should not utter a word, thief of the moon!” Hecate jabbed a finger at her nemesis.
“Listen for once, Hecate, I told you then and I’m telling you now. I did plead for your acceptance in Olympus, I did!”
“I do not want to hear excuses! I am all-powerful. Do you know what that means?”
“I am an Olympian; I know very well what that means.”
Hecate blazed, her entire body pure gold. “Shut up! Do not brag; that will only make your death slower and more painful.” Artemis stared at her, silent, with a flat face. But some emotion flickered behind her expressionless mask.
“Do you wish for me to kill you?” Hecate suddenly asked quietly in a still-crazed voice.
“I did not say such a thing.”
“A better question would be, do you wish for death?”
“What does it matter if I do? It will not be by you, and I shall watch you lie broken here in a river of blood.”
All sanity that remained within Hecate had exited. She enflamed herself with black light, dark magic, and she leaped at the moon goddess, standing an inch from her throat. Courageously Artemis only stared forward and did not fight or argue. Heather watched her with sorrow.
“My lady, do not die for me!” Heather cried. “Run from here; what does it matter if I die now? It had to come eventually!” Hecate smiled devilishly, and moved to Heather.
“When I said I would cause you a painful death, did all of the pain had to be physical?” Hecate mused. “Perhaps if I kill this demigod you’ve grown attached to, I will gain satisfaction.” Heather braced herself for death, but to everyone’s surprise, Hecate whipped a celestial bronze dagger from her cloak and threw it at me. It pierced my shoulder, the one she’d attacked before, and I smelled blood. I keeled over, yelling, “Damn it, ouch! What the hell!”
Artemis hissed in fury at Hecate, “Why did you need to do that, witch? Kill me, if you must, but promise me you will leave the demigods alone.”
Hecate narrowed her eyes in an almost seemingly sign that she’d agree to her cousin’s terms, but she snarled. “I have learned from you that there are no such things as kept promises. Oh, I will kill you, but I will finish the demigods as well.”
“Will you? All you’ve done is talk.”
Hecate smiled. “You’re right. I am only remembering that night three thousands years ago when I nearly killed you. But what happened?” She smiled a fang-shown smile at Artemis. “Ah, yes. Your idiot brother Apollo saved your pitiful life. And I was only fourteen then. I am more powerful. And your imbecilic kin is not here now, is he? You are all alone.”
“Don’t call my brother imbecilic. Only I can do that.” Artemis flickered with silver sparks.
“You’d think with such a big head, he’d have a brain to match it.” Hecate smiled. “Alas.” She began to drift towards me with magic fire in her hands, and I was still bleeding on the ground. I held my sword over me for one last attempt to ward her away.
Hecate fanged with her kill only a strike away. I took one final breath and closed my eyes. When I did that, I missed the flash of silver and the breaking of chains…

Sierra watched Raine with joy. The stupid daughter of Zeus was to die any second, and she sighed, wishing her mother had allowed her to do it. But…sigh…
When the chains broke, Hecate left Raine to approach the snake. Sierra had been the first to hear it. She’d been keeping an eye on Heather as the battle unfolded around her. After all, if no one guarded the prisoner, then they would be free! Sierra knew that everyone expected Heather to remain here if the huntress had to, but Sierra thought, That’s what she wants us to think! You can’t keep personal loyalties to gods, especially not filth like this thieving Olympian. She gulped, and looked to her mom. I’ve learned that from the best.
A large hiss erupted from the palm where Artemis was being held…or had been. A well-sized black cobra was coiled under the tree, other than its head, which swayed left and right like everyone’s seen snakes do before. Its venomous fangs were spread wide at the face of Sierra’s mother. Hecate gazed down at the deadly snake and she laughed, “Is that supposed to scare me, young fool?”
The snake hissed, and Raine nodded, still holding her shoulder where she’d been attacked. What is going on? Can she understand the cobra? Sierra thought. Raine grimaced in pain as she flexed her shoulder, but she slipped into the woods, and Sierra could barely see her shadow as she darted through the palms. Sierra peered through the trees but could see nothing, so she slid into the woods after her. Stumbling around mossy logs and driftwood, slipping one foot into mud, Sierra did her best to follow Raine in the forest. Once, she glimpsed a pair of golden eyes, which could only belong to the daughter of Zeus. But when Sierra passed one of the uncommon silver birches, she heard a thwack noise, the sound of something attaching itself in the tree at high speed. Sierra’s blue eyes darted around the bark to see a silver arrow shot into the pale gray bark. Her mother’s voice rang from nearby. “Terrible shot, huntress. Did you expect to shoot me from there?”
Had Artemis escaped? Well, she had to. She had been the snake right? Right?
Sierra watched the silver goddess with a bow in her hands and an arrow notched. “I was not aiming for you, you old hag. I was shooting for your cowardly daughter.”
Sierra winced when Hecate turned with blazing eyes. The magic girl tried to hide behind the birch, but Hecate grasped her arm with the tightest of grips. She hissed low in her ear. “If I find you running again, you shall be meat for the dogs, do you understand me?”
Sierra felt an ache of pain in her heart, from hearing this from her own mother, but she nodded, “Yes, my lady.”
“Accomplish something productive for once in your life, you witless worm.”
Sierra murmured, “Yes, my lady. I’ll find the runaway demigod right away.” But her mother was not listening to her anymore, but facing her nemesis. As Sierra ran, tears welling up in her eyes, she could no longer hear what anyone was saying in the clearing beyond the trees. Sierra stumbled through the forest that had suddenly become darker, in her eyes, and like a watercolor painting---not truly defined, but hazy. When she rounded the corner, something cold and metallic touched her skin under her chin. Two pairs of eyes watched her carefully.
“Raine,” Sierra whispered. “Isn’t it I who usually does this?”
“You tell me,” Raine hissed, staring at her with piercing, narrowed yellow eyes. “Why did you follow me?”
“I’m trying to do what my mother asked of me!”
“Yeah, well,” Raine said. “I’m just following orders.”
“Whose? The snake’s? That’s crazy, you know.”
“I’m not exactly a sane person!” Raine growled. She pointed towards the clearing. “And neither is Hecate.”
“How would you feel if someone stole the most valuable things in the world from you?” Sierra snapped. “And then never returned it after three thousand years? And she still denies it!”
“Artemis never stole anything! Hecate is just pissed because she wasn’t chosen to become an Olympian! And ambition has driven her to insanity!”
“Is it so wrong to be ambitious?” Sierra asked in a cool, selective voice. “Everyone on this island is. I am ambitious to serve my mother. You are ambitious to serve Artemis. Everyone just wants to fight to the death.”
“Very observant,” Raine remarked sarcastically.
Sierra turned her pale face, avoiding the daughter of Zeus’ bronze sword blade. “You can’t kill me. You don’t have it in you, as you’ve never killed another demigod.”
“I just killed, like, ten in that last battle.”
Sierra’s face darkened. “In the heat of battle, I’m sure. But not in cold blood. Not like this. You aren’t a murderer, Raine Strike, no matter how hard you want to be.”
“Who says I want to be a murderer!” Raine objected.
“That’s just one way of putting it,” the daughter of Hecate said lightly.
Raine sighed. “You’re right.” She pulled back her sword, and revealed herself completely from behind the thick palm. She had a light face for someone who knew their mistress was about to die, thought Sierra curiously and smugly at the same time. “I’m not that kind of person. And what would killing you do anyway? You’ve never really fought me before. I can probably kill you with one strike of lightning. And I’ve done what I came here for.”
Sierra’s heart skipped a beat. “What is that supposed to mean?”
Raine opened her hand, and in it, wrapped in a little coil, were glowing chains of red and purple. Sierra looked at her sword’s blade more carefully. Barely noticeable in the dim light of the woods, she saw curls of wood shavings, sawdust, on the blade. Sierra gasped, and dashed to where Heather was being held. The wood was sliced open, a long wound in the hold made from palm bark, and what was left of the chains laid uselessly on the moss, still faintly shimmering from the magic. Sierra forged a flame in her hand of magic and her sword grew from it. “What have you done, you idiot?”
“In the confusion, Artemis thought it would be a good time to release Heather,” Raine said, shrugging. “Didn’t expect that one did you, Sierra?”
“I’m telling my mother!” Sierra vowed, beginning to jog back into the clearing.
“What are you going to say?!” Raine called after her. “That the prisoner she no longer needed has been released?”
“Something along those lines!” Sierra yelled, taking a hasty step into the open. She opened her mouth to ‘tattletale’, but before she could, one brown hand closed over her mouth and one grabbed her around the waste. The glow of silver blinded her eyes…

I snorted, nodding to the immortal huntress. “She’s not so smart, is she Heather?”
The moonlit demigod smiled, joyous to be free once more. “If I recall, Sierra was content with a D average in gym.”
“How do you fail gym?”
Heather shrugged, and I could see Sierra’s round blue-purple eyes burning with hate. She screamed something unintelligible, nearly inaudible behind Heather’s powerful hand. I tilted my head to the huntress firing arrows at the swift-moving witch. She sprouted balls of magic in her hands and tossed them at Artemis. “I’m going to help Artemis,” I told her quickly. She nodded, her dark eyes still shining with gratitude.
I sprinted with Lightning Strike in my hands, but Artemis looked over through a bowstring. “Raine, stop! Do not come any farther!”
I listened to her, slowing to a hesitated stop. “I have just as much reason to kill her as you do.”
“Freeing Heather is enough, Strike,” Artemis ordered me softly, and I saw she was putting the weight of the bow into one side of her. She must have been more terribly injured than I’d imagined. Seeing her pain caused me to remember mine, and my hand flashed to hold the pain back. “Please. Save her and yourself.”
A sneer came from the bat-winged goddess sniveling by the arrow-poked silver birch. “Yes, Strike. Leave this to me. This feud is just between you and me, Artemis, and I shall finish it. I suppose if the daughter of Zeus has the wits to leave, then I shall not search for her. I will allow the Minors to find her.”
I growled and stepped towards the infuriating sorceress. A whisper of wind passed me, and Artemis put a gentle but firm hand on my shoulder. “Listen to me. Tell my hunter Heather to leave the child of my cousin. Order her to call a hunting falcon from the inland. He will reach my brother Apollo, who is in California, tracking the Hades. Apollo will send help for you and you will leave this island immediately. That is an order.” I glanced at her face, which was ashen with sorrow but stern as well. A face that should not be upon a fourteen-year old girl.
I fought the urge to listen to her. With my loyalty that had been forged for the moon goddess, what was I to do? Follow her orders, or strive to save her life? I then caught the frozen, frightened forms of my friends. I shook off Artemis and ran to them. I poked Kayla, who stared with anger and fear forward and said, “This isn’t our battle. Artemis is right…we need to go.” There was no response; the demigod did not even blink.
I groaned and slipped past her to Piper. “Did you hear me? We have to leave.” The watery demigod’s sword was in striking position, her mouth open with rage, but she was still as a statue. I put my hand on her wrist to push her arm down but it was cold as ice and like rock. I gasped, staring horrified at Hecate. “What did you do to them?”
“It is only a little spell, Strike,” Hecate mused. “They perhaps will come out of it.” She dipped her head, her face seeming menacing now. “But, if they were to be killed, senseless and blind as they are now, they would never awaken. Perhaps they will be forever statues on this island. And then all of Hades’ warriors shall come in glory to see what good I have accomplished.” She pointed at me first, and then Artemis. “And your broken bodies lying dead on the sand will be mementoes of your black day.”
“That’s…really gross,” I admitted. “You’re just going to keep dead bodies in the open like that?”
“I am a dweller of the night, foolish child,” she said in a dark and flat tone. “I have no reluctance as to walking through the dead.”
Artemis sighed painfully, and zipped to my side. She gripped my shoulders and gazed sharply into my gold eyes. “Now you listen to me. I will remain here until there is death, but you will leave.”
“What about my friends?!” I cried softly.
“I will protect them to the extent of my power, Raine. But whether I live or die, you shall walk away from this.” Her voice dropped low. “One of the Epic Three must survive. Warn my family on Olympus of my perish, and Hecate will receive the punishment she deserves.” I heard Hecate snort; she was obviously finding amusement in Artemis’ frantic command.
“You are not going to die, Artemis,” I promised her.
“That is not of your concern! Leave now!”
“Yes, Raine,” Hecate taunted. “Run, and never come back. Listen to Artemis.”
I glared at her, feeling waves of pain and pure fury wash over me, rising up like the sun at daybreak, only faster. I pointed to the setting sun. “Apollo would not arrive in time, Artemis. And how could I let you fight alone, against this…this…ass!”
Hecate’s body shuddered, looking like a shadow wavering in rising light. “What…did you just call me?”
“Are you deaf?”
“Are you?” Artemis asked me swiftly, and she bared her teeth. “Listen for once, Raine, and do as I said.”
“I’m sorry, but I can’t do that,” I told her regretfully.
Artemis shook her head, her yellow eyes burning. She lashed out at Hecate instead. “She is right, Hecate. You are an ass.”
Hecate snapped, her shadowy form zipping from the birch to me. She took to the air, and then fell, diving towards me with outstretched talons and blazing eyes. She let out a cry of evil, and grasped me with her claws. She raised me up, and stared into my face. Her fangs were an inch from my throat.
“I should have done on that first night I met you!” Hecate screeched. “I should have known not to allow you to escape. You are nothing but trouble, you little worm! But there is nothing to stop me now.” She closed her teeth around me, and I began to feel death arrive…
I felt no pain, but death was surprisingly silver. I saw nothing but silver, silver soft like fur. It muffled everything, and the final sound was Hecate’s pained yowl…
Then why did I hear so much growling?
I was dropped from ten feet in the air, but instead of hitting the sand, two hard arms broke my fall. I looked up into Heather’s face. “Thanks,” I breathed.
“You saved me, I save you,” she said simply. She stared up into the air and said worriedly, “Oh, Artemis, you couldn’t have chosen something with wings?” She stood me on my feet, and peered up into the sky. Against the blinding orangish blue sky, I saw Hecate’s shadow and a beast ripping at her. A gray wolf clawed at the witch as the sorceress tried to push her away. Artemis growled, and leaped to the ground.
The fall was graceful, and the paws landing on the sand was silent. Hecate shrieked with anger and the air seemed to fall. Sounds of movement came from my frozen warriors, and I saw the demigods beginning to move. The spell had broken as Hecate lost her focus, and Kayla stared at me with wide, dark eyes. “Raine!”
The army had seemed to be under the spell as well, for they heard a shriek from Hecate, and they charged the somewhat dazed demigods. But they had no time to feel dazzled. They met the monsters with ready weapons.
Hecate landed with her wings outstretched and, with only a second spared, she dove at the she-wolf with blinding speed. The wolf crouched, bracing the goddess, and the winged sorceress shifted into the single animal she knew. A black she-dog threw herself at the silver she-wolf.
It was, in a way, beautiful as the two animals collided. Hecate and Artemis had no bars held any longer, for both were wild creatures of nature, fighting to the death as animals did. They did not regard anyone else, and the snarling and the ripping of fur was nearly painful to hear. The ferocity of the canines was graceful and stunning as the black mixed with the gray. I heard a higher wail from the she-dog, and I saw a wave of golden blood flow to the ground. The wolf yelped as well when the dog retaliated and sliced her ear. A wave of ichor colored their pelts when the two animals slipped and fell, truly battling each other with the wildness of the ancient way of nature.
I felt a cold blade against my throat as the sun dipped lower beyond the sea.