Sea Green Eyes

Chapter 7

"The ancient places." Leo's eyes widened. "That's what Enceladus meant about destroying the roots of the gods. He meant Greece."

"You could join me, son of Hephaestus," Khione said. "I know you find me beautiful. It would be enough for my plan if these other two were to die. Reject that ridiculous destiny the Fates have given you. Live and be my champion, instead. Your skills would be quite useful."

Leo looked stunned. He glanced behind him, like Khione might be talking to somebody else. For a second Jason was worried. He figured Leo didn't have beautiful goddesses make him offers like this every day. Then Leo laughed so hard, he doubled over. "Yeah, join you. Right. Until you get bored of me and turn me into a Leosicle? Lady, nobody messes with my dragon and gets away with it. I can't believe I thought you were hot."

Khione's face turned red. "Hot? You dare insult me? I am cold, Leo Valdez. Very, very cold." She shot a blast of wintry sleet at the demigods, but Leo held up his hand. A wall of fire roared to life in front of them, and the snow dissolved in a steamy cloud. Leo grinned. "See, lady, that's what happens to snow in Texas. It— freaking—melts."

Khione hissed. "Enough of this. Hera is failing. Porphyrion is rising. Kill the demigods. Let them be our king's first meal!"

"Alright," Cressida said as she stepped forward in front of Jason and the stupid icy wooden plank he had as his weapon. "I've heard enough talking. You may have tricked Hera, which in all honesty isn't that hard to do -"

"Hey!" the goddess protested but Cressida just waved her off.

"But let's see how you fair against a daughter of Dionysus." She looked up at the sky as she muttered something in Greek, something along the lines of, 'Papa, please help me.'

And her spear turned into a thyrsus with a sharpened end and stabbed it into the ground. The ground split open, and from the fissures emerged cats.

Large cats. Dozens of leopards and lions emerged from the ground, all with purple fur as they stood at their mistress' side and Cressida rose, her eyes aflame. Hope blossomed in the hearts of the three demigods for there was at least enough predators to take on the wolves.

"Get the damned cage open," Cressida instructed as a lion that seemed as large as a horse approached her and she mounted its back. "Leave the monsters to us."

And they charged.

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Jason tussled with a storm spirit, eventually getting the horse under control as he mounted the steed named Tempest.

He charged into battle, swinging his icy piece of wood, knocking aside wolves and plunging straight through other venti. 

Cressida on the other hand, was something else. Jason handled the storm spirits while Cressida took on the earthborn and the wolves.

One swipe of her spear made three earthborn disintegrate as her mount tore past them, tearing through wolves with its teeth, its maw covered in blood. And when one wolf tried to pounce on her, a leopard or a lion would intercept it mid-air. Though they were fighting, it seemed the sacred animals she'd summoned would always protect their mistress, a few even giving up their lives for her, grapevines appearing in their places when their bodies fell. And these vines, these vines were gifts from her father as Cressida raised her thyrsus into the air and the vines responded to her will, squeezing the earthborn into dust.

Leo had taken on Khione herself. While fighting a goddess should've been suicide, Leo was the right man for the job. She kept summoning ice daggers to throw at him, blasts of winter air, tornadoes of snow. Leo burned through all of it. His whole body flickered with red tongues of flame like he'd been doused with gasoline. He advanced on the goddess, using two silver-tipped ball-peen hammers to smash the few monsters that got in his way.