The Lost Heroine (Heroes of Olympus/Kane Chronicles crossover) [2016]

Chapter 22: Sadie

I WANTED TO CRY. Leo and Annabeth had turned into ice, and we were fighting a losing battle. I was terrified. Would we be able to change them back? How could we defeat Khione? The fifth and sixth lines of the prophecy-- A heart of ice must Isis bear/ And lose the one that she holds dear-- still scared me. The one that I hold dear... that must mean Walt. I'd already lost him once. I didn't want to lose him again.

Walt was messing with what looked like a shabti. It was a piece of wax that he was shaping into a statue.

"Walt, what are you doing?" I yelled.

"Sympathetic magic!" he replied. I facepalmed myself. Why didn't I think of that?

"You mean an execration?" I asked. He nodded.

"Her sheut is over there, hidden near the crystal. It makes sense for it to be there, because it's the coldest place on Earth." I turned and saw a dark shape next to the crystal.

"Brilliant!" I yelled.

Khione noticed that I was distracted, and went for me. I had no time to dodge her. But Carter noticed, and before I could blink, he'd parried her blow with his staff. He started to fight her. She snarled, snatched his staff, and tossed it aside. Then she grabbed his wrist. Carter froze in the position he was in. The icy hue spread from his hand all the way through his body. My brother was an ice statue.

A scream ripped from my throat, drowning out the sound of the howling wind. I was so angry, I could barely think. There was only one thing on my mind: Get Khione.

Zia let out a sob. Walt yelled, "Sadie, catch!" He threw me the statue. I caught it and ran toward Khione's shadow.

"Keep her distracted!" I yelled, brandishing my sword. I started to chant the binding spell that Carter and I had used on Apophis. I remembered every detail of my life now. I'd memorized the spell. The figurine of Khione began to glow. My friends' powers were returning. Jason was shooting lightning. Piper was confusing Khione using her charmspeak. Percy was using his sword. Zia used her vulture amulet to fly above Khione and distract her. Walt used various amulets.

I continued the spell, and the statue glowed with blinding light. I held onto it with one hand. The other hand still held my sword, but I awkwardly pressed the tyet and it shrank back into a bracelet. I ran to the crystal that held all the power Khione was planning to unleash and stared at the shining rainbow light. I could faintly see the outline of the stone, and for a moment I saw that if you looked at it at just the right angle, its shape looked like a heart.

A heart of ice must Isis bear.

Instantly, I knew what I had to do.

I grabbed the crystal and immediately yelped in pain. The crystal was so cold, frost formed on my fingers and left my hands steaming. I dropped the statue. Khione wailed, realizing what I was doing. "NO!" she shouted, lunging for me, but I grabbed the crystal and darted away from her, still chanting the spell.

I finished the spell, and Khione and the statue both glowed brightly. The sheut was trapped inside the figurine. I gripped the below-freezing crystal and the statue in one hand, grabbed Carter's staff in the other hand, and yelled my favorite spell: "Ha-di!"

The statue and the crystal shattered. Khione screamed in pain. She tried to shoot ice, but her power was fading. Enraged, she began to chant. She started to dissolve. I felt her spell working, even as she was dissolving. The air dropped about ten degrees.

Zia yelled in triumph as a purple glow came from behind me. She'd managed to summon a portal, anchored on Walt's scrying bowl.

"I'll leave the bowl behind!" Walt called. "It doesn't matter!"

"No! I'm not leaving her!" Percy shouted. Calypso had collapsed at the foot of Leo's statue, and Piper knelt by her to help her up. 

"Absolutely not!" I yelled. "I'm staying with Carter." It hurt my heart to say his name. 

Zia looked at me, anguish in her eyes. "We will all end up like him, if we stick around! The spell she's casting will turn us into ice, too! We have to go."

"I'm not leaving!" I said stubbornly.

"Yes, you are!" Walt yelled, shoving me through the portal.

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What did you think? This chapter was a really fun mix of Greek/Roman/Egyptian magic.