Love and War- First three Chapters

Chapter 3

Aphrodite

"SHE'S MY PROXY!" Persephone's angry voice pulled me into her dreamscape. "It's bad enough that you kept the fact that Aphrodite could potentially die if I channeled power to her, now you want to—"

"I'm just making a suggestion." Poseidon sounded calm as a tempest.

"What you're doing is overstepping," Persephone said hotly. "And I'm—I've got her!"

The dreamscape materialized around me for a fraction of a second before it shuddered into darkness.

"No you don't." Persephone gripped my hands, pushing more and more power into me to tether me to the dreamscape.

The dreamscape stabilized, though I still felt fuzzy, disconnected. My vision sharpened on the goddess clutching my hands. She was short and blond with sun-kissed skin and brilliant green eyes. By far the most harmless- and adorable-looking god in the Pantheon and easily the deadliest.

I groaned, reaching for my head. "What's happening to me?"

"Anesthesia." Poseidon paced behind Persephone. "Only we're not sure if it's going to work on you. If it does, you should be beyond dreaming in a matter of seconds, if not . . ." He trailed off.

"We'll keep you here." Persephone's green eyes narrowed in determination. "How are you feeling?"

"Fuzzy." I brushed my hair out of my face with my free hand, pausing when I noticed the strands of hair were gold, not red. "And weird. Really weird."

"That's probably all the meds."

Meds? I shook my head, trying to gather my thoughts. "Is Adonis—"

"He's fine."

I couldn't decide how I felt about that. "Artemis?"

Persephone smiled. "We got her out. She can access a sliver of her powers already, so it looks like Tantalus was telling the truth about the poison being temporary."

Which meant Ares could only use a portion of his powers, too. My insides went cold as I realized just how vulnerable he was. I glanced between Poseidon and Persephone and realized someone was missing. "Where's Hades?" He'd never leave Persephone alone with Poseidon.

She wouldn't look at me. "I'm not putting that on you."

Poseidon rolled his eyes. "You're going to have to tell her if she's going to—"

She's in the hospital!" Persephone snapped. "Because of me. I'm not—"

I shook my head, trying to shake away the fuzziness. "What hospital? I don't—" I grasped for the right words, confusion overwhelming me.

"I don't know," Poseidon said. "We tried following you, but my agents lost track of the boat." He flashed me a look that was equal parts apology and aggravation, as if his difficulty tracing us was my fault. "I've got everyone I can spare searching the area where they last saw the boat. There's nothing there. No shield. No power signatures—"

"We didn't sense any power signatures on the cruise ship either," Persephone reminded him. "I don't think all demigods leave them."

"We don't have much time." Poseidon's voice brimmed with impatience. "If she loses consciousness completely, her connection here will fade."

"Lose consciousness?" Hospitals, anesthesia. Those words all had meaning, but I couldn't decipher them. "What? What's going—?"

"We think they're prepping you for surgery." Persephone squeezed my hand. "I'm trying to strengthen your connection to the dreamscape," she said, referring to the shared "room" we all occupied within our dreams. "But if you drop out of a viable dreamstate, I can't keep you here."