Lea didn't know how long she had been there.
There was a subjective word because she didn't even know where she was.
She couldn't leave no matter how hard she tried. For some reason, her mageia wasn't working and the earth itself seemed as if it wanted to keep her there.
The days had seemingly bled into each other.
The moment she thought that; a familiar hissing sound echoed down the mountain. She was getting tired of that sound, but it was much better than the ghosts that she had been fighting off like it was some kind of zombie apocalypse.
"What do you want from me," Lea growled, eyes darting around her. The mountain loomed above her. A dusty trail snaked up a few hundred feet to the mouth of a cave. The path was lined with human bones for that extra cozy feel.
"You have no ghosts." A voice echoed around her. "Why do you have no ghosts?"
"Necromancy is not really my style," Lea drawled. "Who are you?"
"That matters not! Murders! Kidnappers! Thieves that deserve the worst soil of it all. Revenge shall be taken today for grief must be soothed by anger!"
"What the hell are you talking abouauhhhh!" Lea screamed, turning around and sprinting away as a drakon emerged from the smoke. The only sound that could be heard was the pounding of her feet as she rushed away. She twisted, feeling the heat coming towards her before it hit. As turned in the darkened sand, a cry of pain tumbled from her lips. The flames of the drakon had narrowly missed from turning her into a beautiful stack of ribs, but the heat had still licked the back of her legs and her skin was torn open once she tumbled across the ground.
She reached to her ear, summoning Lævateinn from its resting form and blasting at the beast with the very last of the mageia that as stored within it. It was the only weapon she had left. Her mageia being blocked somehow, her enchanted knives had long gone out. Maybe Percy and Drew had a point about her having more weapons in case of times like this.
But it was not like she had been expecting anything like it! Otherwise, she would have worn her bottle belt where she kept all of her potions and stocked up on more enchanted knives. But again, she did not expect to be poisoned by whatever was in that drink and transported away. And if she lived through this, she was going to rake that little nymph over the coals! Kírkē had been teaching her to instinctively recognize poisoned drinks; a specialty of hers. Lea had sensed something was wrong, but she hadn't known what it was exactly until she brought it close to her face. She had been about to pour it out, but it was like her hand was stuck to that stupid gold chalice and she took a sip of it. It was a brew laced with drugs and she was gone before she could even call a warning out.
And now here she was, bruised and beaten. She only had Lævateinn and the heart-shaped necklace filled with Hermes' ichor which considering that she wasn't too big of a fan of blood was weird but whatever. She was a bit desensitized to it now. And well, she also had her wits.
"Too scared to face me yourself," she yelled out, eyes tracking the drakon before her though making sure to not look it in the eyes.
"Scared," that voice hissed. "Before I am through with you, child, you will come crawling to me, begging for death's final embrace! And Melinoë will be revenged!"
"I don't even know you!"
White mist billowed around her like someone had turn on a dry ice machine. It began thickening around her feet, twining around her legs like vines. The color seemed to fade from Lea's clothes and face as if she too was becoming a shade.
Leaneira raised a brow, eyes taking in her weird appearance like the head of Cruella de Vil. Her right half was pale chalky white like she'd been drained of blood. Her left half was pitch black and hardened like mummy skin. She wore a golden dress and a golden shawl. Her eyes were empty black voids and when she looked into them Lea felt as if she was seeing her own death.
"You may not, but your brother does," she said. The woman moved closer, almost floating on air to stand at the side of the drakon.
Lea could see right through her, so she knew she was a spirit of some kind, but her voice sounded real enough.
"This is because of Percy?" she snapped. "He's missing!"
"That he is," Melinoë nodded. "So, I cannot have my revenge from him, but you... oh, you will be perfect! And I didn't even have to do anything! Once Áglavros came to me at the behest of Kalupsṓ and Peithō and well, a few others. You have driven a band of people to madness, girl."
"PEITHO?!" And who the hell was Calypso? She felt like she heard that name before, but they clearly were not important enough in her life for her to remember or even a plague upon her existence like fucking Peitho. Lea really didn't feel like it was fair that she was being harassed by his wife when she didn't even have a husband to harass him!
And Lea had something for Peitho's ass too and she wasn't talking about no tissue.
Seriously, being mad about a guy that Lea hadn't originally consciously wanted and doesn't want her! Ugh, get a job and touch some grass.
"Enough talking," Melinoë interrupted. "Where are your ghosts?"
"I'm still not understanding why I need ghosts? Sounds like a bad movie to me."
'"Everyone has ghosts — deaths you regret. Guilt. Fear. Why can I not see yours?"
Lea raised a brow. "Oh aliens, that sounds like too much work. They're dead. Moved on to a better place yada yada." She waved her hand. "I've cried for them, grieved for them, and I've moved on. That's usually what they want you to do. Keep living and don't join them for some years, right? That's how it goes."
She growled in frustration. "Just like your infuriating brother. It matters not." Melinoë made a hissing sound and Lea realized it was her way of laughing. "So many ghosts, my young demigod. They long to be unleashed. Krónos was supposed to rule the world, I would have been able to walk among mortals both night and day, sewing terror as they deserve."
"Yeah, if they looked at your face!" Lea shot out. Even if it was an aesthetic that she could get behind somewhat.
Melinoë screeched before throwing her hands into the air.
The drakon lunged towards Lea who mimicked Melinoë screeching and ran away again. Except around her, a ring of a dozen daimones materialized. They were part humanoid female, part bat. Their faces were pug-nosed and furry, with fangs and bulging eyes. Matted gray fur and piecemeal armor covered their bodies. They had shriveled arms with claws for hands, leathery wings that sprouted from their backs, and stubby bowed legs. They would've looked funny except for the murderous glow in their eyes.
"If you do not have ghosts then I shall find some for you!"
Oh, my aliens, let it go!
"Twice-Blessed—accept your fate. None may challenge Melinoë's will."
Lea snorted, slicing her way through the weird monsters. Please people had been trying to indoctrinate her in systematic theology since the day that she was born, and they had not succeeded at all. She twisted, landing on the back of the bat women, cutting down a few of her ugly stepsisters before killing her too. She landed on the back of the drakon and Lea thanked all her practice with Salome for the way the beast tried to buck her off.
"If you do not give me a ghost, Mischief Woman, then I will give you one!"
The drakon roared, twisting about until Lea was transported back to Manhattan, a hand clutched at her stomach feeling the phantom ache of her bruised core.
"What?" All around her were dead bodies of her friends; of her ... "No,' she murmured. "No." She fell to her knees beside Percy, his eyes opened but vacant. "Percy? Percy. PERCY! Wake up! Please. You can't leave me..."
A wet cough sounded from beside her and Lea's eyes widened at a very familiar face. Her features, once beautiful, were badly burned from poison exactly as Lea remembered. A silver bracelet with a scythe charm; the mark of Kronos, was wrapped around her wrist with her stolen red armor smoking from poison. Her blue eyes glared at her from underneath a boar's head helmet.
"Silena..." Lea gaped, feeling a bit of weak. She reached out for the girl who moved away from her.
"Lea," the girl said dryly. Lea furrowed her brow, looking at her before looking down at her Percy.
That wasn't right. Percy wasn't dead. Silena was?
"What... what are you..."
"I came to see justice," the spirit sniffed. "After all, you did murder me."
"Murder?" Lea blinked, not even paying attention to the drakon or the demon ladies. Her eyes flared green, and the illusion dissolved from around them. "Now I don't claim to have a good memory, but I do recall you rushing a drakon like a defensive lineman."
"You had the chance to save me and yet you did not!"
"You betrayed us! Betrayed Drew and Eliza and all of your other siblings!"
"I WAS DOING IT FOR THEM!"
"ANTHONY DIED BECAUSE OF YOU!"
"You could have saved me."
"You wanted to die," Lea sneered. "That's why you sacrificed yourself. You could have taken Drew back with you and had her charm Clarisse, but you wanted to be the hero as if that absolves you of your crimes. You deserve that poison in your face and even then, death was too good for you! You should have lived and faced every sibling you betrayed and every friend that you hurt. And since you didn't, I hope every single last one of them that you helped kill see you for what you are. A murderer and a monster."
There was hurt in her brown eyes before she swallowed it back.
Wait... Silena didn't have brown eyes.
They were blue.
Silena scoffed, shaking her head as she gazed at Lea in pity. "You are too blind, Lea."
"Don't call me that."
And she was not comfortable with how similar those words were to what Ethan said when he betrayed her.
"Too trusting," she continued, ignoring Lea's words. "You only saw what you wanted. Something's wrong with you. Everyone you befriend turn to traitors. It's only a matter of time before Drew leaves you. Maybe you'll kill her next."
"I killed no one," Leaneira hissed.
"You killed me."
Turning around, Lea came face to face with a girl with curly red hair, orange freckles that looked like they were sprayed on with liquid Cheetos and crooked teeth. Lea furrowed her brow, looking around her in confusion. "Um..." She hesitated. "Do I know you?"
"Seriously?!"
Lea shifted on her feet, tucking a piece of hair behind her ear. Her grip on Lævateinn tightened with her nerves.
"It's me, Nancy! Nancy Bobofit. You know the girl you killed."
"And what I was supposed to do let you kill me first?" Lea scoffed, rolling her eyes. "Please. Be fucking for real."
"I wasn't going to kill you," Nancy protested as if Leaneira wasn't slowly remembering the celestial bronze knife.
"You couldn't even if you tried."
When she said that she was bringing ghosts, Lea thought it was more like the Chucky or Ghostface or the Exorcist, maybe even a bit of Jennifer's Body, Coraline or Beetlejuice. Not the bitch from christmas past.
"You murdered me!"
Rolling her eyes, Lea waved her hand carelessly. "And I'll do it again. If you got a problem, take it up with the Big Man. I already did."
"Why aren't you terrified!" Melinoë screeched.
"Only a toddler would be scared of Bobo. Look at that face." The kind of face that could grant seven years of bad luck. There was a reason Leaneira ducked mirrors when she came around at Yancy. Lea snorted. "I mean seriously. If it was raining brains, she wouldn't get wet. What's scary about that?"
She yawned, shrugging and turning away. "Well... if that's all... I have things to do like stuffing Peitho's head in a toilet and finding my brother. You all have a nice day."
"Not so fast," Melinoë called out. "I will have my revenge."
Playfully nodding her head, Lea continued down the mountain, calling out over her shoulder: "I'll be sure to tell Percy that you're looking for him."
An angry roar shook the entire mountainside.
A roar that she heard only once before.
One peek behind her showed the beast; a two-hundred- foot-long serpent as thick as a school bus, its yellow eyes like searchlights and its mouth full of razor-sharp teeth big enough to chew elephants, heading in her direction and Lea took off in another one.
Lea wheezed.
She really needed to work on her cardio.
Poison spewed everywhere which was only mildly alarming when its brother decided it wanted a piece of Lea also spewing fire.
Wonderful.
About fifty feet ahead of Lea, a dark river churned through a gorge of volcanic rock. It was narrow and fast. The water was black as ink. Even the foam churned black. The far bank was only thirty feet across but that was too far to jump and there was no bridge.
She had no idea which of the Underworld rivers it was; Hermes didn't care to show her those, but she needed to get away from those drakons.
"Here goes nothing," she murmured, concentrating on the current, the raging black water rushing past. She drew on her memories, but it was like they were disappearing by the second. That didn't make sense, but she felt the water churned and bubble more violently as if it knew what she was doing. The drakon roared and Lea twisted, the necklace filled with ichor bouncing against her chest. And she grabbed it with one hand, feeling its warmth, turning back to the river.
She felt something connect and she turned towards the drakon and the Kêres as they plowed down on her. She narrowed her eyes, imagining the water rising behind her like reef breaks from whenever she had the time to surf.
Her eyes sparked with latent mageia, almost manifesting itself around her as she concentrated. The drakon and the demon ladies charged for her, and Lea yelled.
There was a roar, a crash of tons of water falling down onto them all as the river fell back on its natural course.
FROOM! She was immersed in black water, sinking to the bottom. One by one the creatures were destroyed.
Lea had time for one last desperate thought: Move.
The water covered her like a second skin, diving deep into the remnants of the elixir that she had and soon enough, she knew not whom she was... not from where she came and yet—
The air hummed with an electrifying energy, as if the very fabric of reality held its breath. Shimmering illusions strolled across the riverbed. Dancing green lights like miniature galaxies shimmered over the entirety of the Netherworld as the river became the perfect backdrop. It surged out of its banks, flowing up and then down again in a great arc — a raging black rainbow of water twenty feet high. The riverbed turned into a drying mud — a tunnel under the river just wide enough for two people to walk side-by-side.
The entire river turned green, yells of alarms rang out throughout the realm and more than one being rushed to see what was happening. Mageia erupted from her entire being, flowing through her like blood and illuminating her veins. A whirling vortex swirled about the river, giving the people just enough of a few to see her lying at the bottom, sinking into the mud and glowing just as green as her eyes. Arcs of crackling energy clawed into the space around her. A pulsating shield of shimmering energy kept anyone from getting close, like the King and Queen of the Underworld.
Before their eyes, arcane symbols cut into the air, and they were all startled to remember that she was the Walker of Worlds and while she had some training in it... no one had ever seen how it worked outside of her own control. Ghastly lights and ethereal mist surrounded her as glowing sigils appeared on the souls of her feet and then before their eyes.... She stood to her feet, not seeming to notice the people around her. Her mageia covered her completely,
Goddess of the swirling deep, where art thou?
The boundary between her world and another began to erode.
My Leaneíras, where art thy?
An iridescent light: the same shade as metallic lime, spread throughout of the underworld, bringing about thousand suns into the land and then...
Leaneira walked through.