Chapter Forty

Quinn

Walking through Tartarus hadn’t really ever felt like a fun way to spend the afternoon. Tartarus was a vast space that held nothing but wastelands. Almost as if the sun had scorched the ground until there was nothing there, except there was no sun.

There was nothing. And the ground was covered in bones and bodies, but underneath that it was almost like a desert. Red and cracked, splintering away. There was no trees or grass. But once in awhile there were huge boulders. Rocks that almost seemed like houses. Some of them were houses. And the monsters living there would peak out and glare at me.

But none of them came out to challenge me. My uneasiness grew as this continued to be the case. My eyes flicker from one side to the other. My hand fiddling with the hilt of my sword. But still, there was nothing.

Sighing I shrug off my paranoia and keep walking. Normally finding two demigods in this wasteland would be hard. But Poseidon children were different. We could just sense when another creature of Poseidon was around. Whether that be a Titan, animal, monster, god or demigod, we knew that they were close by.

I let that instinct guide me to Mutt and Moon. Following the trail that Mutt was leaving behind, even if there was no physical evidence of it. After what seemed like ages I hear voices up ahead.

۝

Just my luck though, I was not lead towards Mutt. Instead I was lead towards some other demigod and a god. Who were in a very heated conversation. That is, until they noticed me.

“You’re not supposed to be here,” the god says.

“Who the hell are you?” I demand.

“A messenger of Tartarus. Leave now or we shall claim your soul,” he says smugly.

“Who will?” I ask.

“The people of Tartarus!” he bellows.

I shrug, “Fine then. I’ll leave when I get what I came for.”

“And what’s that?” he demands.

“My brother and his girlfriend,” I say. “You might’ve seen them around right? Mind pointing me in the right direction. It would go a lot faster.”

“You will not find them!” the god shouts. “For I, Tartarus, forbid it from being so!”

“I thought you were a messenger of Tartarus, not Tartarus himself,” I say.

“I AM WHO I SAY I AM!” Tartarus shouts.

“Well that’s nice and all, but I think I should be going. That way,” I add, pointing towards the opposite direction.

“Who are you?” the demigod demands, finally speaking.

“Who me?” I ask.

“Yeah,” he says.

“A concerned citizen,” I say with a huge grin.

“But you’re a child of Poseidon aren’t you?” he asks. “I mean, you are, I can feel it.”

“Oh so you’re who I’ve been following. Damnit, I knew I was wrong,” I groan. “Stupid lightning.”

“What?” Tartarus says.

“Nothing,” I answer.

“So you’re a child of Poseidon! But you’re different,” he says.

“Oh, right, you mean this,” I say.

I hold up my hand, in seconds it’s engulfed in water, but lightning was well. The lightning had changed to blue since I had visited Alex.

Tartarus recoils and backs away, eyes wide. The boy just looks confused.

“Your pal okay there?” I ask, pointing towards Tartarus.

“That’s. How did you do that?” Tartarus demands.

“It’s a very long story and I’m not rightly in the mood for it right now,” I answer.

“Keep it away from me!” he cries, backing up and then he was gone.

I clench my hand, making a fist, in seconds the water and lightning was gone.

“What was his problem you think?” I ask.

“That’s part of the legend,” the boy answers. “You can kill a god with whatever the hell kind of power that is.”

“Kill a god?” I ask. “That’s ridiculous.”

“But it’s the truth,” he answers. “You can kill gods and take away demigod powers.”

“Great. Timothy just made my life more of a hell than he already did,” I mutter.

“Timothy?” the boy repeats.

“Yeah, the son of Zeus that gave me these powers. Fricking jerk that’s for sure,” I say. “What’s your name?”

“Call me T,” he says.

“That’s it? Just ‘T’?” I ask.

“Yes,” he answers.

“O-kay,” I say, dragging out the ‘o’.

“And you are?” T asks.

“Quinn Shax,” I answer.

“You! You aren’t supposed to be here!” he shouts.

“Yeah, I think that I’ve been told that,” I say.

“Seriously though you are not supposed to be here!” T cries out. “What about the prophecy! Do you have so little care for it?”

“Prophecy?” I ask.

“You didn’t know??” he asks.

“Nope,” I say. “Was I supposed to?”

“Either way, you need to find your brother to complete it. So I think it’s best if you hurry up on finding him and here,” he says, handing me a folded piece of parchment. It looked ancient, like it was about to fall apart.

Then he was gone.

Carefully I unfold the paper, on it, written in cursive handwriting that certainly didn’t below to Apollo or the Prophet was:

‘Two of the ocean, and two of the bow, one of the sky, fire and battle shall go.

Travel to the land of snow; which holds knowledge you all must know.

Find the holder of the ice, who is not a believer, but holds all the answers and the key.

Remember knock twice, but beware the cheater, and be prepared to fall to your knees.’

I sigh after reading it. Of course there’s a prophecy. I fold the paper back up and stick it in my pocket. Figuring that it’d be best to deal with it after I find Mutt and Moon.

۝

Mutt

We were running. From what I wasn’t entirely sure, I just knew that if we stopped running we would die. Moon was panting beside me, her blonde hair sticking to her face with blood.

I wasn’t sure what had attacked us, but it had came with the night, or what could be considered night around here. All I knew was that it brought fear, absolute and total fear.

“Come on,” I gasp out when Moon slows. “Just a little bit farther. We’ll be okay. I promise.”

“Is it following us?” Moon breathes out.

“Don’t wanna chance it,” I say.

She nods, not being able to waste anymore breath on talking. We had been running for a long time now, non-stop. And considering the air was hard enough to breath as it was that was not good.

I felt as if I was going to face plant, Moon looked close to passing out. And the only thing that kept us going was each other. Short words of encouragement spoken to the other for a few seconds when we have enough breath to spare. Or even if we didn’t.

I didn’t know what happened next, but Moon’s legs gave out, and she collapsed. I stopped beside her, crouching down.

“I’m okay. Just. Can we rest a minute?” She gasps. “Just to catch… catch breath.”

“I-” I start, glancing behind us. “Yeah. We can wait a minute.”

I sit down beside her, and she falls back so she was laying down. Her chest rising and falling while she tried to gulp in air. I lean back beside her, already catching my breath. For once I was glad for the training sessions in Godville.

“I’m sorry,” Moon whispers after a second.

“Shh,” I say. “Save your breath. It’ll be easier breathe if you don’t talk.”

She nods, closing her eyes. I reach out and lace my fingers with hers. She smiles slightly.

I wasn’t sure how long we stayed like that, not too long because Moon was still breathing slightly heavy. She had dozed off, but she was starting to catch her breath. Enough that she was able to breath normally.

I felt the creature before I saw it. I felt the fear that it brought forth. I squeeze my eyes shut, not knowing where it was, but knowing if I looked at it I would be dead.

“Moon,” I whisper. “Moon, wake up.”

She groans, and rolls over, “Five more minutes.”

“Moon,” I say, blindly reaching out to shake her. “Moon, it’s here. Wake up.”

I felt more than saw her wake up. She jerked up off of the ground and froze.

“Keep your eyes closed,” I say immediately.

“Okay,” she says. “Now what?”

“We wait,” I reply.

I knew that she wanted to question me, but she didn’t, and for that I was glad. Because it didn’t take long for me to sense the creature moving closer. I felt it’s claws scrap against my shoulders. That was all the encouragement I needed. I knew where it was, so now all we had to do was get away.

“Moon run!” I shout, and immediately I feel her leap up.

Her fingers wrenched from mine due to the action, I jump up and take off running, away from the creature. Moon’s presence beside me was the only thing that gave me relief.

The monster snarls and starts after us. Thump. Thump. Thump. It’s feet go every time they hit the ground.

“Mutt,” Moon says. “We can’t outrun it.”

“No, but we can slow it down,” I reply.

“What do you mean?” she asks.

Before she could figure out my plan I stop abruptly, she doesn’t notice and I’m glad that she still had her eyes closed. I send out waves of water, one towards Moon, throwing her forward. And one towards the monster, sending it flying back and then creating a wall.

When I was sure that the wall would hold I dissolve into the water, reappearing next to Moon. I couldn’t vapor travel out of here, I had tried when we first got here. But I could travel anywhere within the prison. I was met with a slap in the face.

“DON’T YOU EVER DO THAT AGAIN DO YOU UNDERSTAND ME?” Moon shouts, her eyes wild and frightful. “YOU HAD ME WORRIED! I THOUGHT THAT YOU HAD DIED!”

“Sorry,” I say, rubbing my cheek.

“SORRY?” Moon demands. “SORRY? THAT’S ALL YOU HAVE TO SAY?”

“You’re welcome for saving your life?” I offer.

She glares at me, her eyes on fire.

“You’re so cute when you get mad,” I say, before turning and walking away. “We better get going, that wall won’t last for long. It’s made out of water you know.”

She sighs and jogs slightly to catch up with me.

“We better keep running,” she says. “We gotta get a head start.”

I nod once and just like that we were off.

۝

“Mutt look!” Moon cries.

Immediately I look behind me, thinking that the monster had caught up.

“No, there,” Moon says, touching my arm and pointing in front of us.

That’s when I see them, the twin staircases leading out of Tartarus. Well, the left one lead out of Tartarus. The right one lead farther down, to hell.

“We made it,” I whisper. “Moon, we made it!”

She laughs slightly and slows down. Finally coming to a stop, I follow suit, even though I knew we shouldn’t. I pick her up and spin her around.

“WE MADE IT!” I shout happily.

Moon grins, her smile brighter than the joy I felt for finding the exit. She laughs again, looking so happy and beautiful, despite being covered in blood and gore.

“We made it,” she repeats. “Mutt! We made it!”

“Come on,” I say, grabbing her hand.

Walking slightly fast I pull her towards the stairs, she jogs slightly to catch up, until she was walking beside me. And that’s when we heard the roar.

“It’s back,” Moon says, glancing behind us.

“GO!” I shout, pushing her forward slightly.

That was all the encouragement that she needed before she took off sprinting. I was right beside her the whole time. I look behind us, trying to spot the thing, Moon follows suit.

“No!” I say. “Don’t look back, just keep looking forward.”

Moon nods, and keeps running. We were so close to the stairs when the wall came up. It was pure black, with swirling red inside of it. Almost like fire, except it wasn’t.

“No,” I whisper, realization clouding my thoughts.

This was my dream. It had come true. Despite everything that we had done to stop it from happening, we were here. In this exact spot. I turn to where the man would appear, dropping to the ground.

Like I had expected he appears laughing.

“Great attempt little demigods. However, it seems that you failed. Never fear though, I have a way out for you.” the man says, maniacally grinning.

“What is it?” Moon demands.

“Moon, don’t,” I whisper, even though I knew it was pointless

“Well?” Moon asks, not looking away from the man.

“Do you wish to compete in the trials to free yourself from this prison?” The man says with a smirk.

“Moon. Don’t.” I repeat, my voice dead, even to my ears.

I knew how this ended, I just didn’t want to have to follow through with it. But there was nothing I could do to stop it from happening.

“Absolutely,” Moon says, her eyes never leaving the man.

The man I now recognized as Tartarus.

I hang my head, slumping against the wall and closing my eyes. It was over.

Just then I hear Moon scream, my eyes jerk open and stare at her, watching as her blood seems to boil and skin turns red. Her screams fill up the dreamscape.

“One tiny catch,” Tartarus adds. “You will complete the trials as a mortal.”

Just then the wall crumbles, just barely.

“MOON! RUN!” I scream, and I leap up, pushing her forward. Towards the stairs.

I throw my hand out, finally being able to make out the substance within the wall, it was water. Even though it was red. I force the wall to crumble, and collide with Tartarus. He screams in agony.

“Mutt! Come on!” Moon cries, she had stopped halfway up the stairs.

“No!” I shout. “You go!”

“I’m not leaving you!” Moon snaps.

“YOU HAVE TO!” I shout. “Please! YOU HAVE TO GO! It’s destiny!”

“SCREW DESTINY!” Moon yells. “I AM NOT LEAVING HERE WITHOUT YOU! MY DESTINY IS WITH YOU! That’s why I said yes when you proposed!”

“I know Moon, and I promise that we WILL be together!” I say. “But for now you have to go!”

“No. Please. You have to come with me!” Moon says, her voice no longer screaming.

Tears formed in her eyes. And she looks at me, pushing her hair out of her eyes.

“Please,” she whispers. “I love you.”

“I love you too,” I say.

“Come on, please,” she says.

“I can’t,” I whisper. “It’s destiny that I stay here.”

Moon runs down the stairs, and stop beside me. Grabbing my hands, “Then I’m staying too!”

“Moon,” I start.

“No buts,” she cuts me off. “I’m not going anywhere, and you can’t get rid of me.”

I place my hands on both sides of her face, “Moon, if you don’t go then we both die!”

“Then we’re going to die,” Moon snaps. “At least we’d be together!”

She was full on crying now, tears streaming down her face. But she still doesn’t leave.

“I can’t survive unless I know that you’re safe,” I whisper. “You have to leave, Moon. Please. I love you. I need you safe. You have to trust me. I know how this ends.”

“Why won’t you tell me?” Moon whispers back. “Please, just tell me.”

“I can’t, I’m sorry. But I love you,” I say.

“I trust you,” Moon mutters. “But I can’t leave you down here. Not alone.”

I lean down and kiss her, one last goodbye, and then I pull away, and touch our foreheads together.

“Not willingly you won’t,” I mumble. “And I love you for that. I promise that I’ll find my way back to you. Always, forever, and an eternity after that.”

“Mutt, what are you-” Moon starts, searching my eyes.

I close them, not wanting to see her betrayal as I use the red water to throw her up the stairs, seconds before they dissolve into nothingness.

“NO! MUTT!” was the last thing I heard from her before she was truly gone.

“I’m sorry,” I whisper, opening my eyes.

Then I turn back and walk over to Tartarus, who was still coughing and spluttering on the ground. I reach down and grab a fistful of the front of his jacket, lifting him up. Slamming his back against the wall I ignite my other hand with the red water.

Except it wasn’t red water, it was fire and water mixed together. And there was one thing that I knew you could do when mixing elements together. You could use them to destroy a god or goddess. Tartarus truly was stupid to use it for his wall.

“Give Moon her powers back or lose yours,” I snarl.

Tartarus laughs, “You won’t kill me, boy. You’re not a killer.”