From Origins (Descendant Prophecies Book 3) (17 page)

Dewy mist flooded
the walls of the cave, making the air humid. I could feel wetness on my face, while my sweater felt slightly damp to touch. We trudged on the sandy ground, making our steps soft and quiet.

I had expected it to be pitch dark, especially since we were in the deepest part of the ocean, but every few feet, a lit torch brightened the path. We cautiously walked as a close group to the unknown, allowing the path to lead us, and breathing in the cool, crisp air. Oddly, it was refreshing.

“This is too easy.” Nick looked from left to right. “Something is about to happen. It’s never this easy. Poseidon wouldn’t make it that accessible.”

“Shhh….” Amanda gave him the evil eye. “I hear something.”

“You hear water hitting the bottom, against the rocks,” Nick answered.

“No, it’s something else. Amanda is right.” Noah put out his hand. Tiny water bubbles floated around it, forming into knife sized icicles.

“Stay alert,” my dad warned.

Then it began. Air brushed against my skin first, growing stronger with each step. It shouted danger, lifting the sand and small pebbles.

“Hold on.” Mason held on tightly to my hand.

The sand in the air started to twirl like a mini hurricane, becoming larger with every second that passed. It expanded so quickly that we didn’t have a chance to get away. The wind flew in every direction, slapping my body. We were now at the center of it, and were unexpectedly lifted off the ground. Luckily, we were ascending instead of tumbling in the air.

“This is how Dorothy from
The Wizard of Oz
must have felt,” Nick joked, covering his face to keep from getting blasted by the sand. “Skylar, tap your feet three times, maybe you can take us out of here.”

“Nick!” Amanda scolded. “Shut up. Stop cracking jokes. Look up.”

“Holy crap! What do we do?” Noah panicked, looking at Zara for direction.

A gigantic hand that was formed from the sand was heading down for us. It looked like a fly swatter, and we were the flies.

“I don’t want to be squashed,” Amanda whimpered, covering her eyes.

“How do we get down?” Everett shouted, spitting sand out of his mouth. “Crap. It flew into my mouth.”

Mason and Nick flashed their lights, but it only went through it. Even fire from Colin did no good. It flared up, but then more sand took its place. It was a no win situation. The only thing that we could do was dodge it and try to find a way out, but when it grabbed a hold of Zara and swallowed her up, we freaked out even more. We dodged more hands that formed while we tried to save her, but we had to be careful not to hurt her…that was the tricky part. We stopped when the closed hand started to shake.

The hand vibrated so fast that the sand around it was peeling away, darting out like bullets. Then light appeared, growing like the sunrise.

“Everyone cover yourselves!” My dad warned.

Like a bomb, the hand blew up, and out came Zara, unharmed. The impact knocked us off balance, making us tumble, flip, and somersault, until we could settle ourselves again, but we were still in midair. Mason’s hand in mine broke the force of the pull.

Zara might have gotten rid of that hand, but that was just the beginning of our problems. The hands changed into faces...not any face, but Poseidon’s face.

“Who dares to enter?” All mouths of the six heads spoke. It was so loud that just the sound of their voices was ear piercingly painful.

“We do,” Zara spoke. “I’m Zara, one of the Oracles. The descendants of the gods need your help. We need the head of Medusa to save the gods.”

“Liar!” The heads were mad. Their anger was projected through the sand that sputtered out at us. “There is one among you that does not belong here.” The six heads spoke in union, making their voices loud. “One of you is not a descendant.”

We were quiet at first until Hades spoke up. “It is I, Hades, the god of the underworld.”

“Hades is locked away. Do not test my patience.”

“I’ve been set free. You know it’s me. You just said one of us is not a descendant.”

“Prove it. Show me your flame. Hade’s flame would be darker and more powerful than the descendants.”

Hades shook his head and looked down in shame. “I need time to regain my strength. I can only puff out smoke.”

“Prove it!” the faces demanded in anger.

Before anyone could speak, not only did the wind pick up speed, we were being sucked in, apparently towards their mouths.

“We need to think like Poseidon. What will stop the wind?” Noah asked.

Tim raised his hand, taking the water from the soft narrow stream along the side of the cave. “Poseidon didn’t create this stream for nothing.”

Understanding what Tim was doing, I did the same. Manipulating the water, like the outer layer of skin, water hugged the hurricane and masked the shape of it, but it had no effect on it. Instead, water darted on us the way the sand was.

“Hades! Do something,” Nick cried out frantically, zapping his light directly in the mouth he was being pulled into. “Show your smoke; show anything to prove you’re Hades.”

Hades raised his hand. How desperately I wanted him to have his power back. I wished so hard that my head hurt and my heart drummed as I watched only smoke puff out of his hand…then nothing. At last, beyond hope and power, we got sucked into the mouths.

Darkness covered me. I was sliding down an endless tunnel that seemed to stretch forever. My stomach dropped, and every muscle went limp when I plummeted out of whatever was guiding me. No control…out of control. Then suddenly, my fall became slower…much slower. Zara stood before me with a smile and her arms up to control my landing.

“Sky.” Mason came to me. He cupped my face, looking lovingly into my eyes. I knew that look. He was worried about me.

Strangely, Mason was becoming taller…no…I was shrinking, I thought. OMG! I was standing on an enormous hill of gold coins and countless jewels. Necklaces, bracelets, and rings of pearls, rubies, sapphires, diamonds, and all the various colors of gemstones were scattered about. Talk about temptation! I wanted to take one of each home. Too bad it was forbidden.

Smack in the center was a pillar. On the pillar was the reason why we’d gone there.

“You’re lucky you were the last one and Zara was there for you,” Amanda said, rubbing her hip. “I was one of the first to land on this massive pile of hard stuff. But man oh man…I wish we could take some home with us. They’re so beautiful.”

“One day, I will buy one for you. Whatever your heart desires,” Noah swooned, looking into Amanda’s eyes.

“Don’t even pick up a single gold coin,” my dad warned, struggling to get closer to me. With each step taken, his leg plunged into the coins. It was like walking through quick sand.

“I wasn’t going to pick it up, Victor,” Noah barked, heading for the pillar.

“I’m only looking after your well-being. Just reminding you. Seeing how rich we could get, it’s very tempting.”

“Now what?” Nick pursed his lips, examining the head. “It’s…dead.”

Zara circled around the pillar, looked closely at it, and then stood in front of it. “I assure you, it’s not dead. It looks like a statue, but once it’s picked up, it will come alive. You must not look directly in her eyes. With just one look, you will become the gray stone she is now. Medusa will call your name in your mind. She will toy with you…manipulate you…make you feel sorry for her. Does everyone understand? No matter how tempting she may sound, you must not give in.”

“Who’s going to be the one to pick it up?” Tim asked, shifting, trying to maintain his standing.

“The one with the purest heart,” she answered, turning her head to me.

All that time, I’d thought it would be Zara. I assumed the Oracles were the ones with the purest hearts. How could it be me? Feeling the weight of everyone’s stare I spoke.

“I don’t think it’s me.”

Zara approached me and held my face in her hands, a slight twinkle in her violet eyes. “Yes you are, Skylar. You are the special one, the one with the purest heart.”

“But it’s impossible.” I took a step back and shook my head, forcing her to drop her hands. I couldn’t believe what she was saying. “I’m not any better than anyone else in here. I’ve had impure thoughts. I’ve wished ill upon others. I….”

I stopped speaking when I didn’t know how to explain it any more. I was lacking words because at that moment, I knew she was right. Of course it had to be me. It was always me. It wasn’t about having a pure heart in that way I was thinking, because no matter what, we were part human…and humans were created to make mistakes in every form. But it was what you did to correct it so that it wouldn’t happen again that made your heart pure. So why was I the one with the purest heart? I had the power of the three gods. I couldn’t get purer than that.

Mason inclined his head with a grin, telling me to make my move. Thinking of my mom, I had to do this. I only hoped that I didn’t fail and that Medusa’s head would easily be taken off the pillar.

“How do I do this? And what do I do after I get a hold of it?” I asked. I didn’t want to accidently turn everyone to stone.

Zara reached inside of her cape and pulled out a black fabric bag. “Since I’ve never done this before, I thought we’d take a precaution and put it inside this bag, away from everyone’s eyes. Before you pick her up, keep in mind where you want to go. It will portal us there. That is the gift from Poseidon, though he’s not really here. He planned it well. He knew we wouldn’t come for it unless it was a dire need. But he also didn’t want to make it easy for just any descendants to take it. And the fact that Hades couldn’t shoot out flames was a good thing. It was a test. A test Hades passed that led us on the right path.”

“I don’t get it,” Amanda asked. “Why was it a good thing Hades couldn’t shoot out flame?”

“Because Poseidon would know that if Hades was released, he wouldn’t have his powers back right away. In fact, Hades won’t get his powers until Zeus or Poseidon offers them back to him.”

“What?” Hades’s eyes fired up. “You told me I would get them back in time. You led me on.” The gold coins shifted and moved, sliding in the opposite direction of Hades’s steps. He was going for Zara.

I jumped in front of Zara, though I was pretty sure she could handle Hades, especially since he had no powers. “Stop, Hades. You’ll get them back after we save your brothers. You said you want their forgiveness; hurting Zara won’t mend the problem or bring them back. We are wasting time. Resolve your anger. You need to learn how to control it.”

I knew Hades understood and would not harm Zara when the fire in his eyes dissipated. With a heavy sigh, he relaxed his strained muscles and stepped aside.

“Hurry, Sky.” Mason pointed, reminding me we were running out of time.

After I nodded to confirm, I slowly extended my arm and prayed that this went smoothly. My imagination ran wild and I thought of all sorts of scenarios in which this could go wrong…like the snakes coming alive and me getting bit by one of them, or Medusa’s eyes opening and turning everyone into stone, or the ground shaking and causing an avalanche of more gold coins or sand raining down on us. This all made me hesitant because we didn’t know what the outcome would be.

I didn’t realize I was holding my breath until I felt the need to release it after the head was off the pillar. I was pretty sure everyone was doing the same as their eyes set heavily on it. Zara handed me the bag and stepped away, as if what I was holding was some kind of disease she didn’t want to catch. I didn’t blame her. I sighed with relief that there was no unexpected surprise, but I sighed too soon. 

Medusa’s eyes popped open, scaring the life out of me. I knew this not because I looked directly into her eyes, but because her eyes shined like high beams on a car that had just turned on in the dark. When everyone screamed and ducked, I lost my grip and dropped it. “Shit!” Squinting, I scooped up the head, trying not to get any coin pieces along with it.

“I’ll hold it for you.” Dad took it from me. I was glad he did. It was heavy and it wasn’t something I wanted to have in my possession, though I knew Mason would have held it for me. He placed his arms down when my dad reached out his hand.