“Henry, door prize!” Andie shouted, and Henry savagely kicked his door into a Nereid on the passenger side. The impact sent it rolling back toward the ditch. He looked at Cassandra, shocked only for a moment before his eyes darkened.
“Stay here. Both of you.” He got out and slammed the car door, going after the Nereid he’d struck.
“Not a chance.” The door opened again and Andie followed. She scooped up a thick branch as she went.
Cassandra sat frozen in the car. It felt suddenly quiet and alone. The Nereids had gone off after Andie and Henry; she saw Henry duck a black, scaled arm and punch the creature in the face. In front of the Mustang, Aidan struggled with Aphrodite on his back. Cassandra looked around the interior, at seats covered with spilled soda and snack wrappers. Nothing she could use for a weapon.
Aphrodite’s hands searched for Aidan’s neck.
“I’ll snap your spine and tear your head off,” she shrieked. “Then I’ll keep it as a pet.”
“So you can bitch at me at your leisure? I don’t think so.” He reached back to flip her over the front of him, but she was hooked in. Her teeth sank into the meaty part of his shoulder, and he screamed.
“Aidan!” Cassandra’s hand went to the car door and she stepped out, ready to do she didn’t know what. “Get off him!”
Out of nowhere, Hermes blew in like a breeze and collided with Aphrodite. The hit knocked her off of Aidan’s back and dumped her rolling onto the side of the road.
“You make a fairly nasty turtle shell, bitch.” Hermes’ sides rose and fell rapidly, but his eyes were bright.
“Where did you come from?” Aidan asked.
“About ten miles back, Athena opened my door and told me to hit the ground running.” He gave Aidan a small smile. “You shouldn’t be so hard on big sister. She always comes through in the end.”
At the edge of the ditch, Aphrodite got to her feet, crying at the fresh dirt streaks on her already stained dress.
“Bastards,” she hissed, and Hermes and Aidan made ready to fight, but she turned and fled through the trees, down to the water. The Nereids too had pulled back. Andie and Henry backed up toward the car.
“What are they doing?” Andie went to Cassandra and held her shoulder. Henry came too, his forearm bleeding from cuts made by sharp gills and razor teeth.
“Cassie, get back in the car.”
“Don’t bother.” Hermes watched the Nereids. They stood on the edge of the highway, their posture attentive, like they were listening for something. They had all turned to face the lake.
The dark water rippled along the shore. Cassandra could almost feel it against her arms, the depth and the cold. It raised goose bumps across her shoulders. She thought she saw something skimming along under the surface, some ragged, shadowy shape, hulking and enormous, the Loch Ness Monster in the flesh.
When Poseidon reared his head out of the water, his jaw jerking open to reveal shark’s rows of jagged teeth, Cassandra gasped. Next to her, Aidan stared at the monster his uncle had become.
“Big sister better not be far behind.”
The road twisted north and curved; Odysseus had to slow down, sometimes to as low as fifty miles an hour. Athena struck the dashboard, eyes bright with fear and frustration.
“I’m sorry,” Odysseus said. “It won’t help anyone if we flip the car.” He glanced at her, a question in his eyes. She shook her head.
“Don’t ask me to turn back. And don’t try it. I’ll just throttle you and drag you bleeding back into the fray.”
He smiled. “I know. Is Hera there yet? Can you sense her?”
Athena shook her head. She’d sensed Aphrodite and Poseidon clearly enough. Their arrival, so malevolent and sudden, had practically blown a circuit out the back of her head. But Hera had not yet made the scene. It was the only thing that gave her hope.
“They won’t last long,” Athena said.
“Don’t sell them short. Apollo got the drop on you for a minute, when he bashed your head in. He can do the same to Poseidon.”
Athena looked at him doubtfully.
“Just drive faster.”
A Nereid sprang out of nowhere and dove for Cassandra. They’d all been so busy staring at Poseidon that they hadn’t noticed it coming close. It knocked Andie and Henry aside like toys. Cassandra tried to dodge, but it grabbed her by the wrist.
“Aidan!”
It was so strong. No matter how she dug her feet in or clawed at its grip, the ground only seemed to go by faster. Her ankles caught on the dirt and rolled painfully.
But it didn’t. It held her up and kept on, speeding her mindlessly toward the lake, while Aidan screamed her name. She glanced back. Nereids had swarmed the Mustang like black beetles. Hermes had his hands full with three, and two dragged Aidan down toward the ground. Andie and Henry fought back-to-back, but there were too many. Cassandra shouted as she saw one rake its claws across Andie’s stomach.
Ahead of her, Poseidon yawned like a nightmare, barnacle shells eating away the surface of his arms, blood like black oil draining from cuts made by coral that twisted up his body and sliced tunnels into his face. She remembered his teeth in the witch’s leg, and her own legs turned to rubber.
“Cassandra, I’m coming!”
She looked back; Aidan had gotten free and dashed down through the trees. Black Nereid bodies littered the ground around the car. Hermes tore another head loose and dashed down after him, so fast. But in the next instant, cold struck her belly and closed over her head as the Nereid dragged her into the water.
She held her breath as they went under, all her limbs twisting toward panic. Panic at the teeth with her in the lake; panic that her lungs already burned from lack of air. She kicked against the Nereid’s side and it let her break the surface.
“Aidan!”
Her teeth chattered in the frigid water. The shock of it made all her muscles seize. If the Nereid let her go, she wasn’t sure she’d be able to swim to shore. Through weak splashes of protest, she could still see Poseidon, standing suspended, his torso covered in seaweed and slime, a god purified and corrupted all at once. His death transformed him, made him elemental, enormous. More a Titan’s offspring than he had ever been.
She turned toward the shore.
“No! Go back!”
But he wouldn’t. He wouldn’t even hesitate.
Hermes stood at the edge of the lake watching her. He caught Aidan by the arm.
“Wait, brother.”
“There’s no time!” He tried to jerk loose, but Hermes held him fast.
“He’ll kill you and take her anyway.”
Aidan looked at Cassandra. She could barely see for blinking back water.
Aidan turned to Hermes.
“Not if you help me.” He twisted out of his brother’s grip and ran into the water, diving in fast.
Hermes shook his head. “Shouldn’t we say something heroic first?” he shouted, but he plunged in, plunged in afraid, and swam after them both, toward a god diseased by shells and the claws of crustaceans.
Fresh adrenaline reached Cassandra’s blood and she struggled, kicking and splashing. Her fingernails dug into the Nereid’s scaled hand. She twisted them and drew blood, but it didn’t matter. Poseidon watched them
