Elementals 5: The Hands of Time Read online

  “You couldn’t access your powers in Kerberos, and it was you against Ethan and the two dragons,” I told him. “Ethan didn’t even need to bring you with him—all he wanted was Medusa’s head. He only took you so he could kill you and cause me the same grief that he’d had to go through when Rachael died.”

  “That twisted monster,” Blake growled, his fists clenched to his sides. “Now I understand why you didn’t let him live back in Kerberos. If you hadn’t killed him already, I would do it myself.”

  “I had no choice,” I agreed. “I had to kill him.”

  But even though I said it, there was still a part of me that questioned what I’d done. Because I did have a choice.

  And I’d chosen to kill him.

  The scary thing was—I didn’t regret it.

  “So Blake was dead and Chris was poisoned,” Apollo said, bringing us back to the story. “It still doesn’t seem like enough incentive to get Chronos to send you through a time portal.”

  Even though he was my father, I wanted to tell him that he was a jerk for saying that so insensitively. Sure, Blake and Chris were fine now, but he had no idea how torn apart we’d been when we thought otherwise.

  But I held my tongue, because he was right. Both of those things weren’t what convinced Chronos to send us through the portal.

  “Ethan also destroyed Medusa’s head,” I explained. “He gouged out her eyes, making them useless.”

  “And without Medusa’s head, the group of you had no chance against Typhon,” Apollo concluded.

  “Exactly,” Danielle said. “So even though I figured it was a long shot, I asked Erebus if he could contact Chronos for us. He did, and after realizing that the world would end if the timeline remained as it was, Chronos came to us and created a time portal so we could go back and change the past.”

  “Why did you go back to a point where you could save Blake, but not Kate?” Chris clenched his fists, looking at Danielle and me like we were monsters. “Did you forget about her completely?”

  “Of course not!” I said, hating that he thought that for even a second. “The first thing I asked was if we could go back to before the fight with Medusa so we could save Kate. But Chronos wouldn’t allow it. He refused to send us back that far because he wouldn’t risk the outcome of the fight changing, and us not getting Medusa’s head. He decided on the point when we returned. We didn’t have a say.”

  “Okay,” Chris said, although he still looked uneasy. “So why didn’t I come back with you? Was that bite I’d gotten from the fox so bad that I would have been a detriment when you returned to fight Ethan?”

  “Mortals aren’t meant to travel through time,” Danielle explained. “Doing so causes a huge stress to our bodies—it takes away one year of our natural lives. Nicole couldn’t heal you since she couldn’t access her powers, and because of the bite, you only had weeks left to live. If you’d gone through the time portal, you wouldn’t have survived.”

  “It’s probably good that you don’t have to remember anything,” I added. “What we went through in Kerberos… the things we saw while there… I wish I could go back to before it all and never have to experience it, too.”

  “I don’t,” Danielle said. “Everything we go through in our lives—even the hard parts—help make us who we are. I wouldn't forget anything, even if I could.”

  I suspected that she just didn’t want to forget Erebus, but the situation was too intense to joke about it, so I said nothing.

  “I guess I understand why I couldn’t come back with you,” Chris said. “But what happened to the version of me that traveled with you through Kerberos? He was just… left behind?”

  “As Chronos explained it, the version of you from that timeline ceased to exist the moment we traveled back here and changed the past,” I said. “That timeline is gone. You—this version of you—is the only one that’s real.”

  “This is heavy.” Chris sighed and ran his hand through his hair.

  “It is,” Apollo agreed. “It’s best not to overthink time travel too much, or it will make your head spin. What matters is that your mission to Kerberos was successful and that you’re home safely. I was just preparing to give you your gifts, but since you don’t need them anymore, they won’t be necessary.”

  “But you’re not taking back the sword.” Danielle’s hand flew protectively to its handle. “Right?”

  “No.” Apollo chuckled. “The Golden Sword was yours to begin with, so I wouldn’t dream of taking it back. And Nicole, you can keep the Golden Bow that you brought back with you, too.”

  “And the crystal arrows?” I asked, motioning toward the bag. “They’re in there, right?”

  “They are.” He nodded. “And I’m glad to know that they were helpful to you while you were in Kerberos. But crystal arrows aren’t exactly easy to come by. And now that you’re back, you don’t need them anymore. So I’ll be holding onto them until they’re needed in the future.”

  “It’s too bad we won’t be getting our gifts.” Chris pouted. “I love getting presents. I was looking forward to seeing what mine would be.”

  “Nicole or Danielle can tell you later,” Apollo said. “For now, there are more important issues to discuss.”

  “Like what?” I asked.

  “I have information that’s supposed to be secret to you,” he said. “You’re supposed to figure it out on your own. But I believe that you deserve a reward for succeeding in your mission through Kerberos, and this information will help you defeat Typhon… so now, I will tell you what you need to know.”

  CHAPTER FOUR

  I didn’t know why Apollo would hide something important from us to begin with—after all, it was in his benefit if we defeated Typhon and sealed the portal. But I worried that if I said that, he would change his mind about sharing this information, so I kept my mouth shut and waited for him to continue.

  “The Earth Elemental—Kate—was turned to stone by Medusa,” Apollo said—as if we could forget. “Immediately afterward, you contacted me through the sun pendant, asking if I could reverse the curse. The next day, you consulted the Book of Shadows, asking it the same question.”

  “The Book of Shadows said that Medusa’s curse is impossible to reverse,” Chris said, standing straighter. “Are you saying that it lied?”

  “Wait for me to finish.” Apollo held a hand out, his gaze stern. “The Book of Shadows didn’t lie. It’s true that it’s impossible to reverse Medusa’s curse. However, do not lose hope for your friend. She can never become what she once was, but she can become something better.”

  “What do you mean?” Danielle asked. “Isn’t Kate in the Underworld right now?”

  “Any living creature turned to stone by Medusa is not sent to the Underworld,” Apollo explained. “To go to the Underworld, the soul must leave the body. But when someone is turned to stone, their soul becomes trapped inside the rock, unable to escape.”

  I gasped, recalling the statues at the art museum in LA that we saw when we’d gone to seek out Medusa. I remembered observing them, wondering if there was still a part of them alive in there, looking out through their stone eyes, aware of the world around them. I swallowed down a lump in my throat at the realization of how right I’d been.

  “So Kate’s not dead,” I said. “She’s still in there. Trapped in her own body. Is she aware of what’s going on around her?”

  “Your friend is dead,” Apollo said. “Her body will never be habitable again. And as far as I know, she is not aware of her surroundings. Her soul is simply trapped inside the stone, unable to escape.”

  I shivered, because that sounded even worse than I’d imagined.

  “So what are you saying?” Blake asked. “We need to find her a new body? And somehow transfer her soul into it?”

  “Not quite,” he answered. “However, I recommend that a solid start would be researching the process of apotheosis. Because if the process completes successfully, your friend will have a new form.”
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  I wasn’t sure what kind of form he meant, but I knew one thing—anything would be better than Kate being stuck in a stone prison of her own body for the rest of eternity. That fate sounded worse than being trapped in the underworld of Kerberos itself.

  “And if the process doesn’t complete successfully?” Danielle asked.

  Apollo’s eyes darkened. “Then you will not see her again in this life.”

  “We’ll complete it successfully.” Chris clenched his fists in determination. “This is Kate’s only chance. We have to do it right.”

  “Whether or not it completes successfully is up to the gods,” Apollo said. “But I don’t think we should hang around here any longer. After all, time is of the essence, and you still need to figure out how to save the world.” He reached down to pick up the bag with our gifts in it, preparing to leave.

  “Wait,” I said, remembering one last thing I wanted to ask him. “Typhon and the portal aren’t our only problems. Back in Greece, we angered Helios when we accidentally killed one of his immortal cows. He’s wanted to get back at us ever since—that’s why he found Ethan and convinced him to turn on us. He promised Ethan that if Ethan brought Medusa’s head to Kerberos and destroyed it, that he would bring Ethan’s sister Rachael back from the Underworld. Now that Ethan’s not around to do Helios’s dirty work anymore, what’s to stop Helios from coming after us himself?”

  “And if he does come after us, how are we supposed to fight him?” Danielle added.

  Apollo showed no emotion—I supposed that with thousands of years of practice, he’d learned to control his expressions. But I remained focused on him, praying that he would step up to defend us. After all, he was my father. We might not know each other well, and his parenting methods might be different than those of a human parent, but he had to care about me a little. Right?

  I held my breath, anxiously waiting for his response.

  “If Helios comes after you, you’ll have no chance against him on your own,” he finally said. “And Helios is a wrathful god. Well—I suppose we all have our moments—but his are particularly bad. He’s hated me since I took over as god of the sun. If he comes after you and stops you from defeating Typhon, the consequences would be severe for everyone—including myself and my fellow Olympians. I cannot allow that to happen. Therefore, I will tell the other gods of Olympus about this problem, and together we will take care of Helios. All that you need to focus on is defeating Typhon and closing the portal. Understood?”

  “Yes.” I nodded, even though Apollo’s reasoning sounded selfish and far from fatherly. “Understood.”

  “Great,” Apollo said, swinging the bag of presents that he never gave us over his back. “Congrats again for your success in Kerberos, and good luck on the mission ahead. I don’t think you need reminding that the entire world is counting on you.”

  A light as bright as the sun surrounded him, filling the cave with its light, so blinding that I had to look away.

  Once it dimmed out, he was gone.

  CHAPTER FIVE

  We drove back to Darius’s house, where Darius, Hypatia, and Jason waited in the living room. They were all focused on the television. I’d never even noticed a television in Darius’s house before—but this one was so huge that it would have been impossible to miss. On closer look, I noticed a slit in the ceiling above the television—it must be able to slide out of the ceiling at the touch of a button.

  On the television was a breaking news report about an unusual amount of activity around Mount Etna. The reporter on screen said that scientists were calling for an evacuation of the entire province surrounding the volcano in expectation of a major eruption. They predicted that the volcano would erupt around March 20—the spring equinox. Townspeople were shown gathering belongings from their homes, squeezing as much as they could into their small cars in preparation to head out of town.

  The news report ended, and Darius turned off the television. It did, in fact, recede up into the ceiling.

  “Since you’re back in good time, I take it that you were able to use Medusa’s head to turn the Cyclops to stone?” he asked us.

  Hypatia glanced at the door, her forehead creasing with worry. “Where’s Ethan?” she asked, looking at the door again as if she expected him to stroll in at any moment.

  So much time had passed for me since we’d left with Ethan to find the Cyclops. It was so strange that to them, we’d only left recently. They had no idea that so much had happened to us since that moment.

  “Ethan’s not coming back,” I told them, bitterness creeping into my tone from just having to speak his name.

  “Why not?” Hypatia sat forward in alarm. “What happened to him?”

  “Why don’t we all sit down?” I said. “Because we have a lot to catch you up on…”

  CHAPTER SIX

  We told them the entire story, and Darius ordered us pizza, realizing that a lot more time had passed for us than he’d initially thought. The hot food was heavenly after living off protein bars in Kerberos for days on end. Finally we reached the end of the story, finishing on our final conversation with Apollo.

  “Do any of you know what apotheosis means?” I asked the Elders. “Apollo said that’s how we would be able to save Kate, but he didn’t give us any more information.”

  “I do know what it means.” Darius stared at a piece of pizza on his plate, making no move to pick it up again. Instead, he pressed the pads of his fingers together, appearing to be deep in thought. Then, after a few moments passed, he looked back up at us, his eyes sharp and focused. “I’ve never seen it done in my lifetime,” he continued. “But apotheosis is the process of turning someone into a god.”

  “No way,” Danielle said. “That’s really possible?”

  “It’s possible,” Hypatia confimed. “Although it’s very, very rare. I can only think of a few times in all of history when it’s been done successfully.”

  “But we can do it for Kate,” I said, sitting forward in excitement. “That must be what Apollo meant when he said that we couldn’t return her to the form she’d been in before she was turned to stone. Because before being turned to stone, Kate was mortal. After we finish this process, she’ll be a goddess.”

  “Once she’s a goddess, will she want anything to do with us measly mortals anymore?” Chris asked. He sounded like he was joking, but his eyes creased with worry.

  “Let’s take a step back for a second,” Jason said, and we all quieted, looking at him to continue. “I understand that you’re excited about the possibility of seeing Kate again, but our primary concern this week is stopping Typhon from rising from Mount Etna. Perhaps it’s best to put the apotheosis on the backburner until Typhon has been destroyed.”

  “No.” Chris sat straight, his voice serious. “Apollo told us that we’re more likely to succeed in destroying Typhon if Kate is working with us. We can’t put this off. We need her to help us defeat Typhon.”

  “It makes sense,” Blake pointed out. “Kate’s elemental power is Earth. Since we’ll need to be at an active volcano to turn Typhon to stone, her abilities could be crucial to our success.”

  “Good point,” Danielle agreed. “Lava is molten rock. Kate’s the only one of us who could control it.”

  “And if Apollo told us that we’ll be better off with Kate helping us, we need to listen to him,” I added. “He’s on our side—not to mention that one of his godly specialties is prophecy. He wouldn’t have told us that if he wasn’t trying to help us.”

  “Exactly,” Chris said, eager to back me up.

  “So… how do we start the apotheosis process?” I asked, looking at the Elders for answers.

  “That’s one of the problems,” Hypatia said. “Apotheosis is a dangerous, mysterious process. It’s only been done successfully a few times, and each time it was done differently. It’s certainly never been done to a soul that’s trapped inside stone after being cursed by Medusa. We would need time to research before we tried anything.
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  “So create a portal to the New Alexandrian library,” Danielle said. “With all of us working together, there’s no reason why we shouldn’t be able to figure this out.”

  Hypatia took a deep breath and gripped the edge of her seat. I anxiously watched all three of the Elders, hoping they would agree. We needed them to create this portal for us. Regular methods of travel would take too much time, and with only one week until Typhon would rise, every minute was of the essence.

  “Twenty-four hours,” Darius finally said. “That’s how long we will set aside to research a safe way to proceed with Kate’s apotheosis. If we cannot figure something out within that time frame, we’ll have to move on to figuring out a plan to defeat Typhon.”

  “Thank you.” I let out the breath I’d been holding and twisted my hands together. I was grateful that we had this chance to save Kate. But I was also worried, because twenty-four hours seemed like such a short amount of time to accomplish something so huge.

  “We’ve got this.” Blake reached for one of my hands to stop my fidgeting and gave it a small squeeze. “There are seven of us working together. And we can call on energy to keep us awake and focused. If we all look in different places, there’s no reason why we shouldn’t be able to figure something out in that amount of time.”

  “You’re right,” I said, grateful for his support. “Let’s do this.”

  With no time to waste, Hypatia created the portal, and we all stepped through to the New Alexandrian library.

  CHAPTER SEVEN

  The New Alexandrian library was breathtakingly beautiful. Everything inside—the floors, the ceilings, the columns—was made of gold. Even the rugs were threaded with gold. The sun shined down from a circular dome in the center, its rays warming up the building. The sight of them made me feel like Apollo was with us, supporting us in this quest for knowledge.

  I gazed up, taking in the magnanimity of the library. I’d never been in a room with ceilings so high. There must have been five floors worth of books, at the least. The first level was full of scrolls, and as the levels increased, the books became more and more modern, until the top where they looked like books I might pick up at the store today. I’d never been much of a bookworm—I preferred being active and outdoors—but even I was left breathless by all the books in front of me.