My relic is the answer. I know it. But how do I—
I grunt as an idea hits me between the eyes. I’m taking a big fucking risk and have one shot at this if I’m lucky, but it’s the only option I can see.
Holding myself up with my shaking thighs, I lift my bound hands over my head and start tugging my vest up. My shirt drags up with it. More than once, my legs slip and I have to pause and get a grip. Finally, it pulls free with a tug.
I’d love to take a breather, but my legs are jelly and I’m slipping more. Working as fast as I can, I manage to unzip the pocket at my back and pull out my relic. First, I cut the rope that secures my wrist bindings to the post. My legs give, and I tumble back into the water, dropping my vest. Still clutching my weapon, I helplessly watch the vest sink until it’s snagged on a small rock outcropping, maybe six feet down.
Shit, shit, shit.
When I come up for air, I let my quivering body float as I awkwardly hack through the bindings around my wrists as fast as I can without cutting myself. The rope isn’t thick, so I’m quickly freed. My body quakes from the cold. I need to get out of the water before I can’t—we all do. I duck back underwater and swim down to my vest, slipping it back on with jerky motions as I kick back up to the surface.
“Stop climbing!” I yell to the others. “I’ll come to you and cut you free.”
“Don’t believe her,” Neve snarls. “She’ll just gut us with that axe.”
“She already helped us once,” Meike yells back, her bangs plastered to her forehead by the spray of the sea. “We all have our gifts because of her.”
Something falls into the water from a pole closer to the cave entrance. I look just in time to see Kim Dae-hyeon ––Artemis’ first male champion in…maybe ever–– swear as a bulging backpack sinks under the water.
That sucks. Hopefully he can get to it.
Kicking to stay afloat over another swell, I shout at Dex, “It’s up to you. Come down to the water if you want my help.”
Dex is climbing down. It’ll take him a second, so I swim past Neve’s pole to Trinica Cain, Hephaestus’ champion…one of the Courage virtues. She’s the only other champion from the United States, from somewhere in the South, I think.
Her dark waves hang over her face, and discerning eyes stare back at me from between the strands. “Are you going to gut me like she said?”
I like Trinica already. No-nonsense and practical. “No. But I have to climb your pole to get to your hands, so we’ll have to touch. Don’t bite me or something, yeah?”
She nods.
I try to avoid pulling or leveraging myself on her, which would hurt her hands and wrists more, and manage to get up the pole high enough to cut her down. She falls in with a splash and comes up coughing and wild-eyed. “I need my hands!”
I drop back into the water and cut her wrists free as fast as I can, and she wraps herself around the pole.
“Get to the wall.” I point.
She nods, and I move from pole to pole, skipping Apollo’s champion––Rima Patel, world-class neurosurgeon turned fish bait––who’s already freed herself. Next, I get to Zai, who managed to sit on top of his pole, at least, although by the shaky looks of him, that took all he had physically. He waves me off. “I’m safe up here for now. Get the others.”
By the time I reach Isabel, it’s more difficult because the water is still receding. Too fast. This isn’t a normal tide.
Isabel mutters through chattering teeth in a litany of angry Spanish about the cold water, sadistic gods, and why the fuck is she here anyway. She and I really need to be friends. As soon as she’s free, she flips her long, blond hair out of her face and twists it up into a knot on top of her head while treading water. “Do you have anything else that cuts?”
I hesitate a beat, and she sees it. “It’ll go faster with two of us,” she points out.
She’s right. “I have this.” I pull the wire cutters out of a different pocket and hand them to her.
We both swim as fast as we can to the other champions, past where I’d been tied up. I can see already that Samuel Sebina, champion of Zeus, must have broken his rope by strength alone. He’s helping Meike on Dex’s other side. Meanwhile, Dex has climbed back down, but it’s obvious that with the lower water level, his arms and wrists are hurting now.
“Hurry,” he groans at me.
“Hold on.”
I hear him grunt. “Like I have a choice.”
Because there’s more strain on the rope with his weight, it snaps like a twig after the first saw. I follow him into the water and free his wrists. In a blur of movement, he grabs the axe from my hand.
27
The Warning Stones
Before I can react, Dex slashes at me, but a swell of water pushes him out of range before the blade makes contact.
Heart hammering, I swim backward, putting more distance between us. “Dick move.”
“Sorry, but I’m here to win.”
Mental note to stay away from Dex from now on. “I’m here to not die,” I tell him. “Victory is all yours.”
“Yeah, right.” He waves my relic in the air. “Thanks for this, though.”
With strong strokes, he swims away from me toward the opening of the cave. What? Does he plan to swim all the way from wherever this island is to the shore?
His funeral—
The pearls. I have four of the six tucked into a pocket of my vest. I could get away if I wanted. Hades would come get me in the Underworld, if that’s where I end up.
