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This was over, I thought, as Poseidon got in my face, blocking out my view of the room, of my partners, of everything.Run!I thought through the bond, but couldn’t tell if they’d heard.

I guessed not, as sounds of battle came from beyond the big body, and no, no, no!They couldn’t die with me!“Run!”I screamed at the idiots.“Cut the bond!”

But nothing changed.I stared up at the massive face, now gazing almost fondly into mine, and wished I’d died already.I didn’t want to see this; I couldn’t see this!

“Yes, that’s what I expected,” he said.“My brother has developed a strange belief in your abilities, to the point that he almost equates you with your mother.But you aren’t your mother, are you?You’re just another pathetic demigod, panicking now that the end is near.”

“Please, my king,” Bodil said, and there was genuine fear in her voice.“Let me do this for you.Let me take the risk—”

“What risk?”Poseidon asked.“You will be rewarded, daughter, but this pleasure… I reserve for myself.Come here, so that my power doesn’t take you, too.”

I was surprised he cared.Was surprised he didn’t just blast us both at the same time, but I guessed that might make the demi squad unhappy, to see how easily he killed their sister.And how little he really thought of them.

Throw her a bone, keep them on the leash, it was what the gods had always done, I thought blankly, my head buzzing.I vaguely heard Enid screaming fey curses, saw Æsubrand grab her to hold her back, glimpsed Mircea and Pritkin battling off to the left, trying to reach me, even though they never could.But suddenly, it all seemed irrelevant.

All I could concentrate on was a huge pair of gray-blue eyes, and all I could feel was a sense of wrongness.Not that I was dying; I’d been expecting that for a while.But it wasn’t supposed to be him.

“Your brother,” I croaked, as Bodil let me go, and pushed me back at the same time, I guessed so I couldn’t get a knife into her.Or the whip I no longer had.“He wants to be the one to kill me.”

And I guessed I’d managed to say something funny, because Poseidon laughed, the sound echoing around the large space.“Yes, he left strict instructions to that effect.Too bad you died in battle before I could save you for him.

“You see,Pythia,” and in his voice, the title was an epithet, “your dear mother took everything from me.My wife, my realms, mypower.I am going to enjoy taking the last part of her left in this world.”

I tried to say something else—to him, some final words of defiance; to Bodil, standing snuggled up against him like the favorite daughter she hoped soon to be; to Pritkin and Mircea—so much… but I couldn’t.I’d faced death before, but it had never been so sure.And while I’d always assumed I’d go out screaming, when it came down to it, I just stood there, numb and waiting.

And waiting.

And waiting.

I realized I’d closed my eyes at some point, like a blindfolded idiot in front of a firing squad, but apparently, I wasn’t to be allowed even that.He wanted to see my eyes when he killed me, and fuck him!If he wanted to see them, he could damned well see them.

I opened them to glare at the bastard who was drawing out my death, only I didn’t see him.I didn’t see anything but a blinding torrent of power, slamming into me so hard that it blew me back against the side of the fountain, where it felt like I’d just broken every bone I had.I lay there, stunned and gasping and wondering why I wasn’t dead yet.

For a second, I didn’t know, and suspected that he just intended to leave me like that, to bleed out slowly while I watched the rest of my friends be killed in front of me.But then, through the blazing aftereffects of all that light, I finally made something out.Poseidon, falling backward, while a torrent of power gushed up from his almost bifurcated throat; Bodil, her right arm and the golden knife it held disintegrating, dripping blood and liquified flesh and showing bone; Mircea leaping onto the collapsing god, and sinking his sword in deep; people screaming and running and the life blood of an elder god spurting—

Lifeblood.

I blinked, half convinced all that gleaming gold was just in my mind, but no, it was everywhere, coating every surface in the area and puddling by the body, which was fighting ferociously but silently, as Bodil’s attack had severed his vocal cords and he couldn’t roar.

I got to my hands and knees; I have no idea how.I could barely feel my body anymore, except for screaming agony.But I’d been in agony before, and there was a sure-fire cure for that.Yes, there was a cure for everything, just there, right there, if I could drag my broken body that far—

And I could.One leg no longer worked, one arm was fire, probably broken, and the pain in my ribs made it almost impossible to breathe.Even worse, my vision kept hazing in and out, bright with leaping after effects one minute, and almost grayed out the next.But there were drips of god-blood on the ground, and my searching hands found some.

They were small, as he’d thrown me quite far, and almost imperceptible to sight, being lost in a flood of brighter light from the battle, but I didn’t need sight.I could feel them calling to me, each singing a song unmistakable to my ears, and I searched them out and soaked them up.Each little hit was another few inches forward; each smear a feast compared to what I had left; and then I found a small puddle and shoved my whole face into it, sopping it up and a powerful hit of strength along with it.

It wasn’t enough to heal, although I could feel Mircea’s ability along the bond, also singing out to me.But there wasn’t enough power for that, no, not even close.But it gave me the energy to keep going, to keep dragging my leg behind me, to keep smearing my own blood across the floor, although not enough to stop me, not with the song of all that power pulling me forward like a magnet to metal.

I slapped my palm down on a dribble and pushed off it to the next.I dragged my bleeding leg through a smear and felt some small strength flow back into it.I snarled at my own weakness and kept.

On.

Crawling.

Until I finally reached it, the outer edges of that vast puddle flowing out from the great writhing body.The torrent hadn’t stopped or even slowed down, for Bodil, half dead though she was, along with Mircea and now Pritkin, were attacking the fallen god.His forces were in disarray, some trying to help him while stumbling through a field of Margygr magic, others were standing there stupefied in horror, and still more were rushing back out the way they’d come.And being cut down as they did so, as the witches were back in it, throwing everything they had at Poseidon’s demigod children, including some spells that I strongly suspected weren’t on the approved list any more than Jonas’s had been.

But Æsubrand was fighting to get to Bodil, somehow not understanding that she’d basically just decapitated a god, until Enid jerked him back, and screamed something at him I couldn’t hear, because I couldn’t hear any of it.

Couldn’t see anything but gold, couldn’t feel anything but hunger, couldn’t focus on anything but—