OPHELIA WAS GETTING real sick and tired of almost drowning. She hit the water hard, her eyes stinging in the salt water. Her stomach ached where the tentacle had hit her, and her lungs were already burning from the lack of oxygen.
She tried to kick her way back up to the surface, but it was like the water was resisting.
No, not resisting. Pulling. The water was pulling her down, away from the surface.
Oh, for fuck's sake.
She saw two more bodies hit the water several feet above her, but she couldn't tell who they were from where she was. In her peripheral, she saw a figure emerging from the darkness of the deep waters, swimming toward her as she sank to meet it.
Her lungs screamed for oxygen. She felt like her head was about to explode.
Just as her body gave into instinct and she inhaled, the water around her rippled, and oxygen filled her lungs instead of the seawater she was expecting.
Her shoes touched the sand at the bottom of the sea. She looked up and couldn't even see the shape of the Argo II up above. How deep was this part of the ocean? A mile? Two?
She took several rapid breaths, borderline hyperventilating until she managed to calm her racing heart.
Then the figure came into focus, and she felt like her heart stop altogether.
She shouldn't have been able to see anything—the sun's rays didn't reach this deep into the sea. She should have been blind, but the figure before her glowed a pale bluish-green, like the surface of the ocean on a sunny day. The man wore a toga a few shade darker than the color of the sea, his dark hair short and tidy. Over his toga, there was some sort of netting wrapped around his body, like a fisherman's net.
In his hand he held a tall, lethal-looking trident.
"Hello, Ophelia Imai," the figure said. "You know who I am, I presume?"
Ophelia swallowed hard. "Lord Neptune," she whispered, fear quieting her voice as effectively as a hand over her mouth.
"Yes." The god looked up, as if he could see through the miles of water to the surface. He probably could. "What a nuisance, that creature. Don't you agree?"
It took Ophelia a moment to pluck up enough courage to respond. "Uh, y-yes, my lord."
To her surprise, the god looked at her with an almost annoyed expression. "I was under the impression that you were one of the bravest heroes of your generation," he said. "I hadn't expected this... stuttering mess before me."
"Sorry, Lord Neptune," Ophelia said, grateful when her voice remained relatively steady. "I... I suppose I'm just... nervous." Try absolutely terrified.
Lord Neptune studied her with an unreadable expression. "Why would that be?" he asked. "Because you killed my daughter?"
There it is.
Ophelia looked at the sand at her feet, unsure how to respond to that. Was she just supposed to agree? Say she was sorry? What did he even want with her?
The god sighed. "I did not bring you down here to kill you, child, so you can calm your worries," he told her. "As annoying as Skolopendra is, I suppose I should be grateful it gave me a chance to talk to you."
"Talk about...what, my lord?" she asked, finally pulling her eyes away from the ocean floor and back up at the god.
"You're aware of the Doors of Death being open and Gaea taking control of them, yes?"
आप पढ़ रहे हैं
Where You Go ― Jason Grace
फैनफिक्शनin which an oath sworn on the river styx complicates a goddess's plans, and ophelia imai wakes up memory-less on a school bus with her amnesiac boyfriend, two teenagers convinced they're all best friends, and yet another dangerous war looming overhe...
