I wasn’t Nix.
I couldn’t hurt her because I didn’t want to. And if she forced my hand, I had no idea how potent my powers would manifest. I could do so much more damage than I intended to.
Something like indecision flashed across her face, but she still took a step forward and lifted her sword-wielding arms. “I have my orders,” she murmured.
I had nothing on me so the second she lifted her right hand to swing her sword I threw both arms over my face and screamed. Energy and power burst out of me in a concentrated stream of aggression.
I heard her choke on water. She made the wet gurgling sound that could only be associated with drowning.
I dropped my arms and watched her stumble to one knee. She leaned over and choked up mouthful after mouthful of water. The sticky sea water landed on the hem of my gown as I rushed to her side.
I didn’t know what to do. I tried to pull my power back, drain the water from her shaking body, but I was too hysterical to do anything quickly. I had just meant to warn her, not murder her.
I patted her broad shoulder with my trembling hand and tried to calm my nerves so that I could work quicker.
“I’m sorry,” I told her. “I just… I didn’t mean to hurt you.”
Finally the well in her lungs seemed to go dry. She made a high-pitched wheezing sound with each breath she took and her shoulders were racked with weighted breaths. “But you did,” she rasped. “You… you’re faster… than me…”
“It was a gut reaction.” I looked around frantically, afraid that someone had seen me and would drag me back to Hera. “I… I didn’t mean to. I swear.”
Slowly I became aware of how hot her skin beneath my hand had grown. When I took a moment and forced my mind to pay attention, I could see that the length of her entire body was wrapped in an orange glow. She was still shaking, but not from weakness anymore.
Out of all of the Greek myths, the Furies were something that scared me the most. Their destruction was absolute. They were awesome with their power, with their sword skills and death count. They could raze cities or kingdoms or worlds when unleashed.
Save for the gods, nothing could stand up to the Furies.
And yet, I had attacked one… after she told me she wanted to kill me.
So yeah, I was pretty much dead.
I took a step back. I wiped my raw hand on my gown and ignored the pain that burned from my palm to my elbow.
“You should have killed me, Siren,” she growled.
I jumped back another few feet, just as she swung her sword into an arc landing lithely on her toes. She lunged for me and I just managed to scramble out of her reach.
She was toying with me now. I caught the pleasure in her burning eyes. I felt her excitement ripple through the air and promise pain.
I turned around and sprinted forward. The slits in my skirt made it easy to run, but I was wearing loose sandals and the terrain was unfamiliar.
I scraped my arm against the side of a building when I tried to run behind it. My body bounced back from the impact and I stumbled again. My arms flailed as I tried to keep my balance.
The ground was too uneven and I tripped in an awkward crash, landing on my butt.
She stood over me before I’d managed to take the next breath. The fall had jarred me more than I wanted to admit and I stared up at her with clouded confusion. How did we get here so quickly? I hadn’t even put up a fight.
She smiled down at me and the malicious expression filled her with evil anticipation.
“Why?” I gasped. “I did nothing to you.”
She dropped her second sword, tossing it out of reach. Then she lifted her remaining blade with two hands above her head. The orange glow that swathed her body seemed to catch the fire from the blade. She looked like she had been set aflame, her wild hair tossed in the wind and her eyes glinted with coming death.
“You-”
But she never got the chance to finish her sentence. Her mouth filled with more water, spraying from her enflamed lips in choking spurts.
Her eyes rolled back in her head as she tried to fight the drowning sensation. Her arms wobbled overhead before they fell limply to her side. Her sword clattered away and extinguished itself.
