Veins filled with something more than a commoner’s blood, she had been infused with something… else.
Swallowing, her throat ravaged and dry, Kore tore her eyes away from the disturbing sight. Choking back the nausea, she moved. Stealing forward on legs impossibly free of pain. Placing one trembling hand on slick moss, she pulled herself forward, inch by silent, quaking inch.
Crawling across the slime exposed by the retreating tide, skating around the tiny things that thrived in tidal pools, she timed her every breath with the crash of the next wave. Approaching Poseidon’s son until she was close enough to see his scales shift with each rattling, disturbing breath.
Fingers twisting, she paused long enough to call on her Lord. Silently begging Apollo to intervene. To deliver her from this lonely spit of forgotten land.
The sun only sank deeper behind the clouds.
A rattling breath snared Kore’s attention, and she looked. Eyes catching on the flutter and stretch of that peculiar sound.
Gills.
It was the rattle of gills clapping together as the beast worked to draw breath outside of his natural element.
Sweat dappled Kore’s nape.
For she knew.
There was only one way off this island.
And this, her only chance to do something. To try, no matter how futile the hope that she could win. That she might outswim a son of Poseidon and find freedom, claim the chance to return to her homeland, and help them rebuild the temple of Delphi with the intimate knowledge of the divine she now clearly possessed.
Crouching low, she took careful, timed steps toward the beast. Aiming to slip between the fluke of his tail and the cave wall, she toiled. Back aching. Legs trembling. Her every breath hissing between lips pressed thin and bloodless.
Only when she was close enough to touch did she dare to tear her eyes from his grotesque form and sight her exit.
Three steps.
Just three careful, diligent steps, and she could slip into the waves of this unknown sea and swim. To where, she didn’t know and couldn’t bring herself to care.
There was only the hope that this could be the beginning of her freedom. An end to the series of events that had landed her here.
Setting one dainty, bruised foot atop a flattened stone, Kore shifted her weight forward. Careful not to lend too much to the movement until she was certain the footing would not betray her.
Success made her dizzy, and she let go a silent, trembling breath as she balanced between the next step and a fate she couldn’t begin to comprehend.
Reaching for a handhold, she found an anchor in the stone and moved to claim her next step.
It happened in a blur.
A misplaced hand.
A rock gull, nesting where she couldn’t see.
And a gust of wind that seemed to mock her, by dispelling the cloud cover in a brilliant, blinding instant.
With a honking cry, the gull took flight.
Composure shattering, Kore gasped and staggered back.
And the creature jolted.
Spines flaring, he reacted. Instinctual. Primal. Impaling Kore when she tried to scramble for purchase and found herself clawing at empty air until her feet were beneath her once more.
Crying out, her hands went to the spine embedded in her thigh, and she pulled. Wrenching herself free with a sob, she scrambled back from iridescent scales. Back from the flex andtwist of an impossible body. Away from the leviathan as he woke, and luminous, alien eyes scoured the dark in search of his prey.
Her lips parted on a scream that was murdered before it had even been born.
