32. Medusa

I trusted Cassandra and her visions. If she told them directly to me, I couldn’t help thinking she was lying because that was how Apollo wanted it to be. There was a part of me that recognized that I knew she was cursed and telling the truth, but I couldn’t make myself believe her.

This wasn’t like when Dionysus went to Hell. Time moved the same where Cassandra was as it did here. She would have known he was coming and how dire the situation was, so she would have kept it brief. He wasn’t even in any danger with Cassandra, but I still hated it when he was gone. It was different before I got kidnapped and everything that happened after they got me out.

We didn’t have to be joined at the hip. We could do our own thing and crash together with how much we missed each other when we were together again. We were never really apart more than a few days. I wasn’t going to chain him now. I was just worried about the things the angels had found out that could be used against him.

The angels had more energy than I’d seen since they crashed into my life and they were getting along with Benji better. I guess calling the man who’d been terrorizing them for a very long time Adolf Shitler to his face would do that. Benji was preening under the attention, but he still refused to call them by their names.

Dionysus wasn’t gone long. I didn’t think he would be. He knew where Cassandra lived and she would know when he’d come asking questions so she was home. She would have kept it brief and only told him just enough to succeed. I knew that look on his face. He got bad news.

We all sat there and listened to him explain that the Spear of Longinus could kill a god, but literally no one knew which spear was the right one. All we knew were that the historically inaccurate ones were frauds. That narrowed it down to two nearly identical spears and we couldn’t afford to concentrate our efforts on the wrong one.

“You can’t tell, but I can,” Yahweh said quietly. “That spear murdered my son. It’s got his blood on it and by extension, mine. I’ll be able to feel which spear killed my son.”

Well, that was good news at least.

“Okay, so I’ve got a plan,” Benji said. “I’m a hybrid and part shadow demon. I’m the best option for getting that spear without getting stabbed with it. I poof it to Hephaestus without stabbing him with it and once the spear is gone, we can all get revenge on Adolf Shitler and his chicken minions.”

“No, after we get the spear, we’re going back to my plan,” Pax said.

“Oh, fine. But some of them need to be graphically murdered to make a point.”

“Benji!” Dionysus yelled.

Benji shrieked and jumped straight into Cas’s arms.

“Why are you yelling at me, Pookie?”

“Cassandra had a message for you, but she had to send it through me so you could do something about it. She said your dad is at a secret Coalition facility doing slave labor. Since it’s off the books, they don’t think anyone will notice if they don’t release them. She said you need to go to Fort Jackson and you’ll find your dad.”

Benji’s face broke into this evil grin.

“I’ll call Mom when we’re done. I was too young when we got separated for us to bond over proper shadow demon carnage when I was old enough. It’ll be a bonding moment. I’m going to need one of you to take photos of the whole thing so I can make a scrapbook since I don’t have one from when I was growing up.”

“I’ll do it,” I said.

I’d do literally anything to help Benji with everything he lost being taken so young. If he wanted a photo album of him murdering people at a secret Coalition building with his mom, I’d give it to him.

“We need to move as soon as possible. Cassandra said they think they have the right spear, but now that they are closer to getting what they want, they want to make sure they get it right. They are trying to come up with something big and we need to beat them to making that decision.”

“So, we’re going to crash and fuck shit up?” Persephone asked, holding her fist out to Benji.

He bumped it and grinned.

“You’re like the sister I never wanted. I mean that in a good way.”

“No, I totally get it.”

“Fuck shit up, but only fuck it up the way we planned,” Cas said.

“I can work with that,” Benji said.

“Me, too.”

“You are aware once you unleash the furies on a battlefield, nothing goes according to plan, right?” Alecto said.

Which was exactly why I was contributing zero fury magic to this fight. I couldn’t control it and I’d end up fucking everyone up.

“I’m aware, but the furies and Benji off book is just a little too much chaos,” Cas said.

“You’re fine with it when he’s naked,” Pax snorted.

Ugh. Now I had the mental image of all of them naked when I needed to be focusing on this fight.

“Element of surprise. Portal in and start breaking stuff.”

Yeah, sometimes, I enjoyed fucking shit up, too.