Guardian of Atlantis (The Children of Atlantis) (13 page)

“Flying’s out of the question. So is running. Just help me up. I’ll manage.” Raven knew she didn’t sound as brave as she wanted to, but maybe Ethan wouldn’t notice.

“This is going to
hurt, but it’s the best thing I can think of.”

“That’s what they all say. Wait! You can’t—”

Ethan scooped her into his arms and stood up.

Raven grabbed his neck and buried her face into his shoulder, muffling her agony filled scream.

“I’m sorry. I know it hurts. There’s no other way,” Ethan mumbled into her hair just above her ear. He took off at a fast pace through the woods.

Every bone jarring step sent red hot agony radiating through her body until it blotted out everything else. For the first t
ime in her life, Raven fainted.

8

A couple of years ago mom got really sick. She got the flu but it quickly turned into pneumonia. It was a rough couple of weeks. At that time we were living in Houston and the only person I had to depend on was me.

I took care of mom.
Went to school.
Took care of mom.
Cooked and cleaned.
Took care of mom.
Did my homework.
Lost my homework.
And took care of mom.

I don’t know how, but I survived.

One night during the worst of it, mom’s fever was pretty high which caused her to say a lot of things I don’t think she would normally have said. Most of it I’ve forgotten, but one thing stuck with me. She said she didn’t have to worry about me getting sick because I never did, not even a cold.

She was right.

I don’t remember ever being sick.

             
--Raven Weir’s journal

Raven tried swallowing but her throat and tongue felt like she had eaten all the sand in the Sahara Desert. She tried licking her lips, but her tongue was too dry to cooperate.

“Here.” A piece of ice was suddenly pressed against her lips. “This will help.”

Raven groaned with relief as the cold water from the melting ice seeped into her mouth, relieving a little of the dryness.

“You’re eyes are
probably
going to
feel like you got sand in them too. You had a high fever for several days. We weren’t sure if it was going to break or not.”

Raven frowned. She knew the voice. She mentally shook her head.
It couldn’t be. H
er brain rejected the very idea even as it processed it. Before she could think any more about it, she felt another chunk of ice pressed to her lips. She let the cold liquid run down her dry throat.

“A normal person would’ve just died. But you couldn’t do that, could you? You just have to be difficult. Better than the rest of us. Honestly, you can’t even die right.”

Raven looked toward the voice but only saw a blurry image. She blinked and rubbed her eyes and looked again. The image was clearer.

Elizabeth.

Rave closed her eyes and groaned in disbelief.

“Surprised to see me?”

“I’ve died and this is my punishment,” croaked Raven.

“Sorry to burst your bubble. But unfortunately you’re not dead. Don’t get me wrong. I was really rooting for your death. And it’s so d
isappointing
you couldn’t accomplish such a simple task, especially after accusing me, of all people, of destroying your sculpture. Why would I sink
to something so low when it’s obvious I’m better than you?”

“Go away!”

“Sorry, can’t do that. Unfortunately,
you’re stuck with me, just like
I’m stuck with you. For some silly reason, Ethan and others think
someone needs to babysit you because
you’re the Guardian of Atlantis.” Sarcasm dripped from every word out of Elizabeth’s mouth. “The Fates must be having a really good laugh over this.
Me, taking care of the one person I can’t stand to be around.
”

“If you can’t stand it,
why are you here?” Raven’s voice wasn’t cracking as much.

“Not because I want to be,” snorted Elizabeth. “Ethan had to take care of a pa
ck issue. And with those airheaded
nymphs, who knows
what would happen
.”

Raven gave her a blank look.

“You have no clue do you?” Elizabeth rolled her eyes. “Great! Just freaking great! I get stuck babysitting an idiot.”

“Why don’t you just leave?”

“I can’t. Ethan asked me to stay with you.
Lucky me.”

“And here I thought I was having all the good luck.
Wasn’t very smart of Ethan leaving you here.”
The thought of Ethan asking
Elizabeth
to do anything
made her jealous and she wasn’t even sure why.

“
Ohh
!
And why’s that?”

Raven’s eyes narrowed. “You probably poisoned the ice chips.” Raven struggled to pull herself up into a sitting position.

“Not a bad idea, but obviously it wouldn’t have much effect on you.” Watching Raven’s struggles, Elizabeth put down the cup of ice.  She let out a sigh as she shook her head. “Here, let me help you,” she said, getting up from the chair.

“I don’t need your help.”

“Actually you do. Just admit it.”

“And give you something else to gloat about. NOT!”

“Personally, you can lay there and rot for all I care, but unfortunately what I think doesn’t count.
Ethan wanted me to watch you.
So you’re just going to
have to deal with me helping you.
Just like I have to deal with your oh so sunny disposition.
”

Raven bit her bottom lip as Elizabeth helped her up into a sitting position.

“See, it didn’t kill you.”

“Just trying to lull me into a sense of false security,” retort
ed Raven. “It’s not working. I’m onto your little game
.” She rubbed her throat.

“Wow! And you’re psychic too. I’m so impressed.” Elizabeth turned toward a table and poured a glass of water from a clear plastic pitcher. “Here, drink this. It’ll help your throat.” She held out the glass.

Raven raised an eyebrow, questioning Elizabeth’s gesture.

“It’s just water. It won’t hurt you.
Unless you’re allergic to water.”
Elizabeth smiled. “I can only hope.”

Raven took a sip and let the cool water run down her throat. She drained the glass and handed it back to Elizabeth, who didn’t say a word. She just refilled it and handed it back.

“I almost died?” Raven asked after drinking another full glass of water.

Elizabeth sat down in an over-stuffed chair
someone had
pulled next to the foot of the bed. “No, you should be dead.”

Raven stared at her. “If I should be dead, then why am I alive?”

“That’s th
e million dollar question. We’re hoping you can
explain.”

Raven shook her head. “Don’t know.”

“Don’t know. Or won’t tell?”

“I remember being clawed really bad by Jay
and hurting even worse
afterwards.” Raven felt really strange
talking this way with Elizabeth,
like they were friends or something.
“And Ethan saying something about how I should be dead.”

“The claws,” Elizabeth held up her hands and wiggled her fingers. “They’re poisonous to pretty much everything and everyone. That is, everyone except
other Hellhounds and
you. For some reason, you’re immune.”

“What? If this is being immune then you can forget it.”

Elizabeth laughed.

“What’s so funny?”

“You.
This.
Everything.”
She gestured around the room wit
h her hand. “I don’t like you. Y
et, here we are. I hope the Fates are having a really good laugh at my expense, because this is so not funny.”

“Maybe we should hunt them down.”

“And make them pay?”

Raven nodded.

“Good idea, but—
ooops
—we’d be working together.”

“Not something I want to do,” muttered Raven. “Not in this lifetime.” Raven pushed off the blanket covering her legs and swung them over the edge of the bed.

“What do you think you’re doing?”

“Getting up.
What does it look like?” Raven curled her lips at Elizabeth.

“I wouldn’t do that if I were you.”

“Good thing you’re not me then.” Raven moved until she was sitting on the edge of the bed. It took more effort than it should have, but Raven felt stronger, much stronger than she did when she first woke up. Raven scanned the room. She saw the chair Elizabeth was sitting in and the table with the water pitcher. Looking beyond them, she saw a floor-to-ceili
ng bookcase on the far wall. It
was over-filled with books, paperbacks of all sizes as well as numerous hardback books
,
but the room was too dark to read any of the titles. White lace curtains cov
ered the only window
, but Raven couldn’t tell if it was night or day with the blinds closed. A lamp sat on the nightstand by the full-size bed she was sitting on, but there was no clock. There wasn’t a clock of anywhere in the room.

Raven looked at Elizabeth. “Where am I?”

“You’re not at my house. Thank goodness. I’d ha
ve to have everything fumigated and that’s really expensive.
”

“You’re so funny. Ha. Ha. Ha.”

“You’re at Sam Westing’s house.” Elizabeth sneered.

“Sam Westing’s house?”
Raven’s eyes widened. “No. We can’t be. It’s not safe. It’s too close to my house.
The Hell
hounds.
Meritus.”
Raven swung her feet to the floor
.

“What are you babbling about?” Elizabeth jumped up out of the chair and moved to stand in front of Raven.
“Don’t you dare get out of
bed.
”

Raven glared at Elizabeth. “You don’t get to tell me what to do. You’re not my mom.”

“Thank the gods for small favors, but someone needs to tell you what t
o do because it’s obvious you can’t take care of yourself.
”

“Move.”

“You’re not getting up! Besides, you don’t have any jeans on.”

“I’m getting up and I’m getting as far away from you as I can get. And there’s a pair of jeans in my bag which is sitting over there.” Raven shoved herself to her feet. She gave Elizabeth a triumphant smile and took a step. Her right leg wobbled and the next thing she knew, Raven was in a pile on the floor.

“I told you not to get up. But would you listen? No. You just had to prove me wrong. Good job.”

“Just shut up,” mumbled Raven.

“You should’ve stayed in the
bed like I told you. It wasn’t even worth the effort of proving me wrong. Not that it worked.” Elizabeth reached down to help Raven get up.

“Just get away and leave me alone.” Raven slapped at her hand.

“Would you just shut up and take my hand?” Elizabeth ignored Raven and put her hand in front of Raven’s face again.

“I don’t need or want your help.”

“Well, too bad. You’ve got it anyway.
Now be a good little girl and take my hand.
”

Reluctantly Raven gave in and let Elizabeth help her up and back into the bed. Grumbling her thanks, she crossed her arms and closed her eyes.

“If it had been me, I would’ve left your sorry self in the woods.” Elizabeth pulled the blanket over Raven’s lap.

“Well, it wasn’t you.”

Silence filled the room.

Elizabeth sat back down in the hair. She watched Raven while she twisted a lock of her long golden hair. “Is Meritus Myers really Zeus’s daughter?”

“That’s what she said.” Raven didn’t bother to open her eyes.

“Unbelievable.”

“Why do you say that?” Raven opened her eyes and looked at the other girl.

“There haven’t been any children of the big three in centuries. This is a problem.
A really huge problem.”

“Big three?” asked Raven.

“You know—Zeus, Poseidon, and Hades—the big three.”

Raven frowned. “So what’s the problem?”

Elizabeth shook her head. “How can you be so clueless?”

“Just lucky I guess.”

Elizabeth sighed. “Zeus is extremely power hungry. But so are his brothers, just not on the same level as Zeus, but close.”

“That’s why Zeus defeated his dad and set himself up as the head god.”

“So you do know a little mythology. I’m really impressed. Too bad you just know what they teach you in literature.”

Raven stuck her tongue out at Elizabeth.

“To make a long story short, Zeus wants Atlantis because it will make him all powerful. You know. Use the technology and stuff there to take over the entire world and make us all his slaves. And you, as the key code keeper, Guardian, or whatever you want to call yourself, if that’s really what you are. It’s your job to stop him or anyone else from getting thei
r hands on Atlantis. And there are
a lot of people who want Atlantis.
But when you throw demigods into the mix—
”

“Demigods?”

Elizabeth rolled her eyes. “You know, the half-blood children of gods.”