Page 68 of Hex You

Her sister didn’t move.

“Mag?” Hunter’s heart pounded within her chest, vibrating every inch of her body. “Mag? Mag!”

A great roar of crashing ocean waves and a pealing laugh like screeching tires pummeled Hunter’s ears as she called to her sister.

Amphitrite was there watching, laughing.

Khenti scrambled to the twins’ side, a silver stripe of the Nure-Onna’s blood splattered against his face and torso. “Mercy!” He lifted her, and Hunter was able to wriggle out from under her weight.

She squeezed her hands into fists and willed herself not to cry as she crawled next to her sister. The whites of Mercy’s eyes showed beneath her half-closed lids, and blood oozed from two deep punctures just beneath her collarbone.

“She’ll be fine,” Hunter said more to herself than to Khenti. “She’ll be fine!” she shouted at the invisible goddess of the sea.

Hunter swallowed back the sob that tightened her throat and stared down at her sister—her best friend in the entire world. “Mercy Anne Goode, you better not die on me!”

And then she took a page out of Kylie’s book and slapped her.

TWENTY-NINE

Mercy felt the Nure-Onna’s bite. When people say they don’t feel anything at first when they’re stabbed or shot or what-the-bloody-hell-everthey lie.The bite of the Nure-Onna was sharp and deep and it fucking hurt! But not as much as the lava flow of poison that followed it. That had been so painful that Mercy’s world had narrowed to a weird gray tunnel and then gone completely black.

It was pain that brought her back to consciousness. Not the pain of another bite wound, but the pain of her sister slapping her—hard.

“Stop!” Mercy thought she’d shouted the word, but it came out as a broken whisper. Her body felt strange—heavy. She could feel her heartbeat—fast and frantic—and it was hard for her to catch her breath.

“Khenti kitten! Put Mercy on the ground over here immediately!” Xena was a naked goddess—her hair was a fierce riot around her face; her eyes blazed yellow—the pink scars bright against her pale skin. “Now! Khenti! There is no time to waste!”

“But don’t we have to cut the bite marks and suck the poison outof them?” Somehow Kylie’s voice sounded almost normal, though tears were pouring down her chalky face.

“No!” Emily shouted. “That was debunked years ago. We found out in biology class. It does more harm than good. Oh, God! Mercy, please be okay. Please be okay.” Em stood not far from where Khenti gently placed Mercy on the grassy ground of the easement, well outside the circumference of the cherry tree. She clutched her hands together so tightly that her tawny knuckles blanched white.

“Mag, can you hear me?” Hunter was there, kneeling beside her in the grass.

“I can hear everything” was what Mercy thought she’d said, but no words managed to escape her mouth. How could they? Her neck felt like it had turned into steel. And, worst of all, her jaw had clenched shut so tightly that there was no way she could say a word. Her heartbeat still hammered in her ears, and then over it all came the sound of laughter—mean, sarcastic laughter.

Mercy’s gaze lifted to follow the sound and she could see Amphitrite, transparent and floating above them. Her see-through body was bloated, like a jellyfish, with tentacles where there should be legs and living algae where there should be hair. The goddess was staring at Hunter as she cackled with glee.

“In the air. She’s here in the air above us,” Mercy thought she spoke the words, but they had no sound. They were only breath and whispers, drowned by pain.

Still laughing, Amphitrite floated over Hunter. Mercy struggled to shout a warning to her sister, but the strange numbness that was filling her body had lodged in her throat—damming her words.

“Mag, please be okay! You’re going to be okay!” Hunter sobbed.

No, fool! Your sister will die, and I will laugh over her grave as you mourn her and everyone else you love who I take from you!The goddess gave the Nure-Onna’s body a contemptuous look and said,Useless! Why must I do everything myself?

With the sound of ocean waves breaking on a rocky shore, Amphitrite disappeared.

“You must move, Hunter.” Xena spoke solemnly in a tone that suddenly reminded Mercy very much of Abigail when she was super serious and/or super pissed.

Hunter looked up and must have seen the same thing in Xena’s face that Mercy heard in her voice because she wiped tears from her cheeks, nodded, and moved so that the cat person could take her place.

“Here, Xena!” Jax’s voice seemed far away. “I have your bathrobe.”

“No need, kitten.” Xena spoke without taking her gaze from Mercy’s face. “I prefer to be skyclad for what must come next.”

“W-we have to get her to the hospital in Champaign!” Emily sobbed.

“They cannot help my kitten,” said Xena. “But I can help her. Iwillhelp her.” Then Xena touched Mercy’s cheek gently and asked, “Do you trust me, kitten?”