I glared at Calder and gave the guard who stabbed Jason a good kick in the ribs.
Before packing the wound, the nurses poured a pitcher of clear liquid all over Jason’s body. That, I could recall, was not normal medical procedure. “What was that?”
“Salt water.” One of the nurses said.
They worked quickly. Rolling Jason onto his side, they slid him onto a sheet and lifted him into a bed.
“We will take him into surgery now.” The doctor looked over at Calder and nodded stiffly. "Councilman.”
They started pulling Jason away and I was torn. Literally, it felt like a part of me was tearing up inside as I watched them take him away, but I had to settle this.
“As soon as he’s stable, we will be transporting him to Attica.” Calder spoke to the nurse that remained behind.
“What?” Percy and I said.
He looked at us. “It’s what’s best for him. He’ll mend more quickly in the water and we have some extremely skilled healers.”
Okay, I was fucking done.
Storming up to Calder, I reared back and punched him square in the nose. He stumbled backwards, holding his nose as it began to leak blood.
“Percy is right! This is all your fault, and you can’t just take him! He doesn’t want to go back to the city and become one of your experiments. You may be his uncle, but you're not his parent, and this is his decision.”
Calder straightened, and in that moment I realized that he had held something back. He wasn’t any taller, but I felt so much smaller in his presence. “What about this whole incident haven’t you understood, little girl? I hold the power here. I have jurisdiction over this whole town, and if I want something done, it will be done. Your resisting my orders is what caused this in the first place, and if you continue to resist, more people, including your father, will get hurt.”
I stumbled backwards as I felt the push of his power.
He was wrong, right?
This wasn’t my fault…was it?
My eyes bounced from the blood on the floor to the two guards I had knocked unconscious.
This was my fault.
A palm at my back jolted me out of my head. Looking over my shoulder, I saw Ajax standing there, clear worry on his face. Hip, Percy, and Theseus stood behind me as well. They were here for me, my support.
But…
“Calder, give us a moment alone, and then I’ll come with you.”
He nodded, pulled out his phone and walked down the hallway.
Turning to the guys, I said, "Calder may have been using mind voodoo on me, but he wasn’t wrong. If I keep resisting him, he will continue to make this worse. Next time, we might not be so lucky.”
“Atalanta, this is a bad idea.” Percy said.
“It probably is, but I can’t risk my father. And I can’t see another one of you hurt.”
“We can handle them!” Hip shouted.
Ajax nodded, his body tense, ready to go down fighting.
Theseus took my hand. “No one else will get hurt, Atalanta. Not on my watch.”
He sounded so powerful and so angry that I could hardly see the sweet man who I had come to know. This was the side of himself that he always kept hidden.
I shook my head. “No, Theseus, not on mine. I go with Calder now, this will end. Emmanuel can’t get to me and Calder won’t get to my father, or all of you.”
“Atalanta, if you go to the city, we can’t guarantee you’ll come back.” Theseus sneered as if the idea disgusted him.
I squeezed his hand and ran my thumb across the back of it. “I know, but I have faith.”
I looked over to Percy, who was so quiet. I could see his mind moving a mile a minute as he tried to figure a way out of this. I could tell the moment he realized that going with Calder was the right choice, his eyes flicking to the guards and knowing that right now we were outgunned and outmanned. Then they shot back to me, his shoulders slumping.
Out of all of us, I knew he would be the one to come up with a plan. I just had to trust in that fact.
“We go with her.” Percy said, his eyes snapping up to look at all of us. “We stand trial with her and ensure the council gives us a stay of judgment. What Calder’s doing is going against several laws. If we play that to our advantage then we can give ourselves time.”
“Promise me,” I said. I didn’t know what I wanted them to promise. To make sure I wasn’t going to be stuck in the city to become a baby making slave? To not give up on me? To stay? I didn’t know, but I needed to hear them say it.
“I promise.”
Chapter Twenty-Three
Atalanta
The car ride down to the dock felt like I was in chains, being dragged to my doom. Anxiety prickled in my chest and I knew I was shaking. The adrenaline of the last hour was wearing off and the bravery going with it.
Calder was in the car in front of us with Percy, Hip, and the two guards I had knocked unconscious. Leaving me with the second guard I had choked out, who was driving, and the guards that never joined in on the fight. Ajax and Theseus sat on either side of me.
The other guards that Calder had brought with him were still at the hospital, waiting on Jason to come out of surgery, and they would be transporting him themselves. We had debated with Calder for over an hour on this decision. In the end, he pulled his “I am the boss” card, shutting us up.
This entire situation was a dumpster fire, and I really wished that I could just jump out of the car right now and take off. I hadn't even gotten a chance to tell Clint what was going on, or have Theseus do some mind voodoo on him, so who knows what would have happened when he realized that I was gone?
So, to list the current problems, my father was still in a coma, Cal was dead, Jason was stabbed, and a small team of government officials would probably be blowing a gasket any moment now. And I was being dragged off to an underwater city for a trial/evaluation thing.
Giant dumpster, filled with dog shit. And on fire.
Ajax’s hand engulfed mine. His expression told me he wanted to reassure me.
“It’s okay, big guy, I’m not going to chicken out.” I tried my best to smile, but it was hard.
“I wish you would.” He grunted.
“Can I ask you something?”
He nodded.
“Before, you seemed okay with me going to the city. Why?” I asked.
He was pensive for a second before replying. “It’s what was safest for you.”
“What changed?”
“Jason. He told me about the whole…” He waved his hand, not able to find the words.
I sighed. “Yeah.”
“I want to keep you.”
That got a chuckle from me. “I want to keep you, too.”
“I’m feeling a little left out. Can I be kept too?” Theseus pouted.
I turned towards him so he would stop having to crane his neck to keep up with the conversation. “That’s sexist.”
His pout turned into a slow smile. “Is it? I would call it equality.”
The guard I had not beaten up turned around and looked at us. “He’s got you there.”
The man had sharp features, like a model, but combined with his near albino appearance, and rather pointy teeth from the 100 watt smile he was sending my way, he was pretty intimidating.
The guard’s smile fell and he turned away like I had somehow hurt his feelings. There was a part of me that felt bad that I had somehow hurt this unknown guard’s feelings, yet there was another part of me that wondered why I should even care. He was part of the group dragging me away from Argos but he also hadn’t taken part in the attack at the hospital.