3. Medusa
Medusa
M ore famous for their deadly gaze, very few outside Vale Crossing knew about the gorgons’ gift of detecting the presence of magic in living creatures, inanimate objects, and even places. Like any ability, proficiency varied among their kind, and Medusa happened to be on the higher scale.
So, she’d made a name for herself and many sought her out—and paid handsomely—to help them find artifacts, detect malicious spells and booby traps, as well as locate lost loved ones.
Neither she nor her sisters knew how their abilities worked, only that they seemed to be naturally in tune to magic, so much so that it was difficult to ignore its presence.
Still, even without her ability, Medusa doubted she could ignore the presence of one Perseus Gialamas. Even now, as he sat beside her inside the private jet and pretended she did not exist, he radiated that raw, potent magic that commanded her attention.
Of course, it wasn’t just his power that made him so magnetic.
As a red-blooded member of the female sex, she had to admit Perseus was just so damned good looking.
His burnished locks were like spun gold, and his handsome face—from the arrogant tilt of his chin, to the straight line of his nose, to his high cheekbones—had the perfection of a sculpted marble masterpiece.
If he hadn’t been such an asshole to her when they first met and this morning’s meeting, she would have turned her charms on him and lured him into her bed like a siren.
Who was she kidding? She’d do him anyway.
No, she couldn’t risk it. Not when everything was going according to plan.
She’d nearly ruined it when her temper—and her snakelets’ tempers—had gotten the best of her this morning when she walked out.
His disdain of her, his disgust at having to be in the same room as her, had been evident, but he couldn’t even be a gentleman and hide it.
“Good evening, Mr. Gialamas, welcome back,” the flight attendant greeted as she walked toward them, tray in hand. “And you must be Miss Medusa. My name is Charlotte, and I’ll be taking care of you on this flight.”
The gorgeous, leggy brunette emphasized the word “care” in such a way that had Medusa snickering to herself. From her familiarity with Perseus, it was obvious what kind of care she was offering.
“Would either of you like something to drink before we take off?” She lowered a tray with two flutes of champagne, and glasses of water and juice. “I’d be happy to prepare something else as well. We have a fully stocked alcohol and coffee and tea bar.”
Perseus reached for his seatbelt to buckle it on. “No, I’m fine. I’d just like to take off as soon as possible.”
“I totally understand, Mr. Gialamas. Captain Erikson is going through the final checks, and we’ll be leaving shortly. And you, Miss Medusa?”
She plucked out the glass of water. “Just this. Thank you, Charlotte.”
“You’re welcome. And just to inform you, I’ll be serving dinner as soon as we reach cruising altitude.
You’ll find the menu in your seat pocket.
We can offer a variety of meals as well, though I’m so sorry, Miss Medusa, you were added to the passenger list last minute, and since you’ve never flown with us, I don’t have your list of preferences and allergies, but if you let me know right away, I’m sure I could accommodate you. ”
“It’s fine, Charlotte. No allergies or preferences, I’m sure whatever you’ve prepared will be great.”
“Excellent. I’ll be right—oh, one more thing. Will I be setting up one bed or two for the evening?”
Perseus tensed. “Excuse me? Why would we not need two?”
Charlotte covered her mouth with her hand. “I beg your pardon, Mr. Gialamas. I didn’t mean to assume?—”
“Two beds will be fine, Charlotte,” Medusa said smoothly. “Thank you.”
With a quick nod, the flight attendant tottered off into the galley. As soon as she was out of earshot, Medusa turned to Perseus. “You know, you didn’t have to bite her head off just because she was doing her job.”
“I did not bite her head off,” he muttered. “And I didn’t mean to sound rude, just surprised. She’s never asked that question all the other times I flew with Bob or my team members.”
“Oh really? Were your other team members female?
“No.”
She suppressed a laugh. “She obviously wants to know if we’re together. Like, together , together.”
His head snapped toward her. “Why would that matter to her?”
“I know you can’t see it, but I’m rolling my eyes so hard right now, it could probably take a trip to the Underworld and back.” She sighed. “Because she’s flirting with you. She’s obviously interested in you and wants to know if you’re taken.”
“That’s absurd,” he said, dismissive. “I’ve never gotten that impression from her.”
She clucked her tongue. “Men are so oblivious sometimes. But she’s pretty and interested?—”
“And Bob’s employee. I don’t mix business with pleasure.”
“Good evening, this is Captain Erikson speaking,” a voice from the speakers interrupted. “Just wanted to welcome you on board and….”
Medusa quickly buckled her own seatbelt and settled back as the captain proceeded to tell them about their flight.
Thankfully, movies and TV shows from the Upperworld were readily available in Vale Crossing, and though she’d never been inside a private jet, she knew what to expect.
However, the idea of hurtling through the air inside a metal tube did fray the edges of her nerves.
Her snakelets, too, twisted and squirmed underneath her scarf.
It’ll be fine , she told them as she gave the most anxious ones a soothing pat. People on the Upperworld fly all the time.
Still, she held her breath and closed her eyes the entire time during takeoff, up until she felt the floor become steady and she heard the captain announce they were now at cruising altitude.
“Are you okay?”
Slowly, she opened her eyes and turned to him. The concern in his tone and face caught her off guard. “Yeah, I’m fine.”
“Your knuckles are white.”
She quickly released her grip on the armrest. “It’s my first time.”
“On a private jet?”
“On a plane,” she confessed. “I guess I should be glad it’s not a public flight.”
He cocked his head to the side. “You’ve never been on an airplane? Ever?”
“We don’t have airports or airlines in Vale Crossing,” she said.
“You don’t? How do you get around?”
“Magic, mostly,” she said. “Though we do have some roads and public transportation from the smaller towns to Alindale, that’s the capital city. They also have a subway, a ferry, buses, and cars. And this is my first time in the Upperworld.”
“I see.”
“Is that a problem? I mean, I’m not some country bumpkin, you know.”
“I didn’t mean to imply that,” he said. “I just didn’t know. I don’t know anything about you.”
And you don’t really want to know anything about me.
His demeanor from the beginning told her that. That shouldn’t have stung, but it did. But then again, she supposed she didn’t care to get to know him.
Except for one thing about him.
“Ms. Medusa, Mr. Gialamas,” Charlotte greeted as she returned. “I’ve set up for dinner in the lounge. Please come when you’re ready, and I’ll start the service.”
Perseus unbuckled his seat and stood up. “Coming?”
Wordlessly, she unbuckled herself and followed him across the plushly designed private jet, to the other cabin.
It was smaller than the main cabin, with only two seats that had a table set up in between.
Medusa took the place closest to her, and as soon as they were settled, Charlotte served them their first course of mushroom soup.
Perseus nodded thanks to Charlotte, then turned to Medusa. “I’d prefer to turn in right after we eat, and since we didn’t have time for a briefing today, I hope you don’t mind doing it over dinner.”
“Not at all.” She took a spoonful of the soup. So, Perseus wanted to keep this all business. That was fine with her. “I’ve looked at the files, including the plan. Any deviations I should know about?”
“No, we’ll pretty much stick to it. Our goal is to reach Sirbhajun and locate the descendants. The team has done all the necessary research and arrangements with a local company who will help us get there.”
“Do we know anything about the people in the village? How are we going to find which individuals to test?”
“That’s where you come in,” he began. “There’s one family we suspect to be geryon descendants, based on their history and clues from the Book of Geryons .
Usually, my team and I would have to find ways to discreetly approach potential descendants.
Many of them have retained characteristics of geryons, such as the birthmarks on the back, similar to Bob’s, but not always.
In one case, we found a whole family with the birthmarks, but only one sibling had the markers, while their parents and other siblings did not.
We’ve taken to testing entire families, which has slowed down our progress significantly. ”
“I see.”
“Plus, we’re still trying to keep things under wraps. While our ‘long-lost heir’ story works for now, the more people we approach, the higher the chances someone will find out what we’re up to. And we can’t expose the existence of supernatural beings to the humans of the Upperworld.”
“I see. So, I’ll need to approach members of this family and see if I can detect any level of magic from them, and then we’ll only test those members.”
“Exactly.” He sipped from his glass of water.
“The plane touches down in Kathmandu at five in the afternoon. We’ll be picked up and driven to the jump-off site about fifty kilometers away and we’ll stay there for a few hours.
From there, a local guide will help us trek up to Sirbhajun, with one overnight stop at an inn along the way.
Assuming nothing goes wrong, we should be able to reach the village by midafternoon the following day. ”
“And what could go wrong?”