Chapter 17: Facing off against an ice diva

Turns out, getting back to my friends was a lot easier than I thought.

As I removed the mask from its tomb, the obstacle course suddenly shut down. The stone wall stopped going up and down, and the rest of the obstacles vanished, as if they were never there.

When I made it back to my friends, I stumbled back in horror. All my friends were frozen in large ice cubes, as if they were frozen popsicles. Khione stood across from them, glaring at me with a sly smile.

"What did you do to them?" I asked, my body paralyzed with fear.

Khione smiled mischievously. "I made them part of my frozen sculpture collection. Give me the mask, and I'll unfreeze them."

I curled my lip. "Not a chance, Elsa."

Khione's smile faded as she built up ice in her hands. "Then you've left me no choice, hero. All of you will die!"

"Try me," I growled, unsheathing my knives.

Khione shot a trio of ice blasts at me, forcing me to hide behind pillars and dodge the attacks. I dashed at her, going in for a strike that Khione easily countered, summoning an ice sword to parry my attack.

She then blasted me with a gust of chilly wind, throwing me backwards into a pillar. She charged up one last ice beam to finish me off, as I stood helplessly against the pillar. Before she could shoot, Kai intervened, blasting out of his cube and slicing her in the back with Scorcher.

"Guess who's back?" Kai asked. He got two more strikes in on her before shooting a big fireball at her, blasting her into a wall. Her body slammed against the rough ice and she slumped on the floor.

Kai quickly raced over to our frozen friends, applying small bits of fire to melt them out of their cubes. Khione slowly got up, her face scrunched up and her eyes full of hatred. Golden blood ran down her face and body, making her look like a melted ice cream cone.

"You dare hit me?" Khione snarled, wiping the blood off her face.

Kai grinned. "Nothing makes me happier than pelting Elsa in the face with fireballs."

Kai shot a beam of flames at Khione, hitting her back slightly. Arthur quickly joined in, shooting an energy beam at Khione that pushed her back further. Eventually, everyone else joined in, shooting projectiles and pushing Khione all the way back into the wall.

With such a short amount of time before Khione got up, we sprinted out of the tomb and trekked through the cave, going as quickly as we could. We eventually got out of the cave and headed to Oman's plane. He saw us from the front seat and rolled down the stairs for us to climb on.

We hustled up the stairs and sat down on the plane, ready to fly away from the tomb. But as the plane was about to ascend, ice froze the wheels and rendered the plane useless. I looked outside the window, where Khione strutted over, fire dancing in her eyes.

"You have tested my patience long enough! There's no escape this time! If you won't give me the mask, then I will kill you and make you suffer!" she yelled.

I looked at Amethyst apprehensively as we rushed out of the plane and squared off with Khione.

Alexander groaned, his shields transforming into a big hammer. "It's always the prettiest ones that hurt you the most."

"We're not going to give you the mask," I said fiercely. "And we're not scared of you either."

Khione sneered and shot waves of ice at us, Kai countering by shooting a big fire blast to extinguish the blow. Geneva and I ran at her and began slashing at her with our knives, before she blasted powerful winds at us, throwing us backwards. Arthur then blinded her with powerful light beams, allowing Alexander to bash at her with his hammer and punch her, sending her into a boulder. Amethyst shot arrows at her from range and I shot fire spells at her.

Together, we seemed to be overwhelming her, but the feeling didn't last long. She got herself off the boulder and blasted us with a large wave of ice, throwing us backward into the ground.

"Oh gods," Alexander muttered. "She's angry."

His comment was probably understatement of the year. She wasn't just mad. She was raging and fully prepared to torture us. Her eyes went from a coffee brown to a bright white. Her body was surrounded by an icy mist and she began levitating off the ground. Whatever she was doing, we were definitely screwed.

We quickly got up, trying not to die. Khione blasted down large chunks of ice at us, forcing us to roll away. She then dashed at us, and began blasting ice everywhere. She blocked all of our strikes as she twirled around at an alarming speed, countering by blasting us with ice.

The situation had turned from bad to hopeless. Our attacks were useless, and anything we did had no affect on her. She was in full beast mode and there was no stopping her. We began tiring, barely able to keep ourselves alive against her monstrous attacks.

Eventually, she disarmed me and blasted me backwards, my head hitting against the plane. Everyone else was quickly picked off and knocked backwards, all of us without our weapons. She had dominated us, disarmed us, and was about to kill us. Our only hope was to stall her so we could get away.

I dragged myself onto the plane, and faced Khione down, my knees shaking.

"Want more, mortal?" Khione asked, triumph glittering her eyes.

"No," I managed. "Do you?"

Before she could answer, I blasted her in the face with a large Mist cloud, blinding her. Arthur pulled himself up and shot a big light beam at her, further blinding her. We all quickly got up and rushed onto the plane, eager to escape while Khione was blinded and Kai burned the ice off the wheels.

Once Kai was finished with the wheels, he rushed onto the plane as it ascended, the tomb and Khione fading into the distance.

"Rose, did you get the mask?" Amethyst asked, falling down on a couch. I pulled the mask out of my backpack and handed it to her.

"Nice job, Rose!" Amethyst squealed, embracing me in a warm hug.

"Yeah, good one," Kai said.

"Wait," Alexander said. "When did you learn how to create another you?"

I twirled my hair. "Um, back at LionsWorth Enterprises, Arthur's mom showed me how to create illusions." I was pretty sure I had told everybody about it, but when it comes to Alexander, you have to say things about twenty times for him to remember.

Alexander gasped. "Wait, is she your mom too? Are you both siblings? Wait, you guys could be twins!"

I looked at Alexander with a blank face. "Um, Hecate is my mom, not Cynthia."

"Still," Alexander said. "It could happen."

Arthur nodded towards the window. "Where are we heading now?"

"We're headin' to the next mask!" Oman yelled from the front. "We're about to exit Canada, y'all!"

Geneva yawned. "I'm going to go get some sleep. We got a long day ahead of us."

Kai nodded. "Good night, guys."

As we crossed the border into the U.S, we each went to our respective cabins for the night. I walked into my bedroom and collapsed onto my bed, staring at the ceiling. I should've been tired, but I felt strangely energized.

I got out of my sheets and headed to the bar in the upper deck, trying to get something to eat. Surprisingly, I wasn't alone. As I headed up to the bar to get a snack, I saw Geneva sitting alone, grabbing a bag of doritos.

"Hey," I said, grabbing a seat next to her.

Geneva turned towards me. "Oh, hey Rose."

"Why aren't you asleep?" I asked curiously. I grabbed a bag of Lay's from the front stand and got a glass of chocolate milk.

Geneva popped her bag of Doritos open. "I had trouble sleeping. I'm used to sleeping in one of Arthur's guest rooms."

I looked at her curiously. "How long have you known Arthur?"

"I met him a year ago," Geneva answered, popping a Dorito into her mouth. "I had just ran away from home, and I had to fight a couple of monsters. Arthur helped me defeat them and let me sleep in one of his guest rooms. From there, we started dating."

"Wow," I said, stunned.

Geneva chuckled. "I know. Arthur's done a lot for me."

I smiled, but a question kept nagging at me. "You don't have to answer this, but why did you run away from home?"

Geneva stared off in the distance. "Oh, it's fine. When I was eight years old, I lived with my dad and my two step-brothers. One day, Hebe, my mother, visited us. My father and my mother got into a big argument, and I just couldn't bear it. I ran away the next day. This cycle continued over and over again, constantly running away then coming back."

"I'm sorry, Geneva," I said. "That's horrible. If it makes you feel any better, my story isn't any better."

Geneva looked at me curiously. "What?"

"Before I went to camp, I lived with my father and my half-sister, Marianne. My sister and I got along okay and I went to elementary school. It all seemed fine, but deep down, I knew it wasn't," I explained.

"My father always acted distant," I continued. "Sure, he cared for me and Marianne, but he always seemed so...distracted. Everytime I brought up mom, he ignored me. He just continued working, accepting any criminal case that came his way and when he wasn't being a police officer, he went to parties and would drink. I never knew my father too well, even though we lived in the same house. Hdied four years ago after getting us evicted from our apartment, leaving me and Marianne homeless. Marianne despised me after our father died, and then a couple of days ago, Marianne died."

Geneva looked at me with sympathy. "I'm sorry, Rose."

I waved away her concern. "It's okay, honestly. From what I've heard, demigods never get it easy."

"We never do," Geneva agreed. "Try and get some sleep, Rose."

I nodded. "You too."

I gave her a weak smile and wished her goodnight as I headed to my room. I fell down on my pillow and after some rolling around, finally managed to fall asleep.

The next day, I was woken up by Amethyst, who kept shaking me like a mad man until I woke up. "What?"

"We're at the area of the mask," Amethyst announced. "Are you ready to go?"

"Sure," I groaned. She exited my cabin as I got dressed and ready. I exited my cabin and found everybody waiting for me.

Kai nodded at me. "What's up, Sleepy?"

"Where are we?" I asked, wiping my eyes.

"Davenport, Iowa," Amethyst answered. "We're right next to the cave containing the second mask."

Arthur nodded. "Let's head out."

The cave was large and was mostly simple, with a dome-shaped design and light gray color. There were a couple of scattered rocks and weeds laying around and overall, the cave was pretty basic.

We entered the dark cave. Suddenly I felt woozy. My eyes felt heavy and my body started stumbling downwards.

"Goodbye, sleep," Alexander said, stumbling downwards. "Hello, sleep!"

I collapsed on the floor and my eyes began to close. The last sight I saw before I fell asleep was a black haired man standing over us, swaying his pendant side-to-side.