SAFE . . . reyna ramirez-arellano

77 - the power of love

SHE PUSHED BETWEEN the Boreads, which was like walking through a meat freezer. The air around them was so cold, it burned her face. She felt like she was breathing pure snow.

Briar tried not to look down at Jason's frozen body as she passed. She tried not to think about her friends below, or Leo shot into the sky to a place of no return. She definitely tried not to think about the Boreads and the snow goddess who were following her.

She fixed her eyes on the figurehead.

The ship rocked under her feet. A single gust of summer air made it through the chill, and Briar breathed it in, taking it as a good omen. It was still summer out there. Khione and her brothers did not belong here.

Briar knew she couldn't win a straight fight against a goddess and two winged guys with swords. She wasn't as clever as Annabeth, or as good at problem solving as Leo. In fact, she caused problems wherever she walked. But she did have power. And she intended to use it.

Last night, during her talk with Hazel, Briar had realized that the secret of charmspeak was a lot like using the Mist. When she was little, Briar had had a lot of trouble making her charms work, because she always ordered her enemies to do what she wanted. She would yell, "Don't kill us!" when the monster's fondest wish was to kill them. She would put all her power into her voice and hope it was enough to overwhelm her enemy's will.

Sometimes it worked, but it was exhausting and unreliable. Venus wasn't about head-on confrontation. Venus was about subtlety and guile and charm. Briar decided she shouldn't focus on making people do what she wanted. She needed to push them to do the things they wanted. And if she twisted her minds to make them believe their thoughts aligned with hers, then all the better.

Briar stopped at the foremast and faced Khione. "Wow, I just realized why you hate us so much," she said, pulling her lips into a pout. "We humiliated you pretty badly in Sonoma."

Khione's eyes glinted like iced espresso. She shot an uneasy look at her brothers.

Briar laughed. "Oh, you didn't tell them!" she guessed. "I don't blame you. You had a giant king on your side, plus an army of wolves and Earthborn, and you still couldn't beat us."

"Silence!" the goddess hissed.

The air turned misty. Briar felt frost gathering on her eyebrows and her ears starting to fucking freeze, but she feigned a smile.

"Whatever." She winked at Zethes. "But it was pretty funny."

"The beautiful girl must be lying," Zethes said. "Khione was not beaten at the Wolf House. She said it was a . . . ah, what is the term? A tactical retreat."

"Treats?" Cal asked. "Treats are good."

Briar pushed the big guy's chest playfully. "No, Cal. He means that your sister ran away."

"I did not!" Khione shrieked.

"What did Juno call you?" Briar mused. "Right — a D-list goddess!"

She burst out laughing again, and her amusement was so genuine, Zethes and Cal started laughing too.

"That is très bon!" Zethes said. "A D-list goddess. Ha!"

"Ha!" Cal said. "Sister ran away! Ha!"

Khione's white dress began to steam. Ice formed over Zethes's and Cal's mouths, plugging them up.

"Show us this secret of yours, Briar Lovelace," Khione growled. "Then pray I leave you on this ship intact. If you are toying with us, I will show you the horrors of frostbite. I doubt Zethes will still want you if you have no fingers or toes . . . perhaps no nose or ears."