Page 68 of Becoming Monsterous

The cryptwings go for Percy next. They grab at his hair and clothes, and he howls in outrage. His remaining allied monsters swarm around him, trying to protect him—and Morpheus's she-wolf tears through them with her teeth, while his hunter shoots them methodically with arrows.

Soon, the Magistrate is nothing but a lonely old man, surrounded by carnage and unprotected by magic.

I step up in front of him to stare him down, refusing to feel fear in the face of all his age, wisdom, and power.

Okay, a little fear. But I mostly manage to keep my cool.

"What is it going to be?" I ask him, unsheathing my dagger and lifting my chin. "Will you finally surrender, or are we going to finish this off with violence.

In response, he throws a spell out that freezes the entire courtyard in place.

Chapter43

Ellie

Ican't move.

Neither can my snakes. They're frozen in the air, venom dripping from their fangs, tongues flicking out uselessly.

The cryptwings have frozen too. They're hovering in the air, wings spread, hand-like feet clawing at nothing.

Morpheus. Angus. Aleron. My eyes flick out to each of them, but they can't even turn to look at me.

Even with all my power, the only thing I can manage to do is move my eyes and breathe.

"You're such a foolish, simple girl." Percy smiles at me, fully triumphant and willing to waste time gloating. "Did you really think that I wouldn't be prepared for all your tricks? I study my enemies. I know what I'm up against. You were never going to end."

He reaches up and puts his hands on my throat.

Then squeezes until I can't even breathe, either.

I feel the air leave my lungs. My pulse races. My bodyscreamsfor air. But I can't even claw at him or gasp uselessly.

Percy presses harder, until my vision swims with spots.

No.It can't end like this. Not with all of us so uselessly frozen to the spot, unable to even fight.

Medusa agrees.We can't go down like this, little warrior.Her voice is distant and faint, but she's still with me, and so is all her knowledge and power.You are a gorgon, just like me. The power to turn men into stone lives within you. So does the power to turn them back.

It dawns on me what she's suggesting right before she finishes with,If your eyes can move, your powers are with you.

Percy may have studied his enemies closely, but there are things he can't have known.

Like the fact that, shortly after becoming the goddess of vengeance and not long before she was killed, Medusa learned how to break a summoner's psychic shields.

This whole time, all the summoners in Occult House have shielded themselves from my gaze. Before I could control my gorgon powers, there was always the risk that I might accidentally turn them into stone merely by making eye contact with them.

No doubt Percy's shields are the strongest out of all of them.

But he's also the most arrogant. Which means it's not long before...

"I don't want to kill you," he tells me, still gloating, still full of pride. "But if I must, then so be it."

I blink to clear my vision, which swims with spots. Percy still has his hands on my throat—and he's staring right into my face as he chokes the air out of me.

No doubt the sick fuck wants to watch the light leave my eyes.

Well, he's not going to get that.

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