Charmed: Let Gorgons Be Gorgons (6 page)

“Not unless you consider improper toothpaste maintenance a crime,” Phoebe said. “It’s not the first time something like this happened. I get loads of letters from readers who just woke up one day and decided it was over.”

“And were loading a moving van before the week was out?”

Phoebe shrugged. “It’s fast, but it seems like more of a move out of convenience than seething hatred. I’m not entirely convinced yet. Although…” She trailed off.

“Although what?”

Phoebe glanced back to the house. “When we got here, I felt nothing but rage while Bri was screaming at her husband. But the moment she hung up the phone… nothing. No rage. No nothing at all.”

“I didn’t get anything either,” Coop said. “But that’s not unusual. Sometimes people shut down. Do you think the husband will be able to tell us more?”

“Maybe,” Phoebe said. “But I’d rather talk to some other people instead.”

“Next couple on the list?” Coop asked.

“Different list,” Phoebe replied. “Mika spoke with a couple I married that was still blissfully in love. They were thrilled to be a part of the follow up article she was planning. After that disappointment it will be nice to meet with one of my success stories. Can you beam us over to the East Bay?”

Coop held out a hand. “Your wish is my command.”

Phoebe took her husband’s hand as they both checked around to make sure they were alone. The street wasn’t crowded, but it was busy enough that two people suddenly disappearing in a pink glow would not go unnoticed.

Phoebe looked back at the house to see that the movers were struggling with getting the couch through the front door. Their attention was completely taken by their efforts. “Moving van?” she suggested.

“Moving van,” Coop agreed as he led her up the ramp and into the back of the truck. Once they were blocked from view, Phoebe provided the address of their destination and they zipped across the bay, materializing on a tree-lined street in Berkeley that was far less hilly than the place they had just left.

The houses in this neighborhood had fenced-in green yards and every other one had some kind of play set in it. This was the type of neighborhood Phoebe could imagine raising the girls in one day. Their current place was fine, but she could see them growing out of it as P.J. and Parker got older and any other little ones came along. She’d have to check into the school district in the area first, though. It wasn’t a given that she was going to send the kids to Magic School.

Educational opportunities aside, Phoebe could see herself in a quiet neighborhood like this. She breathed in the fresh air as a loud crash broke through the stillness. Phoebe looked at Coop. “That’s not good.”

The pair walked across the yard and up onto the small porch. The front window was open, allowing them unobstructed access to the argument going on inside. Like last time, Phoebe felt overwhelming rage the closer they got to the house. But this was so much more than she’d felt with Bri.

“I can’t believe I married you! I can’t believe I wasted all this time with you! I can’t believe—”

“That you never shut up?!”

“Blissfully in love?” Coop asked as the yells got louder.

Phoebe couldn’t manage a response. She was concentrating too much on trying to keep out the hate. It was overwhelming her.

“I want a divorce!”

Bright lights flashed in Phoebe’s eyes as she reached for the door. The wave of unrepressed emotions hit her hard, and she lost her balance and crumpled to the ground as everything went black.

Medusa stretched her arms above her head, working out the kinks in her newly reconstituted joints. It felt good to be on her feet again, breathing the musty air of the strange cave she was in. There was a little crick in her neck, but otherwise she felt fine. She was whole again.
Alive!

She never imagined it would be possible. Hades was too powerful for her magic to fight against. Her sisters were even weaker. How they managed to bring her back, just the two of them on their own, was a mystery they would need to explain. But that would come later. For now, there were more pressing questions to answer.

Medusa ran a hand through her hair.
Damn that Athena.
The snakes were still there. It wasn’t a surprise considering that her sisters were still in their monstrous forms—staring at her, waiting for her to speak—but she had hoped after all this time…

But how much time? How long had she been gone?

Death had been a nothingness she’d never imagined. She’d expected a journey to Hades, to be ferried along the River Styx and tortured along with the other pitiful souls that had reached the end of their lives. But there was none of that when Perseus killed her. She simply ceased to exist. Lost in a void with darkness all around until she woke to the dim light of lanterns in some unfamiliar cave.

Had she been gone for weeks? Years?

Is Perseus still playing the hero, killing innocents like herself?

Her sisters were watching: Euryale with her usual concern, like Medusa was a tiny bird with a broken wing; Stheno still barely containing her anger, ready to lash out at the world. Even though it felt like she had only seen them minutes ago, Medusa knew that a great deal of time had passed. She felt her sisters’ aching for her in their souls. Their pain had built into a power of its own, one that had grown and changed with time. It emanated from them in waves. Just how long
had
she been gone?

“When?” she managed to eek out. It was difficult to form the word on her tongue. Her body was adjusting to her return, rebuilding from whatever decay she had become. Had there still been flesh to repair? Bone? Had she completely faded to dust?

Euryale replied in a language Medusa did not recognize with words she could not understand. She must have looked perplexed, because her sister stopped mid-sentence. “It’s… been a while,” Euryale said in their native tongue.

“Can you shift?” Stheno asked. “Reclaim your glamour?”

Medusa smiled. This was Stheno. No time for reunions. Get right to the point. “I’ll… try.”

Medusa closed her eyes and concentrated. She remembered her body from the time before Athena had cursed her; the face that Poseidon had once claimed that he loved. The declaration might have been a lie, but the face had been true. It had been
her
.

She could feel the shift occur. The snakes on her head went silent as they transformed into coiling black locks, the horror of her scaly skin turned to flesh, and the fangs drew back into more manageable teeth. She ran her human tongue over them inside her mouth and smiled. This body was far more pleasant. It was her true self.

“Better?” she asked, her voice growing stronger.

“Much,” Euryale said jumping toward her and pulling her sister into a hug. The snakes in Euryale’s own hair hissed in their ears. Even in her monstrous form, it was nice to be in the loving arms of her sister once again. Medusa enjoyed the embrace, even though it came from Euryale’s scaly skin.

“But not entirely,” Stheno added, leaning closer to Medusa once Euryale let her go. At first, Medusa thought she was coming in for a hug as well, but Stheno’s arms remained at her side. Her gaze was focused on Medusa’s face.

“Your eyes,” Stheno said. “They haven’t changed. They are inhuman.”

Medusa didn’t need a reflection to show her how they looked. She was all too familiar with the serpents’ eyes that she’d been cursed to carry.

“Let me try again.” Medusa closed her eyes and concentrated harder. She remembered the blue of the eyes that Poseidon once compared to the seas that he ruled. The memory brought her pain, but it also helped focus her concentration. Emotion fueled her powers and she could use that energy to create the change. She opened her eyes again to see Stheno was still inches from her. “Better?”

Stheno’s face showed her disappointment.

“No matter,” Euryale said. “We can work with that.”

Medusa tilted her head, enjoying the feel of her hair against her shoulder. “How?”

“Sunglasses, of course.” She nodded to the tunic Medusa wore. It was a recreation of the outfit she’d worn on the day Perseus had taken her life. “Fashions have changed over time.”

Stheno and Euryale exchanged a look before they brought up their familiar glamours as well, returning to the bodies that Medusa had known them in from the time of her birth. These were the sisters Medusa remembered. Euryale with long, straight hair that she was forever fussing with along with a casual, relaxed pose so different from Stheno with her nearly Amazonian stature and perfect poise.

The clothes they wore were different to say the least. Stheno looked conservative in a jacket that seemed to be made from the skin of some animal and that covered her arms entirely. Euryale wore sandals that resembled more of a torture device, elevating her heel at an unnatural angle.

“How long have I been gone?” Medusa asked again, regarding the odd vestments her sisters wore.

Stheno reached out and took Euryale’s hand and they both reached out to Medusa. “Let us show you.”

Medusa took their hands, forming a circle. Once complete, Medusa’s mind was flooded with images of the life she had missed. The
lives
she had missed. She had been dead far longer than days or weeks. She had been gone for more than years or decades or even centuries.

Millennia had passed since Perseus took her life. Since Athena had cursed her. Since Poseidon had…

The world was a different place, a
horrible
place. It was full of anger and hatred. Great wars raged on filled with death. Powerful men controlled everything, through every century that she saw. Medusa understood that the images she witnessed were being filtered through her sisters’ eyes. That Stheno and Euryale were feeding her what they wanted her to see. But all of it was real. Everything they showed her had happened while she had slept. By the end, she began to wonder why they would ever wake her to live again in this world that was as monstrous as their cursed forms.

Medusa released her sister’s hands. It was far too much to comprehend at once. She’d been shown so many images without any real context. No explanation. It would take time to understand it all, to bring order to the chaos and fully comprehend the thousands of years of history that she had missed.

Until then, she focused on what she could manage. She closed her eyes again and picked out an image that had come from Euryale’s mind. It was a more modern fashion choice that would allow her to blend in with the current populace.

When she opened her eyes again she saw that her tunic had morphed into something she never could have imagined wearing in the time before her death. Cloth wrapped around both her legs. It was tight and constricting. Her top was much the same. Her feet were in an unnatural position, like Euryale’s, putting almost all her weight on her toes while she struggled to maintain her balance. This would not do.

She closed her eyes again and pulled another image from the memories her sisters had implanted: sandals like the ones she wore on her trips to the market; the cloth still wrapping both her legs, but now a lighter material with more room to breathe. She kept the shirt that was tight and clingy. It felt nice against her skin. It looked good on her once she opened her eyes again. She would need a mirror to get the full effect, but for the moment it worked.

“Is this better?” she asked in the language her sister spoke earlier. She knew it to be English now, words from a new world for a new millennium.

“Perfect,” Stheno said. “Come. We have much to do.”

Piper watched in satisfaction as the congressman broke into tiny orbs and disappeared. It wasn’t so much that she was pleased at another job well done by the Charmed Ones as she was glad to be rid of the annoying politician. She’d have to remember to make a note at the restaurant that if anyone ever took a call from Congressman Ward’s office about a reservation that Halliwell’s would be full up that night. She didn’t want to see any pictures on social media of that jackass in her dining room.

“Let’s hope that amnesia spell holds,” Prue said as the last of the orbs disappeared, leaving the three of them alone now that Leo and Cole were off on their next magical errand. “The last thing we need is a congressman finding out that witches are real.”

“It’s not like the government doesn’t already know about us,” Piper said.

Prue shot her a questioning look.

“Long story,” Piper replied with a terse smile. Their brief flirtation with working for Homeland Security wasn’t exactly the highlight of their careers as the Charmed Ones. She really didn’t feel like getting into it now.

“Part of me is going to miss him,” Prue said. “It was nice having a small-minded idiot to argue with for a while. Really got the blood pumping.”

“You must be incredibly bored,” Paige replied.

“I’m kidding. Sort of. But since Dad went back home things have been kind of quiet around here. Still, quiet is better than the idiotic ramblings of a politician.” Prue waved a hand over the table, making the pizza box and the dirty dishes disappear. Not for the first time, Piper was envious of one of her sisters’ powers. That ability would come in handy with three kids in the house. She wasn’t willing to put up with the trade-off of being trapped on the Nexus though.

“We’ll find a way to get you out of here,” Piper said.

“Maybe Grams knows something,” Paige suggested. “Or Mom.”

“They’ve been very quiet lately,” Prue said. “I’m not sure if that’s by choice or the Elders are keeping them on lockdown.”

Piper knew their Grams could be challenging at times. She was pretty steadfast in her beliefs. But she’d never ignore one of her girls when she was in need of some of Grams’s particular brand of blunt comfort. “Why would they—”

“Because I broke the rules,” Prue said with a resigned shrug. “I tried to force myself back to life. I took off with a body that wasn’t mine. How long does the list go on?”

“That body was in a vegetative state,” Piper reminded her. “There was no hope for her. I looked into it.”

“You did?”

“I wanted to make sure her family wasn’t going to be coming after us,” Piper said with her own shrug. If a member of the Halliwell family suddenly disappeared she would have blown up every demon between here and the Underworld to get them back. Conscious or not. It was only logical to expect the family of the witch whose body Prue possessed might want to do the same. If there was, in fact, any family to find.

Prue didn’t seem to like Piper’s reasoning as the expression on her face revealed her thoughts. “You thought I didn’t check these things out? What? Did you assume I just jumped into the body of the first random woman I came across?”

“No,” Piper said, surprised by the venom in her sister’s tone. “Of course not. But I didn’t think it would hurt to do some follow-ups. We are messing with some pretty big forces here.”

“Really?” Prue said. “Please tell me more about how big these forces are? You’ve been doing this so much longer than me after all.”

“Hey!” Paige stepped between them. “We have enough enemies out there. We don’t need to be fighting in here too.”

Prue took a deep breath. “You’re right. I’m sorry. I just… I’ve been on my own so long I forgot what it was like to be part of a team again.”

“I’m sorry too,” Piper said. She didn’t understand why she was getting angry with Prue. None of this was her fault. Well, some of it was her doing, but ultimately she was just trying to get her life back. Piper couldn’t blame her for that. She’d never been dead before. Well, not
permanently
. “I shouldn’t have been looking into things behind your back. I don’t know why I didn’t mention it earlier.”

Prue let out a mirthless laugh. “It’s not a surprise. We’ve all been tiptoeing around what I did. Obviously taking over another person’s body wasn’t my shiniest hour. I mean, talk about personal gain! I do deserve some kind of punishment for forcing myself into the world again when I was warned against it. I’d just like the chance to go out and see that world from time to time. Maybe have some out privileges or whatever they call it when you’re on house arrest.”

“At least we can visit,” Paige said.

Prue wrapped her arms around her sisters, pulling them into a hug. “And that makes everything worth it.”

As the trio embraced, a familiar pink glow filled the couch as Coop and Phoebe returned. Piper was the first to break free of the trio when she realized something was wrong. Phoebe was on the couch, eyes closed, completely unconscious. “What happened?”

Coop looked up at her with fear in his eyes. “I don’t know. We were visiting one of the couples on her list and she just collapsed. Paige, can you…?”

“On it.” Paige knelt over Phoebe’s body and reached out with her healing power. There was no visible wound so she held her hands out over Phoebe’s head and slowly moved down her sister’s body until the power connected with the problem. Paige’s hands began to glow when they hovered over Phoebe’s heart. It didn’t seem to be a physical issue with the organ that pumped blood to the body. It was more a metaphysical one with the center of emotion in the human soul.

Paige did what she could to draw out the poison that seemed to be affecting her sister, but she wasn’t sure that she was doing any good. Whitelighter magic might not be useful against this sort of spell.

Once again, Piper was jealous of a sister’s powers. This too would come in handy with three danger-prone children who bore the many scrapes and cuts of a traditional childhood, plus the bonus magical damage they could inflict on themselves. Phoebe’s empathy would come in handy when they reached the teen years, now that she thought of it too. Their family was really more powerful working together as a single unit than they were in their individual lives, though they were pretty kickass individuals as well.

Phoebe’s eye shot open and she took in a couple of deep, heaving breaths before Paige could even bring her magical glow to full strength. Piper quickly squeezed in by the side of the couch. “Phoebe? Are you okay?”

“Getting there,” Phoebe said as she tried to sit up. “What happened?”

Piper placed a hand on Phoebe’s shoulder. “You should stay down for a minute.”

“I don’t have a minute.” Phoebe pushed her sister’s hand away as she shakily got to her feet.

Coop was beside her in a second, supporting his wife, who was more unsteady than usual. “We do have a minute. We have more than a minute.”

“No,” she insisted. “Someone… some
thing
is attacking the couples I brought together. We have to do something about this.”

“How about you start by filling us in on what’s going on?” Prue said.

“If Phoebe sits back down, I will bring you up to speed,” Coop said as all eyes fell on his wife.

“Okay, fine!” she said as she dropped back on the couch, nearly missing the edge and slipping onto the floor. “I’m just going to close my eyes for a second while I get my bearings.”

“Good idea,” Coop said with his eyes full of concern. He brushed a stray hair from Phoebe’s face as she smiled up at him. Part of her seemed annoyed to be sidelined at the moment, while another part of her was obviously happy to have someone to rely on to take over while she caught her breath.

Once Coop was satisfied that his wife was not about to fall off the couch, he filled her sisters in on what they had learned since they left earlier. He regaled them with the story of the Jordans’ sudden breakup and what was supposed to be a visit to a happier couple. He didn’t have many details, but at least now it seemed pretty certain that some kind of magic was at play. Phoebe’s extreme reaction to the anger coming from that last couple seemed to be fairly definitive proof that something wicked had definitely this way come.

“But you didn’t see anything?” Piper asked. “No one using any kind of magic on Phoebe directly?”

“Nothing that resembled any kind of attack,” Coop said. “It seemed more like a reaction to the emotions coming from the couple. The closer we got to them, the weaker Phoebe was, until it all overwhelmed her.”

“What about you?” Paige asked. “Cupids are empathic too, aren’t they? I thought that was a pretty big part of the gig.”

“I certainly felt it,” Coop replied. “I probably would have felt it if I didn’t have any sensitivity to that kind of thing. The rage was emanating from them. We didn’t even need to be in the same room to be hit by it.”

“But it didn’t overwhelm you like it did Phoebe?” Paige clarified.

“Well, look at him,” Phoebe said as she got to her feet again, Coop quickly reaching out to grab her. “He’s more than twice my size. An emotional ox couldn’t take him down.”

“I don’t even know what that means,” Prue said.

“I don’t think it matters.” Coop held tight to his wife, providing support although she seemed much more steady on her feet this time. “And I don’t think that’s the reason you were overwhelmed.”

“You’ve been in this game longer than me,” Phoebe said with a wave. “Do tell.”

“You have a personal connection with these couples,” Coop said. “You’re the reason they’re together. Even more than that, you’re the one who bonded them in marriage. Someone seems to be working to undo these couplings. A side effect of that must have weakened your magic.”

“But who?” Piper asked. “Why?”

“We’ve got a book full of possible subjects at home,” Phoebe said. “Take your pick. Or it could be some new enemy. My one question is does it have anything to do with this congressman turning to stone?” She looked around the living room. “My other question is what did you do with Cole?”

“He’s with Leo,” Piper said. “They’re contacting the magical community. We figured if more people are turned to stone it will help to have a fairy, a leprechaun, and a dwarf on call.”

“I still don’t know why,” Prue said. “The Power of Three spell worked fine with my boost from the Nexus.”

Phoebe looked to Piper before speaking. “Yeah. I don’t know that we should do that again. It wasn’t all that fun.”

It confirmed what Piper had been thinking. Something wasn’t right with their powers when Prue brought the Nexus into the mix. She wasn’t the only one who had felt it. And maybe she was still feeling it. There was something more to the little argument that she’d had with Prue earlier. Something not entirely natural.

“And the congressman?” Phoebe asked.

“Back to his important work setting the country back a few decades,” Paige said. “Another success in the work of the Charmed Ones.”

“Okay then.” Phoebe took her husband’s hand. “You focus on your problem and we’ll deal with mine. I need to get back to work and check the files on all the couples I married that day in the park. There’s one couple in particular that I’m worried about.”

Coop looked concerned. “Phoebe, if you’re going to be affected by—”

“These people are my responsibility. I have to help them.”

“Your sisters could probably use some help too,” Coop reminded her.

“We’re okay for now,” Prue said, more to Coop than anyone else. “We can stand to split up our resources. We’ll call you if we need you.”

“I’m going to go see if the Book of Shadows has any suggestions,” Piper said, trying to move the conversation forward. “Maybe come up with some suspects of our own before someone else is turned to stone.”

“I’ll check in with Henry,” Paige said. “See if any other mysterious statues have been reported to the police.”

“And I’ll go back to work on my puzzle.” Prue leaned over the table. “I’ve almost got the entire sky complete.”

Piper shot her sister a look. “Prue.”

“Just kidding,” Prue said. “I’ll consult the library here. There’s got to be something in one of the books this place conjured up. Turning people to stone is pretty basic magic. It happens enough in mythology, fairy tales, and our own personal history that we probably have any number of possibilities to choose from. You focus on your thing. We’ve got this.”

Phoebe looked up at her husband and squeezed his hand. “Sounds like everyone’s got their marching orders. To the
Bay Mirror
, if you please.”

Coop shook his head, but beamed them out of Prue’s home without another word.

“We’ll be back soon,” Piper said as she took Paige’s arm and they orbed back to the Manor.

Piper went straight for the Book of Shadows as they arrived in the attic. By now she had the book pretty much memorized, but new entries still popped up occasionally, which made it worth browsing whenever a magical issue came up. She began with the Titans, just to see if there was anything they might have missed. Greek mythology was rife with people being turned to stone. It was as good a place as any to start.

As she reached the page on the Titans, she realized that Paige was still in the attic, standing at the door that opened the portal to Magic School.

“We can get Leo on research in the school library when he returns,” Piper said. “You should go see Henry.”

“That’s not it,” Paige said. “I was thinking, I can’t just keep orbing everyone across the globe when they feel like visiting Prue. Maybe there’s a way to make a portal to the Nexus. She could use the company.”

Piper joined her sister at the door. “That would be great. Do you think we can do it?”

“Beats me,” Paige said. “I’m still not sure what that Nexus can or can’t control.”

“None of us are,” Piper agreed with a shiver.

“And that’s what I’m worried about,” Paige said.

“You felt it too?” Piper tentatively asked. “Something is… off there?”

“The whole place is off if you ask me,” Paige said. “But yeah. I felt something weird when Prue tried to boost our power with the Nexus. It wasn’t the first time I felt weird while we used our magic there.”