Charmed: Let Gorgons Be Gorgons by Paul Ruditis Page A

doubt that’s the kind of company Prue was hoping for.”
    “They’re working on combining their magic into an all-purpose potion,” Leo explained. “Then she can send them home. How’s the research going?”
    Piper held up her scratch pad as example. “Could use a little help. Think you can swing over to Magic School?”
    “Consider it done,” Leo said as he made his way to the portal.
    “Leo, wait!” Paige called out as he opened the door and stepped into the darkness, resulting in a loud crashing sound that caused everyone in the attic to cringe and Cole to look confused.
    “Umm…” Leo’s voice came out of the darkness. “Why am I in the basement?”
    “What is this joyousness on my tongue?” Medusa asked as she enjoyed the sharp and sweet flavors blending in her mouth. She and her sisters sat around a small metal table outside a shop on a busy thoroughfare. The people passing by were dressed in all manner of strange outfits. Some wore conservative clothing that covered their entire bodies, while others were in garish fabrics that barely covered parts of the body best left to the imagination.
    “It’s peanut butter and chocolate!” Euryale held out a small plastic tub filled with a golden liquid. “Here! Dip it in caramel. That makes it even better!”
    Medusa did as her sister instructed and popped what was left of the small cup of chocolate in her mouth. “Thank you,” she said as she chewed. Euryale was right. It was a taste combination unlike any she had experienced before.
    Medusa had learned of chocolate when she shared in her sisters’ visions of the eras she’d missed while during her deep slumber of death. She knew much about this modern world now, things that she had never dreamed before. But understanding the concept of chocolate and eating it were two entirely different experiences.
    “If you like sweets we’ll have to get you one of those ice blended coffees later. They’re like ice cream with a jolt of caffeine!” Euryale said.
    “Ice cream? Caffeine?” Medusa searched her new memories until she located images that matched the words. Neither item looked particularly interesting to her in her mind’s eye, but she trusted that Euryale knew of what she spoke. She had been right so far with the candy she’d insisted Medusa try as soon as they materialized in this amazing city so far away from their homeland of Greece.
    “There will be time to experience all kinds of new sensations,” Stheno assured her. “For now I’d like to begin work on our plan of revenge.”
    “On Perseus and Athena?” Medusa perked up at the thought. She would love to make her tormentors pay for their misdeeds. Turning them to stone wasn’t even the beginning of what she dreamed to do with them.
    “Lost to the obscurity of history,” Stheno assured her. “They can’t harm you any longer.”
    “Poseidon too?” Medusa asked. She hated him most of all, and yet part of her still felt the sting of conflicting emotions for the god she’d once loved and who had violated her in the most horrific way.
    “Poseidon too,” Euryale replied.
    The sense of relief was a weight off Medusa that outweighed any other emotion. It cleared her mind to realize that she had survived them all. She had nothing more to fear. “Then I have no need for revenge. I have returned to my life. A new life. A
better
life. I get to experience all of these exciting times while they are long gone. That is the best vengeance I can imagine.”
    Stheno took her sister’s hand across the small table. “Oh, but there are so many more opportunities in this future time. Chances for us to protect the innocent, those who were betrayed like yourself. To punish those who would do others harm.”
    “Is that why we’re here?” Medusa asked as she allowed Stheno to gently pull her up from her seat so they could stroll along the busy streets of this metropolis. “What did you call this place?”
    Euryale followed, throwing their trash in