Cursed Academy (Year Two)

by Holly Hook

  All around me, lights flashed and workers scrambled. Aggie went to her screen, tapping keys. The other two women did the same. They were trained.

  And most importantly, not paying attention.

  “Quick,” Elliot hissed in my ears. “Up the service steps.” He pulled me out of the chaos and towards a narrow hallway off to the side. We entered, leaving the rest of the plant behind as the alarm continued to blare. The lights dimmed to red. Workers shouted at each other. It was my hope they wouldn't notice us walking to the very obvious, very visible office door.

  We made it up to the catwalk, and thankfully everyone was on the floor, milling around, not paying attention to us. The lights up here had dimmed, putting us in the dark, while emergency spotlights shone on the equipment below. Apparently Zeus was more worried about preventing explosions than guarding his office, which was good for us. I had one thing to thank the Lower Order for and it was this.

  Elliot punched in a long, eight-digit code and Zeus's office door clicked. He pulled it open just enough for me to squeeze inside. “Hurry. Zeus's magic won't kill us if I'm with you.”

  We entered, and my hair stood on end as I walked through an electrical barrier, invisible and threatening. This place was guarded like the Academies were. Elliot closed the door.

  My eyes adjusted. Zeus's office was round, like a politician's, and he had a wide desk complete with said scary letter opener. The walls. I scanned the paintings. Lots of pictures of a clouded mountain and a palace on top hung. Mount Olympus. Eagles, too. Zeus's symbol. One picture depicted Zeus himself, in a toga, fighting a dark-haired immortal with green-flecked eyes while fire raged in the background. A titan. Maybe it was even Kronos, his evil father. Another painting depicted a shirtless man, face turned out of view, chained to a rock while a vicious-looking eagle pecked at his torso. The man covered his face in agony. Blood ran down the victim's side. The eagle was eating him alive. I shuddered and turned away, looking for anything with text.

  And I found it. On the wall, in golden ink, a title read The First Division Oath of The Immortals. And yes, it was written in English, not ancient Greek as I feared.

  Elliot shone a flashlight on the Division Oath. Slipping my shoe off, I took out my phone and got a photo of the title and then the small text underneath, splitting the photo into fours, and making sure the photos had actually stayed on my phone, I tucked it back into its case and back into my shoe. We'd have to piece them together but this would work. Elliot clicked off the flashlight. We had to hurry. I tucked my phone back into its hiding place, stepping and praying I didn't crack my screen. The phone case Wendy gave me was strong.

  We stepped back onto the catwalk in silence. The lights remained off, but we crept back to the service steps.

  “All systems stabilized,” Aggie announced over a loudspeaker. “Elliot. You are to wait by the conference room door. Proceed there immediately.”

  “They humiliate you?” I asked once we'd reached the ground floor.

  Elliot nodded. “If you can help my daughter, I'll be happy to lose my job over it.”

  Now I knew where Maria had gotten her sense of self-sacrifice. We emerged back in the main area. Aggie stood at her desk, scanning the area for Elliot. I felt sick. Because of what I'd done he might end up on the streets.

  And then Elliot leaned close. “Don't tell Maria that you saw me.”

  Aggie turned and faced us as our footsteps clanked on the metal grating. “Elliot. Where were you?”

  “I needed to move Giselle from the commotion,” he said. “And to prevent any more accidents.” He glared at me as he spoke.

  “Proceed to the conference room door. I will tell Zeus exactly what happened. Giselle is done with her tour, is that correct?”

  “Correct.” Elliot nodded, not missing a beat. Even though workers stood around everywhere, staring, he stayed strong under the public shame. He had dealt with this sort of thing before. “Giselle. Go to the front desk and retrieve your phone. Your driver will take you back to Cursed Academy.”

  “I'm sorry,” I said, letting a tremor enter my words. “I didn't mean to--”

  “Go,” Elliot ordered.

  Without another word, I took my own walk of shame through the center of the Marchamp Power Plant, pushed open the heavy wooden door, and left Elliot to his fate.

  Chapter Thirteen

  “You got the entire Division Oath? How did you know it was in Zeus's office?”

  I could barely look Maria in the eye the next day at breakfast. It didn't help that Wendy kept sending me glances in between talking to Percival and Serena.

  “Well, it's in five different pictures, but someone with computer skills can make one image out of it. Maybe?” I asked.

  “I'll do that." Maria's eyes begged for a story. “Giselle. How did you do it? What happened?”

  Gulp. “Well, I had help. Former student from here gave me a tour because Zeus was busy again. He wasn't getting treated well, and when I said something about it, the guy told me to take a picture of the Oath and look for loopholes. Guess he's disgruntled.” I stopped there, hating that I was leaving out a huge part of the truth. She must be able to see though it. An employee had taken a massive risk. She'd want the reason why.

  Mikey sat down with his tray. Relief. But Maria slapped him on the arm. “Listen to this. If it's real, it could help all of us."

  Wendy stole another glance at me. I gave her a thumbs-up behind my back.

  “Got an itch?” Mikey asked.

  “Yeah. Don't you hate it when it's that spot you can't reach?” I gave him the same story I'd told Maria. Thankfully it was believable, especially how my guide had been treated by the higher-ups.

  “I can't believe one of Zeus's employees would do that,” Maria said. “I've heard rumors about the wording of the Division Oath hanging on the walls of gods' offices before, but no one really knows if it's true. Now we do. But why would someone take a risk like that?”

  “The guy must have been waiting to get revenge?” I asked. “If the Oath's wording wasn't useful he wouldn't have done this.” I just wanted to tell Maria that her father loved the crap out of her. And had probably lost his job for her, too.

  “Well, we put this together after class. I'll tell Cal and Teddy we can't meet them for cards tonight,” Mikey said.

  “Maybe you can find a way out of here.” She forced a smile at me.

  I'd have to text the pictures to Wendy as soon as I could. In addition to the fake phone, she'd given me her number. Wendy shifted in her seat, pretending to listen to Serena's conversation.

  And as soon as breakfast let out, I sent the text, hoping she'd know enough not to check her phone while her so-called friends were around. Got it.

  I could barely focus in Magical Meditation that day, mainly because Natalia made me sit out for this session, where the other students sat in a circle with their eyes closed, birthright weapons on the floor in front of them. She tied blindfolds around each student's eyes. Natalia instructed the group to feel for their weapons without touching them, and as she talked, she picked up each weapon and moved it to another part of the room. I watched as Wendy stumbled around, looking for her sword and going in the opposite direction, where she banged into Percival. This would have been funny under other circumstances.

  Mrs. Allenson was extra harsh during lectures today, and we got to the Hercules lesson. “The Twelve Trials,” she explained, “were twelve almost impossible tasks given to Hercules by King Eurystheus after he went crazy and killed his own family."

  "He went crazy?" I blurted, thinking of Ronin. "Why?"

  "Yes. There were no treatments for mental illness in those days," Mrs. Allenson said. Her tone told me to shut up already. "After Hercules went to an oracle to figure out what to do to alleviate his guilt, he was told to work for the king. Perhaps the worst trial was cleaning the Augean stables, which he did by diverting an entire river.” Mrs. Allenson managed a grin, a rare sight. “Among other things, Hercules was also
required to slay the Nemean Lion, capture the Cretan Bull, and fetch Cerberus from the Underworld and bring him to the king himself, who thought the task was impossible. When he was proven wrong, the king ordered Hercules to return him to the Underworld and--"

  I raised my hand again, a huge no-no in Mrs. Allenson's Divine History classes.

  “How did Hercules capture Cerberus?” I asked. All heads turned to face me in the class, including Wendy's. She lifted her eyebrow from two rows away.

  Mrs. Allenson narrowed her eyes. She did not like being asked questions, and I sensed I was to appeal to her ego.

  “I mean, I know he was the son of Zeus and all powerful, but I was wondering how he did it,” I finished.

  Her features softened. “Hercules had incredible strength, inherited from Zeus himself. As the son of Zeus, rather than just a distant descendant, his powers were greater than that of normal god descendants. Now, the next trial.”

  I imagined Ronin flexing his muscles.

  Hey, Ronin. Can you wrestle Cerberus for us?

  No way. I couldn't ask that of him. And Wendy would never let me. But the thought refused to leave.

  Lunch arrived, and as me, Maria, and Mikey headed to the dining hall, I found Ronin waiting outside of Building B for me. His expression was unreadable.

  “Giselle,” he said in a quiet voice. Ronin was holding his phone to his chest and he was in his white toga uniform. The golden flecks in his eyes were dull. I didn't like that.

  “I'll follow you guys,” I told Mikey.

  “See you at lunch.” He flashed me a worried look as he and Maria left.

  Wendy passed, but she didn't dare stare at either of us. She hiked her shoulders, letting me know we still weren't friends despite my bold move. Me and Ronin being together had a lot to do with that. Good job, Giselle.

  Ronin waited until the other second years had gone before he spoke. “Giselle, what did you do yesterday? Zeus was talking about how the power plant almost overheated. It happened during a high demand time, too, and they had to shut off half the town of Marchamp. Did your powers go off?”

  “No. I spilled a cappuccino on some bitch lady's control panel. And they need to do a better job designing everything if that almost caused a disaster.” We did not need a fight right now.

  “You what? Honestly, I'm not shocked, but Giselle. You have to stop getting into trouble. Don't tell me you tried to like, cause a distraction so you could spy around or sneak into Zeus's office or something.”

  I gulped.

  And Ronin face-palmed. He knew me too well.

  “Awesome,” he said. “Spill.”

  So much for keeping my don't get into trouble promise with him. I'd broken that one many times over. So I gave Ronin the same story I'd given Maria and Mikey. A low-level Cyclops helped me after I told him he was getting treated like crap. He offered me access to the Divison Oath. And I took pictures and got out.

  “You're getting in too deep,” Ronin said. “Zeus is wondering if you had anything to do with what happened other than a dumb accident.”

  “I think I aimed that spill pretty well.” Anger brimmed in my ears and the low groan filled me. Chaos was waking. I was on the Cursed campus and Ronin was bringing out my dark power without realizing it. I faced him, hoping I communicated my terror. “Kiss me right now.”

  His jaw dropped and he took me in his arms, pressing his lips to mine with strong desperation. He breathed his electricity into me, making every hair stand on end. I breathed in his power, begging it to become my own, to chase away the darkness within. Lightning zapped away the void and turned black, filling my chest, and I kissed Ronin back, biting his lip, nibbling and feeding his power back into him threefold.

  “Whoa,” Ronin said, releasing me and backpedaling. “You're getting good at this kissing thing. I never thought when we met that anyone could kiss as well as you do. Feeling better?”

  “Much.” At least no one was around. Only a thin layer of snow covered the ground, riddled with faint footprints. Crows cackled. Everyone was at lunch. Even Prometheus stayed inside during his lunch breaks.

  “How many people know I went to the power plant?” Dread socked me in the gut.

  “Just me. Zeus wouldn't tell Prometheus where you were. Don't worry about that.” Ronin swept his hand through his hair and grinned, but pain lived in his smile.

  I'd hurt him, and no number of kisses would heal that injury.

  “Why don't you get to lunch? I have to go to mine,” Ronin said. And he wasn't even bothering with anger anymore. He was just...deflated. Useless. Only he wasn't. And I had no way to make him see that.

  * * * * *

  Ronin's mood stayed in the dumps.

  Sure, he was trying to hide it, but that was no use. Ronin showed up to teach our Tuesday and Thursday Combat Training classes in the afternoons. He was always standing in the shared arena after lunch, weapons ready on the rack, but the shine in his eyes was gone, especially when he looked at me. There was no anger. And I hated that more than the anger, because when Ronin worked his jaw, at least he was alive.

  Wendy got no chance to talk to me as the next week progressed, not even on the weekend, though I saw her mother come and pick her and Serena up for another shopping trip while Maria and I hung out on the front steps. The weather had warmed up a bit and melted all the snow, and we were doing everything we could to enjoy the brief little break from winter before it all came back down in January.

  In fact, Wendy gave me no indication I existed that weekend, or the one after that, or the one after that. Panic rose in me. What if she'd lied, and taken the pictures of the Oath for herself and planned to leave me in the cold? She hadn't even thanked me when I texted them to her. So much for our promise.

  And if Wendy was working on a plan of her own, she wasn't showing it.

  But at least Maria had taken my photos and pieced them together into one file on her laptop. The Division Oath was very simple, and unlike other legal documents that were written by lawyers so regular people couldn't understand them, this one must have been written by the gods themselves. We sat in Maria's dorm and looked at it every day.

  Dated for twenty-five years ago, it read:

  The Divine Division Oath of the Immortals of Ancient Greece

  On this date, all immortals whose symbols appear below have sworn upon the cursed water of the River Styx to no longer war against one another. They will also rein in the magic they have spread through the mortal world. To do this, those mortals affected by immortal magic, the god descendants and the monsters, shall be educated in one of two schools, Olympian Academy and Cursed Academy, and will be organized into a hierarchy of power.

  No immortal may break the Division Oath. Any immortal who wars against another will become comatose, trapped in Tartarus, and will starve without nectar for one immortal year. The same penalty will apply to any immortal who fails to honor the division of magical mortals.

  The text wasn't much, but Maria had gotten an idea.

  “With contracts you have to read between the lines,” she said. “And wow. That's a lot of divine symbols under the text.”

  The symbols, which included the familiar golden eagle and the green hand holding a flame were scattered around the bottom of the paper. Maria had gone through them and identified all the Olympians' symbols, as well as the symbols of many more minor immortals. And there were dozens upon dozens under the text, all the size of dimes.

  “Read between the lines?”

  “Well, you don't really have to do that since the words are right here." Maria tapped her screen. “For you there might be a loophole. I've been staring at this for weeks, and I can't believe I haven't seen it.”

  “Loophole?” My heart raced. My disappointment at the simplicity of the oath dissolved.

  “You're neither a mortal nor an immortal,” Maria said, grinning at me. “Right now you're in between. This Oath might not even apply to you. And even if you are immortal already, whatever your symbol w
ill be is not here.”

  I swallowed and shifted on Maria's bed.

  Could it be--

  “Tell that to Prometheus,” I said.

  “We can't say a word. I don't think the immortals will like this getting out,” Maria said. “I'm tempted to leak this image to the world, but what's the point?”

  There wasn't one. But we had what we needed. During the past few weeks, the thought of sneaking water from the River Lethe into Prometheus's nectar had been weighing on me. Not only did I not want to get caught, the thought of getting him punished this severely made my stomach turn. He had good intentions for the Cursed students I was probably the reason he'd convinced the other immortals to fund Building C. Things were already turning around for Cursed Academy.

  Plus, Prometheus didn't want me getting caught by the Lower Order any more than the other immortals did. Nobody liked those jerks.

  But I had to tell Wendy.

  The next day in classes, Natalia kept me away from everyone else like I was a sideshow freak. Of course that wasn't her intent, either, but she had to choose between ostracizing me publicly and letting my magic explode out of control. Even in my own corner of the Magical Meditation room, her sessions made the low groan rise in me. I was still a volcano waiting to erupt.

  Wendy was getting good at Magical Meditation. Every day now, Ronin brought our birthright weapons to class, dropping them off before vanishing to rush off to his own lessons on the other campus. He would glance at me and offer a hot wink before vanishing again. Wendy would make her power jump to her sword without touching it now. And one day in early March, Natalia gasped when Wendy levitated her weapon, playfully pointing it at Serena.

  “Knock it off,” Serena said.

  “Oh. Sorry,” Wendy said, opening her eyes and letting her glowing sword fall to the floor. She didn't sound it.

  “I don't want to go to the Underworld,” Serena snapped. Color flushed into her cheeks.