by Holly Hook
“I apologized. Isn't that good enough?"
“Girls,” Natalia said with a frown, holding up her hands. “Calm down. Things happen in Magical Meditation that can be...unexpected at times.” Her tone darkened at the end.
Serena bit her lip and glowered at Wendy. Wendy looked away as the last of the green glow around her sword died. I shifted on my mat, glad I was nowhere over there, because the air kept thickening.
Were the two fighting?
If they were, this might be my chance to talk to Wendy again.
Class ended, and since we had Mrs. Allenson after Magical Meditation, that was a no-go, but at lunch, as I sat with Maria and Mikey, I watched for anything interesting.
“So Cal's set up a makeshift studio in the basement right here, in one of the storage rooms nobody's been using,” Mikey said. “He even soundproofed the walls. We're going to start recording our album pretty soon. We're debating on names. Here. I want you girls to see some names we're thinking about.”
“For you or the group?” Maria asked.
How could I pay attention? I looked at Mikey's list, hoping that I looked interested. I should be interested. Now that he was trapped here, Mikey's two big things he had to look forward to was music and Cal. And Cal was doing everything he could to make this school year not suck for Mikey.
And sure enough, he had a list of names.
“The Orpheus Crew,” I read. “I think just 'Orpheus' would work."
“Perfect. Because it's irresistible music,” Mikey added. “Wait until you hear it. Combine my singing voice with Cal's mixing and beats, and you've got an unstoppable combination.”
“I believe you.” I kept flicking my gaze over to Wendy's table. She and her friends were muttering in low, dangerous voices.
“What's going on?” Maria asked.
“Nothing,” I said quickly, hating Wendy for making me keep this impossible secret.
Wendy got up from the table, face contorted into annoyance, as she stormed away from Serena and Percival. Yeah, things were still sour. Wendy walked out of the dining hall, letting the door slam shut behind her. A few people watched.
I couldn't follow yet, though my hands and feet tingled. But I had to. With luck, Wendy would wait for me to meet her.
Mikey pulled a list of songs out of his backpack and slapped it down on the table. “Giselle, check it out. Maria already saw this--”
“Hold on. Something's not agreeing with me,” I said, rising.
Maria and Mikey looked at each other. Things were getting dicey but I couldn't pass this opportunity up. I ran to the bathroom, making my gait awkward as I could, and left my friends behind.
Checking to make sure they weren't following, I made a beeline to the bathroom, hoping that Wendy would be inside, waiting for me.
And that turned out to be true. As soon as I opened the door, I found her leaning over the sink, gripping the edges as she had after arguing with her mother.
“Wendy,” I said. “You got the pictures of the Division Oath, right?”
“Right.” She wasted no time. “Maybe it doesn't even apply to you, and you can get out of Cursed Academy. But you'll need to get me out, too. Convince Prometheus to free me after we nuke his memory.”
My stomach turned. “We need to get into the Underworld like, very soon,” I said. “Before the end of the school year.” My lies would unravel soon enough. In fact, I hadn't been venturing off campus besides the lessons me and Ronin were holding every night. As no more trapped letters had appeared under my door, I seemed to have succeeded with evading Prometheus.
“I know,” Wendy said. “We need a weekend.”
I told her about the entrance in Colton Corners. “And we need to get past Cerberus. That's your job. If I destroy him with my powers, I'll go dark down there for sure. And then I might destroy you, too. We don't want that.”
Wendy nodded. "Not a problem."
“Then we collect that water and the herb and get out. Wendy, I'll need to give my friends an excuse about going away." Would she ever loosen up? "Ronin could really help out." Leaving him behind wouldn't help his depression.
She screwed up her face. “No. And keep this quiet. Who knows what the gods will do if they find out? Never cross Hades. Even I don't want to do that. His palace isn't far from where the fields are.”
“We can trust Ronin. Please,” I said. The thought of venturing into the Underworld with just Wendy terrified me, and not just because she was unpleasant. Ronin knew how to keep my darkness at bay. “If we don't take him, then things could get really bad for me. And you. He knows how to keep my bad powers under control.”
Wendy's cheeks flushed. The air filled with a low thrum that sent a shiver down my spine. “Did you tell him about this?”
“I haven't breathed a word," I said, holding up both hands. Already the low groan filled me, ready to retaliate. Even without my dagger, I could open holes to the void, and being threatened brought out the worst. “I swear I never told anyone. This has just been between the two of us.”
Wendy's expression softened from hatred to just dead seriousness. “Then we go ahead with this plan. No Ronin.” Hurt crept into her words. “I have the second weekend in May free. I'll keep things sour with Serena so it stays that way. Both my parents are on a business trip with a bunch of other funeral directors and I'll get us a car.”
Yeah. She didn't want to see her crush and me together. Cerberus was more bearable than that, even if the monster killed us both.
I gulped. Good job, Giselle.
“Then we still have a deal,” I forced.
Chapter Fourteen
I hated this.
Absolutely hated it.
Classes went on, and I gave what I thought was an average performance, scraping by with decent grades in Mrs. Allenson's class that she neither praised nor mocked. Wendy stuck with Serena and Percival, and if they were still fighting over whatever, they weren't showing it. Wendy and Serena kept vanishing over the weekends, like they always did, and returned with shopping bags laden with clothes.
Maria and Mikey kept asking if something was bothering me.
But at least I had an excuse.
“I'm worried about the end of the year.”
“So are we,” Maria said with a sigh, flopping back onto my bed. “How are you holding up with your changes? You seem to be doing pretty well.”
“I am?” I asked.
“Yeah. You only let your powers go crazy once this year.” Maria grinned at me, lifting her head off my pillow.
Mikey wasn't here. He'd been vanishing for long periods of time, probably down in that makeshift studio recording the Orpheus album.
“Keep training with Ronin,” Maria said. “That's been making the difference for you. And to think when you first got here, you couldn't control anything. You were headed to darkness for sure.”
“All Ronin and I have been doing is using other peoples' birthright weapons and not my own,” I said. “He keeps it in his dorm, hidden somewhere, and I don't even know where it is.”
“So have you visited Ronin's dorm?” Maria asked. “Juicy details. Now.”
“Um, a few times?”
“And what happened? Hmm?” Now she sat up, leaning forward.
“We kissed?” Ronin and I had of course made out, lots of times, but lately the electricity flowing through him had weakened. Pain had taken the life from him. And it had been slowly getting worse all year.
Oh, and I'd been too chicken to ask Ronin if we could take things any farther.
Now didn't seem like the time.
“It's complicated,” I said with a frown.
“Oh.” Maria matched me. “That sucks. I know Ronin has issues and I've been hard on him. But he's been good to you, Giselle. Without him I don't know where you'd be.”
I knew where I'd be and that was why I hated Wendy's conditions. But they were the only conditions I had.
“You. Forgive Ronin?” I asked.
“Well, I
never blamed him for anything. I just said he was an alpha male.” Maria flopped back down, spreading her arms. “I just wanted to stop you from getting hurt and be your friend but now I see you need him. He loves you, Giselle.”
I gulped. The words teased the inside of my lips. I met your father and he loves you, too. But I couldn't break that promise, either.
I just wanted to destroy something.
And the longer I went in silence, the stronger the urge got.
Pretending that everything was okay in class was getting harder and harder. And it worsened as the weather warmed through April and Ronin and I upped our after-school training sessions. By then, even Ronin was no longer holding back the darkness within, which fed on my inner turmoil.
And the inner groan was really bad one April night while Ronin and I were trying to train in one of Olympian's small, marble arenas.
“Giselle?” He lifted his sword as if to swing at me. Tiny lightning bolts danced around the sharp point, threatening, but I was used to them.
I lifted the blade I had borrowed, Cal's blade, which glowed like the sun and gave off a musical whoosh whenever I swung it, and met Ronin's sword. Though I was smaller than him, my strength grew whenever I handled these weapons, almost as much as it did my own, but Ronin was still giving me a run for my money. “What?” I asked, straining my arms. The inner groan filled me, despite the sunny sensation that coursed through my arms. Even his magic was failing to hold it back now.
“I feel tension,” Ronin said, “and not the good kind.” He grunted, put all his effort into his swing, and cast my sword from my grasp.
“Damn,” I said, faking a smile. “I always forget that you can do that.”
“Well, my mother was a descendant of Hermes,” Ronin said. "Yeah, I know Natalia told you that. I bet that's why I can feel magic in others. He was the messenger god, after all.” He winked and eyed Cal's sword, which lay on the ground. But stress lines appeared around his eyes. Ronin's mask got thinner all the time.
“I bet it is too.” Wendy and I are going to the Underworld in a couple of weeks. All I had to do was say it, but just the thought of Wendy put a chokehold on my voice box.
Ronin closed in so quick I had almost no time to react. He dropped his sword and seized my arms, squeezing like I was about to fly away in a hurricane. As he held me in his stare, his pupils widened and I read the fear in them.
“Giselle, you've been talking to Wendy."
Oh.
We surveyed each other in silence as time dragged into eternity. “We might have talked a little bit.” Truth. Please, just come to the truth yourself. Then I haven't broken my promise. Technicality?
“Mikey overheard you in the girls' bathroom. He told me not to tell you this, but you deserve the truth. You and Wendy are going to try getting past Cerberus by yourselves?”
My chest tensed and hurt. Mikey followed me?
“Y...yes,” I said, not sure whether to feel gushing relief or terror. “She swore me to silence. And I had to agree to go alone with her because if I didn't, there would have been no deal. Wendy's terrified of her parents and the gods. If she got in trouble they would probably kill her. And it would ruin her plans. You don't understand how desperate she is."
Ronin loosened his grasp and frowned. “Well, since Mikey, Maria, and I came to this conclusion on our own, you're off the hook. You broke nothing. And if she comes after you about it, tell her to come to me.”
I wanted to collapse into Ronin. “How will she know I didn't technically break the promise?”
“I'll tell her the truth at the right time,” Ronin said. “And you're not going to the Underworld alone with her, Giselle. Not at all. I won't have it." I need this, Ronin was saying. Please let me have this. "And none of us are mad at you. Are you mad at us?”
I was so relieved that I couldn't decide. “I don't think so?”
Mikey followed me.
He spied, and I should be angry, but he'd gotten me out of an incredible jam and I owed it to him more than ever.
“Great,” Ronin said, coming in for a kiss. “It'll be an interesting day when Wendy decides it's time to make the journey. We've been working on some things in the background that you might find very interesting.”
* * * * *
Ronin, despite his promise, kept me out of the loop about his plans. We went back to training every night, as usual, and his clearing the air helped take the darkness within down a notch. The destruction and the void still lingered, begging me to use it, so I put my full focus on using others' weapons, disappearing into sunshine and drunkenness and strategy and brute strength.
But it was clear that the void was getting stronger, too. As the days got warmer, I heard the low groan right before I fell asleep at night, and right when I woke in the morning. Ronin could feel it, too. He frowned at me in Combat Training every time it happened. And that was on the Olympian campus.
I still was at Cursed most of the time. We couldn't change that yet.
“What are you planning?” I asked Ronin one evening. “Why won't you tell me already?”
“Because if you know, and don't act legit surprised when it happens, you're dead,” Ronin said, throwing a disc at me.
I deflected it by shooting a black lightning bolt from Ronin's sword. The disc curved to the side, obeying the laws of physics, and slammed into an already-dented marble beam. “So I'm not a good actress.”
“No. Sorry, baby.”
Wendy finally gave me the signal on the Friday of our we're-gonna-die weekend. Talk about last minute.
We were in class, studying for Mrs. Allenson's final exam, which to me was the least terrifying despite the fact that she was a warrior librarian. Serena had to blow her nose, drawing a glare from the teacher, and that was when Wendy looked at me, bit her lip, and gave me an almost imperceptible nod.
Of course, I could say nothing to Maria and Mikey. But since Ronin told me the truth, things were clear. Maria and Mikey were both tense at lunch, and when Mikey spoke, his sentences were very long and winded.
“Yeah. Cal and I are going to polish off the album this weekend. We plan to sell it on both campuses. My finesse will be irresistible. Thanks, Mom,” Mikey said, slicking his hair back.
“Great,” I said.
But he still wasn't done. “We'll be on Cal's computer. He just got a new hard drive and he'll be bringing it over on Saturday. Got a new mixing program, too.”
I nodded. Maria leaned on her elbow, ignoring her food. Yeah, they were tense.
And Wendy kept stealing glances at me. For a split second, we faced each other, from twenty feet away, and she mouthed, laundry room.
At least, I hoped she meant laundry room. That was where everyone seemed to meet before they went off and broke the rules, ourselves included.
With a nod, I went back to my lunch.
In Combat Training, Max started us on reviewing for final exams. He barked about how he and Natalia would oversee our performance, together, since we had moved from just using crappy weapons as first years to actually using our birthright weapons and connecting to them. “Natalia and I have been working together to integrate your lessons,” Max barked. “For your final exam, those of you who have taken Strategy will fight together to hold off a mock enemy force, as you will likely face this scenario in your future career. I have been working with your Strategy teacher to organize your final exam, and both subjects will be graded at the same time.”
Beside me, Maria and Mikey shifted leg to leg, as did most of the class. A lot of people had wound up in Strategy.
“For those of you who have taken Magical Meditation, you will fight golems created by Prometheus himself,” Max continued, pacing past where I stood at attention. “These golems are designed to bring out your full magical potential. Prometheus and Natalia will work together to grade you, and assess where you will go for your third year at Cursed Academy.”
I shuddered as a wave of sickness filled my gut.
I'd gotten
so good at sneaking over to Olympian, evading Prometheus, and making it look like I was always on campus that I had, well, forgotten about him. The principal had been spending a lot of time holed up in his office, making phone calls and doing whatever it was he did, and I should have known that he'd come up with a trap like this. He would want to see if I had matured over the year. But couldn't he tell? He was an immortal, after all, and would have sensed the horror.
Or he just wanted to force me to mature and get it over with.
Mikey looked to me, wide-eyed.
I took all my strength to look unfazed as Max stared me in the eye. “Do you think it's funny to avoid paying attention in class?”
“Not at all, sir,” I blurted.
“Good,” he said, moving on. But as he did, Max gave me an unusual second look.
Was that fear in his golden-flecked eyes? Yes. A descendant of Ares just might fear me. Something bad was coming, then. I needed that herb more than ever.
Combat Training went on for what felt like forever that day. Once it ended and people scattered, my heart leapt into my throat. The laundry room. I had to get there and hope Ronin got there, too, and did some really good damage control.
I texted him while I walked down the gravel trail. Gotta do laundry. See you in a bit. And I hoped that he got it.
"Giselle. Up for listening to our album?" Mikey asked, appearing beside me. "It's finally done. Cal and I put the finishing touches on it last night and exported the final MP3 files." He was beaming. I hadn't seen Mikey this happy in months.
Hadn't he said they were polishing it this weekend?
"You're going to love it," Maria said, briefly eyeing my text. Are you going out with Ronin tonight?
"I know I will," I said. "But I made a promise and I can't break it to Ronin. I'll listen as soon as I can.”
My phone buzzed. He'd gotten back to me quickly.
Mikey frowned. "Then you'll listen to it later."
"I will." Would there be a later?
Anything could happen down in the Underworld. Anything.
I had to use all my strength to separate from Maria and Mikey. I couldn't tell them I was going off campus. They'd follow me and turn into monsters for me. And I could never live with that.