by Holly Hook
“Huh?” Her eyes were still sharp, but no recognition filled them.
Whether she'd drank by accident or because she wanted to ease her pain, I didn't know, but it didn't matter now. What mattered was getting her back.
I gripped her arms. Instantly that awful green energy was back, surging up my arms, and I concentrated on feeding it back to her. Wendy gasped. This whole thing was awkward. “Your name is Wendy Pazizi and you're a descendant of Hades. We're in the Underworld and you just accidentally drank from the River Lethe. Your memory might come back, but it'll take some time.” Could I feel a flicker of Wendy's memories? No. Just the eerie green magic she'd inherited from our new enemy.
What if she didn't recover?
“My memory,” Wendy said, each word rising in pitch. “Who are you?” She looked at me to Ronin and then to Maria, Mikey, and Cal. “What's going on and why are we in the Underworld? And why would I be stupid enough to dive into the River Lethe?”
“Well, there's some trace of Wendy still there,” Ronin said.
“We need to move,” Cal added. He tugged on Mikey's sleeve.
Wendy glowered at me. Yeah, her personality was still there, but her memories were gone or mostly gone. “Because Hades got angry over me stealing his powers and wanted to mow us down in his chariot? We needed water from this river to trick the immortals into letting you and me transfer to Olympian Academy. The cool school. Look, I'll explain as we go.” Wendy was raising an eyebrow at me. We didn't have time for this. “The thing is, we need you to pick as many of these white flowers as you can. I'll explain that later, too.”
“And here's your sword,” Maria said, handing Wendy her weapon. "If we were your enemies, we wouldn't do this."
I let go of her and backed off. What was Maria thinking? Wendy took it and smiled. “I might not know what's going on, but this feels right. I remember something about birthright weapons, so I guess this is mine, huh? It's weird.”
Well, at least she hadn't killed us.
“She must not have drank much of the water,” Maria said.
What was the damage, though, and was it permanent? “The flowers,” I said. “Pick a bunch. Stuff them into every pocket you have. The rest of us can't touch them.”
“But who are you?” Wendy asked, insistent. She put her hands on her hips and glared. It was clear. She was not moving without an answer.
I gulped. “We're your friends.”
* * * * *
The last of the Lethe water evaporated off our clothes as we walked along the riverbank and past the chasm that was busy swallowing the river. As we walked across the meadow, Wendy brandished her sword, and even after the memory wipe, she still seemed to know, by instinct, what led to what in the Underworld. That part might never be able to leave her. The spirits still parted in her presence, and every time I looked behind me, the river tunnel got more obscure in the greenish, thin fog. Better yet, the palace wasn't visible from this corner of the Underworld. Hades would have to take the long way around.
Wendy still walked in the front. “Whatever happened, I still know how to get out of here,” she assured us. “This sword is awesome. I know where to go when I hold it.”
“So do I,” I muttered.
“I might have forgotten everything else,” Wendy said, “and I might not trust you guys to fill me in correctly, but I will get us out of here. Oh. And this.” Wendy snapped a cluster of asphodel flowers off a nearby plant, grimaced, and tucked them in her pocket. “I'll collect them as we go, so long as you fill in all the details you can. Every detail I'm happy with equals another flower.”
“Deal,” Ronin said.
“Not a bad one, either,” Maria grumbled. She dodged another asphodel plant. We exchanged glances. Anger still burned in Maria's eyes. Wendy hadn't been kind with her last deal.
“You're top of the Cursed Academy second years' class,” I said.
Wendy plucked another small branch of flowers, pulling them off one by one and tucking them in her other pocket. “I am?”
“Yes.” Ronin pushed out the word. “You have a friend named Serena, too, who turned out to be jealous and possessive. Your other friend Duncan went off and joined the Lower Order at the end of last year. So you came to us when you got mad at them.”
No flowers. Wendy walked backwards and glowered. Behind her, the River Styx, inky as ever, maintained its silent flow. We had already reached the edge of the Underworld and we needed more of the flowers. I wasn't sure how potent they'd be once we got them out of the Underworld.
“And you did awesome fighting Dominique, the leader of the Lower Order, last year,” Mikey said. He glared at me as if to thank me for this exercise in torture.
Well, it earned us several more of the flowers. As Wendy picked them, the white, ghostly glow they gave off dulled. This was an exercise in torture, but it would be worth it in the end. Right?
Ronin pulled me close as Cal and Mikey took over singing their praises (not literally) to Wendy. Yes, you're top of the class. No, you're not dating Percival. And he's ugly anyway. Oh, and watch out for your parents. Think of the scariest sports parent ever, add dark magic, and you have them.
We reached the broken rock bridge that spanned across the river into thickening fog. Wendy stared across as if trying to sense the opposite shore, and after several minutes, she waved us across. Her pockets were now bulging with asphodel flowers. “Thank you for the warnings.”
My jaw dropped. Ronin just grinned. I could read what he wanted to say. You gave a seriously hot guy old man hands by mistake.
I shook my head. This situation was uneasy enough. But maybe, just maybe, we could be honest one day. Or she'd remember everything on her own.
Chapter Twenty-One
Turned out Ronin had borrowed a car from Olympian Academy, too, and parked it behind Gramp's Convenience Store. He and my friends had left the school as soon as I sent the laundry text and beat me here.
It was dark when we all climbed back into the store, and I had to scramble to find the flashlight I'd stuffed in my pocket, but it had fallen out during our horror ride down the River Lethe. Ronin pulled me close as he looked outside, but the night was cool with the stars overhead.
Cal looked at his phone as we stepped outside into fresh air, kicking at the dirt parking lot. Amazingly, it still worked. Mikey, still beside him, stretched and yawned. And Cal swore.
"It's early Sunday."
Maria whirled on him. "Early Sunday? We couldn't have been down there more than a few hours."
"And how did our phones survive the river?" Mikey asked.
"That wasn't normal water," Ronin told them.
My own jaw dropped and I looked to Wendy for the answer to the mystery. And to my shock, she had one.
"The Underworld doesn't work the way our world does. I just know that. Time and distance are both weird."
"How much do you remember now?" I asked, heart thudding.
"Oh, I can feel that I'm a descendant of Hades. Brings back a tickle of memory." Wendy dug her sword into the ground for a bit. "Did we get to meet him?"
I sucked in a breath, not wanting to crush her hope. Ronin curled his fingers into my ribs.
"Yes, but he was in a bad mood because he didn't want to let us through to Elysium," I said, not wanting to lie anymore. I'd done enough of that lately. "I had to steal his powers and open the doorway myself. And then he tried to mow us down in his chariot."
Wendy grinned. "That's Hades for you. So, this school we go to. Tell me about it."
"Schools," Ronin said. "We'll explain on the way back. Giselle, you should probably drive the other car since Wendy doesn't know where she's going anymore." He let go of me. "You know the way back, since you've seen it tons of times."
Gulp. Serena's nasty power was gone, right? "I'll drive. But can we take a way that's not the expressway?"
"Sure. I know one." Ronin winked. "We'll stay on country roads. Follow me. And no one is out. Remember, the police don't pull over Olympian
Academy cars."
"Are we all that level of badass?" Wendy asked. She was getting more and more piqued the longer we stood here and talked.
"You can say that." Ronin offered a curt nod.
I'd have the job of explaining things to Wendy on the way back: how the sortings worked, how the structure worked, who to avoid. Maria walked to the first Mercedes with me and we got in, her in the back and Wendy in the front passenger seat. The seating arrangement didn't feel right, but at least I had Maria with me. And yes, she was still looking fine.
"Thought I'd lost my pass in the river," Maria said, rubbing her forehead. "Guess I didn't. It's in my pocket and the ink didn't even run." She finished by putting the backpack down on the floor of the car, just behind me.
A faint wisp of Lethe vapor curled out.
"No," I said. She was, of course, carrying the bottle.
"The backpack's zipped and the lid is on tight," Maria said. "We'll get this water back with us. With luck, we'll find a way to feed it to Prometheus before the year is over."
"Good luck," I said.
"The titan?" Wendy asked. "He's at this Cursed Academy?"
Sigh. Stupid Lethe water. "Do you remember anything about him?"
"Just that he's a titan."
"Well, that's a start," I said, pressing the button to start the car. Yeah, the Mercedes had one of those fancy buttons instead of an ignition like every vehicle in Colton Corners still had.
And Cal was right. It was Sunday. The computer screen said so when I started the car. The drive back to Academy seemed to take forever, and as we drove, following Ronin, Maria and I took turns explaining how the classes worked and getting Wendy up to speed on her own schedule. She nodded and didn't speak much. Maria and I were her only links to her old life, at least until she got back to her parents, Percival, and Serena.
We'd have another problem then.
The campus was dark and dead when we pulled through the automatic gates. I turned the headlights off after a desperate attempt to figure out what the heck to do in this spaceship. But finally it worked and I pulled the car up quietly to the front gates, sheltering behind the tinted windows, just waiting for Prometheus to step out of the building. At least his house was in the far back of the campus.
"The guards are still there," Maria said. "But they're used to seeing people come and go super late, especially on the weekends, from what Ted has said."
"And they're werewolves," Wendy recited as if trying to wrap her head around what we'd just told her.
"Don't worry. They don't attack people," Maria said.
"They couldn't even stop a gang of nasty girls from getting into our dorm," I grumbled. "Trust me, you don't want to remember that."
"And what's this Lower Order you were talking about? And do people really turn into monsters during their fourth year?"
Maria tapped on Wendy's shoulder from behind. "We'll talk some more once we're inside. Ronin's going to take this car away. I think we all need to go to bed and rest."
"And Wendy," I said. "Keep those flowers somewhere safe. Don't let Serena see them, or she'll know you were hanging out with other people this weekend and she might steal them from us. Then none of us are getting over to Olympian Academy."
"I can see why you don't consider this the cool school," Wendy said, peering at the morbid front entrance. "The taste isn't bad, but you can tell this place got the shaft. And no, I won't tell anyone about our new project."
* * * * *
On the surface, things seemed to go back to normal.
Wendy hung out with Serena and Percival again, but she seemed ready when they both caught her in the lunch line Monday morning. We'd prepared her for what was to come and warned her that Serena would be watching her at all times. Wendy emerged from the lunch line with a glare, which sent a ripple of dread over the students in the rest of the dining hall. Serena and Percival trailed just behind her like parasites. One of the fourth years, a Siren girl with bluish skin who had matured just a few weeks before, flinched. Yeah, Wendy was sending off some bad vibes.
And exams were creeping ever closer. Once June started, I started to worry about this whole golem thing. The last time I'd fought one, I had made it crumble from the inside out, and now that I was closer to maturity, fighting one designed to bring out our full magic would end in disaster unless I connected with Wendy again. But Serena hung on her like glue, and she didn't seem to get that Wendy didn't want anything to do with her anymore. Maybe a bit of the possessed Cerberus memory had stayed with Wendy after all. Every time I saw her with Serena, who chatted her up constantly, Wendy had an irritated glint in her eyes.
"Wendy doesn't seem to be recovering yet," Maria said at lunch the day before exams. Since it was Thursday, we were all getting scared, and not just because of exams, but because of the end of the year. If we didn't talk to Wendy again and get that herb, then we were all facing problems when we left campus. Maria's pass wouldn't work again and Mikey and Cal couldn't stay glued to each other all the time.
And no matter what happened, when I came back next year, Prometheus would expect a full immortal. And I had to find a way around that. And we hadn't even seen Prometheus anywhere, let alone been able to slip him the Lethe water now under Maria's bed. He was up to something.
Ronin appeared in Combat Training that day to help set up for finals tomorrow. Already a mock fort had been constructed on one side of the arena for the Strategy kids and a round arena was set up for us Magical Meditation people on the other end. It was clear we'd probably go one by one fighting a golem. Those generally weren't teamwork battles.
Today, Ronin didn't bother flexing his muscles or showing off. Tense lines had reappeared around his eyes and I was sure his depression was coming back. As usual, Maria, Mikey, and I were the first people to arrive at Combat Training. The other second years were finishing lunch.
"I know this is eating you," I told Ronin.
"It's that obvious."
"Says the guy who tossed Cerberus into the river," I reminded him.
Ronin took my shoulders, massaging them while Maria sighed behind me.
"Hey. You make out with Ted," I said to her. "I think Ronin can rub my shoulders."
"Not in public. You lovebirds."
Ronin snorted. "I'm going to distract Serena tonight so you can talk to Wendy and get that herb. We all have the end of year dance on Saturday, and they've changed the location this year to another rec center in the city. That means we'll all have to go way off campus. Prometheus is going to be there, expecting you to mature by then. You're getting close to a tipping point, Giselle." Ronin trailed his gaze down my body, but not in a checking me out type of way. Besides, I was in my robe, and those weren't good for showing off your figure. "We're figuring something out to help you escape for the summer yet again."
"How are you going to distract Serena?" I asked.
Ronin kissed me, right there in front of Maria and Mikey. He tangled his hand in my hair, pulling me close, and even Maria's mock gag couldn't stop me from getting swept away in it.
When we came up for breath, Ronin released me, and I didn't like the way he did. It was as if he was about to sneeze and didn't want me caught in the spray.
"I'm going to ask Serena out on a date."
Tension seized my muscles. "What?"
Ronin held up his hands. "It won't be real. If anyone deserves to get screwed with, it's her. I know this is something a real douche would do, but hey, it's Serena. It would get her away from Wendy long enough for you to see what she's doing. Trust me, I won't even hold her hand."
* * * * *
I knew Ronin had no feelings for Serena but disgust, and I wondered how he'd get her to believe he was asking her out on anything other than a major jerk prank. But Ronin insisted the guys of Olympian had a reputation for getting any girls they wanted, and Serena, if she was sticking around Wendy all the time, probably wanted to immerse herself in Olympian as much as Wendy did. But the thought of Ronin even lifti
ng an eyebrow at Serena sickened me.
So I tried to put the thought out of my mind as I walked to Wendy's dorm that night, which Maria said was on the second floor, fifth door from the stairway on the left.
I knocked.
And Wendy answered immediately.
I hadn't seen her up this close in days, but she sighed in relief when she saw me. "Wow, you're right about a bunch of things. Apparently I have money, and Serena's been all over me, trying to get it. I hope my old self realized that, too."
That explained all the shopping trips. Serena was a gold digger. That increased the chances of Ronin's success tenfold.
"The herb," I said. "My friends need it by Saturday and I need it, too. Has the potency gone down?"
Wendy motioned for me to step out of the way. "Follow me. I was hoping you'd find me tonight. I was getting worried."
She closed her dorm room door, but before she did, I glimpsed black bed sheets and skull lights. Any goth would die over Wendy's room. But we weren't here to talk about her choice in decor.
"Any memories come back yet?" I asked as Wendy led me out the back door of the girls' dorm building.
"Maybe a couple, but it's coming back really slow," Wendy said, staring ahead into the night. "I remember, well, it's weird and might not even be real. I was holding my sword and it got swallowed up by a black hole. Gotta be a false memory because my sword is still here."
Sweat formed on the back of my neck. "That is weird."
"Well, I don't want to ask Serena or that Percival about it. I get the sense they're liars." Wendy waved me off the normal gravel trail, in the direction of the maintenance trail. We crossed, pushing through pines, and into the woods beyond. "Don't tell anyone about this. I tried the herb myself, and just a tiny amount dulled my powers down for a full day. I could barely use any magic. So it should work if you're worried about finals tomorrow."
Relief exploded in me. "Mikey needs it, too. Last year he bit someone."