by S. L. Stacy
“No!” I pull her hand. She staggers forward. “You get down!”
“It’s so much fun up here! I feel so…free!” She shakes my hand off of hers and reaches past me to grab a shot off a tray someone is passing around. Kicking her head back, she drains it quickly.
I crawl up on the table and wrestle the empty shot glass out of her hand. “Stop it! This isn’t you! We’re getting down. Now.”
Pouting, Anna lets me help her off the table. As she places her second foot on the floor, it slips out from under her, and she falls on her butt. She braces herself on me as she stands back up, her body convulsing with laughter.
“Come on. I’m taking you home.” She leans on me as I walk her toward the front door. On the way, we almost collide with Carly and, to my surprise, Max, walking in the opposite direction. The arm I have around Anna to steady her tenses—this is the worst possible moment for a confrontation with Max—but there’s an urgency in his eyes as he looks sideways at Carly, barely seeming to notice me.
“I’m going to take this one home,” I tell Carly, gesturing to Anna. “You’ll be okay?” I look between her and Max again
Carly nods. “We’re just going down to find Alec. I guess…I guess he feels really bad about earlier.”
Sometimes Carly’s naiveté makes me want to slap her. “Then he can get his ass over here and talk to you.”
“He doesn’t know I’m here,” she says. “Max said he’s been sulking all evening, and I just…I hate to leave things like we did.”
“Fine,” I say, more stiffly than I mean to—partly because Anna is starting to feel heavy as she leans on me. “I’ll see you back at the house.”
“’Bye!” Carly gives me a little wave as she and Max head into the basement.
“How did you get here?” I ask Anna once we’re outside.
“I drove.”
“Where did you park?”
“Over there.” She points to where her yellow pickup truck is parked next to the curb, a few inches away from a fire hydrant. I walk over slowly, Anna stumbling along beside me.
“Keys,” I demand. Anna plunks her car keys into my outstretched hand. “You’re lucky you didn’t get a ticket.” I open the passenger’s side door, and she throws herself inside. I walk around and get behind the wheel. The truck growls to life, and I coast it down the driveway.
I drive just under the speed limit, unused to driving something so big and bulky. Anna slouches in her seat, eyes closed, humming to herself. To my relief, I find a parking spot in front of Anna’s house that’s easy to pull into. I turn the truck off, and Anna stirs. We open our doors at the same time, Anna almost falling out of hers onto the pavement.
“Thanks for driving,” Anna says, tripping up the porch steps behind me. “Although we could have stayed longer.”
“It was time to go,” I insist. “You were acting like an idiot.”
“I was just having fun!” She fumbles her house keys as she opens the front door.
“You won’t feel that way in the morning.” I go into their kitchen, flip on the ceiling light and take two clean glasses out of the drying rack. Anna plops down at the kitchen table while I fill the glasses with water.
“Here, drink some—” Clutching a glass in both hands, I freeze on my way over to the table, watching as Anna squeezes a drop from an eyedropper onto her tongue. “Stop that.” I slam the glasses down, making Anna jump. Walking around the table, I grab her arm and rip the eyedropper out of her hand. I swipe the bottle from the table and screw the lid back on. “You don’t need this.”
“Hey!” She stands up, stretching her hand toward the bottle of ambrosia. I hold it just out of her reach. “That’s mine. Give it back!”
“I know you’re done transitioning. You don’t need it!”
“I do, too!”
“It’s an extract from an alien fruit, Anna! You don’t know what will happen to you if you keep taking it!”
“It makes me feel better!” Anna lunges for the bottle, digging her nails into my forearm. I twist, trying to tear myself out of her grip, and the bottle slips from my fingers. It shatters on the floor, clear liquid tinged a slight gold spilling onto the tiles.
“No. No!” Hazel eyes gaping at the quickly spreading puddle, Anna gets on her hands and knees. She lowers her head to the floor, pink tongue poised between her lips.
“Oh, my God.” I dive for her, seizing her shoulders to keep her from licking the ambrosia off the floor. “Don’t do that. Stop it. Please. Stop.”
“Let go of me!” Anna shrieks, trying to pull away. I hold onto her as tightly as I can, feeling like a monkey trying to restrain an angry giraffe. Footsteps sound on the stairs, and someone rushes into the kitchen.
“Bloody hell!” Peter shouts. “What’s going on in here?”
“Help me!” I beg him. “Take her!” I release Anna and shove her toward Peter, who wraps his arms around her. His blonde hair is ruffled, his blue eyes wide with panic.
“She broke it,” Anna moans into his chest. “It’s all gone. It’s all gone.”
“It’s okay, love.” Peter sits back on the floor, rocking her gently and stroking her hair.
“I found her dancing on a table at a party, so I brought her home,” I say.
“Good call.”
“She started taking some ambrosia. I took the bottle away from her, and when she tried to get it back, it fell and broke. I don’t know what she’s thinking. She doesn’t need that stuff.”
“I know. I know,” Peter whispers soothingly into Anna’s hair. Her sobs diminish into soft, shuddering whimpers. “I think you should probably go,” Peter says, looking back up at me. “I’ve got it from here. Thanks for bringing her home.”
“Of course. She’s my friend.”
Peter stands up, scooping Anna into his arms and carrying her into the living room. He turns to start up the stairs as I head toward the front door. Now that Anna’s cries have subsided, I can hear a rhythmic squeaking in the background, the ceiling above our heads rattling. Distant exclamations of passion ring throughout the old house.
“It’s not what you think,” Peter says quickly, pausing at the foot of the stairs with Anna lying limply in his arms.
I scowl at the ceiling. “Oh, so Jimmy doesn’t have a girl up there.”
“Okay, so it’s exactly what you think. But it’s not anyone special. It doesn’t mean anything.”
“Whatever. I don’t give a crap.” I shake my head and open the front door. “It’s not like I’m his girlfriend. I’m not sure I’m even his friend. Let me know how she is tomorrow.” I make sure to slam the door as loudly as possible behind me.
I walk home, hands in my pockets, the cool night air raising goose bumps on my bare arms. It’s about a twenty minute walk from Anna’s house back to campus. Either there’s a new moon or it’s cloudy tonight. The sky is starless, black, impenetrable. I glance behind me continually all the way home, heart thumping in my chest. It only calms when I ascend the hill up to the Greek Quad.
As I approach the house, I see movement out of the corner of my eye and look back at the trees guarding the park beyond. A dark figure walks briskly over the path, coat collar popped, head bent. It stops like it senses my gaze but doesn’t turn around. I don’t know how long we’re both frozen, the shadow hovering between the lawn and the line of trees, me watching it, heart pounding again. Finally, the person picks up his or her pace again and disappears through the dark evergreens.
Unable to make my legs work, I continue staring at the now vacant yard for several minutes before I finally emerge from my daze. Shaking myself, I turn and swipe my card key through the lock, slipping inside the house. Maybe it was just some lingering effect of Apate’s illusion. The walk back over alone in the dark, minutes before midnight, unnerved me.
There was probably no one there.
Chapter 11
“Rise and shine.”
Something soft hits me in the head, making a muffled whap sound upon
impact.
“Ow.” I remove Tanya’s pillow from my face and throw it back in the direction of her bed.
“Big needs us,” Tanya says.
“But I’m still tired.”
“It’s ten o’clock.”
I sit up, rubbing my eyes and blinking as they adjust to the sunlight streaming through the window. Throwing back the sheets, I slide from the bed, the floorboards cold under my bare feet. “How was the rest of the party?”
Tanya sits cross-legged on top of her quilt, typing away on her laptop. “Pretty dull. I left soon after you did, I think. You and Carly both left me.” She pouts.
“I know. Sorry. My friend Anna was really drunk. I took her home.”
“Is she going to be okay?”
I cringe, recalling how desperately Anna wailed in Peter’s arms. “I think so.”
Closing her laptop, Tanya gets up and motions for me to follow her. She’s still in her plaid pajama shorts and tank top. “Come on. You can shower and stuff later. Victoria’s called an emergency meeting.”
We walk across the hall to Victoria and Carly’s room. Tanya raps on the door.
“It’s open!” Victoria calls.
When we plod inside, the first person I notice is Apate, kicked back in Carly’s desk chair.
“What is she doing here?” I ask, gritting my teeth.
“I thought we could have a girls’ day,” Apate says, grinning like the Cheshire Cat. “You know—go to the spa, get manicures, do a little shopping.”
“We need her help,” Victoria says. She’s sitting at her desk, looking at her phone. “Carly is apparently with Alec. I don’t care, get your butt over here, now,” Victoria mutters as her fingers fly over the keypad of her phone.
“Big, I need to see you out in the hall for a second,” I tell her, opening the door again.
“I told you she doesn’t want me here,” Apate says, crossing her arms.
“And for a good reason,” Victoria says. “Look, Siobhan, I know you and Apate haven’t exactly gotten along—”
“She made me think I was going insane!” I cry out.
“—but you can’t take it personally.”
“I c-can’t take it personally. How am I supposed to take it?”
“She was just having fun. The only way she knows how. The thing is…we could really use her help right now.”
“I don’t trust her.”
“Me neither!” Tanya puts in, giving Apate a withering stare. Only my roommate’s look of derision could rival Apate’s.
“I’m right here,” Apate grumbles.
“In case you’ve forgotten, she’s working for Eric,” I tell Victoria. “She led their army in the attack on our formal. You told me yourself I should stay away from her. She’s a crazy bitch!”
“Still here!”
“She also helped Farrah—helped us—send Jasper back to Olympus,” Victoria says.
“Apate wasn’t—oh,” I falter, suddenly remembering Hephaestus setting fire to our living room—or at least I thought he set it ablaze. I even remember choking, sputtering as smoke poured into my invisible cage. I texted Jasper, but by the time he came to help me, all traces of the fire had vanished. Farrah must have asked Apate to produce the illusion so that I thought I was in trouble, knowing I would ask Jasper for help in my moment of panic.
“I still don’t trust her,” I mutter.
“Well, you’re going to have to. We need her.”
“For what, Big?” asks Tanya.
Victoria smirks. “To help us get back at the Alpha Rhos.”
“I thought the plan was to kill them with kindness,” I say.
“I know what I said. Obviously taking the high road isn’t working very well. We’re not going to do anything drastic—just show them we’re not going to sit back and take it. Apate can help us with that.”
“But—”
“It’s not really up for discussion. I’m telling you the plan. Just don’t tell—”
“Don’t tell Farrah,” I finish for her, rolling my eyes.
“I want her to see that I—that we can handle things on our own here while she’s away. Say you agree to the plan. Then you can go.”
I look at Tanya biting her lip, then over at Apate leaning against the wall, watching her finger as she twirls some strands of obsidian hair around it.
“Fine. I accept her help. That doesn’t mean I trust her.” I turn and push through the door. Someone catches the door as it’s swinging shut and follows me into the hall.
“I’m…sorry,” Apate says, choking a bit on the second word.
“I’m sure.” I go into my room with Apate trailing along behind me.
“I am. I’m impulsive. I do things for my own amusement, not really thinking through how it affects other people. Never really caring.” She shrugs. “But this time I do. You need my help. Well, I need yours, too. I’ll do whatever it takes.”
I turn around slowly. “What help could you possibly need from us?”
“Ares is holding my brother captive. In exchange for helping you with Jasper, Aphrodite promised to help me rescue him.”
“That’s bull, and you know it. Farrah didn’t know anything about your brother being in trouble.”
“Of course she did,” Apate says. “What, you think she tells you guys everything?”
“I…I guess not,” I concede, wondering what other secrets Farrah’s been keeping from us.
“I have no real loyalty to Ares,” Apate continues. “I just want my brother back.”
“If you aren’t loyal to Eric, then why are you still wearing that?” I ask, eyeing the gold shield gleaming at her throat. I had forgotten about Carly’s necklace, still in the pocket of the jeans I wore last night.
“What, this piece of junk?” Apate reaches back to unclasp it and lets the chain curl up in her palm. “I just wear it for show. He needs to at least think I’m on his side.” Her yellow-green eyes study my face. “You don’t believe me.”
“Can you blame me?”
“No. I’m a terrible person. Even my own mother thought so.” She walks over to my desk chair and sits down.
“Please. Make yourself comfortable.” I sit on my bed. “She kept you locked up or something,” I say, recalling Lou’s comment.
“My parents are two of the oldest Olympians: Nyx and Erebos. They live in the coldest region of Olympus, where it’s dark for most of the year. That’s where my siblings and I were born. I don’t really know what she was expecting,” Apate says almost to herself. “Of course the union of night and darkness would spawn a bunch of little monsters.
“Everything was fine when we were very young. Our home was isolated, but we had each other to play with, and we had hyperactive imaginations—especially me and Dolos. But sometimes, even with nine of us running around, we got lonely living in such a dark, cold place. My mother felt the isolation, too. She would sit and look out at the snow and the ice and the perpetual night for hours at a time. She looked sad. I wanted to make her feel better—I wanted her to be happy. So during one of her episodes, I remembered a beautiful beach we had seen when we were visiting family in the South. I made her see it, too.
“I remember her standing up, walking to the window pane and looking in awe at the tranquil, blue ocean, the warm, white sand and the orange sun blazing high in a cloudless sky. She smiled—and she rarely smiled—tears of joy glistening in her dark eyes. I wanted to hold the illusion forever, but I was young and couldn’t control it. When the water and the beach disappeared, she was confused at first. I saw her back and shoulders stiffen, and she turned around, slowly, to find me standing there, beaming up at her. I was sure she would hug me, tell me how thankful she was for the vision. Instead, her face filled with such…hatred. Such disgust. She called me and my sisters and brothers abominations and locked us away in an even darker, emptier place. She left us there to suffer.”
A chill slithers down my spine. “I—I don’t know what to say. That’s horrible. I’m so
rry.”
“My siblings are everything to me.” Apate hasn’t shed a tear, but a fierce desperation smolders in her eyes. “We only have each other in this life. Dolos needs me, and I will make Ares pay for what he’s done to my brother. But first, I need to rescue him.
“I know you don’t trust me—and you shouldn’t. I am loyal only to my sisters and brothers. Nike knows that. But I am desperate. I need this arrangement, and I promise that I will hold up my end of the bargain and help you with the Alpha Rhos if you will help me get my brother back.” Apate gets up and comes over to me, sticking out her hand. “Do we have a deal?”
I look at her pale hand for a moment, at the fingernails painted with glittery black polish. Taking a deep breath, I clasp her hand, giving it a short, stiff shake.
“We have a deal.”
***
“Ten minutes!” Tanya yells. We tumble around the living room like a bunch of confused cattle, Tanya haphazardly herding us into formation. I check out my white eyelet skirt and sleeveless mint green blouse in the bathroom mirror before taking my place in line. Almost immediately, Victoria pulls me out, cheeks flaring out like an angry puffer fish.
“Go across the way and get Carly.” Spit splatters my cheek as she whispers angrily in my ear. “I can’t believe she didn’t come back. This is so not like her. Be quick.”
Nodding, I scurry out the front door, my gold high heels scraping against the sidewalk. The rushees are congregated outside of the sorority houses, and a few heads turn toward me as I rush up to the Sigma Iota house. I call Alec in transit.
Alec answers after two rings. “Hello?”
“It’s Siobhan. I’m downstairs.”
“Hey,” Alec says a few seconds later, his huge frame filling up the doorway. “What’s up?”
I lift up on my toes, trying to see past him. He doesn’t move. “Carly better be behind you. Our first party starts in five minutes!”
“Carly’s not here. You mean she’s not with you?”
“No! She texted Victoria and said she was with you!”
“We broke up.” He says it mechanically, not sounding the least bit remorseful, like he did when he begged me to get the necklace from Carly. His black eyes are a little glassy and can’t fully focus on me.