by S. L. Stacy
She takes my hands in hers, which are cold and a little clammy to the touch. “Thank you for changing me back. I don’t think many people would have acted as selflessly as you did.”
I blush, feeling guilty about my moment of indecision. “You helped me as well,” I remind her. “Many times tonight. I’m really grateful for that.”
Smiling, she gives me a quick hug.
“My name is Alphesiboea, by the way,” she says as we pull away. “But you may call me Sib, or Sibby.”
“Well, Sib, why don’t we go upstairs and get you some real clothes to change into—ones that aren’t saturated with man sweat,” I add, smirking in Dion’s direction. He makes a face at me. “My roommate is about your size. I’m sure she wouldn’t mind if you borrowed something to wear.”
“Something comfortable,” he adds, coming over and wrapping an arm around Sib’s back. “We gotta go, you know, save the world and stuff, but you should stay here. Get your rest, after everything you’ve been through.”
I nod. “Definitely. You can even take my bed, if you want.”
Sibby looks between us, frowning. “I don’t need rest. You’re not leaving me behind. Those animals brought me over here in a box and tried to hold me captive. I want to fight.”
Dionysus has a panicked look on his face. I just grin and nod my approval. “I like her,” I tell him. “She’s coming with us.” I start up the stairs before he has a chance to argue.
***
“What…where am I?” Tanya unwinds to her feet, wrapping herself in the towel I left on the floor next to her. “What happened?”
Around us, the rest of our sorority sisters are standing up, wearing similar looks of confusion. The floor is littered with white feathers, shed during their transformations from dove back to human. Before I doled out the antidote, Moira helped me bring down a bunch of sheets and towels for them to wear until they could go upstairs and change into some real clothes. It turns out I didn’t have to worry about running out of it—there was enough antidote to go around, and even a few doses left in the vial. Once I removed the doves from their cages, most were well-behaved, sitting patiently while I attended to each of them. A few of the more rebellious ones took flight as soon as they were out of their cages, and, after I caught up with them, kept their beaks stubbornly closed until I pried them open. I could have used some help, but Moira is upstairs now, helping Sib get situated, and Dionysus has gone back to the Delta Iota Kappa house to get more weapons. Then again, I’m not sure I would have wanted any of them to see me running around like a mad woman after a bunch of rogue birds.
“You’re at the house,” I remind Tanya. “Do you remember anything at all about the last few days?” Apate and, thinking back, even Sib seemed to retain their sense of self while in animal form, and their memories after they transformed back. I don’t know if the same will hold true for Tanya and the others.
Tanya combs a hand through her blonde hair, which looks unusually greasy and stringy. “I remember being very small,” she recalls, her forehead knotting. “And everything looking much bigger than it does now.” Her brown eyes sweep the living room, coming to rest on one of the birdcages. “I felt trapped. Not just inside a cage, but inside a mind that wasn’t my own—looking out through eyes that weren’t mine, either. And someone kept feeding me this really nasty-tasting food…” She shakes her head in disgust at the memory.
“Hera gave you something that turned all of you into doves. Do you remember?” I ask the room at large. “I just gave you the antidote that changed you back.” There are a few scattered nods and murmurs of acknowledgment, although most of them still look tired and disoriented.
“What happened to you?” Tanya asks me, looking at me as though she’s seeing me—really seeing me—for the first time tonight. “You look terrible.”
“Gee, thanks,” I shoot back, but I can’t help laughing. At least she’s starting to sound like herself again.
There’s a knock at the door, and I run over to open it, letting Dionysus inside.
“Ah!” Tanya shrieks, pulling the towel more tightly around herself. “Boy on the floor! Boy on the floor!”
I roll my eyes. “Now you’re being modest?” Tanya can’t hear me above her own panicked cries, which have spread like a contagion around the room. Everyone is screaming and yelling all at once, bumping into furniture, and each other, as they rush around like scared animals. I guess the antidote hasn’t completely taken the bird out of them yet.
“It’s nothing I haven’t seen before,” Dionysus mutters, but turns his back to the room anyway and covers his ears with his hands. To me, he adds, “Do something, Carly. Make it stop!”
“I’ll try,” I tell him. “Victoria’s usually the one who does this sort of thing.” Standing on the couch, I cup my hands around my mouth. “Everybody SHUT UP!”
To my surprise, everyone comes to a stop, their screams fading. They look up at me, startled.
“I know that you’re tired and confused right now,” I say once I have their attention. “But you have to get it together. The Sigma Iotas and the rest of Eric’s army are planning to invade Olympus. Tonight. We have to stop them—before they can even open a portal. Because if they do, Olympus won’t be the only world in danger. Ours will be, too.
“I don’t have time to explain everything right now. Just go upstairs, change and grab your daggers. We have to go now.”
“But I don’t have any clothes here,” a small voice pipes up from the back of the room. I don’t recognize her, but she must be one of our pledges. I missed the rest of recruitment while I was in Pandora.
“If you don’t live in the house, just borrow clothes from someone. There’s no time to go back for anything.”
“But I’m hungry!” someone else whines.
“I’ll get some snacks ready while you’re changing. Now, go, go, go!” I motion with my arms toward the stairs, like I’m trying to herd sheep.
“You really think, after all we’ve been through, we’re just going to follow you blindly into a bloodbath?” Liz straightens up from where she was slumped against the wall, glaring at me. The last time I saw her, she ran up to me and, in a flurry of terror, tried to tear Alec’s lavalier off of my neck. In retrospect, she’d had a good reason to be worried, but we hadn’t left things on the best terms. And, as a former member of Eric’s army, she had already been on shaky ground with the sorority to begin with. “You all treated me like an outsider—like I was the enemy—”
“You were, kind of, for a while,” Tanya points out.
“—and I just spent the last however many days of my life as a fucking bird. I’m not doing anything for you, or for the sorority—for the entire fucking world, for that matter. Fuck this.” Fuming, Liz stomps up the stairs, presumably to change and pack a suitcase. I look around the room in panic, bracing myself for the mass revolt that’s sure to break out as a result of her stormy exit.
“I’m sure I speak for everyone”—Tanya casts an expectant look around the room—“when I say that I’m with you, Carly. We’re with you.”
There’s a brief but tense moment of hesitation, but then everyone else nods in unison. Tanya is the next to go upstairs, and the rest follow, talking amongst themselves in nervous but excited voices.
I hop off the couch, and Dionysus comes over to me, clapping a hand on my shoulder. “Way to go rallying the troops! You’re a natural.”
I sigh. “Yeah. A natural idiot, maybe. I don’t even know what I’m getting us into.”
“You’re Nike’s guardians,” he reminds me. “You’re defending the wall, protecting our worlds, all that good stuff.”
My chest starts to feel tight. “I don’t know if I can do this. I wish Victoria were here. And what the heck happened to Jasper? I thought he was helping us.”
“He said he was going home ‘to listen to some My Chemical Romance and brood.’ That’s a direct quote.” Dionysus pauses expectantly, waiting for me to laugh. When I don’t, he conti
nues rather sadly, “Okay, that was a joke. And a lame one, apparently. Anyway, after we were done at Playland, he told me that was the extent of his help, at least for now. He may be on okay terms with us, but that doesn’t extend to the rest of the council. He realizes he’s still a traitor in their eyes. I’m hoping though, after I tell the Elders what he did for us tonight, I’ll be able to convince them otherwise.”
I look at him questioningly. “You are?”
“Sure. Turns out he’s not such a bad guy.”
“He’s not?” Dionysus nods. “He called you fat,” I remind him.
“Water under the bridge. We sort of bonded during the fight. Jasper’s okay. And ridiculously good-looking. For a dude,” he qualifies. He clears his throat before continuing, “And as for Victoria, she’s not here, so you have to lead in her stead. We can do this. You have Godslayer,” he reminds me, gesturing to where the sword hangs from my belt, along with my dagger. “And I have this.”
He lifts up his gray fleece hoodie, flashing a leather gun holster. My eyebrows go up in question. “What?” he exclaims, replacing his sweatshirt. “I’m not really one for the whole ancient-weapons-thing. I like guns. Anyone tries to come at me, I’ll just shoot the crap out of them.”
“Okay, but will it do anything? I mean, we heal ridiculously fast. Nothing was keeping those guys at Playland down for very long.”
“My magic bullets will. Okay, they’re not magic,” he qualifies in response to the doubtful look on my face, “but they’re made out of the same metal your dagger is. It doesn’t kill them, but it will weaken them, inflict wounds that take longer to heal. But, if things start to look really bleak for us, you know what to do.” He indicates the sword again. “You have the power to stop them, for good.”
I clasp the sword hilt, pressing my fingertips along its grooved pattern. Even though it gives us a major advantage, I’m not particularly looking forward to actually using Godslayer, especially after what I saw it do to Dolos and Apate. This isn’t some mindless, zombie army we’re facing. They’re just people, some of whom I had known pretty well before they were recruited to the dark side. I mean, maybe I don’t particularly like Rae or even Brian, but do I really want to end their lives?
When the time comes, do I even have it in me?
“You know, for the god of parties and binge drinking, you’re kind of sadistic,” I tell him with a smile, trying to lighten the mood again. It seems to work for Dionysus, who lets out a loud whoop of laughter, but doesn’t seem to ward off the chill of foreboding stealing over me. “By the way, did you happen to recruit any of your fraternity brothers for the cause?”
He shakes his head. “I tried, but they were all still too drunk or passed out—or otherwise occupied, if you know what I mean.”
“I’m not sure I want to know.” I’m saved from further speculation as my sisters start coming back down. I go into the kitchen, busying myself with gathering every protein bar and other on-the-go snack I can find and passing them out.
“I think we’re all here,” Tanya tells me, snatching a strawberry pop-tart out of my hand.
“Great. Then let’s go kick some ass!” I shout, pumping my fist in the air. Instead of the frenzy of excitement I’d hoped for, everyone gapes at me, the entire room falling into silence.
Tanya furrows her brow. “Did you just say ass?”
Chapter 21
“There’s no one here.” Tanya creeps forward into the clearing, leaving the safety of the surrounding woods. She glances back at me. “Are you sure this is the right place?”
I join her, hand poised at my dagger in case I need to whip it out. But she’s right. The clearing is empty. “Pretty sure. Jasper said they were meeting here at dawn.” Well, Jasper had told me they were meeting at “some clearing,” to be exact, and I’d assumed it was here. But, looking around now, I’m starting to second-guess myself.
“Well, either he lied”—Tanya’s expression suggests she thinks this is the most likely scenario—“someone gave him bad intel or they changed the plan. In any case, we’re screwed.” Behind us, everyone breaks out into urgent, whispered conversation. Dionysus appears on my other side, scratching the back of his curly blonde hair.
“What should we do, cap’n?”
“Um, first, never call me that again,” I tell him, and he pouts in response, “and second…honestly, I have no idea. I was really banking on them being here.”
“Maybe they’re doing it back at the Sigma Iota house,” says Tanya.
I shake my head. “We would have noticed something strange going on there if they were. Besides, this is the perfect place. It’s the wee hours of the morning, in a secluded area. Where else could they have gone that’s better?”
“Well, we can’t just give up. What are we supposed to tell Farrah and Athena when they get back? ‘Oh, sorry, we would have stopped the invasion, but we weren’t sure where they were, so we went home and watched Netflix instead.’”
Dionysus shrugs. “That sounds pretty good to me.”
“Tanya, I know you’re right, but…” I sigh, giving the clearing one last scan. Above us, the full moon is fading as dawn approaches, the sky brightening to cornflower blue. The air in front of us seems to ripple in the twilight, lifting and falling like a ghostly curtain. It’s not the air, I remember suddenly, but the rift created when the Sigma Iotas brought Sib over from Titan.
“The rift.” I take a step forward, heart racing with excitement. “They went through it.” I look at Dionysus, then Tanya. I had updated her and the others about the rifts on our way here. “They’re going to infiltrate Olympus from Titan instead.”
“Titan?” Tanya’s eyebrows go up. “What’s that?”
“Another world,” I explain. “Olympus’s neighbor.” Tanya continues to stare at me, looking horrified. “Yeah, that was pretty much my reaction, too.”
“So we have to go through the rift to get to Titan.” Tanya watches the shimmer for a moment, considering it. “How? We don’t have the stones.”
“I told you. It’s like…a hole. A hole in the walls between universes. We don’t need the stones or the ritual. We can just…go on in.” And if we can go in, that means someone—or something—could come out. I keep this last thought to myself, although it doesn’t stop a chill from going through me. We’ll worry about that later. For now, I’m just thankful we have an easy way in.
“Then let’s do it.” Dionysus gestures for me and Tanya to go on ahead. “Ladies first.”
Tanya gives him a disgusted look. “You are like the worst hero ever.”
“Hey, I never claimed to be any sort of hero. Just because I’m the guy doesn’t mean I should have to go first. That’s sexist.”
“You are the one with the gun,” I point out.
“And you’re the one with Godslayer, which means you and blondie over here should go first.”
“It’s Tanya!” she says, glowering at him.
He pretends like he doesn’t hear her. “Sib and I will take up the rear so that we’ll be protected from all fronts. And so, when shit hits the fan, we can be the first ones outta there.”
Sib appears next to Dionysus, looping her arm through his. “Don’t worry—we’re not going anywhere. No matter how bad it gets.” She gives him a reprimanding look, but her features soften a moment later. “My Dion may not be the bravest—”
“Hey!”
“—or most fearless, but he has other strengths. He’s the most caring man I’ve ever met.” She pats his chest lovingly. “So sweet. So sensitive.”
His cheeks turn red. “I’m not that sensitive.”
Biting back a laugh, I turn to the others, clapping for their attention. “I think I know where they are. See that…that shimmery spot over there?” I point behind me. “They went through that rift to make the attack from another location. We’re going to follow them. Stick close together and be quiet.”
At the rift, we form two long lines, with me and Tanya in front. Remembering what
happened in Point Park, I grab her hand. “And hold on to each other so that we don’t get separated.”
“Can that happen?” someone in the back asks.
“It’s just a precaution,” I assure them, reaching back to take the hand of the pledge behind me.
“You seem different,” Tanya whispers to me while we wait for the others to link up.
I sigh. “All I said was the ‘a’ word.”
She laughs. “That’s not what I’m talking about. You must have gone through a lot tonight—and now we’re in crisis mode—but you’re so calm. So confident. It looks good on you.” I give her a grateful smile, relieved she can’t tell that, beneath my cool exterior, panic and fear are flapping around in my gut like hyperactive butterflies.
Once everyone is linked, we move as one toward the glimmering veil.
As I walk into it, I feel a familiar coldness in the air, a thinness that leaves my lungs screaming for oxygen. The sensation is over quickly, and I walk out onto a wide, jagged platform of sepia colored rock on the other side.
The others file in after us in twos, spreading out as they enter but keeping close to the wall of rock behind us. Getting on my hands and knees, I crawl carefully toward the cliff’s edge, looking out over a deep valley surrounded on all sides by more steep rock. While a new day is just beginning in Shadesburg, here the sun is setting, bathing the canyon in a fiery orange glow. A river cuts through the valley, twisting like a long, silver serpent. The scene steals my breath away, and yet I can’t take the time to enjoy it.
Because the riverbank is covered with people, dressed all in black, their backs turned to us. People clutching daggers and other vicious-looking weapons at their sides.