Goddess Trials

by A Lonergan

  She snorted. “It was a gag gift!”

  We both wiped our faces and looked to the task at hand and immediately sobered up. Artemis finally decided to come out, and she looked as fresh as a daisy when she did so. She didn’t even look like she had been crying.

  That’s the superpower I want.

  The breeze at my back gave me a chill, but after a few moments, I got used to the fact that the dress was backless. The high collar felt foreign, even after all the appointments to get it just right. The tulle swished around my knees and made me feel like a little girl. A giddy feeling rose up from my chest, and I giggled. It was the only thing that made this event tolerable.

  Aphrodite had me sit on the bed while she fussed over my curly hair. After a few minutes, she had braids wrapped and pinned about my head, with a few beautiful curls hanging around my ears. She dug in the pockets on the side of her dress and pulled out gold, diamond stud earrings. I put them on and got up to look in the mirror.

  I didn’t recognize myself, and I supposed that was a good thing. The person that was marrying Apollo wasn’t me.

  I tried to steady my heart, but it was erratic. This was it. Perseus opened the door, and his jaw fell open.

  He seemed to get misty-eyed before he cleared his throat and held his arm out to me. “Are you ready?”

  I put my hand in the crook of his arm and let him escort me from the room. The walk to the dining hall seemed to take forever, and as we neared closer, I felt myself getting teary-eyed. I kicked my skits up with each step, not familiar with how tight the gown was around my legs. I heard the music pick up as the doors swung open.

  I had never expected something so grand. Silks and flowers hung from just about every surface. Chairs lined the way to the altar. All of them full, but not one of them sat Crawley or my family.

  I blinked back the pain and Perseus pulled me forward. Apollo stood to the right of Zeus at the head of the aisle, and his face was purely business. He didn’t even blink. I couldn’t tell what was going on in his head and it made me nervous. When I made it to him, he didn’t take my hands in his, and I didn’t know what to do with mine, so they hung limply between us.

  So beyond awkward.

  Zeus read from a little book, but I would be lying to say that I had heard what he said. I would have been lying to say that I had even listened. When it came to the “I do’s” they were just as long and drawn out like the rest.

  Just as Apollo was about to put the ring on my finger, there was a gasp across the crowd. I whipped my head up quickly, curious about the commotion.

  There stood Crawley, I knew more people had come through, but I only had eyes for him. His mouth was agape, and he started to mouth something, but before I could decipher what he was trying to say, Apollo yanked my hands forward and whispered, “hurry up!”

  Zeus seemed to drag it on longer than necessary, and that was when Apollo lost it. He let out a rawr if anger. No one moved a muscle. He looked back and forth between Crawley and I before he saw Shaskia and it seemed to break something inside of him. “I knew something was going on! I knew all of you were plotting against me! For once in my life, can’t I be happy too?”

  He sounded like a spoiled brat, but then he did the unthinkable. He pulled a dirk from his chest pocket, I held my hands up to defend myself, but he stabbed Zeus in the chest instead. “Big bad ruler. Not anymore. The Fates had been correct when they praised Jessa. Queen Jessa by my side as King Apollo!”

  I tried to get to Zeus, but Apollo unsheathed the immortal blade from the back of his suit. “Not so fast. I stabbed him through the heart, he is a dead man, whether or not you try to help him.”

  I covered my mouth in mock shock. “No, I was going to retrieve the dirk for you. There’s no reason for a weapon to be lose that could defeat you.”

  I waited for someone to make a move. Anything to distract him for a moment. No one breathed.

  He gave me a look of approval and faced the people around us, still seated but just on edge. “This is my kingdom now.”

  I couldn’t get down to the dirk fast enough, and it wasn’t long enough to get away with much or fight him with a sword. I wrapped my fingers around the pendant at my neck and prayed for anything to help me. When I yanked it free, a sword unfolded in my hands, much like the one I had wielded when we had taken Apollo’s prison except the hilt was identical to Apollo’s sword, the immortal blade.

  His eyes widened as he looked at my weapon. He let out a scream of rage and brought the sword down on me. I partied the blow by holding my sword sideways. But he was relentless and kept coming at me. I spun away from him and blocked his attacks easily, he was too angry to think his movements through.

  People surged to their feet but made no move to help. I didn’t blame them, they knew what the immortal blade was capable of. We danced around each other more, sweat starting to bead on my forehead.

  Apollo’s moves were starting to get slower and lazy, his rage clouding his judgment. I watched for his weaknesses and finally picked one up. He left his left side unprotected. As he swung up with the sword, instead of blocking I pitched forward and stabbed him through the heart. His eyes went huge as he realized what I had done. I was in just as much shock as he was. Apollo’s arm came down, and his sword still made it’s decent and missed my head by mere inches.

  It didn’t spare my arm, unfortunately, and bit into the skin on my bicep. Blood immediately spilled down my arm, onto my beautiful gown. Apollo fell to the floor as blood gurgled past his lips and all over the front of his tux. “It’s... not... possible…”

  He went still, his eyes staring at the ceiling vacantly. I rushed to Zeus’s side, people again not doing anything and just watching the scene unfold like it was a theatre production and not reality. Finally, Crawley broke through the crowd and helped me lift Zeus off of the floor. His hands gripped the blade at his chest while his eyes blinked open then closed. He spoke a few words before he went limp, “If I don’t make it, Jessa, take my place…” The god’s decree echoed around the room, for all to hear.

  “Zeus! Stay with us!” We carried him down the aisle to the exit, where Shaskia was waiting with Artemis and Aphrodite. I looked to the gods and goddesses around us. “Damn you all! You do nothing but stand there like spineless animals! I hope you all perish!” Artemis saw me looking at Apollo’s body and immediately rushed to her twin brothers side to pull his sword from his hands.

  She followed behind us wherever Shaskia was leading us. When Shaskia pushed open heavy, oak doors that lead to the most ornate bachelor pad I had ever seen, I realized that she knew precisely where Zeus lived.

  Shaskia let out a huff of air and rolled her eyes. “Don’t stand there looking like that, we all go through a destructive romance at some point in our lives. Well, most of us!”

  We laid Zeus out on the bed and Shaskia pushed us from the room. Artemis left the immortal blade by his side before she followed us out.

  Chapter 33

  Crawley

  Exhaustion pulled at all of us. Shaskia had been working relentlessly for hours, and Jessa hadn’t stopped pacing. I couldn’t tell what was going on in her and head and I so desperately wanted to wrap her up in my arms. Her arm hadn’t stopped bleeding, but she didn’t care about it. Artemis said it was probably the poison of the adamant trying to wreck through her system. Jessa’s system was a strong one though, and it was fighting it off quicker than anyone else had they taken on the immortal blade.

  Artemis was laid out on the carpet sleeping on Aphrodite’s lap, and Jessa was right across from me. I was leaning stiffly against the wall, trying to process everything that had happened.

  “Apollo is dead,” I whispered.

  Jessa stopped and looked at me with disbelief. Hades, I hardly believed it myself.

  She touched her pendant. “But my sword wasn’t an immortal blade.”

  I grabbed her hand and pulled her down to my side, her dress pooling around us. “I don’t think it has much to do
with the weapon and everything to do with you.”

  She shook her head, more curls and braids falling loose from their confines. “I don’t understand.”

  “I think it has to do with what you need. Prim’s sorceress uses old magic. There is no telling what that necklace is capable of.” I held onto her hand tightly. I didn’t want to ever let her go again.

  “Does this mean it’s all over?”

  Shaskia was the one to answer her question from Zeus’ doorway. “No, this is just the beginning. Zeus, unfortunately, didn’t make it.”

  Jessa’s face fell as she jumped to her feet. Artemis and Aphrodite both arose to their feet and frowned, but their sadness was nothing compared to Jessa’s. Her grief choked me. She flew across the small space and into the bedroom. Aphrodite hung her head, and Artemis helped her down the hall, no doubt going to spread the news of his death to everyone else. Shaskia motioned me forward, and I hesitantly stood up from my perch.

  Shaskia closed the doors behind me then clicked all the many locks into place. I gave her a confused look until I saw Zeus sitting up in bed, eating. His skin was pale and ashen, but his eyes were electric.

  His voice was soft but full of power. “I am not dead, as you can see, but I am far from healed. The dirk was made from adamant as well and took my immortality. I am vulnerable and weak in this state.” He pulled the blanket from his bare chest and showed us both the damage that had been done to him. A black line stretched across his chest, and I was confused until I realized that was the scar that the adamant poison had left behind.

  He had healed rather quickly, and I couldn’t keep myself from looking at Jessa and her wounded arm and wondered what kind of side effects she would experience from the blade.

  Jessa looked at me with confusion and fear. I could smell it in the air around us, and it hit me full force then.

  Queen Jessa will rule it all.

  The Fates had been right. We had doubted the wrong beings, apparently.

  Zeus cleared his throat and tried to sit up straighter. He winced in the struggle. Jessa was at his side in seconds, helping him.

  “What does this mean for me?” Her voice was small but held the power that I always knew she had. She knew the place that she was going to take on. I could smell her acceptance and excitement of what the future was going to hold.

  “This means that you will take my place on the throne.” He coughed and Shaskia gave him a glass of water.

  “Why me? You can’t possibly want that because of what The Fates whispered occasionally.” She touched his arm, tenderly.

  “It isn’t because of what The Fates told me, I can promise you that. It is what you have done each and every day to better yourself and the people that you will rule. It’s your courageous nature and your soft heart.” He cleared his throat. “It is everything I wish I were.”

  Chapter 34

  Jessa

  I looked down at my hands and didn’t know what to say. Zeus had just given me the best compliment I could have asked for and all I could do was shake my head at him.

  “You fought for the monsters like I have never seen anyone do, you united them, you bring a hope that I have never seen before in all my time.” He lifted my chin and forced me to look into his eyes. “And that is a very long time.”

  All I could do was nod. I could feel Crawley at my back. He kissed my head and spoke next, “The words he speaks are true.”

  I was in shock, and then I realized that Shaskia was crying in the corner.

  She looked out the spacious window that overlooked the mountains and the sky. Her words were soft, “When your mother was a baby, Artemis predicted you would end it all. She said it would be you and as you do everything and more, I don’t know how to comprehend it. You grew up right before my eyes, and I still can’t fathom the woman you have become.”

  I stood up from Zeus’ bed and went to the woman that had raised me and loved me as her own when my mother didn’t have the strength in her to do it herself. She pulled me into her strong embrace and held me close. “You are far from being ready to rule, but it will be easier as the days and years pass. It’s going to be a tough act to follow.”

  I turned back to Zeus and Crawley. “What are you going to do?”

  Zeus took a deep breath and was about to say something when Perseus burst through the doors. The locks gave away easily to his strength and pain was written all over his red face. When he took in Zeus sitting up in bed, with his black scarring visible, he collapsed to the floor. Shaskia rushed to close the doors behind him and put wards in place to keep everyone else away.

  “Hello, son,” Zeus held his hand out to Perseus, and he stood up and went to his father, hesitantly.

  “You’re not dead.” He choked back a sob.

  “And you didn’t help with that either.”

  Perseus hung his head. “No, I didn’t help because I wasn’t there. I fled from the room after I walked Jessa down the aisle. I couldn’t stomach the union. I went back to at least get drunk off of my ass when the room was complete chaos, and the only scent in the room was your blood and a nice trail of it down the white aisle.”

  Zeus nodded his head. He would know it if his son wasn’t honest.

  “Artemis told me what happened, she’s currently taking advantage of the open bar, and she’s getting pretty toasted as we speak.”

  I went to stand. “I have to tell her what is happening!” She didn’t deserve to go through her demons like this.

  Zeus held up his hands, “No, you will do no such thing.” Authority zapped through the air and stopped me in my tracks.

  Perseus looked just as confused as I was. “Don’t you want them to know you are still alive?”

  “I have wronged many people in my long existence. I have given punishments that were unjust and quite frankly, I wasn’t a good ruler or leader at all.” Zeus took a generous sip of water. “If these beings were to know that I was still alive, they would hunt me down, knowing that I am weak and will perish.”

  “What will you do?” I watched as he pulled himself from the bed.

  “I will live among the humans, maybe around the monsters and I will find a new love for the subjects.” Zeus pulled a shirt over his torn body. “Maybe if my immortality comes back, I’ll come back and relieve you of your duties.”

  Perseus frowned. “What the hell are we supposed to tell people?”

  “Do a funeral as you would any other god.” Zeus shrugged as if he didn’t care.

  “Hades is going to know that you aren’t in the underworld.” Perseus was trying his hardest to keep Zeus with us, but his efforts were useless.

  “Then tell him that you spoke to me before I died and that I wished to drink from the Lethe. I wish to forget all my sins and be renewed.” Zeus waved his arms around. “Tell him whatever you like, but the fact that I am alive. Hades will keep my secret, he owes me, but I don’t want to take my chances.”

  Zeus pulled a jacket on, and Crawley stood to help him. He held his hand up to signal that he was more than capable. “I don’t know how long it will take me to regain my immortality. I, fortunately, haven’t lost all of it, but we shall see. When it is all said and done, magic will notify the gods and goddesses around the world.” He looked at me one last time. “Don’t let Hestia out of your sight, she is a powerful ally.”

  I looked at my feet. I didn’t know how I was going to pull this off. I didn’t know the first thing about being a ruler, but I imagined that I could figure it out rather quickly. Since I didn’t have any other choice.

  Epilogue

  Jessa

  2 years later

  I leaned against Crawley’s chest and marveled in his beast rumbling against my back. He nuzzled the side of my neck affectionately. It had been years, and butterflies still took flight in my stomach.

  It had been too long since we had had a vacation. Prim danced in the town square with her little sisters and brother. The centaurs were flourishing and finally knowing true happi
ness. We had managed to take down more prisons and camps, and it seemed like a never-ending thing. But as I looked at the smiling children, I realized that everything I was doing for peace was worth it. We had been met with countless acts of violence and resistance, but we moved forward anyway. Pretty soon, the Demigods and their parents started to get a good idea of the leader I was. It had been a problematic power struggle.

  Shaskia was soon pulled into the crowd, and all the children fawned over her swollen pregnant belly. We were still trying to fathom that, but Cristoff was happy, and so was she. That was all that mattered. Shaskia had desperately needed a vacation just as much as we had. Cristoff had stayed behind, hoping for relief from her raging hormones. I didn’t blame him, I had only been with her for a few days, and it was driving me bananas.

  Crawley brushed my hair behind my ear and nipped at my earlobe. I squealed and tried to get away from his advancements. Crawley wasn’t permitted to live in Olympus, Zeus’ rule, unless we were married and after what happened at the last wedding, I knew I wasn’t ready for another one. He stayed close by though and took me out around Greece frequently. Perseus had eventually stopped with his advancements and went to stay in The Valley with many other Demigods that didn’t know their way around the world just yet or where they belonged.

  It had become a safety net for them, and I was more than thrilled to watch it do well. Crawley kissed my neck again, and I got the idea. I turned around in his lap and launched myself at him. Throwing him of the cushion to land on the hard ground.

  Cent took that moment to walk by and nudged Crawley’s head with his hoof. Cent was carrying a baby on his chest with pride. He had found his true mate just a year ago, and they hadn’t wasted any time on growing their family.

  Crawley pushed Cent’s leg away and went to stand, but music sounded the celebration was about to start. A celebration of peace, a celebration of a new rule, and a celebration of a new era.