by Nicole Thorn
Shaking my head, I brushed my hand through her hair. “All right, we’ll keep our secrets for right now. But we shouldn’t hide them for too long. They might not be the best friends, but the six of them might be our only allies.”
She wrinkled her nose. “I don’t like how you said that.”
“Why?”
“I don’t know. Just something poking me in the back of the head, making me uncomfortable.”
I didn’t know what that meant.
Micha continued to pace around the living room, staring straight ahead. I got the feeling that he couldn’t see anything right in front of him. Considering the day that we had just had, I couldn’t blame him. Micha had been turned immortal by accident, Callie had gotten the same gift or curse, and then to find out that her friends had died and come back. It all felt like so much insanity, even for the lives that we normally lived.
I had this worry that I wouldn’t be able to handle it. The craziness of everything around us, it would eventually culminate into something that I couldn’t deal with. And what would Apollo do then? Would he walk away from me? Would he allow me to drown? Would he try to save me?
I didn’t know. But I worried. A god’s love was never enough in the end. For all the emotions that they felt, for how strongly they felt them, for the stubbornness that they made everyone suffer through, a god’s love meant nothing in the end. They would let everything they cared about drown if it meant getting what they wanted or needed.
And that scared me more than anything that Callie could hear in her head.
***
After a good night’s sleep, I’d managed to push away some of the worry and anxiety and had returned to cautiously happy. Callie would never die, and while it might’ve seemed too soon, I cared about her so much. The thought of ever losing her, it always sent me into a panic.
As for everything else, all the things that had been going on, we kind of let the worry of it go. Or I did, at least. It felt silly to worry so much about the gods when they hadn’t been acting weird. My father, especially, seemed content to keep on the way he’d been going, uncaring about everything around him. If something major happened, then wouldn’t they have acted worried?
I came downstairs the next morning with my hair sticking up, but fully dressed. Callie sat in the kitchen, eating a bowl of cereal when I walked in. I got a smile immediately. “Hey,” she said, trying to push my hair back down.
“Hi,” I said, easing into my seat as well. “What’s going on? How are you feeling?”
“Nothing and pretty great. I don’t know, it’s like I could sleep well for the first time in my life last night and I feel energized. Maybe it’s the ambrosia, maybe I’m overthinking things.” She shrugged. “But I feel awesome.”
“Good,” I said, leaning in to kiss her temple. She turned her head and lifted up so that I ended up kissing her flush on the mouth instead. I cupped her cheeks, rubbing my thumbs against the sides of her face. She felt so soft and smooth. I could’ve drowned in her and it would have felt wonderful.
We pulled apart when Micha came into the room, clearing his throat loudly. “I feel the need to remind you that I promised your mother you’d die a virgin.”
Callie frowned. “I’m immortal now.”
Micha nodded. “Yes, so wait until she comes back to bang Aster through the wall. At least then it won’t be my fault.”
I almost choked.
Callie shook her head. “I would never bang Aster through the wall. That would hurt him, and I might hit his head on a beam. I don’t want to do that.”
Micha frowned. “Okay, so he might get a few bruises, but he’s a demigod. He’d heal pretty quickly, and while I have no experience in this, sometimes it’s fun when it hurts.” He shrugged. “Not that I would know, or anything.”
“Can we stop talking about this?” I asked, squirming hard.
Callie frowned. “Aphrodite is informing me that your lying and telling you to speak the truth.”
“Why does she care?” Micha asked, rubbing his head.
Callie shrugged. “I have no idea, but you should listen to her. Pissing the gods off never ends well for those involved.”
“Or, and hear me out,” I said, “We stop talking about this altogether, Aphrodite will go away, and everything is fine again.”
Micha rolled his eyes. “Why are you so uptight?”
“I’m not uptight,” I said, indignant.
Callie rubbed my arm. “Of course, you’re not. Ignore Micha, he’s just being rude. And no, I won’t bang you through a wall. But maybe we could break a bed. That would probably be fun. Even though I’d have to buy a new bed then, and that might cause some issues with my parents. They would probably be horrified and assume things . . . ”
“Accurate things,” Micha said.
I dropped my head into my hands. I didn’t know why we had to talk about this right then.
“Well, they don’t have to know its accurate,” Callie started. “I could lie to them about what’s actually happening, and if they’re good parents, they’ll believe the lie so that none of us have to be embarrassed. Until I get knocked up.”
“Oh gods,” I said, trying desperately not to picture myself as a father. I’d be terrible at it. How did one learn how to be a good parent when they had absolutely no idea what that looked like? What did parents even do with their children? What happened when I couldn’t handle getting up in the middle of the night or when the babies kept crying or when I screwed up? Nope, didn’t want to think about it. I had this gut punch reaction in my stomach, telling me never to procreate. It would be better and safer that way.
Callie rubbed my back. “It’s okay. We’ve got like ten or fifteen years before we have to worry about it.”
I knew in her head that sounded comforting. In my head, that meant that I’d have ten years to figure out exactly how terrible a parent I’d be. I couldn’t even handle talking without freaking out.
I offered her a smile. “Ten, fifteen years. A lifetime.”
“Exactly,” Callie said.
Micha smirked, shaking his head.
I sensed her about two seconds after it would’ve been helpful. The glass doors that led to the backyard exploded outward and I launched myself at Callie about a second before that happened. I managed to protect my girlfriend from getting slaughtered by the glass, but I felt it cutting deeply in to my back. Micha cursed, unstrapping his crossbow with a practiced maneuver.
I turned around, still trying to shield Callie. She would have none of this, stepping out from behind me so that we stood side by side.
Hecate stood in the middle of all the glass. It hovered in the air around her and seemed to catch the light, making a rainbow of color across the floor. I didn’t know how that happened, but couldn’t think about it. She was the goddess of witchcraft. She could probably make a lot of things happen.
She stepped through the floating glass, brushing it aside. The goddess looked calmer then than the first time she had come by the house. “Hello,” she said smiling.
Micha launched himself at Hecate at the same time that she raised her hand. He leapt away from the first burst of magic. It slammed into the ground where he had been standing, turning the carpet into a boiling, simmering mess of goo. I didn’t even want to think about what that would have done to my friend.
Micha lifted his crossbow and shot off two arrows in quick succession. Hecate waved her hand and the arrows dropped to the ground, limp noodles now.
Callie looked all around, like she expected someone to show up. She must have called out to the gods.
No one appeared in the living room.
I pulled at the power within me, until light started to bloom from my hands. Not just light, but a blinding white heat that reminded me of the werewolf that I’d killed in my kitchen. I didn’t think I’d be able to even seriously hurt the goddess, but maybe I’d buy enough time for Micha to grab Callie and run. Which I knew he would do. He’d never ignore orders that he
had gotten from Artemis.
Hecate turned to look at me, her eyebrows raised in curiosity. Micha took his chance, launching himself straight up into the air. He had a dagger in his hand, and I couldn’t even fathom what he thought he was doing. A dagger against a goddess would’ve been like a carrot against a lion.
Hecate turned in one graceful motion, grabbed Micha by the arm while he was still in midair and then slammed him to the ground. She pulled something from her pocket, something that shimmered gold, and slammed it down on his chest. Micha blinked at the golden disk attached to his chest, and then he vanished from the room.
The goddess turned toward us, still smiling.
“Hermes,” Callie whispered.
I increased the power that I’d channeled through my hands, until the entire room had brightened. “What?” I asked, thinking desperately about how to buy Callie some time to get away and then how to make her run.
“Hermes must’ve given her those coins,” Callie said, panting.
I still didn’t get what she meant by this, nor did I have the chance to really ask. Hecate started coming forward. I tried to turn the light in my hands into a weapon. Instead of something insubstantial and dangerous in only the most meaningless ways, I hardened it with a little focus of my will. I made it so that I could cut with the light.
I swung the light around, aiming for Hecate. She grabbed one beam, and the display of power shocked me enough that I almost let go. Instead, I pressed my advantage, while Callie screamed something that I couldn’t understand. All the muscles in my arm strained while I tried to use the light as a sword.
Hecate’s power slammed into the blade, and reverberated all the way up my arms, to my shoulders. My teeth gritted together as cracks of darkness started to form in the light. It wormed its way up slowly, all the way to the hilt.
“You are a baby,” Hecate said, gripping the light harder, until I felt my power starting to wane. “Even by the standards of demigods, you are an infant. Barely alive on this world and trying to take on a goddess?”
My chest started to hurt, and I had trouble breathing.
“Where are you!” Callie shouted, and I knew she still called for the gods to help us. They either couldn’t hear because of something that Hecate had done, or because they had something more important to do.
My power shattered. I felt it all the way through my arm and chest. Pain slammed through my body, constricting my chest and sucking all the air from my lungs. I hit the ground, groaning. Callie took a step toward me, but Hecate threw a hand out and she came to a stop. Panic filled Callie’s eyes as she tried to move and found that she couldn’t.
I tried to get up, if for no other reason than to comfort Callie, but I really couldn’t breathe. My lungs wouldn’t bring in any air. Hecate knelt next to me. “In another time, I would have liked you a lot,” she whispered. “Right now, you’re just in my way.” She pulled another gold coin from her pocket and slammed it into my shoulder.
The power took hold of me instantly. The world swirled, my head lost track of everything around me, I felt dizzy. Everything went dark while I reeled, trying to find reality again.
I hit the ground, painfully. The air felt different, colder and stiffer than it had back at Callie’s house. I barely had a chance to look up and see Micha before something shot up from the ground and wrapped around my hands and then my legs, pinning me down. I couldn’t even move an inch.
Micha had been held in a similar position. He cursed, throwing his weight around, trying to break free. “Dammit!” he shouted, when all his efforts got him nowhere.
A second passed.
Then another body hit the ground.
Callie looked up, her eyes wide. She scrambled to her feet, rushing over to me and Micha.
And then Hecate appeared. She didn’t have to say anything for me to know where we had ended up.
The underworld.
CHAPTER TWENTY-SIX:
Hell From Above
Callie
MY HEART POUNDED when I realized what happened. I couldn’t catch my breath as I looked around me to see the Fields of Asphodel. Bodies stood around, all blank as they suffered silently in this nothingness. My skin tingled and prickled from the air around us. From the magic and the general sense that I did not belong. I wanted out. Everything in my head screamed to get out.
I spotted Aster and Micha on the ground. Greenery had them trapped, their wrists and legs bound against the ground. But not me. No, not the one that didn’t pose a threat. I wasn’t a demigod. I wasn’t a Hunter. I wasn’t anything but an Oracle that had gotten caught up in something much too big for her.
Hecate stood before us, calm and relaxed while the boys struggled to get free of their bonds. I stayed perfectly still, sitting up but not wanting to look like a threat. She could have killed me for a wrong move, and I didn’t want to give her an excuse.
“Now that we can speak freely,” she started, a small smile on her lips, “we have some things to talk about.”
Since she stared at me, I responded. “Would it have anything to do with the murder attempts? Because I don’t have very nice things to say about that.”
“I don’t think I need to explain myself, but I have enough respect for you to do it anyway.” I held back a scoff. “Things have changed since I tried to murder you. Namely, you becoming immortal. The Oracles have been mortal for a very, very long time now. So, this means you’ll be the one and only Oracle until the day you die, which could be thousands of years from now. Your kind never cause a fuss for the most part, so you should be all right. Not many would try to kill you.”
I swallowed, stealing a glance at Aster. He had his eyes trained on Hecate, though his struggles had come silent. He pulled at his restraints, and they didn’t give. I couldn’t imagine what kind of magic they must have had to hold a demigod.
“What changed then?” I asked. “Why is be being immortal reason enough for you to not want to kill me? I can still die, so that’s not it.”
“No, that’s not it. See, I want to be your friend now. This,” she said, gesturing to the boys, “is just a precaution. I’ll let them go soon, and none of you will suffer any damage. I didn’t bring you here to hurt you, Callie. I just needed a place where the gods wouldn’t come crashing in to ruin it.”
I couldn’t call to them now. Persephone had been there when I screamed for her, but she wouldn’t be able to set foot in the underworld until fall came again. I could have tried for Hermes, but what if that provoked Hecate into attacking? I could only buy time. If Hades found out we were down here, then he could get us out again.
“I still don’t understand,” I said. “You wanted me and Aster dead because we saw you. Then we went and let everyone know what you were doing. That doesn’t exactly spell out friendship to me.”
The woman smiled again. “I forgive you for that, because you didn’t know any better. So young. You don’t know how to play the game yet.”
“You wanna play a game?” Micha threatened as he pulled at the bindings on his wrist. “Let me go and we can play.”
Hecate waved her hand, another green/yellowish thing burst from the ground. It wrapped around his head, covering his mouth while I called out his name. She didn’t use the greenery to strangle him, but it effectively silenced Micha as the bonds pulled him closer to the ground.
“Don’t touch them!” I begged. “Just talk to me. We can do that, right?”
The goddess sighed. “I was hoping, but I really don’t like their attitude.”
“Don’t worry about them,” I said, my eyes on Aster, who watched me back. “Talk to me.”
Hecate flipped the hair out of her face, gazing around her at the people. “There are so many needlessly suffering here, and all because the gods don’t care. Most of them. It’s so cruel and unfair how they treat those who they view as beneath them, which happens to be most everyone. That needs to end.”
Her tone reminded me of a thunderstorm, making my heart skip beats agai
n. I wanted to rise to my feet, meeting her as an equal. The concept seemed too insane.
“They have all the power, the gods,” Aster said. “How do you think you can change that?”
Surprisingly, she didn’t meet his question with hostility. “The same way most injustices are righted. A fight. A war.”
My stomach roiled. “A war? With the gods? They would . . . they would slaughter everyone.”
Voices started to break through my thought, but they were old and distant. Things I’d heard too many times before, burnt into my soul. Voices that spoke of mountains and wind and things I didn’t understand at the time. I couldn’t tell if something triggered the voices, or if they’d just come when pieces to a puzzle had been handed to me. Slowly, blanks started to fill in.
“War,” I said to myself. “Suffering. Pressure. Wind. Blood.”
I covered my hands with my ears as the information built in my head. It all snapped into place, the prophecy firing off like a gunshot.
“Callie!” Aster called to me. “Breathe.”
I inhaled, opening my eyes as echoes from the gods repeated within me. They wanted something from the seers and their demigods. They always wanted something. They never did a favor unless they would get something in return. Even Aster and I, Artemis only set up as revenge.
“You’re angry,” Hecate said to me, kneeling only a few feet away. “But not at me.”
I shook my head. “Not at you.”
Another grin ate up the stoicism on her face. “Why are you angry?”
“Because . . . because they would do it,” I whispered. “They would fight in a war. They would take, they would kill, they would let die. Oh gods, do we even matter to them?”
I pressed my hand to my stomach, holding myself together. I’d heard that conversation from above. The gods knew the seers would die. They knew they would all die, and they didn’t tell any of us. They made me live with horror in my head, terrified for the days to come. No answers. No comfort. They let the eyes be torn apart in the name of getting their mountains.
“Wind, wind, wind,” I repeated, shaking my head. “I don’t want it.”