A Curse of Gold

by Annie Sullivan

  “How . . . how about entering into a bet with me?” I try to get the words out through the pain ripping through my body. I’m surprised my skin hasn’t torn open to leak out all the poison flooding my body.

  Dionysus clasps his hands. “What are the terms?”

  My head falls back against the pillar, yet somehow not having to move any other part of my body gives me the strength to speak. “I’ll give you one chance to kill me. If you can’t, you’ll free my father from every hold the tainted gold and your curse has over him and not harm him in any other way.” A small breath rattles through my chest before wheezing out between my dried lips along with my weak words. Words I’d been practicing over and over again in my head for hours.

  Dionysus scoffs. “Look at you. You’re moments from death.”

  “Triton . . .” I pause to suck in more air. “Triton told me you only agree to bets you can win. Does that mean you can’t? That I’ve outsmarted the greatest trickster the world has ever known?” I swing my eyes up to Triton, studying his reaction.

  “Don’t bring me into this,” Triton says, rising from the table and stepping back toward the pegasus resting in the shade of the pantheon.

  “No, no, stay,” Dionysus says. “Stay and watch. The show isn’t over yet.”

  His words draw Triton back. He turns reluctantly away from the pegasus, his arms clasped behind his back. He moves back to the table and leans against Dionysus’s chair, watching to see what will happen next.

  Dionysus scratches his beard as he studies me.

  “Hurry up,” I say. “I don’t have much time left. You . . . you don’t want your friend there”—I nod toward Triton as I pause to get more air into my lungs—“to be able to hold it over you for . . . for eternity that a human girl beat you at your own game.”

  Triton scoffs. “Of course Dionysus will find a way to outsmart you. I warned you he’d done it to me countless times—and I’m a god.” He looks to Dionysus. “Go on, take the deal. Put the poor creature out of its misery, and let’s go back to watching the real fight.” He takes a grape from the platter resting by Dionysus’s seat and pops it lazily into his mouth.

  Dionysus’s eyes narrow as he looks down at me. “What are you hiding?”

  Triton sighs. “She’s got a piece of gold in her pocket. She was going to try and turn you to gold when you got close. Can we please go back to the other fight now?”

  “Triton!” I cry, the word feeling like it bleeds from my mouth. Or maybe that’s my chapped lips ripping open.

  He shrugs. “I told you it wasn’t going to work. The creatures Dionysus curses can’t use his power against him.”

  My eyes go wide as Triton advances. He wrenches me forward by Royce’s jacket, pulling me up into the air. I don’t even have the strength to fend him off. He digs around in my pocket, his hand clamping around the golden coin I’d put there—the one Triton supplied when I’d told him my plan last night.

  “No.” I try feebly to reach for the gold, but Triton discards me, letting me fall back against the pillar. I barely manage to stay on my feet, clinging to the cold marble.

  Triton juggles it in his hands, showing it off to Dionysus.

  “Don’t forget the jacket she’s wearing,” Triton adds. “Looks like there’s still one golden button left.”

  Dionysus strips the jacket away and tosses it down the stairs where I can’t reach it.

  I open my mouth to protest, but no sound comes. And when I try to lean toward the jacket, I don’t make it more than a few finger lengths.

  Dionysus looms over me, a cruel smile twisting across his face. “All right,” he says. “Now we have a deal.”

  “No,” I whimper. “No, this wasn’t how it was supposed to be. I don’t want it anymore.”

  “It’s too late.” Dionysus laughs. “You asked for a bet, and I have accepted. There is no breaking it now. A deal has been made, and a deal will be upheld.”

  There’s no shaking of hands to seal the deal. He simply turns around and grabs his staff from where it rests against his chair.

  I shake my head. No. No. No.

  “I’ll give your father your regards when I take over his kingdom.”

  I push back against the pillar as Dionysus steps toward me, but there’s nowhere to go. My eyes flash to Triton, but he makes no move to help me.

  My eyes shift back to Dionysus. He pulls back his staff and cries out something I can’t make out. Then he shoves his staff forward, releasing whatever power has built up there.

  CHAPTER 28

  I gasp as the staff comes within a handsbreadth of my stomach. But nothing happens.

  Confusion clouds Dionysus’s face. He gives his staff a shake. The grapes rattle around until one falls off and rolls away, bouncing down the steps to be crushed by a satyr’s foot.

  “This isn’t possible,” Dionysus bellows. His lips pull back in a snarl. “What kind of magic is this?”

  “I always wondered what it would feel like to hold this,” Triton says.

  Dionysus whips around.

  Triton’s there holding a staff that’s identical to the one Dionysus holds. Only the one he holds is a little taller, a little sturdier, and the grapes are plumper and don’t fall off when they sway back and forth.

  Dionysus inspects the staff in his hand. He tears at the vines, ripping them off easily. He strangles his hands around the wood until it snaps and breaks. His chest heaves and his cheeks look like deep embers. “Give me my staff.”

  Triton pulls the staff closer to his chest, holding it across his body like a shield.

  “What are you doing, Triton?” Dionysus rages.

  “What someone should’ve done centuries ago. Preventing you from ruining anyone else’s life with your tricks and lies.”

  “No one gets away with calling me a liar,” Dionysus says. He takes a step toward Triton, but I call him back.

  “I won the bet,” I say. “You have to cleanse my father of the curse you laid on him.” My lips tingle numbly, and a nasty taste floods my mouth. I bite my lips together to keep from vomiting. I just need to hold it together for a few more minutes. But I can feel my feet threatening to give out as I slip slowly down the pillar.

  Dionysus eyes nearly bulge out of his head.

  “You don’t want it getting around that you don’t honor your bets,” Triton adds.

  Slowly, Dionysus unclenches his fist. “Fine, but I’ll need my staff to uphold my end of the deal.”

  I look to Triton and nod.

  Triton tosses him the staff. Dionysus catches it midair. He raises it to the sky, shouting undecipherable words.

  A bright light shoots from the end of his staff. I close my eyes, and for the first time since I can remember, the golden aura marking the locations of each piece of my father’s cursed gold doesn’t beckon me.

  I wish I had time to visit my father and make sure Dionysus hadn’t somehow found an accidental loophole in my words. But there’s no gold signal to follow to the palace anymore.

  I open my eyes.

  Dionysus stands in front of me. “Our deal is complete. I cleansed your father, but not you, as your condition isn’t part of what I did to him. Didn’t think it all through, did you, Princess? As a result, I’ll let you suffer in your golden state for your last few moments. Because now that the deal is complete, I can kill you.”

  As a coughing fit overtakes me, liquid fire rushes through my body like an unstoppable inferno, starting at my ankle and rising straight toward my heart, and I don’t think I’ll last long enough to give him the satisfaction.

  But Dionysus pulls back his staff, readying his attack.

  My knees give out, and I stumble forward, just as Triton shouts my name and tosses me the gold coin.

  I catch it, and my hands land on Dionysus’s hands wrapped around his staff just as he cries out a curse and sends it shooting out the end of his staff.

  He instantly turns to gold.

  The light shooting out of his staff cuts
off, but not before it blasts through the pillar I’d been leaning against and straight out over the jungle, colliding with the side of the volcano, sending shards of rock flying into the sky.

  “I can’t believe it worked,” Triton says.

  “I told—I told you I wasn’t one of his creatures. He never gave me anything.” Because as soon as Triton told me that Dionysus claimed his creations couldn’t use their powers against him, it had set my mind wondering. If anyone was his match, it was someone with part of his curse inside them but not truly from him.

  But I’d never known for sure.

  I rip my hand away from Dionysus. But without something to lean on, I collapse.

  My head hits the pantheon’s stone floor and ricochets off. I don’t feel it. I don’t feel anything. My body has gone entirely numb. I couldn’t even feel the gold when I’d absorbed it from the coin.

  Triton crouches over me. “I’m going to get you to Panacea.” He tries to lift me, but I still his hand. It’s too late. “Find—Royce—” I sputter.

  The inferno inside me rages higher. Every layer of my body burns as if I swallowed lava from Dionysus’s volcano.

  My lungs sputter for air. I’m not even sure my heart is beating anymore. My body spasms, clenching inward. I curl reflexively into a ball.

  Someone clatters up the steps. It’s Hettie.

  “The few satyrs and that guy who had weapons for arms were all that remained, and they scattered as soon as she turned Dionysus.” Hettie drops to her knees next to me and pushes my shoulders back, forcing me to look at her. “Oh, Kora,” she breathes. “Don’t leave me. You have to stay. We’ll find a way to fix this.”

  I want to reach my hand up to her face, to wipe away the tears slipping down her cheeks, leaving trails in the dirt and blood caked there. But my muscles won’t respond.

  Royce dashes up behind her. I try to smile, but I can’t.

  “I’m here, Kora,” Royce says. He grasps my hand in his. “I’m here. Stay with me. Please.”

  My mouth opens. No words come out. A jolt of pain slices through me, threatening to rip me open from the inside out.

  My throat constricts. My head falls to the side as I gasp for breath.

  “Kora,” Royce says, but his words are fading. Everything’s fading. Turning a soft shade of green.

  The world shakes around me. Or maybe it comes from inside me.

  Hettie’s shouting something and pointing into the distance, but her words don’t make it through the fog in my mind.

  My eyelids are so heavy.

  I let them close.

  “Come on, Kora.” Royce shakes me awake again. He grabs his jacket from the steps and tucks it in around me.

  Phipps appears behind him. He holds up clenched fists. “I’ve got the gorgon eyes. We could turn her to stone. Would that save her?”

  “It might stop her from dying,” Hettie says.

  Rhat stares at something in the distance. “She’d be too heavy. I’m not sure we’d get her off the island in time.”

  “It’s worth trying if it saves her,” Royce says.

  Before they can come to a decision, the world shakes again. But it’s not just me. Platters on the table clink together, sending grapes and other fruit rolling across the table. Dionysus’s cup rattles off, and I brace, expecting shattered glass to spill over me.

  But the cup doesn’t break. It rolls toward me.

  The glass shimmers iridescently in the light, casting small rainbows on the floor as the sunlight hits its surface.

  That’s not what catches my attention. The crystal figures embossed on the cup do. A man with a short beard stares at me. Before I can figure out who he is, the cup shimmers. A different face appears—a woman with flowing hair, who I feel I’ve seen before.

  A memory tugs at my mind, but I’m so tired it doesn’t want to surface. Instead it swirls around in my mind like the yellow liquid that remains in the still-rolling cup.

  The cup rolls to a stop an arm’s length from my head.

  The figure changes again. The one staring straight at me can be no one other than Triton.

  A cup with portraits of the gods.

  Hebe’s cup.

  My heart leaps, sending a pulse of pain through my bones.

  What is the cup doing here?

  Dionysus and his bets! Triton had said Dionysius won something from each of the gods. It wasn’t too far to believe he could’ve won Hebe’s cup.

  I beg my arm to move toward the cup. It doesn’t budge.

  I rotate my head toward Royce. He phases in and out of focus. He and Triton are arguing about something and pointing toward the other side of the island. A sharp ringing in my ears drowns out their words.

  “Cup,” I try to say, looking toward it, but the word comes out as a gurgle.

  Royce turns back to me and grasps my cheeks, forcing me to look at him. His lips move, but the words don’t make it through the ringing. He tightens his grip as a tear slips down his cheek.

  A shadow falls over me as Lenny peers down, his brow scrunched together.

  I peer back toward the cup, but my body still refuses to move toward it.

  Lenny’s gaze follows mine toward the cup, but before I can try to think of a way to get him to reach for it, shouting erupts, barely breaking through the buzzing in my ears.

  “We’ve got to get out of here,” someone yells. “It’s about to collapse.”

  Green fog clouds my vision even more.

  I heave for breath. None comes in.

  Royce is lifting me, cradling me to his chest. But we’re not moving toward the cup. We’re moving away from it. Sunlight blinds me as we leave the pantheon behind. I jostle around as he clambers down the steps. The cup gets farther and farther out of reach, disappearing from view as feet stomp down the steps after us.

  A moment later, the ground shakes again.

  The entire pantheon sways behind us. The pillars rock before falling to pieces. The roof comes down in a loud crash, sending dust, debris, and chunks of gold into the air. Gold?

  Dionysus’s golden statue bursts into pieces as the roof caves in on top of it.

  But any joy at that thought is drowned out by the knowledge the cup was crushed too. My last hope was destroyed.

  I’d let out a sob if my body was able. Instead, it gives up. I melt against Royce, my lungs burning and my head spinning. The poison tightens around my heart, strangling it.

  Two beats.

  Thump. Thump.

  One beat.

  Thump.

  Then nothing.

  CHAPTER 29

  The odd thing about dying is that it feels like coming back to life. My entire body tingles as feeling slowly returns to my toes, then my calves, then my knees. A pleasant sensation gradually works up my body, a comfortable warmth, like waking up under soft blankets. I stretch into the feeling and take a deep breath, surprised by how easy it feels. Fresh air pumps into my body, renewing my muscles.

  I open my eyes. A flash of gold sparks through me. No, not through me—all around me. Bright light streams everywhere. It takes my eyes a few moments to adjust.

  A peaceful blue sky drifts by above me. But then dark, twisted clouds come barreling into view. Small pieces shoot out of them and fall away. They blast into the ground, sending dirt flying in all directions. The rest of the world explodes. Sounds come rushing in, overpowering my ears.

  Royce appears above me. He’s talking excitedly to someone I can’t see.

  But what’s he doing here?

  I sit up to find we’re only a few lengths from the fallen pantheon.

  “Oh, Kora,” Hettie falls down next to me, pulling me into a hug. “I thought we were going to lose you.”

  “I thought I died,” I reply hoarsely. “What happened?”

  Royce shrugs. “Lenny and Phipps nearly got crushed getting this cup out of the pantheon as it fell. But Lenny wouldn’t let him leave without it. Something about the way you were looking at it. He wouldn’t rest u
ntil you had a sip from it.” Royce holds up the crystal chalice with the ever-rotating display of faces.

  I grab it, surprised my arms respond. “It’s Hebe’s cup. Dionysus must’ve won it from her. It’s what saved me.”

  “And right now, I’m glad it did. But we can talk about Dionysus’s ill-gotten table settings later,” Hettie says. “The whole island’s about to blow.”

  Above her head, the clouds have gotten darker, taking up more and more of the sky. Over her shoulder, the volcano shoots up plumes of smoke that quickly float into the sky. I have a vague memory of Dionysus’s curse shooting past me—straight toward the volcano.

  “Can you walk?” Royce asks, once again draping his jacket over me as he and Hettie help me climb to my feet.

  My body feels so good, I could probably run, swim, somersault, or do anything I put my mind to. It’s like all my muscles have been remade. I examine my skin. There’s no trace of green veins. I hike up my pant leg. Even the bite marks from the gorgon snake have healed.

  “I knew that cup was important.” Phipps slides up to me. “But I had a backup plan just in case because I’m always thinking—always one step ahead of everyone else.” He pats his pocket where the gorgon’s eyes rest.

  I grab his hand. “Thank you. You and Lenny.” I nod toward Lenny, who raises his arm in acknowledgement.

  “Lenny understands eyes like no one else,” Phipps says.

  I stare down at the cup as the face shifts again. “Maybe if you drank from it, it would heal your arm.”

  Phipps knocks on his diamond appendage. “I think I’d like to keep it.”

  Triton stands at the back of the group with the pegasus he’d taken, the one he’d hidden the replica staff on.

  “Any idea how this works?” I ask, holding the cup up, just as his face flashes across.

  He shrugs. “I’d never seen it before. I haven’t spent much time with the other gods. I was too busy having fun with you humans.”

  I resist the urge to both smile and smack him at the same time. “Thank you,” I say, “for helping us humans and keeping up your part of the plan.” His performance back on the beach had been so convincing, I wasn’t sure if he actually had been fleeing or if he’d stick to the plan we’d come up with to find a way to switch Dionysus’s staff out for a replica.