Up close, she saw that there were tiny yellow and blue spots in his green eyes and that his face was covered in freckles. He had pulled back his blond dreads and although his features were a little too sharp for her taste there was no malice in his eyes. He asked her about Hector, for which Cassandra was thankful, and after they had exchanged a few words, he led her towards Alexander’s room by his arm and Cassandra couldn’t help but stare at the deep, ugly impressions the hydra’s poison had left on his skin.
“I never got to thank you, not really”, she started but River waved her off.
“Don’t mention it”, he said and meant it. “It’s what we are here for, isn’t it? And you showed real bravery in there. Anyone else would have dropped their weapons and run away screaming but you fought that thing. That was pretty cool.”
She smiled and felt herself relax a little. His voice was dragging her along, inviting her to enjoy a warm summer evening at the beach, listening to the sounds of the sea. Cassandra took a step back, blushing slightly.
“Hope we are not interrupting something”, Sol, who had suddenly appeared beside them, said and Beatrix beside him giggled.
Sol was dressed all in red and Beatrix, looking beautiful as usual, stretched out her arms and kissed Cassandra twice on the cheek just like River had.
“I always said there was something to be done with that smoking hot body of yours”, she piped. “I wish I could wear something like that but it only makes me look fat, don’t you think, dear?”
Before Cassandra could reply something to that, Sol embraced her with verve and swirled her around, professing his deepest, undying love for her. River laughed.
“You are quite something, Unclaimed”, he said when he put Beatrix down again. “The way you handled that hydra” – here he did some slashing and jumping movements to the delight of River and Beatrix – “that was impressive. I might even consider you some honest competition. Of course you’ll have to pass all of us demigods first but we have heard of stranger things happening. And Bee, darling, you’ll never look fat in anything.”
And with that he kissed his giggling girlfriend full on the mouth and drew her with him into Alexander’s room. Cassandra felt completely steamrolled by their playful, relaxed behavior.
It seemed like they were different people from the ones she had met in the classroom or on the training field but it didn’t seem like they were acting. They simply accepted her as part of the group, at least for the night, and she decided to go along with it. After all, there was not much to lose and maybe she could use what she would learn that night to her advantage later. She didn’t protest when River smoothly took her arm again and led her into Alexander’s room. There was a big hello and greetings and embraces as if they hadn’t seen each other for a while instead of just an hour ago during training.
Cassandra waited until everyone had said hello to Alexander and then bent down to kiss him on both cheeks like the others had and to tell him thank you for the invitation.
“It’s my pleasure”, he said and his voice seemed to caress her. “May I say that you look very nice tonight, Cassandra.”
“I do, don’t I”, Cassandra said and laughed and she liked the twinkle in his eyes.
He smiled at her but looked a little preoccupied so she left him alone and looked around to see where she could take a seat. Everyone else seemed to know exactly where to go or what to do and she felt a little lost. She nodded at Wolf, who was wearing a see-through shirt that showed off his muscles and tattoos and it seemed like he had freshly shaved off the hair at the sides again while the rest of the unruly mop hang over his eyes. He gripped at his long beard, letting the muscles play, deliberately showing his very white, sharpened teeth.
“I think we’ll spare each other the niceties”, she said to Wolf and was glad when Alexander asked her to take the place beside him, across from Wolf. “It might not end well at such close quarters.”
“For you it might not”, he said and beckoned her to come over.
Cassandra bent forward, then shrugged. Alexander stretched out his hand and she simply took it.
“I am glad you came”, he said and Cassandra smiled, feeling good, at home somehow. Then River made a whooping sound and the good feeling turned into something else when she saw the way Ben, who had just come in, was looking at her. Cassandra snatched away her hand and poured herself some water, trying to make her hands not shake too much.
The other demigods settled down as well and the stream of chatter and laughter was much louder than could be expected from such a small group. With raised voices they compared battle strategies, newly bought fighting materials and discussed Ariadne’s class on tactics from the day before. Cassandra watched it all in fascination until she realized that she should probably say something as well.
Just then, there was a knock at the door and two of the other remaining Claimed descendants came in, thanking Alexander for the invitation and excusing themselves for being late. It seemed like the last two chairs had been reserved for them and not for Arissa and Bear who didn’t seem to be coming after all.
“We kind of got lost on the way up here”, Jack, a descendant of Apollo said and smiled a derisive smile. “Unlike the Unclaimed, we seem to have trouble finding our way around here.”
Robin, a descendant of Poseidon, looked ashamed at his friend’s words while Alexander was working hard on reigning in his temper.
“Yeah, right”, Wolf said, slumping into his chair. “Why did we have to invite her again?”
River bumped into him as if by accident so that Wolf almost fell off his chair. Wolf bared his teeth but River didn’t seem impressed.
“Mind your manners”, Alexander said evenly. “All of you. Excuse my friend, Cassandra. Claimed can be a bit rude sometimes. As can demigods, apparently.”
Wolf didn’t seem much subdued by this.
“I thought I was being civil”, he growled and dug into his food. “After all she is a mere Unclaimed.”
Alexander looked ready to explode and Cassandra felt that it was on her to defuse the situation. After all, she was a guest in this house. And she also knew that Wolf’s bark was sharper than his bite.
“He is right”, Cassandra said, smiling lightly at Alexander to show that she didn’t care about Wolf’s attempts at insulting her. “But rudeness isn’t limited to Claimed and demigods which I will be glad to show you on another day. But for tonight we are all guests here. At least in this we are the same, don’t you think?”
Wolf, realizing that he was most of all insulting Alexander by his behavior, sat up a little straighter and nodded. Jack, the descendant of Apollo, seemed to want to say something but was stopped by a heavy hand falling down on his shoulder belonging to Sol who shook his head, indicating that he wouldn’t stand for any more insults from his side. Jack gritted his teeth and sat down while his companion Robin shot an insecure look towards Alexander, then carefully sat down next to Wolf who chose to ignore him.
“Just remind me again, Wolf”, Cassandra started again, reaching for some cheese. “How exactly did you and your big friend defeat this mere Unclaimed during our first meeting?”
The other demigods stopped their forks midway to their mouths.
“Right, you didn’t”, Cassandra said and stuck the cheese in her mouth.
For a moment Wolf looked like he might go at her then and there. But then he started laughing.
“You have some balls on you”, he said and took his wine to wash down any lingering bad feelings. “And technically you didn’t beat us. We never finished that little encounter.”
“Care to renew it?” Cassandra said, also reaching for the wine but her eyes never leaving Wolf’s face.
“Sure, why don’t we?” Wolf said and River clapped his hands.
“Stop that”, he said and smiled at both of them. “We all know that you are seasoned fighters and that in a fair fight, Wolf might just about stand a chance against Cassandra.”
Wolf growled and thr
ew himself on River, who had been prepared for that and easily let himself fall to the side. Wolf took River into a bear hug and they ended up rolling towards the sofa, crashing a chair and several other items in the process.
“Enough”, Alexander cried and laughed when Wolf and River eventually came back to the table grinning like little boys who had just been caught doing something they shouldn’t have.
“Sorry for breaking your favorite cup”, Wolf said, grinning broadly, while River unsuccessfully tried to get the chair to stand again but gave up eventually. Wolf simply dragged one of the other chairs to the table and sat down again.
“To us contestants”, River said and smiled at Cassandra, who nodded thanks to him.
“To the contestants”, Alexander said and toasted her as well.
Cassandra once again sipped carefully at the wine that had been served with the food but found she didn’t much care for it. The others seemed more used to it and emptied their glasses in one go. Cassandra found herself getting used to the taste after a couple of sips though and suddenly she had emptied her glass and was ready for more and immediately had her glass refilled.
They ate and drank for a while and Cassandra felt herself talk in an easy manner to everyone, even Wolf. Only Ben’s mood got darker by the minute. Soon enough Ben’s eyes had taken on a glassy look and Cassandra was pretty sure that he was purposefully drinking too much as if he was trying to forget something. But even though Wolf shot him a concerned look from time to time and Alexander more than once inquired whether he wouldn’t like to try some thing or another, they left him alone and Cassandra felt that they knew something she didn’t. River asked if anyone knew when the second of the challenges would take place and Ben raised his head but immediately went back to nursing his glass when no one seemed to know the answer to the question.
“Cassandra, tell us something about yourself”, Beatrix suddenly piped up when conversation had slowed down to a comfortable chatter because everyone was feeling pretty full. “What was it like growing up in an orphanage?”
Cassandra briefly thought that a voice coming from such a perfect mouth shouldn’t have been quite so high-pitched but she appreciated her interest until Beatrix added: “Was it very dirty? Were you very poor? Did you have more than one change of clothes? Because you still seem to be wearing the same things over and over. And was there decent food? I mean, could you even, like, shower?”
Sol lightly touched Beatrix to indicate that she was going too far but Cassandra shook her head to indicate that she didn’t mind.
“It was worse”, she said quietly and Beatrix’s eyes widened in shock. “Especially the part with the clothes. Sometimes we had to wear our shirts three days in a row.”
“You poor thing”, Beatrix said and clapped her hands on her mouth. “That borders on, you know, abuse, doesn’t it? It must have been terrible, growing up like that.”
Cassandra nodded in exaggerated agreement and Alexander beside her politely coughed into his glass and quietly told her to stop leading Beatrix on. She just wanted to tell her that they even had to share food on one plate when she realized that it would have been even crueler to tell Beatrix what it was really like in an orphanage.
“How did you manage to escape from there?” Alexander asked and suddenly Cassandra didn’t feel like holding back anymore.
“I am not sure I will ever truly escape that place”, Cassandra said, biting her lip. “We found a way to educate ourselves and we managed to trick our father into letting us take part in the entrance tests and when we got admitted, he didn’t have a choice but to let us go.”
She remembered how their father had punished them for tricking him but in the end it hadn’t mattered. They had left and they would never go back, not on his terms anyway.
“What about the ones you had to leave behind?” Ben said and his voice, though slurred, hit a nerve right there.
“It’s not her fault”, Alexander said softly. “She is not responsible for them anymore.”
He put his hand on hers but she drew it back.
“No, he is right”, Cassandra said and raised her chin. “I am responsible but so are you. No one watches over Parents like mine, no one checks up on them, controls what they are doing. That should be changed, that has to be changed.”
“What about the Protectors in your area?” River asked, compassion in his voice. “They would have had the power to do something, right?”
Cassandra snorted. She remembered how some of them had come over from time to time, taken a quick look and then disappeared again and never came back.
“It can’t have been that bad”, Alexander said and Cassandra felt his words sting almost as much as Ben’s.
“Oh but it was”, Cassandra retorted sharper than she had intended, remembering the cold, the hunger, the lice, the frequent stomach bugs, the death of the little ones. They had dealt with it and they had done better than most other orphanages. Still, she felt every death was a personal failure and it hurt to think about every one they had lost.
“You and your divine fathers and mothers turn away their eyes and ears when it comes to the suffering of the less fortunate. You don’t care for the children in the orphanages, for the Unclaimed girls who are forced to sell themselves because they are not strong enough to fight and are just too different to fit in the human world. You don’t care that there is dirt and hurt in the world because you haven’t even lived in it, have you?”
She looked into the shocked faces of the others, trying to hide their embarrassment at her outburst, and Cassandra realized that she would never be part of that group.
“Thank you for inviting me”, Cassandra said and got up. “It’s time for me to go now. Think about it next time you eat from your golden plates that there are some children who don’t even have a plate to eat from.”
She knew that this was putting it a bit too harshly but she didn’t care. They lived in a world where they couldn’t even imagine what it must be like to have nothing but the clothes you are wearing and not even those really belonged to you.
She more staggered than walked towards the door and felt stupid for having a burning sensation in her eyes that wouldn’t even leave her once she was back home and lying curled up in her bed. With a hick-up and a tissue in hand, Cassandra finally felt sleep come in the early hours of the morning.
10 Trojan Wars
The morning after the feast, Cassandra felt terrible. She apparently had what was called a hangover, something she didn’t care to have ever again. After she had gotten rid of the remains of last night’s food, she still felt like she was about to die. Charlie, the resident expert for situations like that, had eventually managed to coax her out of the bathroom and into the kitchen.
Cassandra, feeling like she had been run over by a steam train, begged for something to stop the loud banging noise in her head and started to curl herself into a fetal position on the sofa until the putrid smell emanating from it made her rethink that option and she simply lay down on the floor instead. Eventually, Summer took pity on her and forced her to eat a little dry bread to settle her stomach. Then she gave her two small pills and made her drink a glass of cool water, telling her to be more careful next time.
As soon as she was able to sit straight again, Hector made her get up and go to class with him. His position was that it was her own fault and that she had to live with the consequences. So, with a still very sensitive stomach and a headache that had only slightly been reduced by Summer’s pills, Cassandra dragged herself after Hector.
Approaching the classroom panting and sweating, she took to praying to the gods that she wouldn’t embarrass herself that day by puking, or worse, fainting in front of the others. To her relief however she found that the fresh air and the brisk pace Hector had taken to punish her helped reduce the headache to a throb and that she would be ok so long as no one offered her any food or drink or anything else for that matter.
The classroom was already packed. Cassandra winced wh
en the chattering and laughing, and worst of all, the smell of almost sixty students packed into a room too small for half of them, hit her. Hector, who felt her instinctively drawing back from all the noise, put his huge hand on her shoulder and prevented her from taking flight. Instead, he steered her towards the back rows where a few chairs were still left empty. In passing, Cassandra gave a short nod of acknowledgment to the demigods and with a slight feeling of satisfaction she noted that they didn’t look too rosy either. Beatrix and Sol greeted her with a small wave and half-smile each while River, who looked positively green, had his eyes closed and didn’t even take note of her coming in.
Ben was as pale as a sheet and had tiny beads of sweat on his forehead. He was swaying a little back and forth like he was having trouble sitting straight. Alexander kept offering him something to drink but he refused. When she passed him, Ben didn’t meet her eye, like he was ashamed. Wolf on the other hand, bared his teeth and wished her a very loud good morning. Wolf laughed when Ben groaned at that. Apparently he was the only one who didn’t suffer any repercussions from the night before.
Alexander smiled his warm smile at her and Cassandra could have sworn she instantly felt better. She wanted to tell him that she was sorry that she had left in such bad form the night before but Hector, who misunderstood her hesitation as another attempt at flight, tightened his grip almost to the point of crushing her clavicle and pushed her further to the back. Cassandra was glad that there didn’t seem to be any lingering hard feelings between them. She was sure that part of the vehemence with which she had reacted had been due to the influence of alcohol. She also still felt that she had been right in her outrage about the way the Unclaimed were treated. But it wasn’t the demigods fault, at least not yet. And maybe they would make a different choice when it was their time to be Protectors. Or maybe they wouldn’t. Only time would tell.
The Unclaimed (University of the Gods Trilogy Book 1) Page 12