by Holly Hook
"Did Hades issue you a pass to get off campus?" I asked. "He closed the barrier I was using to get over to Olympian. That means Ronin and Cal can't get over here."
Natalia's jaw dropped. "I didn't know there was a hole, but I sensed you were finding a way out. And I heard about Ronin's new car.” A ghost of a smile formed on her lips, but she was shaking. Natalia reached for support that wasn't there. She was delaying talking about the inevitable.
“What about the passes?” I asked, hating that I sounded so high-pitched and scared. At least my voice hadn't changed yet to the intimidating level. Once I reached that point, it might be too late to change my fate.
“Oh. Yes. Hades provides them in the form of coins,” Natalia said, reaching into her pocket. “It has to be on my person for the barrier to open for me. All the staff members have them, but we've been given strict instructions not to lend them out to anyone. The penalty is an eternity in Tartarus once we die. Hades will put in a bad word to the judges of the Underworld.”
“That's not fair,” I said, heart sinking. I hated seeing Natalia like this, paling and unsure. “But everything has a loophole around here. When do you leave campus every day and go back to Olympian?”
“Usually six thirty,” she said. “Giselle, I don't know what's going on among the immortals, but something feels off. I wish I could figure it out.”
“Well, a student is dead, Hades is threatening me and touched my hair, and I'm about to mature,” I said.
Natalia placed her hand on my shoulder, closing her eyes. “You have a bit more time," she said at last.
“Not much,” I said, breathing out a sigh of relief. I had to calm down and think or I was doomed. Hades wanted me intimidated so I wouldn't know where to turn. Natalia had just offered me a way out without realizing it. “All Hades has to do is back me into a corner and it's over. That's his plan. Then Dominqiue can sweep in and get me to join them, and maybe I'll want to when I go dark. Can you talk to Max, too? There might be times where I need to leave campus during school hours.”
“I will,” she said, releasing me. The pressure of her touch remained, warm, before the cold returned. I must have felt like an ice cube to Natalia. “If you come through the barrier with me or Max, you should be fine if you hurry. There is no rule against taking someone with us, but I have to warn you that the barrier doesn't allow much room when it does open.”
“That's fine. It won't kill me,” I said. Wendy's magic hadn't done so before, so I should be able to survive any number it could do on me, especially at this point. “What about Ronin?”
“He didn't stay with you today?”
“No. He had a test even Zeus couldn't get him out of. Hades waited for him to be gone for sure.” Ronin would freak and might even slide into depression even after all the progress he'd made.
“Stay in here with me. I have no more classes to teach today,” Natalia said. “You need to rest. Your best bet right now is to meditate and go to a happy place. Rely on the light still in you to hold back the darkness. I sense you still have time to decide your fate.”
Natalia let me lie on one of the gym mats, on my back, while she played soothing music. The cold and the noise remained, but it got more distant as I allowed myself to drift over fields of flowers and over vast forests. Maria was right. Natalia's efforts were helping a bit.
Wendy came in and some point and whispered something about contacts and the fact that Tiffany hadn't wanted to lend her any. No shock. After what felt like two hours, Natalia shook my shoulder and woke me from the border of sleep. “Your phone's going off with texts, but I can't unlock it,” she said.
“It's Ronin. He's just discovered our new problem,” I said. “Stupid tests. I have to get over there with him and stay the night if I'm going to have any hope of making it to the end of the year.”
As I predicted, Ronin was frantic, and I texted him, letting him know the plan. I'd offer the full details later. Natalia gathered her notebooks and tablet, ready to leave, and I trailed behind her while Maria and Wendy hung back in the corridor.
“What about them?” I asked. I'd found an escape only to be leaving my friends again.
“We can't risk them coming through the barrier,” Natalia said sadly. “You'll have to return in the morning, since there's nothing we can do about the Oath. Staying at Olympian during class time will have consequences for the gods. Yes, I've heard about your meeting with Apollo and Zeus. Hermes is on staff this month, so if you stayed there during class time, he'd sense you for certain.”
“Oh.” I'd been hoping I could start hiding in Ronin's dorm all the time.
“You should be able to get away with staying overnight,” Natalia said. “Come on. We should leave through the front gate. I usually walk, but I'm willing to take the long way around. Hades won't expect you to take the obvious route. Obviously he's going to pay attention to the usual ways students sneak out. If Zeus manages to open another weak spot, then you should not take it if it's anywhere near the old one.”
I followed Natalia to the front gate, which opened for her though she wasn't in a vehicle. I was about to ask what would happen with the barrier if she drove us in and out, but I hadn't seen her drive since the possession incident in the Mercedes.
Maybe driving terrified her now.
Natalia stepped through, and since we still hadn't reached the barrier yet, we plowed forward down the driveway. Then she veered into the trees and I followed her down another trail to the barrier, which sprang to life with its leering faces as we approached. I shuddered. I wasn't sure about this, but thought of my eyes and the brown contacts Wendy had stolen from one of Serena's Halloween costumes (why did she have brown contacts, anyway?) that barely hid the truth. I couldn't wander into Olympian Academy showing off the purple flecks in my eyes. I'd be the only one. And Ronin had warned me plenty of times that standing out could be a bad thing.
Wow, he was right.
"Directly behind me," Natalia said. "The barrier only opens for me, like Hades knew people would be trying to smuggle others out." She drew a coin from her pocket. Silver and tarnished, it showed a skull on the front with Greek lettering around the edges. The pass. "Students just get copper, temporary passes." She finished with an evil grin.
I'd forgotten that Hades let students out if they asked him, but not many were brave enough to ask him for passes off campus to go have a fun weekend. And I knew what answer he'd give me. "Maria and I saw Hades handling one of these coins, but it was gold and had Zeus's eagle on it."
"Could be a pass the gods use." Natalia tucked the coin back into her white robe pocket and plowed through the wall. The faces parted just inches for her, making a Natalia-shaped hole. I pressed up against her, ignoring the awkward feeling, and closed my eyes as we plowed through.
And as I did, dread and cold and death pressed in, making greenish energy flare behind my eyes. Seizing the back of Natalia's robe, I shoved my way through the nightmare and emerged on the other side, gasping for breath. I might be on the verge of maturing, but I sensed that barrier could still do some bad things to me.
"Okay?" Natalia asked.
"I think so," I said, opening my eyes. "And I have to come back tomorrow." I blinked away the green light and the leering faces behind my eyes. For a moment, they'd displaced the low groan of the void.
Ronin waited for me outside the front of Olympian Academy. He squinted at my eyes. "You look fine." Bewilderment and relief came over his face.
I thought of Maria, holding back the truth from Ted, and I knew I couldn't do that to Ronin no matter how afraid I was. He'd never forgive me and he deserved the truth. I opened my mouth to tell him, but nothing came out. Why was talking to Ronin so much harder than standing up to the gods?
So instead, I popped out the contact, dropping it to the grass.
And I looked right at him.
"Are you...already mature?" Ronin asked, stopping on each word. "You're not gray and scary, so this must not be too bad."
&nbs
p; I hadn't gotten across the whole point in my texts, then. I must have zoned out while I sent the messages. Perhaps a picture would have sufficed. "Not yet. Hades said I have a few more months, and that the last stages, well, they happen in steps."
His relief crashed to the ground, pulling Ronin's mouth into a frown. "Shit, Giselle. Then there's still a chance you could go dark. You're right to wear contacts. Walk around with those eyes, and everyone's going to talk." He turned to Natalia, hoping she'd have more answers.
"I think Giselle has a bit more time to decide what she's going to become," she said, flashing me another evil grin. "There's hope. Her mark is fading. She just needs to spend the nights over here to offset the darkness and she has a chance."
I'd forgotten how much I liked Natalia. She'd drifted away a bit after the Mercedes incident, but now she was coming back and the young woman who threatened to egg Ronin's dorm in July was smoothing this over, making it better. Why had I stepped away from my ally for so long?
"I like that idea. My roommate, though," Ronin reminded me. "We won't be able to have much fun, but with you being over here, enjoying our amazing food, is better than you sleeping at Cursed Academy every night."
I had no secured dorm, but Hades wouldn't know I was over here if I was careful. Ronin pulled me into an embrace and even though my eyes had changed, his warmth chased away the noise in my head. The cold that I'd been adjusting to. All of it. His perfect electricity washed over my skin.
"Will Zeus get upset?" I asked.
"Nah. So long as you don't attend our classes, he and the other gods will be fine," Ronin said. "He knows my power helps you. Took him forever to realize it, but the wheels are proof, baby. Come on."
Chapter Eleven
I stayed at my new baseline for the rest of the week, and the week after that, and the week after that. Natalia made it mostly easy to cross over the barrier from Cursed Academy to Olympian every evening, and then back in the morning just before I was to appear at breakfast. And the timing was perfect, too.
Hades now swept through the dining hall every morning, glancing at my table, making sure I was still there. If he noticed I was wearing contacts, he didn't care.
Serena, however, kept glaring at Wendy and whispering to Tiffany at the table, and also in the halls. What a rumor spreader. I tried to ignore her, but Wendy kept turning her gaze to her former friend.
"I see she's trying to make new friends to stab in the back later," she growled.
"Just stay away from her," I said.
Maria eyed Tiffany, who leaned over the table and turned her ear to Serena's cupped hands. "She could make it less obvious she's spreading rumors. I guess she's running out of people to bring to her side. I'd warn Tiffany, but she hasn't been talking to me lately."
I'd had better hopes for Tiffany on the social ladder. She hadn't fit anywhere since starting, probably because unlike most of us, she embraced her coming changes.
"Well, things change," Mikey said. "Especially when it comes to girls. Why are you always fighting each other, anyway? Talk about divide and conquer. Guys at least have a bro code."
I swallowed. Why did girls always have to fight each other, anyway? But at least our marks were fading even more. The pictures on Maria's laptop proved that even on days where I felt like the open palm and the flame would never go away. Since January, my mark had faded maybe by two-thirds. I could see a couple of moles I hadn't seen since that day in Colton Corners High through the metallic brand.
And every day when Ronin met me in front of Olympian Academy, he asked the important questions.
"Any progress in your, um, condition?"
"Not yet," I said. But even though Max let me sit out of Combat Training when Hades wasn't patrolling campus, the coldness remained. Most of the time, I didn't feel it now, but it was there when I searched for it, lurking in my limbs and in my chest. The same went for the noise in my head. It should have driven me to insanity by now, but I could tune it out.
What would this be like when I matured?
Despite the lack of progress I'd made since April, my nerves rose and made my heart race when I thought of my one chance coming at the end of the year. We'd have our finals, another chance for my powers to ignite and force me to a scary immortality, and then we'd have the dance. I'd have a narrow window to get over to the gods and let them brand me. And if Hades even remotely caught wind of the plan, everything was over.
The days got warmer, but I'd learned to associate spring with dread by now.
"You're struggling," Ronin said once I joined him at the front of Olympian the week before exams.
"Well, this is almost gone, and you know what that means," I said, holding up my forearm. My green sleeve fell back, revealing the faint green palm and flame that once shone in the light. Prometheus's mark had weakened so much that it no longer burned. Now my mark was a shadow and I could barely tell it had any color.
Ronin took my forearm and rubbed his thumb along it. "Yep. You'll do fine, Giselle. Hades doesn't even know Olympian will have a separate dance."
The signs had gone up around Cursed Academy. I was shocked Hades even had the staff organize the dance. "What if he brands us before we get on the bus?"
Ronin frowned. I'd been bringing up that point all week and I could tell it was eating at him. "Did you ask the staff?"
"Max is trying to find out."
"I wish I could talk to him. He's actually not a bad guy," Ronin said. "He's hard to approach when he's over here. He really keeps up his tough image."
"Well, I still can. And Natalia and Celestus are helping out, too. The other teachers I'm not sure about. I like Mrs. Ershaw, but I don't know where she stands in all of this. She doesn't seem to trust the gods much. Says they're too much like regular people."
"Celestus has been distracted lately," Ronin said.
"No kidding. He's been staring into space after he gives us our assignments," I said. "Texting as soon as class lets out, too. Maybe he's working on something."
"We should go out tonight," Ronin said. "In the car. Away from here. Blowing off steam can only help you at this point." Right there on the front steps of Olympian, he took my cheeks, rubbing his thumbs through the hair on my temples and filling my head with happy tingles. Though a few Olympian girls were walking up the far side of the steps, he kissed me right there.
And we took off in the new ride, which Ronin always left parked out front by the staff vehicles. He didn't have anywhere else to put the car and he was sure Zeus would approve of him showing off. None of the Olympian staff had told him to move it, even though other students weren't allowed to park in the staff lot.
We headed to the mall, and Ronin had to tell me over and over again to let go of the guilt I felt that my friends had more trouble getting off campus. I dug my fingernails into the leather seats as we drove down the highway.
"They know Natalia can't get everyone out every day without looking suspicious," Ronin said. "And Max has been making sure Cal gets to Mikey once a day."
I'd figured that had been why I'd glimpsed Cal in entrance to the guys' dorms from time to time. He'd been trying to stay out of sight to keep word that there were still barrier breaches away from Hades. I knew Wendy was getting stir crazy, being used to going off campus to have fun every weekend.
"That's something," I said. "I can't wait until summer. Then all this will be over with. We're all tired of worrying."
"You've got a lot on your shoulders," Ronin blurted.
"What? You finally admit that?" I asked, mocking sarcasm.
"I never said it wasn't true. I was just trying to be encouraging so I can make you feel better. Isn't that my job?" Practically glowing, he leaned over and kissed me.
It was quick since he was driving down the expressway. "It helps that you're feeling better." I loved this new, un-tormented Ronin, but I also hated that Zeus held this much power over his reality.
Hanging out at the mall felt like a welcome break. Ronin and I saw a movie
in the attached theater, a cheap one that had been out for weeks, and we stuffed ourselves on mall cookies from the corner bakery. Then we hit the clothing stores for rich kids. Well, Ronin was a rich kid, and we spent what felt like hours perusing the shelves until the gates went down on the stores and the security guards started to wave everyone out. Lights went out and emergency exits cast red glows on the polished floor as we made our exit. And when we started the car, nothing happened.
"Ronin, thanks for this. All of this." I wouldn't have even made it this far without him.
He turned to me. "No matter what you become, Giselle, I'm staying with you. I've made my decision."
This was more than real. Ronin was making a commitment. We'd already been through so much together. "I'm staying with you, too."
* * * * *
No Olympian Guard vans greeted us as we drove back to Olympian Academy. No dead kids, then. I breathed a sigh of relief, like I always did when Ronin and I came back to an uneventful night at school, and followed Ronin up to his dorm. We settled in for the night, content with just lying in each other's arms over the covers since Ronin's roommate, Alan, was snoring on the opposite side of the room. But being over here was enough. Sometimes I was tempted to ask Ronin if we could defile the backseat of his new car, but I held back. The Lamborghini meant much more to him than just a cool ride.
I woke the next morning and Ronin was still gently snoring away. I had to meet Natalia downstairs in ten minutes as I'd slept late, so I left him lying there. A bit of dread crept into my gut as I threw my uniform on over my clothes, used the bathroom, and met her at the back doors. Natalia would cross the shared Combat Arena this morning, as she'd figured out that Hades, who now stayed in Prometheus's old house, wasn't an early riser. No shock. He was the last person I expected to be a morning person.