by Holly Hook
Wendy slipped her hand into mine, and the four of us sat around the lyre rug that Mrs. Ershaw had thankfully left down. Mikey put his hand in mine. Once again, holding back his monstrous changes was up to me. I began the chant, mind slipping into that hyper-focused state she had lectured about, and Maria and Mikey joined in with the ancient Greek words, screwing up at first, but after what felt like minutes, the light filled my body again, chasing my own cold away, and I breathed out, focusing on sending as much of it to Mikey as I could. As the sunlight left me, the cold and the low groan returned, stronger than before. I was chasing away the power that could help me, sending all of it to Mikey, and making myself dark again.
I breathed out while Mikey sighed in relief and released my hand.
"Mikey?" I asked, shuddering.
My own cold was freezing me, begging me to give in and join it. I opened my eyes to the black carpet of the Advanced Magic room and straightened, still cross-legged. Beside me, Mikey stood, his skin normal, his eyes almost shining with the narrow miss. "Guys," he said. "Thanks. I know I should come up with something much more eloquent, but thanks."
Maria stood, embracing him. I got up, biting my lip, not daring to tell my friends about the noise making my teeth vibrate. What gave? I had just invoked the sun god's magic. But I had also just turned it away. Kissing Mikey should have made me feel cold inside, too, but that took place on the Olympian campus, not Cursed. The only explanation was that I was getting closer to maturing.
I stood, determined to get out of there. I held my hands up to excuse myself.
The faintest gray had sneaked in between my fingers. Terror rose around my heart and the room spun as I gasped for breath. Mikey had his back turned to me, facing the wall, and Maria eyed the door.
Wendy stood. "Giselle?"
The gray wasn't spreading. Not yet. But I shoved my hands into my robe pockets, breathing out, begging the cold to leave me. "I can't be working any more magic until I'm off campus." I punctuated my sentence with a serious look.
Wendy's eyes widened. "I understand." She whirled to pick up her sword, which she had laid on the floor. A golden coin fell from her pocket and she quickly snapped it up. I recognized Zeus's eagle on one side.
"What's that?" Maria asked.
"An old coin my father sent me," Wendy said. "I think of it as a good omen. Come on. We need to finish lunch and get some food in us before Combat Training. I know Max has a huge test set up for us today. Mikey, how are you feeling?" As she asked, Wendy glanced at me.
"Fine, now," Mikey said. "Why can't everyone take Advanced Magic? You two should try out for witchcraft school."
"This is it," Wendy said with a grin, tucking the coin back into her pocket. I was glad to see she still had some hope.
I watched Mikey for the rest of the day and resisted the urge to take my hands from my pockets to check them. The cold remained, a bit worse than it had been before the ritual, but the sensation didn't climb or intensify as I walked to Combat Training. Wendy kept sneaking glances at me, as did Maria, whose gaze went to my pockets.
"One more day," I whispered as we remaining third years walked to the shared arena.
Wendy nodded and Maria stayed silent and serious. Mikey patted me on the back.
Max had me sit out of Combat Training Exams. No healers had arrived thanks to the barrier that now went across the middle of the arena, splitting it in half. When people got too close to it, green spirit faces appeared, and by now most had learned to avoid the center of the arena. I nodded my thanks to Max as he punched something in on his phone. My passing grade, maybe. I couldn't help but feel a bit guilty. At least Hades didn't show up to watch the exams. Apparently, he had other things to do or he just didn't like to mingle with us surface people.
Everyone took the same exam today, with the class splitting into teams, one representing the Lower Order and the others the defenders. Wendy got placed on the Lower Order side and told to lead the charge, which brought a sour look to her face, and she knocked over the defending side with a green blast from her sword. Serena got placed on the defending side, and she led Maria and Mikey against the fake Lower Order. Serena summoned dark clouds and night spirits with her whip, giving Wendy a run for her money as she held them off with green, ghostly faces.
Max seemed happy. "Excellent!" he shouted when everyone was too breathless to continue. He snuck a glance at me. "Passing grades for all."
"I'm sorry," I said to my friends as we walked to Career Exploration.
"Don't be," Mikey said. "If you'd fought with us you would have killed us. Max knows this."
"I hope he doesn't get in trouble," I said. I texted Ronin again, letting him know I still hadn't matured and Max had come through. I'd been going back and forth with him all day.
Just another twenty-four hours, he responded. Then I'm sweeping you off your feet.
I hadn't even told him about the gray tint between my fingers. When no one was looking, I took my right hand out, holding it up to the sun.
The gray tint remained, though not as present as it had been. I had to strain my eyes to see it, but even when I wasn't, it was still clear that something wasn't right. Tucking my hand back in my pocket, I followed Maria into the Career Exploration building, which was quiet with nerves. I was shocked Maria hadn't questioned me keeping my hands in my pockets all afternoon. She seemed consumed in her own inner world.
Natalia stepped out of Celestus's classroom, smiling. She said something to him and almost bumped into us.
"Hey," I said, lifting an eyebrow.
A faint blush spread into her cheeks. "Hey." Then she frowned as she studied me.
"Natalia?"
She gripped my shoulder and gathered her binders. "Hang in there. Please." Then she swept out of the front door, robes swishing, as Maria looked after her.
"Something's wrong," Maria said.
There was no point in lying anymore. "Maybe? I feel a bit worse than I did."
"Great," Maria said. "We might need to do the ritual again if that'll help you."
"That made it worse," I said. "I'd have to do it alone and not give Apollo's magic to anyone. Does Mrs. Ershaw leave that room open all night?" Night hardly seemed like the right time to do an Apollo rite, but I had to make it until tomorrow. Just until tomorrow.
"Come on in," Celestus said, leaning out of his classroom and motioning to me and Wendy.
Celestus seemed distracted again as he told us to write our exam essay and what we wanted to do for a living. I scribbled in my notebook, not caring too much about my grades. I wrote something about still being undecided, and that maybe I'd start my own business helping budding monsters hold their changes back and find better jobs in society than they already had. Maybe an advocacy group. Whatever. I shouldn't plan anything until I got out of here and saw what my fate was. Too much was in the air.
Maria was gone when I left class. Mikey came out of his classroom, looking sour, and he looked at the hall as Wendy and I met him in the corridor. "Maria and I got to write an essay about how great it will be the serve the gods. Where is she? She just left. I know she hates Career Exploration, so I guess this was the last straw."
That sounded right. "Still feeling okay?" I asked.
"Yeah. For now."
I took my hands from my pocket. "Well, I've got this."
"Whoa," Mikey said. "It's a good thing we're getting out of here tomorrow."
"Yes," Wendy agreed. "I'm going to go lie down."
"But your room," I said. "We're not done cleaning it."
"You need to go back and do the Apollo ritual again," Wendy told me.
"Unfortunately, I'll have to do it alone," I said. "Wendy, I'll unlock my room so you can stay safe there."
Wendy nodded with an embarrassed frown. "Thanks." She hated being the damsel in distress even more than I did. And besides, I needed to call Ronin. He'd be done with his own exams by now.
I needed to hear his voice more than I needed to do some ritual.
Ronin called me before I could call him. I sat in front of the rug, cross-legged, but I wasn't feeling any of that sunlight. Instead, I let Ronin's voice sweep me away from Cursed Academy.
"Hey, babe," he said. "It's going to be one heck of a ball tomorrow. The Olympian kids don't know it's here yet. But there's a rumor floating around is that Zeus doesn't want Hades anywhere near Olympian's students. Hades is going to be angry."
"He's always angry," I said.
"You're going to have to run for it when the barrier comes down. I don't know when that will be. It will have to come down tomorrow sometime to let the buses in. At least, part of it will. I doubt he'll remove the whole thing."
"That's what Maria said." I took my hand from my pocket and let it splay out on the carpet. The gray still lingered between my fingers and I knew that until I got out of here, it wasn't going away. "I know Hades supports the Lower Order, but why strengthen the barrier while he was gone? Prometheus looked the other way, but Hades seems like he's actively trying to stop people from going to the Lower Order."
"Or he's trying to keep you in. He must know you have a tendency to sneak around."
That was my thought. A shudder passed over me. The day after tomorrow, we were supposed to leave for summer break. Hades would try even harder than Prometheus to make me go dark and he was about to succeed. I thought of how he would attempt. Defending myself in this atmosphere would take me over the final edge. "Ronin, I need you right now."
"I know, babe. I'll wait for you. The buses come through at five."
"I'm sure I can make it. We have a plan." I would dive into Ronin's arms tomorrow and choose my own fate.
Chapter Thirteen
I hadn't thought there could be a day at Cursed Academy more terrifying than exams, but I was wrong. I woke and shot out of bed, opening my closet and stuffing a few favorite outfits into my backpack. Once my pack was bulging, I realized I hadn't thought this through. I had a lot of stuff here, including some printed photos of me and Carmen, and other printed photos of me and Ronin, on the walls that I wouldn't be able to take with me. I didn't need a bunch of luggage bogging me down when I left campus for the last time.
My throat closed as I stood there, looking at all my memories. Not every memory here was bad. There were a lot of good ones.
"Giselle?" Maria asked.
"Come in. Oh, wait. You can't until I unlock the door." I let my friend in and realized she also wore a bulging backpack.
"We don't leave until five," I reminded her.
Maria fake glared at me. "Well, look at your backpack. And where's Wendy?"
"She's been restless. I think she slipped out early this morning."
"Haven't we all?"
We left our packs in my dorm since they screamed we're leaving, and met Mikey and Wendy at breakfast. Wendy picked at her food like she was lost in her own world. I sat down across from her and Mikey shot me a look like he didn't know what to do about it.
"Wendy, what's bothering you? In plain language," Maria said, beating me to it.
"Zeus will find a way to exclude me," she said with a glare.
I opened my mouth to refute her, but said nothing. She was right and the same thought had been bothering me.
"I don't trust him," Mikey said.
"You don't trust Zeus?" I asked, stomach turning over. If I were in his position, I might not, either.
Mikey took a bite of pancake. "Nobody trusts the person in charge, do they? But we'll have to see what happens."
We finished breakfast among excited chatter of other students. Everyone but us was thrilled for the dance. My friends, though, were no longer on their happy cloud. Then again, Wendy never was and I didn't know if that would change. Getting through a barrier that had to open for a bus didn't bother me. The rest did.
We spent the rest of the day milling around campus with other students, and as the morning wore on, people started to appear in fancy garb. Dresses and suits took up the halls, and I realized that we needed to change, too, or we'd look suspicious.
"We're all going to the Olympian dance," I whispered as we walked around the corner past Natalia's classroom. "We still need to decide what to wear."
"Oh," Wendy said. "Most of my dresses are gone."
"Could you borrow one of ours?" I asked.
"Not my style." Wendy headed to her room to find one.
Once people had cleared from the corridor, I lifted my forearm, which I'd kept tucked to my side all day since I'd thrown on a T-shirt. "The mark. I can barely see it, but at this rate, I think it'll be gone in hours." I held my skin close to one of the green torches, something I'd never done, but the flame gave off no heat.
I had to squint to see the outline of the open palm and the flame it held. If I crossed my eyes and made everything blurry, I could pretend the mark wasn't there. This was the reason Hades hadn't appeared at breakfast to brand us himself yet. Once he did that, the doors would close forever.
"Mine looks the same," Mikey said, joining me at the torch.
A few first years walked past, some guys, and all but one were in suits. Everyone was stir crazy and couldn't wait for the dance this year.
"Do you think this will be timed perfectly?" Maria asked.
"I don't know," I said. "The mark should be gone within a day or two at the very most. It might even be gone tonight."
Wendy gulped. "Then we'll all have our moment of truth."
* * * * *
A strange calm came over me when the clock crept closer to four thirty. I had put on my best dress, a green one which might get ruined as I ran through the woods, and Maria had put on a shiny gray dress that was slimming.
"Where's Ted?" I asked.
"I couldn't find him," Maria said. But she sounded absent.
"Are you nervous?" Mikey asked me. He had put on his tan suit that he still said Cal liked. "Well, you're the only one of us whose boyfriend will still be at Cursed Academy if you manage to transfer."
"Ted's about to graduate, so technically, no." She faced the wall.
"You're not still thinking of breaking up, are you?" I asked. "Once over at Olympian we can hold your changes back, and Ted can always come and visit."
"I'll have to see," Maria said. "With Cal around, things might be different. He's better than the asphodel."
"Don't think about it," Mikey told her, teasing.
Wendy was still gone, to search her still-trashed room for any sign that one of her dresses had survived, and she returned with her black one that she'd worn for her first year. "Everyone's going to think I'm broke now," Wendy said, holding it up. Only one small tear had appeared on the bottom of the huge skirt. "But do you know what? I'm done caring. Serena can have all the fun she wants. I won't have to see her anymore."
"Good for you!" Maria extended her arms for a hug, and Wendy took it, stiffening as Maria embraced her.
Wendy got changed, and now that we were dressed for the dance, I put my backpack on. My green dress splayed out around my hips, giving me a narrow waist I knew Ronin would love, and I checked my backpack pocket to ensure I still had the asphodel vial in the back. I wouldn't need to take that stuff for much longer. One or two days at the most. I could stop when I was branded and in Olympian Academy. Then I could let my changes sweep over me without fear.
"I feel sick," I blurted before I realized I my stomach was heaving.
Mikey coughed. "I think we all do."
I dry-heaved into the toilet. Why couldn't I calm my nerves? Just as I thought I was calming down, my body was throwing a tantrum again. "I think we're ready to go?" I asked.
"I think so," Mikey said.
Having a backpack and a dress on felt weird, but no one paid us any attention as we left my dorm and walked down the steps. By now, students were hanging in the hallways, in packs, chattering with excitement. Some others wore backpacks, too, and weapons. After Dominique had attacked our first year dance, the schools hadn't imposed any rules about smuggling weapons or anything else into any off-campus parties. If Wendy and I hadn't had our weapons during our first year, the Lower Order would have massacred half the dance for sure. Both schools had decided that letting students have their weapons with them was a good idea.
In fact, Wendy wore her dreaded sword in plain view. People stared at her and backed away more than once as we progressed to the first floor, where other students, mostly first and second years, waited by the front doors for the buses to arrive. They wouldn't be here for another forty-five minutes yet, but people were so anxious to get out of here that they didn't care.
Hades must have been in his office because no one stopped us as we slipped out the front doors. My heart raced in my ears and throat and I had to resist the urge to let my legs break into a run. But we walked down the drive, through the automatic gate, and off campus. The barrier wouldn't take effect until farther down the road, and since I'd left campus so many times with Natalia, I knew right where it was.
"Here," Wendy said, stopping before I could point it out.
We stopped. Faint spirit faces burst to life along an invisible wall and leered at us. I shuddered. You could never get used to the faces.
"Hey," Celestus said from the trees.
I jumped and whirled. Celestus and Natalia stood under the green cover of the woods, very close to one another, and the way they broke apart told me they might have been making out. Until now I'd just thought of them as teachers, but this reminded me they weren't much older than me and Ronin. Just a few years, in fact.
"Are you waiting for the barrier to open, too?" Maria asked.
"Well, we need to leave for the summer, so yes," Celestus said with a rare smile. "We'll stop in at the dance first to make sure everything's going okay, and we'll try to keep Hades distracted. Good luck, you four."