Sighing, I climbed up to my roof where I sat on the rough surface to stare out at the night sky alone, wishing Alec was there like he used to be. For hours on end, I glared at the twinkling stars that shined through the silent night air as if nothing was wrong, as if there were no wars going on. It was a peaceful sky, but only because Zeus was sleeping and I wondered if Hades was too . . . .
“This is Pan calling in a happy situation. Wake up. Repeat: wake up,” Pan’s gravelly voice floated its way to my brain and I opened my eyes abruptly, only slightly surprised to find that I had fallen asleep on the roof. I blinked my eyes against the dim light of the morning sun shining through the thick cloud cover and knew that it had to be very early, since everything was covered with a fine layer of dew. Reluctantly, I sat up with a groan and rubbed my eyes.
“Happy situation, people. Wake up!” Pan demanded in Greek yet again and still it received no response via walkie-talkie. I just frowned, wondering what in the world a “happy situation” was. We had no protocol for happiness, only emergencies.
“WAKE UP, I tell you! Alec is here with the troops.” I almost fell off the roof, knowing that last bit had probably woken everyone else up too. Finally.
Sure enough, Zeus ordered right away, “Everyone meet at my house in thirty minutes. Pan, we’ll be at the camp soon.”
I wasted no time in sliding down to my balcony and leaping into my bedroom to change out of my pajamas. I carefully slipped on my black leather jacket as I glanced at the clock, which read 5:30 a.m. Even though I knew I didn’t have to rush, I didn’t even bother to change the old bandage on my wounded shoulder. Zeus was right next door, after all.
A few minutes later, the other gods (except for Hephaestus, whose broken leg was still healing) and I were just inside the forest, pulling all of our armor and weapons out of the hollow logs. We took our time to make sure that every leather strap was tight and that each bronze breastplate, backplate, bracer, and greave was on correctly, because we all knew the real battles would most likely start within the next few days. I decided to use my small spear to fight with and grabbed my shield as well, although I had not often used it before. But today was different so we also took all of the extra weapons with us, realizing we would need some more for the troops.
Another half hour later, we were tearing west through the forest. Low-hanging branches slapped our faces and our ankles rolled every time we took a misstep over a tree root, but we didn’t care. We sprinted like cheetahs down the steep hill by the small waterfall toward our army’s base camp. As we burst breathlessly onto the scene, every single person, nymph, and satyr knelt on the grass in unison out of respect for us. Except for Pan, who just stood under a tent by the table with the map of the woods, his brown eyes shining as he grinned at us like an idiot.
I had to take deep breaths to slow my heartbeat as my eyes rested on the dark-haired boy in the center of the circle of camouflaged tents, the boy who was gripping the hilt of his sword as if his life depended on it. “Lord Zeus, I have brought you twelve sword fighters and two archers, plus a healer. More troops are on the way and they will be here soon,” Alec said loudly and formally in Greek as he stood up, his blue eyes meeting Zeus’s.
Our king just grinned, pulling Alec into one of those man-hugs as the rest of the Knowing warriors stood up behind Alec—the ones who were conscious, anyway. Some of the Knowing had been so blown away at meeting their gods and at how good-looking we all were that they had passed out cold (pathetic, I know). Perhaps our auras alone, probably much stronger and heavier than the air to which they were accustomed, were powerful enough to knock them out.
And I couldn’t help but wonder what monsters they had been fighting, since all of them had scars and bandages of some sort on their fit bodies. Looking more closely, I even recognized a few faces among the Warriors, like Nicholas, the muscular brute with a Hydra tattoo on his chest, Jan, the middle-aged healer, and Hannah, the freckled young archer with sleek black hair whose little brother, Ben, must have been with the other group of Knowing members.
“Good to see you, Alec. Or should I say hero, yes? Well done, well done. What weapons have you managed to bring?” Zeus exclaimed a little too enthusiastically for me to take him seriously. He even gave Alec a pat on the back.
“Only a few swords, sir. Excuse my language, but airport security can be a real bitch,” Alec responded, and everyone in the small clearing laughed.
“Certainly. It’s quite alright,” Zeus assured Alec then turned to face the rest of the gods and me. “Set the extra weapons by the table over there and we’ll have Hephaestus make some more, if needed.” We nodded and did as we were told then returned to greet Alec as the crowd of Knowing members, nymphs, and satyrs disbanded.
Laughing and joking around together, Apollo, Poseidon, Hermes, Dionysus, and even the angry Ares each gave Alec a man-hug similar to Zeus’s. Then an eager Aphrodite interrupted the guys and pounced on Alec, planting a kiss right on his cheek and pressing her body into his. Such provocative gestures were normal to Aphrodite, since everyone—males and females—wanted her. I had honestly never seen someone able to resist her for very long so you can imagine my panic when Alec blushed but did not look my way. I just swallowed down a pang of jealousy and nervously fingered the rock/sword in my pocket, waiting for Alec to reach me, the fear that he was still mad at me growing stronger and stronger inside my chest.
Alec then moved on to talk to Hera, Demeter, Artemis, and Hestia, but he still had yet to meet my gaze. Frustrated with both Alec for ignoring me and myself for going on the date with Cole, I walked over to the mahogany table with the map and stood there glaring at it. Out of the corner of my eye, I noticed that the Oracle was having a heated argument with Nicholas, whom she had never even met before, and I silently wondered what it was about. Shrugging it off and anxiously tapping my fingers on the table to no particular rhythm, I studied the map and tried to ignore all the shouting that was going on.
Suddenly, a soft whisper drifted to my ears from out of the chaos behind me, one hopeful word, one name, that sent shivers down my spine: “Athena.” I knew then that he was not as mad as I had feared.
I whipped around to face Alec but smacked right into him, not realizing that he was standing so close to me. Slightly embarrassed, my breath caught in my throat as I looked up from his chest to meet his eyes. “Hi,” I said stupidly.
“Hi,” Alec replied with a grin, his eyebrows arched. “What, no hug? After all of this? I’m not dead, you know. I did what you asked.” He opened his arms for me, but I was determined to keep a safe distance so our relationship wouldn’t get too close, or rather, so it wouldn’t cross into physicality. I was stronger without him.
I smiled up at him before I accused, “It seems you’ve forgotten your first lesson.” Alec smirked in remembrance and we finished in unison, “Don’t mess with Athena.”
After a moment of peaceful silence, Alec sighed and scratched his head before asking quietly, “How’s . . . life?”
I knew the question was really about Cole so I just shook my head and got straight to the point. “Alec, I already told you, I didn’t even want to go on that date with Cole. So just shut up and get over it.”
Alec grinned in relief, but then his eyes narrowed again when he caught sight of the white bandage peeking out from under my leather jacket. “Oh my gods, I did this to you,” he whispered, inferring that it was, indeed, the wound I had received while he was on the phone with me.
I quickly shook my head as he reached for my wounded shoulder. “Alec,” I said to him, but he was still staring at my bandage with a mildly horrified expression. I gave him a soft slap on the cheek to get his attention then started again, “Alec, it wasn’t your fault. I would’ve been fine if I hadn’t tripped on that dang tree root. See? Like I’ve said before, we gods heal fast.” I ripped off the remaining pieces of the bandage to show him that there was barely even a scar left, that there was nothing for him to be sorry about. I was just a little s
ore.
Immediately, Alec raised his eyebrows, a smile creeping back onto his handsome face. “Who knew the goddess of wisdom and war was such a klutz?” Nothing could bring him down in this moment, not even the terrible war. He was about to say something else to me (another attempt at a joke, I was certain) when he was interrupted by a call from the center of camp.
“The Oracle of Delphi is requesting an audience with the Olympian Council, plus Alec,” Hermes shouted and the entire camp went quiet. Alec and I exchanged curious glances then reluctantly followed Hermes and the rest of the gods into the largest enclosed tent to talk with the secretive Oracle.
When we opened the flap, the Oracle was at the other end of the long tent facing us, her thick black braid cascading elegantly over her shoulder. With her bright green eyes locked on the thirteen of us, she started to weave her way through the many cots that the majority of soldiers would be sleeping on that night. “We need to discuss some things,” the Oracle stated blandly, smoothing out her purple robes.
“So I figured,” Zeus said hotly, his muscles bulging under his gray T-shirt as he crossed his arms. “What do you want?”
“Don’t you want to know what happens when you die?” she asked, getting to the point so quickly that we were taken by surprise.
“Wait,” I said, throwing my hands up in the air and avoiding her gaze. “We need to make sure that Hades isn’t hiding here somewhere and listening in.” The others nodded in agreement, eager for the chance to calm our growing paranoia, at least temporarily. Then we all karate-chopped and kicked at the air in the tent for the next few minutes until we were sure that an invisible Hades wasn’t with us.
When everyone had settled down and taken a seat on a cot, Zeus looked back to the Oracle and slowly ran his fingers through his dark blond hair, already deep in thought. “All right, you have our attention. Now, what do you mean? I thought we just go to the Underworld like everyone else.”
“Yeah, we know we aren’t immortal,” Poseidon added from beside Zeus.
The Oracle tilted her head sideways, as if trying to figure out how to best explain it to us. “Well, have you ever thought about what being a reincarnation truly means? I was just talking to a couple of the Knowing about it. Nicholas, actually,” she started and I finally understood why she had been having a yelling match with him earlier. “He came along specifically to deliver some information about past generations of the gods. Unfortunately, it seems that in each generation, all the gods went just as quickly as they came, so to speak.”
I sighed, realizing exactly what she meant. “Wait,” Aphrodite cut in, crossing her arms over her chest. “You just said ‘all.’ As in every single one of them?”
“We all die at the same time, don’t we?” Ares whispered gruffly, picking up right where Aphrodite left off. When the Oracle didn’t answer, Ares started to get angry. “Don’t we?” he shouted at her with his fists clenched and a vein popping out on his forehead. “We all die at the same time and you never told us!”
The Oracle held up her hands to fend off Ares. “I wasn’t certain until now!” she hissed back at him. “I grew up in this forest, in the dark, just like you did.”
Aphrodite took hold of Ares and pulled him away from the Oracle, trying to calm him down by stroking his chest and whispering in his ear. Then Hera spoke up as she slowly tied up her reddish-brown hair in a ponytail, “But why? Even though we’re all the same age, we weren’t born on the same day. So why should we die at the same time?”
At first, the Oracle stayed quiet then glanced at me. “I think Athena can answer that one for you,” she whispered, and all of the other gods and Alec turned to face me, confusion in their eyes.
Still avoiding eye contact with the prophet, I pushed myself off the small green cot I had been sitting on. “You’re partly correct, Hera,” I started and the queen of the gods just frowned at me ungratefully. “But even though we weren’t physically born at the same time, we were somehow metaphorically born at the same time. If I had to guess, I’d say our finding each other within twenty-four hours was part of it.”
“When I was little, I was always told stories of how the gods’ souls emitted their powers and the souls just needed human hosts to thrive,” Pan offered helpfully. “There’s also a slightly different myth that says the gods’ powers needed to latch on to human souls in order to be used.”
“Okay,” I began again, scratching my head. “It sounds like no matter what, the souls inside of us are what make us Greek gods. Therefore, we became gods long before we even knew it, when we were just babies; our powers grew stronger as we did. Maybe there was a moment back then when we were all in the same place—in the hospital or the Fire Pit or somewhere—and the previous generation of gods just happened to die and their souls, their powers, for whatever reason chose us to be their hosts. That scenario still implies we die simultaneously, however.”
A couple of the gods groaned, placing their heads in their hands. I could tell they were feeling lost and defeated, but a few were still hopeful. “Say the myth that states a god’s soul intertwines with a human one is actually correct. What happens to our human parts?” Apollo piped up. “If we die as gods, our human parts would still live on, right?”
The Oracle only gave a small cough and again motioned for me to explain. “Wrong,” I answered Apollo solemnly, my mouth suddenly feeling dry. “As our blood started to change from red to gold when we were younger, it symbolized us discovering our powers and becoming true gods. In other words, we never had two parts—we just thought of it that way. Think of our ‘human parts’ as facades that crumbled as we grew older.”
“So we only have one chance,” Apollo confirmed as the tension built up in the tent and both the Oracle and I nodded. “How long have you known about this? And why didn’t you tell us before?” Apollo asked me sadly. I felt like I had betrayed him and the rest of them, but I just clenched my jaw and tried not to let it show.
I shrugged. “I’ve been thinking about it a lot lately, though it all pretty much came together right now.”
Zeus sighed and tried to get the others to calm down as they shifted nervously in their seats. “Everybody relax. This new information doesn’t have to change anything. We can’t let fear get to us and we will still fight as hard as we can. We’ve survived this long so who’s to say we won’t survive until we’re eighty? We have powers and it’s all of us against one. The monsters are just a side dish, so to speak. Now, we need to focus on convincing Hades not to take over the world.”
“And how are we going to do that, exactly?” Artemis wondered aloud with an exasperated sigh. “You have to admit the monsters are a pretty big side dish.”
“Wait a minute,” Alec interrupted, running his fingers through his dark hair. “You all aren’t the only gods. There were tons of minor gods of rivers and seas and such. What about them?”
“You just said it yourself,” I told him. “Those gods would be spiritually attached to whichever river or sea they control so they would probably be reborn near the same spot in every generation. I doubt we’ll be able to get any help from them. They might even be far enough away that they aren’t affected by the war at all and won’t have dozens of monsters prowling around.”
The Oracle nodded before adding, “And they will all die with you as well. That includes Pan and Persephone, but probably not me. The other nymphs and satyrs will also be spared, since they have no direct spiritual connection with any of the gods.”
“Okay, back to the plan.” Poseidon switched topics, eager to talk about something a bit lighter. “We need more soldiers to fight the monsters while we find Hades. The Knowing Warriors aren’t going to be enough, especially since half the group is blinded by fear already, and we haven’t even done anything.”
Several of the gods nodded their heads in agreement, but Zeus was already on the same page I was. “The centaurs,” we said simultaneously and exchanged a high five. The other gods’ faces lit up immediately, their hope
renewed.
“Huh? What centaurs?” Alec asked in confusion. “I lived here with Pan and Persephone by the river in these woods for weeks and I never saw a centaur.”
I smirked at him. “Have you ever wondered what’s on the other side of the river?”
“That’s where the centaurs live,” Alec realized as he stood up next to me. I nodded.
“This one catches on quick, doesn’t he?” Hestia stopped combing her long, light brown hair with her fingers and motioned to Alec with a small smile. “I like him.” A short chuckle passed through the gods, and Alec blushed.
“Then it’s decided. The Monster Watch will travel to the big meadow tomorrow to get the centaurs to help us,” Zeus proclaimed, and Apollo, Poseidon, and I nodded. “Now we have to figure out how to convince Hades that being ruler of the Underworld already comes with enough power to satisfy him. Who can we get to do that, assuming we can actually find Hades?”
After we all thought quietly for a second, I cleared my throat and mused, “We need someone with whom Hades can relate. Someone who has a little bit of power but realizes that it’s more than enough.”
Suddenly, a growl sounded from the corner of the tent behind us and we all spun around to face the origin of the noise. Demeter stood scowling and glaring at the rest of us, her brown eyes peeking out from under a stray piece of blonde hair. When she clenched her fists, a few leaves of poison oak sprouted from the soil under her dirty, yellow Converse sneakers and I wondered if it was intentional or by accident. She snarled menacingly, “Have you all forgotten about my daughter? Persephone is still trapped down in the Underworld with Hades and we’ve done absolutely nothing about it since Alec went down there to confront him a few weeks ago.”
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