It was eerily silent for a moment as we glanced nervously at each other, waiting for someone else to speak up. Finally, Alec stated, “Persephone’s smart. I think she’ll be okay on her own until we solve our problem with Hades, and besides, Hades loves her too much to even think about hurting her.”
Demeter growled again, her eyes flashing. “I understand that you know her pretty well, Alec, but you don’t quite understand. Every night, I hear her voice screaming in my head. Every night, she prays to me, begging to be saved from his wrath. Every single night. So if none of you want to help, I’ll go rescue Persephone by myself.”
As Demeter turned on her heel and stalked out of the tent, her long hair flowing out behind her, Alec gulped nervously and looked to Zeus, who appeared equally baffled. “She’ll get over it sooner or later.” He waved her off, but I wasn’t so sure he was right. Leaving that problem for another time, however, Zeus continued, “It’s past lunchtime so I’m going to head back to the Fire Pit. I think we’ll stay off the battlefield for the rest of the day. That way we can reorganize ourselves and the Knowing can get settled in.”
Everyone else in the tent nodded and left the Oracle alone. Deciding I could use some fresh lemonade, I bid Alec farewell for the time being and followed the rest of the gods back east toward Main Street. We took our time, pausing a couple of times to kill a few monsters and arrived at the edge of the trees about an hour later. Then the Monster Watch, along with Josh, headed to the Fire Pit for lunch while the other gods walked southwest toward their respective houses.
A few minutes later, the four guys and I sat down at our booth in the back of the room and waited while Zach and Luke’s mother brought us some fresh lemonade and grilled cheese sandwiches. I didn’t ask him, but I assumed Josh was there with us because he was waiting for Cole. Sure enough, the caramel-haired boy walked up to the table halfway into our meal.
He sat down next to me with a nervous smile, and I had to hold back a groan as Zach, Luke, and Connor exchanged uncomfortable glances. They understood as well as I did that my parents had no idea how much trouble they had caused me when they set me up on that date. I knew that, all too soon, Cole would ask me out on another date and then I would have to leave a battle or something like that just to keep my promise to him. Needless to say, that was a promise worth breaking.
“Hey, Cole,” Josh greeted his friend and smiled. “What have you been up to?”
Quickly, I shoved the last piece of sandwich into my mouth and said, “Excuse me, but my college homework is begging to be finished.” I left the table before Cole could even get in a word, and the other boys just snickered behind me.
When I got home, relieved to find that neither of my parents was there, I ran straight up to my room and started my physics and art history homework. After I had finished working, I decided that I would save my energy and not run around town trying to find the rest of the Monster Watch so I just sat on the couch to watch the news instead. Around five o’clock, my father came home looking as drunk as usual. Without even acknowledging him, I retreated back into my room until dinner. The fact that my father and I had reached an understanding about my mother still didn’t mean I would tolerate his grumpy alcoholic presence.
Much later, I climbed onto my roof and sat down, hugging my knees, to watch the stars, but instead, I ended up scanning the black treetops of the forest for signs of trouble. My mind continued to whirl as I thought about the conversation with the Oracle earlier that day. I knew that even if we did win the war and manage to survive, our problems with Hades would not be solved unless his desires were completely satisfied. I sighed, running through a list of people in my brain who might be able to capture the attention of Hades, but came up with nothing.
Just then, I noticed Zach open his own balcony door across the grass lawn, light pouring out from his room and into the dark night. He saw me lying alone on my roof and waved and I waved back, permitting him to come over. I was humbly reminded of a time when he did that more often, when he felt too cocky, excited, or invincible to even think about sleep, rather than feeling nervous or stressed. I missed that time. I missed not having to think about battle plans, and I missed not feeling guilty about what only I knew would come out of this goddamn war, about what I’d known for years.
Zeus pulled me from the shadow of my flashback when, not two minutes later, he solemnly sat next to me and rested his handsome head in his rough hands. Just that one simple gesture caused the sky to darken and the clouds to build up above us. He was silent for a long time, but eventually he lifted his head to speak. “The townsfolk should be worried. They should be preparing to protect themselves, but they have no idea Hades is about to take over. They have no idea about any of this,” he whispered slowly, and I was only somewhat surprised to see his philosophical side coming out of hiding. “And if they knew, I suppose they would wish that they didn’t. So . . . we’re stuck.”
I nodded glumly, not quite sure how to respond, and followed his gaze to our right to see scattered lights from quiet houses glowing in the blackness of the evening. I was certain that Zeus and I were sharing the same thought: We gods were here to stay and protect our beloved home, but for how much longer? How long could we possibly keep such a big secret from the tight-knit families in our tiny town? To be honest, what worried me the most about the prophecy was that it foretold a war, but no end to it.
“Is something bothering you?” Zeus asked in Greek, glancing back at me.
I shrugged and responded truthfully, “Pretty much everything. But that’s normal for me.”
“You’re such a control freak,” he laughed. “You don’t have to carry the burden of knowledge alone, you know. We’re all in this war together, and it’s not the end of the world. Yet.”
At once, a muffled noise sounded from down below and both Zeus and I froze. I gripped the rock/sword, which was still in my jeans pocket from this morning, and a wave of worry washed over me. “Who’s there?” we said loudly in unison, hoping the sound hadn’t been made by Hades himself.
“I am,” Alec’s pained voice reached our ears as he struggled to pull himself onto the roof. I gasped when I realized that one arm was dripping with red blood and that he wasn’t even wearing armor.
“You’re such an idiot!” I exclaimed breathlessly as I rushed to his side and helped him carefully sit down. “What were you thinking, coming here without armor during a war? I guess I must have trained you pretty damn well, since you actually managed to survive. Did you do everything I taught you? Was your stance okay? You didn’t let yourself get distracted, did you?”
Alec just smiled weakly at me, not even bothering to answer my barrage of questions, and I grunted in annoyance. Leaving him with the bewildered Zeus for a moment, I raced back into my room and returned with my full supply of bandages.
I then knelt down next to Alec with an exasperated sigh, inspecting his entire body as a tiny pool of dark blood collected on the rough, black surface of the roof. “It was an undead warrior,” Alec croaked out the answer to the question I was about to ask, sheepishly picking at the soles of his worn-out sneakers. I wordlessly raised my eyebrows and pulled out a damp rag to wipe a bit of blood off his cheek, but then Alec said softly, “I think the wounds from my whipping are bleeding again. My armor was irritating them.”
I turned Alec’s back toward me to see his blood just starting to seep through his dark gray T-shirt. Somberly, I helped him lift it over his head, revealing a lot of smeared blood and, rather shockingly, a black owl imprinted on his skin, its wingspan stretching all the way between his shoulder blades. The detailed feathers, coupled with the way Alec’s back muscles moved, made the owl seem even more real.
“You got a new tattoo,” I observed dryly, certain he had gotten it in honor of me. Other people would see it as a simple tribute to his patron goddess, but I knew it was there because he also had feelings for me, unfortunately for both of us.
Alec only nodded silently as I started to gently wipe
off the blood from his skin. As I did this, I also noticed that his wild, dark hair had grown a bit longer and as a result was now able to cover his other tattoo, the small black sword imprinted on the back of his neck which signified his membership in the Knowing Warriors. I sighed again, tracing the tiny circle with my index finger and thinking about how Alec could never go back to live with the Knowing and truly be a part of them; he had changed far too much since he first arrived in the Woods.
“I wanted to cover up my Warrior identification with a different tattoo, but I figured I was in too much trouble already,” Alec explained, reading my exact thoughts. Another bout of whipping would not have been good for my little hero.
“How many monsters did you run into on your way here?” Zeus asked Alec, finally breaking his silence as he stroked his chin in thought.
“More than you want to hear about,” Alec muttered, wincing again as I dabbed at one of the reopened scars on his back. “But I’m perfectly fine. Anyway, I was wondering if I could tag along with you to go talk to the centaurs tomorrow.”
Zeus just laughed again and shot me a look that read, This guy is crazier than you! and I joined in.
“Sorry, but there’s a reason I said that only the Monster Watch could come; we’re familiar faces,” he told Alec with a short chuckle before beginning the backstory, telling it like he would a funny story. “We were seven, didn’t even know we were gods yet, and we were exploring the other side of the river for the first time. We ran into a group of centaurs late in the day and they would have killed us, but Ashley convinced them that we were valuable assets. Centaurs definitely aren’t the friendliest of creatures, and we’ve only seen a couple since that day, but I guess it’s finally time to join forces . . . if they agree to it, of course.”
Although he frowned, Alec nodded in understanding and yawned as the three of us stared off into the night sky. A shadow at the corner of my eye caught my attention and I turned to watch the figure shaped like a human walk down the street toward us. “If that’s Cole, kill me,” I hissed, furrowing my brow slightly.
Both boys smirked, and as Alec moved his hand over mine for just a split second, I felt my heart start to race involuntarily before the warmth slipped away again. “This guy is just like that one harpy—or Hades, actually. Reappearing at the worst times, haunting you like a ghost,” Alec complained bitterly, and I rolled my eyes. What a wonderful thought.
“We should just go somewhere else before he gets up here,” Zeus grumbled.
“You’re the king,” Alec agreed all too eagerly and obediently as he started to get up. “Back to the army camp?”
Zeus nodded in agreement and the three of us carefully climbed to the ground after I returned the extra, unused bandages to my room. While we stopped briefly at the edge of the forest to put on our bronze armor, I checked behind me one last time for that shadowy person. Sure enough, Cole stood patiently at my front door, probably waiting for me to answer, but I just peeled my gaze away and followed the guys deeper into the woods without saying another word.
We slowly made our way single file through the misty forest, careful to be as quiet as possible so we had a better chance of avoiding any monsters. For once, the woods actually seemed calm and peaceful, like they used to be before the war. However, the three of us were about halfway to the camp when we heard a rustle in the thick bushes directly in front of us. Simultaneously, Zeus’s hand crackled with bright electricity and Alec and I squeezed our small rocks, causing the shiny sword blades to pop out.
Zeus, who was currently in the rear, stepped in front of Alec. “If that’s a monster, let us handle it. You’ve taken down enough of them for one night,” he whispered to Alec then rambled on, giving himself a pep talk. “And if that’s an entire troop of monsters, no matter how many, just prepare to be blinded by a flurry of lightning flashes because we are not going to run. Yep. That’s all there is to it.”
Although I didn’t argue, Alec opened his mouth to protest. He thought better of it, however, as a dark red spot on his arm bandage started to grow bigger in size. I heard him hold back a gasp of pain and he tried to quickly cover it up with a bored yawn. I had to stop myself from rolling my eyes.
The anxious Zeus was just about to chuck his lightning bolt into the bush when out flew a toddler, clutching a miniature bow and arrow with his tiny hands. Flapping almost as rapidly as a hummingbird’s, his little white wings poked out of his long Grecian tunic. With a small huff, he blew a golden curl out of his baby face and looked directly at me with his big, blue eyes. I supposed he could have taken any form, but I thought this deceitful, stereotypical, infant like one suited his trickery and immaturity quite well. As if to confirm my observation, while aiming his mischievous grin straight at me, he said brightly, in a deep voice that so didn’t match his appearance, “Why, fancy meeting you here, Athena!”
As you can probably infer, this was not the first time I had met Eros (who is more commonly known by his Roman name, Cupid). No, the first time we ran into each other happened six years earlier, a couple of weeks after we had all found out that we were gods . . . .
Apollo, Zeus, Poseidon, and I had been playing a round of reverse hide-and-seek, and I was searching high and low for the god of the skies. I was walking near the meadow when Eros suddenly appeared out of nowhere, aiming a magic arrow straight at my heart. My eyebrows shot up in surprise and, just as Eros let the arrow fly, I dove into a nearby bush for cover. Even back then, I knew that all hell would break loose if the goddess of wisdom fell in love. As Plato once said, “Love is a serious mental disease.”
Letting out a sigh of relief and ignoring the leaves that were now tangled in my hair, I bravely faced my attacker. “One of my favorite pastimes: messing with fellow gods!” Eros exclaimed as he loaded another arrow into his bow. “Love triangles can be so much fun!”
I glared at him menacingly. “Lucky for me, I’m not an easy target,” I told him.
He smiled and his other arrow whizzed by my head. “That’s okay. I love a challenge,” he said and the chase was on. I sprinted through the trees, diving right and left as the arrows kept coming. Every couple of seconds, I would stop to catch my breath behind a tree or in the bushes as thorns scraped my skin, but Eros was quite persistent at continuing our twisted game.
This went on for a couple long minutes, until I accidentally tripped on a tree root and fell hard to my knees. Wishing I had my shield with me, I whipped my head around and held up one arm desperately, as if it would somehow stop his arrow from hitting me. I squeezed my eyes shut, but nothing happened because just then a voice from behind me shouted, “Eros, stop!”
I slowly opened one eye to see the Oracle standing next to me, glaring up at Eros with her bright green eyes. Then her body began to shake violently and mist started to build up into silver clouds around her. I had seen this spectacle once before and knew that she was about to tell a prophecy. She began:
“In six years’ time will come one god’s prime,
And he will be tired of being under fire.
He will fight for what he thinks is his right,
But it could tear apart the balance that’s fair,
And the duty will fall upon you all
In order to save the world.”
I was certain that she would stop there, like she had the first time, but no; my jaw dropped as the Oracle kept speaking. This was the part of the prophecy no one else had heard before:
“Still you must listen, for the goddess of wisdom
Will no longer be free of that blasted curse called love.
Her beloved hero is great, but he is only bait
For the man who will decide this mighty one’s tragic fate.”
Eros simply raised his eyebrows at me as the mist around the Oracle started to clear and then he flew away without another word. We had reached an understanding at that point; if he interfered with my love life in any way, Eros would disrupt the prophecy and possibly cause the end of the world—a risk not
even he was willing to take. I never saw him again after that first day and had no desire to seek him out.
Until now, six years later, when we were fulfilling the prophecy.
Back when Alec had first arrived in the forest, he mentioned that the Oracle told him he would be needed to help us save the world. The other gods were confused because as far as they knew, he wasn’t part of the prophecy. Still, I knew better, and even though I had originally contemplated sending him off on his own to be killed and thus to prevent the war, some tiny part of my conscience (which, perhaps, had even been influenced by the Fates or the Oracle herself) had gotten the better of me, to my dismay. I was trying as hard as I could just to be good friends with Alec to prevent whoever’s “tragic fate” was coming and to keep Athena’s loveless legacy alive. After all, it was still anyone’s guess as to what would happen if one of the virgin goddesses broke a rule, since it had obviously never happened before. My pessimistic prediction was that our entire generation of gods would die or at least be stripped of our godliness somehow. In the absolute worst-case scenario, we would die and a new generation of gods would not be born at all.
Yet even considering all of the consequences, Alec still wanted something more from me and, deep inside, I knew—though I really hated to admit it to myself—there was an uncontrollable part of me that liked him a little more than a friend as well. But it didn’t matter. I wouldn’t let him change me.
Now Eros glanced over at Alec, a knowing smirk on the god’s face. “I don’t need to shoot this one. He is already truly, deeply in love. With you, Athena,” Eros stated firmly as he turned back around in midair to face me. “You have chosen well, unsurprisingly.” With one last smirk, the never-aging toddler flitted up into the treetops and out of view. I didn’t have the chance to point out to him that I really hadn’t had a choice in the matter at all.
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