I frowned, wondering what Cole could possibly want to give me and why. Plus, he had just lied right to our faces; I could tell that whatever he wanted to give me was in his left pocket, which he kept fingering unconsciously. I suspected that it was some kind of jewelry or other keepsake. Gross.
“We’re going camping tomorrow,” I said flatly, crossing my arms. “For a few days actually, just as an end of summer celebration.” Zach and Luke quickly nodded in agreement.
“In the forest?” Cole exclaimed, his brown eyes widening. “Have you guys ever camped in there before? Isn’t it going to be dangerous?”
Unable to control themselves, Zach and Luke burst out laughing. After all, danger was no stranger to us; we had faced that wily beast every day since the first time we had gone into the woods. In fact, you could say that we were close friends.
“Dude, that’s kind of the point,” Luke snapped. “Learn to live a little.”
“Okay . . .” Cole scratched his head then glanced back at me. “Well, I guess I’ll go now. Ash, can you meet me in front of the Fire Pit tomorrow?”
“Sure,” I answered him and nodded slowly, noticing Zach and Luke exchange mischievous glances. I knew that they would beg their mother to listen in on the conversation the next morning, since they weren’t going to be there. Realizing it was best for him to leave now, Cole waved good-bye as he headed east down the dark road, his footsteps echoing off the pavement, while the two brothers walked with me across the street toward our own houses.
“When did Cole get so annoying?” I muttered, more to myself than to Zach and Luke.
“When we found out we were gods,” Luke replied with a snort.
Zach sighed. “Don’t be so hard on him, Ash.” Both Luke and I quickly looked to him for further explanation, mild shock on our faces. I raised one eyebrow at Zach and he continued, “Cole has some guts, asking you out. You can be quite intimidating, you know—sometimes even menacing. But then again, we all are. We can’t blame the kid for being curious when we leave him out of the group so often.” He then lovingly patted my shoulder and disappeared with Luke into their cozy house, leaving me to quietly ponder what he had said as I stepped onto my creaking front porch.
As soon as I walked through my front door, my mother was in my face and annoying me, as usual. But this time she wore a smirk that somehow did not suit her pale face and it made me wonder what she could have possibly been up to. I hadn’t seen her appear so excited in years, and it was strange seeing her this way. Smoothing out her blue apron covered with flour, she said smugly, “I heard that you’ve been spending time with Cole lately.”
I groaned, covering my face with my hands because I knew exactly what she was thinking—that I was going to end up marrying Cole. In a town as small as the Woods, it was assumed that each child would settle down right where he or she grew up and marry a classmate or someone else from one of the neighboring towns. Much more often than not, people really did marry their high school sweethearts. Unsurprisingly, parents would sometimes gossip about who they thought would end up together, like Zach and Alicia, even though they were well known as an on-again, off-again couple. But boy, people would be really surprised when the beautiful, conceited Becca ended up marrying the crippled, humble Shane. Gods have to follow the myths, after all.
“Come on, sweetie, give me the details,” my mom encouraged, a hopeful look in her brown eyes. Perhaps she was happy because I was actually acting like a normal teenage girl for once, like the daughter she had always wanted.
“Mom, there’s nothing going on between Cole and me,” I informed her as I tried to take a step past her, but she blocked my way, her thin eyebrows arched. I held my tongue as I shot a glare toward my father, who was leaning on the kitchen counter with a beer bottle in his hand. Going on a date just to make my mom happy had more consequences than he thought.
My mother sighed, giving me one last disapproving look as I pushed my way past her and headed up the old staircase. Within a few seconds after I had left the room, my parents resumed their shouting match. Rubbing my forehead to try to get rid of a headache, I walked slowly down the empty hallway toward my bedroom door and tried to ignore the loud creaking of the floorboards under my feet.
Wait a minute, I thought to myself suddenly, looking down at my black army boots. I had lived in that house my entire life and had been sneaking around enough to know every inch of the creaking floor. So unless it was a new development, the small area of the floor I was standing on should not have been creaking—and I was 99.99% sure that it wasn’t a new development.
I cannot believe this is happening.
Acting purely on instinct, I dropped to the floor just as a flower vase flew out of nowhere, aiming straight for where my head had been not a second earlier.
Damn him.
The glass shattered into hundreds of tiny pieces at it crashed against the white wall behind me, and the water and colorful flowers fell softly to the carpet as I rolled forward, sliding the pocketknife out of my pocket. I was vaguely aware of the fact that my parents were still yelling at each other and, with any luck, hadn’t heard the commotion. With a low grunt, I swiftly hurled the knife at my bedroom door, which had mysteriously swung open on its own. The shiny blade shouldn’t have been large enough to kill him, but just in case, I’d aimed low so it stuck about halfway down the door with a loud thunk. The knife had just barely scraped by the target, but I smirked when I saw what I was really looking for: a few drops of golden blood sinking into the navy blue carpet.
I stood up and pressed my back against the smooth, cool wall next to my bedroom door, waiting for the perfect moment to barge in without getting myself injured or even killed. I did realize that my walkie-talkie was still attached to my hip, but even if I had called the other gods for help, I knew they probably wouldn’t get there in time; I was on my own.
“In case you don’t already know, I should inform you that in the unfortunate event of one of our deaths, the situation is going to be quite tricky. ‘All for one and one for all,’ to quote The Three Musketeers,” I mused in Greek, just barely loud enough for him to hear. After all, I couldn’t be sure of how long I had until either of my parents came stomping upstairs.
The response started with a quiet yet devilish snicker. “Of course I know about that, so I wasn’t trying to kill you—merely injure you seriously. I’m offended that you question the extent of my knowledge, Lady Athena,” the gravelly voice floated its way to my ears and I rolled my eyes.
“Well, you’re obviously stupid enough to trespass into the house of a war goddess,” I retorted, reaching back into my pocket to pull out my rock. It was lucky that I hadn’t left it at the army camp like I had originally planned, since we still needed more weapons for our soldiers. Trying to decide on the best way to use it to my advantage, I quietly rolled the small, gray stone around in the palm of my hand.
Then the creepy voice came again, jeering at me, “So far, I almost knocked you out with a vase and you gave me a measly scratch on my side. Plus, I’m invisible at the moment. Now, great goddess of wisdom and war, who do you think is really in control here? It’s not a trick question.” I simply raised my eyebrows; this moment of cockiness was exactly what I was waiting for.
In seconds flat, I jumped into the seemingly empty room before abruptly chucking the rock toward the other side, and my efforts were rewarded with the loud clank of the rock hitting metal—the metal of Hades’s one and only helmet of invisibility. Without waiting another moment, I lunged in the direction where the sound had come from, where the rock had fallen to the floor, and tackled the invisible body before he could get away. For once, I was lucky that my room was small enough so that it was relatively hard to move around comfortably.
Promptly, a bronze helmet appeared out of thin air, sliding off the head of the now visible Hades, his black hair drenched in cold sweat. The lord of the dead’s dark eyes enlarged, but before he could try to fight back, I had him pinned to the floor with h
is arms over his head and one of my knees putting pressure on his most sensitive area. “Who’s in control now?” I sneered at him menacingly.
Hades gulped as he struggled against my grasp, trying unsuccessfully to escape. “An entire troop of undead warriors could be here within a few minutes. They’re just waiting for my call,” he threatened meekly, forcing himself not to show his panic.
I only tightened my grip on his arms, ignoring his comment. “You came here for a reason, Lord Hades, and I doubt you stalk the other gods like this. What is it?”
Hades was silent for a moment as he studied my face. “I needed to tell all the gods something. And let’s face it; Zeus would have just called you for advice anyway. In fact, you would make a much better ruler than your father. I don’t know why you’ve never done anything about it,” he whispered, and I could clearly see the hunger for power swirling around in his eyes. I couldn’t believe he was actually trying to get me to betray my friends and come over to his side of the war, to overthrow Zeus. But I had mentioned to the other gods that we needed someone to talk to Hades with whom he could relate, and maybe I was that person . . . .
I cleared my throat. “Unlike you, I am satisfied with what I have. You should be too. Everyone has a place in this universe and yours happens to be in the Underworld, as the freaking ruler of all things. How many more people and other beings must be killed in battle for you to realize this? Millions of people around the world have a life way worse than yours.”
Hades smirked, his pale face lighting up. “If everyone has a place in the world, where does Alec belong? In the forest with a large price on his head . . . or maybe in your heart? I often wonder which is safer.”
My eyes instantly widened with shock at what he was saying, and he continued with an overconfident gleam in his eyes, “That’s right, I know about the prophecy. The entire prophecy, actually. You see, that’s the real reason I’ve been coming here, since the look on your face confirms that no one else knows about the last bit.”
“How did you find out?”
“I’ve had the helm for months now, remember? And I’ve been using it to its fullest extent. You assume I’ve been watching the gods, and I have, a bit, especially when you and Zeus are together. He treats you so well compared to all the other divine ladies, and I thought I could learn from him how to treat Persephone. Obviously, it didn’t work out as planned. But what did turn out in my favor was that, often while you all gallivanted to your hearts’ content in the forest, I came into town to visit what I’ve missed. It’s so wonderful people never lock their doors around here. Your journals really are great reads and very insightful too.” He grinned with devilish pride at my horror.
“You can pretend you belong in this realm all you want, but you never will. Just like you’ll never win this war. We gods and, yes, Alec, will make sure of it.”
“If Alec even lives long enough to see the end of the war, you mean,” Hades corrected pompously.
His pupils dilated as he winced and groaned softly when I chose that moment to put even more pressure on his delicate lower extremities. I glared at him and spat, “If you kill Alec, I swear that I will personally chop off both of your arms and let you live in pain for the rest of your pathetic life.”
Seemingly unfazed, Hades only raised his bushy, black eyebrows and smirked again before he whispered hoarsely, “Alec’s a hero. I’m sure he can handle the pain. After all, you trained him, right? You know as well as I do that you put too much of yourself into him. You trained him to fight exactly like you, to concentrate so hard that you almost lose yourself in the battle. Both of you will try to forget everything and everyone else in the moment just to be able to fight smarter, on better instincts and without a weakness. But unfortunately, no matter what you do, your so-called perfect little hero will always have one weakness that makes him beatable.”
I squeezed my eyes shut for a moment, hoping that Hades wouldn’t continue. I knew what was coming, and he really didn’t need to say it. Moreover, I didn’t want him to say it, to confirm yet again that fulfilling the tragic prophecy was inevitable, but of course, he did anyway:
“His weakness is you, sweetie. He’s got a fatal flaw just like the rest of your heroes of old. Get ready for another Greek tragedy.”
I bit my lip and glared at him, struggling to refrain from punching him in the face when he used my mother’s horrid nickname for me. He knew exactly what to say and do to set me off—probably from spying on me for countless nights under the cloak of darkness—but I couldn’t let him have the satisfaction. Instead, I settled for watching him squirm like a bug under my frigid gaze, leaving him in a panic as he wondered what in the world I was going to do next. A word of advice: sometimes silence speaks louder than words.
After a few seconds of this eerie quietness, Hades opened his mouth to say something, but was cut off when we heard the sound of soft footsteps coming toward us. “Ashley? What on earth happened to this vase?” my human mother exclaimed in a shrill voice, and her footsteps continued to get closer and closer as Hades managed to writhe his way out of my grasp. I knew that if she recognized him as the “Goth” boy who had bought the helmet from her antique shop, I would get in a huge load of trouble for being with him (especially alone in my room), but I also knew that I didn’t have enough time to tie Hades up and hide him in the tiny closet. Even if I was forced to let him go, however, I had to get that invisibility helmet. Without it, Hades had almost no chance of winning the war.
I desperately lunged for the helm at the same time as Hades, but he had a slight head start and grabbed it before me, beginning to stand up. In a last-ditch effort, I karate chopped the back of his left knee, making it collapse, and he fell back down immediately, though the bronze helmet was still in his rough hands. I stretched as far as I could to try to touch it, to save it, but Hades slammed the bronze helm back onto his head and became invisible once again. I let out a small cry of frustration as my fingernails dug into his cheek and raked through the velvety skin, but then he was out of my reach. The door to my balcony was thrown open by the lord of the Underworld at almost the exact same moment my mother walked into the room to see me sprawled out on the carpet, defeated. Hades and the helm of invisibility, the scent of victory, were gone with the wind that now blew through my room.
At least I gave him some scars, I thought bitterly.
“What’s going on, sweetie?” my mother asked me in a worried voice, glancing down at me quizzically with her brown eyes. “Get off of the floor this instant. And why is your knife stuck in the door? I knew I never should have given it to you . . .”
With my head in my hands, I groaned in annoyance, wishing she would leave me alone. The rest of the gods needed to be informed of what had happened, and Alec needed to know that Hades was out to get him. I just needed a break. My Greek life was finally starting to clash with my regular human one and I wanted some time alone to collect my thoughts.
I stood up slowly, not meeting her eyes. “Nothing happened, Mom,” I told her quietly, switching back to English. “I accidentally dropped the vase when I was filling it with more water. I’ll clean it up in a minute.”
My mother frowned then wordlessly turned on her heel and left the room. Angrily, I walked over to my bed and picked up my pillow. I glared at it one last time before abruptly stuffing my face into it and letting out a frustrated scream. I shouldn’t have let Hades get away. This is my fault, I kept telling myself as I threw down the pillow and stormed into my small bathroom.
But you didn’t have a choice, another part of me argued as I turned on the water in my sink and started forcefully scrubbing under my nails with soap to try to rid myself of the dirty remnants of Hades’s cheek skin. I had almost rubbed my skin completely raw before I realized what I was doing.
After I dried my hands with a soft towel, I yanked the walkie-talkie off the belt loop on my hip. “This is Athena calling in an emergency situation,” I reported loudly in Greek, deciding it was about time that
I informed everyone about what had happened. “Hades has been spotted in town. Repeat: Hades has been spotted in town. He knows what happens when we die and I think he’s going back to the Underworld now, but, Alec, he’s out to get you. Don’t go anywhere alone.”
Almost immediately, the walkie-talkie exploded with a dozen voices at the same time until one was finally able to be heard above the others. It was strangely calm but full of concern at the same time and I knew it had to be Alec. “Athena, please. Tell me what happened. Was he in your house?”
I frowned, deciding whether or not they should know the whole truth. “Yes,” I answered vaguely after a moment of stiff silence. “My mother walked in and he got away clean.”
“But are you okay?” Alec asked softly.
We lapsed into a short state of silence again as the others waited for my reply. “No,” I said wrathfully, shaking my head. “Don’t you see? I let him get away. And I could’ve stolen the helm, but I didn’t. He got away. That’s all there is to it.”
I shut off the walkie-talkie and threw it onto my bed, not in the mood to talk to anyone anymore. Sighing, I bent down to pick up my rock/sword and pulled my knife out of the door before stuffing them into my pocket just in case someone or something else tried to attack me. Then I slowly made my way down the hallway to clean up the mess Hades had made, silently cursing myself.
As expected, the night was long and sleepless, my thoughts revolving around the war and Hades. Thankfully, the other gods and Alec had enough sense not to come over to try to talk to me; most likely, I would have snapped and just yelled at them to leave me alone. But with a new day came a slightly less pessimistic attitude, so I threw on my leather jacket, grabbed my weapons and walkie-talkie, and was out of the door in a matter of minutes. My parents weren’t even awake yet.
I quietly shut the door behind me and started walking through the thick fog toward Main Street, where I had promised I would meet Cole. Sure enough, he was already waiting for me right outside the Fire Pit at one of the small, green tables set for two. But as much as I would have loved a cool glass of lemonade in the morning, I was not in the mood to spend a lot of time with Cole. After all, I had a war to fight and there were less than three weeks until school started.
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