Great, I thought sarcastically when her eyes began to light up as Zach continued with our story. We just gave her an even bigger ego. I sighed and shook my head. Shane suddenly staggered through the doorway and came over to sit down with us, but Becca only looked down disapprovingly at him and his cane. She could be nice at times, but so snobby at other times, it was unbelievable. Unsurprisingly, she quickly excused herself and went to sit outside, though I couldn’t say I was too disappointed.
Luke, Connor, Shane, and Zach continued their conversation while I looked around the room. Over at one of the tall bar stools, our classmate Jack was on his third large glass of lemonade. I had honestly never seen someone drink so much at once, so I knew he had to be Dionysus, the god of wine. I just frowned, however, and decided that we would fill him in a bit later, when he was slightly more stable.
“So, who’s the last god?” Shane asked, tilting his head, and I turned back to face the boys. Finally, a topic worth my attention.
“Hades,” Zach replied, his brow furrowing, fists clenching.
So far, we had found no one who would match the personality of the ruler of the Underworld, but I suddenly remembered a newspaper article about missing people, specifically the mention of a classmate or two, from the week when the Monster Watch had first gone into the forest. I was beginning to think that we would not find Hades here in town. Instead, he would be stuck under the ground, perhaps lounging around in a large palace all by himself, living exactly like he had since he found out from someone else—the Oracle, most likely—that he was a god.
“Don’t forget Hestia,” Connor added, referring to the goddess of the hearth.
I snapped my fingers and exclaimed, “Haley!” Zach let out a whoop and high-fived me, obviously agreeing. Feeling extremely motivated, we left the restaurant quickly, even though we had no real reason to hurry, and headed to Haley’s house, where she spent most of her time outside of school. It also happened to be right next door to Alicia and Madison’s, which would definitely be convenient later on in our godly careers.
A few minutes later, the five of us arrived at her house, a little one-story building painted a soft lavender color, almost gray. We stepped up on her porch in unison, and Zach rang the doorbell. The screen door creaked open almost immediately, and Haley tentatively poked her head out, her long, light brown hair flowing in the slight breeze and her nimble fingers gripping the doorframe. Even though it was very warm outside, she wore a purple cashmere sweater, which she only hugged tighter around her. She always managed to stay cool and collected. I couldn’t remember ever seeing her lash out at anyone for anything, to be honest.
“Um, hi,” Haley said meekly, obviously not expecting to see us. Admittedly, she did not get too many visitors.
“Let’s take a walk,” Zach suggested as Shane politely stuck out his arm for her to take, and Haley glanced back over her shoulder, deeper into her mysterious house, before silently shrugging and taking Shane’s arm. Together, we aimlessly walked down the streets as we told her our story, and she silently listened to us. I thought she was taking the whole thing very well, better than any of the other gods had (or at least more calmly), and I was eager to see what she would think of the monsters when she visited our lovely woods.
A few minutes later, we bid Haley and Shane farewell, and the rest of the Monster Watch and I headed back into our second home, the forest. For now, our work was done. But now what? We had found all the gods (except for Hades, who was left to figure out all this on his own—if Zach could avoid a problem like Hades, he would) remarkably fast, which I thought was quite strange, even though we lived in such a tiny town. As it turned out, there was a good reason for this too. However, we didn’t find out why we had been so motivated, why the Fates had been on our side that day until six years later, when we were fulfilling the prophecy …
Part Two
“THE KNOWING”
Six Years Later
Chapter 5:
PERSEPHONE
Clang! Ares grunted, and his thick sword blade hit the golden Medusa head on my shield as I raised it up to block his swing. Taking advantage of his open position, I swung my spear down and to the left, and the tip caught in Ares’s heavy armor as he stumbled backward, just out of my reach. But I knew he would be back for more.
Suddenly I heard a high-pitched whinny come from somewhere above me and looked up to the dark, cloudy sky to see Zeus atop the gleaming white horse, Pegasus, whose wings were outstretched, spiraling down toward the meadow. In one of Zeus’s rough hands was a lightning bolt, shining so white-hot that it almost looked blue. His perfectly toned muscles rippled as he threw the bolt toward the ground, aiming at no one in particular.
My vision turned completely white for a couple of seconds due to the blinding lightning, but I didn’t panic. This was nothing new. But when color finally returned, I saw Ares running straight at me again, just like I knew he would, his reddening face twisted in anger. I thought quickly and prayed silently to Zeus as I pointed my spear at Ares’s chest. Right on cue, a bolt of lightning erupted from the sharp metal tip of my spear, hitting Ares exactly where I had aimed.
As he was blown at least thirty feet backward, I caught sight of Poseidon on the other side of the meadow, his golden trident raised above his head, ready to bring it down any second now. Then the trident’s blunt end hit the ground, and as the earth gave a tremendous shake, I somersaulted into the trees for cover, hoping none would fall on me. I simply paused, waiting for the world to stop shaking, and hid behind a tree while I caught my breath and looked around.
A battle was currently ensuing between Poseidon and Zeus, and all I could see were bright flashes of light as I felt multiple small tremors in the ground, one after another, throw me off balance. The fraternal twins always liked to take out their anger at each other here, where they didn’t have to worry about destroying a house.
Meanwhile, a few yards away from me, two other goddesses were having an equally epic showdown. When Demeter placed her arm out in front of her, her hand clenched in a fist, a thick vine shot up from the ground and wrapped itself around Hera, squeezing her tighter and tighter, like a snake would a mouse. All of a sudden, a flash of purple light blinded me, and when my vision cleared, I looked up to see Hera standing free again, the charred remains of the vine lying at her feet.
From across the way, close to Zeus and Poseidon, Apollo shot an arrow straight at Aphrodite, who was standing alone out in the open, cleaning off her small dagger with the bottom of her designer workout jacket. She ducked her pretty little head at the last second, and the arrow missed her by mere inches. “Hey! Watch the hair!” Aphrodite yelped as she smoothed down her golden locks. I smirked when I saw Apollo do the same. This was supposed to be a real battle, after all.
Throughout all of this action, Hermes was running circles around the rest of the gods so fast that I could barely see him; he was just a colored blur. In fact, his battle strategy was usually to run circles around the opposition until he or she just gave up the fight. Although I was in awe, I simply shook my head to refocus and continued surveying my opponents, trying to decide where to join the attack. Then, on the other side of the meadow, I saw a small flash of movement from way up in one of the tall pine trees. I immediately recognized Artemis’s blonde head and grinned, certain about what she was planning to do. Sure enough, a slim wooden arrow shot gracefully out of the tree from where she was positioned and hit Hermes right on his heel, and he went tumbling to the ground. He finally stopped rolling in front of Dionysus, who tripped and fell down on top of him, cursing like a sailor.
Once Dionysus had pushed himself off the poor messenger god and moved on to join the fight against Demeter, Hermes began struggling to pull the arrow out of his dirt-covered winged shoe, even though the arrow had a pink suction cup at the tip instead of metal or rock. We were only practicing, after all—well, all of us gods except for Hestia and Hephaestus, who usually opted not to fight. And no one was ever supposed to get
seriously injured.
I was heading back out into the open, ready for Ares to come at me yet again, when Zeus threw his hands into the air and shouted in Greek, “All right, that’s enough!” He had just fried Poseidon with another lightning bolt, and looking at the angry expression on Poseidon’s face, I knew it was not a coincidence that Zeus decided to call it quits now.
I shook my head and groaned as Poseidon teased Zeus, “What? We’re quitting now? Are you scared of losing, Mr. King of the Gods?”
Zeus just crossed his arms and replied smartly, “Do you really want me to beat you up even more? Because I could, if you want.”
Poseidon grumbled something that I didn’t catch in response to his brother, and then we all headed east toward Main Street, bickering among ourselves excitedly. It was a sweltering afternoon, and we all craved a cold glass or two of the world’s best lemonade.
We were trudging through the thick undergrowth, about halfway to the street, and chatting about nothing in particular when we heard the crackling of branches come from somewhere off to our left. We all drew our weapons in unison, ready to face and kill whatever monster was on our trail, and slowly turned to face the huge boulder a few yards away.
But it wasn’t a monster.
The seemingly ordinary gray boulder was set into the small brown and green hillside, and the side facing us was hollowed out, creating a tiny cave, a cave we had walked by a thousand times before. But this time we all watched in awe as a pale arm, skin as white as pearl, reached out from the shadows and pushed a girl who looked about our age into the forest. As she stumbled forward, a thin, low-hanging branch caught in her straight, light brown hair, and she quickly turned around to free the strand of hair. The rest of the gods and I stayed silent, holding our breaths as if our lives depended on it. Thankfully, the girl did not seem to notice us yet, but we were standing at least fifty yards away, barely visible through the thick foliage.
Finally, the handsome pale person who had pushed the girl came out of the shadows, revealing himself to us for the first time. He squinted like it was very bright, though we could barely see the sun through the trees, which meant he obviously wasn’t used to light. But instantaneously his expression changed from confusion to one of hurt and anger, his black eyes glaring at the girl as he chewed his lip in anguish. Exasperated, he ran his right hand through his jet-black hair before saying loudly to the girl in Greek, “Well? Aren’t you going to leave now? Leave me, like you always do this time of year to go visit your goddamn mother!” His voice cracked with a hint of remorse.
A few yards away, the girl stood facing him, standing tall and trying to look brave, though she was trembling like an autumn leaf about to fall off a branch. “Oh gods, Hades! Don’t yell at me! You know I can barely even remember meeting my mother, but you throw me out to live with the Oracle every summer anyway,” she argued in a small voice.
I should have known. Hades, the one and only god of the dead, ruler of the Underworld. Which meant the girl was most likely Persephone, a daughter of Demeter whom Hades had kidnapped eons ago out of love for her. However, in most of the myths I had read, Persephone did not love him back, seeing him instead as her own personal prison warden. It looked like that was the case here too.
To be honest, I was not surprised that the rest of us had never seen Persephone in the forest before, since she said she lived with the Oracle, whom we rarely visited and who had probably been the one to tell the two that they were gods six years before. Our relationship with the Oracle was strictly one of business regarding the prophecy. We didn’t often have a good reason to stop by her camp, except when we were hunting down the occasional monster for fun in her neck of the woods.
“Nothing I do pleases you! Not ever!” Hades shouted back at Persephone. He shook his head and rested it for a moment on a small crystal skull that topped off the tall, black staff he was gripping tightly. He then took a deep breath and lifted his head, but as he turned to face Persephone once again, his dark, cruel eyes locked on us.
For a few seconds, we stared at each other in stiff silence, wondering if Hades would make the first move or not. But instead, it was Persephone who whirled around to see what Hades was looking at, and she gasped when she saw us, her mouth forming into the shape of a perfect O. She looked baffled, overcome with so many emotions at once.
Then Persephone took a hesitant step toward us, her long white dress swaying elegantly around her ankles. “Mother Demeter?” she asked in almost a whisper, staring right into Demeter’s soft brown eyes. Somehow she just knew, even though she hadn’t remembered ever meeting Demeter until just then. I guessed it was instinct, a daughter’s love. But I wouldn’t know. In the myths, I had originally hatched out of Zeus’s skull, already fully matured and clad in battle armor.
Rendered speechless, Demeter only nodded, and Persephone ran and hugged her long-lost mother. The air around them radiated with pure happiness, but then I glanced back over at Hades, who was now glaring at all of us even more intensely, his fists clenched tightly by his sides. Unlike Persephone, he did not make even the tiniest step to come meet us; he just stood silent and still, much like a rock. When Persephone had finally let go of Demeter and turned to stand next to her, facing him again, Hades growled at all of us angrily, “What are you all doing here?” We had obviously interrupted a deeply personal conversation, one not meant for our ears.
Seemingly unfazed, Zeus stepped forward and responded in a commanding Greek voice, “This is our forest, not yours. And besides, I could ask the same of you.”
Hades frowned, looking very unimpressed. “It is spring now. Persephone is yours … for the time being. This is the agreement we made more than two thousand years ago, is it not?” Zeus nodded reluctantly, and we all returned to a state of awkward silence.
Eventually, Persephone broke the ice that had frozen over the fluid waters of our conversation. “You can go back to your palace now,” she demanded, her voice tight. She was obviously eager to get rid of Hades, and I could understand why.
Sensing that he was no longer welcome in our realm, Hades silently glared at us one last time before turning and walking back into the cave, where he disappeared back into the Underworld. With that, Persephone let out a big sigh of relief and turned to face the rest of us. One by one, we introduced ourselves, though I’m sure she could have guessed all of our identities herself. She asked what we were doing here, and we told her everything, including the prophecy. But Persephone just nodded, appearing unsurprised, and explained, “I heard the Oracle mention the prophecy a couple of times when I used to stay with her.”
After we had filled Persephone in about the current events in the forest, we all started to continue on our course back to Main Street, while Persephone eagerly continued to catch up with her mother and the rest of the gods. Meanwhile, I was silently pondering the prophecy, wondering who would be the god to turn against the rest. Maybe it was too early to guess, but I was thinking that I wouldn’t be very surprised if the god in question were Hades.
Finally, we all reached the edge of the forest and hid our weapons and shiny armor among the trees, still chatting and bickering excitedly, in our usual manner. But then Persephone stopped dead in her tracks and pointed out, “I can’t go out there. I have lived in here almost all of my life. It would look strange if a random girl showed up in such a tiny town, especially if I walked right out of the forest.”
The rest of us nodded in understanding, figuring that she could use some time to set up some new living arrangements with Pan. Demeter also told us to go on without her, since she wanted to spend more time with her daughter and new best friend. So, after a short farewell, the rest of us stepped out of the dark forest and into the bright sunlight that shone over the town.
“Hey, Ash, can you do my math homework for me tonight?” Connor asked me in English.
I let out an exasperated sigh, thinking about school tomorrow and wishing for summer to come quickly. During school terms, it was even harder t
han usual to have good control over our double lives. You see, as soon as we were out of the forest, we no longer spoke in Greek or called each other by our god names. We knew very well that we could not let anyone learn about our secret identities, or else we would become human lab rats for the rest of our lives. How would we be able to save the world then?
“For the two hundred and forty-ninth time, no!” I replied (and yes, I had been counting), slightly annoyed with him, but Connor just grinned, obviously not expecting a different answer.
Together, the rest of the Monster Watch and I headed over to the Fire Pit, while Josh, the messenger, took the job of telling Shane and Haley what had happened in the woods that morning. The others said goodbye and returned to their homes after Camille announced she was going to take a long nap, which probably meant she would be going hunting in the woods later on that night. She was the only one of us gods, besides the members of the Monster Watch, who went into the forest regularly. For whatever reason, the others chose to venture in only when we had battle practices.
When we walked inside the old restaurant, the rest of the Monster Watch and I took a seat at our usual booth in the back of the dining room before ordering ourselves some lemonade. Luke took one quick sip and then leaned back in his seat, his blue-green eyes shining. That movement alone, subtle but commanding, would have been enough to capture the attention of thousands.
“Persephone’s kind of cute, huh?” he observed as he slowly ran his fingers through his black hair, and Connor and Zach grinned mischievously, obviously in agreement.
I just groaned. “Don’t even think about it, dude. Maddie will kill you,” I lectured Luke, but he simply shrugged at me, still smirking.
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