“I would feel even guiltier if I did let them know. Right now, Alec’s my problem, not theirs,” I explained, frowning at the ground and picking at the incredibly long blades of grass around my legs.
Shaking her head at me, Persephone only sighed and admitted, “I’m not sure if I’ll ever completely understand you.”
“Maybe it’s better if you don’t,” I replied shortly. Then I pushed myself off the ground and followed Artemis and Alec away from the hideout to deliver the other half of the deer to the Oracle of Delphi.
We all still wore our armor, knowing that this northwest area was where most of the monsters lived, and that they would be attracted to us for two reasons: one, we had a bloody deer with us, which would be some excellent free food for them. And two, monsters tried to track and kill every person who knew about the Greek myths, which was the whole reason the Knowing had Warriors. Even though he was with two powerful gods, Alec was still a prime target. Hopefully, we would be lucky and not run into any monsters, but all three of us knew that it was probably not going to happen. We gods had learned early on in our exploration of the forest that luck was almost never on our side.
Slowly, we wove our way through the maze of spider webs and pine trees, toward where we thought the Oracle’s camp was. However, even for us, this part of the woods was still not fully explored, and so we ended up taking two wrong turns. On the bright side, Artemis managed to shoot a harpy in the process, before it got too close to us.
Eventually, we stepped into a very tiny clearing, with a small fire raging outside a tiny camouflaged tent. The Oracle sat by the flames, braiding her black hair with purple ribbons, and turned to face us as she said, “You brought food?” We nodded silently, and I threw down the burlap sack, which landed with a loud thump next to her. All of a sudden, she started to shake, as if the sound had caused a reaction, and her eyes glowed bright green. Artemis and I had seen her do this before, and we knew she was about to tell a prophecy. Her mouth opened, and more green light flowed out as mist started to cloud around her. She finally spoke,
“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.”
Alec stood very still, his mouth wide open, as he heard the prophecy for the first time. Artemis and I, however, just waited for the Oracle to return to her normal self so we could leave. I was not too shy to admit that being around the Oracle was not very comfortable. To put it simply, she was not very sociable, and the gods thought the fact that she fainted every time after she spouted out a prophecy was kind of creepy and unnerving. She had never even told us gods where she was born or where she had originally come from—only that she had been reared by nymphs here in the forest.
Suddenly, we heard a huge roll of thunder, and a white-hot flash of lightning lit up the entire forest. It started to pour within mere seconds, and a few drops of rain were already starting to leak through the thick cover of the trees, splashing onto our confused faces at random intervals. As you could probably guess, such a storm was very unusual. Even during battle practices, when all the gods’ powers clashed at once, the sky wasn’t this unpredictable.
Zeus, what have you done? I thought to myself worriedly. It had to be him, even though he was at Hera’s party. It had to be. He was the only god I knew of who could have made a huge storm like this within a few short seconds. But why? Something had made Zeus so upset that he could accidentally cause a deadly flood, and I knew we had to stop him.
The Oracle, who had regained consciousness by then, quickly stamped out the fire and dove into her tent for cover. “You must save us!” she exclaimed to us over her shoulder, sounding quite panicked.
We didn’t need to be told twice. Without another word, Alec, Artemis, and I took off in the direction we thought was toward our houses, though there was no way for us to be sure. As branches slapped and stung our fatigued bodies, I couldn’t help but think that the prophecy was finally coming true, and by the looks on Alec’s and Artemis’s faces, I could tell they were thinking the exact same thing. I could only hope we would get there in time to prevent any further damage from being done …
Chapter 9:
TROUBLE
Go back to Pan’s hideout and round up all of Artemis’s huntresses in case we need help!” I shouted to Alec in Greek as he, Artemis, and I raced through the woods in the pouring rain.
Between the branches slapping my face as we ran along, I could just barely see Alec shaking his head. “No! You might need help!” he yelled back, and I exchanged a quick, distressed glance with Artemis, wishing he would just listen for a minute.
Looking forward just in time, I jumped sideways to avoid crashing into a huge tree and replied as we continued to run, “Then who will protect the others if Pan’s hideout is attacked?”
No answer.
I looked him in the eyes seriously and pleaded, “Alec, please, don’t worry about me. I’ll be fine. Artemis will be fine too. It takes a god to bring down another god, and I don’t want you caught in the crossfire.”
Alec frowned, obviously not happy with my request, but he did cut right and disappeared into the trees after a minute of thought.
Artemis and I picked up our pace, and within fifteen minutes, we reached the edge of the forest. We tore off our armor and threw the pieces, along with our weapons, into a hollow log before we ran out onto the street and sprinted toward Alicia and Madison’s house. Out in the open there were no trees, so we got even more soaked than we did in the woods. Through the pouring rain and the randomly flashing lightning, we ran almost blindly for what seemed like forever before we finally got to the house.
The rest of the gods were standing out in the front yard, forming a large circle, and Zach and Alicia were screaming at each other, but I couldn’t make out what they were saying over the deafening thunder. Madison stepped between the two of them, trying to calm them down, but she was pushed to the ground by Alicia and fell on her beautiful garden, crushing half of the colorful flowers. Mud splattered all over her cute summer dress, and her lower lip started to quiver. I was pretty sure she was about to cry, if she wasn’t already; it was hard to tell through the rain.
“Stop it!” I screamed at them, worrying that my voice would be lost in the thunder as I broke into the center of the circle. The rest of the gods turned to look at me in shock, and most of them also looked grateful that Camille and I had come. The silence didn’t last for long, however, and within a few seconds, Zach and Alicia were yelling at each other again. Then Alicia slapped him hard across the face, and all the gods joined in with Zach to start screaming at Alicia in a loud chorus.
With a cry of anger, I tackled Zach, pinning him to the ground before he could even think about doing anything to Alicia. He roared with anger, and another bright white flash of lightning lit up the stormy sky above us. I cursed at him in frustration. Not only was he causing what could end up being the worst flood in Washington state’s history, but he could have ended up causing the end of the world if we didn’t stop him.
Suddenly, I was yanked up off of Zach and the fabric of my shirt pressed into the skin on my neck, beginning to choke me. I ducked my head instinctively, but was unfortunately not able to avoid a hard punch from Matt. Ouch. I was quite sure that punch would have broken any normal person’s jaw, and that I was going to have a horrible, ugly bruise by the morning.
Frowning, I desperately wormed my way out of his grasp, and Matt tried to punch me again, but this time I caught his fist and twisted his arm behind him. Out of the corner of my eye, I saw Camille grab Luke by the collar of his shirt to prevent him from intervening as well. Still holding Matt hostage, I pointed up at the sky with my free hand and yelled at the rest of the gods, “What the hell is going on here? Look at what you did!
” I peered through the pouring rain, specifically looking at Zach, who was still sitting on the ground, partly covered in mud. I couldn’t believe it—we were already falling apart!
When our leader didn’t speak, Haley explained quickly, without even pausing to take a breath, “Zach was kissing Madison and then Alicia got jealous and there was a huge fight and …” She trailed off, clearly unsure of what to do.
“I was not jealous!” Alicia exclaimed, glaring at Haley and crossing her arms. “I was just mad.”
“Yeah, you were mad because you were jealous,” Luke told her off, not helping the situation at all. Now Alicia looked like she wanted to punch Luke as well.
Meanwhile, Zach’s little raindrops, like thousands of arrows from his army of clouds, continued to pelt us. I couldn’t even think straight. “Stop this,” I told Zach, waving my free arm in the air. He didn’t even bother to move a muscle and just mindlessly picked at the grass he was sitting on. “NOW,” I shouted. He shot me a glare, but slowly the rain lightened up and the rest of the gods began to regroup and calm down.
However, now that the truth was out, I was starting to think that this wasn’t the problem the prophecy spoke of after all. A fight over a boy didn’t really seem like a big deal to me, but then again I wasn’t into drama (or boys) like Alicia was. On the other hand, I also knew that if we didn’t solve this issue right away, Alicia would turn on all of us, which really could cause the end of the world.
Finally, the rain slowed to a stop, though it was still very cloudy and dark since it was now almost midnight. All of a sudden, we heard a door open behind us, so we all turned to face the house as Alicia and Madison’s father, the police officer, poked his head out. “What are you kids still doing out here?” he said gruffly, a touch of annoyance in his deep voice. I couldn’t blame him for being suspicious of us; we were standing out in the front yard late at night, soaked all the way through to our skin, after all.
Quickly, after I forced Zach to apologize to Alicia, we all dispersed and returned to our respective houses. Only Josh remained, and since he was the messenger, he reluctantly agreed to go tell everyone in the forest about what had happened. Because Zach was in no position to lead us at the time, I was the one who sat up on the roof waiting for Josh to come out of the forest and give a full report, so I didn’t actually get to fall asleep until two a.m. Needless to say, I slept in late that morning.
When I woke up, the first thing I did was walk over to my mirror and look at my jaw where Matt had punched me the night before. There was an ugly purple and yellow bruise about the size of fist throbbing incessantly, and simply brushing a finger over it hurt like crazy. Oh well, I thought. It just made me look tougher.
Frowning, I walked over to my window and peeked outside. None of the Monster Watch was out there, which was kind of surprising. I assumed Zach wouldn’t want to go into the woods today anyway, and since I didn’t know where anyone else was, I took my old blue bike out from the garage and biked down Main Street, grabbing my leather jacket on the way out. It was cold, and the sky was still dark and cloudy, but at least Zach wasn’t making it rain anymore. The streets were still flooded in some parts, and the smooth pavement was slippery.
Outside of the Fire Pit, I threw down the bike on the slick sidewalk and stepped inside. I then sat down by myself at our usual table in the back of the room as Martha came over and handed me a glass of lemonade. She looked like she was going to ask about the horrible bruise on my face, but then thought better of it. I was grateful; my own human mother would have pestered me nonstop.
When I asked where the boys were, she told me that Zach wasn’t feeling well (like I believed that! He was probably still storming around his room—literally), and Luke was on a date with Christina, a pretty blonde from the neighboring town of Pine Grove. I had seen them walking around together once or twice before, but I really didn’t know much about her. I just knew that she loved the beach almost as much as Luke did, and I was pretty sure that was all they talked about, although even Camille and I admitted that they made a cute couple appearance-wise. Becca had started a rumor that Christina was really the goddess Amphitrite, the wife of Poseidon, but I didn’t want to test Christina until the prophecy was a thing of the past.
Speaking of Luke and Christina, they walked into the restaurant right at that moment. Luke glanced at me for only a second and Christina waved, but then they sat down together at a table for two. All of a sudden, I felt very alone. I had no idea where Connor or anyone else was, which probably meant they were all cooped up in their houses for one reason or another. Sighing sadly to myself, I left the restaurant and walked across the street into the forest, leaving my bike on the sidewalk. It wouldn’t help me much in the woods anyway.
“Hey, wait up!” I heard Cole say to me from across the street.
I plastered a smile on my face and turned around, trying to be friendly even though I wasn’t in the mood. “Hi, Cole. What’s up?” I asked politely as he jogged up to me.
He took a deep breath before his soft brown eyes met my cold gray ones with a sense of urgency. I gulped and closed my eyes, knowing exactly what he was going to say next and dreading it. This exact moment had been in the making for a very long time. Sure enough, he pointed toward the trees and told me firmly, “I’m ready. To go in, I mean. Are you coming?” I thought he was trying to convince himself more than me.
I chewed my lip, thinking quietly for a minute, and Cole ruffled his caramel-colored hair nervously. “All right, fine. Just wait one minute,” I said to him as I stepped a few yards into the forest, making sure there weren’t any stray pieces of armor lying about. Then I pulled the walkie-talkie off my belt loop and, desperately hoping one of the other gods had theirs on, I said in Greek, “This is Athena, calling in an emergency situation. I’m taking Cole into the forest. I need help keeping the monsters away so he doesn’t see anything.”
It was dead silent for a moment as I waited for someone to answer my urgent plea. What was really only a few seconds seemed like ages before the walkie-talkie crackled to life and I heard Zeus’s voice say gruffly, “Why the hell are you doing that?” I could tell he was still angry from the night before.
“If I don’t take him in now, I think he’ll go in on his own to try to impress me or something,” I explained in annoyance.
“But if he lives, other people will want to go in too,” he argued, and I had to admit to myself that Zeus really did have a good point. The last thing we wanted was to become tour guides.
I was tugging at my side ponytail in deep thought when I heard Alec’s voice come on the line, and I knew he was using Pan’s walkie-talkie until we could get him one of his own. “Well, are we doing this or not?” Alec asked unhappily, and I was kind of surprised to hear that he was on board with my plan.
Zeus groaned. “Fine. But I won’t be able to get there very fast. Alec, what about you?”
“I’m at the meadow with Persephone and a few nymphs. I can get over there right now and follow you, I guess,” Alec agreed, but he still sounded unhappy. Once I told him where to find us, I walked back into the sunlight to meet Cole again, apologized for the wait, and led him into the forest, where it was almost dark enough to need a flashlight.
The two of us were silent for a while, and the only things we could hear were the birds calling to each other and the slight breeze whistling through the trees. I wondered if Alec had run into any monsters yet and if he was having any trouble fighting them on his own, because it would have been a real problem if he ended up dying. He was supposed to become our hero, after all. According to the Oracle, we couldn’t save the world without him.
After walking for a few minutes longer, I realized just how loud Cole was being. I supposed I had been tuning out his crunching footsteps subconsciously. The rest of the gods and I had learned when we were much younger to be as quiet as possible to avoid any monsters whatsoever, and Alec had also caught on to this idea very quickly, but I wasn’t sure Cole was even tryi
ng. I desperately wanted to check in with Alec, who was probably very annoyed and angry at the moment, since Cole was making his lookout job twice as difficult. The poor Sightless guy was probably attracting every single monster in the forest by making all that noise.
I stopped for a minute, ready to give Cole a lecture on taking quieter footsteps, but then my walkie-talkie crackled to life. Luckily, it was on a low volume, but I could still hear Alec’s troubled voice ask quietly in Greek, “Why are you really doing this for him?” My breath caught in my throat, and I bit my lip, suddenly wondering the same thing. “Don’t lie to me, Athena. And don’t lie to yourself either.” I found myself hating how his words sounded so much like something I would have said.
“What was that?” Cole asked loudly, interrupting my train of thought.
“Just static,” I answered dryly, turning away from him. My jaw was starting to throb again, and I was really wishing it would stop. Meanwhile, Cole frowned, probably deciding whether to believe me or not.
We were silent and unmoving, frozen in time, until he said, “Well, are we going yet?”
But I didn’t answer him; I was too busy thinking about what Alec had said to me. Why was I doing this for Cole anyway? Was it just because he was my friend and I felt pressured to do him a favor? Or was there another, more personal reason I didn’t even want to consider? Admittedly, Alec’s arrival in the forest seemed to have a very troubling effect on my love life, or lack thereof. More often than not I found myself wishing I had sent him away from the forest like Hera suggested.
However, my confused thoughts were interrupted yet again when Cole put his hand on my shoulder, slowly turning me around to face him. “Are you okay?” he whispered, his brown eyes full of concern, and I simply nodded, deciding that I never should have brought Cole here in the first place. I had caused too much trouble already.
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