The Trials of Olympus

by Brittni Chenelle

  I didn’t say any of that though. I repeated my request for Andres instead. Manny let out a sigh and stepped back from the doorway to let me in as he called over his shoulder for his brother.

  “Yessi,” Andy shouted as he saw me, shoving Manny playfully out of the way as he hefted me into the air in a firm hug. “I’ve missed you, bitch.”

  I let out a laugh, the residual anger from my morning confrontation fading in the presence of my over-the-top bestie. “I was literally here two days ago.”

  “That’s two days too many,” he quipped as he released me. He looked at Manny and rolled his eyes. “Put a shirt on.” He gestured his open palm expressively in the direction of his bare-chested brother. “No one wants to see all that.”

  “Yessi never complained,” Manny said even as he snagged a t-shirt off the back of the couch and pulled it on. His abs flexed with the motion, and I looked away guiltily as I swallowed hard.

  Andy rolled his eyes and grabbed my wrist, pulling me into his bedroom. He shut the door behind us before he spoke, “So what brings you by, babe? Pretty sure you didn’t pop in unannounced just to stare at my brother. Or did you? Is that a thing again?”

  “Definitely not a thing. My mom was on... who knows what this time... and started with me. Her pupils were huge, so it was definitely drugs paired with the booze.”

  He let out a sigh as he flopped down on his bed. “That sucks.” He threw his arms open and I collapsed onto the bed beside him. I gave him the latest and greatest on my mom. He threw a pitying look my way before falling silent. What could he even say about the bullshit that I called my life?

  After a few moments, he looked at me with a smile. “So, not to change the subject, but... I met a guy.”

  “Spill, bitch!” I shouted as I shot up into a sitting position.

  “His name is Xavier. He’s super sweet and smokin’ hot. We’ve only been talking for like a month but... I really like him.” A mischievous grin spread across his face as he waggled his eyebrows suggestively. “And he’s great in bed.”

  I laughed at his antics before peppering him with questions about his new boo. We chatted for hours. Little moments with Andy made my life suck a whole lot less, and I was in a great mood by the time I left.

  4

  Jiro

  The peaceful atmosphere that encased the golden stables stirred with the protest of the winged horses who seemed to deem me unwelcome. The stalls went ten rows deep on both sides and stretched from the floor to the high ceilings with a gap in the middle for the horses to poke their faces through. I peeked inside each stall, throwing the animals into a frenzy one by one.

  The front of each stall had a mural of Zeus interacting with the pegasus inside, and they were all carved in gold. I scoffed. “Who designed this place? King Midas?” When there was no response, I spun, but Hermes was nowhere to be found. That was a bad sign. I couldn’t get back to the Underworld without him unless I followed through and nicked a pegasus. Turning back was no longer an option.

  “You must be Jiro, Prince of the Underworld.”

  I spun and saw a guy leaning against one of the stables. My gaze was immediately drawn to the white-feathered wings that jutted from his back. He had brown curly hair and an easy smile—definitely not a threat.

  “What makes you think that?”

  He walked over and held his hand out. “Because no one else would be brave enough to sneak in here. I’m Pitt. Got in a little trouble with Zeus and I’m working off my debt here.”

  I huffed, slapping away his handshake. “Sucks for you.” I turned back to the stables.

  “You’re going to try and steal one, huh?” Pitt asked. There was no mistaking the amusement in his voice.

  “Mind your business.”

  “I’m the stable boy, sir. The horses are my business.”

  My internal fire flared and Pitt backed away from the sudden heat.

  “Wh-what I meant was…” he stammered, holding his hands up in surrender, “would you like me to help you make your selection, sir?”

  “I’d like you to mind your business and to stop calling me ‘sir’.”

  With two flaps of his wings, he was in the air, a small gust of wind cooling me with each stroke. He pointed to a stall a few feet away and mouthed “that one” before flying out of the stable.

  Remembering my haste, I quickly scanned the murals as the horses kicked at their stall doors as if to warn me away. I finally came to a silent stall, the one Pitt had pointed to, where a black pegasus stuck his nose out. The massive beast blinked peacefully, beckoning me to him.

  I peered at the mural outside of his stall, which showed him in the clouds of Olympus with Zeus faced away. Curious, I cautiously reached a hand out to the creature and stroked its coat between its beady eyes.

  When it didn’t attack, I knew I’d found my prize. I unlatched the stall and eased the stallion out.

  The wind howled outside. “Pitt?” I called, but there was no answer. “Hermes?”

  Thunder cracked, echoing through the stalls. A shudder of trepidation wracked my body.

  Without hesitation, I leapt up and threw my leg over the pegasus. Grabbing hold of it where its wings met its body, we rode for the exit. My heart beat rampantly in my chest as we made our escape. We burst through the threshold that led to the grassy plain only to find it plunged into total darkness. The moon and stars were swallowed by angry black clouds that threatened to strike. No, not yet. Not before I fly.

  I kicked my heels into the pegasus, urging him to charge. He stretched out his black wings, the soft feathers brushing my arms with each flap. The clash of thunder sent fear coursing through my body like a poison. The heavy gallop of hooves eased as we launched into the air. I felt the muscles of the enormous beast flex beneath me as its powerful wings defied gravity. We had just started to taste the freedom of limitless reach when the pegasus’ movement came to a crashing halt. I flew forward and slammed into the ground, all breath forced from my lungs on impact. I clenched my eyes shut as pain rushed through my body—my immortality instantly straining to mend my injuries.

  The ground shook as I struggled to catch my breath. My skin prickled at the sudden presence of power surrounding me. I gulped as I opened my eyes to find myself face to face with Zeus.

  I steeled my nerves. “So you’ll never guess what happened,” I began. “The stable boy asked me to—”

  “Enough,” he said. The boom of his voice alone should have been enough to unsettle me, but the similarity his face held to my father’s human form made me feel almost defiant.

  “How dare you steal from me!” Zeus reared back, his fist sparking with lightning. I braced myself as it collided with my jaw with a resounding crack. I felt my lip split, but not an ounce of electricity coursed through me.

  I spit out a mouthful of blood. “No lightning? Having performance issues?” I grinned, masking the fear that ravaged my body as he wound up for another punch.

  “Brother,” a voice said. Zeus exhaled and stood, turning to face my father—Hades.

  “What has my… idiotic child done this time?”

  Zeus tilted his head. “You got here rather quickly. I was just about to teach Jiro a lesson.”

  Hades laughed. “Surely you’re not going to deny me my trainer mere days before the Trials begin.”

  I started to sit up, but a glare from Hades told me not to move another inch.

  Zeus stepped on my chest and I gritted my teeth to keep from shouting. “I wonder why you bother. Hercules wins every time. Why not create a demigod yourself so you have a chance? Instead of wasting time training flimsy mortals? You should have riddled it out by now. A mortal trained by an immortal is still just a mortal.”

  “Because I would never debase myself with a mortal,” Hades spat. “I wonder if your confidence in Hercules is genuine... or if it’s just a part of the character you play as King of the Gods?”

  Zeus scoffed, digging his heel into me. “He is of my flesh. He cannot lo
se.”

  Hades nodded. “I see. Would you be willing to make things a bit more... interesting?”

  “What did you have in mind, brother?” Zeus asked.

  “Your throne, of course.”

  “And what shall I have if Hercules wins?”

  Hades paused for a moment before he replied. “Persephone.”

  As his son, I had known Hades my entire life, yet still the cruelty of such an offer struck me. Had there been some kind of history between the three, or did Zeus simply relish in taking that which he knew Hades did not want to part with?

  Zeus’s eyes lit as he lifted his weight off my cracked ribs. “We have a deal.”

  5

  Yesenia

  After I left Andy’s, I went straight to the bus stop to pick up Araceli. I whipped up a quick dinner as she played back the voice recording she’d made of the teacher assigning her homework.

  While Celi slurped away at the pasta, I followed her instructions for the assignment. She did all the hard work. I just wrote it out. It was important that my sister learn everything she could. If I gave her the answers, I’d be doing her a huge disservice. Instead, I recorded her answers down and coached her on finding solutions, as a teacher would.

  After homework and dinner, I set Celi up with an audiobook on the cassette player I bought her for Christmas. It wasn’t much, but it was all I could afford. We went to the library every Monday, the only day I took off work, and checked out new books for her to listen to. We didn’t have TV or WiFi like most people our age, but we managed to entertain ourselves just fine.

  Once I arrived at work, it was pretty much go, go, go the entire night. There was a conference in town and, since my restaurant was nestled inside a hotel, we were slammed. The hotel was booked, but somehow there was a miscommunication with their management and ours so we were severely understaffed.

  As rough as the night had been, I made great money. Tips were always easy to come by. When I wasn’t using resting bitch face to keep people from messing with me in our neighborhood, I was a nice person. People from my block wouldn’t even recognize the curly-haired, smiling, polite server persona I wore at work.

  My last table finally got up as I stifled what felt like my 1000th yawn. I waved them away and thanked them for dining with me before collecting my tip and their credit card slip to close their check out. Finally.

  I rushed to do my paperwork and divvied up the money between what was mine and what I owed the restaurant, ignoring the servers around me complaining about how much their tip-out was. I just wanted to get out of there and head home.

  After a quick lap around the restaurant, I made sure I completed everything assigned to me for the night. Freedom was so close I could almost taste it.

  Once I clocked out, I headed for the crisp night air that seemed to be calling my name. With a smile, I looked down at the watch I always wore when I worked. 2:16 A.M. “Happy birthday, Yessi,” I whispered to myself because, well, I’m dramatic like that.

  My mom, before she sucked as a human, recorded all the important facts about my life in my baby book—including the exact time I was born. It was cute and, for a moment, I mourned the mother I should have had. Instead, I turned nineteen all by my lonesome in a nearly deserted parking lot.

  My morose thoughts quickly broke as I felt a ripple of heat coarse over my skin. What. The. Hell? The light bulbs above my section of the parking lot burst into what felt like a million pieces. A scream tore from my throat as I reflexively lifted my arms over my head—an iota of protection from the glass raining down around me.

  When the tinkling of the shards hitting the ground silenced, I looked up and jumped back immediately. Where there was nothing but emptiness before, there was now a man leaning against a lamppost.

  Fear gripped me as I forced myself into a defensive position. A normal person would have probably turned around and booked it out of there, but I wasn’t normal. When it was time for flight or fight, I fell heavily into the fight category. I wasn’t going to let anyone make me a victim—not again.

  6

  Jiro

  Hades glared down at me, my blood boiling beneath his gaze. My wrists were restrained by two hellhounds whose canines bit into my flesh, sinking deeper whenever I moved. Still, I couldn’t help but pull my aching wrists in vain, ignoring the pain of the raw skin newly punctured as the hounds adjusted their grip.

  “You are a disgrace,” he whispered as smoke exhaled through his nose. Normally, the King of the Underworld was broad-shouldered, with strong angular features and a high-sitting, pointed nose. But when he was worked up like this, those features gave way to his demonic form. His skin grew ashen and flaked and, with each micro-movement he made, flared with the red of disturbed coals.

  I watched the demon inside him slip through his human facade as he paced. Other than my body’s ability to produce and dispel heat and fire, it was difficult to see myself in him. I seemed to inherit just about all my features from my mother, a fact that made me proud whenever I saw Hades like this.

  Cerberus, his prized three-headed hellhound, shifted nervously behind him, sensing the danger that his underlings might take in the crossfire. Persephone walked into view, a smile twisted onto her ageless face as she stroked the beast to calm him.

  Rather than watch Hades’ grotesque shift, or feed into Persephone’s pleasure by showing fear, I closed my eyes, my thoughts moving to the last time I’d seen my mother in her human form. I still remembered the way her round face and angular eyes made her look both formidable and kind. I remembered her curved nose, long and slender fingers—the hum of her voice as she spoke to me in Japanese. Her loving gaze was all I had left of her, ever since Persephone came into the picture and my mother was forced, by the Spring Goddess’s jealousy, into her dragon form for eternity.

  My eyes peeked open as talons grew from Hades' fingers. “Why?” he hissed between clenched teeth. “Why must you humiliate me?”

  It was a cruel act of fate that Persephone wasn’t able to bear children. It meant I was as stuck with them as they were with me—the only heir to the Underworld. It seemed like no matter what I did on their behalf, it only made things worse. “I was just messing around.”

  His face rushed to mine, his usually blue pupils half-mooned in red. “You thought stealing Zeus’s pet would bring you pleasure, did you?” He bore pointed fangs.

  I turned my face from his.

  His voice shot out like a growl. “There is no end to the pain Zeus can inflict upon us. We are at his mercy. Luckily, your little indiscretion led to an intriguing opportunity. A chance at Zeus’s throne.”

  I lunged forward in frustration, the hellhounds’ bites growing deeper. “I won’t help you. I won’t train your champion this time.”

  He kicked at the hellhounds, causing them to latch tighter. “You will. In fact, you will find me a champion strong enough to defeat Hercules.”

  I grunted to muffle the screams that threatened to rise in my throat. “Zeus was right,” I said through groans. “A mortal cannot defeat a demigod.”

  “You ingrate! You’re lucky he didn’t cancel it altogether after the stunt you pulled.”

  I nodded to Persephone. “Did you tell her?”

  Hades snarled.

  Persephone’s sultry voice cut in, “Tell me what?”

  The words flew off my lips before I lost the nerve. “If he loses the Trials, you’ll belong to Zeus.”

  Hades turned to Persephone and took her hands in his, but she recoiled. “My love, this is our moment. Zeus has given me the chance to win his throne and, when I do,” he leaned in, “you will be Queen of Olympus.”

  I spit the blood still filling my mouth from Zeus’ punch. “Do what you want to me. I’m not going to help you.”

  Hades spun toward me and was on me so quickly that a yelp narrowly escaped me. “I see. And would you be willing to make things more interesting?”

  They were the exact words that goaded Zeus into this deal and, wha
tever he said next, I wasn’t falling for it.

  He began, “How about if you find and train the winning champion, I return your mother to her human form?”

  I froze. I’d written that off as impossible so many years ago that I didn’t even consider it as leverage he could use. My mother... in human form? Persephone hissed in anger as a dangerous wave of hope surged through me. There was nothing I wanted more than to hear my mother’s voice again, to feel her warm embrace.

  “I’ll take your silence as agreement.”

  I dropped my head as my thoughts raced. I couldn’t let Hades win this tournament. The amount of destruction he could cause would be irreparable… but there wasn’t anything I wouldn’t do to see my mother again. Without deciding which way I wanted this to play out, I said, “We have a deal.”

  “Wonderful, but of course you must be punished for your actions today.”

  I said nothing, hoping my silence would safeguard our deal. Fire shot from Hades’ hands and engulfed my body. Every cell screamed for relief from the hellish blaze. I gasped for air only to suck in more of the inferno. My skin flaked off, but I felt the battle of my immortality as it struggled to repair the unyielding damage. My consciousness threatened to slip away, but I defiantly held onto it. At once, it stopped. The smoke from my burning flesh stung my eyes and filled my nose with the scent of my cooked rind. The hounds that bound my wrists were nothing but piles of charred bones.

  I slumped breathlessly in my seat, unable to open my eyes to see if Hades had gone. He spoke, making my freshly cremated body flinch.