Cursed Academy (Year Four)

by Holly Hook

  The rest of the summer passed this way, and while I wasn't pacing around, collecting folders of history from Prometheus "for my own reading" or burying myself in games, I was asking Celestus for any news on the Lower Order or the gods.

  "Zeus is buying another power company," Celestus said in August as we all sat around for breakfast. "And nobody's blaming the tornado on him. No one cares since it just went through the woods. I bet he paid the media not to cover it."

  "I wouldn't be surprised," Natalia said, shaking her head. "And to think, I taught at his school. Didn't see the gods much, but I think some are worse than others."

  "Apollo is usually kind," Prometheus said. "And Hermes is generally chill. Apollo's taken advantage of some lovers in the past so I can't be certain where he stands, and Hephaestus is an underdog among the Olympians. They may be worth speaking to when the school year begins."

  I had already indentified some gods who would side with Zeus. Athena, for sure. I'd detected a temper from her. Hera didn't give me good vibes, either, and neither did Poseidon, though I hadn't seen him much. Dionysus's gig was wine, so I imagined he wasn't much of a threat. And I couldn't find any incidents online about the Lower Order bombing his wineries.

  And if Zeus was planning his next attack, he was doing so quietly. The power plant kept tugging along, providing light to the area, and we suffered two more newscasts where Zeus shook the hands of officials in Slovakia and then Kenya. He had bought two more power companies.

  I closed my eyes, thinking of the Awakening. The strewn bodies Mrs. Allenson blamed on the gods' lack of control and accidental magic. The flooded coastlines. Those who appeased Zeus might live in this new world. He liked those who made him happy. But everyone else--

  I rose from bed, not realizing I'd drifted to the edge of sleep.

  A moment later, my alarm went off.

  It was the first day of school. Already.

  And someone knocked at my door.

  I rose from bed, instantly awake, and I paused for a moment. A shadow on the other side of my door shifted, and I detected two legs. And a deep breath.

  My own heart raced as my senses overwhelmed me. While having heightened senses was cool sometimes, it wasn't now, because I could read people all too well. Maria stood on the other side of the door, and she was dreading the moment she'd come face to face with me.

  I hadn't heard from her all summer or seen what had become of her. Taking my own long breath, I opened the door.

  Maria stood there, black hair in a neat braid, black fourth year robe almost touching the floor. She looked elegant.

  And she still had two eyes.

  "Maria," I said, gushing relief. I opened my arms for a hug, but she hesitated. "Oh. Sorry. I've been trying to work on, well, not scaring people."

  "You look good," she said, but I heard the strain in her voice, like she was worried about offending me. I'd never thought of myself as a walk on eggshells type.

  "Maria, I'm still the same person as before," I said, not believing it. "How are you doing?"

  She stabilized herself and dropped her shoulders. "Fine. I think." I read fatigue under her eyelids and I knew how she'd spent her summer, and why I hadn't heard from her.

  "You've been taking more of the asphodel," I said.

  "Is it that obvious? We're in our fourth year now. And that's when half of the students mature. The others mature shortly after."

  I swallowed, remembering all the newly matured students I'd seen during the past three years, the girls who hid their snake bodies and the guy trying to hide his new horse half. "You spent most of the summer sleeping. I thought you were going on vacation with Mikey and Cal."

  "That's kind of hard when they wanted privacy." She forced a smile. "Mikey has to do what he has to do, too. I started getting headaches in the middle of my head. Warning signs. If I hadn't done what I'd done..." She turned away, trailing off.

  "Just let me hug you already," I said.

  "I don't know if that will help. Sorry." Maria quickly waved me downstairs.

  Ouch. I flinched. But at least she was talking to me and she had a point. I no longer gave off happy vibes and hadn't been looking forward to scaring the new students. Was I still a student, technically? Yeah, the others would love learning around a distraction like me.

  Heart heavy, I followed Maria down the steps and to the dining hall where we'd have our orientation. I realized I wasn't wearing a black robe like the other fourth years, which just made me stand out even more than I did. Though I'd practiced holding back the atmosphere I gave off, I couldn't mute it completely, and the first and second years shifted away from me when I walked past, most of them already dressed in their purple and blue robes and nervously hauling stuff into their dorms. Whispers followed from behind me, and I upped my pace so I wouldn't have to hear them.

  No use.

  "What was that?"

  "Did you feel that?"

  "It was like black pulses. This school, man."

  "Don't listen to them." Maria tapped me in the back of my shoulder, urging me to hurry. As if she didn't want to be seen in my company.

  I said nothing all the way to the dining hall, where our four tables spread out. My heart raced in anticipation of seeing Mikey. Cal had graduated last year. He wasn't in school anymore, and he wasn't sitting at our table when we got to the one on the end. Mikey sat alone at the end, clad in a black robe as if grieving, and no one had taken the seats beside him. But his skin was normal and he smiled at us as we entered.

  Yes. He smiled. Good sign. I eyed the other students of the fourth year table. Serena remained unchanged, being a god descendant, but Tiffany had a spider mark on her forehead. She'd matured over the summer, and waved at Serena as she walked out of the breakfast line with her tray. She was okay with her fate. Good for her. But the other fourth years at the table, all one dozen of them, hadn't fared as well. I recognized a girl named Lily who now had black eyes and a blue tint to her skin--a matured Siren--and Mikey was making a show of not looking at her.

  I sat down across from Mikey. "Hey," I whispered in what I hoped was a nonthreatening manner.

  "Hey. I'm fine." He dared to look directly at me. Maybe spending the summer away had been good for all of us. My friends had time to adjust to my new state. Maybe.

  Wendy walked into the dining hall, already in her robe, and she glowered at the world as she walked in, luggage over her shoulder. Her parents had gotten her here late. And probably chewed her out for spending another year at Cursed Academy instead of Olympian.

  She slogged over and sat down. "That drive was an adventure."

  "Can't you get your own car yet?" Maria asked.

  "I don't know when I'll get one. Or get away from my parents," Wendy said. "They're cutting off my funds."

  My jaw dropped. And I was sure I let my guard down on my magic, because some third years at the next table got up and moved to the far end. "They cut you off?"

  "I tried to explain about Zeus, but they wouldn't listen," Wendy said. "I'm glad I didn't get accepted into Olympian. Zeus might even be over there right now, looking for more girls to assault. I'm shocked he waited for you to turn eighteen." She stared right at me with disgust.

  I hadn't thought of that. If Zeus had tried to assault me, how many other women had he forced himself on in the past? Already sickness filled my gut when I thought of how he was taking over the economy. When he did that, he'd have everything under his thumb. My gut had been trying to warn me for months.

  My phone buzzed. I answered it, heart leaping, hoping it was Ronin despite not seeing him for the whole summer. But no.

  Open the barrier. Let me in.

  -Dominique.

  Chapter Five

  The sight sent shudders over me just the same.

  "Who's that?" Mikey leaned over my shoulder. For a moment, I wished he still feared me.

  I stuffed the phone into my jeans pocket and rose.

  Dominique knew I had her bargaining chip in front o
f me right now. Why else would she wait until breakfast, when friends met, to make me open the barrier for her?

  "Giselle?" Maria asked.

  "I have to go deal with something," I said. "We've got a straggler." I had opened the barrier late last night over the road, so the students could get in, but Dominique wouldn't take that route. It was too obvious.

  I walked out of the dining hall before Maria and Mikey could ask any questions. They looked at each other, and then Wendy, as I left. I brushed past the newly matured Siren girl, who had her had slapped over her mouth and was headed to the bathroom, probably to freak out about her new social status. I knew how she felt and wished I could follow her to tell her that maybe, just maybe, we could still fix all of this, but I didn't. Even hesitating might put Dominique's patience over the edge.

  She won't hurt the students, I told myself.

  I found Dominique in the woods after following her directions, standing just outside the filmy black barrier. The witch waited on the other side with her arms behind her back, confident. She looked like a fairy tale villain in her dark robe and with her graying hair spilling around her cheeks. Anger rose in me at the sight of her, the killer of Ronin's mother.

  I had worked with the killer of his mother. The destroyer of his family.

  Swallowing, I reached the barrier and drew my weapon off my belt, slashing a six foot tall hole in the barrier.

  "Strong protection," Dominique said, nodding with approval. "Excellent work. Prometheus's border and Zeus's border still have the holes you cut in them, but I think they are beginning to close. You may want to renew those before the rest of the Order arrives."

  I about choked as I turned away, not wanting her to see my reaction. But thanks to my enhanced hearing, I picked up a faint chuckle. She was pleased about me, a new immortal, being at her beck and call. When all this was over, what would she do then?

  "Yeah," I said, upping my pace, but Dominique kept up, grabbing branches and stepping over fallen logs left over from the storm.

  "I see Zeus has not attempted another attack. Your magic is impressive. You almost killed him a few months ago, which is something no one has done since the days of the titan wars."

  If she was trying to win my favor with crappy compliments, it wasn't working. "What did you come back for?"

  "To plan the destruction of Mount Olympus, of course."

  I stopped right there in the trees as the world seemed to close in. "You want to destroy Mount Olympus? Is that even possible?"

  "We have to reach it first, but we may the means soon. Olympus holds all this together. Take it down, and everything my cult awakened will go back to sleep." Dominique smiled, her golden-flecked brown eyes trained on me. But then she seemed to think, and frowned. "You do want to see Zeus's destruction, do you not? I know you have had time to think over the summer."

  I swallowed. She was talking about bringing an entire system down.

  "Yes," I forced, hating it.

  Dominique clapped. "Then we are on the same page. Come on. I need to stay out of Prometheus's sight, as he is chained once again. Take me to the basement. I've heard of a secret compartment there."

  "That won't be easy," I said, half-hoping she'd leave. Over the summer, I'd been pretending that I wasn't part of this, but now I couldn't dodge the truth anymore. My purpose was to destroy. "Do you really think when Olympus comes down, the gods' power will retreat from the world? I need to know that my friends will be saved."

  "It must," Dominique said. "They left the mortal world once, restoring everyone to normal. And if they do so again, the same will happen."

  She had a point. But what about me?

  A different type of darkness seemed to settle over everything. A cloud moved over the sun. "Are you sure?"

  She said nothing as we walked again. Then, just as the grounds of Cursed Academy appeared through the trees, she spoke, her hood hanging over her face. "I am not certain. I have made an educated guess."

  Great. I said nothing all the way back around the building. Risking the front entrance was a bad idea. She was lying for all I knew, but even with my enhanced senses, I had trouble distinguishing lies from uncertainty. To me, they looked the same.

  "The secret basement room," Dominique reminded me.

  Cal and Mikey had said something about using a secret space in the basement for recording purposes. They had since moved on to going to an off-campus studio to produce their albums, but it made sense. Dominique now wanted that same place.

  We went through the back window. The laundry room offered no clues about where the secret room was and I'd never asked Mikey or Cal about it. But after searching, I knocked on a hollow-sounding wall behind the broken dryer at the back of the room. Dominique, to my shock, helped me pull the machine out even though I didn't need her help, and then the panel that sat over the wall without nails. And in fact, a musty room covered in soundproof padding stretched out before us. Conveniently, a few cots had been shoved into the corner, as if someone had moved them into storage. Dominique clapped.

  "What do you need this room for?"

  "You'll see."

  "Are you planning to stay here?"

  "No. The Order will be camping."

  "Whatever you do, you will not hurt any students or teachers," I reminded her, letting my voice fill the secret room. At least the padding prevented an eerie echo.

  "What sort of monster do you think I am?" she asked, glowering.

  I could offend her all I wanted. We didn't have to like each other. We just had to get a job done, a job that would hurt Ronin even more. It was the last thing I wanted to do. Even if we got on good terms again, he would never heal from this.

  And would I?

  I didn't know what world I inhabited anymore.

  Holding back the heavy despair that threatened to pull me into the ground, I stepped out of the room with Dominique. We put the panel back.

  "Thank you," Dominique said. "That room will work for our purposes."

  "It was--" I didn't want to say no problem. This was the Lower Order. On campus.

  A quiet sob echoed from behind the last washing machine, where a large space often collected lost laundry and fuzzies.

  I turned. A shadow shifted against the wall and whoever was there silenced. But breathing remained. I recognized it somehow. Lily. The newly matured Siren girl.

  She could still cry, too. Just like me.

  "Who's there?" Dominique asked.

  "It's a fellow fourth year," I said.

  "Why is she behind the washing machine?" Was that concern?

  Lily slowly stood, draped in mournful black. Her blue tinted skin looked almost icy in the florescent lighting. Her eyes were watery from crying. She must have broken down between the time I left the school and come back, and not noticed us in the secret room. She'd come down to the only place she felt was private.

  "Giselle?" she asked, backing into the wall. From the feeling I gave off or from her own embarrassment, I couldn't tell. Maybe both. Her voice had changed, too. She'd always been a quiet girl in class, withdrawn, but now her voice was seductive. Magnetic. Smooth. No man would be able to resist.

  "Lily. It's fine," I said. "I mean, no, it's not, because now neither of us can go out in public without freaking everyone out." Awkward.

  She let out a breath. "Well, the future's cut out for me, isn't it? Guard work or grunt work, here I come. And forget dating."

  Dominique, beside me, eyed the concrete floor.

  And I recognized the emotion.

  Guilt.

  She truly had started the Awakening, and all to bring back the gods she used to love. And then she unleashed a monster.

  "I am sorry," she muttered.

  My jaw about dropped, but I held my emotions in check.

  "Sorry?" Lily asked, eyes widening as she noticed Dominique for the first time. "Hey. Aren't you the leader of the--"

  Dominique raised her head and dared to face the mess she made. "Yes." She approached Lily,
opening her arms.

  For a hug.

  Dominique, the witch who had magically bombed Zeus's power plants, was offering someone a hug.

  "Huh?" Lily asked.

  "We are going to make this better," she promised, sounding like a caring grandmother. She enveloped Lily, who didn't resist. "Giselle and I will take everything back and put it back to the way it should be."

  * * * * *

  I wasn't sure what messed with my mind more: the fact that Dominique had just displayed that she had a soul, or the fact that Prometheus had held up this year's welcoming ceremony for me.

  I found the titan on the stage of the dining hall when I got back, pretending I hadn't just left the Lower Order leader to let herself out of Cursed Academy and rejoin her forces out in the woods. Lily followed me, now that she'd cried herself out on Dominique's shoulder.

  "What just happened?" she whispered as I pushed open the dining hall doors.

  "I'm not sure," I lied. Only I was. Dominique was genuine about wanting to help the downtrodden monsters return to being regular humans.

  I had to work with the Order. I had to turn my back on Ronin to save the world.

  "Giselle," Prometheus said, waving me onto the stage.

  Horror. I had to speak. In front of all these kids. I eyed the four tables of the dining hall. Everyone had finished their breakfast and only a few trays lay scattered around. Maria and Mikey eyed me, and Wendy offered a rare thumbs-up. Serena just whispered something in Tiffany's ear as Lily sat down.

  I wondered if the titan knew where I had been. But as I predicted, he didn't ask as I joined him on the stage.

  "Giselle," he stated, letting his voice float over the dining hall, "is perhaps our most important student right now. As many of you have heard, she is newly matured and the first immortal to come into being since ancient times."