I saw more than a few students with Stymphalian shadows getting razzed as they left the assembly. Tina hasn’t exactly been the friendliest vampire on campus, either. She touted her blood like it was ambrosia, all in an effort to cover up her true Moggy identity. Even if she escaped some ribbing today, she’ll have to face it in the morning, for the first day of classes.
“Hey,” I try again, even though she didn’t answer my first question. “I think I’m going to go down to the Archives, see if Merilee has any more information about this prophecy. Wanna come? Knowledge is power, right?”
Tina seems to believe that the silent treatment is power, because she gives me nothing. Not even a shake of the head. I’ve done my best to help her out in the past, even covering for her when she came down with the shifter plague—which as a full-blooded vampire she should have been resistant to. And she still can’t even acknowledge my presence? Whatever.
I slam our door on the way out. It reverberates in the hall, followed by the sound of a very large Stymphalian turd splatting against the floor.
Down the hall, Cassie’s door pops open. “What’s going on?”
“Nothing new,” I tell her. “Just reinforcing my very strong roomie bond with Tina. I was just going to come get you. Feel like visiting your mom?”
“Yes!” Cassie actually does a fist pump. “I love my mom!”
There’s a pang in my stomach at her words, a reminder of what I’ve lost. The memory potion that my mom took means she doesn’t know who I am anymore, even if I can remember perfectly. And my bio mom…I never even knew her.
Cassie links arms with me as we make our way to the Archives. “So, any big Moggy surprises today? Other than Val and Tina, I mean. That one…woah!”
She whistles and makes a motion, slicing her hand above her head. Cassie’s been raised her entire life on campus, and her attempts at real-world interaction often go this way.
“No,” I correct her. “That’s over her head. Like…she didn’t get that joke, it went right over her head. I think you want mind blown.” I mimic an explosion on either side of my temples.
“Oh, definitely,” Cassie says, doing it back at me, but still whistling instead of making a bomb noise.
“Thank you, for the distraction today, with Greg,” I say.
She nods. “I just wish we could have helped all the Moggies.”
“How’s your face?” I ask. “It looked like Greg headbutted you pretty hard.”
“It’s fine. Fern fixed it up.” She touches her nose as if to check that there’s no pain. “He felt so bad about it he kept apologizing. He really is sweet.”
I look at Cassie, who has a slight smile. Maybe it’s time for Cassie to move on from grieving Darcy. Maybe Greg is just the boy to help her do it. I push that to the back of my mind as we arrive at the Archives.
Merilee is nowhere to be found. Actually, it’s hard to locate just about anything here, even the Archivist. Merilee’s filing system is more of a stacking system. Piles of paper surround us, small unimportant slips of paper like doctor’s excuses from class resting on top of Annals of the Histories of the War: Volume 1 Where Monsters Went Wrong. All of this might make it seem like Merilee is scatterbrained, but the truth is exactly the opposite. She can remember everything she’s ever read, and files it away in her mind. She doesn’t need to refer to any of this stuff; all anyone has to do is ask her. Merilee figured out a long time ago that her skill made her irreplaceable on campus, and how to use that to her advantage—and Cassie’s.
When Merilee dies, all of her knowledge will pass to Cassie, guaranteeing a job for Cassie here on campus. She’ll never have to wander into the real world, which—let’s be honest—would eat her alive. Unfortunately, that’s also why she was kidnapped by a splinter cell of monsters, to try and gain that knowledge. At least they never got a chance to hurt Merilee.
“Mom?” Cassie calls, her voice soaring out above piles of paper and stacks of books. “Where are you?”
There’s a sudden flutter, and some loose pieces of paper float through the air. Merilee comes around the corner, red-eyed and crying. She’s followed by a Stymphalian bird.
“Mom!” Cassie cries out, going to Merilee. The older woman sobs into her daughter’s shoulder.
“I’m sorry, honey,” she says. “I didn’t want you to know.”
“Wait,” I say. “But if you’re a Moggy, why isn’t Cassie one, too?”
Merilee shakes her head. “Cassie’s dad was a seer, like me. As long as your immediate parents were the same, you’re safe.”
“I don’t care that you’re a Moggy,” Cassie says, rubbing her mom’s shoulder. “I’m proud to be your daughter, so I wouldn’t care if I were one, too.”
“Don’t say that!” Merilee lifts her head suddenly, eyes sharp behind the tears. “The birds are only the beginning. Zee has marked us, publicly humiliated us. Who knows what will come next?”
Nothing good, that’s for sure.
I wander away into the stacks, letting Merilee and Cassie have a moment alone. All this talk of blood and Moggies has me wondering about my own parentage. I can still feel the presence of Fern’s spell around me, like a soft film of cotton that I’m moving through. But it’s fading. If Mr. Zee employs any further experiments to test for Moggies and I’m caught unaware… I shiver, and my wings erupt as a bright silver. I wrap them around myself for comfort. It’s better for me to know for sure what I am.
Pages continue to settle around me, blown in the draft from the bird’s wings. They waft down as the now unfortunately familiar smell of Stymphalian bird poop fills the air. I snatch a piece as it drifts past my face.
Some cat shifters have secretly been growing catnip in their dorm rooms…
Ugh. Boring. It’s about to be legalized in the shifter community anyway.
I sift through some random piles, but find nothing more interesting than a student’s musings on whether Hermes was sleeping with Themis or not, and a bulletin from the Pure Prairie Vampire League: Mavens of the Midwest meeting.
No, if I want to learn more about my own parentage in this mess, I’m going to have to go to the source. That means interrupting Cassie, Merilee, and her Stymphalian shadow.
I wander back through the piles, following the easily identifiable scent of the bird. Merilee is drying her eyes, and Cassie is patting her mother’s shoulder. Again, I feel the stab of pain that I don’t think will ever dull. I’ve lost both my parents, and the bio-mom I never knew.
Time to find out who my real father was.
“Merilee?” I ask. “Can you recall the exact wording of the information we found regarding the day my dad fled campus?”
“Of course,” she says, wiping her nose and then tapping her temple, like she’s clicking on a link.
“Student Daniel Evans fled the grounds last night. He carries with him two secrets that could ruin the Academy forever, if their existence was known. Steps must be taken.”
I wince a little when she says my dad’s name, still remembering his face as Leviathan, a water monster, swept him away to his death, all because of a jealous love for my mother.
“I’m sorry, dear,” Merilee says. “I’ve cross-referenced his name, but no more mention of him, your mother, or the secrets they left with have been found.”
“I’m pretty sure the secrets were me, and my sister Mavis,” I tell her. “But I don’t understand why our existence could ruin the Academy.”
“Because you’re a Moggy?” Cassie hazards.
“She could be,” Merilee agrees. “But just being a Moggy wouldn’t ruin the Academy. Until recently, Moggies were tolerated on campus. No, there’s got to be something much more sinister in Edie’s past.”
“Great,” I say.
“Being a Moggy is sinister enough these days,” Cassie says, giving Merilee’s bird a glare. “At least you don’t have one of these tailing you.”
“No, I’ve got one pooping where I sleep, though,” I tell her. “It is beyond gr
oss.”
“Stay with me,” Cassie offers. “I don’t mind.”
“Thank you. If it gets to be too much I will, but I don’t want Tina to think I’ve deserted her.” If everyone were half as good-hearted as Cassie the world would be a much better place.
“I wish I could help you out more, Edie,” Merilee tells me.
“What about the prophecy concerning Mr. Zee? The one that said he’d die by his own child, a Moggy. What were the exact words?” Cassie asks.
Merilee taps the other side of her forward, her eyeballs sliding back and forth under the lids while she speaks.
“He who throws the lightning will die by one born of his own diluted blood.”
“That’s it?” Cassie asks. “That’s like, twelve words. Twelve words and he’s got the whole campus in an uproar?”
“It’s fifteen,” Merilee corrects, eyeballs rolling as she counts. “But remember, it’s Mr. Zee. He’s a god. He’s the god. There are some ancient texts that refer to him as the very root of the entire universe. Any threat to the safety of the gods is taken seriously.”
I snort. “So seriously that they created an entire Academy in order to draw young paranormals to fight their battles for them.”
“Exactly,” Merilee nods in my direction.
“But can gods die?” I ask. “I mean, I know Mr. Zee is rattled but…”
I’d seen Hermes heal himself from a fairly serious burn once. The blink of an eye and his skin was fresh, eyebrows grown back in. It had taken only seconds.
“It’s…difficult,” Merilee admits. “In order to kill a god they’d have to be weakened first, drained of some of their power and faculties.”
Cassie locks eyes with me and I know we’re thinking the same thing.
Mr. Zee has always been a little off, but lately his behavior bordered on the mentally ill. And he’d been wearing some sort of stage makeup during the big production where the Moggies were identified. I’m willing to bet that under that foundation, his skin is as gray as my wings are right now.
I’m pretty sure somebody is poisoning Mr. Zee.
And I’ve got a good guess who it is.
6
When I arrive at Themis’s office, Hepa is leaving. This is the second time we’ve run into each other here. Weird.
I haven’t really seen her much lately; she’s been cloistered with the other healers, working on their secret project. Not so secret now—it was obviously the fog that outed all the Moggies.
“Hepa,” I say when she tries to walk by me. I grab her wrist and she spins back to me, looking…ashamed.
“I didn’t want to do it,” she tells me. “I hate all this Nazi bullshit. I just…I have to stay on Metis’s good side.” Metis is the goddess in charge of the healing arts, mother to Athena and, weirdly, Zee’s ex-wife. The family tree of the Greek gods is incredibly complicated, and terribly violent. A healer who wants to do well after the Academy will need Metis on her side.
“I understand,” I tell her. “We’re all trying to get by.”
She looks grateful. “If I can do anything to help you…or Mavis.”
“Thanks,” I tell her. As Hepa turns to go, I add, “Hey, what’s with all the visits to Themis lately?”
Hepa goes still for a moment, but then forces a sickly smile onto her face. “Just getting some guidance on my schedule for next term. I like to think ahead.”
And with that she whirls around and quickly strides away.
Okay, definitely weird. But right now, there’s so much else already going on, I shrug it off and push into Themis’s office. As I do, I make my own promise to myself. I’m not leaving here without answers.
She looks up and I’m about to go full out dragon on her when I see the look in her eyes. Sadness, regret, and a little fear. She rushes to me and enfolds me in a hug.
“Edie, I’m so sorry Mavis is being treated this way.”
Despite myself I relax into her hold. I think of Mavis being paraded around like a pet on a leash, the barely hidden bruises on her skin, the green fog turning red as she inhaled it.
“Why is he doing it?” I ask. “Why torture her?”
“To show he can,” she says, releasing me. “The collar keeps her from shifting and the chain is impossible to break.” She goes to sit behind her desk. The scales she usually keeps immaculately balanced are askew. They’re supposed to indicate how the war between the monsters and gods is going, but right now they are precariously tipped in favor of the monsters. With everything going on here, the war has been sidelined.
Themis follows my eye, and sighs heavily.
“The monsters have regained territory that we drove them out of. I shouldn’t even say they’ve regained it; we didn’t even put up a fight. With enrollment perilously low, we can’t afford to send students on missions that might prove fatal. And with the new threat on Mr. Zee’s life, well…”
“He’s more concerned about his own skin than anything,” I finish for her.
“Things at Mount Olympus Academy have not been right for some time,” she tells me. “I try to keep it balanced. This Academy is my life. But Zee is so reckless. He’s always followed his impulses. If we could just get him to step down, the Academy could thrive. But that will never happen.”
I remember during summer term, at the faculty dinner when Themis slipped something into his wine glass. And Hepa had handed him his ambrosia on the stage the day that he outed the Moggies. His memory loss, his ashy appearance, his lack of appetite, his impotence.
“You’re poisoning him.” It’s not a question but Themis answers anyway. “And Hepa is helping.”
“Yes, in a way. I’m decreasing his power. I’ve been doing it for years. It makes him less predatory, more docile. But with this prophecy, he’s gone full blown Zeus. He’s paranoid. He’s distrustful. He’s suspicious of everyone. Only those who absolutely have proven their trust can get near him.”
“You want him dead?” That one is a question.
“No, of course not!” Themis actually covers her mouth for a moment at the thought. “I don’t want anyone dead, least of all the leader of the gods. Think of the chaos that would ensue! Minor gods would run amok. There’d be earthquakes and volcanoes and gods know what else. But I would like him to leave the Academy. Step down, if you will. Maybe go into permanent retirement at the real Mount Olympus, in Greece. Wherever he goes, he’s done more than enough harm here at the Academy.”
“What can I do to help?” I ask. “I’ve heard the prophecy. The one about Zee’s diluted blood coming back to kill him. I can try to find out who it is. If he’s faced with that threat—
combined with his weakening powers—maybe he’d go away.”
And if he goes away, I add silently to myself. Mavis has a better chance of being freed.
Themis leans over her desk, her hands clasped. “Edie, do you really want to help?”
“Yes!” I practically shout. “If it will help Mavis. If it will get Zee gone.”
She sits back. “Zee has always had an eye for mortal girls,” she tells me. “Most of the male gods do.”
“Yeah, I know. That’s why you told him I might be a Moggy, so that he wouldn’t be interested in me.” Even a good-looking pair of legs isn’t enough to get Zee past his Moggy-hatred.
“About twenty years ago, Hermes got a young shifter pregnant. I hid that pregnancy and took the baby, caring for Bella’s child as my own.”
“Wait…” Mind reeling, I remember the portraits in the Hall of the Dead. “Bella Demopoulous was Mavis’s mother,” I say aloud, piecing it together. “Are you telling me that Hermes is Mavis’s father?”
But Themis continues. “After Mavis was born, I spoke with Zee. I strongly argued that students were off-limits to the gods. Not only because of the moral reasoning—teachers should never put a student in that position—but also because these demi-god births are always hard on the mothers. They often die.
“We don’t allow students to become pregnant; that
’s why we make all our students use magical birth control. But that doesn’t protect against a god’s…seed. Zee was aware that Hermes had fathered a child on the student and that the mother had not survived the birth. But he also thought the baby died.”
It’s all making sense now. The puzzle pieces coming into place.
“I wasn’t naïve. I knew that Zee had his own”—she clears her throat— “dealings with students. But I thought after speaking with him that he could control himself. But it happened again.” She raises her eyes to mine, her stare burning.
“Another student pregnant. Another poor girl dead in childbirth. Another baby for me to hide.”
I shake my head, an uneasy feeling in my stomach. “No…”
“Edie,” Themis tells me, “that student was Adrianna Aspostolos.”
“No,” I say, backing away until my heels hit the wall.
Themis picks up a rock from her desk. It’s the same one she had me hold the first time I was in this room. It showed me my inner dragon. And scared the hell out of me. I wasn’t ready to handle that information yet.
There are some undeniable parallels to this current situation. “What will I see if I touch it?” I ask Themis.
“Only the truth,” she answers.
I take a deep breath, and hold out my hands, receiving the rock from Themis.
The room spins and I feel dizzy as a darkness settles around me, swirling until I see something other than these walls. It’s Adrianna, my birth mother, in her dorm room, holding a pregnancy test. Mr. Zee suddenly appears behind her, and she whips around, hiding the test behind her back. His arms go around her, his robes falling off his well-muscled chest. She drops the stick, kicking it under her desk as she leans into him, her head tilted back, ready to meet his kiss.
That vision rolls and changes, showing me the same scene—Adrianna in her room. But this time she’s sitting at the desk, writing madly, tears falling onto the ink, smearing it. I peer over her shoulder, anxious to catch the words: Metis, I’ve found myself in some trouble, and fear I will need the help of a master healer in about six months’ time…
Wither & Wound Page 4