She only shrugs. “It’s not official. Once Zeus is gone this silly ban will be just a bad memory, anyway. Now…did you get the second piece?”
“Yes,” I say, taking the seat opposite her desk. She remains standing, leaning in toward me. She reminds me of a scavenger, about to peck to see if its meal is still alive, or if it just needs to wait a little longer.
“Well?” She leans closer, her hair swinging down from one shoulder to brush the top of her desk. “Where is it?”
“Somewhere safe,” I say.
Metis seems to accept that. She pulls back, resettles her skirts before taking her seat. When she looks back up at me, her eyes are soft again, the little feral curl gone from her lips. “We’re almost there, Edie,” she says. “The last piece should be simple enough.”
“The one at Amazon Academy?” I ask. “What is it?”
I already have a blade, and a hilt. One is heavy, the other sharp. What else do I need?
“It’s a gemstone,” Metis says. “But not an ordinary one. I drew ichor from Zeus while he slept off a drunken rout and infused it into the stone.”
“Ichor. Blood of the gods,” I automatically translate. “Mr. Zee’s blood.”
“Precisely,” Metis nods. “Once it’s fitted into the hilt, the blade will click into place, and you’ll wield a weapon capable of slaying the king of the gods.”
“If I wanted to kill him,” I remind her. “Which I don’t. I’m just going to Amazon Academy to retrieve the last piece so that we have the bargaining power to encourage him to step down.”
“Forcefully encourage,” Metis prompts. But I only narrow my eyes.
“Yes,” Metis says after a beat, continuing on lightly. “Athena runs Amazon Academy, and Zeus trusts her to keep the gemstone safe. I always did say he spoiled her a little, but I wasn’t much involved with her rearing. I mean, I didn’t even give birth to her—she’s that much her father’s child. She popped right out of his head, instead of coming out of my womb. How do you like that?”
“I…don’t?” This seems to be the best response. I don’t like the idea of a baby popping out of me anywhere, top or bottom. “But wait—Athena is your daughter? With Zeus?”
“Yes, yes,” Metis waves a hand. “Don’t you know our family trees by now?”
“Does anyone?”
“Well, I have to admit, even we get confused sometimes. Which is why so many of us end up sleeping with our cousins.”
“Right,” I say, but I try not to sound too judgmental.
“Regardless,” Metis continues. “That was thousands of years ago. Water under the bridge. But whether I gave birth to her or not, I know my daughter. And she does have her weaknesses.”
“Such as?” I ask.
Metis smiles at me, slowly. “Heroes. The prettier the better.”
“I’m not giving her Val!” I stand up suddenly, my knees hitting her desk, the chair smacking into the wall behind me.
“Oh, sweetheart.” Metis chuckles, coming around the desk to reach out, cupping my chin in one hand. “It’s not your vampire she’s interested in. Athena wants to meet you.”
Traveling through another portal when I haven’t fully gotten the chill from the last one out of my veins leaves me colder than ever.
I’m shivering, running my hands up and down my arms to try to create some friction in the heavy mist that surrounds me the second I come out of the other end of the portal—on Maiden Sky Island—where Amazon Academy is hidden from the outside world.
Athena was supposed to meet me here. But I don’t see anyone…and yet, I don’t feel precisely alone, either.
There’s a feeling in the air around me, something heavier than the mist. It clings to me, almost like fingertips fluttering over my skin. There’s a breath in my ear, and I jump, spinning to face whoever is behind me. But there’s no one.
A strand of my hair lifts, as if being inspected, and I snatch it back from mid-air, popping my dragon wings out. They’re a bright magenta at the moment—a warning. I’m not ready to incinerate…whatever this might be. But I’m letting it know that I’m willing to.
“Hippolyta, she is not for you!” a voice cuts through the mist, and the feeling of a presence immediately vanishes, though the fog surrounds me still.
A woman emerges—more accurately a goddess, and easily identifiable as one. Athena is tall, gorgeous, gray-eyed with light hair, a sword strapped across her back. Her face is serious as she approaches me, and I leave my wings out, letting her know I have my own weapons, too.
“Edie,” she says. “Welcome to Amazon Academy.” At her words, the mists lift, and I see that we are standing on a green, next to a white marble building, very Grecian in style.
“So the mist is like your gate?” I ask, remembering the iron bars that stand in the swamp, guarding the entrance to Mount Olympus Academy.
“In a way,” Athena says, leading me to walk with her around the campus. “We’re on an island, and so putting a gate around the campus seems unnecessary. The mist keeps any uninvited—or uninitiated—guests away until they have been approved.”
“Approved by who?” I ask, thinking of the light fingers that grazed my skin.
“Hippolyta, the first Amazon, mother of all Amazons,” Athena answers. “I run this academy, but she chooses who may enter. Applicants come to our island hoping to be trained in our ways. But to truly be an Amazon you must have an inner spirit, a spark, that cannot be taught. Hippolyta recognizes that in all who are allowed to enter, dubbing them Amazons the moment they receive her approval.”
“And if they don’t?” I ask.
Athena shrugs. “They leave. Some choose Underworld Academy as an appropriate alternative.”
I remember the raging party, the black lights, the loose atmosphere in the Underworld. That’s nothing like this campus, with its pristine white marble buildings, and the carefully manicured greens.
“It might be an alternative,” I tell Athena. “But appropriate is definitely stretching it. Nothing about Underworld Academy is appropriate. Anyone who aimed for this, and found themselves there…”
I let my words trail off, sad for the girls who come here, only to be rejected.
But Athena shrugs. “My Amazons are my world. My only interest is in the girls who remain.”
“And me,” I remind her. “Metis said that you wanted to meet me.”
“Yes.” She pauses on the green, turning to face me and run one long, white finger over my wings, which are a calmer shade of pink now. “I’m interested in you, Edie. A dragon shifter. A warrior, by all accounts.”
“A reluctant one,” I tell her. “I do not enjoy killing.”
“Not enjoy killing?” she asks. “Why not?”
“I…” There’s no good way for me to answer that question. I guess killing is kind of like pistachio ice cream. You either like it, or you don’t.
“Never mind,” Athena says, waving her hand in the air, no longer interested in me. “Metis sent you here to gather something?”
“Yes,” I say carefully.
I’m not sure how much I’m supposed to trust Athena. Metis only said that gathering the gemstone from Amazon Academy would be easy, but I’m realizing now that she never actually told me where it was. And I don’t know if Athena is going to be totally open to the idea of me dethroning her father. Metis did say Athena was always Zee’s favorite daughter. That makes this woman, this goddess, my sister.
The thought makes me falter. “It’s uh…like a gemstone, I think?”
“When will my father learn?” Athena says, her temper suddenly flaring. “I’ve told him over and over that I’m never going to be into accessories! I’m just not that kind of girl.”
“No, of course not,” I say quickly, because it’s true. Athena is wearing some type of leather skirt, and body armor across her chest. Her hair is braided close to her head, showing off her unpierced ears.
“Again and again, I’ve told him—no, I won’t wear the necklace. Do yo
u know how easy it is for someone to choke you with your own jewelry? Just come up behind you and—”
She grabs my collar to illustrate and my oxygen is immediately cut off. I try to nod as enthusiastically as possible before I die, hoping that just being agreeable is all it takes to make her stop throttling me.
“But oh no,” she goes on, releasing me. I gasp for air as her tirade against Zeus continues. “It will set off your eyes so well,” she mimics him, in a weirdly high-pitched voice. “A pretty girl needs pretty things. Ugh…I could just…”
She shakes her fist at the sky, then turns back to me. “Men!” she huffs, and spits on the ground.
I spit too, then stamp on it, grinding my foot into the ground like she is. She nods her approval.
“So Metis wants the necklace now?” Athena asks. “Trying to crawl back into his bed? Get into his good graces? Does she think a pretty bauble will make him forget what a lying, two-faced manipulator she is?”
“Um,” is all I manage to squeak out, but it’s pretty obvious that Athena really doesn’t need me to answer her anyway. Seems like most of her questions are rhetorical.
“Well she’s welcome to it,” she announces.
“Great.” I smile, relieved. “Where can I find it?”
“No idea,” Athena says, and my spirits plummet. “I gave it to some pretty little thing that was trying to impress one of the warriors. I don’t know where it got to after that. Taylor!”
She says this last in a shout, and a woman comes running across the green, a clipboard clutched to her chest. “Yes, Athena?”
“Edie is here to retrieve that hideous necklace my father sent a while back. Any idea where it might be?”
Taylor consults her clipboard, but I know she’s only buying time. There was a flicker of panic on her face at the word necklace. Athena saw it too.
“Who was that girl? The one who had a thing for Rada last semester?”
“One of the kitchen workers, Athena. Your kindness to her was—”
Clearly irritated, Athena waves away this compliment. “Yes, yes, she introduced me to avocado toast and I quite enjoyed it. I was grateful. Now, what do you know?”
Taylor swallows. “I don’t believe she had much luck gaining Rada’s attention. And, uh, she didn’t end up coming back this semester.”
“Rada may know something then,” Athena says, her eyes roaming the campus as classes let out, girls streaming out of the buildings. “Rada!” she shouts, her voice booming over the green.
A tall girl with red, curly hair breaks free from a group, jogging over to where we stand. She’s well-muscled, with a freckled face and a serious expression.
“Yes, Athena?” she asks, and the goddess merely points at me to redirect Rada’s attention, then stalks off across the campus, all interest in me gone. It’s pretty obvious that once I made my pacifist stance clear any interest Athena might’ve had in me vanished. Taylor scurries after her, clutching the clipboard.
“Um, hi?” I say, and the Amazon raises her eyebrows at me quizzically.
“Yes?” She’s not being rude, exactly, but it’s clear she was on her way somewhere else. And while running an errand for Athena has captured her attention, she’s now stuck with an outsider.
“Metis sent me to get a gemstone, or well…” I retrace my steps, trying to remember what Athena had said. “I guess it was set into a necklace.”
“Oh.” Rada’s voice remains clear, but her skin goes a shade more pale under the freckles.
“Athena thought you might know something about it?” I ask.
“Was this necklace…important? To…anyone important?”
Now it’s my turn to raise my eyebrows. This is not sounding good. Metis had it in her head that his would be the easiest retrieval of the three pieces, but it’s not looking that way, at all. Rada is positively white now.
“Yes. No,” I say, then trying to sound like I know what I’m talking about, add, “Look, Metis would very much like the gemstone from the necklace back.”
“Oh, okay,” Rada immediately brightens, an audible sigh escaping. “That I can do. C’mon.”
I follow the redhead across campus, heading towards a white columned building that appears to be where she lives. We pass Amazons sparring in the fields with swords, staffs, and in simple hand-to-hand combat.
“What class is that?” I ask.
Rada smiles. “That’s not a class. Just some girls having a bit of fun.” While I’m absorbing this interesting definition of fun—one that’s so very different from Underworld Academy—Rada waves to one of the few girls standing alone. Without a partner she still seems well-occupied as she casually twirls a sword with a blade on both ends like it’s a parade baton. “Hey, Lilliana, I’ll be out in a bit and we’ll see how well your new weapon fares against my pole arms.”
“No worries, I can wait to kick your ass,” Lilliana replies cheerfully.
“In your dreams," Rada retorts and looks back longingly.
I can’t help but feel bad. “Sorry I’m taking you away from your fun sparring time.”
Rada levels me with a very direct and serious look. “Sparring is not fun time for me. I’m sorry you misunderstood, but Lilliana and I are testing out newly constructed weapons. We have the world’s best armorers here at Amazon Academy and take great pride in their work. Although my personal weapon of choice—like that of most Amazons—is the bow and arrow, it’s my goal to be proficient in all weapon categories by the time I graduate.”
“Oh, wow,” I say, wishing that Rada would crack a smile. Her gravity makes me feel like I’m on the verge of being scolded. Trying to find a topic of mutual interest, I turn to the dorms.
“So, this is your dorm?” I ask. “Is it co-ed?”
Rada wrinkles her nose and I immediately realize my mistake. At MOA, the dorms are determined by your course of study—assassin, tracker, healer, spy—and the floors separated by gender. But here, it’s even simpler. They’re all Amazons. And they’re all female.
“Sorry, dumb question,” I say, as I trail Rada down the hall.
“No problem. Some girls struggle to get used to it. But a world without men? I don’t want to ever leave.”
We come to a stop next to the communal bathroom, where the door is propped open.
“I guess there’s not a huge need for privacy without any boys,” I say.
“Nope,” Rada agrees. “And this door is so noisy. If you had to pee in the night, you woke up half the hallway. So we propped it.”
A blush creeps up her cheek at the mention of propping open the door, and when I look down, I see why. There, jammed under the dented corner of the bathroom door and the faded marble tile, is a blood red ruby about the size of a tennis ball.
“Oh my gods!” I cry, dropping to my knees, and trying to wedge it out from under the door.
“Please don’t tell Metis!” Rada says, pushing against the door as I pull on the ruby. “We didn’t know it was of any real value.”
“Any real value?” I repeat. “It’s a huge gemstone!”
“Right, but…well, that doesn’t matter much here. When you live on the island long enough, your values change.”
“I bet if it was a weapon it wouldn’t be used as a doorstop,” I say, falling backwards as the jewel comes loose.
“Sorry,” Rada says, letting go of the door to pull me to my feet. “We just thought the necklace was pointless. No one here wants anything like that. And the stone was the perfect size so we just…”
“Put it to use,” I tell her, slipping the ruby into my pocket. “It’s okay. I won’t tell Metis.”
Rada lets out a breath, visibly relieved. “Thanks. I mean, I’d hate to see Athena get in trouble with her mom because of something we did.”
It’s touching, how much she cares about Athena. I wonder what that’s like, to have someone running your school who you actually look up to. Someone you respect.
Must be nice.
22
I
t’s sad when the highlight of my day is listening to my boyfriend’s voice come out of an ugly bird’s mouth.
At least Kevin was delivering good news. An entire army’s worth of volunteers will be coming on the day of Mavis’s trial. If they can free her…
I stop that thought. If the monsters come through, I will cheer them on. But the only person I can truly count on saving Mavis is myself.
With the sword.
If only I could get it into one piece.
“This sword is killing me,” I cry out in frustration.
“At least it's not literally killing you,” Cassie replies.
It just doesn't make sense. It doesn’t even look like if should fit together, the teeny blade and the massive gem.
“I don’t know, Edie,” Cassie says, her eyes roving over the three pieces—hilt, blade and jewel. “It just won’t… stay.”
She’s right. Cassie’s wearing a pair of heavy duty gloves, borrowed from Fern and the healing ward. Apparently they use them to work on porcupine shifters. Cassie is holding the blade cautiously, trying not to get sliced while pushing the other end into the hilt, me pushing back, both of us red in the face. It falls out when we let go, both of us jumping back for fear of getting cut when the blade slips.
“Any ideas?” I ask Cassie.
“Maybe try putting the gem in the hilt first?” she says. “Like there’s an order of operations. If the gem is in the hilt maybe it’ll hold the blade in place?”
“Worth a try,” I shrug, pulling the gem from my pocket. It’s impressive, large and blood red in my palm. It should be beautiful. It should take my breath away. It doesn’t. There’s no sparkle inside of it, even though it’s infused with ichor, the blood of the gods. And not just any god—Zeus himself.
Even so, it doesn’t catch the light. Doesn’t shine with any life at all.
Still, it does fit inside the hilt perfectly, falling into place with a click. The blade then slides in easily, catching under the ruby and staying solidly mounted when Cassie takes her hands away.
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