We Will Rend

by Nicole Thorn

  “I have no idea why. I think Juniper and Verin were reorganizing a bookshelf, and I don’t know what Jasper was up to. Maybe he was sad that Kizzy wasn’t home yet.”

  Somehow, I doubted it. Jasper functioned fine when Kizzy wasn’t around, comfortable in his confidence that she would come back to him. I didn’t have that same peace. I didn’t think Verin did either since I hadn’t seen him more than three feet from Juniper since they’d gotten together. Other than when we’d lost them. That one hour we’d been away, it had gotten them killed, so I didn’t think Verin would find it in him to walk away again. Even I hated it, knowing Jasmine was stronger than me now. That didn’t do a thing to make that fear go away. Nothing really could, and I started thinking it would still be like that in a thousand years.

  Jasmine wiggled in my arms, grumbling. I’d missed out on the fact that she’d gone back to her gentle wooing. “You’re missing the part where you kiss me back and then we break stuff. I like that part. It helps get me hungry for dinner.”

  I forced myself to smile. “Sorry, I’m distracted. Do you really want to keep breaking things? People at the store are going to start thinking we’re maniacs or something. We won’t be able to step foot inside anymore.”

  Jasmine shrugged. “Let them think we’re maniacs. They’ll never know joy like we do.”

  She had a point.

  Jasmine

  “B ask in my glory,” I said, grinning at Zander from our bedroom doorway. He blinked sleepy eyes at me. I’d gotten up earlier, so the sun had barely started to rise when I decided to wake him. He looked adorable, though, with his blond hair sticking up and his blue eyes almost confused. The sleep lines on his face only helped with the adorableness.

  “Huh?” he asked.

  I sighed. “You’re supposed to be basking in my glory,” I told him.

  “Can I get another five minutes of sleep first?”

  “No,” I said, coming into the room and prodding him with the tips of my fingers. “Come on, come see what you’re supposed to be worshipping me for today. You won’t regret it, I promise. Come on!” I tugged on his arm until he finally pulled himself out of bed, glowering at nothing.

  I dragged him down to the kitchen and then waved my hands. I’d made almost a hundred pancakes.

  Zander blinked slowly. “What?”

  “Ugh,” I said, tilting my head back to stare at the ceiling. “I should have waited for another hour. You’re clearly not ready to handle my awesomeness today. You sit down at the table. Go.”

  Zander did as I asked, slumping in his chair. I brought the pancakes over on fifteen different plates. Juniper, who had come downstairs when she heard me making a ruckus, had left when I started plating the pancakes. I hadn’t even distributed them, and it had been enough to drive her out of the room. But at least someone had been there to tell me how hard I killed it.

  Sure, she had been talking about the ten burnt pancakes in the trash, but we didn’t need to focus on that.

  “See,” I said. “They’re strawberry pancakes in the shape of hearts. Are you saying that this isn’t, like, the best wooing breakfast that you’ve ever seen? Who else would make you a strawberry pancake galore like this?” I waved my hands out at the feast before us, grinning at Zander.

  He rubbed his eyes some more.

  My smile started to falter.

  Then Zander started to laugh, my heart soared, and I grinned from ear to ear again. “See. I am better at wooing than you are. You can admit it now and we can be done with this façade.”

  “You made a hundred pancakes…” he said.

  “I did.”

  “And you think that makes you better at wooing than me?” he asked, finally coming awake. He turned those challenging blue eyes my way, a smirk starting to appear on his face. “You think that you’ve won this just because you managed to make a bunch of pancakes before I got out of bed?”

  “Well, duh,” I said. “They are heart-shaped pancakes, Zander. Look at all this evidence of my love for you. Look at it. Are you seriously going to tell me that this isn’t all the proof you need that I’m the best?”

  “I gotta say, it feels phoned in.”

  I gasped putting my hands on my chest and stepping back. “You would dare?”

  “I dare,” he said, putting his elbows on the table. “You will see what proper wooing looks like, even if it kills both of us.”

  “You, sir, don’t know the can of worms that you have opened up,” I said, planting my hands on the table and leaning forward. “You think this is nothing? Wait until you see what I do next. You’ll wish that you had conceded this fight months ago.”

  Zander picked up one of the plates of pancakes and set it down in front of him. “Well, you’re about to watch something truly magical. I will eat your love-pancakes and then still beat you in our wooing games later today.”

  I huffed. “Let me pass you the strawberry syrup, then.”

  “You two are mad,” Verin said from the doorway. I blinked and looked up at him. He stood in his pajamas, his hair sticking up all over his head, a frown on his face. “Utterly mental.”

  “Offended,” I said.

  “Me too,” Zander agreed.

  Verin shook his head, grabbed a pop tart from the pantry, and then walked away. He didn’t know how love really looked. It wasn’t his fault. He hadn’t been reared by Aphrodite, and no one could match my awesome wooing skills. I was the goddess that brought down a son of Aphrodite just being so damn amazing.

  Zander started eating his pancakes.

  I allowed my siblings and their people to have some too because I didn’t want Zander to eat all of them. Mostly because I didn’t want Zander to die like that. He would’ve been the laughingstock of the underworld. Hades would point at him and call him Pancake Boy.

  As Verin carried Juniper out of the kitchen over his shoulder to keep her from doing the dishes, I headed outside to feed Nemo. Zander, Kizzy, and Jasper seemed cool with doing the dishes on their own. I could have offered to help, but someone had to take care of my hydra.

  We still didn’t know what hydra ate, but we had refined his diet. We had slop buckets outside that we filled with various kinds of meats, none of them cooked. We would pour beef and chicken broth into the bins, to make it kind of soupy, and then we’d dump vegetables in there. If not for the fact that nothing was cooked, it could have made a good soup for the rest of us.

  We had the buckets in freezers outside, and we would take them out the night before so that the food had a chance to thaw. That way it wouldn’t hurt Nemo’s poor hydra teeth.

  He was chirping before I even stepped outside. I realized why almost immediately. Some dude stood in our backyard. He looked fucking huge. Like, even bigger than Zander, and people didn’t like to stand right next to my boyfriend as it was. He just towered over everyone, making them feel about two inches tall.

  This guy had blond hair and dark, stormy eyes. He also had quite the ego, since he wore a white tank top that showed off all his muscles and jeans, but he still thought wielding a sword was a reasonable thing to be doing. A sword currently pointing at my beloved pet.

  I ran out to the pool, shouting, “Touch that hydra and die!”

  The man jumped in surprise, whipping around to stare at me. “What?”

  “Put. The sword. Down,” I said, holding my hand up. “Or I will make you beg for mercy.”

  The guy blinked some more.

  The backdoor opened. “What’s going on out there?” Jasper called.

  “This motherfucker is trying to kill Nemo!”

  Just like that, I had two demigods and my brother out in the backyard with me, ready to defend our pet to the death. Nemo, meanwhile, kept giving his happy chirp and nudging me in the shoulder for pets. He clearly didn’t know the danger that he was in. I crossed my arms over my chest, lifting my chin to do some more glaring. “Who are you and what do you think you’re doing here?”

  “You’re aware that this is a hydra, righ
t?” the guy asked, gesturing to Nemo. “Historically speaking, they are cruel, hungry beasts that will take a bite out of anything that comes their way.”

  Nemo nudged me with his head again, purring as he did so.

  “He’s practically a kitten,” I said, gesturing to him. “And I will fuck you up if you hurt my baby!”

  Zander came up to me, his eyes narrowed on the man. “Who are you?”

  The man looked like he wanted to argue over Nemo some more. I couldn’t really blame him since most people would’ve taken one look at our former betta and run screaming from the yard. In Nemo’s defense, he had never tried to hurt anyone. I didn’t even know if he would attack an intruder. Nemo was like a little puppy dog.

  The stranger ducked his head, probably as a sign of respect, and said, “I’m Heracles and I’ve come to speak with you about something urgent.”

  Mmm. Just shoot me now.

  Clearing my throat, I said, “I’m sorry, could you repeat that?”

  “I am Heracles, and I would like to speak with the four of you, your sister, and Verin about something urgent.”

  “That’s what I thought you said. Well, come inside. Would you like some tea, by chance?”

  About ten minutes later, we had Heracles sitting at the table with a mug of cocoa, since he hadn’t wanted tea. Juniper stood mostly behind Verin like she didn’t want anything to do with the legend in our kitchen. It took a lot of convincing to get them to come sit at the table with us, but Verin eventually cajoled her into doing it.

  “This is good,” he said, tapping the mug.

  “I know,” I said.

  Zander snorted. “I’m the one who made it.”

  “Yeah, and I know your skills with chocolate,” I said like it should have been obvious.

  Jasper cleared his throat, shooting the two of us a look that clearly meant we needed to shut up.

  Verin asked the first question, though. “All right, what’s this urgent thing and how quickly is it going to kill us?”

  “You assume it’s going to kill you?”

  “Yeah.”

  “Basically.”

  “That seems to be how our lives go.”

  “I won’t let it kill us, but yes.”

  He blinked at us in turn, then Heracles shook his head. “Well, this isn’t something that’s going to kill you. Not… really.”

  I cocked my head. “Sorry if that doesn’t make me feel all that much better. I assume that the gods sent you?”

  “Yes,” Heracles said.

  The demigods all grumbled. Zander and Kizzy hadn’t forgiven their mothers for what happened with us. Demeter and Aphrodite knew what would happen when Juniper and I lost our visions. They knew that we would die, and they had let the demigods walk in on our corpses anyway. If not for Verin’s father, we would probably still be in the underworld. Not nearly as awesome as we were now.

  “What do they want?” Zander asked, his eyes narrowed. He seemed to have more anger toward his mother than Kizzy did to hers. I rubbed his shoulder, knowing just how bad it was to have a parent that you couldn’t rely on. My father was dead now, but he had been terrible in life. He had used us to get what he wanted and then blackmailed us with his presence so that we would give him money. He had hit me.

  “You know about the war?” Heracles said. “Erebus told you of it, yes?”

  We nodded.

  We didn’t know much, though. The gods had gotten into it with other immortal creatures, some of them gods themselves. Hecate, for example, seemed pretty pissed about something. Anyway, the gods and pretty much everything else that existed were gearing up for a war. I didn’t know why, I didn’t know when it would happen, but we knew that it would be devastating if it did happen.

  Erebus had given us the warning and a minor heads up, but nothing else. We had been on pins and needles since then, waiting for more information.

  Information Heracles did not provide.

  “Well, there’s something that might tip the balance of the war in the gods’ favor,” Heracles said.

  “Is it not already in their favor?” I asked. “They’re gods. Nothing can touch a god.”

  Heracles’ eyes darkened, and he shook his head. “No, it’s not in their favor. This thing, though, this thing might be enough.”

  “So, they want us to keep it?” I asked, hopefully.

  “No,” Heracles said.

  “Then they want us to find it?” Zander said, sounding like he was already on board with the plan. We had found things for gods before. We were good at it. I didn’t think we’d get something as pleasant as trying to find Cerberus as a puppy and keep him until Hades decided to come by.

  “No,” Heracles said.

  “Why do I have a bad feeling about this?” Juniper said.

  “The gods need proof that it can be contained,” Heracles said. “It’s very powerful and dangerous. It’ll need protecting and watching constantly. Zeus, in particular, is wary about bringing it out into the world, even to use it as a tool in the war.”

  I shifted in my seat. “Okay, then why not keep it in Olympus, where the gods could keep an eye on it.”

  Heracles shook his head. “None of the gods are okay with that. They would rather destroy it than keep it so close at hand.”

  “What is it?” Zander asked.

  “I can’t tell you that,” Heracles said. “You need to prove that you can handle the power first.”

  Juniper rubbed her temples. “All right. So, you’re saying that we need to prove that we can handle something so powerful that the gods don’t even want it in their homes and that once we’ve done that, the gods will give us this item that might be the salvation to their war?”

  Heracles pursed his lips. “Actually, you’ll have to find it.”

  I cocked my head. “They’re making us prove that we can handle an object of great power… that they don’t currently have?”

  “Yes,” he said.

  “Sounds about right for the gods,” Kizzy said. “Do they even know where this object is?”

  “Of course, they know,” Heracles said as if offended that we would suggest anything else. “You must understand that the gods, they test their people. They give people so many chances to prove to themselves that they are capable of handling what they want. That is what the gods are doing.”

  What if we didn’t want it? What if we wanted no part of this war? To sit back on the sidelines with Erebus and watch the chaos rain down? Would the gods let us do that, or would they keep throwing things at us, until we eventually capitulated with their commands?

  I’d never felt trapped by my abilities more than I did then. I’d spent years and years living with visions swamping me out of nowhere, drowning me. But I was a goddess now, and I wouldn’t be forced to do anything that I didn’t want to do.

  “How do we prove ourselves?” Jasper asked, wary. He eyed Heracles like he had already figured something out.

  “The gods want to give you trials,” Heracles said.

  My brother sighed, looking skyward as if to ask for the energy to deal with this. Kizzy sighed as well, nodding. “Of course, they do. Why wouldn’t they want to put us through some trials instead of just giving us the magical object so that we can keep it safe for them? Of course, this is what’s happening.”

  “I bet I could do trials without any trouble,” Verin said.

  Juniper stared at him like he had lost his mind.

  “What does that mean, exactly?” I asked.

  “It means that the six of you need to pack your bags and weapons because we’re going to take off within the hour.”

  “We don’t get a say in this?” Zander asked.

  “No,” Kizzy snorted. “If they gave us the opportunity to refuse them, then we might take it. They can’t risk that, Zander.” Jasper rubbed her back, and some of the bitterness faded from her face. She frowned at him, her eyes wide and sad looking.

  “What are the rules?” Juniper asked. “There are rules, right?
”

  “Yes,” Heracles said, sitting forward. “You each will have two trials, and the trials will be held separately so that you can’t help each other. You have to get through at least eleven of them if you want this object that could change the course of our history.”

  So only one of us could fail. I glanced at my sister, frowning. I’d never tell her this, but if someone would fail, I felt like it would be her. I loved Juniper, but she got in her own way a lot.

  “When the trials are over, you’ll be given the location of the object. You’ll obtain it and try to control it. The gods have all the faith that you’ll succeed. Now, you should pack your bags and get ready to go.”

  I immediately got up.

  The six of us stopped in the living room.

  “Are we really going to do this?” Juniper asked, her arms wrapped around her middle, a frown pulling down the corners of her mouth. “If we don’t want to go, I could get us out of here. Heracles wouldn’t know what happened.”

  “I don’t think we have much of a choice, luv. Don’t worry, though. I’ll do wonderfully on both my trials and the gods will realize that I’ll be great at handling whatever they give us.”

  Juniper sighed at him.

  “Let’s just do it,” I said, shrugging. “The worst that can happen is the gods decide that we aren’t all that they thought we were, and they’ll leave us alone.”

  “Or kill us,” Jasper suggested.

  “I’m a goddess. They can’t kill me,” I said.

  Jasper shook his head, pulling Kizzy in against his side. She looked worried, frowning at me. “I disagree with Jasmine, but I do think we don’t have much of a choice. If nothing else, we can have this super powerful thing with us, and know that it won’t fall into the hands of the wrong person.”

  I snapped my fingers and pointed at her. “Yes. That is an excellent point.”

  Zander rubbed the back of his neck. “I guess I’ll go pack.”

  Juniper squeaked and closed her eyes. “Packing. Oh, gods. It’ll take me forever to get everything organized right.” She turned on her heel and ran up the stairs. Verin followed her immediately.