by Nicole Thorn
I took my phone out.
“What are you doing?” Jasper asked.
“I’m calling Medusa to see if she’s willing to look over a hydra for a few days.”
Zander
I had my bag packed in only fifteen minutes, but Jasmine took longer. She kept stopping to tell me about how hard she was going to kick ass. It had me smiling, but that didn’t mean I was without worry. A million things could have gone wrong. Though, it was always like that for us.
“I would have killed him if he touched Nemo,” Jasmine told me, her hands planted on her hips as she stood across from me. “I don’t like it when people with swords just show up, swinging it around.” She then dissolved into a smile. “Unless it’s you. You’re sexy with a sword.”
Jasmine sidled up to me, her arms going around my body. “I should make you some kind of calendar with nudes where I’m only holding the sword. That would be the best wooing present.”
“Not the best. It will never be better than my wooing gifts, Zander. Accept it. It would be better for all of us that way.”
I gently cupped her cheek, brushing my thumb along her skin. “Never in a million years will you beat me. Never. God or not, I’m the lord of wooing. You are but a court jester in comparison.”
She gasped but laughed through it. “You monster. I’m no jester.”
“But you would look cute in the costume. You do nudes for me and I’ll do nudes for you.”
She stroked her jaw and I had to keep myself from laughing. “Hmm, not a terrible idea. I could get a little jester skirt that showed off my butt… We wouldn’t get to hang those pictures up though.”
“We can keep copies in our wallets.”
“Oooh, done.”
We high-fived and then got back to packing. I set my bag, my sword, and my shield at the door while Jasmine shoved her clothes into her bag. She went with a lot of shorts and tight shirts after I advised her that even though dresses were cute, they wouldn’t be good for trials that could include fighting. She had a couple in there still, which I didn’t fight her on.
“How long do we even pack for?” she asked. “Is there laundry where we’re going? Are we going to miss our mortgage payment?”
“Juniper can set that up for auto-pay if she hasn’t already, and I packed for two weeks. Three pairs of pants.”
Jasmine snorted. “Good thinking.”
When we were packed, I tried getting the bags for both of us. Jasmine cut in on me, taking them both like they weighed nothing. She shouted, “Wooing!” on her way out the door.
The others were already downstairs with their bags. Juniper sat on the couch, her elbows on her knees as she sighed, head propped up on her hands. Verin sat beside her, rubbing her back while she frowned. She was the only one that looked truly upset, while the others were more put out. Of course, Verin just looked like Verin.
“We could be making something,” Kizzy complained to Jasper. “But no, we get to go play games for the gods. Are there no other people who could do this? Why are we the ones who have to hold some insanely powerful object for the war? Are we going to be the center of this damn war?”
“I hope not,” Jasper said. “But…”
She groaned. “I disapprove.”
Jasper put his arm around her shoulder, pressing his lips to her temple. “You aren’t the only one.”
It wasn’t a surprise that the gods hadn’t finished using us just yet. However, it did make me wonder how many other people they pulled this shit with. We had to go through trials to get some special tool, but were we the only ones? Maybe they had others trying to get something else. Surely, we couldn’t have been the salvation to the gods. Not us, who hated them almost. Not us, who were so damaged that we all only half functioned most of the time.
“We can still run,” Juniper suggested. “Somewhere far away.”
“Don’t worry,” Verin said as he played with her hair. “You’re going to be utterly marvelous in your trials. You’ll pass them without a problem, like the goddess you are.”
She smiled sadly at him. “So much faith.”
“Is it really faith when I’ve never had any doubt? It takes no effort to think that you’ll excel at what these people throw at you.”
“I wish I felt the same,” Kizzy said, her arms crossing. “The trials could be anything, and we’re all alone. What if… what if they do stuff to mess with our heads?”
“Not what if,” I said honestly. “This is gonna fuck us up. I just know it.”
“No way,” Jasmine said. “We were chosen for a reason, and I know for a fact that I’m gonna kick all kinds of ass, making the gods weep at my glory.”
“That’s the spirit,” Verin said as Juniper groaned.
I heard Jasper quietly speaking to Kizzy, trying to comfort her. “You’ll do great. I know it.”
“You’ll have to believe for the both of us then.”
Heracles walked in from our kitchen, already sighing at the lot of us. I sort of wanted to punch him in the face, but I didn’t know if I would have gotten in trouble for that one. Just because he was famous didn’t mean he got special treatment, right? He was a demigod, like me, so our strength should have been around the same. Though… he did get turned into a god when he died… Maybe a punch wasn’t a good idea. I might have still tried it if he didn’t get that bored look off his face.
“We all ready to go?” he asked.
I was ready to shove Jasmine into a closet and lock her in until the gods didn’t need us anymore. I was ready to put chains all over the house, so no one could get in or out. But I was not ready to leave, enter into trials that could have killed us for all we knew, and then get rewarded with a powerful object so we could fight a war we had nothing to do with. I was not ready.
“Yup!” Jasmine chirped. “So are we driving or…”
Heracles grinned his hands on his sides. “You wanna see an interesting trick? Not normally something I can do, but it was given to me so I could help you all out. Hold your breath and close your eyes.”
We didn’t even have more than three seconds before the world tilted to its side. Everything around us flashed out of existence like it had never been there in the first place. I felt like I was falling through the air, about to land at any moment. When I did, we all crashed to the floor.
I landed hard, groaning in pain when my face met marble. Cruel of Heracles, and I started rethinking that whole, punching him in the face thing. No matter the consequences, it would have been worth it.
“Ow,” Juniper whimpered. Verin winced, though he reached out to grab her.
I rolled onto my back, opening my eyes to our new surroundings. Everything was a burning white, assaulting my eyes and offending me greatly. The ceiling looked a hundred or so feet above me, but I didn’t think that could be possible. Painted on that ceiling, looked like clouds with gold figures around them. I would have rolled my eyes if I didn’t think I was rocking a broken spine at the moment.
I made myself sit up, seeing the rest of what looked like a lobby. A… lobby. There were fancy sofas, paintings, pillars, flowers, all white and gold and looking too clean. Well, at least Juniper would have liked it. It felt like the massive room had never seen a speck of dust in its life, and I had to assume that was because this place belonged to the gods. Why else would Heracles have taken us here?
“Are we in a hotel?” my sister breathed, holding her side.
“We’re in a fucking hotel,” I said, nodding.
Heracles stepped forward, a smirk on his face. “This is a great honor for you. This hotel is exclusive to the gods’ needs, meaning that only the most important people have gotten to find rest here.”
I rubbed my hip as it finally stopped aching. “You wanna know how I really know I’m honored? When someone tells me it’s an honor.”
Jasmine started to stand, not looking like she was in any kind of pain from our fall. She twisted around, stretching her back. “Gotta go with my honey on that one, but this
place is… cool.”
“Cool,” Heracles scoffed. “A mild word for something so grand. You all wait here. My work is finished. Try not to get yourselves killed before the war is over.”
Before we could say anything more, Heracles vanished.
The rest of us stood up, gathering our bags as we waited for someone to come for us in this monster of a hotel. I couldn’t find anything to stare at that didn’t hurt my eyes, so I ended up looking at Jasmine. At least she was several colors, none of which burned my eyes to look at.
“I hate everything about this,” Juniper said, looking around. “Literally everything. I want to go home and finish scrubbing that spot in the carpet.”
“That stain won’t come out,” Verin said. “I told you I would be more than happy to tear up the carpet and replace it.”
“No!” she said. “That would take at least a day to get it all sorted, and it would mean moving everything in the room. Not worth it. I can get the stain out. You watch me.”
“Your confidence is sexy, even talking about a wax stain.”
We didn’t have much time before a new person greeted us. A short girl with curly brown hair and a smile walked in. She had a deep tan and eyes that reminded me of the god Hermes. If he was her father, then she must have taken after her mother with her ethnicity. I couldn’t place it, but it must have been something Hispanic.
“Welcome!” she said, holding out a basket of snacks that looked pricier than our whole fridge. “My name is Ellie, and I’ll be your concierge during your stay. Thank you so much for your participation in the events to come.”
“Uh,” I said. “So… can you tell us what the hell is going on?”
Jasmine took the basket while the girl said, “My information is need to know only, but I can do my best. Would you all follow me, please?”
We picked up our bags, giving a cautious look to each other before we started walking in a line. Ellie brought us over to an elevator, and she pressed the one button on the shiny gold panel. The girl didn’t even leave a fingerprint on it.
Painfully lame music started to play, and Kizzy happily bopped her head to it, earning a warm smile from Jasper. I couldn’t tell if her little dance was sarcastic or not, but it looked charming on her.
The doors opened to a hall just as white as the lobby had been. The carpets looked fluffy enough that it made me picture getting Jasmine onto it for a little fun. I clung to that happy thought, letting it get me through the tense few seconds we had ahead of us.
“Here are your keys,” Ellie said, handing one to each of us. “You’ll share rooms with your partner, as the gods thought you would prefer.”
“So sweet of them,” Kizzy said with a sneer.
“They thought so,” Ellie said. Then she gestured to the numbered doors. “You’re in rooms four thousand five, six, and seven. You will have your meals brought to you three times a day, as you are not allowed to leave the hotel without being escorted by the very select people on a list that only I have.”
I thought I’d heard her wrong when she’d said four thousand, but then I peered up and down the hall that looked almost endless. It couldn’t have been, of course. Though I found it interesting that we got the rooms by the elevator. If I had to count the rooms I saw, it might have been around three dozen or so.
The girls opened our doors, Ellie following Jasmine and me when we went into ours. I sighed at another grand room. This would have been wonderful if it was some vacation that I’d chosen to take with Jasmine. Being forced into it made none of the grandness matter to me. Like the massive bed with sheets that were probably soft enough to make me cry, more of the crazy soft carpet, golden molding on the edges of the walls and floors, and everything else pretty in the room.
“Oh!” Jasmine said, dropping her bag. She charged at the bed, leaping on it. She bounced solidly, making me want to do the same thing. Jasmine kept flopping around as I scrutinized the room more.
“You have a full bathroom,” Ellie said as she stood at the door, her head turned like she was talking to the others. “And remember, if you try and leave without permission, you’ll be punished.”
“Great,” I heard Jasper say.
I certainly didn’t like the giant TV hanging in the center of the far wall of our room. If Jasmine and I watched from the bed, it would have probably burned our eyes out of our heads. Something to think about.
I went to the drawn curtains, wondering what in the hell could have been out there for us to look at. I pulled them open, seeing an empty beach through the glass. The water looked peaceful, waves crashing against the white sand. The sun shined, nothing but a few pure white clouds in the sky.
“Where the hell are we?” I asked, noticing that the windows didn’t open.
“Greece,” Ellie said. “But the image you’re looking at is what the room chose. Your family each have a different picture.”
“We got woods!” Kizzy yelled.
“Oh, a bookstore!” Juniper called out. “Verin, look at the stacks. Someone made the books all even.”
I pulled Jasmine from the bed, tossing her over my shoulder to get her out into the hallway with me. Ellie had placed herself between all the rooms, forced to try and get information to all six of us evenly.
I put Jasmine on her feet, seeing her sister and Verin come back out into the hall. I could also see Kizzy and Jasper in their room, setting bags on a bed as big as ours.
“As you can see, you have everything you need,” Ellie said. “If you find yourself needing anything more, there’s a button you can press on the telephone on your dressers. You are to be ready and armed at six sharp tomorrow morning, where you’ll await instructions on your first trial. Good luck and do your best. The whole world depends on it.”
The girl vanished into a puff of cloudy smoke, annoying me all over again as I coughed and waved it away with my hands. “I. Am. Unhappy.”
“Eh, not so bad,” Verin said. “We have food, a nice room, and pretty things to look at. The gods could have thrown us in a motel if they wanted to.”
Yeah, they could have, because the gods always had complete control over every situation. I knew that was the point of them, but that shit got old real fast.
“Anyone else uncomfortable with the number of rooms here?” Kizzy asked, jabbing a thumb in the direction of one behind her. “Someone tell me these aren’t all going to get filled with strangers.”
“I think we’ll be okay,” Jasper told her. “Even if a bunch of strangers show up, I’ll make sure you don’t need to talk to any of them. I’ll be your bodyguard.”
He got a smile out of Kizzy, who clung to his side. “You’re a really good fella, honey.”
“I actually agree with Kizzy on this,” Juniper said. “This is a lot of rooms.”
“We don’t know they’re not already full,” Jasmine said. “And if this is a special hotel for godly stuff then, of course, they need a lot of rooms. I do hope that we’re the only ones special enough for that treat basket though. They had soap in there and it smelled amazing.”
I nearly tried clicking my heels together to get sent home, but I decided against it. It would only disappoint me when it failed, and I would probably only have gotten dragged right back if I managed to get home. The gods had something in mind, and I knew we wouldn’t get the chance to challenge them on it.
“What now?” Jasper asked. “The girl said we had to be ready by six in the morning, so… what do we do until then?”
“What can we do?” Verin said. “I think, much like the rest of our lives, all we can do is wait around for the gods to come give us an order.”
My teeth ground together, my skin heating from the spark of anger at the audacity of them. Wouldn’t take care of their own, but more than happy to throw us to the wolves when they needed champions. What would have happened if those champions failed them? Who would they throw into the fight next? Or were we their only hope for this? I didn’t even know what I wished for.
Jasmine<
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Z ander was too nervous for fun naked things the night before, which put me in a bad mood. He seemed to think that we wouldn’t have a chance in these trials, but I knew that we would breeze through them with ease. Zander could do anything, Verin seemed cocky enough, Kizzy would muddle through, and Jasper had always done what he needed to in the end. Obviously, I’d have no problem with it. That just left Juniper, and we only needed her to win one of her trials. We could make up for the other one.
Still, Zander seemed worried.
I bounced on into the bathroom after he’d gotten out of the shower and leaned against his shoulders. “It’s going to be fine,” I said, hooking my chin onto his shoulder. “You know that, right?”
Zander smiled at me. “I appreciate your confidence, even if I don’t feel it myself.”
I frowned, turning Zander around so that he had to face me. “Listen. Are you going to let any of us fail?”
“No.”
“Well, I’m not either. I think between the two of us, we can keep everyone in check, don’t you?”
He offered me the smallest smile. “It’s not that easy. You know that.”
I cupped his face, bringing him down so that we could kiss. “I love you more than anything, and I know that we can do this. We could be the tide that wins the war!” I squeaked, jumping up and down. “Could you imagine?”
Zander hooked his arm around my middle and yanked me up, my enthusiasm finally sweeping him away. I kicked my legs after he threw me over his shoulder. Immediately, I grabbed his ass, because I would’ve been insane not to. He had such a good ass, and it demanded attention and admiration.
Then Zander dumped me on the bed and jumped up.
“No, not like this!” I shouted when I realized he intended to land on me with all of his impressive demigod weight.
Then he did land on me, and I let out a whoosh of air and went limp. “That’s it. You’ve done it. You’ve crushed my spirit and my body. I’ll never be the same again after this.”
Zander pushed his hips against mine, making me gasp. “Are you sure about that?” he asked. “I think I could bring you back.”