Then I was sucked out of the vortex. Tossed out like week old garbage.
Panicked, I thrashed around in the cold water, twisting to my left and right, trying to get my bearings. I couldn’t see anything around me. The light had vanished. I was alone. My lungs burned. I couldn’t hold my breath any longer. I was going to drown in the void of the ocean. No one would ever find my body. Sophia would never know what happened to me. I’d failed before I even got a chance to start.
My chest hurt so badly, I couldn’t think beyond it. I had to open my mouth. I had to swallow in the water, let it absorb me. Maybe it wouldn’t be too painful to drown; maybe it would all be over in a matter of minutes, if I just succumbed.
A split second before I opened my mouth, I felt strong hands on me. They whipped my body around until I came face to face with the guy who had pulled me out of the water at the pier. He cupped my face with his hands, then leaned in, and pressed his lips to mine. Confused, I didn’t know what was happening until I felt the pressure in my head and chest alleviate as he blew oxygen into my body.
Then he grabbed my arm and kicked hard with his legs. A minute later, I was dragged out of the water and up onto a rocky shore. Sputtering and spitting out liquid, I rolled onto my side. Blinking back black spots, I saw we’d come up into a large cave. The rock walls sparkled with some kind of quartz. Thick, sharp looking green-stained stalagmites hung down from the ceiling, dripping water onto the stone floor near me. The plip-plop of the drops echoed off the walls and floor. Beyond them, I could see a large opening where blue and green light beams seemed to dance around.
“Wow, who let her in?”
I blinked away water to see the girl with the long, dark hair snickering at me. Her companion, a plump girl with short blonde hair, shook her head. There was no hiding her disdain. “Her face is as blue as her hair.”
I tried to sit up, but my body wasn’t behaving. All my limbs felt weighted down. They were too heavy to lift. It was like having swimmer’s cramps everywhere at once. This time the guy didn’t offer his hand to me, he just yanked me to my feet, none too gently, either.
“Don’t look so sad, Blue, you’re not dead.” He bopped me on the nose with his finger. “Not yet, anyway.” He tipped his head then joined the girl with the dark hair and her friend. Together, they walked deeper into the cave toward the opening.
For a split second, I thought about running after him to thank him for saving my life, but I was already mortified about what had happened. I didn’t want to give his spite-filled companions an opportunity to run me down even further. So, I just got in line with everyone else as they trudged toward the cave opening. We all looked like drowned rats marching through a sewer.
The guy who had been standing beside me earlier fell in step with me. “Are you okay?”
“Oh yeah, peachy.”
“I’m Ren, by the way.”
“Melany.” I offered him a small smile.
As the opening drew nearer, nerves started zinging through me. This was it. There was no turning back now. A few more steps and I would be completely committing to join the Gods’ Army. And the only way out was either by expulsion or death. There was no leaving on one’s own accord.
I stepped through the mouth of the cave and into a whole new world. Literally.
The sky was a color of blue I’d never seen before, as bright as a robin’s egg. The only clouds in sight hovered in a perfect circle over the massive gray stone building that couldn’t be anything other than the academy itself. Sharp spires rose into the sky from round turrets located at all four corners. Large arched windows peppered all three levels of the building. The stain-glassed windows cast beams of green and blue and yellow onto the ground, like lasers.
The wide cobblestone path leading up to the school was lined with spindly trees whose branches should’ve contained green foliage, but instead were bare. Nothing could possibly grow from the ashen limbs. To the right was a large hedge maze, the entrance guarded by two stone soldiers, their swords raised to fight.
While we walked up the path, Ren audibly swallowed, as he quickly glanced at the statues. “I heard all the stone statues around the academy were once people, turned to stone by the fierce gaze of Medusa. The rumor is if you hear the hiss of snakes, then she’s nearby, and you’ll be turned to stone next.”
I frowned. “I think that’s just a stupid story to scare people. Medusa may exist, but she isn’t some scary woman walking around with snakes for hair.”
“Move it or lose it, recruit.”
Someone pushed Ren and me aside, so they could pass by on the path. Two someones. A centaur with long, flowing auburn hair that matched the hair on his horse body, and a tall, thin woman topping six feet, with green tendrils of hair. Hair that seemed to move around her head, as if it was floating in water. I squinted to get a closer look. Were there tiny little faces at the ends of that hair?
She turned to look at me, and her eyes were completely white, devoid of an iris or pupil. She had no eyelashes either, just almond-shaped pale orbs. She smiled, flashing razor-sharp, pointed teeth.
The centaur also glanced back at us, and there was no disguising his distaste in what he saw. “Can you believe the type of misfit they’re letting into the academy nowadays? It wasn’t like when we trained here.”
“That was a few thousand years ago, Chiron. The world has changed.”
They both turned back around and kept walking down the path to the academy.
Ren nudged me in the side. “What was that you were saying?”
I gaped, rubbing at my eyes. Was I hallucinating? Had I actually drowned in the ocean, and this was some kind of purgatory? Or were all the rumors and stories about the Gods and the demi-gods who were spawned from them as real as I was?
Chapter Four
MELANY
Still startled by the encounter with Medusa and Chiron, I kept my head down the rest of the way to the academy. I really didn’t want to court any more trouble. Deep inside, I thought for sure they somehow knew I didn’t belong, being demigods and all, and would out me right there and then before my peers. It hadn’t happened, but now I was even more paranoid than before.
The closer we got to the school, the grander and loftier it loomed. From a distance, it had looked maybe three stories tall, but the reality of it when we neared the ornate, ten-foot high wooden doors was like peering up at a great Gothic cathedral or a castle from medieval England, built to withstand any battle siege. It was all dark stone and sharp edges. There was nothing comforting or warm about the place at all.
As the first recruit arrived—naturally it just happened to be the guy who had saved me and his little crew—the huge doors opened, as if on their own, and he and the rest of the recruits walked through, entering the building. When I passed under the high arch of the entrance, a strange vibration rippled over my body, and now I was suddenly dry and so were my clothes and my backpack. I looked around to see if others had felt it, but I couldn’t tell, as either they had a look of rapture on their face or abject terror. I didn’t think they even noticed they weren’t sopping wet anymore.
I decided to stick to Ren’s side as we all gathered in the antechamber. I was a mass of nervous energy, unsure of what to do or where to go. But then an excited murmur rippled through the group as a man with long, gray hair and a neatly clipped gray beard leisurely came down the wide stone staircase in front of us.
Beside me, a girl I didn’t know grabbed my arm. “It’s Zeus,” she whispered. “Holy crap.”
I craned my neck to get a better view of him as he stood on the steps and looked down at us with an amused quirk of his lips. He didn’t look all-powerful or all-knowing. He looked like a tired old man out for a stroll, wearing baggy beige linen pants and a roomy linen tunic. Was he wearing a bathrobe on top?
“Welcome recruits.” His voice boomed, echoing all around us. I actually could feel it vibrating against my heart. It was like being next to a huge speaker at a rave, and the DJ was
spinning something bass heavy. I rubbed at my sternum, frowning, as he continued to speak.
“You have been invited to the academy because there is something special about you. You have been picked out of millions of young people because somewhere in your family lineage runs Gods’ blood.”
Oh shit. I’m going to get found out. I most definitely do not have Gods’ blood running through my veins.
The girl beside me continued to squeeze my arm, as her excitement grew with his words. “I knew it,” she whispered.
“You are stronger, smarter, healthier, more enhanced than the rest of the population, and that is why you are here.” His eyes started to glow as his voice rumbled throughout the building. “To train to be the fiercest soldiers to ever set foot on the Earth.”
Some of the group clapped, others cheered. I swallowed down the bile rising in my throat, knowing I shouldn’t be here. I wondered how easy it would be for me to turn around and walk out of the academy. Would I be stopped?
“Your training will not be easy. It will be the most difficult thing you have ever done. You will be asked to push yourself beyond your limitations. There will be sweat and tears and blood spilled in the halls of this academy before your three years are finished.”
I glanced around at all the people surrounding me. Some had glossy, wide eyes, enraptured with Zeus’s speech, and others kept their gazes on their feet, maybe too afraid to even look at the God of all Gods. One boy nearby licked his lips nervously. His hands shook at his sides.
My heart pounded so hard I could feel it in my throat, but it wasn’t with fear. Exhilaration at the prospect of pushing myself beyond anything I could imagine made my head swim. Maybe here I could prove myself. Prove that I was worth all the cells that combined in complicated patterns to make me a person. Although I was afraid of being found out, I wasn’t frightened of sweat, tears, or blood. I’d spilled them already just to get here.
“Your first year will be hard. You will be trained in all disciplines, both physical and mental, so that we may ascertain where your Gods’ power and affiliation lies. At the end of the year, you will each have to face twelve harrowing trials. One for each of the Gods. If you survive, you will be placed into the corresponding God’s clan that you are connected to.”
That caused a murmur through the group. I heard various Gods’ names spoken out loud. Poseidon. Athena. Apollo. I heard one girl near me say, “I’m most definitely in Aphrodite’s clan.” She was pretty and blonde, and it made me both angry and sad that she thought her looks was what was special about her. Everyone was so enthralled with what clan they wanted to belong to they seemed to have missed the, “If you survive,” part of that sentence.
I didn’t know which of the Gods I aspired to. I hadn’t given it much thought over the years, since I never expected to be called to the academy.
A buzzing filled my ear, like a slight brushing of a finger across the top, or a hushed whisper of words I couldn’t quite decipher.
I whipped around to see who had spoken. Someone was messing around. The boy behind me gave me a funny look and then ignored me. I glanced at the girl beside him, but I didn’t think she even noticed my presence she was so wrapped up in what Zeus was saying. Had I imagined the voice? It was possible, but it just had been so clear.
“Know this now, not every one of you will succeed here.”
That made everyone shut up.
“Some of you will fail. And if you do, you will not just be sent back to your homes. In fact, you will never be able to go back home again. If you fail, you will be expelled from this academy and cursed to live the rest of your life in hardship and misery. No one will take pity on you. No one will help you. You will forever be the lost.”
Silence consumed the room. I almost covered my mouth, so no one could hear my sharp intake of breath. I heard the ticking of someone’s watch and was surprised they even wore one. Every tick got louder and louder until I thought my eardrums would burst.
Then Zeus smiled and clapped his hands together, the sound like thunder, rattling the stones of the foundation of the building. “Now, let’s get you settled into your dorms. Also, there’s going to be a big party for you in the great hall later, so you can eat, drink, and be merry.” His smile grew even wider. “Because come tomorrow, your training will start.”
Two other people appeared at the top of the stairs. A man who looked like he just walked off the front page of GQ magazine—short, thick dark hair swept up off his face, chiseled face, cheekbones that could cut glass, a full set of lips made for kissing, and piercing blue eyes framed by dark, square-shaped glasses. He wore a tight turtleneck accentuating all his muscles and simple dark jeans that I imagined hugged a perfect behind. Every girl, even a few guys, swooned at the sight of him. Me included. This had to be Eros.
His female counterpart was equally as attractive—long, dark beach waves, sultry brown eyes, full lips painted red, high cheekbones, regal nose. She wore a simple red dress hugging full breasts and shapely hips. Her long, sculpted legs were perfectly presented in red heels. I suspected she was named Psyche. Every male’s gaze was riveted on her.
Smiling, she gestured with her hand to her left. “If the boys would please follow me, I will direct you to your dorm rooms.”
There was a mad rush up the stairs. I got jostled by the two boys who had been standing behind me.
“Ladies, if you will come with me.” Eros grinned. “I’ll show you to your dorms.”
Another mad rush up the stairs, this time with a bit of pushing and shoving as girls tried to get to the front of the line and closest to Eros. I was happy to follow along in the back of the pack. Although Eros definitely ticked all my attraction boxes, I wasn’t here to fall in love, despite the fact that I couldn’t get mystery guy’s face out of my head.
As we walked through the long, wide corridors of the living quarters of the academy, Eros chatted casually about the party we would be attending later and how much fun it would be.
“There will be all kinds of amazing food there. And Dionysus is an epic DJ. He helped Daft Punk get their start years ago.” He looked left to right suspiciously, then leaned in toward the group. “He used to party with Mozart way back when, but you didn’t hear it from me.”
One of the girls at the front giggled. “Are you going to be there?”
He gave her a disarming smile. “I might be. Maybe you can save me a dance?”
She giggled again, and I thought for sure she was going to pass out. The girl next to her had to put a hand on her arm to brace her from falling.
“So, here we are, ladies. Your dorm rooms. They aren’t assigned, so pick a room as quickly as you can. You don’t want to be the odd one out, or you’ll have to share a room with Medusa. And she’s not very friendly.”
Everyone darted to their left or right and into the rooms on either side. There was some shoving near the rooms closest to the stairs, so I hightailed it down the hallway away from everyone else and dashed into a dark room, hoping maybe I’d luck out and not have a roommate. I immediately toppled over whatever it was sitting in the middle of the floor.
“What the fu—”
“Oh, goodness, I’m so sorry.”
I sat up, squinting into the darkness. A shadowed form moved about on the floor then stood. Light suddenly flooded the room, and I peered up at a petite girl with short red hair.
I scrambled to my feet. “What were you doing on the floor?”
“Talking to him.” She held up a tiny brown mouse by the tail. “I was telling him he needed to find another place to live.”
That was when I noticed the state of the room. Cobwebs covered each corner, both ceiling and floor. Dust coated everything else, including the small desk by the grimy window and the two beds that were stacked up on one another along one wall. And I didn’t even want to identify the tiny pebbles on the floor. Considering this girl was holding up a tiny rodent, I didn’t have to try too hard to figure it out.
She must’ve
seen the disgust on my face. “It’ll be nice once we clean it up and fix the beds.” She held out her other hand to me. “I’m Georgina Thrace, by the way.”
“Melany Richmond.” After we shook hands, I took off my backpack and set it down on the floor, glancing around. “I wonder where we’ll find a broom.”
She smiled.
An hour later, we’d cleaned the room and made our respective beds. Georgina proved to be incredibly strong and pretty much did all the heavy lifting when it came to organizing where our beds were going to go. I was surprised, considering she looked more chubby than sturdy.
Once we were done, I felt my stomach growl. I didn’t even know what time it was, as my phone didn’t seem to be working any longer. I didn’t know if it was because it got water damaged or if it was this place. We sure weren’t in Kansas anymore.
“I’m starving. Do you want to go down to this party and get some food?”
Georgina nodded. “I could most definitely eat.”
We left our room and followed some of the other girls who looked like they were making their way to the great hall, wherever that was. Eros left out that detail when he was giving us the quick tour. But as soon as we went down the large stone staircase, we heard the thumping strains of dance music.
We wound our way through empty rooms and hallways toward the sound. The moment we turned the corner of one hallway, there was no mistaking where the party was. The end of the corridor opened up into a cavernous hall made from dark gray stone with a domed ceiling, held up by stone pillars with decorative inlays.
The hall was packed with people. Both new recruits and other students I assumed were second and third year, milled about, talking and laughing. I marveled at it all. I’d never experienced anything like it. Every big party Callie ever had at her house paled in comparison.
My stomach growled again, reminding me of my initial goal. To eat. I looked around for any tables that had food on them but didn’t see any immediately. What I did see were small wooden robots rolling around the room on wheels. They each carried a tray with some kind of food on it. I made a bee-line straight for one that had tiny sandwiches.
Demigods Academy - Year One Page 3