Nerves vibrated through me. I hated I didn’t know what to expect at each of the trials. It would be easier to know if we had to fight against each other, or against others. I could strategize better. As of right now, I didn’t know what the hell I was going to do. But I supposed neither did anyone else. It put us all on a level playing field.
“You will be given specialized nourishment every day to keep your bodies strong and your minds sharp. I suggest you eat and drink what is given to you, as you will not have access to anything else throughout the twelve days.
“After your nourishment, which will be passed out shortly, meet out on the north training field at the sound of the horn.
“Good luck to all of you!”
He stepped back, and all of the Gods filed out of the room, as several of the serving robots rolled in, accompanied by Chiron and Heracles.
“Form three lines,” Heracles bellowed.
We scrambled to get in the lines, as a protein bar and bottle of water were passed to each of us. I looked at the small bar and thought, This is all we get? I ate the bar; it tasted horrible but had a hint of cinnamon to make it at least edible. Then I washed it down with the water, which had a bitter tang to it.
After about five minutes, I started to feel a heat spread throughout my body. Eventually, my muscles felt stronger and bigger. My mind felt clearer. I smiled at Jasmine and Georgina, whose faces lit up with the same sensation I’d experienced.
“Damn. That’s better than drugs.”
The horn sounded, and we all exited the academy and gathered on the north training field as instructed. Hephaistos was there, waiting for us. All of our shields were resting up against a wooden rack like the one in the forge. Artemis stood beside him, as did Ares, albeit on the other side of Artemis. It was the first time I’d seen Hephaistos and Ares in the same area together.
“I’m not going to make some grand speech. It’s pointless.” Hephaistos hobbled forward. “You’ve essentially been training for this trial the entire time you’ve been in the forge. The shields you have created will be the determining factor whether you pass or not.”
That sent a concerned murmur through the group.
“Shut it. If you hadn’t already figured that out, you’re stupid.”
I couldn’t stop the bubble of laughter erupting. Both Jasmine and Georgina whipped their heads around and gaped at me.
“Melany Richmond,” Hephaistos bellowed. “You may as well step forward and get this trial started.”
Oh shit.
A path was made for me, and I stepped out from the group and onto the field.
Ares smirked and shook his head.
“Grab your shield.”
I ran to the rack, found my shield, and attached it to my arm. I looked at Hephaistos for the rest of the instructions.
“Now don’t get hit.”
I looked around wildly. “From what?”
Artemis raised her arms, her bow strung with a long, sharp arrow. Fire erupted between Hephaistos’s hands. Ares unsheathed his sword.
Oh shit.
“Start at the end of the field and run back here. If you can make it without being hit by an arrow, struck by a sword, or burned by fire, with your shield intact, you’ll pass.”
I ran as fast as I could down the field. Once I reached the end where a red flag was planted, I took a deep breath, made sure my shield was secure, and then ran toward the chaos.
I hadn’t even taken two steps before two arrows rained down on me. I blocked them both, the arrowheads pinging off my shield, and continued on. A fireball came next. It hit my shield, exploded, but I was safe behind it. All that sizzled were the ends of my hair.
I kept pressing forward. More arrows came; I blocked them from hitting me in the legs and arms and head. Other fireballs also soared through the air toward me. Some hit the ground where I’d just been, and others exploded over my shield. Then they came at the same time, and I had to do some fancy maneuvering and dodging, so I didn’t get an arrow through the shoulder and a fireball at my head. Hearing my friends cheering me on buoyed my step, and I kept running even faster.
As I got closer to the finish line, Ares came sprinting out toward me, his sword arched back. He swung at me, and I blocked it with my shield. He swung at me again, and again, and again. I had a sense he was going a little harder on me.
I blocked his next hard overhead blow and then pushed up with my shield, shoving him off balance. I sprinted like a cheetah to the finish line. When I crossed it, just about everyone cheered. Hephaistos greeted me and took my shield to inspect it.
Ares stormed back, his face beet red. “She cheated! She should fail!”
Hephaistos didn’t even acknowledge him but continued to inspect the integrity of the metal of my shield. He nodded. “Not a dent. Congratulations, you passed.”
Ares sputtered. “She cheated. I’m going to bring it up to—”
Hephaistos’s large, beefy hand around Ares’s throat stopped his words. “Don’t tell me how to run my trial.” Then he shoved the God of War away.
Still red-faced, almost purple really, Ares stormed off the training field. I didn’t know what stunned me more: that Hephaistos had moved so fast and bested Ares, or that Ares had left without a fight.
Hephaistos shrugged. “Guess someone else will be swinging the sword.”
I laughed, as did a bunch of others. We were rewarded with a quick but potent grin from the craftsman God.
Breathing a sigh of relief that I’d finished and passed trial one, I stayed and cheered on my friends and the rest of my peers. I even lost myself and clapped when Revana made it through the gauntlet virtually unscathed. It was a good day, as no one failed the trial.
The next day, we all gathered in the garden near the hedge maze. Demeter welcomed us there in her usual laid-back manner. It was a nice reprieve from all the tension from the day before.
“I imagine y’all are thinking that I’m going to put you through some impossible feat.” She shook her head. “Nah, man, I don’t believe in all that bullshit.”
There were some sighs of relief from people and some nervous giggles. I looked at Jasmine and Georgina and saw the same looks of relief on their faces. Especially Georgina. She’d passed through Hephaistos’s trial, but it hadn’t been easy for her, and she had suffered a bit of a burn on her arm from one of his fireballs.
“So, your task today is to get into teams of five and make it through the maze.”
I laughed. This was going to be too easy. I could walk the maze with my eyes closed.
“But…” This quieted some of the excited murmurs. “I did redesign the maze. I mean, I wasn’t going to make it that easy for you miscreants.”
Everyone laughed at that.
“Oh, but you are being timed.” Demeter grinned. “You’ll have twenty minutes to get through it to the center. Get into groups!”
Jasmine, Georgina, and I stuck together. Ren jumped over to our group, and Jasmine grabbed Mia and pulled her in. I looked over at Lucian. He met my gaze and gave me a smile. I wasn’t worried about him. He was smart, and he was in a driven, competitive group who wouldn’t fail.
Lucian’s group entered first. I was nervous waiting, hoping his team went through all right. After about fifteen minutes, Demeter clapped. “All right, who’s next?”
We jumped to the front of the line.
“On your mark, get set, and go!”
We went into the maze together, took an immediate right, and kept walking. Then we came to an intersection. I was about to suggest right when a tiny arrow flashed on the ground, showing us the way. I laughed. Demeter really did hate all of this stuff, and I wondered if she would get in trouble from Zeus for it.
No more than fifteen minutes later, we came out into the middle of the maze. The other group was still there, and they were happily munching on pastries and cookies and all kinds of other tasty foods. When Lucian spotted me, he rushed over and offered me a plate of chocolate cupcakes.
>
“I was hoarding them for you.”
I took one, peeled the wrapper, and shoved it into my mouth. I grinned at him around it.
For the rest of the day, we all chilled out in the middle of the giant hedge maze with our friends and peers and ate as many desserts as we could all fit into our mouths. Because we all knew we wouldn’t get another reprieve like this. Things were just starting to get hard.
The next morning after eating the allocated protein bar and drinking the water, it was Dionysus’s turn to challenge us. We met in his lab, where we’d been learning how to make different types of potions and tinctures, some of them for healing, others for more mischievous purposes.
“Good morning, my little apothecaries.” His speech was a bit slurred, and I wondered if he was drunk already. Or hadn’t stopped being drunk. Maybe drunk was his natural state of being. It was hard to tell.
“For this great trial, you will need to create three different potions.” He ticked them off on his fingers. “Sleeping potion, super strength, and invisibility. Now since you’ve been learning to make these all term, you won’t be provided with a recipe. You must make it on your own. All the ingredients for each potion can be found here in the workshop. You have two hours to complete your potions.”
Before everyone could scatter to collect ingredients, Dionysus held up his finger.
“Once you’ve crafted your potions, you will be testing them on someone else. And I get to pick that someone else,” he said with aplomb. “To pass this trial, at least two out of the three potions need to work properly. And if you end up poisoning someone, I won’t be held responsible.” He smiled and waved his hand in the air. “Begin.”
While there was a mad rush for the valerian root—obviously everyone was starting with their sleeping potion, which was the easiest recipe to remember and to make—I opted for the ginseng. I was going to tackle the super strength potion first. Then for my sleeping potion, I was going to base it in lemon balm and not valerian, which was the more volatile herb.
I took my time making my potions, as quality was the important factor here. Every now and then, I peeked at my fellow recruits to see how they were fairing. I knew both Jasmine and Georgina were competent potion makers, so I didn’t worry about them. Ren looked a bit flustered, as did Lucian. If either of them were going to fail at any trial, it would be this one or one of the other cerebral ones. I had no doubt that they would both excel in the more physically exerting trials.
Two hours passed quickly. Dionysus blew a whistle, and we all had to stop.
“Okay, now to test them.” He walked around the workroom, peering at everyone’s potions. He stopped at Jasmine’s station. “You can test yours on…” His gaze traveled the room and then he grinned, pointing at me. “Melany. And vice versa.”
Jasmine and I both picked up our individual vials and walked them to the front of the classroom to set them on the front table in the holders.
“Let’s start with the super strength.”
I handed Jasmine my potion and I took hers. I looked at her, and on the count of three, we both drank. It tasted like licorice, and I wondered if she’d added that for flavor.
“Now to test it.” Dionysus pointed to the iron anvil sitting in the corner.
Jasmine and I walked over to it. “You first,” she said.
I crouched, put my hands around it, and easily lifted the four hundred pound anvil. I grinned at Jasmine. Then it was her turn, and she also easily lifted it. That was one down, now onto the invisibility potion.
We drank at the same time, and within seconds we both faded from view. It was really cool to watch, knowing I’d brewed that. The effects only lasted for a few minutes; Dionysus had us design it that way. Later, we would learn how to make one that would last for hours.
“Now, technically, you both passed, but I want to see how you did with the sleeping potion.” He pointed to two chairs in the corner.
We sat, and both of us downed the other’s potion. I was happy to taste that Jasmine had used the lemon balm as well. That was the last coherent thought I had until sometime later Dionysus nudged us awake to find that Mia, Ren, and Diego hadn’t passed. Ren’s invisibility potion had turned Revana green. Literally. If I hadn’t been sad that he hadn’t passed the trial, I would’ve laughed my ass off at that.
Later that night, I lay in my bed and stared up at the ceiling, hoping I had the strength and fortitude to continue on. I’d passed four trials; I just needed to pass four more to stay at the academy. I couldn’t be cast out. I wouldn’t survive that. I was worried about tomorrow’s trial, as it was with Apollo and Pythia. I hadn’t done well in practice with Pythia. I hoped that it didn’t hamper my performance.
Apollo paired us up the next day, with the intention of reading each other. I was hoping for someone I’d be comfortable with, someone I could open up to. I got Revana.
We sat in chairs facing each other, forced to touch knees.
“You must each read something from each other’s past and say it out loud. Those who do not extract that information won’t pass the trial.” Apollo touched us both on the heads. “Clasp hands.”
Resigned to my fate, I offered mine, and Revana slapped hers into my palms. I wrapped my fingers around her hands and squeezed. Probably harder than I needed to, but I didn’t care. I wanted to pass this trial, and I wasn’t going to let her mess with that.
I closed my eyes, took in a deep breath, and concentrated on Revana. I focused on her hands in mine, the sound of her breathing, the scent of vanilla she always carried on her. Then I shot into her mind, into one of her strongest memories. I hated that I had to speak it out loud. It was an invasion of privacy in the worst way.
“I’m at a track meet. Revana is racing; she looks maybe eleven or twelve.”
Revana’s hands tightened on mine, and I could feel her pulse thudding hard in her wrist.
“The gun goes off, and Revana sprints down the lane. She’s running hard. she’s passing the other girls. She’s almost at the finish line, when another girl comes from behind and crosses first.”
I didn’t want to continue. Even in the memory, I could feel Revana’s disappointment. Her despair. Her hatred at herself for losing the race.
“She’s coming into her house, her parents entering behind her. She turns to look at her father. He doesn’t smile at her. She tells him she’s sorry. He scowls at her, and tells her she’s stupid…”
Opening my eyes, I stopped and shook my head. I didn’t want to go on.
“You have to tell us everything you see, Melany, if you want to pass this trial.”
Revana glared at me and dug her fingernails into the backs of my hands. “Just do it.”
“He tells her she’s stupid and worthless. No one cares about second place. First place is the only thing in life that’s important. She says she’s sorry again. He slaps her across the face.” I sighed. “That’s it. That’s the end of the memory.”
Apollo nodded. “Good. Your turn, Revana.”
I took in another cleansing breath, trying to relax and open for her. I hated that she was going to be poking around in my head, but it had to happen for the sake of the trial. I didn’t have any way of blocking her. She was going to see what she was going to see. I had no control over what memory she plucked from my subconscious.
Revana stared into my eyes, as she squeezed my hands tighter. I was going to have divots in my skin. Her eyes narrowed, and her breathing picked up. “I can’t see anything.” She yanked on my hands. “Let me in.”
“I am.” And I was. Or at least, I think I was. I wasn’t actively blocking her.
She snapped her eyes shut, and her face contorted in concentration.
“Try harder, Revana,” Apollo said from next to us.
“I am.”
“You only have a few more minutes to complete the task.”
I wanted to tell him to shut up; he wasn’t helping.
Finally, her eyes flicked open, and she pulled he
r hands away. “Nothing. I couldn’t see anything.”
Apollo frowned. “You couldn’t capture one memory?”
“There was nothing there to capture. Her mind was just dark.”
He glanced down at me. “Were you blocking her?”
I stood. “No, of course not. I wouldn’t know how to do that, even if I wanted to.”
“Okay, you pass, Melany. I’m afraid, Revana, you failed this trial.”
“You bitch!” Revana bolted to her feet and sucker punched me right in the mouth then she stomped out of the room.
Shaking his head, Apollo glanced at Pythia and shrugged. “I have a feeling this is going to be a long day.”
The way Pythia looked at him, I thought for sure she was going to say something about the other day when the same thing had happened to her. But she didn’t.
Later in the dorm room, Georgina asked me, “What did you do to Revana? She came out of the room with smoke blowing out of her nose. She said you were going to pay.”
I shrugged. “I didn’t do anything. She didn’t pass the trial and blamed me for it.” I collapsed onto my bed and turned toward the wall, tucking my legs up. I didn’t want to talk about what had happened to anyone.
Today was a hard day, and I knew it was just going to get even harder. Right now, we weren’t being pitted against each other much, but I knew it was coming. Today, it was Revana, what if tomorrow it was Georgina, or Jasmine, or even Lucian? Could I protect my friends while I protected myself? I really hoped so because I didn’t want to face the alternative.
Chapter Twenty-Two
MELANY
Before heading into the hall of Aphrodite for our next trial, Lucian caught me and pulled me aside.
“Are you okay?”
“Yeah, I’m good.”
He lifted his hand and touched my puffy, sore lip. Revana’s fist had split it open. “What happened? The rumor is you cheated or something, causing Revana to fail the trial.”
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