by Kate Nova
I was so distracted, I didn’t notice I was nodding at her, almost encouragingly.
“The school can be a little confusing,” Katie said. “There are some parts of it that are decades old and some wings they added on last year. But we’ll find them.”
“Sorry,” I said, loathing to say the word—I hadn’t had to say the word in so many years. “Find what?”
“Your classes.” Katie reached forward and took the stack of papers from me. “Let’s see. Oh, you don’t even have your schedule yet. Well, let’s go down to the administration office and get you situated.”
She turned and started walking, but I remained rooted in place.
Everything in my body was cold, all my scales itching with suspicion. “Why?” I asked. “Why do you want to help me?”
She was definitely human. There was no doubt about that. I could smell the mortality on her and she in turn should’ve been able to sense how dangerous I was.
Did she have any idea how many people I’d killed over the years? Did she have any idea how easy it would be to kill her now?
One look at her sparkly eyes and it was apparent, she was oblivious. “Well, because it’s the nice thing to do!” she replied, as if this was such an obvious calculation for everyone, and then as an afterthought, she added, “and I’m on the student council. So, whenever I see a fellow Wyvern who looks utterly and completely lost, I try to help. I took a solemn oath to help out, after all.”
While I tried to figure out a polite way to tell her to fuck off, that I could figure this out myself and I didn’t need a useless human escorting me around like I was a puppy on a leash, she simply ignored my body language which clearly spelled out that I wasn’t interested in her help.
“Kind of weird that they didn’t assign you an escort in the first place,” Katie murmured as she scanned my paperwork.
I couldn’t explain why, but the sentence slipped out of me without any thought: “They did. It was supposed to be some guy. Griffin something.” I hoped she didn’t need any more identifying details; I didn’t want to have to describe the way Griffin’s dark curls flopped over his forehead, or the bronze color of his skin and his chiseled frame, or the way his lips were so perfectly kissable. I was having trouble breathing just at the thought of him. I definitely didn’t want to describe how, at the slightest touch, I ached to have him naked and underneath me in bed, his hands in my snake-hair, his mouth on my scales.
Katie’s eyes shot up. “They sent you Griffin Hayes? Oh, no wonder you’re lost. You’re lucky Griffin didn’t eat you alive. He’s notoriously hateful to all the new students. I thought they said they wouldn’t give him any more escort duty.”
That was kind of a relief to hear. Griffin hadn’t targeted me specifically. He threatened all the new students, human and monster alike; he had a reputation for nastiness.
But if he hadn’t targeted me, then that meant … there hadn’t been anything special about me, right? I hadn’t been on his radar because I was Medusa and I was more monstrous than anyone else in this school. He’d been rude to me just because … he could.
“Don’t worry,” Katie reassured. “Just stay away from the athletics buildings and the football field and you won’t even see him.”
I didn’t want to say it out loud to Katie, but I doubted even that would work to keep Griffin away from me. I had a way of attracting wicked men.
“Stay away from his cronies too,” Katie warned. “Liam and Callan. You can’t miss them. Liam is the captain of the swim team, and he’s basically all lats. Callan is a fucking giant. Stay away from all of them and your time here will be much more enjoyable.”
Oh, God, so there wasn’t just one attractive jock known to spit venom, there were three?
I couldn’t let them distract me, not with their good looks and certainly not with their cruelty. I was here to pass Zeus’s ridiculous test and get myself back to Mount Olympus where I belonged.
And it sounded like I needed all the help I could get.
Katie started down the hallway again and after memorizing those names: Liam and Callan, I followed her, still skeptical, but ready to get my schedule and make my way to my assigned classes.
“Oh, I love your sandals,” Katie said briefly as we turned the corner.
I glanced down. My sandals were gold and braided affairs, surprisingly in style considering they were designed and made thousands of years ago. “Thanks,” I replied, and didn’t tell her that I wasn’t remotely responsible for choosing them. My mysterious benefactor had sent them to me, likely as a wearable good luck charm for my first day of school. As I followed my human escort down to the administration office, they gleamed in the dimness of the hallway’s fluorescent lights, beacons in the darkness.
Chapter 4
Medusa
It would’ve been easier if the human girl, Katie, was secretly taking me to a classroom full of students like Griffin, who’d all shout insults in some form of group hazing. Or if she’d decided, halfway through our trek to the administration office, to abandon this weird, scaly girl she’d been trying to help. It would’ve been so much easier if she was awful.
But she wasn’t; she was very kind and, unfortunately, helpful—and I had no idea how to handle it.
“Here’s my phone number,” she said, slipping me a small piece of paper with some digits scribbled on it. “If you need anything else, text me.”
I stared at the number until she bounced away, then crumpled it into a tiny ball and hurled it into the trash can.
“She seemed nice,” my hair collectively hissed and I narrowed my eyes at her silhouette, which was getting smaller and smaller the farther away she walked.
“Yes,” I repeated. “She seemed nice.” Seemed being the operative word, but I knew better than to trust another human.
Especially a woman. Last time I trusted a woman, I ended up with snakes for hair.
But Katie did help me get my schedule. Since I couldn’t figure out what ulterior motives she might have, I proceeded to my classes.
The day was pretty uneventful. I was scolded a couple times for being late, even though this school was a massive labyrinth of hallways and classrooms and no one should be expected to find their way without some sort of map, but I endured it.
The stares, on the other hand … Those were difficult to overcome. It didn’t matter what classroom I sat in, the whispers swirled around me and eyes gawked at my crackly skin and strange, serpentine hair.
More rumors abounded: “So ugly, she made the sun hide behind the moon.” “So scary, dogs howl when they see her.” “So evil, she started a fire at her last school and twenty-three people almost suffocated.”
And, of course, that same old rumor, as always: “She killed her own mother.”
If only you knew, I wanted to shout, whirling around to glare at all of them so they could see the coldness in my eyes.
They wouldn’t dare stare and whisper about me if only they knew how evil I really was.
But I couldn’t tell them. They had to just keep believing I was some trashy human girl, transferred from another school because it hadn’t been able to contain my nefariousness.
They couldn’t know how monstrous I truly was. And I had to prove I’d renounced those ways, otherwise Zeus would never allow me back onto Mount Olympus.
And I’d never get to be myself again.
I held my breath every time I walked into a classroom, wondering if Griffin would be waiting in there, ready to torture me further. But there was no sign of him or his alleged hot-guy cronies.
At least until my last class of the day, which was gym.
The coach impatiently checked my name against his roster, almost like he couldn’t believe he’d have to teach sports to such an uncoordinated-looking creature as myself and when he found Medusa Katsaros on his clipboard, he grunted something indecipherable at me.
“Sorry?” I said, leaning forward.
“I said go to the locker room and get ready.” He pointed out the win
dow of the gymnasium with his pen at a massive swimming pool. “Today we’re swimming laps.”
The truth was, I loved the water.
If I could’ve left my sea cave, I would’ve taken to the water twice a day, sunrise and sunset with the water smooth on my scales, soothing to my soul.
The only water in my cave had been little pools, too shallow to submerge more than my feet and yet as I stared out at this vast pool of blue, I was nervous.
Thankfully, I’d sponged makeup onto my entire body, covering up the scales which coated my skin. Luckily, I hadn’t been cursed with a tail. So, as I stood in my regulation swimsuit clutching the towel around myself, I looked like a random student, feeling awkward in my own skin in front of so many classmates.
But I had no idea if the makeup would stay on my scales when I got into the water and there was one more problem. I couldn’t go out into the direct sunlight without something to cover my eyes.
Otherwise, anyone who crossed my path would turn to stone.
“Excuse me,” I said to the coach on my way out of the locker room. “Are there any goggles or anything? My eyes, they’re a little sensitive to the pool water.” I hoped my fib would work, otherwise this could get gruesome very quickly.
The coach looked at me like I’d requested a platter of grapes and a jug of wine to feast on instead of goggles. “Tough luck,” he said. “Now, go dive in. Four laps of breaststroke to warm up.”
I hesitated. The coach really didn’t know what he was dealing with here. The whole point of me being at the school was so I’d blend in and look like a human. I could guarantee that no one would believe I was human anymore if they saw what my eyes became in the sunlight.
“You know I can dock you a full letter grade for every day you refuse to participate,” the coach threatened.
I tried to react with the kind of shock a human would, but the truth was, I didn’t have to get perfect grades while I was here; I just had to survive.
But another student who overheard our conversation took pity on me. “Here,” a tall brunette girl said, offering me a pair of sunglasses. “It’s not goggles, but they’ll at least block the glare.”
The coach seemed upset that his threats had been foiled, but he made a motion with his hands that basically said, “Move along, then.” I placed the glasses on my face as I walked with the brunette girl to the pool.
“Uh, thanks.” The glasses were barely tinted a dark brown, just enough to bring everything I saw down a few shades in brightness, but they were mirrored, so I was confident no one would be marbleized while I was out.
“Migraines, right?” the girl asked. “I get them too. One good glare and I’m ruined for the rest of the day.” She stuck out her hand, and for the second time today, a mortal human introduced herself to me like I was her equal. “I’m Laura.”
“Medusa,” I muttered and this time I shook her hand. Going through the motions felt safer now than resisting and potentially standing out even more than I already did. “I’ll, uh, I’ll give these back to you after class.”
“Whatever,” Laura said with a shrug. “I’m not worried.” She paused at the edge of the pool and it was obvious she was waiting for me to make more banter with her, but I didn’t know how to make friends. I wasn’t interested in friends.
I wasn’t here on Earth to make friends.
So without another word, I dropped my towel and dove into the pool.
That made two human girls today who’d gone out of their way to be nice to me. I almost hoped there was some sort of anti-Medusa conspiracy at the heart of it, or else I’d have to believe humans could actually be this kind with no ulterior motives.
I hoped it was the former. Otherwise, I didn’t know how much longer I’d be able to keep up the charade of being human. I couldn’t imagine being that nice for no reason.
I already knew what being nice could cost you.
My snake hair would keep the sunglasses on my face, even with the stream of water—even though my snakes were nearly as vengeful as I was and loved to see helpless men turned into stone before us. I trusted them to keep the sunglasses on so we could continue the charade.
And the more I swam, the more I forgot all about the years I’d spent in my sea cave alone and the more I felt like my old self again.
Almost human.
I didn’t worry about the makeup covering my scales or the two deadly weapons I carried on my face. And I certainly didn’t worry about what had happened last time I was in the water, thousands of years ago, when I was betrayed and cursed to become the monster I was now.
I just swam.
The water was cool and pleasant against my body and my arms felt powerful as they pulled me through the pool. Somewhere above me, the coach was watching, taking notes on my stroke, but I didn’t care. This was bigger than just taking a quick swim for gym class.
This was what redemption felt like.
Ignoring the coach’s call for breaststroke, I held my breath and dove down deeper, pretending the pool itself was the ocean and that I was my old human self again, walking down the deepening shore to the steely blue depths of the ocean, my head pulled under, lost in the sea—
Slam!
The attack came out of nowhere, knocking into me like a freight train.
I opened my eyes, the chlorine stinging and glanced around me.
Something had barreled into me, something powerful and cruel. I couldn’t make out what it was exactly, but I didn’t want to stay at the bottom of the pool and find out.
I kicked my legs towards the surface, and this time, when the thing hit me, I got a glimpse of it.
Some sort of sea monster—long, serpent-like body, elegant claws and eel-like neck. It was instantly camouflaged against the blue of the pool. I could’ve stayed under to watch its graceful turns in the water, but I was running out of breath.
Plus, it was heading back towards me, its fangs glistening and a hunger in its green eyes.
Slam!
Again, its nose hit me like a dolphin attacking a shark’s gills. I was dazed, rolling backwards in the water, my entire body sore and shocked. Its belly was made of armored scales, and its tail streamed through the water like an aquatic ribbon.
I tried to kick, but my legs were feeble. Then I attempted to pull myself up to the surface, but my arms couldn’t move. My lungs were on fire, seizing for more air and my brain was panicking. If I didn’t get to the surface and swallow air, I’d die and if I stayed in the water a second longer, that thing would attack me again. I wasn’t sure I’d survive it.
Sinking down, the surface of the pool got farther and farther away. My snakes were growing limp. They were no longer clinging to Laura’s sunglasses, so the protective lenses were floating off my face. My eyes looked up and just before they closed, my eyelids heavy, I saw the sun, filtered through the water and a sea monster’s body silhouetted. That was the last thing I saw.
A pair of arms yanked me up and out of the water, laying me on my back on the cement beside the pool.
I coughed and sputtered, one hand reaching for the sunglasses, pushing them into place. My hair played the part well, lying flat against the concrete like regular human hair, sopping wet.
“Are you all right?” Laura’s voice rang through my ears. When I cracked open my eyes, though, it wasn’t her face I saw.
Across the cement, cruising through the water, the sea monster was there in one blink of the eye, and the next, it was a dazzlingly handsome guy with short, blond hair and emerald eyes, pulling himself up the ladder and out of the water.
One glance at him and I knew instantly he had to be Liam. Katie had described him as pure muscle, and that’s what this guy was—tan skin, a wingspan like a professional swimmer and a set of abs I could wash my clothes with. His legs, too, were thick and corded with strength. One kick in the water had to propel him forward across half the pool.
And he was not a human—that was obvious with a single glance. He may have hidden his scales and
his sea monster claws within his human skin, but the water had showed me what he truly was.
And there was no mistaking it now as he walked over to join the group of humans. He stood out as gloriously as Griffin had. There was no way he was mortal.
“You swam right over her, Liam,” Laura complained to the hot swimmer, but I could tell by the tone of her voice that she wasn’t trying all that hard to rebuke him. I guessed she thought he was far too attractive for that. I’d bet every girl in the school was immune to truly criticizing him. They probably melted to goo as soon as he so much as looked at them.
“Sorry.” Liam shrugged, not sounding remotely sincere. “She was in my way.”
“Yes, well,” the coach said, a reprimand in his tone, “we have to watch where we’re going.” He glanced down at me and I realized he wasn’t telling Liam to watch where he was swimming, he was warning me. I remembered what Katie had said. Liam was the star of the swim team, so no matter how careful I was in the water, he’d never be blamed for mowing into me. He could probably practically drown me and the coach would likely just click his tongue and say, without any real sympathy, “You’ve got to stay out of the way when Liam is practicing his laps.”
When I assured everyone I was fine and the crowd around me lost interest, I got to my feet and immediately confronted Liam.
“Hey,” I barked. “For the star of the swim team, you sure don’t know how to stay in your own lane.”
Liam turned around to face me. He’d shaken the water out of his hair, so it stuck up in defined blond spikes, almost like the ridges down a sea monster’s back. His eyes glowed as they took in the sight of me from head to toe and brought forth a memory of how they’d glowed underwater like emeralds in the pool, dangerous and enchanting.
He stepped closer to me, close enough I could see the pulse throbbing in his neck—close enough he could’ve leaned forward and kissed me, if he wanted.
“So, it’s the new girl,” he sneered. “The curse. Brave of you to come here. Too bad today’s your first and last day. If you’re not gone tomorrow, you’re going to regret it.”