by Kate Nova
“What are you proposing?” my hair hissed as I stared in the mirror above my sink.
My eyes … I used to think they’d changed in the curse, same as the rest of me. But I could see now that they were still the same bright green eyes I’d always had. Somewhere inside me there was still a human and she was desperate, terrified and full of wrath for the hand fate had dealt.
“In order to get them to talk,” I said, shifting my head back and forth so the incoming sunlight through my window hit my eyes sideways, making them bright as jewels, “I’m going to have to be nice to them.”
“Oh,” my hair whispered and even though those little snakes weren’t capable of grinning, I could almost see smug smiles on all their tiny mouths. “We see. Be nice.” They exaggerated the last two words as if they’d sooner believe I was going to sprout wings and fly. “And which one of them are you going to fuck first?”
“Hey,” I blurted. “Don’t make me put you in braids. I’ll do it.”
My hair piped down after that. I gathered my books and the things I’d need for class today. “I’m not talking about fucking them. I’m talking about basic decency.”
“Decency,” my hair answered. “Do we even know anything about decency anymore?”
“Friendship, then,” I clarified and pulled my hood over my hair. “I’ll make them my friends. Then they’ll talk.”
Friends. I’d tried to make friends with Katie and Laura and honestly … it had gone better than I’d expected.
Even as a monster, there were some things about me which were surprising.
Time to cast the broodiness of last week’s Medusa away. And time to let my anger and fury over the guys’ ruining my mother’s journal fall to the bottom of the abyss inside of me.
There’d be plenty of time for revenge later.
Now it was time to put on a good face—at least as good as I could make mine—and be cordial. Friendly.
Nice.
Could I be nice to the monsters who’d been so cruel to me?
If it meant getting back to Mount Olympus and seeing Poseidon burn for his sins, I could do anything.
“Which one are you going to fuck first?” the question my hair had asked resonated in my mind. For a brief, heated moment, I pictured it:
What would it be like to kiss Griffin? Would his lips be soft or firm? Would he be overpowering, or would he be the type to sit back and let me have my way with him?
What about Liam? What would it feel like to straddle all that muscle? What would it feel like to run my fingers along the ripples in his back, feel his shoulders flex, have his washboard abs pressing against my own torso?
And Callan … How would it feel to have him throw me onto a bed, climb on top of me, his massive frame utterly in control of my pleasure? And how big would a man of Callan’s height be?
I shivered, desire rolling through me. Before I was imprisoned in my sea cave, I seduced many men. I bedded them. I rolled through the motions, gleaning my pleasure from them like you’d take blood with a syringe, almost clinically. But I knew if I were to seduce any of these three men, men who’d already gotten under my skin, it would be more than just a means to turn men into stone.
Better not to seduce them.
Better to just befriend them—kill them with kindness, as they said.
Seemed impossible. But I’d done harder things in my life.
Classes were canceled. At least, the morning classes were. I saw the signs on the classroom doors directing students into the auditorium of the student center moments before I saw the mass of people herding over to what was an impromptu school assembly.
Laura caught my eye and actually smiled. Maybe she didn’t hate me, after all. Not even after the cafeteria mishap or after I ignored her for an entire week.
“What’s going on?” she mouthed, gesturing to the crowds.
I shrugged. I wouldn’t know, but if I wanted to look like a regular student, I knew I should go where all the other human students were going. Better blend in rather than stick out.
As I walked, I kept my eye out for any of the guys I needed to investigate. Maybe I’d try to sit by them, smile friendly, act like we’d all decided to turn over a new leaf. I’d chuckle, punch their arms, mention how ridiculous it was that we can’t just talk about the fact that we’re all monsters here, walking among humans. Then I’d ask some casual questions about the beast keeper and see if any of them were dumb enough to spill.
I’d scrunch my arms together, so my cleavage came up to my chin. Usually, men were always dumber in the presence of boobs.
They’d never know what hit them.
I pressed through the auditorium doors with the rest of my fellow students, aware that I was passing the spot where, just last week, I’d heard that strange growling noise. Here in the student center, I’d been certain I’d turn the corner and find a beast, all fangs and fur, crouching in the shadows, ready to pounce.
But instead, all I’d found that night was Callan.
Well, first Katie had found me. Then Callan had discovered the two of us. That was the night he’d stolen my journal from me. I’d been so naïve, thinking he was really going to stick up for me. Instead, he was made of the same stuff as Griffin and Liam.
I could see him now. It was impossible to miss him. His head stuck out above the rest of the students. He was leaned back in his auditorium seat, down on the far-right side near the empty orchestra pit.
Should I go sit by him? I didn’t see either of his monster comrades nearby. Maybe that was a good thing. Maybe it would be easier if I took these beasts one at a time—befriending them individually, prying for information when they were alone and more vulnerable and more willing to be influenced by a red-blooded woman.
Well, I wasn’t exactly a woman anymore. But I knew from experience that I was still enough of one to bring a man to his knees at my feet.
And Callan was more monster than man, anyway.
But I hesitated too long and was shuffled along by a faculty member to the next available empty seat, so I took it. Surrounded by strangers, I ignored the whispered rumors and the stares at my hair as the house lights dimmed and the stage lights brightened.
The headmaster walked out from behind the curtains and squinted out at us, uncomfortable, as if he didn’t relish being in the spotlight. Although, he was also aware of the power he had now, with all our attention.
He patted the microphone awkwardly, muttering, “Is this thing on?”
Even though none of us confirmed it for him, he carried on, sweating and pacing. “Uh, I’m sorry to be disrupting your classes, but we have a situation. Katie Reynolds, our student body secretary, is missing.”
All my daydreams about fucking the necessary information out of Callan vanished from my mind. I sat straight up, focusing on the headmaster.
I didn’t know how many other Katies there were at this school, but that was definitely the Katie who’d talked to me.
“She was in class last Monday,” the headmaster went on. “but no one can recall seeing her since, including her roommates. Since it’s been over a week, we’re growing concerned. All her friends are being questioned, but if anyone has any information that can help us find her, my office is wide open. Please.”
My heart was pounding. The very same Katie who’d been so friendly to me was now gone? I never would’ve found my classes that first day if it hadn’t been for Katie and now she was missing.
I instantly thought of that night when she was next to the auditorium, the growling I heard. There was something there, some connection. My gut knew it, the monster in me knew it, but I couldn’t quite put it together.
“I have some information.” The voice that spoke out from the crowd was familiar and when I pulled myself out of my worries, my jaw dropped. It was Callan himself, standing up in his aisle, though he was big enough he probably didn’t have to, addressing the headmaster directly.
The headmaster blinked past the spotlights, squinting to see int
o the auditorium. “Yes? Well, go ahead.”
Callan didn’t skip a beat. He turned his head and his eyes found me directly—and so did the finger that he pointed. “I bumped into Katie last Monday evening, after classes, right here outside the auditorium. And she was with the new girl.”
The new girl—he didn’t even call me out by name. Yet everyone knew exactly who he was talking about.
A thousand heads turned and instantly the auditorium dissolved into frenzied whispers. The students I was sitting next to tilted away from me, like I was about to stab them.
The headmaster didn’t even hesitate. He must have been waiting for an opportunity to haul me back into his office. Perhaps he suspected me all along but had to do the diplomatic thing and gather the whole damn school together to pretend to be truly investigating.
“Medusa. My office. Immediately.” He motioned for the campus security to escort me out of the auditorium.
I stood up. What else could I do? I didn’t have any idea where Katie was, but Callan had made it sound like I was responsible for her disappearance.
Murderer, everyone was thinking, whispering.
“She already killed her own mother. We saw it in the poems on the cafeteria wall.”
“We see it in her bloodthirsty eyes.”
“Man-killer.”
It was probably only too easy for them to believe that I’d killed Katie too.
As I walked up the aisle amidst whispers and glares, I caught a glimpse of Callan, seated again, a satisfied smirk on his giant face.
Three rows behind him, Griffin and Liam shared his pompous look and I realized this was a calculated move on their part. They weren’t worried about any human girl who’d vanished. They weren’t concerned about tracking Katie down.
This was a power move.
Check, gentlemen, I thought as I cleared out of the auditorium, my escorts in tow.
But the game was only just beginning.
Chapter 13
Medusa
“So …” The headmaster leaned back in his chair, pressing his fingers together like some sort of contemplative supervillain. “For the second time since you’ve been enrolled, you’re here in my office.”
“I don’t know where Katie is.” I went for blunt.
The headmaster didn’t need any more reason to believe I was guilty—my appearance, the rumors about me, the fact that I’d accidentally blown up the food carts in the cafeteria … All that, plus Callan’s testimony that I’d been one of the last people seen with Katie, was probably enough for him to assume I was guilty.
“I saw her last Monday night, just like Callan said,” I went on. “I was going home through the student center, I walked past the auditorium, and I … I heard something.”
The headmaster raised his eyebrows. “What was it?”
“I’m not sure.” In my memory, I jetted back to that night, how certain I’d been that I was about to run into a monster. Not a monster in a human’s body, like Griffin, Liam, or Callan, but a real monster with drooling, pointed teeth and furry muscles or scales. “It was a kind of growling sound and a scratching on the walls. Almost like rats.”
The headmaster studied my face, almost like he was trying to decide if I was full of shit. I kept my eyes steady and somehow didn’t flinch.
“Maybe it was just rats,” he suggested and I nodded.
“That would make sense.” I chose my words carefully—of course, it would make sense that the strange noises I heard coming from the walls were just mice or rats. That would be downright logical. It would also be logical for the growling I’d heard to just be electricity flowing through the school, a generator, or the plumbing. But I knew I’d felt something else that night, something sinister … And even though it had gone away just as quickly, I wasn’t about to write it off as something as simple and benign as rats.
But I was singing for my life here. “I stopped to listen to that sound—the rats,” I went on, “and then Katie was there.”
“She walked by, or she was already there?” the headmaster pressed.
I thought. “I’m not sure. It’s a very curved wall, the one that leads into the auditorium. She might have been tucked behind it the whole time and I just didn’t see her. We chatted for a minute, then Callan came by and we all left. Separately.” I didn’t mention that Callan had been in league with Griffin and Liam all along and that the three of them were spectacular bullies. I’d have to work that out on my own.
“Hmmm.” The headmaster didn’t seem like he believed me, but he was forced to go through these motions anyway. “Well, why would Callan believe you had a connection with Katie’s disappearance?”
The headmaster was being sneaky. He was putting things in Callan’s mouth and I wasn’t going to let him get away with it.
“Callan never said that,” I countered, my hair coiling in frustration. “Callan just said he saw Katie with me last Monday, which is true.”
“I hardly think Callan would offer up the information unless he thought it was relevant to the investigation,” the headmaster shot back, but he looked suddenly tired. Defeated.
They couldn’t prove anything, I realized. Since I didn’t have anything to do with the mysterious vanishing of Katie, all I had to do was wait this interrogation out.
The headmaster confirmed what I’d been thinking. “We’re not sure what happened to her,” he said. “Someone saw her enter the student center, but it doesn’t seem as though she came out again. We don’t have any other leads”
I frowned, a chill shooting down my spine. Katie never made it out of the student center?
“Could she be hiding somewhere on campus?” I asked. “Is she in trouble of some kind?” Katie had seemed so innocent and bubbly, but I knew well enough that it was sometimes the girls you least expected who were mixed up in the most dangerous things.
“We’re considering all the possibilities,” the headmaster answered impatiently, signaling that I was infringing on his role here. He shuffled some papers on his desk. “I can’t detain you for further questioning,” he said, sighing heavily. “Not without reasonable cause. But know that I’ll be asking all your professors if you were acting strange on Tuesday. If I find out anything unusual or interesting, anything at all, I’ll have you detained in the campus security office so fast your head will spin.” He glanced once at my odd hair as if to say, you’re already so different. All I need is a good enough reason to arrest you and it’ll be done.
“I hope you find her,” I said and my voice broke with more emotion than I was expecting. The thought of Katie, in trouble somewhere, made my throat clench.
She’d been so nice to me and she didn’t have to be—and if she was in danger …
“All right. That’s all. You can go.” The headmaster huffed as he said this, annoyed that I hadn’t given him the answers he needed to close this whole investigation down.
I left his office with two thoughts spiraling in the back of my mind.
First, Katie hadn’t disappeared on purpose. She was the student body secretary. She hadn’t decided to take a weeklong bender and hole up in some hotel room somewhere, just to get away from the pressure of school life. Something had happened to her.
And second, Callan, Liam and Griffin probably knew what. Why else would Callan volunteer my name in connection with Katie’s disappearance?
He’d neglected to point out that he, too, had been seen with Katie that night. The moment he’d thrown my name into the investigation, all the attention went away from him.
Everyone would be all too happy to assume that creepy, eerie, man-killer Medusa was responsible for blonde, bubbly Katie’s disappearance.
It would be all that more difficult for me to be friendly with Callan when I saw him next—but, I realized as I gritted my teeth, I couldn’t confront him about this.
That would just put up more barriers between us. If Callan knew I was onto his game here, he’d never open up to me and tell me what I needed to know about Orc
us, the beast-keeper, and his big plans for Mount Olympus.
“We should strangle him,” my hair hissed when I made my way back to my second class of the day and I passed Callan, chatting with a group of students heatedly about something.
I walked by and it was clear what they’d been talking about. They all went silent, staring at me with daggers for eyes, all but Callan. He glanced at me once, gave me an infuriating smirk that said he thought he’d won and heat flushed through my body.
You can’t take me down so easily, I wanted to say. You’ll have to work much, much harder to bring Medusa down.
But instead I gave him a modest half-smile and cheerily went to class, ignoring the hallway of students who were now adding new rumors to my already long rap sheet:
“That’s her. That’s the one who took Katie.”
“I heard she kidnapped her and sold her into some slavery ring.”
“I heard she’s hidden her somewhere and is blackmailing her for money.”
And then, the worst one of all: “I heard she was so jealous of Katie, she cut her face into tiny pieces and hid her in the walls.”
“Makes sense. Someone as ugly as her must hate pretty girls.”
I used to be a pretty girl, I wanted to wail. I knew what it was like to be pretty—a target on your back at all times. I missed my old face, yes, but I also relished in the invisibility my ugliness gave me. My ugliness had become a shield in some ways. It blocked out everyone who wasn’t worthy.
Besides, to think I was so insecure about my looks that I’d do something like that to Katie … I almost couldn’t bear it.
I’d been this way for so long, I didn’t notice it anymore.
And I’d gone so long without someone being kind to me, it boiled my blood to think someone might have taken Katie. And while I got the information I needed about Orcus, I’d try to investigate where she’d gone.