by Gabby Fawkes
"I want to go to Mathusalem eventually," Kian was saying. I guiltily brought myself back into the moment. She held up a hand before I could respond. "And before you get all pissy at me, I'm not saying now or even soon. But, I have to go eventually. I mean, the people there are like me, my family could be there. Not that you and Demi aren’t my family." She gave me a side hug. “But yeah.”
"It’s fine, I get it," I said. "But what does that have to do with-"
"Dion? Nothing, maybe. Probably. I mean, who knows if it'll go anywhere? We're just having fun now. Kissing when we’re not fighting. But later, what if I go to Mathusalem and I like it? Dion is banned there. Permanently. And I don't think I could ever be happy permanently on Olympus, even if that bitch Hera let us stay."
"Me neither," I admitted. "It's too different, too far removed. Beats the School for the Different times a thousand, but still. I want to enjoy real life."
We were both silent for a while. It was funny how it all caught up with you at once. Back at the school, most of our lives we hadn't even bothered to hope for a normal life or the chance to explore the outside world. Not with how we’d had our whole, dismal futures laid out for us: crazy orphans f-o-r-e-v-e-r. But breaking out of there, and finding out the crazy truth had opened up a whole whackton of interesting possibilities. It had opened up a future I didn't even know I had.
This past month or so, running around and saving the other kids, and finding out about the real and magical worlds, I’d gotten curious about them. I knew I couldn’t just go on a yolo trip now – maybe never would. Especially not now hundreds of kids were relying on me for safety, for their future. But, one day, if I could, I wanted to at least see it. Do stupid normal stuff that I’d seen in the movies, like getting ice cream or going glow-in-the-dark bowling.
"Persephone booted me out," Demi said, joining us with a sigh. "I wasn’t keen on her using my plants for the spaghetti. And she wasn’t keen on me being there at all."
"Spaghetti?" Kian said, whole face lighting up, "Mamma mia!"
We laughed. "Aren’t you supposed to be Spanish?" I teased.
"Who knows?" Kian said. "I could have a bit of Italian in me."
I sat back and let my gaze pan around room. My parents had been here, I could feel it. Which table had they sat at – the top one that I could now see was ridged with gold? Or the rickety one I was now on? The thought hit me like a truck, a powerful wave of melancholy that crushed down on my chest and made it hard to breathe.
Were they still alive? If not, how did they die? Most of all, why did this whole place have the air that one day the powerful, ruthless Phoenix clan had just up and left? A tear prickled at the corner of my eye, and I brushed it away before any of my friends saw. I knew they would understand my pain – were all experiencing it. But I didn’t want to share it. Not right now.
“Where’s Jer, anyway?” Demi asked.
“Think I saw him go that way,” Kian said, pointing the way we’d come from originally.
We headed that way and found him not long after, on his way to get us.
“You guys have to see this,” he said, pulling us along.
8
Minutes later, we were at the bottom of the staircase and speechless.
"This cool, or what?" he said.
‘Cool’ wasn’t the right word for what we were seeing. Impossible, would’ve been closer.
When you looked up the definition of Badlands, I was pretty sure whether on Google or Merriam-Webster, they described and showed rock, rock, and more rock. That wasn't the case here.
On the bottom floor of the fortress, separated from the dungeon by a thick wall of stone, was a forest. A literal, honest to God forest. Complete with dirt, trees, bushes, grass, and flowers. An actual forest!
"More magic," Artemis said from behind us, her clear voice making us jump. "No way this could exist here otherwise.”
Kian gingerly held out her hand and ran her fingertips along the soft moss of a tree branch. "So, you can just magic things wherever you want? Like I could magic a pineapple on Dion's elbow?"
Artemis smirked. "Don't get any ideas. Magic like this is insanely difficult. And it takes maintenance too."
As she strode forward, her ponytailed head going right and left, furrows appeared in her forehead.
"What is it?" I asked.
She paused, eyeing a particularly fat squirrel that was scampering away. "I just wonder which Mathusalem witches are responsible for this. The Phoenix clan has always had powerful allies, witches among them, but this is something deeper. Someone – or someones – who’d have to visit regularly. Someone extremely powerful, who managed to remain in their good graces for some time. And that’s a miracle in itself." She mouthed something to herself, then shook her head.
"Anyone we know?" Kian asked.
I could tell she was just dying to hear about more about witches. Not that I could really blame her. Relatives were relatives – even crappy ones. Hearing all that stuff about the Phoenix clan had been unsettling, but also invigorating.
"No," Artemis said. "He’s just an old wives’ tale, I'm pretty sure. Dion claims he met him at a party once, but you know how he is."
Kian snorted, then said, "What, is it Merlin?"
“Is it?” Jeremy said, looking excited. I think part of him hoped to find a super-powerful warlock to help him with his rages. He was almost totally better – didn’t destroy anything anymore, but I could tell fighting his demons still took a toll on him. I could see it in the tension in his shoulders, a sometimes haunted look in his eyes.
"No, just some old guy called Walario,” Artemis said. “Supposedly, he’s the oldest witch/warlock ever. And supposedly," she said, rolling out the word with ill-concealed suspicion, "it’s because he's part Olympian. Or at the least a demi-god of some variety."
Demi paused her patting an especially lush pussy willow to glance sharply at Artemis. "Isn’t that a big deal?"
"Huge, potentially," Artemis said. "Only, if you’d heard as many ‘I’m an Olympian fallen to earth’ claims as we have over the years, then you'd get wary too. Kind of like the whole Anastasia Romanov fiasco after the whole family was wiped out."
Demi nodded her head sadly, clearly remembering something from history that once again escaped me.
"Wouldn't it be relatively easy to see if they were telling the truth though?" I asked. "How many gods and goddesses disappear? Athena said coming back as a human was fairly rare."
"It is," Artemis said. "Coming back more than disappearing, though. You have to understand that being an Olympian isn’t always all it’s cracked up to be. Don’t get me wrong, I love it. But some of my brothers and sisters – especially the ones who sulk around Olympus living the easy life and gathering slavish followers – get bored. So every now and again one of them will disappear for a few hundred years, and wait it out until something interesting happens."
"How does that even work?" Jeremy said.
Artemis shrugged. "Never done it. I've been told it's like being in a twilight sleep state. To the point where you’re somewhat cognizant of what’s going on, enough to know whether you want to come back. Anyway, there's probably a good twenty or so Olympians at any given point in time who are taking a break. Never Demeter before, though. A lot of us were wondering when you’d show up." She squeezed Demi's arm.
"I still don't understand…" Demi tucked her hair behind both small ears, clearly trying to choose her words carefully. "From what I've heard, Demeter… me, I was a devoted mother, harvester. I don't understand why I would leave my fields unguarded and Persephone with that… that monster…"
"It only shows how dire whatever need you sensed was, that it made you leave your daughter with a god like Hades," Artemis said.
The implication sent a shiver running through my body. Was this all connected? As I glanced around, I saw that I wasn’t the only one touched by Artemis’ suggestion. I didn’t understand how it could be. And yet…
From above, Dion
's unmistakably delighted voice bellowed, "Dinner…."
Jeremy didn't walk, he ran out of the room, up the stone steps and away. I couldn’t blame him. I felt like running away from all this at least three quarters of the time.
"This better be some good spaghetti," Kian said.
And it was. It was great spaghetti, in fact. Guess Persephone’s thousands of years of cooking experience had really paid off. On the side, there was even garlic bread (which she’d apparently been able to soften from its slightly stale state with the help of an oven I hadn’t even noticed).
We’d all sat down at one of the middle-tier tables, which I preferred, since the top one would’ve felt weird. I wasn’t sure that I was ‘America’s Top Dragon’ material. At least, not yet.
"Most of their potatoes were still good. Means it’s only been weeks since they’ve been gone," Axel said, biting into a piece of bread. "Probably. Since word hasn't gotten around far that they're gone, I wouldn’t guess much longer than that."
“But Hera knew,” I said.
“Hera knows everything first,” Artemis explained, “She probably just said that for dramatic effect. She’d love for the Phoenix clan to be wiped out, has never been a fan of theirs.”
"What will happen when everyone finds out?" I asked.
"Panic, most likely," Apollo said. "The Phoenix clan disappearing is unheard of. People are already scared from the attacks. This will be another straw."
"Maybe we should consider…" Dion said.
"No," Apollo said sharply. "The people need the truth. That way the government and the DSA can't keep whitewashing what's been happening."
"We can't," Axel said quietly.
Apollo, being at the opposite end of the table, looked up sharply. "What was that?"
"We can't tell them," Axel said. "As soon as we do, they'll know that we were here. Some will probably even want to rush over to see for themselves, especially other dragons. Then word will get out that Tala and the other kids are here. The DSA might not charge over to come get them right away. The Dragon Badlands are still dangerous even without the Phoenix Clan. But they’d make plans to come, figure out a way to. We can't tell anyone."
Dion spluttered. Either because of what Axel had said, or because he'd just drained his large goblet of wine in one nervous swig.
"Who did you tell?" Kian asked knowingly.
"No one," he said, his brows flying up and his eyes bulging to make one extremely insulted face. "Am I not allowed to converse with Athena, my own sister?"
Apollo's face went stony.
Artemis smiled. "Well, what did she say?"
Dion had already refilled his goblet and was sipping it. "Not much. She may stop by, if the mood strikes her."
Axel, teeth already sunk into his bread, paused. "She's coming here?"
"Oh, don't look at me like that," Dion said. "She said maybe. And I know she's in contact with the DSA. But she's in contact with everyone. We know where her loyalties lie."
"At least, we hope we do," Apollo said dubiously.
Artemis elbowed him. "Don't be such a Grim Gary. Just because Athena likes playing in the reggie wars doesn’t mean she’s untrustworthy."
"By ‘playing’, you mean influencing them for personal gain and sheer amusement," Apollo clarified.
"Yeah, yeah," Artemis said with a dismissive wave of her hand. "She’s still our sister."
"There," Dion said, sipping some more. "See? Not so bad, after all. Anyway, it's not like I invited Aphrodite or anything. Although there was a time when I wouldn't have had to."
"Shut up," Axel snapped.
Silence fell over the table.
"Ow," Dion said, indicating that Kian had probably given him a well-aimed kick in the shins.
I twirled some more spaghetti on my fork and shoved it in my mouth. Axel was doing his best not to look at me.
There it was again, the gulf separating us that only widened daily. Axel knew all my violent dark secrets, but I couldn’t know any of his? Was it because he actually still had feelings for Aphrodite? I resisted the urge to gag.
"What is it?" Jenna said from across the table, seeing my face. "Did you catch how Jeremy looks when he's eating?"
Jeremy, who was already wolfing down his second plate in record time, paused.
"I’d be careful if I were you," Demi said caustically. "I heard Persephone say one of her favorite things to do while cooking is poison people she despises."
"Demi," Persephone said, faux-annoyed. "It was supposed to be a surprise for her."
Jenna's face went white and she rushed off to the bathroom. Now it was just Tania, sitting there, tugging on her dark brown braid awkwardly. She rubbed her back gingerly.
"Your wings come out yet?" Artemis said kindly.
Tania's expression immediately got scared. "No, I think it's just period pains is all."
As I looked at the way she ground her long teeth together, I realized something.
"If you hold it in, it just gets worse,” I said quietly.
Tania's hand clenching her fork got white. "I don't know what you're talking about," she said stiffly.
I decided to leave it at that. Now, in front of everyone, wasn’t the time to talk to her about it. Although if she really was trying to stifle her transformation just so Jenna wouldn't get pissed at her, then that could end up being really bad news. Maybe I could get Artemis to pull her aside later. I knew I had to do something.
The rest of the meal passed quickly. Seemed like no one was in a talking mood after Dion's double admission.
By then it was late, and we were all exhausted and more than ready to turn in. I pulled Artemis aside, asked about the Tania thing, and she promised to see what she could do. Then I went with Demi and Kian to hunt out my perfect bedroom. There were so many to choose from that it wasn’t easy. Although I was seriously tempted by one with a golden door knocker, I ended up settling on one with a single golden candlestick, since it was next to two others. That way, my friends and I could all be side by side.
I was just settling into mine when there was a knock on the door. It was Axel.
"Hey."
"Hey yourself," I said.
He stood there awkwardly, hands shoved in his pockets, eyeing me.
I raised my brows at him, as if to say – so?
He said nothing.
"Okay," I said finally, "I’m going to bed. See you tomorrow."
"You're mad at me," he said.
"Not mad," I said. Although I was, partially.
Truthfully, though, I didn't know what I felt. Just a weird clenching twist in my gut. Maybe I didn't know much about boys and dating, with having a whopping total of zero experience. But I did know that someone promising to tell you something and then not, someone not being forthright with you, was a bad sign.
"This is about the Aphrodite comment," he said, shaking his head. "That idiot, Dion."
"Dion wasn't the one who told me that he would be honest with me, tell me about his past," I pointed out.
Axel's face darkened before he looked away. "You don't understand. It's not that simple."
I scoffed. "You kidding me? Have you forgotten who you're talking to? The girl who has a crazy voice in her head that periodically tells her to burn them all, the girl whose family were the most ruthless dragons in the world? Seriously?"
As always, you have provided a stellar description of me, PV said dryly.
"You can't help that," Axel argued. "Those are your instincts. And besides, you've never hurt anyone who didn't deserve it."
"I almost did," I argued. "And I thought, what did you say to me: Remember who you are. What's to say that all the stuff you did with your instincts wasn’t acting out before?"
Still, Axel wouldn't look at me. "Tala, those instincts made me vicious and unfeeling for thousands upon thousands of years. The person who I was… He’s not a man you want to know."
We stood there for a minute, while I waited for him to say more. He didn't. The ai
r in the room was suddenly stuffy. Maybe it was the four stone walls around me, or the century-old linens on the bed, but I was pretty sure I knew why it was.
"That's it?" I said. "Okay. I should probably get to bed anyway. Night."
Axel strode out of the room without a word. I slammed the door shut after him and, just as hot tears stung my eyes, he ripped open the door again, with enough force to unseat a few chunks of rubble around its hinges. They clattered to the floor, accompanied by a thin shower of dust.
"You don't understand. I want to tell you. More than anything, but I'm afraid-"
"That I won't have the same feelings for you?" I said incredulously. "Come on. I thought we had something. I thought we trusted each other."
Axel seized both my hands. "We do. A lot faster and a lot more than I would’ve ever expected, or even thought possible. Which is why…” His face darkened, the next words coming out with extreme effort. “I… don’t want… to lose you.” He exhaled, still not looking at me. “The truth – what I have to tell you - it could change everything."
"If you don't tell me, everything's going to change anyway," I said. "I can't be with someone I can't trust. And I can't trust someone I don't know. You don't have to tell me now if you don't want to. Just… I don't know, I'm tired. I need to go to bed."
A long pause, then Axel strode to the door. There, in a toneless voice, he began, "About Aphrodite. She was with Hephaestus. Unhappily, but they were married. I had an affair with her, for years. We laughed about it, mocking him behind his back. I did it for the sheer fun of it. Aphrodite was fun, malicious like me. She never protested when I did something cruel. Of course, Hephaestus found out, all the gods knew by that point. And it broke him. Broke his heart. They say he's in the wheelchair because Zeus threw him off Olympus. But that was only Zeus’ punishment to Hephaestus for letting his wife cheat on him and not punishing Aphrodite himself. The wounds won’t heal because Hephaestus has never gotten over the betrayal."
I was silent. I didn't know what to say. I'd expected wanton slaughter, sure, but messing with people's lives for the sheer fun of it? I didn't understand. It was almost as if…