Chapter 8 – Journey
JOURNEY
We stop for the night in a clearing in the middle of nowhere.
Grey goes to gather firewood, in one of the worst moods I’ve ever seen him in, and Ender follows him.
I can’t decide if Ender going will make things better or worse, but I can’t do anything about it.
I’ve been tasked with guarding the woman. I mean, the monster.
“Hungry?” I ask her, swinging my backpack into my lap and opening the top.
She gives a strangely shy smile. “Starving.”
I pull out a couple of granola bars and hand her one. She thanks me and opens it up carefully. But when she takes a bite, she winces.
Opening mine, I smile. “No good?”
A blush darkens her cheeks. “It’s fine. Really. I just spend so much time cooking I don’t really eat things like this often.”
“You’re a cook?” I ask, surprised.
She nods. “Well, when you’re semi-immortal, you learn how to do a lot of things.
I don’t have to tell you that. But my last job was at this little coffee shop.
” Her smile freezes and slowly fades, the happiness and excitement drains from her voice.
“I baked a lot there. Mostly desserts. Donuts, cookies, cakes. And I loved it so much that I started baking even more at home. Every time I got together with our…with our group of… friends, I brought treats.”
Every word she speaks seems to drain her face and her happiness. By the end, I think she might start crying.
I can’t help myself. I move closer to her on the ground. “Are you okay?”
She blinks rapidly, and I see the tears in her eyes. Lowering her head, she holds the bar in her lap. “Yeah, I’m fine. It’s just… I can never go back there again.”
“Because of the birds?” I prod.
She shakes her head and wipes a stray tear from her cheek. “No.”
“Did something happen?”
Slowly, she draws her shoulders back and sits up straighter. “It doesn’t matter. A friend screwed me over is all. It’s not like that hasn’t happened before. My ex. My sisters. That’s just life. You trust someone, and they make you regret it.”
Fucking hell. I want to take this woman in my arms and hold her tight. I want to tell her that not everyone takes friendship and love so lightly. But I also have to be careful, she’s my prisoner, not an innocent I’m charged with protecting. So I’ll keep it short.
“Not everyone is like that.” I strive to sound casual, but I think I fail miserably.
She gives a sad laugh. “Yeah, right.”
As I stare at her, my chest squeezes. I look towards the trees where Ender and Grey disappeared. There’s nothing wrong with making her feel better. That doesn’t make me a bad monster hunter.
Right?
“It’s true.” I don’t know why it’s important that she believes me, but it is.
“The last time I awoke from my stone-form, the other gargoyles in my manor had been smashed. We’d awoken together every time our manor was in trouble for hundreds of years.
I’d never before awoken alone. So, I felt lost. I left, but I had no idea where I was going or what my purpose was.
When I found the other gargoyles, most of them had created Brotherhoods with the gargoyles that served with them.
I was alone. And I thought I would always be.
But somehow, Ender and Grey were alone too.
We came together and knew instantly that there was a bond between us.
We became a family. We served together. And one day, we’ll take a mate together and raise a family together.
I trust them with every ounce of my being. ”
She’s stared silently from the first moment I started talking, and when I finished, she gave a forced smile. “But you don’t have my reputation…”
“As a harpy?” I ask.
“As a monster,” she says.
What am I supposed to say to that? I am here, after all, to catch her. A monster. Someone we consider a danger to humanity. Someone I’ve been told to kill after her use to us is gone.
I can’t exactly argue that her label—her reputation—doesn’t matter.
“Celaeno—“
Suddenly Ender comes barreling through the woods with his arms loaded with wood, and the moment shatters between us. He drops the wood into the center of stones we’ve created for a fire.
Grinning, he plops himself down. “Grey says he’ll be back when he’s back. So, what are we talking about?”
I clear my throat, wondering if Celaeno will mind my questions.
She looks a little lost in thought, eating her bar slowly as she stares at the pile of wood.
The truth is, she intrigues me. I know Grey will think I’m stupid for believing anything she says.
But for some reason, I want to know more about her.
And this feels like the perfect opportunity to do just that.
“We were discussing how she got her harpy reputation.”
Her expression freezes, and she looks between the two of us.
What’s she thinking? Grey would say she’s coming up with a lie, but I get the feeling she’s just deciding if she’s going to tell us anything.
Ender clears his throat. “Haven’t harpies always been known as being monstrous creatures who—“
“No!” she cuts him off, the words springing from her lips like she can’t stop it. “Just because I’ve lived so long that my reputation is just accepted as the truth doesn’t make it so.” Her mouth pulls into a thin line. “Word of advice, boys: never date a god. They’re assholes.”
“Your ex was a god?” Ender says, sounding taken aback.
She nods. “I was actually in a pretty serious relationship with Hades, before he met Persephone.”
I can’t help looking shocked. I am shocked!
The old gods used to run things with the air of arrogant, attention-loving celebrities.
But over the years, they pulled back. They let most of the world see them as nothing but myths, I think largely so they could do what they wanted without being blamed for it.
But I’ve never actually met a god. And the idea that she dated one?
It’s kind of crazy. But it also has a strange ring of truth.
“I thought you just worked for him, dragging souls off to the Underworld,” Ender says, and I can tell he’s as intrigued as I am.
She snorts. “No.”
Then she sighs. “You guys really want to hear this?”
“Yes!” we both say at once.
She laughs and shakes her head. “Okay, but be careful who you tell this story to. Hades is a dangerous man, and he doesn’t like the truth getting out.”
“Got it,” Ender says, drawing closer.
She leans back, looking unsure.
I stand, hoping to make her less uncomfortable, and gather dried pine needles and smaller twigs from around us. With quick movements, I begin to build the fire so that when it catches, the flame will stay.
After a quiet minute, her voice comes, soft and musical.
“Elektra was our mother, a nymph of the clouds. She bore triplet daughters, my two sisters and I. We were raised on the surface of this world, filled with sunshine, clouds, and happiness. But some of the gods grew angry at our freedom, and so they handed down our job—to be guardians of the Underworld and their punishers to the guilty. We weren’t happy in the Underworld.
It’s as dark and dreary as you can imagine.
But then there was a beam of hope: Hades. At least I thought that’s what he was.”
“Yeah, I heard he’s a real ray of sunshine,” Ender interrupts.
I cast him an irritated glance. Doesn’t he want to know what happened?
She sighs and adjusts, pulling her knees up to her chest. “I was young. He was a handsome god. When he said he loved me, I believed him. And then I learned he was secretly courting my sisters too. So I confronted him about it. He cast me out of the Underworld, promising that no one would ever love me again. That’s when the rumors began.
That I was a monster. That I’m dangerous and evil… ”
When she stops talking, her gaze is faraway. Lost as if remembering.
“I can’t believe rumors would be that bad,” Ender says, his tone light.
I’ve known him long enough that I know he’s just trying to break the tension in the room, but his words make me wince. Rumors can be as dangerous as any sharpened blade.
Her gaze locks onto him. “You believed them.”
Ender’s smile fades. “We—“
“And no matter what I say or do, you’ll continue to believe them.
Even now, you’re probably wondering if I made my story up.
Right? That’s the power of rumors. They don’t have to be true.
They just have to be believable. And the worst people are the ones that build their lies on a grain of truth.
You saw what I can do, I am dangerous. I’m just not evil. ”
I return to building the fire. Drawing my flint from my bag and coaxing sparks that grow into little licks of fire. All the while, Ender and Celaeno watch me, saying nothing. And I’m surprised, because it’s not a tense silence… it’s almost comfortable.
At last, I’m confident that the fire will continue to grow. Sitting back, I watch as night begins to descend over us. One side of the sky is grey, and the other is black, with stars beginning to shine. Birds began to sing their songs, the ones that mean the day is done.
Suddenly, Celaeno grins. “Want to see something?”
Uh-oh. That doesn’t sound good…
“Sure!” Ender says, before I can stop him.
She smiles wider, but nothing happens. As my nerves start to relax, I hear the flutter of birds’ wings. My hand instinctually reaches back for the hilt of my sword, and I see Ender do the same.
Birds of every shape and size land around the clearing.
Several of them land lightly on Celaeno’s shoulders and arms. As the minutes trickle passed, there has to be a hundred birds around us.
I’m tempted to shift into my gargoyle-form, but I also don’t think the danger these birds pose isn’t worth potentially insulting Celaeno before we know what she has planned. So I hesitate, waiting.
But I don’t have to wait long. She begins to whistle a happy, little melody.
When she stops, the birds sing the melody back to her, and the sound is unexpectedly beautiful. I don’t think I’ve ever noticed before the different sounds birds are capable of, but together they’re like an orchestra, the instruments of their voices coming out in perfect harmony.
She whistles another tune, this one faster. They repeat it back to her.
And then her smile falters. She whistles a different kind of song. It’s sad and slow. I’ve never thought a whistle could capture emotion, but hers does.
We’re transfixed by her. The flames from the fire bathe her in a soft glow, making her unusual auburn eyes seem brighter, and illuminating her dark strands of hair. It all frames that beautiful face of hers. Gentle and innocent.
The birds join in with her melody, and for one minute it’s like we’re in a fairy tale.
“What the fuck is going on?”
The song stops.
I whirl around and spot Grey. He drops his armful of massive pieces of wood. In an instant, his skin turns grey and his wings unfold.
“Don’t!” I shout at him.
He ignores me, reaching for his sword.
The birds leap into the air, a flurry of wings. He withdraws his sword, and I swear he’s going to cut down every single bird he can reach. But then there’s Celaeno, standing before them, her arms wide, facing down Grey. The thunderous anger in her expression dares him to challenge her.
“Get out of the way,” he says.
“Or what?” she taunts. “You’ll hurt tiny birds?”
“I’ve seen what your birds are capable of. Now, get out of the way.”
They’re both breathing hard. Neither backing down. All the birds are gone from the clearing, taken to the sky or trees nearby. Ender and I remain where we are, watching, waiting, unwilling to make this situation worse.
She draws herself up taller. “If you think you’re the first big man to think that you can hurt me and I’ll just back down, you’re wrong.”
I see it in his eyes, a question. His gaze goes to mine. We don’t hurt women. We value them above all else. But he’s thinking of Lamia. Of the monster that killed his best friend. I’m sure coming upon this scene in the woods brought him back to that dark place.
“She was just singing with her birds,” I tell him, keeping my voice as light as possible. “And even if she wasn’t, it takes us a minute to shift. We’d be fine.”
“Unless she knows how to kill a gargoyle,” he says, his whole chest rising and falling rapidly, and I know he’s spiraling.
“I don’t,” she says. “Lamia is special.”
“Special!” he shouts, and his eyes are wild. “That thing is not special.”
The fire goes out of Celaeno’s gaze, and her hands slowly drop. I can see it now. That she knows exactly what’s going on.
“I know we’re enemies, and nothing I say will change that. But don’t confuse me with someone else. I’m not Lamia. I’m just me.”
His sword slowly lowers, but I can feel his tension from across the clearing.
“Dinner anyone?” Ender asks, but even he can’t feign cheer in this situation.
Grey huffs and resheaths his sword, lightly knocking Celaeno’s shoulder as he walks past her. She turns back to us and glares as he retreats.
That night, Ender, Celaeno, and I lay down beside the fire. Underneath the stars.
Grey refuses to sleep. He simply sits, back against a trunk, and pretends to have a heart as hard as his hard-stone flesh. He says he’ll guard over our prisoner and make sure she doesn’t escape.
I’m pretty sure he’s actually trying to make sense of his reaction to her.
The night grows deeper, and the stars begin to shoot across the sky.
Celaeno gasps. “A meteor shower!” Then, very softly, “Make a wish.”
But I don’t look to the stars, I look at her. Her eyes closed. A smile pulling at the corners of her lips.
My chest tightens. The Elite’s secret comes back to me. Not all monsters are evil.
And then there’s the other thing. The thing I can never say allowed: they think the only chance our kind has to survive is by breeding with the female monsters.
But after they have our children, they might kill them anyway.
I think of Keto and Medusa. Will their time soon be up? And why were we commanded to kill Celaeno, not kidnap her?
Is there something that makes her even more dangerous than The Mother of all Sea Monsters and a woman whose gaze turns people to stone?
My stomach twists. There’s something I don’t understand going on here. But one thing I do know, I like Celaeno. And if I were to bet, I’d think the Elites might be a hell of a lot more evil than she is.
And that thought alone makes certain I won’t be sleeping any time soon.
Even though I know I need sleep. Soon, after all, we’re going to Cherish. The place we’ll learn, once and for all, the truth about this beautiful monster.