Chapter Seventeen
“Vanda? Hey, Vanda?”
I slowly peeled my eyes open, vision clearing on an unfamiliar face, but it wasn’t him that woke me.
“Get up! Get up, girl! They’re going to burn, flood, poison, and flood my chamber! You must stop them,” Selene shrieked. “Get up!”
“About time you stopped lying around,” he said. “If my source is correct, and he always is, you don’t have much time.”
I bolted upright, slapping my chest. Nothing. Not a scratch. Not a mark. Not a gaping wound where my heart should be. “Who are you?” I whipped around, taking in the practice room, and the nine other people inside of it—converging on me. “Who are all of you? What do you want from me? How did I get here?”
“See?” one of the girls said. “I told you something was wrong. Everyone’s saying Aella’s a traitor and she was working with the demons, but she wouldn’t hurt us in a million years. Someone did something to her.”
“I think I know what.” A tall, stony-faced guy knelt in front of me. “Calix. He said he would do something like this, and he was the last person with her before all of this went down.”
“Calix Lambros forced her to lead an attack against Deucalion?” cried another freckle-faced girl.
My head swung back and forth trying to follow their odd conversation.
“Why the hell would he do that? That’s awful.”
“No, he didn’t make her attack anyone, but I’m a hundred percent sure he dumped Lethe water down her throat.”
“Lethe water?” Scoff. “Is that all? That’s easily dealt with.”
The guy leaning over me moved back and a dark-skinned, silver-eyed man claimed his space. The stranger waved his hand over me, and I choked.
Clasping my throat, I coughed and gagged as something forced its way up my esophagus. “S-stop,” I gasped. “H-help—!”
A floating, watery orb escaped my throat and hung before my huge, blown-wide eyes. Another wave and it evaporated—dissolving into mist.
I blinked at him. “Dimitri? Sebastian?” Twisting, I landed on Castor, Jason, Theron, Daciana, Ionna, Tycho, and Nitsa. But no—
“Alex?” I cried. “Where is he? I have to talk to him—” Visions of me clawing his mother’s last gift out of his wrist flashed through my mind. I nearly threw up. “Oh, gods. How could I do something like that? He’ll never forgive me.”
“You don’t have time to worry about Golden Boy,” Sebastian said. “I pulled you out as quickly as I could, but you still got a shock. Vanda, you’ve been out for two hours, and Maximos hasn’t wasted any time.”
Ionna shoved in front of him. “Aella, he’s told the whole school that you’re a tenebrae demon. They’re wickedly clever shape-shifters. Their deception is so good, you can’t tell you’re looking at an imposter unless you get close enough to smell sulphur. But if you’re that close, you’re already dead.” She trapped my gaze. “He said you planned the attack that brought down the wards and unleashed the monsters on us, and when you’re found, you’re to be killed on sight.”
I choked. “What! What the fuck kind of world is this? How can he just do that?”
“He can’t if you’re a demigod with rights,” Sebastian said, “but if you’re a monster...”
Understanding chilled me like a bucket of ice water to the face. “Then anyone, anywhere, can slaughter me with impunity. That way no one finds out he fucking murdered Headmaster Drakos, or that he’s planning to split the classes again, and leave the Sisypheans here undefended. He even said he hopes the monsters attack again, and kills all the useless.”
Theron paled. “He said what?”
“He said more than that.” Sebastian helped me to my feet. “He told the whole school about the chamber hidden within the academy, but with his own twist on the truth. Maximos claimed a monster more dangerous than we’ve ever known was imprisoned down there during the ancient times, and those statues were erected to keep it from ever getting out.
“He also said that the monsters all know about this ancient beast, which is why you infiltrated the school. The plan was to free it once and for all, destroy the demigod race, and finally the monsters would rule on high.”
Nitsa bobbed her head hard. “The rest of the council isn’t here, but he’s sent for them. As soon as they arrive, they’re going to combine their power to wipe out whatever’s in that chamber, and end the threat to Deucalion, and Olympia, once and for all. The whole school cheered.”
“They cheered for that bastard to kill my mom,” I cried, eyes filling. “She’s down there. He knows she’s down there. He doesn’t care because she’s just a mundane.” I spat the word. “I came all this way to save her. It can’t end like this. It can’t!”
“We can’t stop him,” Nitsa confessed. Her eyes shone as bright as mine. “He’s the Zeus councilman, and we’re a bunch of Sisypheans. We tried to speak up for you when he called you a demon, but Ionna stopped us.”
“I had to.” Ionna squeezed her hand. “Every future I saw where we spoke against him, ended with us branded traitors, kicked out of the academy, imprisoned, or all three. I know my visions are sometimes wrong but...” She shook her head, throat bobbing with a hard swallow. “I’ve never seen a happy vision with that man in it. I don’t need to test fate to know standing against him won’t end well for us.
“No,” she said. “The only thing to do was to find you, Aella, and make sure you were safe. Now, we’re going to get your mom.”
“It’s a good thing they don’t know we’re on her side,” Daciana said. “No one followed or whispered about us when Sebastian got us and snuck out of the mess hall. Very sneaky pretending to be an empty-headed moron all this time, by the way.”
Sebastian shrugged. “The Lethe took me out for all of an afternoon. Good thing whoever doused me didn’t know Dimitri can reverse the effects. It’s also a good thing for us that it stays that way. So, yes, I played the part so that our enemy thought they had the upper hand. It’s always better to be underestimated.”
Selene’s growl proved she didn’t agree.
“Yes, it is,” Tycho agreed. “Now they think Aella’s on her own. They may even think she’s on the run.”
“The rest of the school will, but not Councilman Damien,” Theron reminded. “He knows she’s not going to abandon her mom, so she has to be making her way to the entrance of the chamber by any means necessary. He’s got, like, twenty Experts guarding it right now.”
“The guards are no problem,” Sebastian chimed in, swinging my head back to him. He smirked at his Hell Boys. “We’ll take care of them easily.”
“I don’t understand,” I rasped, interrupting their planning. “You’re going to help me?”
Tycho frowned. “What? Of course we’re going to help you. Why wouldn’t we?”
“Ionna just said you’ll be branded traitors and thrown in prison if the council finds out. Why would you risk everything for me and my mom? You’ve only known me for a few months, and my mom’s a mortal. She—”
“Who the fuck cares?” Tycho said. “Mortal, demigod, werewolf. None of that matters. You’re our friend, she’s your mom, and you need our help. That’s all I need to know.”
“Exactly,” said Theron. “My mom may be the toughest, no-nonsense woman to ever walk the earth, but she’s also the woman who makes my favorite porridge and sings me to sleep when I’m ill.” He reddened. “And if you guys tell anyone that, I’ll deny it.
“Point is, your mom is your mom. If mine was in trouble, I’d hope you guys would be by my side to save her. I’ll be by yours.”
“Absolutely.”
“That’s right.”
“Me too.”
Sebastian shrugged. “I’m just here to enjoy the I told you so you’ve got coming your way. I’d told you you’d need my help to save her.” He shivered. “Oh yes. That was just as good as I knew it would be.”
I barked a laugh, surprising myself. Once an asshole, always an asshole, but... he was here.
“Thank you,” I said softly. “All of you. They call you useless but all I see are Titans. Heroes.” I threw myself at Daciana, hugging her tight. “Friends.”
“Enough of this!” Selene shouted, making me jump. “It will not take long for Maximos Damien’s comrades to arrive. You must free me now!”
“We have to go now,” I agreed. “We’ll grab Alex and fill him in on the way.”
Their smiles dimmed.
“What? What is it?”
“Aella.” Daciana peered into my eyes. “Alex isn’t going to help us. When his father stood up in the mess hall, saying all those awful things about you—”
“—Golden Boy was right next to him,” Sebastian finished. “Agreeing with every word. That was right before he swore to lead the hunt to find and kill you first.”
OUR GROUP STOPPED JUSTshort of the entrance to the atrium. This was Olympia. Construction to rebuild the opulent space was already underway, and moving much faster than it could on my side of the barrier. The walls were already up, the plinths were reconstructed, and the entrance leading outside was widened for the statues to eventually make their return home.
All that was missing was a roof, and part of the floor.
“What do we do now?” I asked, pushing down thoughts of Alex. “Those are Experts. Titan Experts no doubt. Aren’t they the toughest demigods in the building?”
“Yep.” Sebastian snapped his fingers. “They were.”
Smoke billowed from beneath their feet. A strange, black whirlpool grew and grew beneath them, sprouting dark metal wings. The Experts fell screaming and shouting inside, and vanished.
I ran into the atrium, jaw hanging open. Not a single trace of them. It was like they were never there.
“You killed them,” I croaked. “I didn’t want you to kill them!”
“I didn’t kill anyone,” Sebastian said, waving that away. “I simply moved them to a more convenient location. What? Don’t look so surprised.” He smirked at us, a smirk shared by his snickering Hell Boys. “I am the gates of hades, Vanda—literally and figuratively.”
The air split down the seams, reality and everything I knew of it tearing apart. Black iron formed before my eyes—strange and twisted—the metal bent and connected like bones, and it sucked air from the room like nothing I’d seen.
All around us gates appeared, pushing Theron, Tycho, Daciana, Ionna, and Nitsa back until we bumped into each other. Snapping open at once, the air stole from my lungs.
“The flower shop.” The words fell from numb lips. “It’s home.”
There was no denying it. The boarded-up window, graffiti, the faint outline of Irida’s Garden above the door, even the smell of the bakery next door. It washed over me—real and whole. All I had to do was step through.”
“A gate is its own master. Both outside and inside. Both intruder and protector.” Sebastian’s voice burrowed into my mind. “There is no door, no lock, no barrier, no floor, no ceiling, no anything that gets in my way.”
“My pack,” Daciana whispered. “Daddy.”
I spun around, seeing into the gate before my friend. A group of people sat around a burning fire—laughing, eating, and fooling around. A towering, stately man with a stern expression and laugh lines around eyes that he gave to Daciana, weaved a tale that captivated his audience.
“Wait... What are we looking at?” Tycho asked. “Who are these people?”
Shadows moved in the dark. I drew closer, squinting into a space barely lit by the moonlight. Was it a living room?
I made out the outline of a couch. The figures were hovering around it— No, they were hovering around the person lying on it, while they drained her blood from her wrists and neck.
Daciana’s growl preceded Tycho’s shout by seconds.
“Vampires!”
The vampires whipped around, tearing from their prey. Roaring, they rushed the gate, sending my friends into battle mode.
“I’ve made my point.” Sebastian snapped his fingers again and the gates were gone. “We did tell all of you on the first day,” he said to our gaping mouths. “We run things now.”
I shook my head. “The only thing I care about is if you can get me in there.” I moved to the rim of the chamber. “We’re running out of time.”
Smashing his fists together, he ripped them apart, opening another odd, swirling gate of smoke and black metal. I was seeing it, and I couldn’t believe it.
I knelt down and reached into the hole. My hand went right through.
“This is it.” My voice was barely higher than a whisper. “There’s nothing to do now but jump.” I glanced up at Theron. “How much time do we have before the rest of the council arrives?”
“An hour. Maybe two.”
I cursed. “There’s no way to know if that’s enough time. If they arrive, and we’re still not back yet, someone has to stall them.”
“I’ll do it.” Castor cracked his jaw yawning.
I almost forgotten he was there. “You will? Why?”
He shrugged his shoulders, already walking off. “It’s something to do.”
“Um, okay.” I forced myself not to think about how noncommittal that reply was. It wasn’t like I was planning to hang around in there. I was more than happy to get in, rescue my mom, and get all of us out as quickly as possible. “What about weapons?” I asked. “Armor?”
Tycho shook his head. “Standard procedure during an attack. Lock down the armory. We’ve only got our powers on this one.”
“I wouldn’t say that.” Sebastian reached behind him, pulling something out of his waistband. “Your father had me cross into the mortal dominion to get this for you. Your grandparents sold it,” he said, placing my sixteenth birthday present in my hands. “Honestly, who steals someone’s family heirloom? Even I have limits. I told the new owner when I burst in that they sent me to steal it back, so hopefully that causes some trouble for the thieving bastards.”
I didn’t know whether to laugh or cry. I think I did both as I held the dagger—another last gift given from a mother to their child.
“I don’t want it.” I shoved it back at Sebastian.
“What? What are you talking about? Your father said you’d be pleased.”
“Pleased? The last time I held that dagger, I stood there shaking and cowering instead of helping my mother. The echidna even dared me to. She told me to fight, to use the dagger, and I d-didn’t.” My voice cracked. “I’m not a warrior, or a fighter, or some badass Amazonian demigoddess. I’m never going to be like the first Aella Vanda who conquered tyrants.
“I appreciate the high expectations my dad had for me, but this is all there’s ever going to be,” I said, throwing out my hands. “But that’s okay, because this Aella Vanda is going to save her mom, and she won’t stop until she does.”
“Uh-huh,” he drew out. “Well, if you don’t want it, I’ll sell it. Bet I get a good price in—”
“Give me that!” I snatched the dagger back, stomping off. “Asshole.”
Laughter followed me around the rim. I looked down, gazing into the depths of our next problem. “Lethe water.”
“Dimitri.”
Hands grasped my shoulder and guided me back. Dimitri claimed the spot, crouching at the end of the rim. Removing his glasses, he cleared his throat—dreads swinging as he rolled his neck.
“Is something supposed to be happening?” Nitsa muttered.
Eyes snapping open, Dimitri dropped his jaw... and dropped it... and dropped it. His mouth unhinged wider and lower than humanly possible, and he roared.
Water burst out of the chamber. Rising, swirling, spinning, an explosive spinning tower of memory-eating poison escaped its prison, and sucked into Dimitri’s mouth.
I stumbled back, hand clapping over my mouth as if it could be next. Who were these guys? What power was this? Was this what it meant to not be a regular demigod?
It felt like eons, but was only minutes, when the final droplets flew down his gullet—continuing its path to the Asphodel Meadows.
My friends and I stared at him.
“It’s done,” Dimitri said. “Every last drop gone. There wasn’t that much, so that hole doesn’t go down deep. Also, there’s wood, sediment, and—” He snapped his head back, then forward like a sneeze. Something trapped between his teeth. “—this in the water.”
Dimitri handed me a small, ornate gold key. A caduceus was carved on the face.
“Thank you,” I said, pocketing it. “Okay, guys, before you do this, there’s something I need to say.”
“What is it?” Ionna asked.
“This chamber isn’t just a chamber. It’s a prison.”
“Hold your tongue, girl!”
“No! What’s the point of your secrets now? For better or worse, I’m jumping in this hole, so why don’t you shut the fuck up and realize when you’ve won?”
“I will win, Aella Vanda,” she replied, tone soft—even kind. “It is foretold. It is fate. Today, I rise.”
“Uhhh.” Tycho looked around. “Aella, who are you talking to?”
“I’m talking to my wrist because I’m wearing an invisible, possessed bracelet of a trapped goddess that goes by Selene.”
More than half a dozen blank faces looked back at me.
“Look, we don’t have a lot of time, so here it is. Centuries ago, the gods of Olympus ambushed and trapped a goddess in there.” I pointed down. “All this time, she’s plotted her escape, collected allies, and abducted my mother so that I’d be forced to do what I’m doing now. Open the prison to rescue my mom and ultimately set Selene free.”
“The goddess of what?” Tycho asked, recovering quicker than the others.
“I don’t know.”
Daciana stepped forward. “What will she do when she’s free?”
“I don’t know.”
“Who or what could be so dangerous?” Theron spoke up. “I mean, the gods let monsters, demons, and the gods of suffering, doom, and carnage run wild. Why did this goddess in particular have to be locked away?”
“I don’t know that either.”
“Well, that’s reassuring,” Nitsa muttered, looking ill.
“There’s one more thing.” I sucked in a steady breath. “All of this was fated to be. There’s a prophecy, and it names me, a child of Zeus, and... a wolf that crosses domains.”
Daciana’s head snapped up, eyes huge. “A wolf? As in me? There’s a prophecy that says I was meant to jump in this hole? What does it say?”
“The weaver, the deceiver, and the believer stand guard. Within the eyes holds the gods’ lies. The son of Zeus will break the chains. A wolf will cross domains. On she fights as her mother’s love sustains. But don’t be fooled, the danger still remains. For within the dark she sleeps, within the dark she hates, within the dark she waits.”
I cut off there, leaving out the part about the child of the Fates. It wasn’t that I didn’t trust them. It had more to do with the hole Sebastian’s hard look was drilling in my head, silently warning me to keep quiet.
I wondered if he’d ever tell me what happened to his mother. I wondered even more if I had the nerve to hear it.
“Last chance to walk away.”
“We’re not going anywhere,” Theron said. “That prophecy doesn’t change anything. We’re with you until the end.”
“Yes,” they agreed. “To the end.”
“We’ll just make sure we get your mom, and only your mom out,” Theron continued. “If the gods thought this goddess belonged in a deep, dark hole, far be it for me to argue with them.”
I bit my lip, the pain stopping me from doing something embarrassing and crying again. “Thanks, guys. All right, I’ll go in first. If it’s safe, I’ll call for you guys to come in too.”
Theron scoffed. “Did I lose my chivalry when I turned coward? I don’t think so.” With that, Theron walked off the edge and fell in.
I swallowed my cry of surprise when I heard a thud.
“Theron?” Ionna called. “Are you okay?”
“Fine.” There was a pause. “It’s clear. Jump in, and bring that key.”
One after the other, my friends jumped inside the chamber. I made to go and Sebastian pulled me back.
“We’re not going with you,” he said, gesturing to Jason and Dimitri. “There were things that Drakos knew. Secrets that he was hiding that Maximos Damien cannot discover under any circumstances. Right now, he’s focusing on whipping up suspicion and hatred against you, but as soon as he can, Damien is going to ransack Drakos’s office and living quarters, and steal what he’s after before anyone finds out Drakos is dead.
“We’ve got to get to it before him,” Sebastian said. “It’s a life-or-death situation, I swear, otherwise, I’d help you save your mom.”
“Sebastian, it’s okay. I believe you, and I understand. The last thing Drakos did on this earth was try to protect me from that monster. Maximos doesn’t get to have another victory over him now that he’s gone. Go and do what you have to do.”
He nodded sharply. “Your dad will be with you. If something happens, he’ll find me and I’ll pull you guys out.”
“Sounds good.” I took a step, then stopped. “About Alex. Are you sure that he—?”
“Stop, Vanda.” His voice was hard. Sharp. “Forget about that guy already. You deserve better. No matter the low, and incorrect, opinion you have of yourself and your strength—you’ve always deserved better than Alexander Damien.”
He walked off, not allowing me a reply. Swallowing my hurt, I jumped in the hole.
Short fall. Hard landing.
I smacked down on the stone floor, wincing. Daciana’s head poked around the corner, beckoning me to follow. Rising up, I took it in.
I was in a small, stone, circular space. The walls rounded and curved like a drainpipe’s, reaching only the height of my head. An entrance loomed in front of me, and snaked around a corner. A faint glow emanated from it. I turned the corner, seeing what they were all looking at.
Two ever-burning torches hung from the wall, lighting an ancient oak door.
I didn’t need to insert the key to know it would fit.
“You guys need to know that Drakos sent his minions down here, and they were ground into bone dust. Whatever’s on the other side of this door is nasty and it doesn’t mess around,” I said. “Last chance to turn back.”
They all shook their heads. “We’re with you, Aella.”
“To the end.”
Thud.
I paused, twisting to see Jason enter the antechamber. “I want to help you,” he said. “Sebastian and Dimitri don’t need me. One guy to get rid of witnesses. Another to erase their memory. They’re covered. While you lovely ladies...” He smirked, leering at Nitsa. “Need me to cover you.”
“Okay, thanks.” I took a deep breath. “All right. Here goes.”
I inserted the key in the lock, and fell.
“Ahhh!”
We stumbled through the air, plummeting through dark, wind, and heat. Light suddenly surrounded me, snapping my eyes shut. I dropped down on something surprisingly soft. Peeling my eyes open, I made out two chair handles before it snapped me forward. Something rough clamped down on my ankles.
“What’s going on?”
“What happened?”
“Where are we?”
I wished I could’ve answered any of those questions. Somehow, we left the dark antechamber behind and wound up on top of a hill, seated at a stone table within a gazebo. Next to us was a grand building, supported by massive columns that made the small, wooden door leading inside even more out of place.
I twisted to see down the hill, and was gifted a view of a rolling wheat field extending out for miles in all directions. Righting myself, I took in the cornucopia resting in the middle of the table, spilling over with fruits, bread, and vegetables. Then, I flicked to exactly six place settings—ready and waiting for us.
Seven settings, but we weren’t the only ones seated around the table. Six stone figures joined us. Two sitting at the ends of the table, and four sitting next to Daciana, Nitsa, Tycho, and Jason. They didn’t have faces but crowns were sculpted on their heads.
“I don’t understand,” Nitsa said. “Are we still underneath the academy? Was that key doused in potion? Did it take us somewhere else?”
Daciana inhaled deeply. “I do not know where we are. This place is... wrong.”
“Wrong?” Tycho asked. “Wrong how?”
“There’s no trace that any person has been here ever. Not man, woman, demigod, or werewolf.”
“But if no one’s been here before us...” Ionna began. Our eyes all fixed on the same thing. “Who put all this food here?”
An uncomfortably long silence beat against the whispering wind.
“It’s all freshly picked and baked,” Theron said. “Someone put it here. And the plates, knives, and forks.”
“The finest plates and utensils. The best food.” Jason bowed to Nitsa. “Even for a trap, they know lovely, beautiful queens such as yourselves deserve the best.”
Ignoring him, I pointed. “That door looks exactly like the door we took to get here. That’s where we need to go, and the key must be around here somewhere.”
“Please say it’s not down there.” Nitsa took in the miles of wheat. “Even if it is, we can’t get down there.”
I kicked against the restraints. She was right. We weren’t going anywhere.
“What do we do?” I hissed at Selene.
“If I knew how to get through these measures, I would not have needed you or anyone else.”
“Fine.” I took a deep breath and considered. “Okay, let’s think about it,” I said. “What if we’d swam through the Lethe water like we were supposed to? We would’ve ended up here, a bunch of clueless, empty-headed morons. We wouldn’t have known we were in danger, or anything at all. So if we plopped down at a table with food in front of us—”
“We’d eat it,” Ionna finished. “Maybe that’s it. The key must be at the bottom of the cornucopia.”
“Everyone, take some.”
We stretched as far as our manacles would allow us, grabbing apples, oranges, bread, pastries, and carrots—each treat riper and more sweet-smelling than the last.
Tycho spoke up. “Guys, are you seeing this?”
I was seeing it. We were snatching food from the cornucopia, but weren’t making a dent in it. The same amount of food remained like we hadn’t touched it at all.
“We’re doing something wrong,” Nitsa said.
“We’re not eating,” Daciana replied, bringing an apple to her lips. “We should— Don’t!”
Her scream jolted me in my seat, making me drop my carrot.
“Don’t eat it,” she cried, snatching Nitsa’s pear. “It’s poisoned.”
“What?” Ionna paled. She threw down her bread. “Did you say poisoned?”
“Yes. It’s faint.” She sniffed her apple again. “Such a small amount, I almost didn’t notice it, but it’s there. Strychnine.”
“Strychnine?” My stomach heaved looking at the perfectly ripe and inviting food. “That’s like something out of an Agatha Christie novel.”
“Who?” Theron asked.
“It’s also found in nature,” Daciana said. “From the seeds of a tree. Guys, what are we going to do?”
“What if we just—” Tycho flung his peach over his shoulder.
Movement flashed out of the corner of my eye.
The statue beside him roared up and swung, smashing his fist into Tycho’s head. Tycho threw out of the way at the last moment, sending the punch through the stone chairback. We screamed as it pulverized into pieces.
“Not that!” Tycho bellowed. “Definitely not that!”
The stone creature reclaimed his seat, but the message was clear. We were allowed only one way to make this food disappear, and it was down our throats.
We stared at each other, not knowing what to do.
Nitsa visibly swallowed. “Dare I ask,” she rasped to Daciana, “what the effects of strychnine poisoning are?”
“Muscle spasms, lung failure, death.”
“I knew I shouldn’t have asked.”
“We have to do something,” Ionna cried. “It’s either we eat poisoned food, or we slowly starve to death.”
“Is that what your visions say?” I asked.
“They don’t have to.” She flailed helplessly against the restraints. “We don’t have any other options.”
“You’re right, we don’t have any other options.” Daciana breathed hard through her nose, fists balling. “That’s why I have to do it.”
“Excuse me?” I cried.
“I’m a werewolf. You all are demigods, but you heal like mortals. Werewolves don’t. I can do this,” she said, dumping the food from my plate to hers. “I’ll get us out of here.”
“Wait.” I grabbed her arm. “Do you heal so fast you can’t be poisoned?”
She hesitated. “Depends on the poison.”
“Well, since we’re talking specifically about strychnine...?”
Slowly, stiffly, she shook her head.
“Daciana!”
“We don’t have a choice,” she cried. “Either I do this or we all die anyway when your council floods this place with their power. Strychnine can kill a werewolf, but a lot slower than it’ll kill you. As long as we get your mom and leave this horrible place quickly, you can get me to the infirmary and Healer Helena will save my life.”
Nitsa turned on Jason. “You’re a Titan and a son of Hades. There must be something you can do. Can you unhinge your jaw and suck it all up like Dimitri can?”
“I only unhinge my jaw to suck the ladies.” He winked. “But also, no. Dimitri could do that because Lethe water belongs in hades in the first place. This stuff isn’t from the Elysium.” He flapped his hand. “It can’t be reclaimed to a home that is not its home. Best I can do is summon flowers that will put smiles on our faces and songs in our heart... as we eat ourselves to death.”
“See,” Daciana said as shivers climbed my spine. “This is the only way.”
“But— But we—” I was helpless watching her lift the apple to her mouth. My best friend was about to poison herself to help my mother. I couldn’t let this happen. “She’s my mom. At least let me be the one to—”
Her sharpened teeth tore a bite off the fruit, chewed, and spat it out. “Agh,” she cried, hacking it up. “Sorry. I’m sorry. The poison is all I can smell now. My gag reflex kicked in.”
“Wait.”
“I can do this, I swear,” she continued.
“Listen.”
“Let me do it,” I said. “You can rush me to Healer Helena same as you.”
“You won’t make it. This stuff kills within thirty minutes.”
“But—”
“Both of you,” Tycho barked. “Stop arguing about who’s going to kill themselves and listen. I saw something when Daciana took a bite.” He pointed. “One of the apples in the cornucopia disappeared.”
“What?” Ionna peered around him. “It did?”
“Let me see.” I took a bite of my carrot, then spat it out. Before my eyes, a carrot vanished from the cornucopia. “This means it has to touch our lips, but the magic, power, curse, or whatever it is, can’t tell if we’ve swallowed.”
“Can that work?” Nitsa asked. “If we don’t swallow any of it, we’ll be fine?”
Daciana lifted her shoulder. “A lot better off than if we did.”
I blew out a breath. “All right, then. Here we go.”
We dug in. It was the worst and grossest dinner party of the century. We bit and spat, bit and spat, bit and spat out the food, raining masticated fruit and vegetables all over the table and ground. It was horrible, but the amount of food in the cornucopia was shrinking.
I bit into a star fruit, and a golden glint dazzled at the edge of my vision. “The key.”
Grabbing hold, as soon as my fingers closed over it, the manacles disappeared from my ankles. “Let’s go.”
We shot up from the table and ran for the door, but not before I pocketed the star fruit.
“Guys? Hey, guys.”
I skidded to a stop, finally noticing someone wasn’t with us.
“Guys!” Theron thrashed in his seat, manacles firmly in place. Around him, the faceless statues were getting up, and getting closer. “What’s going on!”
Their fists reeled back. The six of us were running before we started screaming.
“Theron!”
“Let me go,” Theron shouted, turning white in his strain to be free. “Don’t!”
They swung.
“Argh!” Theron snapped up. Their fists connected in mid-air, and exploded.
The rubble that used to be the statue’s arm scattered across the table. Bursting into action, Theron grabbed a flying wrist, struck its stomach, and blew a hole through it.
My eyes were glued, and it was still too fast for me to see. He grabbed, punched, chopped, and exploded the six to bits—reducing them to nothing but stone dust.
“Arggh!”
Light, heat, and godly power ignited, blowing me off my feet. I dropped flat on my ass—blinking away bright spots as Theron kicked away the last bits of table, chair, and poisoned food. One-handed, he ripped off the remains of his tunic, exposing his ripped, glistening chest to our wide eyes.
“Shall we?” he asked, storming past.
Daciana stared after him, jaw hanging open. “Wow,” she breathed, biting her lip.
I could almost hear her mentally change her stance on the slut party ho-down.
Nitsa and Ionna helped me up and over to the door.
“There’s a symbol for wheat on this key.” I showed them. “The other has a caduceus. Hermes and Demeter.”
“Makes sense,” Tycho said grudgingly. “Hermes was the only god other than Hades who could travel freely to and from the underworld. Easily enough for him to get his hands on Lethe water.”
“And an ever-flowing cornucopia of food that never spoils is well within Mother Demeter’s power,” Ionna agreed.
“Hold on,” Nitsa cried, throwing her hands up. “You’re not saying... Twelve gods. Twelve keys. Twelve traps.”
I nodded, expression grave. “I believe so.”
“But we only got through the first trap thanks to Dimitri. Also, anyone other than Theron would’ve been beaten to death by now, and—oh, yeah—we’ve all got trace amounts of poison in our system that’s slowly killing us as we speak,” Nitsa dropped. “How are we going to get through ten more of these?”
“Coming up with some kind of plan wouldn’t be a terrible idea,” Tycho agreed.
“How can we?” I glanced at the keyhole. “We won’t know what’s coming until we’re literally dropped in it.”
“We stick together,” Daciana announced, hooking her arms through mine and Ionna’s. “We keep each other in sight at all times. We don’t make a move without discussing it, and we leave no one behind. That’s the plan. Agreed?”
We nodded as one. “Agreed.”
“All right, Aella.” Ionna dipped her chin. “Do it.”
I did it.
Inserting the key, I welcomed the stomach-thumping sensation of the ground disappearing beneath me. Tumbling through the air, we were gone.
MY FEET HIT THE FLOORtoo hard. Knees buckling, I tipped over, crashing into... no one.
“Guys?” I whipped around. “Tycho? Daciana? Ionna?”
No one met my eye, or responded to their name. I was alone.
I pushed up, taking in my surroundings. I was in a library. Stacks of books towered over me from the right and left, rising as high as the paneled, dome ceiling.
“Hello?” My voice echoed among the tomes. “Is anyone there? Guys, can you hear me?”
“I can hear you.”
I snapped back, bumping against the stacks. A pair of blue eyes peered at me from between the shelves, watching from the other side. “Who are you?”
“I am Talibah. Who are you?”
I squinted trying to get a better look at her. All I could see were her eyes. They were level with mine, making her about my height. Her voice also sounded young, putting her near my age too.
“My name is Aella,” I replied, taking a step closer. “I came here with my friends. Have you seen anyone else in here?”
“I have seen no one. No one comes here. Talibah is alone.”
“You’re alone? But how—?” I gasped. “Oh no. Drakos said two students and an instructor disappeared down here two years ago. Of course you won’t remember, but maybe you’re one of them. He thought you guys died, but this prison is clearly”—I gazed around a room that could not be underneath Deucalion Academy—“outside the realms of normal.”
Talibah giggled. “You are funny, Aella. Say, do you want to play a game?”
“No.” I looked up and down, searching for a sign or hint of something. Which way was I supposed to go? Where were my friends? “I don’t have time for games. I need to find my friends, a key, and the way out of here.”
“I can help you find all of those things.
“You can?”
“Oh yes. Talibah has lived in the library for many years. I know all of its truths and secrets. I will give you knowledge too—”
“Thank you. I appreciate—”
“—if you play my game.”
My smile dimmed. “I see.” Something, I couldn’t quite say what, made me grasp the hilt of my dagger.
“Okay, Talibah.” I took a step to the right and she moved too, maintaining our distance. “I’ll play your game. What do I have to do?”
She tipped her head, giving me the briefest glance of a wide nose and the corner of a smirking mouth. “What is it that no one wants to have, but everyone hates to lose?”
I frowned. “Wait. A riddle?”
“Incorrect.”
Books exploded off the shelves. I flung myself to the ground, and landed hard on my elbow—dropping the dagger. It skittered away and disappeared under a large, hairy paw.
My jaw cracked on a scream as Talibah’s young, pretty face forced out through the hole—the only human thing about her.
Golden-brown wings unfurled from her back, buffeting a gust of wind that blew my lip half over my nose. She arched her back—slinking her lion’s body through the hole.
“S-s-sphinx,” I rasped. “You’re a sphinx!”
“Wrong again.”
Something flashed out of the corner of my eye. I threw my hands up—two useless shields that slammed back into my face when her tail whipped me, sending me flying against the bookshelf. My head and spine struck the wood hard—lighting my vision with black spots and rocketing pain down my back.
Crashing on the floor, I strained to push up on my hands and a hard force struck me again.
“Agh!” I tumbled across the floor, cracking every limb on the way. A falling book caught my jaw and I bit my tongue. Blood filled my mouth. “W-wah—”
Talibah stalked toward me. Her paw rose high—lethal claws glinting in the orblight.
“War,” I screamed, throwing my arms over my head. “The answer is war!”
“What!”
Talibah roared a terrible, screeching wail that was neither human, lion, nor bird.
I waited for the final hit that ended it all... but it didn’t come.
I peered through my arms. Talibah threw herself against the stacks, raining books like falling bricks. They struck her wings, body, and head. Huge welts and cuts opened on her cheeks and forehead. She didn’t notice, or stop.
My dagger shone on the ground amid her stomping and flailing. Carefully, I got to my feet, flicked from the dagger to her. Talibah was obviously nuts. I didn’t want the dagger, but I wanted to be alone and weaponless with this multi-creature loon even less.
I dove for it.
Talibah’s head snapped down. I slid across the floor, sliding right to her snarling maw.
“No!” I clawed the wood, spinning and kicking back around.
Her paw came down on my foot, crunching the bones. I screamed.
“You are correct,” she barked. “You will go again. Again!”
“Okay! Just let me go.” I picked up every book in reach and flung them at her. “Let me go!”
“Two mothers and two daughters enter the library. Talibah scratches, claws, bites, and bleeds them.” Her claws ripped through my pants and entered the skin. “Only three people leave, but no one is left behind. How?”
I clamped my mouth shut, penning in a cry. Any reply but the correct answer, and I’d pay dearly. Think, Aella. Think. There has to be some way—
I glanced at my wrist, and finally noticed the bracelet wasn’t there. Selene was gone. Taken from me like my friends were.
Cold reality slapped me in my face. I had to face Talibah alone. Well and truly alone, and this place knew that I wasn’t, so it fixed it. I wasn’t just dealing with a prison that was well-guarded, brutal, and inescapable.
I was dealing with one that fought back.
“Ooh, does she give up?” Talibah giggled. “Stupid, silly girl. Not smart enough for Talibah’s game.” Her claws dug deeper. “Not smart enough to live. Give up, silly girl”—a shadow fell over me—“and die.”
“Grandmother,” I cried. Pain bled darkness into my vision, fighting to drag me down. “Three generations. Grandmother, grandmother’s daughter, and the daughter’s daughter.”
“Arrggh!”
I clapped my hand over my ears, shouts leaking through my clenched teeth. Talibah’s wailing battered my eardrums.
“What are you doing?” I cried.
She thrashed against the stacks—ramming her head against the tomes, clawing at her own wings. Blood and feathers showered me, turning my stomach. She rammed the shelves, and they tipped.
Boom! Boom!
The stack crashed into its neighbor, taking down that one, who took out the next, and the next. Wood and books buried the ground, and if I didn’t get out of here, I would be next.
The key. I have to get away from this monster and find the key.
I didn’t think. Once again, I dove through her stomping paws, snatched my dagger, and ran. Hidden somewhere in this nightmare maze was the means to get out and get to my mom. Two generations in this hole, and no one would be left behind.
Up ahead, the stacks ended to open a break in the path, leading to more shelves and books. I skidded out and there it was. Fifty feet in front of me, a door.
“Silly girl.”
My head snapped up, and wide eyes latched on burning pools.
Talibah leaped down and the stack wobbled from the force. It tipped off its center, and went down.
“No!”
Boom! Boom! Boom!
An avalanche of knowledge and fantasies headed straight for the door.
“Talibah rips—”
“Agh!” I slashed her with the dagger, opening a weeping gash on her cheek.
She didn’t flinch or react, but I did when her tail whipped me off my feet—tossing me in the air and dropping me hard on the unforgiving floor.
Tears sprang to my eyes. I was knocked and battered all over. Wetness ran down my forehead. Vicious pain ran up and down my legs everywhere her claws pierced me, but the one thing going through my head, was Alex.
“Knowledge is a sphinx’s weakness. She will kill herself if you answer all of her riddles correctly.”
“I understand, baby,” I whispered. “Time to stop running, and start fighting.”
I pushed up on shaking arms, forced my feet under me, and stood. Talibah and I faced eye-to-eye—so close, our noses brushed.
“Forgive me,” I said evenly. “It was rude of me to run off in the middle of our game.” I glanced over her haunches to the door, waiting for me to leave through it the minute Talibah conveniently killed herself. “Go ahead and ask me anything.” I smirked to match hers. “I’m ready.”
She laughed a strange grunting laugh. “They all enter the library—weak and ignorant. Talibah rips them apart,” she whispers, circling me. “She breaks their spine, extracts their secrets beneath these claws confine. They cry with no voice and flee with no legs.”
My hairs stood on end. My smirk was entirely a bluff. Talibah scared me. She scared me as much as the echidna and cerberus. As much as every monster that crashed into my life since Olympia decided there was nowhere I could go to be free of a demigod’s burden.
“They cannot leave this place, no matter how they beg,” Talibah said, laughing that laugh. “Who are they?”
I opened my mouth, then stopped. She would kill herself if I kept answering right, but would attack me if I got it wrong, ran, or fought back. I couldn’t take another hit from her, or another slash from those claws. I had to get this right, so I closed my mouth, pushed aside my fear, and thought.
Weak and ignorant. Ripped apart.
“Silly girl. Stupid girl.” She laughed. “She can’t answer my riddle, and her bones will keep Talibah company till the end of all.”
My shaking grip tightened on the dagger. Talibah may get her wish, but this won’t be like the night I let them take my mother. This time... I go down swinging.
She breaks their spine and extracts their secrets with her claws— Wait! They have no voice and no legs, but they have a spine?
“Books,” I burst out. “They’re books. They enter this place and never leave. That’s the answer, isn’t it?” I taunted her frozen face. “I got it right. Wow, that wasn’t hard at all. Your riddles are so easy, Talibah. Maybe you’re the stupid, silly girl if you actually think those were hard. How about a little riddle for you?
“The weaver, the deceiver, and the believer stand guard. Within the eyes holds the gods’ lies. The son of Zeus will break the chains. A wolf will cross domains. On she fights as her mother’s love sustains. But don’t be fooled, the danger still remains. For within the dark she sleeps, within the dark she hates, within the dark she waits... for the child of the Fates.”
My eyes narrowed, chest tightening. “Who is she, Talibah? Who is waiting in the dark?”
She glared at me, eyes wild and huge. “Talibah... Talibah...”
“Talibah what! Who has my mother? Who is she!”
“Talibah doesn’t know!”
Her screams pierced the air. I didn’t know what kind of pocket dimension I was thrown in, and I still knew her roars echoed through Olympia and all five dominions.
“I don’t know,” she wailed. “Talibah has failed. Talibah is stupid. Worthless. Failure!”
She threw herself against the stacks—banging her head against the wood, shredding her wings, tipping the shelves still standing.
The door was already partially blocked. If she brought those down too, I was never getting out of here.
I didn’t think, I ran.
Ducking Talibah’s whipping tail, I shot around her and dashed for the door—hoping against hope the key would appear now that Talibah was defeated, because if I had to search for it among this endless maze of destruction, my bones would remain with her until the end of everything.
Boom! Boom! Boom!
The falling stacks chased me—a race to freedom, or eternal imprisonment.
There was no contest. Gravity topped the race, bringing down the shelves faster than I could huff and puff.
“No, I won’t fail when I’m so close!” Reaching for the knob, I jumped. “Mom!”
Books rained down on me, nailing me to the floor. I flailed and kicked to get free. Flipping over, I read War and Peace on the book seconds before it fell on my stomach, and the two-ton bookshelf followed.
“Ahhh—!”
The shelf slammed down on me, ending my scream.