Chapter 55 Hera Today, Gone Tomorrow
THIS TIME IT SEEMS TO take forever before the spinning stops.
When it finally does, I sit up cautiously, only to find my friends clinging to the bench and a nearby tree like they are the only things keeping them from falling off the planet.
I know I should feel bad for them, but I must be a terrible person, because it feels just a little nice to see them freaked out by something I’ve had to deal with several times since I got to this school.
“That is what happened to me on the first day of school and why I showed up soaking wet to the amphitheater. And that is also what happened to me when I went missing that day.”
“Oh my gods!” Fifi exclaims as she struggles to her knees.
“Exactly!” I tell her, then scoot over to help her up. Just because I feel vindicated doesn’t mean I actually want my friends to suffer. “Here, take my hand.”
She does, then climbs cautiously to her feet. “It’s not going to do that again, is it?”
“No, once it stops, it usually stays that way for a while.” I glance around for the others, only to find Arjun puking behind a tree while Kyrian is looking around like he doesn’t trust anything that he sees.
“How does this happen every night and none of us feel it?” Kyrian asks suspiciously. “Because I feel like that would wake me up.”
“I don’t know. All I know is when I’m at the dorm, in bed, I never feel it. But when I’m not, this happens.” I gesture to the mud on the knees of my dress tights. After four days of nonstop rain, the ground is more than saturated.
“So what do you think we’re doing here anyway?” He gestures to the practice and learning fields we’re currently standing in the middle of.
“Okay, look, Mr. Fifty Questions,” Fifi butts in before I can answer. “You may think you have a right to all of Ellie’s attention, but that is my best friend you’re talking to and I have no idea who you are.”
“Sorry.” Kyrian holds his hands up. “No offense meant.”
“Yeah, well, offense taken. I don’t care how adorable you are. I need some more information.”
“Fifi!” Forget my cheeks, my whole face catches fire.
She crosses her arms over her chest. “I’m not sorry.”
“She never is,” Arjun mutters as he finally makes his way out from behind the tree.
“You okay?” I ask, because he’s still looking a little green.
“I’ve been better,” he answers as he plops himself on the bench.
“I’m still waiting!” Fifi says, eyes narrowed as she tries to stare Kyrian down.
But he’s too amused for the stare-down to be actually effective. “I like your best friend,” he tells me.
“Me too,” I answer, then put a hand on Fifi’s arm. “It’s okay. This is the guy I met the first day of school.”
“What guy— Oh! Kyrian?” Her eyes go wide as she whisper-yells, “This is Hot Hades Boy?”
Kyrian cracks up.
“Stop!” I tell him as my face gets even hotter. “I did not describe you that way.”
“Aw.” He makes a sad face. “Now my feelings are hurt.”
“Don’t start with me.” I roll my eyes, but he just grins.
“It’s okay, Penelope. You can think I’m hot.”
It’s my turn to narrow my eyes as I glare at Fifi. “Do something,” I order.
She waggles her brows. “I feel like I already did. You’re welcome.”
“I swear, I hate everybody,” I groan.
My words rouse Arjun from his still nauseated stupor. “Hey, what did I do? I’m just sitting here.”
“Just admit it. You don’t hate any of us,” Fifi tells me. “Especially Mr. Hot Hades Guy over there.”
“Maybe not, but I’m starting to.” I make a face at her.
“Okay, now that we’ve got that settled,” Kyrian says. “Does anyone know what we’re doing out here?”
“Not a clue,” Fifi answers.
I look around, trying to figure it out, but we’re surrounded by the athletic fields. I can’t imagine what we’d need to do here that is so important. But then I turn around and catch sight of a familiar building in the distance.
“It’s got to be the Hall of Legends!” I tell them as I take off running toward the museum.
“You mean the place with the statues?” Arjun sounds doubtful as he and the others catch up with me. “What could be in there?”
“I don’t know.” But I’m already thinking about the peacock and my conversation with Prometheus and the way Calliope and Frankie looked when she said Hera’s name. I have no idea what all that has to do with the Hall of Legends, but my gut is telling me that’s why we’re here.
We burst through the big glass doors, Kyrian first, then Fifi, then Arjun and me. And no, it doesn’t hurt at all that I’m the slowest of my friends.
I take a second to look around and get my bearings—also to catch my breath, but they don’t need to know that. As I do, I try to figure out why the school thinks we need to be here right now. But it looks the same as I remember.
Zeus, Athena, Poseidon, Hades, and Aphrodite are all stationed around the room in places of honor—Zeus beneath the big arches and the others in front of all the big windows.
Down the middle of the room are the same mythical statues I remember from my first day here.
Atlas, with the world on his shoulders. The three Fates spinning the thread of life.
Even the full-color rendition of Perseus holding up Medusa’s head that I nearly killed myself trying to climb that first day.
I shudder as I get a good look at the snakes on her head. I’ve got nothing against Medusa at all, but after my experience in the Underworld, it’s way too soon for me to even be thinking about snakes.
Still, everything looks normal—or as normal as a room dedicated to Greek myths can. It’s not until I walk deeper into the room and start checking out the Greek gods that I notice it. The floor is made of mosaic tiles, and they are moving and shifting and spinning right before my eyes.
“It’s the tiles!” I call, dropping to my knees to get a better look.
“What about them?” Kyrian asks.
But Fifi’s already shushing him as she runs down the aisle toward me.
“What do you see, Ellie?”
“I don’t know.” I pull out my phone, turn on the camera so I can try to capture a picture if it forms like I think it will.
“Again, what exactly is she supposed to see?” Kyrian sounds baffled.
I’m too busy tracking the tiles to answer him. Because the whole floor is shifting now, all the blacks and blues and purples migrating to the center of the room. Arjun must finally explain, though, because the next thing I know, Kyrian’s on the floor next to me.
Fifi’s on my other side and Arjun is standing over all of us.
“Is it happening?” Fifi asks in a hushed voice.
I nod, because slowly, slowly, slowly, a picture is emerging.
“It’s a face,” I tell them, because I can see shoulders and a neck, the beginnings of a chin. “I think it’s a woman.”
“Where?” Kyrian asks, studying the tiles like he’ll suddenly be able to see what I see.
But it doesn’t work that way. It’s just another way I’m special, like Prometheus said. Although I’m not sure I believe him. It’s so much easier to believe there’s something wrong with me than to think those differences are actually good things.
More of the face forms—a nose, cheekbones, bright blue eyes. And that’s when it hits me. I don’t need a phone to capture this image because I already know who it is.
“It’s Hera,” I say, reaching to grab on to Fifi as the truth becomes clear. “That’s who’s in the picture. Hera. And she’s pointing right over there.”
I turn to look, to try and follow what it is she’s hoping to show me. But the moment I take my eyes off the mosaic, the entire floor explodes with a giant bang.