Chapter 14
It seemed like no time at all until I was standing in front of the gods again, lined up on their thrones, building-sized flames dancing on either side of the floating throne room.
My eyes fixed on Hades' smoky form, framed by the intimidating skulls making up the back of his huge seat. My palms started to sweat.
“Good day, Olympus!” the commentator's voice rang out suddenly, and I whirled to see him stood behind me.
“Gods, he's irritating,” said Skop's voice in my head, and I glanced down at him, sat by my feet.
“Agreed,” I told him silently.
“So today we have an unannounced Trial! As our little Persephone is human, and as such the only contender with no powers, she will be granted an additional reward if she completes this test.”
I pictured a room with windows, the idea of not being underground hardening my resolve. Even if the view was of a barren wasteland.
“He wasn't always like this.” Hecate's words replayed in my head. She had refused to say anymore, and my frustration at the tidbits of my past she was dropping was getting harder to suppress. Had I caused that wasteland outside too? What had I done?
“The Trial will be one of Glory,” beamed the commentator, and my pulse quickened. Please not fighting, please no demons, I prayed. “Today we get to see Persephone face some of her fears,” he sang, and I felt my stomach lurch.
My fears? How would they know what my fears were?
If there was a single fucking spider involved, the room with windows would have to go, I thought, as anxiety ratcheted my temperature up.
“We will not be performing the Trial in the throne room though, so let us away to the chasm!”
“What?” I started to say, but that damn white light flashed again and everything was gone.
When the light cleared from my eyes, I swear my heart stopped beating for a moment. I was standing on the edge of a sheer drop. I stumbled backwards, my heart in my throat, as my knees began to wobble.
I instinctively crouched down, to lower my center of gravity and to stop myself falling if my legs did actually give out. My head swam as vertigo began to swamp my working senses, nausea building as I stared over the edge of the drop.
Whoever had spoken to me during the last trial had known I was too scared to move when I was flung to the edge of the hole in the fighting pit. They'd known I was terrified of heights. Was this their doing?
Get a grip. Get a grip. You're nowhere near the edge. You don't even know what you have to do yet. I forced myself to look around, taking deep breaths. I would be better once the adrenaline kicked in, and surged me past the initial fear.
I was outside. Actually outside, after days of wanting to be.
There was nothing but dull beige sky above me, and the cliff edge I was crouching on was gouged out of the dry, dusty ground.
There was another cliff opposite me, forming the other side of what I assumed the commentator had been referring to as the “Chasm' and all of the gods were there, lined up on their thrones, their faces too distant for me to make out expressions.
I took more deep breaths, trying to feel a breeze or take comfort from the fact that I was no longer underground, but it felt no different. The air didn't move, the temperature was neither cool nor warm, there were no scents filling my nostrils. It didn't feel like any outside I was used to.
“Hecate? Skop?” I called hopefully.
“I'm on the other side,” said Skop in my head, and I was surprised by how much comfort I drew from hearing his voice.
“I'm scared of heights,” I said too quickly, as though expressing my fear might expel it. It didn't.
There was a long pause.
“Shit,” he said eventually.
“So here we are at the chasm! As you all know from previous contestant's Trials, this is a particularly nasty part of the underworld,” rang out the commentator's voice. “Fall down there and you'll fall forever.”
Bile rose in my throat. Fall forever? Being burned up by magic flames was one thing, but to fall forever? Goosebumps rose on my skin. I genuinely couldn't think of many things more terrifying.
“All Persephone needs to do to complete the Trial is get to the other side. Good luck!”
“What?” I exclaimed aloud. How the fuck was I supposed to get to the other side?
There were no bridges, and the chasm was at least twenty meters across so jumping wasn't an option. Not that I'd have been able to jump over a freaking one meter gap, if it was over an endless void.
“How?” I yelled. I stared over at the gods, small in the distance. Nothing. I turned on the spot, staying crouched to stop my legs from shaking. The three judges were a few meters behind me, sitting on their grand seats and surrounded by empty, cracked land.
“Oh!” I said in surprise. None of them responded, their gazes boring into mine. I couldn't see anything else, so I turned back to the chasm. Maybe there was a bridge further down. But to find out, I would have to move closer to the edge.
I sat down, my insides shaking. For years and years I hadn't even been able to climb a step-ladder.
It didn't matter how resolute or rational I was in my thoughts, my body betrayed my mind every time I was in a position where I could potentially fall.
My legs and hands would shake, my breathing would become too shallow, and my vision would start to blur as dizziness took over.
You know what's coming, I told myself. So you can deal with it. You can do this.
I shuffled forwards on my butt, closer to the edge. I was only a foot away, so I didn't have to move far before my feet reached the precipice.
I drew my knees up, and shuffled farther forward, forcing myself to take deep, slow breaths. I could see the chasm clearly now, and I looked left to right, trying to spot a bridge. There was nothing.
“It's invisible,” said Skop's voice in my head.
“What?”
“You're sort of at a disadvantage here, as you're not from Olympus and have no power, so I feel it's only fair I tell you. The bridge is invisible.”
“Then how the fuck am I supposed to cross it?” I hissed back in my mind.
“You have to feel for it. Then hope you walk straight. Or go across on your butt. That works too.”
“Feel for it? Are you fucking psychotic?” If my heart beat any faster I was sure I'd throw up. Or have a heart attack and drop down dead. Although I'd rather that than cross an invisible bridge over an endless fall. “There is no fucking way I'm doing this.”
“Try.”
I started at the voice, my breath catching. It wasn't Skop's. It was the same one I'd heard in the last Trial.
“Who are you?” I yelled. I had no way of answering him in my head, as I couldn't project my thoughts at someone totally unknown.
“Reach forward, and feel for the bridge.”
“No! Did you tell them I was scared of heights?” My voice trembled.
“It's a foot to your left,” the voice continued, ignoring me.
My whole body was covered in sweat now, my back slick under the leather corset. I shuffled a foot to my left, my damp hands shaking as I put them flat on the ground and lifted myself sideways. Dust stuck to them as I drew them back around my knees.
“Good. Now, reach forward.”
I closed my eyes, but it did nothing to lessen the rising panic. Come on, come on, come on. They're not going to let you die this early in the competition. Get a grip.
I shuffled backwards a little, then swiveled onto my belly, wishing I could hear anything other than my heart hammering against my ribs to distract me.
“This place sucks,” I hissed aloud, as I gripped the edge of the cliff with my sweaty hands. My head was too far back to see over the edge, which was exactly how I needed it to be. “And I bet I look like a fucking idiot.”
Memories flashed into my mind of me being sprawled on my front on the ground before, each time because some jerk had tripped me or pushed me, to make everyone else laugh.
The thought sent a spurt of determination through me, and I moved my fingertips along the edge carefully. Then my right hand hit something hard.
Slowly, I began to feel around, wriggling my way closer, but keeping an arm's length from the precipice. Skop had been right. There was a bridge. It was cool and smooth to touch, like plastic or metal and I could grip each edge with my hands. It couldn't be more than two feet wide.
Very, very slowly, I drew myself up onto my elbows and knees, still gripping the edges of the bridge so I didn't lose it, and keeping my eyes squeezed shut.
The muscles in my thighs were vibrating, and another wave of dizziness crashed over me as I inhaled deeply.
You've worked yourself up into this mess of nerves, I scolded myself.
Just get on with it. You're holding the edges of the bridge, you won't fall off. Just crawl across. Olympus is watching.
I moved one knee forward, my stomach lurching as I did so. My survival instincts were begging me to open my eyes, but common sense and fear kept them closed.
It was an invisible bridge.
There was no way I wanted to look down as I did this.
I slid one shaking hand along the edge of the bridge, my skin slick against the material.
I pushed gently, testing my weight. It felt solid.
I let out a long breath, then repeated the movement on my other side.
Knee forward, hand forward. Again. And again. I could do this.
And I probably could have, if my traitorous eyes hadn't flickered open.
Black dots instantly invaded my vision as the image before me swam and warped. Icy cold fear clamped onto my muscles as I stared down into black nothingness, the sides of the rocky chasm stretching on endlessly beneath me. Fresh nausea swamped my insides and I couldn't think straight.
Get off the bridge, get off the bridge, get off the bridge.
Over and over the words sang through my head, drowning out anything else. I felt my right leg spasm and jerk, and pure terror bit into me as my right hip collapsed. I had no idea how far across the bridge I'd got, blind panic obliterating facts as my body began to shut down.
Pain lanced through my head as I crumpled onto the bridge and my chin banged into the hard material. I barely registered the taste of blood as I flung my arms around the bridge, squeezing my eyes closed again as they filled with tears of fright.
“Persephone! Go back the way you came, you're not far!” Skop's alarmed voice rang in my mind and I focused on his words.
You're not far.
I forced my shaking, numb legs back up, not caring one jot how I must look with my front half wrapped around an invisible bridge, shoving my butt in the air.
“That's it, you're doing great.” I began to shuffle backwards, one painstaking inch at a time, my hands shaking so badly I could barely use them. “You're almost there, your legs are off the bridge now,” Skop said, his voice strained but clear.
When my hands hit a solid barrier, I knew I'd reached the cliff. Painstakingly slowly, I unwrapped the fingers of my left hand from the bridge, then did the same with the other. Tears were streaming down my cheeks as I held my breath, straightened and opened my eyes.
I was off the bridge. I scrambled backwards, far away from the edge, and looked across at the gods through tear-blurred vision. None of them moved.
“I can't do it!” I yelled, my whole body vibrating. I felt sick. My stupid, stupid fucking body and my stupid, stupid fucking brain won't let me do it.
A sob escaped me and I swore viciously. I hadn't wanted to look weak. I hadn't wanted to make myself a target. I was supposed to be the underdog who would hold her own.
But look at me. Sobbing and shaking like a little girl, too frightened to cross a damned bridge.
And the whole of Olympus had seen me fail.