Chapter 27 Persephone
Persephone
“Persephone, come forward! Choose your first god!”
Every head in the crowd snapped to me as one, and I couldn't help gulping. My skin was fizzing with nervous energy now, and I was uncomfortably aware of my sweating palms.
Those palms have freaking magic vines in them, you can do this! I repeated the words to myself as I strode through the parting crowd towards the commentator. When I reached him he beamed at me, teeth pearly white and perfect.
“Now, who would you like to try first?”
“Hades,” I said, without hesitation. Was that smart, I thought as a ripple of laughter moved through the crowd. He was the only god I knew didn't have a test for me. But his name had sprung to my lips and now it was too late to take it back.
“Very well. Go ahead.”
Carefully avoiding looking at any of the other gods, I fixed my attention on Hades’ smoky form and walked down the row of thrones towards him.
I could feel the other Olympian's eyes on me, but I ignored them.
The best way to avoid being intimidated or manipulated by them was to be in charge, I decided.
When I reached Hades' throne and stood before him, he reached forward, his translucent smoke arm holding out a small silver goblet.
“Drink from the cup of death and see if you shall be tested,” he said, and his voice was the nasty, slithery tone I had almost forgotten existed.
This was the Hades the rest of the world saw.
I took the cup from him, searching his face for any signs of silver eyes, but he gave me nothing.
He couldn't show any favoritism, I told myself, biting back the stabbing hurt his indifference was causing.
Slowly, I drank from the little silver goblet.
The liquid in it was sweet, but not a flavor I could place.
“No test from Hades!” sang the commentator. “Choose your next god!” I handed Hades the goblet back, praying for a glimpse of his true self.
I only just kept the smile from my face as the briefest flash of gleaming silver eyes shone through the smoke as he took the cup from me, and a surge of confidence followed.
I could do this.
“Athena,” I said firmly. She was seated two thrones away, Ares sitting between her and Hades.
The god of war was again wearing the red-plumed helmet that hid his face, and this close I could see how thickly corded his massive torso was with muscle.
I would really, really not like to get on the wrong side of him. Or face a test from him.
Athena was wearing the same white toga I had seen her in before, her hair braided around her head. As I stood before her, a small owl seated on her shoulder blinked its large eyes at me.
“Drink from the cup of wisdom and see if you shall be tested,” the goddess said as she handed me a goblet identical to the one Hades had given me. I took a quick sip from the cup. This time it was bitter tasting, but nothing happened.
“Time to move on Persephone! Where to next?” The commentator's voice brimmed with excitement.
“Aphrodite,” I said, and looked five thrones down the line to where the goddess of love sat beside her husband, Hephaestus. If I was tested by Aphrodite, what the hell would that involve? What if she made me withstand something sexual?
My nerves built as I approached her, panic that I might be put through something like that unwillingly rising in me.
Hedone said that sort of thing wasn't allowed, I told myself, remembering the conversation I'd had with her before the ball about ego driving consensual sex in Olympus.
The powerful liked to earn their good times, rather than take them.
Nonetheless, my hands shook as I took the cup from the goddess.
She beamed at me, her vivid green eyes sparkling from under outrageously thick lashes, her hair jet black today, and cropped in a bob.
She was wearing a skin-tight white dress and reminded me a little of Cleopatra.
Please don't be a test, I prayed as I closed my eyes and took a sip from the goblet.
The liquid tasted a million times better than the last two, but mercifully, nothing happened.
“Choose your next god! We're getting bored, Persephone!” I mustered up a dirty look to throw at the commentator, then handed the goblet back to Aphrodite.
“Dionysus,” I said, and moved back to where Dionysus was sitting, on the other side of Athena. I was unsurprised to see him once more in tight leather pants, a white shirt mostly open and only half tucked in. He had one ankle crossed over his knee, and dark sunglasses on.
“Drink from the cup of wine and see if you shall be tested,” he drawled, and leaned forward lazily with a goblet. I took it from him, for the first time knowing what to expect the liquid to taste like.
Sure enough, it was a rich red wine, and freaking delicious. Before I'd realized what I was doing, I'd downed the whole damned glass. I licked my lips as I drained the last drops, and was just exclaiming how good it was, when I realized I wasn't in the hall any more.
That wasn't normal wine, I realized, spinning on the spot, panic flooding through me. I was in a forest. Except the trees around me stretched up so high that I couldn't see their tops, the light from the sky just streaking through gaps in the foliage.
As I blinked around, I realized I could see little wooden structures high in the branches. I inhaled deeply, the smell of damp earth magnificent to me.
Before I'd noticed I was doing it, green vines were snaking out of my palms, the lure of so much nature around me irresistible.
Then a low snarl snapped my attention to the nearest huge tree trunk. The gnarled wooden bark seemed to swirl and move in front of me, and I squinted at it.
A wave of dizziness washed over me, as something black and lithe stalked from behind the tree trunk. Wings unfurled from its back, and I blinked furiously as the world tilted on its axis.
I felt drunk. Out of control drunk, not happy, silly drunk. I tried to focus on the thing now prowling towards me, and a flash of red above its back came sharply into focus all of a sudden. It was a glowing stinger, on the end of a scorpion tail.
My conversation with Hedone earlier sprang into my mind, about winged cats with scorpion tails but I couldn't remember what they were called. A new disorientating wave of dizziness pounded over me, and I actually stumbled. Somewhere in the distance I heard a loud gong, then a voice rang out.
“Ten minutes, starting now!”
Ten minutes for what? I'd known before that I was here for something important but now... I struggled to piece together the last few minutes, but I could feel my memories slipping away as I stared at the huge black cat approaching me.
He didn't look friendly. Maybe he lived in this forest? A woozy calm was settling over me, and I held my hand out, a green vine stretching towards the cat. He bared his teeth, and my vision wobbled again.
A laugh bubbled from my lips. He was quite cute really, with his feathered wings and slinky steps.
Run!
The desperate thought pierced my cheerful haze, anxiety and fear smacking me in the chest so hard it was like I had been electrocuted.
My feet started to move and I staggered backwards, my emotions flipping so far in the other direction that I was now too scared to take my eyes from the beast. There must have been something in the wine that was causing me to believe this thing was cute, because in reality it was damned terrifying.
That bastard Dionysus had drugged me.
My vision still swam, but I was sure the cat's teeth were growing, and its dark eyes were beginning to glow. There was no way I would be faster than it was. If I was its prey, I was in serious shit.
But its wings... They looked soft to touch, and were an ombre of reds. They were beautiful. Something that pretty wasn't dangerous, surely? My feet slowed.
It snarled again, dropping its shoulders low and pawing the ground and I felt another shock in my chest as the placid calm was dislodged.
Of course its damned dangerous, look at it! Now get the fuck out of here!
Before the lethal calm could take me again, I turned and ran for the tree behind me. I heard the thing roar, and praying I was far enough ahead that it couldn't reach me in one pounce, I launched my vines from both palms at a branch thirty feet above me.
They flew fast, wrapping tight around the branch as they reached it, and I tugged, willing them to retract. I was lurched off my feet, my hair whipping around my face as I flew up towards the branch. I looked down, just able to see the cat past my billowing red skirt as he leaped for me and missed.
Within seconds I had reached the branch, and only then realized just how high up I was. The forest around me began to spin again, and this time I didn't know if it was vertigo or the drugged wine.
Your vines have got you, your vines have got you, I chanted in my head, but as soon as my addled brain pictured me falling, I felt the vines slacken.
“No!” I shrieked, as I started to slip, and they tightened instantly, wrenching my shoulders as my descent stopped abruptly.
Heart hammering against my ribcage and my breath shortening, I forced them to pull me back up, then started trying to swing my legs up, attempting to hook my feet over the branch.
Eventually, stomach and arm muscles burning, I managed to get my legs firmly enough around the wood to pull my body up and over the wide branch, my vines staying firmly wrapped around it too. Panting and nauseous, I eased myself into a sitting position, dimly noticing how torn my skirt was.
All I had to do was sit and not look at the forest floor below me until the ten minutes was up. It felt like I'd been here for an hour already, there couldn't be long left.
A low roar snapped my attention to the main trunk of the tree and my vision wobbled even more as my blood turned to ice.
The winged cat was prowling along the branch towards me, its massive claws gripping the bark like glue.