by Eliza Raine
‘Next time,’ Zali said with a shrug when my head broke the surface. My annoyance must have shown on my face because she put her hand on my shoulder and smiled. ‘Don’t let her ruin your day,’ she said. I sighed, threw a glare at Arketa’s smug face, and tried to push the anger away.
Miss Alma congratulated Arketa on her win, and we were allowed to swim as partners for the rest of the class. Zali and I headed straight out towards the turtles. Between trips back to the pool for air she screwed her face up in concentration, trying to communicate with them, whilst I tumbled around in little somersaults with the baby one until I was dizzy.
My next class was Magical Objects, and I was looking forward to talking to Nix again. I knew I was going to have to say something to Neos soon. I couldn’t keep the need to know if he really was the red demon inside much longer.
‘Nix,’ I said, cradling his feather and settling down on a cushion between the bookshelves.
‘Oh gods. You’re hyper today,’ his irritated voice replied.
‘I lost a swimming race to Arketa because she cheated and I can’t control my power,’ I said.
‘You shouldn’t be losing races in the water. You’re the most powerful Oceanus descendant I’ve ever come across. You must practice more.’
I rolled my eyes.
‘Everyone keeps saying practice, and I am. But just doing the same thing over and over again leads to the same results over and over again,’ I sighed.
‘Then you’re not doing it right.’
‘Great. That’s really helpful.’
The phoenix didn’t reply.
‘Nix, I want to talk to Professor Neos.’
‘You talk to him every week in fire class.’
‘I mean, about being a demon.’
‘And are you just going to ask him? What will you do if he is the red demon?’ The bird’s voice was dry and cynical.
‘Ask him what he wants with the academy,’ I said, indignantly. ‘He’s obviously nothing like the sea monster we fought. And he hasn’t spilled any blood yet.’
‘That we know of,’ added Nix. I swallowed.
‘My point is, I think he wants me to acknowledge him. Maybe he just needs something from the school and he’ll be on his way.’
‘And you’re deducing this from your extensive experience of demons, are you?’ Sarcasm dripped from his words.
‘I’m deducing it from common sense,’ I snapped back.
‘Pandora, you haven’t even studied demons yet. If a god as powerful as Oceanus decided this one needed to be locked up, then there’s a very good reason.’
‘But the poem said, But for the hero who can handle the gore, Is finally a chance to end this bloody war. What if we’re supposed to make peace with the demons?’
‘The previous line said, For every drop of blood they spill, They will become much harder to kill. Study demons, Pandora. Learn what you can first. Do not approach him.’
I sighed.
‘Fine.’
3
After lunch I had History of Mythology with Dasko, so I decided to try to follow Nix’s advice.
‘Professor Dasko?’ I raised my hand as soon as I sat down with the rest of my year. We were all in one class now that Icarus and I had caught up.
‘Yes, Pandora,’ he said, giving me a look. I was often the first to ask questions in class.
‘Instead of the Olympian family tree, which is very interesting, please can we learn about demons today?’ I asked. A murmur of excitement rippled through the room.
‘Demons would be more fun,’ said Thom the manticore shifter from behind me.
‘Yeah, can we learn about demons?’ other students echoed.
‘We’re not scheduled to cover demons until next semester,’ Dasko said tilting his head at me, ‘but I guess they are pretty interesting.’ I beamed at him and heard more excited mutters. With a wink, Dasko waved his hand and the lights dimmed.
‘There are many types of creatures in Olympus. Even though monsters, demons and Gods are all different beings, they can all be monstrous, demonic and divine. It is important to remember that.’ Dasko gave me a pointed look, and the flames in the iron dish leapt white. When they faded, there was a collective gasp from the class. My brain struggled to process the image of the creature shown in the dish. It was a fierce looking man, but from the waist down were two writhing serpent bodies instead of legs, and where his fingers should be were snarling and snapping dragon heads. Enormous leathery wings protruded from his back and fire burned in his evil looking eyes.
‘This is Tyhpon, father of monsters. Born from the earth and Tartarus, the depths of hell itself,’ Dasko said. Tartarus was where the Titans were imprisoned. I recoiled at the thought of being trapped in a place where something like this creature had been created. ‘He mated with Echidna, a woman who was half snake and would become known as the mother of monsters. Many of her offspring still terrorize Olympus today, though the gods now keep a lot of them as pets.’ A look of distaste flashed across Dasko’s face. ‘Monsters such as three-headed dogs, giant sea monsters, winged lions, monstrous eagles and vicious dragons.’ Images of the creatures hovered in the dish, then vanished, replaced by the next.
‘Then there are demigod demons, the offspring of gods that carry deadly tasks or tastes. There are gods of all that mortals fear, such as Thanatos the god of death, Erebus the god of darkness and Phobetor the god of nightmares. And they all control their own demons. Like the Furies, demon goddesses of vengeance. And the Empusa, demigoddesses who live off warm human blood.’ An image of a creepy veiled figure floated in the dish and my skin crawled. ‘Or Eurynomos, demon of rotting corpses.’ Thankfully, the image didn’t change to show what he looked like. ‘The demons of violent death, for example, are called Keres, and the demons of plague and sickness are the Nosoi.’
‘Why are there no pictures of those?’ asked Tak, a few seats down from me, when the image in the dish still hadn’t changed.
‘We don’t know what some of them look like. If you come across a lot of these demons, you won’t live to paint a picture,’ Dasko said and fear gnawed at my insides, anxiety rippling through me. ‘The point is, monsters are one thing, but demons are quite another. They usually have god-given duties to fulfill and they will stop at nothing to carry out their masters tasks. Many have ichor in their veins, like all of you, and some of the ancient ones have immense power.’ The professor waved his hand and though the room was flooded with warm light again, the chill that had settled across my skin didn’t lessen. ‘Right. Whether or not that’s satisfied your curiosity, we’ll get back to Hera’s family tree,’ Dasko announced without looking at me. Everyone hurried to open their notebooks and the flame dish image changed to show Hera, regal and beautiful, but I barely registered her likeness.
What kind of demons had I let out of that box?
Over the next day, the thought of the monsters and demons Dasko had described consumed me. I ignored my friends invitations to play games after dinner and instead buried myself amongst the bookshelves, hunting for books about the creatures who had shared the world of Olympus with Oceanus before he vanished. But I couldn’t find anything useful. Icarus helped me search through volume after volume, as he was still much better at ancient language than I was, but all we could establish was that Oceanus had gone missing shortly after Prometheus had been mysteriously freed from the eagles that tortured him daily.
‘So why did he trap the demons in the box? And why these three?’ I sighed, leaning against the hard wood of the shelves.
‘We don’t know for sure that he did,’ said Icarus. ‘It could have been someone else who hid the box.’
I scowled at him.
‘And hid it underwater? No, it was Oceanus.’ I knew it was, somehow. ‘And that pearl I found, in the attic. I’m sure we need it for something,’ I added.
‘Maybe Professor Fantasma will know something about the pearl. Take it to Advanced Magical Objects class and ask her,’ he suggested.
‘What if she gets suspicious?’
Icarus snorted.
‘If it’s an interesting magical object, she’ll forgive you,’ he muttered.
‘You don’t know that. She might take it to Hermes.’
We had yet to see our godly headmaster for the semester, save for a short glimpse of him the day our new lessons kicked off. Chiron was still at the academy, teaching archery, so in my head I still saw him as running the school.
‘I doubt it. And Fantasma knows you’re a Titan. She won’t be that suspicious that you have a Titan relic.’
‘Hmmm,’ I said sceptically.
‘I’m running out of suggestions,’ Icarus said, looking at me. His green eyes shone and for the first time in days my head emptied of demons. For a blissful moment, there was just him and those mesmerizingly beautiful eyes.
A piercing scream ripped through my moment. We both whirled our heads towards the noise, then we were running between the bookshelves. We burst out into the common area to see a large group of people huddled around something on the floor. I hurried over, pushing through people and leaving Icarus and his big wings behind. When I got through the crowd I saw Zali, crouched down.
‘What-’ I started to ask her, then gasped and stumbled backwards. A dryad girl I vaguely recognized from the year above us was sprawled out on the floor. Her normally tan skin was as white as the marble tiles beneath her and her open, staring eyes were completely black. Zali looked up at me, face panicked and pale.
‘I don’t think she’s breathing,’ she croaked.
‘Get Fantasma!’ I said, turning to the nearest student.
‘Somebody’s already gone for her,’ the boy answered, his eyes fixed on the dryads motionless face. Her mouth was open in a silent scream. I shuddered and watched her chest, hoping to see it move. Nothing happened.
‘Get out of the way,’ a voice rasped, and cold rippled across my arm as Professor Fantasma swept past me, her ghostly form going straight through my elbow. She crouched as she reached the girl, touching her neck, then peering at her unmoving eyes.
‘What happened?’ she asked, the silent crowd holding their breath as they watched.
‘She… floated in the air. She screamed, then fell,’ stammered a tall, waif-like girl standing behind Zali. Her hands were shaking and she wouldn’t look at the dryad girls black eyes.
‘I need someone to carry her,’ Professor Fantasma said, standing up straight. I felt movement behind me, and turned to see the crowd part for Chiron.
‘Lay her on my back,’ he said gravely. Thom, Tak and two boys I didn’t know rushed forwards and lifted her lifeless body from the ground, onto the centaurs back. Her limbs were awkward and clunky and I shuddered.
‘Is she…’ Zali didn’t finish the whispered question, but everybody looked at Professor Fantasma for the answer.
‘She’s alive. But her soul is no longer in her body. Or in the academy.’
My stomach dropped at her words, fear crawling over my skin as my heart hammered. How could a person’s soul be separated from their body?
‘Everybody to their dorms, now!’ bellowed Chiron. There was a scramble as panicked motion set in, students rushing to grab their stuff and make for the safety of their rooms. I stared after the dryad girl as Chiron strode carefully towards the front temple, jumping when Icarus laid his hand on my shoulder.
‘We can’t go to the tower tonight,’ he said quietly. ‘It might not be safe.’
‘What if…’ I looked up at him, the question pounding through my head, making me feel sick. ‘What if it’s one of the demons?’ What if I caused this?
‘We don’t know what happened to her yet, Dora. It might be a dryad thing.’
‘What, dryads often just lose their souls after dinner?’ I didn’t mean to speak so harshly, but my frayed nerves were fueling my emotions and I couldn’t help it.
‘Dora, come on, we need to go,’ Zali appeared beside me, wide-eyed and holding out my backpack. I took it from her, mutely. ‘Miss Alma is escorting students to the girls dorm now, we don’t want to be left here.’ The fear in her voice set my skin prickling again.
‘I’ll see you tomorrow,’ Icarus said softly to me, and I stared into his eyes a second longer before Zali tugged me towards the temple doors.
4
I felt no sense of relief or safety when we got back to our room, only a quiet terror that I had caused something this terrible to happen. Zali told me the girls name was Dimitra and as I lay in my bed that night, the image of her black, staring eyes filled my dreams.
‘Attention students.’ A loud voice dragged me from uneasy sleep.
‘That’s Hermes!’ I heard Zali squeak from the other side of my curtain.
‘Classes shall continue as normal today. Please report anything suspicious to your nearest teacher.’ The voice echoed around the little dorm room. I waited for more, for reassurance that they had found the reason for Dimitra’s collapse, that they had healed her, but there was nothing.
‘Is that it?’ I sat up in my bed, rubbing my tired eyes.
‘I guess so,’ said Zali, pulling back my curtain and giving me a worried look. ‘They wouldn’t be sending us to class if it wasn’t safe,’ she said.
‘I wouldn’t be so sure,’ I muttered, swinging my legs out of bed. ‘Isn’t the academy all about preparing us for the brutal world of Olympus?’
‘Yeah but… her soul was gone,’ Zali whispered, eyes wide and puffy. I realized as I looked at her that she hadn’t gotten much sleep either.
‘You’re right,’ I said, with a smile. ‘They wouldn’t risk our souls, I’m sure.’
I hoped the words were true.
There was a nervous buzz about the students in flying class, everyone whispering and muttering about Dimitra. My eavesdropping got me no new information - it sounded like nobody knew anything. My second class was fire element with Neos, and a pulsing nervousness was making my stomach feel jittery as we waited outside the elements building for the teacher.
‘Did you do it, dirty Titan scum? Did you steal Dimitra’s soul?’ sneered Arketa, pushing through the crowd to stand in front of me.
I scowled at her.
‘Back off, Arketa,’ I said, turning away from her. I had more important things to worry about than her today.
‘Hear that, everyone? She’s not denying it.’ My fists clenched by my sides and I turned back to her.
‘I had nothing to do with it, and you know it,’ I growled.
‘It’s exactly the kind of thing a monster like you would do,’ she said, venom in her voice. Anger pulsed through me, mingling with my frayed nerves.
‘You seriously think I go about stealing souls?’
‘Why not? It’s what Titan’s do. You’re dangerous, you and your boyfriend,’ she spat. ‘You shouldn’t be allowed in the school. Nothing like this happened before you came here.’ A muttering started around her and I felt sick. The other students were listening to her. They believed her.
‘What is your problem?’ I shouted, the tired frustration getting the better of me. ‘We’re just normal students!’ As I spoke, a flame burst from my hand, shooting towards Arketa. I stared in dumb horror as a she screamed and a wall of water appeared from nowhere in front of her, catching the flame and instantly dousing it.
‘Detention, Pandora,’ said a smooth, deep voice. Everybody jumped and turned as Professor Neos spoke.
‘But I didn’t… That wasn’t me! I can’t even make flames like that! I-’ He cut off my stammered protests.
‘I saw it with my own eyes. Detention. This lunchtime, with me.’ He stopped in front of me and my stomach lurched as he gave me a tiny smile and his beautiful brown eyes flashed scarlet red.
I kept my head down for the whole class, doing my very best to avoid eye contact with the striking teacher. Arketa avoided me like the plague, which I was fine with, practicing in the opposite corner of the room. When the gong rang and everyone began to file out of the room, N
eos called,
‘Stay here please, Pandora.’ I gulped.
When everyone else had left the room I looked slowly at Neos. He grinned back at me.
‘Pandora,’ he said, eyes shining. ‘I’ve been waiting for the right opportunity to speak to you. Alone.’ My skin prickled.
‘It wasn’t me. That flame. I didn’t do it,’ I said.
He waved his hand dismissively.
‘Oh, I know. I did.’
My mouth fell open.
‘I needed an excuse to give you detention.’
‘Why?’ I whispered, but I already knew the answer. His eyes burned crimson as he stepped towards me.
‘I wanted to say thank you, dear girl. You released me from that cursed box.’
I started to run before he finished speaking, but a gust of air coiled around me, tugging me backwards, and a wall of fire burst from the ground, blocking the exit.
‘Woah, woah, I’m not going to hurt you, little Titan. I want to help you!’ The gust stopped and I staggered backwards.
‘Who are you?’ I gasped, my heart pounding so hard I thought it would burst from my chest.
