by Holly Hook
Table of Contents
Title Page
Chapter One
Chapter Two
Chapter Three
Chapter Four
Chapter Five
Chapter Six
Chapter Seven
Chapter Eight
Chapter Nine
Chapter Ten
Chapter Eleven
Chapter Twelve
Chapter Thirteen
Chapter Fourteen
Chapter Fifteen
Chapter Sixteen
Chapter Seventeen
Chapter Eighteen
Chapter Nineteen
Chapter Twenty
Chapter Twenty-One
Chapter Twenty-Two
There's More!
Cursed Academy
Year Two
Book Three of the Cursed Academy Series
By Holly Hook
Chapter One
"Looky, looky."
Ronin stepped onto Carmen's porch and held up a large envelope, which bent down in the wind. He grabbed the railing as if to steady himself. But Ronin was bracing not for the weather, but for my reaction.
"Where did you get that? My old house?" I asked. "I thought you said Cal erased my address from the Cursed computer systems." And I was glad. The last thing I needed was for Prometheus to find me over summer break and drag me back to campus, talking about safety and how it was the only way I could avoid the Lower Order. He'd forgotten the fact that the Lower Order, if they knew where I lived, would have come for me a long time ago.
"He did. Don't forget I'm a messenger. I went and picked this up from campus for you." He slapped the envelope down on the railing. "Know you've been looking forward to it, baby."
"All the time." I stepped back from the front door to let Ronin inside. And to get a better look at the front of the yellow envelope. Yep. It had a shining green hand, holding a shining green flame, on it. It was from Cursed Academy.
All summer, I'd been hoping for a notice that I'd been switched to Olympian Academy. Dumb, I know. But the gods knew I could use the powers of others. And they had to suspect I'd become something terrifying if I stayed where I was. Not one had managed to pull strings for me so far. I'd be spending my second year at Cursed Academy unless a miracle happened.
Of course, the gods had to obey the Division Oath. Once you got marked, you went to your respective school. And I'd heard the punishment for breaking it was bad. No immortal would take the penalty.
"Ronin, why did you have to bring me that?" I asked, pulling my shirt down over my stomach.
"Because you need it?" He lifted one eyebrow. "Oh, and I checked your mailbox at your old house, too. Your fake grandma sure collected a lot of debt. Wow. Found about eight statements for credit cards she took out. Oh, and an electricity shut off notice."
"Well, she was the goddess of misery." Come on, Giselle. You knew you'd be going back to Cursed. Still with no way to break the gods' Division Oath and transfer to a school that I knew wouldn't turn me dark, I'd head even closer to becoming a destruction goddess.
At least I'd have Maria and Mikey.
And perhaps I could even help them.
"Well, here's your schedule for your second year," Ronin said, handing me the big envelope. "I think it got bent. Got mine today, too. Snuck out. It's not like anyone's ever at my house besides the cleaning staff."
"You always have to remind me you have staff."
Ronin flinched as if hurt, but it was a ruse. "Come on, Giselle. Rich, hot dudes like me are too good to clean our own toilets." He lifted one eyebrow in that typical Ronin fashion, sending tingles down my spine.
A pickup truck drove past. The driver slowed to gawk at the motorcycle parked in Carmen's driveway. Yeah, Ronin had borrowed a motorcycle from the mansion when he wasn't even supposed to have his own vehicle.
"Who is it?" Carmen asked from the depths of the house.
"Oh. She's here," Ronin said.
Then I remembered. Carmen and I had been working on something this past week and I hadn't told Ronin yet.
"Ronin," I told her.
"Great. We have a strong man to help us get under Gramp's Convenience Store!" Carmen clapped as she walked out of the kitchen, coffee mug in hand. Today she wore bright orange socks and a striped shirt that made her look like an eighties transplant. Carmen always brought light into whatever room she walked into and she wasn't even a god descendant, a budding immortal, or any other type of supernatural straight from Greek mythology. She was just Carmen. And I loved her for that.
"Get under Gramp's Convenience Store?" Ronin asked, backing off. "Sorry, babe, but I do not want to go near that place ever again. And did I mention it's condemned?" A question burned in Ronin's eyes. Had Randy been bothering me?
"This isn't Randy related," I said. "Haven't even seen him much. The only times we've had a sighting all summer is when he's been out on his riding lawnmower."
"Good," Ronin said. "I've made sure he's seen me around all summer. I bet that's why. Now, why do you want to get under that store?"
Fake Grandma had spent half her life working behind the counter in Gramp's Convenience Store, selling lotto tickets, booze, and cigarettes to fellow unhappy people. I'd seen Ronin three or four times per week all summer--he had come to visit, hang out, take me out to movies, malls in other towns, and he had even taken me out on motorcycle rides. All complete with a leather coat, too. I hated that I'd taken a full week to tell him what Carmen and I figured out.
Maria's words came back to me. Alpha male. Hero complex. Ronin wasn't going to like this. The idea was so scary that opening my Cursed Academy envelope sounded like nothing in comparison. Well, it was.
"Giselle?" Ronin asked, working his jaw the slightest bit. "Is this one of your crazy, get into danger plans?"
"Um, maybe?" My voice rose to a squeak. Great.
"So it is. Spill." Ronin crossed his arms.
I waved him inside and put my Cursed Academy folder on the kitchen table. Carmen's dad was off working at his new job so he wouldn't notice it. Carmen stood off to the side. I opened the fridge and looked through it, pulling out a Coke for Ronin. He took it and downed it in one swig while Carmen shook her head. She and Maria would get along.
"Remember that Rivers of the Underworld book we stole from the Olympian library?" I opened my own can. Best to look casual.
Ronin looked at me with a half-smile, half-frown. "No. I don't remember the night we broke into the library and Wendy almost sent you to the Underworld. That kind of slipped."
I ignored him as my palms sweat. "Well, I brought that Rivers of the Underworld book back here with me. I can't believe I didn't remember this at first. Achlys tried to poison me with water from the River Lethe. That's in the Underworld. That means there's an entrance somewhere around here. And that also means we might not have to go through Wendy to get that herb that could help Maria and Mikey not mature. And help me not mature."
Then Ronin's jaw dropped. "Wow. I'm stupid. We all forgot about that."
"So we've been plotting a way to bust into the Underworld," Carmen added.
I about choked. Leave it to her just to lay it bare.
Ronin snapped his gaze to her and back to me. His golden-flecked irises dilated. "We can't just stroll into the Underworld. They don't exactly sell tickets from what I understand. And I've heard the River Styx is poison. We'd have to cross it to get to the plant we need. Even the gods don't like it."
"Well, you're right. I've been reading. If they drink from it they go crazy," I said. All this time, I'd been focusing on the water the gods used to make the Division Oath. All descendants of gods and monsters would be sorted and educated in two separate schools, and the immortals wouldn
't fight with each other. I'd ignored the other rivers and an important clue. "And the water's supposed to be deadly to mortals. They can't even touch it."
"Well, that's all of us. And you're not even immortal yet. This is a crazy idea. You think the entrance is under Gramp's Convenience Store?" Ronin paced around Carmen's kitchen.
"Where else would it be? Carmen and I checked my old house already."
"Have you told Maria and Mikey about this?" Ronin asked, shoulders rising.
"No." I had been hoping to surprise them with the asphodel, the food of the dead, at the start of our second year. Wendy promised it could slow down their changes into monsters in just a few short years by weakening them both, and we were guessing it could do the same for me, holding back the growing darkness long enough to figure out how to get into Olympian Academy. Only Wendy wasn't exactly my friend and would never hand it over for free.
Ronin advanced on me. He worked his jaw again, but as if he realized I'd seen, he stopped and relaxed his features. His leather jacket squeaked as he gently took my arms. "Giselle, bad idea. We've got to think about this more before we try. And we don't know everything that's down there. The food of the dead can't do anything good to the living. Wendy could have lied about it for all we know."
"Makes sense it could weaken Maria and Mikey to the point where it holds back their dark changes," I said. "And mine."
"Maybe." Ronin flicked his gaze out the kitchen window and looked back at me. "Well, we can check out the area and see if there's an entrance, but we're not going in. Deal?"
I knew it. Well, it was better than nothing. "You know what the alternative to this plan is."
* * * * *
Even with Achlys gone, Colton Corners was still a town of nothing, so it took us only a few minutes to walk to Gramp's Convenience Store. After I had destroyed Achlys, no one had come back to man the counter so now the place stood empty. The Open sign was now off and dust had gathered on the windows. The lotto buyers must have gone crazy. And no one could buy smokes.
"So, you need me to break in?" Ronin asked, flexing his biceps.
"No. I have a key." I pulled it out of my pocket. Fake Grandma had a spare key to the store back in the house, hanging near the front door.
Ronin frowned and put out his lip. "Damn. You're making me useless."
Carmen rolled her eyes.
"But you won't be when we get to the storage room." Carmen and I had snooped around in there already.
"Interesting." With a nod, he motioned to the front of the store.
We crossed the dirt parking lot and I unlocked the place. Carmen and I had raided most of the snacks from the store in the past couple of months, since most it was packaged junk, and since Achlys had never stocked any fresh fruit or anything remotely healthy, we didn't have the issue of anything spoiling. Most of the shelves were empty, but Ronin grinned when his gaze landed on the beer still in the coolers.
"It's warm," I said. "And no, Carmen and I haven't touched it."
"You two could have thrown an epic party with all this," he said. "What is wrong with you?"
"This is Colton Corners," Carmen said. "If people can, they get out of here during the summer."
"This way," I said, waving Ronin through the dark aisles. The electricity had been shut off months ago with no one to pay the bills. Cobwebs had gathered in the corners and the dew inside the fridges had long vanished. Oh, and the cheese sticks were moldy beyond belief.
The storage room was dark. Carmen had left a flashlight near the entrance, which she clicked on. The back storage room, which I'd seen a million times, turned out to have a trapdoor under one of the metal shelves that Carmen and I had discovered last week. The whole storage room was a mess of boxes, crates, and other shelves we'd moved. Achlys had gotten that River Lethe water from here, after all. It was the most likely place to look.
Carmen shone her flashlight on the right side of the room, panning down to the floor.
"You're right," Ronin said, turning his gaze to the rectangular outline.
"I've been in this room hundreds of times," I said. "Never noticed this." The trapdoor was probably big enough to let in me and Carmen, and possibly Ronin if he squeezed. A shudder ran over my skin. It could be nothing or just a way to reach some wires, but I knew the chances of that were low.
We could be staring at a rare Underworld entrance.
Ronin rubbed his hands together as he advanced on the trapdoor. But he moved slowly, hesitating. And then he looked right at me and frowned. "Just a look. That's it."
I gulped. "Just a look." Of course I knew the three of us couldn't just barge in there.
My friend squeezed in next to me, shoving a box out of the way with her foot. Ronin kneeled and grabbed the sides of the trapdoor. With a heave and a grunt, he slowly lifted the door--which literally had concrete on the top, yikes--exposing a dusty ladder leading down into black.
An awful, cold feeling burst from the hole.
"Shudder," Carmen said.
I'd seen real voids before, but this sent a shiver over my skin. It had been a while since I'd used my Chaos powers--hanging out here with Carmen and Ronin had kept them at bay, for now--but this sight brought back the memories. A faint groan filled me and as if sensing it, Ronin moved to stand in front of the open trapdoor. That helped.
"Well, we've got our look. Obviously this leads down to something bad," Ronin said. "I conclude this is a back door to the Underworld."
He wanted to stop here. An itch ran up my legs that had nothing to do with magic.
Maria and Mikey had spent their summer worrying about their monstrous changes, changes that were now one year closer. The fear would ratchet up, and up, and unless we went down there, I wouldn't be able to help them.
"We need to go a bit further," I said. "I read that the River Styx borders the world of the living and the dead, so when we see a bunch of black water, we'll know it's time to turn back."
"You want to go right to a river of death?" Ronin asked, letting his jaw drop.
"Look, we all know what this is going to involve," I said. I'd been bracing for this argument ever since Carmen and I had uncovered this door. "Once we see what we're dealing with, we can plan. Or you can." I knew how to get to Ronin now and it was to let him be in charge.
He scratched his chin. "Maybe. But you have to let me climb down there first. This is one case where ladies first does not apply."
I agreed with that. Carmen squeezed closer to the door, hungry for adventure.
"Maybe you should stay up here," I said, regretting it right away.
Carmen gave me a play shove. "And do what?"
"Well, twiddle your thumbs like a good, ordinary girl," Ronin said.
The look of death my friend gave him made him raise his hands. "Look, I was there when Achlys went all miserable on us. I can climb down a ladder. Even in the Greek myths, ordinary people got to have adventures. Right?"
"Not many," Ronin said. "You generally had to be descended from royalty at least."
"Let her come down, Ronin," I said, hoping I wasn't making a mistake. I knew what it felt like to feel small. Unimportant. Grandma had done a number on me all my life.
He sighed. That was a yes.
But he did climb down first.
I watched as he squeezed into the trapdoor, one meant for a skinny misery goddess, and I followed as Carmen shone the flashlight down. Then she came down third, and I grasped at dancing darkness as my hands tried to slip on the dusty rungs. It seemed Achlys had taken her true form whenever not in sight of mortals, leaving a trail of her essence everywhere. When we got to the bottom of the ladder, I found more dust all over the stone floor of the now-stone tunnel and the air reeked of it. Ronin sneezed as he backed off from the ladder, letting Carmen get off with her flashlight.
"See?" she asked, holding it up. "You need this."
Ronin didn't argue. He pulled his leather coat up over his face to block out the dust. I sneezed, barely able to turn away from
Carmen in time. "Achlys used this a lot."
"Well, it's all gross and miserable," Ronin said, turning to look down the length of the tunnel. "And narrow." He reached up and touched the ceiling, brushing his hand along the stone and causing another rain of choking particles. Yeah, it was even clinging to the ceiling.
"This is going to suck," Carmen said.
"You can always turn back," Ronin said.
But she didn't. Instead, she held up the flashlight while Ronin led the way, hugging his arms to his body. The stone tunnel was so narrow that we couldn't even hold hands, and I didn't want to risk brushing the gross walls to hold Ronin's hand from behind. The air was musty. Almost suffocating. Just being in this passage made me feel like I was in that tiny living room with fake Grandma again, stewing in her misery.
But this was all that was left of her.
The tunnel sloped downward, and the air took on a strange chill I'd only felt around Wendy before. Carmen's teeth chattered behind me as she scraped her shoes against the rock. The dust slowly thinned and vanished as a cold wind blew against us. Ronin's dark hair fluttered and blew back.
He stopped after we'd walked for what felt like ten minutes.
"There's an opening ahead," he said. "And I feel weird. Like I'm not where I am."
"I feel the same," Carmen said. "It's hard to explain. We can get back, right?"
I looked back up the tunnel. "Yes. We should be able do. Achlys did it and she felt like everything was hopeless all the time."
Ronin smirked back at me. "Good point."
“But she was a goddess.” Was that regret in Carmen's words? Well, she wasn't alone.
“At least this path is idiot proof,” Ronin said. “And we're idiots. Come on. I think that's water I'm smelling.”
My heart leapt into my throat. The low feeling of dread, the same aura Wendy gave off whenever she was in a bad mood, filled the tunnel as the three of us walked straight into the icy wind. I couldn't imagine anything growing in the world beyond, least of all any magical herbs. My nerves tingled. My heart refused to slow. I took some breaths, but it did no good, instead filling me with dread. Every instinct told me to turn back, that we didn't belong here. Was this what we were going to feel when we died?
