Waking the Goddess

by Clara Hartley

  Just before we were about to leave, Agness strode out of the dormitory, dressed with her usual elegance. She scanned the gathering of half-bloods, searching for someone.

  I wanted to avoid her, so I grabbed Hansel and pulled him away.

  “Devon!” she shouted.

  I stilled.

  Why was she calling for Devon? She waved him forward.

  Devon peered at me. His eyes lingered on me, as if he were asking for instructions. I bit my lower lip, my suspicions rising.

  “Make it quick,” I said.

  “I will.” And he walked away from me, breaking into a jog. He halted in front of Agness and bowed when he was in front of her. I didn’t like watching Devon show his obedience to Agness. It felt like betrayal.

  Theo wrapped a hand around my shoulder and squeezed.

  “Can we trust him?” I said softly. Guilt inched up my chest. That shouldn’t even be a question. With our shared moment, Devon had promised that he belonged to me, and I shouldn’t have to question where he stood.

  Still, he was a member of the Cierro family, and they faithfully served Agness, a woman who was out to get me.

  The four of us watched carefully as Devon confronted Agness. Each passing moment incited more doubt in me. Devon backed away from Agness, and knowing he’d return to my side soon gave me a sense of relief.

  But before he left her, Devon knelt before Agness. He lowered one knee to the ground and placed a hand on his chest. Agness regarded him with a pleased expression. She placed a hand on the top of his head, treating him like he belonged to her and not me.

  Inside, I grew cold.

  “What’s up with that?” Liam asked. It was nice to know that I wasn’t the only one shocked by the sight.

  Devon then stood. He waved the goddess goodbye, before walking briskly toward us.

  “It’s nothing to worry about,” Devon said once he returned. “Just some talk about my parents. Nothing important.”

  I eyed him warily.

  Devon placed his hand on my back. His touch did little to calm my suspicions. “Let’s head to the chiasma, shall we?”

  Chapter Thirteen

  “This carpet is magical,” I said.

  Liam sniffed, clutching Fenrir tightly to his chest. “Oh, really? What gave it away? The fact that it’s floating a couple hundred feet up the air?”

  “That,” I replied, “and how it’s supporting the weight of five people. Four of them huge.”

  “You should lose some weight, then,” Theo said, chuckling to himself. “Keep the pounds off, like me.”

  I looked at him like he was crazy. He was probably heavier than Liam and Devon combined. I looked at Devon’s broad-shouldered back, still thinking about what happened with Agness. We hadn’t discussed it, and the fact that I didn’t know what they’d talked about annoyed me like an itch I couldn’t scratch.

  I decided to ask him anyway. “About that conversation with Agne—”

  “It was nothing,” Devon replied.

  I bit the inside of my cheek. He’d responded too quickly. What put him on the defensive?

  “What are you hiding?” I asked.

  Devon glanced over his shoulder. His yellow eyes pierced mine, and I searched them for hints of deceit. I found none, which struck me as odd. “It really wasn’t. They warned me about you again. My father and Agness really don’t want me to be around you for some inexplicable reason. Agness suggested she reassign me to another half-blood. I have no idea why they’re so insistent on this.”

  “We fixed that whole clumsy bit,” I said, running my finger across my bracelet. “So I definitely won’t be accidentally beheading you or anything.” I forced myself to calm, but the image of him bending in front of Agness wouldn’t get out of my head. “Why did you kneel, then?”

  Devon tensed his jaw. “A common custom in the Cierro family. Our father trained us to behave that way with Agness. Agness believes in respect and wants her vassals and her family to show the right amount of it. Kneeling before her when she asks us to ensures that she maintains this dynamic.”

  “That’s it?” I asked. “It’s not because you want to devote your soul to her or whatever?” I folded my arms across my chest, pinning Devon with my gaze before realizing I shouldn’t have done so. I’d almost knocked Liam off the carpet by shoving my elbow against him.

  Liam, together with Fenrir, growled at me. “Hey! Watch where you put your arms.” They were starting to show the same mannerisms.

  Devon’s eyes darkened. “It offends me that you think I might have full devotion for anyone but you,” he said. “You’ve taken my heart, Cara. There’s no questioning it. Should I have to decide between Agness or you, I’d pick you in a heartbeat.”

  I swallowed at hearing the intensity of Devon’s words. He used to look apathetic all the time. “I’ll…” My voice quavered. “I’ll try to take your word for it, then.”

  Devon’s lips broke into a smile. He took my hand in his, then planted a kiss on the back of it. The act would have seemed a lot more romantic if we weren’t all trying to balance on top of a rug, but I let the butterflies that danced in my stomach flutter through me.

  The chiasma grew larger in size as we neared it. Its beckoning to me thrummed at a continuous pace. I reached my hand toward it when we flew across its sides. Little balls of magical power loosened from the giant object and floated past me. I raised my hand to touch one of them.

  “Stop touching random things,” Liam said, grabbing my wrist and pulling it toward his chest. “It’s not safe.”

  “But it’s pretty and shiny.”

  “What are you, a monkey?”

  “I often give in to my instinctual side.”

  “Often? You mean ‘always.’”

  As we moved across the chiasma, the skins of my vassals grew duller. The change in color was barely noticeable. I looked at my hands, and noticed that they were shifting to a grayish tone, too. “Does anybody else feel weakened?”

  “Yeah,” Hansel said. “The chiasma’s hungry for energy.”

  “Why?” I asked.

  “That’s what we’re here to find out.”

  A soft, growly noise rumbled from Fenrir’s throat as the mythical beast sank deeper into Liam’s embrace. I kept forgetting that the pup could grow to ten times our size. I wondered if Fenrir might ever return to its original form, or if his affections for Liam had tamed him too much.

  “We’re here,” Devon said. “I’m waiting for killer monsters to jump out at us.”

  “We’ll have to take care of them first,” Theo said. He pointed to the brightlings that stood beneath us. There were three of them on patrol, a half-shark, a half-tortoise, and…

  I shuddered.

  The last of the brightlings had an ant head. It was the first insect version of a brightling I’d seen, and it was the most horrific thing I’d ever had the bad luck to come across. Sights like this belonged in nightmares. Tiny hairs stuck out from the giant, oversized ant head, and the sight of the two spiny antennae sent tingles down my spine.

  They were dressed differently than the brightlings back in the Sanctuary. Thick vests covered their torsos and padded armor circled their limbs. They held wands in their fists.

  I was about to ask Devon to fly faster and avoid the creatures when he leapt from the carpet. He plummeted toward the ground. I squealed, holding myself back from screaming his name. Devon threw his dagger mid-fall, lodging it into the shark brightling’s arm. He summoned water from his palms a split second after. The water circled the remaining two brightlings, knocking them out through drowning.

  I balked at how efficiently he’d taken out those creatures. Then again, why was I surprised? Devon had already established that he was badass when it came to fighting.

  Devon waved two fingers at the carpet, and it lowered itself closer to the ground. We didn’t need any prompting to hop off the rug. I glanced at the ground and was tempted to lick it once my feet landed.

  Safe, I though
t.

  “Don’t go licking random floors,” Theo said with a chuckle in his voice. Had I blurted that thought out? “You don’t know what bacteria they contain.”

  “Do goddesses fall sick?” I asked.

  “No,” Hansel replied. “But half-bloods do. Other than your powers, you’re completely human.”

  Devon kicked the side of the brightling he’d knocked out. All three were still alive. I could tell from the light rising and falling of their chests. Devon wiped the brightling’s blood off his dagger then slid it back into the sheath strapped to his belt. He paused before looking to his left. Something had caught his attention.

  The rest of us followed his gaze. Beneath the chiasma was an entrance flanked by two pillars. The entrance was thrice our height, and two serpentine figures guarded it. More snakes? I shuddered. It looked like trouble, and after what had happened with those Medusa children, I wanted to huddle up in a nice, comfy, safe bed.

  Damn it and my need to do right. It was easier just to not care about shit, but how else was I supposed to react to a bunch of girls getting murdered left and right? If I knew a genocide was happening and let it continue, what would that make me? A villainous bystander?

  “You could just try to top the class,” Hansel said, apparently hearing me accidentally voice my thoughts. “That’ll make you a goddess, and you’ll continue living life as you should. In eternity.”

  “That’s plan B,” I said. And if that happened, I wasn’t sure if I could live with myself. “And also a dick move.”

  Liam sniffed. “And if both plans fail, we all die anyway.”

  “Just me,” I said. “The rest of you get to suffer as slaves until you pass on. I’m not certain which is better.” I turned to the two pillars. The serpents glared at me as if I’d wronged them. “So, are we going in there?”

  “You’re our half-blood,” Theo said. “You call the shots.”

  I grimaced. If all my vassals died, I’d blame myself. It was a lot of responsibility that I didn’t want to carry. I nodded. We had to do this. The only other option was to give up, and my stubborn ass refused to sit around and let terrible things happen. “Okay,” I said. “Ready?”

  Theo cracked his knuckles. With his sun-kissed skin and heroic looks, he looked like he was born ready.

  Liam, however, didn’t reflect Theo’s level of enthusiasm. He stood there bored, giving the impression that he still hadn’t woken up this morning.

  Ready or not, the time had come for us to confront this mystery. We had to do Moping Miley and Jeanine justice.

  They followed my lead, and we entered the hell-like entrance.

  “I’m getting kind of tired of dungeons,” I said as we entered. “Why do these entrances always have to lead to creepy, dark, torch-lit places? Why not some place cool, like a theme park? A mythical theme park, with brightlings manning the booths. That’d be fun.”

  Alas, we’d stepped inside a dark, decrepit dungeon. My surroundings smelled like mold. “Wonder what we’re going to face this time,” I muttered to myself.

  “If the tales are true,” Devon replied, “then the basilisk. Agness can tame it, and rumors say that the half-bloods chosen to transcend into goddess-hood often have to bypass the basilisk to drink from the lake of godhood.”

  “The basilisk?” The name sounded familiar, but I failed to conjure a proper image in my mind. I hadn’t paid enough attention in literature to remember what it was. “And this leads to the chiasma lake?”

  “I wasn’t sure,” Devon said. “But the pillars kind of gave it away. It’s pretty much just a giant snake with powers.”

  I glanced at Fenrir. Why did all the monsters that came at us have to be giant? “Why can’t they all be small and cute, like you?”

  Liam blew out a weary sigh. “I’d prefer it if he weren’t tiny at this moment. If he helped us fight the basilisk—”

  Fenrir immediately took action. The wolf ran out front and shook its fur. Its ears twitched. After a swish of its tail, it began to swell, growing in size.

  “Fenrir really loves you,” I said. “He listens.”

  I watched as the wolf expanded. The chambers, despite their grandeur, suddenly seemed smaller due to the massive creature standing next to us. I gazed upon the huge, sharp-toothed monster. When I first saw Fenrir, I’d nearly shit myself, but now that it was on my team, I felt awfully good of about its size.

  “We’re going to win this,” I said with a little too much confidence.

  Devon shook his head. “The basilisk is an ancient creature said to be older than Athena herself. It can kill a man with one stare.”

  My shoulders slumped. “Really? What’s with this dying-with-one-stare thing? Don’t people kill others the normal way anymore? Like kick them to death or something?” It sounded violent, but at least with that, we stood a better chance. I sighed and ran my hand through my hair. “I have a plan. I can just magic the basilisk to love us.” I plucked my wand from my belt to swish it around, then gaped at it, eyes wide. “Who sat on my wand?”

  “What?” Theo asked.

  “There has to be a reason why it’s broken.” I flung the object about. It’d been snapped into two.

  Hansel grimaced when he looked at my weapon.

  We all turned to Theo.

  “Why are you looking at me like that?” he asked.

  Devon narrowed his eyes. “Because you’re the largest one around here, and it’s the most likely.”

  I knew it was unfair to point fingers at Theo, but everybody needed someone to blame every once in a while. Theo straightened himself defensively, so we let the matter rest, since there wasn’t really a way to verify why exactly my wand broke.

  “I can’t use it like this, right?” I asked, feeling distraught. I’d grown attached to my wand. Pointing it around had been so fun. It let me feel all wizardly and stuff. I continued to flick the wand back and forth, staring at the useless tip that hung limply from its broken end.

  “I’m afraid not,” Theo replied, looking just as miffed as I felt.

  “Guess I can’t do the whole love magic thing—” Fenrir threw its head back and began howling. The chilling sound crept down my spine. “Why is he doing that?” I asked.

  Liam, since he’d already turned into Fenrir’s soul mate, interpreted the howl for us. “He’s warning us of the danger that’s coming.”

  Who enters?

  I jolted at the voice that had appeared in my head.

  I darted my attention between the guys. “Did anybody else hear that?” I asked.

  They all nodded.

  Who dares come into my chambers?

  Something heavy rubbed against rock. A grinding noise came from above. Then a large shadow blocked out the light coming from above and a large, slithery creature dropped from the ceiling. The circumference of its body was twice mine. The scaled, mottled texture of its skin gave me goosebumps. The basilisk had hair growing out from the sides of its neck. It was the very definition of ugly.

  The very definition of ugly? the creature said.

  Oops. Did I say that out loud? I shouldn’t have insulted the giant snake that wanted to eat us alive.

  “I mean, uh…” What rhymed with ugly and wasn’t a terrible insult? “Chubby? Bubbly? Bubbly and chubby? You’re a happy, thick snake.” Mentally, I slapped myself for sounding so stupid. Fear had the effect of making people say the dumbest shit.

  The creature moved back and forth. I wasn’t sure what exactly that was supposed to mean.

  The basilisk ignored my comment and continued, You are not one of the goddesses. I care only to serve them.

  Fenrir’s fur stood. The wolf bared its teeth at the snake and tensed its legs, looking ready to pounce.

  The basilisk turned its head toward us. I was going to shut my eyes, remembering the comment about it being able to kill me with a stare, when I noticed that its eyes were closed, covered by two wrinkly eyelids.

  A rumbling noise came from the basilisk’s throat. Ans
wer me. Who are you? You are not completely a goddess, yet I sense something different from you.

  Nervously, I scratched the back of my elbow. “A half-blood,” I said. I wondered whether I should have answered truthfully. Maybe I ought to play along and pretend to be one of the goddesses.

  Hmmm. The basilisk paused. I awaited its next words with bated breath. That isn’t it. A hissing noise came from its chest. You aren’t exactly a half-blood. It lowered itself toward me, and the slithering noise grew in volume. The vassals protectively surrounded me, their hands on their weapons. Not fully a goddess, either. What is your name?

  “Cara,” I replied. “Uh, full name Caramel Valencia.”

  Caramel. Hmmm.

  Another weighty pause fell between us and the basilisk. Hearing it made me want to beg the creature to just get on with it already. Why all the unnecessary tension?

  I don’t know that name, the basilisk finally continued in a bored tone.

  It opened its eyes.

  I shrieked, preparing myself for death, but Devon threw himself in front of it, blocking me from the creature’s view. My heart leapt to my throat. My ears rang and the throbbing tension of my pulse refused to cease.

  Devon!

  Devon threw his head back and wailed in pain. The basilisk continued to assault Devon with its hard gaze. Killing its victim, apparently, wasn’t an instant thing.

  The need to save Devon rose in me, racing through my thoughts like an uncontrollable storm. I was still holding my wand, and I shook it at the basilisk. No use. The damn thing was broken.

  My vision flared red with panic. I threw the wand aside. Screaming sounded around me. The other vassals had thrown themselves into action. Fenrir lunged at the basilisk, its loud growl ripping through the air. Chaos thrashed around my surroundings and everything moved in a blur.

  How was I to save Devon?

  Love?

  Screw it all. It sounded cheesy as hell, but love was my power, and I allowed that emotion to fuel my next actions. I spread my arms, sending love out. Pain shot up the right side of my head, and something inside of me snapped. The red in my vision grew hotter as my powers ignited. My fingertips prickled and the temperature around me rose.