by Lola StVil
I see a flash of blue, and I hear a crackling noise, and I’m flying through the air again. I try to see if the mixture hit its target, but I can’t see anything but white as my vision blurs. I slam down, and I stay there, too dazed to move.
“Regal! Regal. Give her the Gelliom,” I hear Kane screaming.
I hear him as though I am underwater, his voice thick and slow. I feel a searing agony in my middle and then it’s gone, and the world goes from white to black.
“Atlas? Are you okay?” Kane asks.
I open my eyes, and his concerned face is hovering above mine. I sit up, everything flooding back to me in a rush. The mixture was on target. The Winter Demon is blind, and we don’t know how long it will last for. We have to get past it. Now.
“I’m fine. We have to move.”
I jump to my feet. Regal must have given me the last vial of the Gelliom when Kane screamed at him because my insides hold firm and I’m not in any pain. I touch my thigh and the hole there is gone.
“We have to move now while the Winter Demon is blind,” I repeat.
Why is he looking at me like that? I look past him to where the team is battling the fur balls. They can’t stop us now. The demon is deaf. We can make as much noise as we need to as we blast our way through them.
“Kane? Why are you looking at me that way? Let’s go,” I shout.
I start to move, and he catches my arm and slowly shakes his head. I am getting angry now. Why won’t he listen to me? Why doesn’t he seem to understand what I’m saying?
I think I know the answer to that, but I don’t want to accept it, because if I do, it’s all over. When my eyes fall to the patch of bright orange on the snow, I have to accept it.
“It didn’t work. I messed it up, didn’t I?” I say.
Kane shakes his head again, his intense gaze locked on mine.
“You took the only chance we had,” he says.
There isn’t time to argue with him now. I know this is my fault, but I’ll beat myself up about it once we get out of here.
“We have to kill it,” I say.
“We have to use the dime and get out of here. We’ll find another way.”
“Don’t you get it, Kane? There is no other way. We can’t get another Phoenix feather. We have to do this. And we’ll find a way to restore the temperature once we get home.”
I’m reaching, and I know it.
“Atlas, that could destroy the whole world,” he says quietly.
I snort.
“And you think Arken will build pretty parks and we’ll all live happily ever after?” I say.
I don’t wait for an answer. I walk towards the Winter Demon, blasting a couple of fur balls as I go.
“You, my friend, are going down,” I say to the Winter Demon, fully aware that he can’t hear me.
I raise my palms and fire, but my shots fall to the ground an inch in front of my feet as I’m suddenly bathed in a warm yellow light. I try to move and I can’t. I’m trapped.
I look to my left and Kane is trapped in a yellow light similar to mine. To my right, the others are all in their own balls of light too. We’re going to die. The Winter Demon is going to pull out one last trick and kill us all.
Except I don’t think the demon is doing this, because it, too, is trapped in a yellow ball of light. Of course, I can’t tell by its face if it’s surprised or not, but it’s beating at the yellow light with its claw.
I realize then that the light isn’t hurting me or even making me afraid. Its touch seems to be almost calming, and I feel safe and secure within the light. It has to be a trick.
I hear a swooshing noise above me, and I look up. My mouth drops open as a large yellow bubble floats down to earth. The bubble pops on impact, and a beautiful woman stands before us. She is tall and voluptuous, and her golden colored hair cascades down her back in flowing waves. Her skin is like porcelain, and her lips are bloodred. On her head, she wears a crown of daisies.
I imagine Langston hates her already and not because she has us trapped in these beams of light. I have a sudden notion that they’re sunbeams, but that’s ridiculous surely?
The woman raises her hands as if making sure she has all of our attention. She does. She did long before she raised her hands. She is such a thing of beauty that no one could help looking at her.
“Who dares to try to cross the Valley of the Damned?” she demands angrily.
No one replies, and the woman frowns.
“Who is the leader of this group?”
“I…I am,” I say.
I don’t think ignoring her questions is going to help us out of this one. I don’t know if she can hear me through the yellow light, but I can hear her so maybe she can. I hope she can because she looks awfully pissed off already and I don’t fancy our chances of getting out of these traps if we can’t find a way to reason with her.
The yellow light floats away from me, and I can move again. I can feel an aura of power coming from the woman, and I have an almost irresistible urge to kneel before her. With a sheer force of will, I resist the urge, and I instinctively go to raise my palm and the woman smiles.
“You think your pathetic little powers will harm me? A goddess?”
It all falls into place then.
“Eris?” I say.
The woman frowns, and for a second, her beauty is gone, replaced with an ugly sneer.
“You have the audacity to call me by that crone’s name?”
I have clearly angered her, but she said she was a goddess. Who else would care about what we are doing here? I frantically try to come up with something, and I’m sure I remember Pest saying something about Aphrodite tasking the Winter Demon with making sure no one reached the apple. That makes more sense. Aphrodite was beautiful, wasn’t she? Yes, Pest said she didn’t know the apple was cursed because she was so used to inspiring a reaction in men wherever she went.
“You’re Aphrodite,” I state.
It’s not a question, and I hope I am right this time. To get it wrong twice may be my undoing. The woman’s face goes back to beautiful as she smiles a little and nods.
“Indeed. Now you know who I am, do tell me who you are and why you see fit to try to cross the Valley of the Damned.”
“First, free my friends,” I say.
She raises an eyebrow.
“What? You’ve made it clear we can’t harm you,” I say. “Why do you need to keep them prisoner?”
She gives a half shrug and then she nods, and the yellow light leaves the rest of the team. They don’t hold back as much as I did and they fall to their knees before Aphrodite.
“I see your friends have better manners than you do at least,” Aphrodite says.
It’s my turn to shrug. They had an advantage over me; they already knew who she was when they were freed.
“In answer to your question, I am Atlas Morgan, and we are trying to cross the valley so we can get the Golden Apple and break the curse,” I say.
This seems like slightly safer ground than explaining to her why I didn’t kneel before her. Aphrodite raises her eyebrow again.
“While the apple is guarded, it is safe. As you can see, if anyone gets too close to getting past the demon guard or killing him, I will ensure that doesn’t happen. Why are you so interested in lifting the curse? Please don’t think for a moment that the apple is a blessing to anyone. It is a curse in more ways than one.”
I glance at Kane, who is back upright, and he shrugs. I try to think of what I know of Aphrodite. I vaguely remember hearing her being mentioned in school. She’s the Goddess of Love, if I remember correctly, and the fact she tries to stop anyone from getting the cursed apple tells me she’s one of the good guys. I decide to level with her.
“We are on a quest. We must retrieve the apple—”
She interrupts me, looking angry again.
“You are working for Arken? You want the world turned over to chaos?”
“Exactly the opposite actually,” I say
quickly. “We are working for Nyten. I am the last Seeker. The apple is one of the objects we must gather.”
“You are working against chaos, and yet you were willing to slay the Winter Demon knowing the effect that would have on the world?” Aphrodite demands skeptically.
I nod.
“Yes. It was the only way, and the mission had to be completed. We know a very powerful witch who we thought would be able to help us restore the balance when we returned with the apple.”
Aphrodite takes a step towards me, and I resist the urge to step back from her.
“I must touch your heart and see if you are pure. If I find your heart blackened and your motives anything but those which you describe, I will kill you where you stand. Are you willing to risk that to prove you are speaking the truth? If you are lying to me, speak now, and I will spare your life and those of your friends.”
I look down at the ground and then back up at her.
“I think my heart might be blackened. Over the course of this quest, I have lost friends in the worst possible ways, I have been betrayed by those I thought I could trust, and I have seen things that no one should ever see. But my motives are exactly as I’ve just described to you,” I say. “You may test me.”
Aphrodite reaches out and places her hand on my chest. I feel a deep warmth encompass me like how I felt in the yellow light, only this time it’s much stronger. I feel safer than I have in a long time under her touch. She pulls her hand back and smiles.
“I see that you speak the truth on all counts. Your heart is still pure, but I see the black that threatens to turn it dark. I don’t know your full story, but you harbor a deep hatred towards someone who has wronged you. You must let all thoughts of revenge go, for if you act upon them, your heart will never again be pure. Atlas, you must trust that in the end, love will always win over hatred. Embrace the love you have and don’t let hatred pull you away from your path.”
She’s taking about Talon. I don’t think I can let that go, but I nod anyway.
“You, or a member of your team, have paid the ultimate price to be here today, of that I have no doubt. Child, I must ask you. Knowing that your intentions were pure, why did you not come to me for help? Did you think me cruel and uncaring? Did you think I would turn you away?”
“I…no,” I say. “I honestly didn’t know coming to you was an option. Believe me, I’d have sooner come to you for help than go down the path we had to go down to get here.”
“That’s the trouble with the modern world. They teach that the old gods and goddesses are no more, while all the time they are living to our rules and not even knowing that we are there. It’s sad really,” Aphrodite says with a sigh.
I start to speak again, but Saudia beats me to it.
“It was all for nothing,” she says quietly. “What I did. It was for nothing. I…no. Please, no.”
She looks at me with a haunted look in her eyes and my heart breaks for her. If we had known we could come to Aphrodite for help, she wouldn’t have had to kill Tracey.
“What you did proved loyalty to your team and your cause. You did what you thought you had to do in the circumstances,” Aphrodite says gently. “While what you did was bad, it showed courage, and it displayed the love you have for your team. That is not a bad thing.”
Saudia nods and some of the pain leaves her eyes.
“Atlas, do you understand the power of the Golden Apple?” Aphrodite asks me.
I nod.
“Yes. If we fail to break the curse, then we die and end up in Hades being tortured for eternity,” I say.
“Well, that’s true, but it’s not what I meant. That is merely the curse. The actual apple itself also holds much power. A power that, in the right hands, can do so much good for the world. It can be used to end wars, to end destruction, and to bring about peace. In the wrong hands, it can be used to create a rift between people and in nature itself. It will cause chaos as things that once worked together begin to work against each other.
“I am willing to bet that even Arken doesn’t know what the apple can do because if he did, he would have sent his own people in for it years ago. But I must urge you to ensure you win your quest. Because if you don’t and Arken finds out the true power of the apple, it won’t just be this world he can destroy. It will be every realm in the universe.”
“So, no pressure then,” Perry says.
I glare at him, but Aphrodite regards him thoughtfully and then she smiles.
“No. None at all.”
She turns back to me.
“You can advance now. I will stop the Winter Demon from coming after you all. And in case you hadn’t noticed, that yellow light that you all seemed so eager to get out of has healed you all and restored your strength.”
“Thank you,” I say.
I bow to her, and she stands to one side to allow us to pass. I am suddenly seized by the urge to know what’s coming next.
“May I ask you something?” I ask.
She nods.
“You’re the Goddess of Love, right? Can Kane and I break the curse? Do we have true love?”
Aphrodite smiles at me.
“I am indeed the Goddess of Love, but I can’t answer that question for you. Only the two of you know the answer to that. But I can tell you this. You won’t find the answers by looking into your heads and trying to be logical about it. Love doesn’t work that way. The answer is in your hearts.”
Her answer is as much of a mystery as everything else I know about love, but something tells me not to push it with her. I nod my thanks and leave the Valley of the Damned.
We walk for around ten minutes, none of us speaking. We’re all lost in our own thoughts. I still can’t quite believe an actual goddess came to us and saved the whole mission.
“Look,” Perry says.
He points ahead of us, and I see it. There, in the snow, is a golden patch of light. We have found the Golden Apple of Discord. I take another step, and Kane reaches out and stops me with a gentle hand on my shoulder.
“Atlas? I don’t think you and I can break the curse.”
Kane’s words punch me in the stomach as hard as any fist ever could. I feel, like actually feel, my heart break as his words sink in. It’s a stabbing pain in the middle of my chest, and a tearing sensation that almost floors me.
When he says we can’t break the curse, this is what I hear: He doesn’t love me as much as I love him. I was only ever a placeholder for him. What we have isn’t real or special. Being with me is an obligation. He’s never loved me.
I try to focus and not let my emotions spiral out of control. None of the things going through my head in my own, accusing voice are what he actually said. The logic behind that does nothing to cut through my swirling emotions. Even Aphrodite told me that this isn’t about logic—it’s about what’s in your heart. And right now there’s only one thing in my heart: the pain of Kane’s rejection. The pain of hearing him say those words: we can’t break the curse.
I ask myself what has changed between us from the moment Pest told us we would need to have true love to break the curse to now. Because back then, he was adamant that he loved me with everything he had. He said he knew what he felt for me was true love. And now this.
It’s been too long since he said the words and he’s standing there looking at me, waiting for me to say something back to him. I need to say something to break the silence between us, but I don’t know what I would say. To ask why surely sounds too pathetic, and I’m not sure I could say anything right now without bursting into floods of tears. I know I can’t do that because no matter how heartbroken I am, I am still the leader of this team, and I will have to be the one to find another way to break the curse and get the apple.
The team is standing in awkward silence waiting for me to respond. Kane is looking at me questioningly. He looks concerned. How dare he break my heart into a thousand tiny pieces and then have the nerve to look concerned about me?
How can he br
ing himself to hurt me this way? In a way I could never, ever hurt him.
And then it hits me. I did hurt him like this when I said that something bad had already happened to me and he wasn’t there to save me. I remember the look in his eyes like I had broken a part of him deep inside.
That’s what changed between us. I cut him to the bone. It has to be that. I finally find my voice, and although I can hear how it wavers with my despair, I manage to keep from crying.
“It’s because of what I said earlier, isn’t it? Because I hurt you. Kane, I really didn’t mean what I said. I was just angry at everyone, at the whole damn world, and I was scared and panicking, and it came out. I’m so sorry, and I’ll do whatever I can to make it up to you. Please don’t give up on us because of something I didn’t even mean.”
He smiles sadly.
“Atlas, this isn’t a case of you hurt me so now I’m hurting you. Do you really think my ego is that fragile?” he asks.
“Well, no,” I reply. “But nothing else has changed between us, and you were so sure what you felt for me was real before we came here.”
He looks down at his feet. His toes scuff the snow as he kicks at it. He looks back up at me, and I see the steely determination on his face.
“Your words made me see the truth, Atlas. When you said something bad had happened to you, and I wasn’t there to save you, it broke me inside. Not because I thought you meant the words; I could see the panic in your eyes, and I knew you were just lashing out. After my time in the Meat Market, I had this burning anger inside of me. Anger that needed to get out, no matter who I took it out on. I recognized that in you, and please don’t think I’m holding any of that against you. I understand anger like that better than anyone.”
“So why then?” I ask. “Why are you telling me now that we can’t break the curse? What changed between us, Kane?”
“Because whether you meant what you said or not, it didn’t mean it wasn’t true. I realized at that moment that we can’t be together anymore, Atlas. Being with me is always going to leave you open to danger. I have a dark, dark past and I have crossed many powerful people along the way. People who vowed to have their revenge on me.
