by Nicole Thorn
I was a baby demigod compared to most. I had siblings walking around that had been born just after the gods had pulled away from humanity. I couldn’t even legally drink in this country and wouldn’t be able to for years to come.
Yet, Callie’s words seemed to have the effect she wanted. The man looked at me, and while I could tell I didn’t impress him, he cleared his throat. “I’m Newall, a son of Hermes.”
Micha stayed between us and Newall. I glanced around the yard, wondering if there was anything that I could use as a weapon. Nothing stood out to me, and while I could conjure sunlight from nothing, I didn’t know if that would be enough against another demigod. Even if my sunlight came with heat that could incinerate a piece of paper in two seconds flat.
“What do you want?” Callie asked. She didn’t sound the way she normally did anymore. Her voice had taken on a hard edge, and she sounded so brave and controlled that I felt like she had the situation in hand. A strange feeling to get for a human who spent most of her days organizing sticky notes and planning another sleepover.
“I’d like to speak with you,” Newall said, taking a step forward.
Micha’s bow stayed steady.
“Well, you can speak from there, if memory serves,” Callie grumbled.
I couldn’t help but smile at her. She gave me a sly one in return, but then hardened her face so that she could stare at our guest once more. If I hadn’t been attracted to her before, that certainly would have done it. To see how quickly she took control of a bad situation, it rocketed right through my head in the best possible way.
Newall lowered himself, so that he knelt on the ground. “I don’t mean harm to you or yours. I just wanted to discuss certain matters before they got more out of hand than they already are.”
Callie stepped forward so that she stood side by side with me. Taking my hand, she kept moving forward until we stood next to Micha. He clearly didn’t like that, but he wouldn’t object in front of our enemy. My father hadn’t taught me much, but to never show weakness had been one thing I did pick up.
“And that matter would be?”
Newall lowered his eyes briefly. “You know what that would be.”
“You’re involved with the souls getting out of the meadow,” Callie said. I noticed that she didn’t say anything about souls escaping the underworld. We didn’t know where they had gone, but I’d been worried that they had managed to break free entirely.
Newall nodded once. “Yes, I am. Most would be content in the knowledge that those people are doing as well in death as they are in life. I think it’s unfair for them to be stuck in those meadows forever.”
“I don’t control what happens to them in the underworld,” Callie said. “None of us do. Even Hades doesn’t control that.”
“He could,” Newall said. “If he really wanted things to change, then he could make something happen, but he’s content with things the way they are.” The bitter note in his voice sounded familiar. I’d heard some of my siblings talk about our father like that, or the other gods. It never made sense to me, blaming the gods for things that they made no effort to change either.
The only bitterness I had toward my father came from the number of times he left me to die.
“You shouldn’t have done anything with the underworld,” Callie said.
Newall smiled. “I never said that I did anything. I’m not here to discuss semantics. Nothing you saw will change my mind. Those people shouldn’t have been abandoned just because they weren’t anything great in life. They’ve been stuck in a field, never allowed to grow or change. Some of them were so young when they died, they didn’t have the chance to show they could be great. You know that’s not fair.”
Callie rubbed her eyes. “Okay, so you think it’s unfair. I think it’s sad, too, but that doesn’t mean I would do anything as stupid as what you’ve done. You want to tell me why you’re here? Just to tell me your side of everything?”
“No,” he said. “I’m here to ask a favor.”
Newall had his head lowered, but I didn’t trust him. His legs were tensed, as if ready to spring up right then to attack. “I’m here to ask that you stay out of this fight. It’s not your fight and it’s not fair that the gods brought you into it. I’m asking that you ignore everything that you felt in the underworld.”
Callie stared at him, a frown on her face. “You’re asking me to betray the gods. They’re the only reason I exist like this.” She held her arms out.
“I’m asking you not to trust everything they say,” Newall said. “The gods do not have your best interests at heart. They only think of themselves and keeping the world the way they like it. And you know that, deep in your heart. Don’t you?” When he raised his head, he didn’t look at Callie, but stared directly at me.
His words echoed in my head.
Don’t you?
CHAPTER SIXTEEN:
Chess
Callie
I TRUSTED MY GODS. It might have sounded naïve, but I did. That being said, it didn’t mean I didn’t know what they were. The gods were selfish and at best, immature. They acted like children half the time. When I said I trusted my gods, it meant the ones I knew best. Apollo felt like family to me. As one sided as it might have been, I loved him. He would protect me as his Oracle. I believed his sister had the best intentions that one could. If Apollo trusted her, then I could too. The other gods, I would be cautious with.
This man pleaded with me, asking me to see his side of things. I could do that. I did do that. I didn’t like that people who hadn’t earned it, suffered in the underworld. Those people in the fields didn’t deserve being frozen forever, but it wasn’t my place to go against the gods’ design. It would only get me killed, and it wouldn’t end up helping those people.
“It’s a suicide mission,” I said. “What you’re doing will only get you killed.”
“I have someone to protect me,” Newall said. “I’m not alone in my mission, and I could protect you as well.”
I didn’t want his kind of protection. I wouldn’t trust a man who’d tried to hurt me and my friend. “Is that the same protection that had a wolf at my door?”
With his crossbow still aimed forward, Micha said, “Yeah, I don’t think you’re here to gather team members when your policy was murder first and ask questions later.”
“That wasn’t me,” Newall said. “I didn’t know that was happening until afterward. I don’t even care that the wolves are dead.”
I stole a glance at Aster, seeing him staring at the ground. They weren’t wolves to him, and they hadn’t been wolves to me either. They were people who could turn into wolves. Just because they’d died in that form, didn’t take away their humanity. Aster had taken a life in order to save his own, and for that, I wouldn’t forgive whoever this Newall person worked with.
“I care that they’re dead,” I told him. “I care that the person you’re with tried to kill me in my own home, and that she tried to kill my friend.”
“I apologize,” Newall said, pressing his hand over his heart. “You know how some of these older people with power can be. They tend to lash out without thinking. Hence why I’m here. I think that it would be much more valuable to use my words instead of my weapons first.”
That felt like a threat. Not that I could blame him, since Micha had an arrow ready to fly at the man. The control of this demigod surprised me, because most stories I’d heard would have suggested the opposite reaction. They tended to be rash, all filled with the cockiness of a god, but lacking the power to back it up. I wouldn’t have said that about Kizzy, but her brother might have had a problem with lashing out. We all knew Verin did too . . . and the pile of bodies he’d left in his wake proved that. They hadn’t told me what he’d done after his mother had been killed, but I heard the whispers of the gods who’d watched him slaughter those people. I saw what they saw, I heard the bones breaking and the skin tearing.
Aster isn’t like that, I thought, the voice sof
t. He’s sweet and gentle. Then a more violent thought came to mind, and it wasn’t even words. Just a raw feeling that screamed at me to protect him. I didn’t have that power, but I had someone who did.
“I won’t look the other way,” I said to Newall. “Not while you and your companion are messing up the natural order of things. It might be sad that those people end up where they do, but it’s none of our business how the gods handle it. This world belongs to them, for better or worse. We’re just chess pieces on a board.”
Newall’s jaw set. “Maybe so, but do you not want some say in which piece you are? You’re the Oracle. You’re replaceable, like most of us. But at least you have a title. You get one chance to make the right choice. Would you rather spend the rest of your life as a meaningless pawn, sacrificed for someone else’s needs, or would you prefer to be a queen?”
His offer sounded hollow, and it didn’t take a soothsayer or a seer to spot that. Micha saw it too, and that was why he let an arrow fly. It whipped past us, and soared toward Newall. Only, he wasn’t there when it stuck into the tree behind him.
We all turned fast, looking for the demigod that vanished into thin air. I didn’t see him. When I blinked, he appeared behind Micha. He got his hands around his head, and I screamed.
Micha threw an elbow back, getting a hit into Newall’s stomach before he ducked and hit the demigod square in the knee. Micha had his bow aimed as he fell back on the grass, but the demigod blinked out of sight again.
Aster pulled me close, his hands around me as I got pulled in every direction he moved. I panted, frantically trying to spot our enemy. Micha was the only one with a weapon, leaving me with icy panic sliding down my spine. It would have been stupid to think that a dagger could have saved me, but I would have liked one in my incapable hand.
Newall appeared in front of me, all poised to attack. I screamed again, kicking out. The kick landed between his legs, making him cry in pain. Aster shoved me aside to get at him, a closed fist crashing into the man’s jaw. It happened one more time before Aster grabbed me, pulling both of us away from the danger.
By the time we looked back, I couldn’t see Newall anymore. Micha was on his feet, another arrow ready to fly. We stood with our backs to each other, eyes in every direction.
“Where the hell is he?” Micha growled.
“No idea,” Aster responded. “But I bet he can hear us.”
“You’d be betting right,” Newall said in the moment before he appeared again. He took Aster by the collar, ripping him away from me.
I ran, ignoring Micha’s warning to stay behind him. I couldn’t do that when one hit could break Aster’s neck. It might not have killed him, but I couldn’t stand around and take that risk.
I leapt up, landing on Newall’s back. I wrapped myself around him, getting as good a hold as I could manage while I beat the side of his head with my fist. It might not have done a damn thing, but I could at least make it harder for Newall to have an advantage over Aster.
He let go of him when I dragged my nails across his face. The man screamed, but I didn’t let up.
“I can’t shoot him if you’re there!” Micha yelled at me. Aster was still too close for me to let go, even when he turned to kick Newall in the knee.
Newall dropped backward, probably trying to dislodge me. I didn’t have the time to get off of him, and we collapsed onto the ground together. The weight of his body crushed mine, making me scream again. I couldn’t tell if something had been broken, but it felt like it.
I saw two arrows land in Newall’s back when he flipped over on top of me. His hands went around my throat, and it would have taken nothing to snap the bone there or crush my windpipe, I had no way of fighting him off. I heard the others trying to save me as the world flashed white.
“Close your eyes!” a voice called out using my body. The voice sounded like a mix between mine and Apollo’s. I felt my whole body burning as I ceased to be for a few moments. There was no Callie. Only a bright light inside of me, and a booming voice.
I saw that bright white light burned around us. Newall cried out, but the others didn’t. I ripped my eyes open to see smoke in the sky, and it came from the fried edges of leaves on the trees around us.
The hands around my throat vanished, the weight leaving my body. With a blink, my vision cleared. Something had Newall by the back of the neck as it hauled him up. Something lifted me as well, only gently. I hung in Aster’s arms as his frantic eyes checked me over.
“Are you okay?” he asked me. “Are you hurt? Say something?”
I could barely breathe. It felt like hands still squeezed my throat without mercy. I didn’t say anything, though I wanted to let Aster know that I would be fine.
“Stay,” I heard Apollo growling. I looked to see him letting go of Newall, the man hanging in the air with bright lights of rope around his throat, middle, wrists, and ankles. Micha had a bow in his hands, aiming at the demigod’s head so he would know not to try and fight the magic.
Apollo reached me, his eyes glowing as he extended a hand out. He touched my forehead, sending more fire through me. I winced but didn’t scream as it stitched something up inside of me. It didn’t hurt; it felt like pressure pushing at my skin, wanting to burst me from the inside out.
“What the hell did you do?” Aster asked.
“Healed her broken ribs and punctured lung,” his father answered. “You’re welcome.”
I could breathe easier, and I tapped Aster so he would put me on my feet. He did, and I swayed only a little. I held onto Aster for balance.
“Thank you,” the boy said to his father.
Apollo turned to Newall. His glare frightened me, seeing my favorite god look like what he actually was. He approached the man tied up and floating, taking him by the throat again. I couldn’t tell if Newall was scared, but he should have been.
“Don’t break my things,” the god said.
A flash of light blinded us all for several seconds. When it cleared, Apollo had vanished, and so had the demigod that almost killed me. I could see his blood on the grass still, right beside the arrows that no longer stuck out of his back. Micha bent to pick them up, then wiped the blood on his jeans.
“We good?” he asked.
I groaned in response, still woozy from the magic. Everything looked darker to me, having been blinded by the light. A nap would have been good right about then.
“I think so,” Aster said. “But what the hell are we supposed to do now? I assume that Newall guy isn’t coming back.”
“No,” I answered with certainty. I grabbed at Aster’s arm, hearing whispers in my mind. I shut my eyes, trying to talk through what I heard. “Your father has him, and I don’t know what he intends on doing. Oh . . . something is hurting him.”
“Is Apollo murdering a person in your mind?” Micha asked.
I shook my head. “Not enough to kill him, but enough to make him scream. Artemis is annoyed, but not killing him either.” I blinked, thrown out of the conversation I shouldn’t have been listening in on. “I think we’re all right.”
“What do you mean by all right?” Aster wanted to know.
I would have liked to know as well, but I had as much information as he did. “I believe it means that nothing else is going to be trying to murder us today. We can relax.”
Micha lowered his bow, strapping it to his side. “Today,” he repeated. “We still have that woman to worry about, and whatever kind of contingency plan that might have been set in place if this little talk went wrong. It’s not wise to assume we’re safe.”
My brain tingled as a voice came through again. “Do me a favor,” Artemis said to me. “Have Micha head on home. We need to have a quick talk about something. You’ll be safe.”
“Will I?” I asked, giving both of the boys something to be confused about. “Sounds like a not so good idea.”
“Do you know who you’re talking to?” the goddess said. “Send my Hunter back home. When I tell you you’re
safe, it means you’re safe. Go inside and don’t leave the house until he comes back. I’ll make sure nothing gets in.”
The voice and divine presence left my mind, disorienting me again. I attempted righting myself without toppling Aster over.
“What was that?” the Hunter asked.
I blinked rapidly, returning to my body. “Artemis wants you home for a talk. Aster and I are supposed to stay here and hide in the house.”
Micha looked uneasy. “Hmm, well, I can’t exactly ignore an order from the boss. Aster, you good with her?”
“Perfect,” he said, his arm going around my waist. “She’ll be as safe as can be with me.”
Micha cocked an eyebrow, but nodded. “All right then. I’ll be back as soon as I can. Remember to be a generous lover,” he said as he started walking away. “Treat your lady like she’s the only thing in the world.”
“We’re not going to—what the—We’ll probably just play cards.”
Micha snorted. “Sure, you will. Oh, and also, foreplay is a very important part of most relationships. Keep that in mind.”
I covered my face with my hands, trying not to giggle. I couldn’t imagine why Micha would think he needed to give Aster tips. First off, my parents were home, and I wouldn’t have done something possibly so loud with them nearby. Second, Aster would probably be plenty capable if we did something like that. I tried not to take offense.
“Not nice,” I said.
Micha glanced over his shoulder at me. “Goes for you too, kiddo. Hands are more useful than one would think!”
Micha vanished through the yard, leaving me alone with Aster, who said nothing. I rubbed his back, trying to give him comfort. “I’m sure you’d be lovely at foreplay.”
He wouldn’t look at me. “Well . . . thank you. You’re kind.”
“Nah, not really. You seem so sweet and I can’t imagine you wouldn’t give it a hundred percent if you were with someone.”
