by Nicole Thorn
We played a delicate game of ‘let’s pretend that you didn’t blow me this morning’ and so far, we both lost. Jasmine, for not winning this round with me, and me, for everything else. I had to live with the fact that I would never enjoy being touched by anyone but her ever again, and knowing that I wasn’t allowed to let her touch me. What a cruel world. Why did she have to be so good at it? Why? Why did the gods hate me so much? I had mostly been a good person. I mean, I killed some people, but they had it coming. And I killed the furies, but they seemed happy about that. They didn’t want to be crazy, and they had been glad they didn’t kill Kizzy and me in the end. I didn’t do anything wrong, so why did Jasmine have to be so far out of reach?
Because I was awful, and I didn’t deserve her. I wasn’t right, and I would be bad for her in the end. I would ruin any progress she would make. This had to be for the best.
“DAMMIT!” I yelled, and slammed my hand on the steering wheel. Jasmine jumped and yelled nonsense as her arms flailed. Oh . . . I did that out loud. “Sorry . . . ” I mumbled. “Spider . . . ”
“SPIDER!” Jasmine screamed. “WHERE?!” She squirmed in her seat as she reached for her shoe. When she got it off, she started beating my glove box with it, yelling about murder and spiders.
“It’s dead,” I told her. “Calm down.” I took her wrist, and drove carefully while I tried to keep her from tucking and rolling out of the car.
She settled, and breathed out. “Good . . . it’s dead.”
I nodded. “Very dead.”
Jasmine flipped her hair out of her face, and her eyes looked big and focused on the dash, ready for a fight with some spiders that had never been there to begin with. She huffed, and let out a string of vulgar threats for any that dared come near her. Her eyes looked so serious.
Why did I want to jump her?
Another twenty minutes of driving, and then we arrived where the x marked the spot. Trees surrounded us to the point where we couldn’t see a thing past them. This had to be it, so maybe whatever we looked for had been hidden.
I parked in the woods, and we both got out of my car. I grabbed my sword as Jasmine tucked the map away safely. I wouldn’t need it again to find this place, but you never knew.
“What the hell did we stumble on?” Jasmine asked me, looking around the dense woods. It appeared to be a square of trees, like a natural fence.
“We’ll find out together,” I promised.
Jasmine smiled when I raised my sword up, ready for what might come for us. Whatever. I felt all wound up anyway. Some monster killin’ might’ve done me some good . . . and make Jasmine all hot and bothered. We could make out in the car if we wanted. Oh, I wanted that. I wanted her on my lap and I wanted to do a lot more than we had so far. Days. It had been days, and I already started crumbling. Why was it that my will had become so weak?
It took an hour of walking, but we finally broke through the trees, and stumbled into a clearing. The trees thinned or disappeared altogether, and cabins took their place. The cabins lay in two rows, evenly separated. Teenagers and a few adults sparred out in the clearing, fighting with sticks and weapons alike. I saw a girl that looked five feet tall, taking on a man almost two feet bigger, and not getting hit once.
“Damn,” Jasmine said. “What is this?”
“Excuse me?” a woman said from behind us. We turned at the same time, and a tall woman, maybe a little older than Jasmine started approaching. “How did you find this place?”
I took in her clothes and appearance. Her brown hair was tied high on her head, and the clothes she wore were tight to her body, but they looked like they gave her plenty of room to move around. She had her hip cocked out when she stopped, and the girl sized me up as if she had a chance at taking me down. Her dark eyes looked severe.
“Umm,” I started. “We found a map. We were . . . ”
“Seer,” the woman said, looking at Jasmine. “Right? Your eyes are like the last one I met. The same exact coloring.”
Jasmine stiffened at my side. “You met other seers?”
“The last generation. Or the one before that.” She waved her hand. “I can’t remember. But nice to see fresh blood. Though I am very busy, so can you tell me why you’re here? Please tell me you didn’t have a vision. I’d rather not die today.”
She was a stranger, so I didn’t feel like spilling everything. I bought some time. “I’m Zander, and this is Jasmine. We’re looking for someone or something. Where are we?”
After telling us her name was Johnny, the woman said, “We’re a training camp for able-bodied people willing to see their potential. And we’re run by a god, so you better not try and kill any of us.”
Oh . . . today would be interesting.
CHAPTER NINETEEN:
I’ve Met Too Many Gods
Jasmine
Call me crazy, but I hated how everyone looked at Zander like he was a piece of meat. Okay, not everyone. Some of them had to be into girls, but too many of them checked him out for my comfort. Like . . . way too many of them. Including the woman we talked to, Johnny.
My hackles started to rise.
Zander set the tip of his sword in the ground, and leaned on the handle. Pretty sure that wasn’t proper sword etiquette, but it looked so hot that I didn’t care . . . and neither did anyone else in this place.
“A god, huh?” Zander asked. “Which one?”
“Nah-uh,” Johnny said. “You first. Why are your little seer and you here?” She gestured between the two of us. I found that I hated being categorized based on being a seer, instead of who I was. Little human. Little seer. I was not all that little either, but tall for a girl.
“I had a vision that led us to a map which led us here, so something is going on here. Other than all the training and boyfriend ogling,” I said, sourly. Zander looked at me, mildly startled. Oh, I just called him my boyfriend . . . Hmm. He’ll just have to deal with it. We needed to show a united front.
Johnny raised an eyebrow. “Let me see this map. There shouldn’t be such a thing leading here.” She stuck her hand out, and waited all of two seconds before waggling her fingers impatiently. Zander and I looked at each other. I shrugged, and he shrugged. The map came out, and he handed it to Johnny. She took the paper, and held it about an inch from her nose.
“I’ve never see this map before,” she said, turning it this way and that. “There should not be a map to this location that I have not seen. Where did you say you got it?” She looked up at us, over the edge of the paper. She meant for it to be a hard look, but I’d spent my life ignoring such looks, so it washed right off me.
Zander explained what happened, and what led us here. Gorgon and all. He gestured with his sword as he explained that part, and it drew my attention right back to him . . . and the sword. Mmm. Sword. I wondered if he realized that by trying to make me drool over him, he attempted to get my attention. The way I had been trying to get his. I counted it as progress, even if he didn’t.
The woman sighed. “I don’t know anything about any of that, but I certainly don’t want it in my base. Why don’t you take your seer, and your sword, and get out? We aren’t the ones trying to kill you, and if we were, you’d be dead.” She shrugged, like it had been as simple as that.
I didn’t think it was. We’d survived furies. Three creatures whose sole purpose was to kill people who deserved it, and we survived. Maybe I got cocky, but I thought we had a chance.
Zander did too, because he looked at the demigod—what else could she be? —and said, “No offense, but you do clearly have something to do with it.” While we had been talking, some of the others had started coming towards us. They all dressed in loose outfits that wouldn’t hinder movements. Those with long hair had it pulled back, and those with weapons had dropped them.
“It’s a coincidence, kid,” Johnny said, with a shrug. “Coincidences happen. I’m sorry that someone is after you, but I’ve got people to train. I can’t drop everything to help you search for a
link that does not exist.”
“How many interactions with the gods have you had?” I asked, leaning around Zander. I hadn’t noticed it but while we’d been talking, he super slyly moved between me and the woman. Like a demigod shield. Now, he wouldn’t let me stand next to him. Overprotective.
Johnny raised her eyebrow at me, and smirked. I felt like a little kid when she looked at me like that, and I hated it even more than Zander’s blocking my view of her. I stepped to the side, and he moved with me, like a jerk. “I’m a demigod who runs a training camp for Athena. I’ve had plenty of interactions with the gods.”
“More than one, or just her?” I asked. I had given up on standing next to Zander. Sometimes, you just had to admit defeat, and this was one of those times. I stayed behind him, but slightly to the right, so that I could look Johnny in the eyes as she talked with us.
“Mostly just her,” Johnny said. “The others don’t come down here often. I once spoke with Dionysus when he was drunk and looking for some nymphs. He couldn’t find them here, for obvious reasons.” She glanced at the people that drew closer to us the longer we spoke.
“Right,” I said. “So, you’ve spoken to one sober god, and one drunk one. I think that’s still enough to realize they don’t do coincidences. They like everything to be neatly wrapped up, and coincidences are nothing but loose ends that go nowhere. They hate that kind of thing.”
Johnny rolled her eyes. “They do happen, little seer. Are you saying that you would know better because on occasion you get a vision—”
“Weekly,” I said. “At least. I used to get them every day. When I was really little, every hour. Visions of anything you can name, and the one thing that they all have in common, is that there are no coincidences. It’s a convenient lie for people who don’t want to believe that this or that happened because of this or that thing. Everything happens because of something else, and I’ve seen enough of the gods to know that for a fact. You’ve met two. I think I’m at four now.”
“You are,” Zander said, nodding. “And I’ve met more than that. Mom likes to throw parties.” He grimaced when he said the last, and I patted his shoulders. “She’s not wrong. I can’t tell you some of the schemes that my mother puts together just because she’s bored. Sometimes planning to the minute details, and I’m pretty sure it’s all in her head, not written down or anything.” He shrugged. “But hey, if you want to ignore us, and let something potentially bad happen rather than speak with us, then that’s not my problem.”
Zander took my hand. “Let’s go, Jazz.” He put the smallest emphasis on my name.
“You’re smart, but you’re young,” Johnny called after us. “You’ll eventually learn that the gods don’t care as much as you’d like to believe.”
We stepped into the woods, and stopped, not looking back. I shook my head. “I’ve met three furies, four gods, and Medusa. I know what I’m talking about. Should we try talking to her again?” I looked up at him.
Zander looked over my shoulder. “And the Oracle. Don’t forget about her. I don’t think Johnny will take our help, Jasmine. There’s a good chance she’d think of herself as weak if she did. You can’t feel what I can.” He shrugged apologetically.
I patted his shoulder. “That’s okay. I’ve got my own burdens, and I wouldn’t trade them for yours any day. Although, I wouldn’t mind looking that good with a sword, and yes that is a burden.”
He grinned. “Maybe I’ll let you play with my . . . sword . . . If you show me how to hotwire a car.”
Is he flirting with me? I think he is flirting with me. I leaned in to flirt right back, but a sudden scream cut right through the still air. It wasn’t until then I realized how quiet it had been here. No birds sang, or crickets chirped. Like they had all been asked to please stay away from the scary lady and her camp.
Zander and I looked at each other. “I’ll try to stay out of the way, and not look at anything,” I said. “But if you think I’m standing in the middle of a creepy, quiet forest while you rush in to save a bunch of people, then you are sorely mistaken, mister.” I’d seen too many horror movies to fall for that.
His teeth ground together. I thought he wanted to throw me over his shoulder and run. Too bad both of us had a conscious, and would never be able to live with ourselves if a bunch of people died while we acted like cowards. The same thoughts went through his head. I didn’t have empathy, but I knew him well enough to tell.
“Fuck,” he said. “All right. Please, please, don’t get hurt.”
It was a plea that I couldn’t agree to, because I didn’t want to lie to him. “I’ll do my damnedest,” I said. My damnedest would just have to be good enough for him.
He took it, and rushed back into the camp, his hand holding mine. Zander let go of me so fast when we entered the perimeter, I stumbled, caught my balance, and looked up in time to see someone’s body changing. Their face turned completely gray, but their hands still twitched as the stone started to slip down their throat, and over the back of their head, like a fucked up mask.
I slammed my eyes shut, and looked down at the ground. Oh fuck. There were gorgons here. I started looking for a good place to hole up, because I couldn’t fight something I could look at. The trees looked appealing, but I couldn’t trust that something wouldn’t attack me from within. The little buildings also looked like a viable option, but I could hear shouting from within.
The initial screams had died down as people went into battle mode. Most of them scrambled for weapons while Johnny shouted orders, as loud as she could. I glanced up, risking finding a gorgon standing there, and saw Zander shove his sword right through a snake lady’s torso. Blood splattered him, and I winced. It was the only thing he could have done, but it still didn’t want to see it.
Or he needed to remember in his dreams later, like I felt certain he would.
Johnny lifted a crossbow, and shot. It went wild. She had shot before she aimed. It hit another gorgon, but it sliced through the head of one snake. The others hissed in tune with the gorgon, and she whipped around, flashing her teeth in anger. Johnny dropped her gaze immediately, and only that that saved her from being turned to stone.
I needed a weapon. I couldn’t do much to help them, but I couldn’t help myself like this either.
I didn’t spot anything immediately available, unless I wanted to break a branch off a tree. Then my eyes landed on one of the stone people. A girl, not too much older than me. All color had been washed to gray, leaving her unidentifiable beyond her facial features, and that seemed sad to me. Like all her personality had been frozen as well as her body.
But her clothes had not frozen. They had remained cloth, and so had the weapons she had attached to herself. It made sense. Clothing had no eyes to look upon a gorgon with, so why would they change? I dashed toward her, and started looking around her body. Crossbow . . . That would end poorly. Gun . . . would end even worse. Baton rested against her hip, like the one that Medusa had been carrying while pretending to be a cop. I snatched it up, and shoved it into my pocket, so that I could look for other weapons. I didn’t need anything fancy. Just something useful.
She had a holster underneath her pants leg. I pulled it up, and found a dagger. I didn’t think that would end much better than the crossbow, but beggars and choosers. I removed the holster, and tried it on my leg. It felt a little loose, since I had less muscle than she did, but it would have to do. Dagger, and baton.
I would so die today.
Since I felt more confident in it, I clutched the baton to my chest as I turned around. There had to be at least fifteen gorgons. It didn’t sound like a lot, but when you couldn’t look at someone while fighting, they certainly blew through your population like a wildfire.
My heart pounded. I watched Zander stab another gorgon, but she moved at the last second, so the blade only slid through her arm. Not even deep enough to damage muscle. She hissed at him, and Zander dropped his eyes, leaping away before she could grab him. On h
is other side, Johnny tried to fight her way to him, but she had another two gorgons on her tail.
All my instincts said that I had to help him, but I knew that would only distract Zander. If I got anywhere near a gorgon, then he would stop everything so that he could protect me, like the big lovable idiot that he was. So, I stayed there, and wished that one of the gorgons would keel over and die, to even the odds a little more.
One of the doors to the cabins flew open, and six people came tumbling out, fully armed, and ready to kill their intruders. My heart eased. They had been partially trained, if nothing else. They had to be able to help with the gorgons, and then Zander would be safe. Because he was more important to me than anyone else in this camp. They could all die, and I’d live with that guilt if Zander walked out.
With the numbers evened out, I could breathe a sigh of relief. My chest could loosen up.
Johnny shouted orders to take out anything that seemed like a hostile force. The new fighters shouted their understanding and went to work. One of them armed a crossbow, and started to take aim. He let loose, and the bolt went straight through a gorgon’s shoulder. She went down hard, snakes hissing, hissing herself. She started struggling to get up. When she was sitting, I watched a smile cross her face, her teeth bloody.
The trees behind me rustled.
I turned around, and it felt like one of those horror movie moments. Where it didn’t matter how fast you moved, you wouldn’t have been fast enough. They came springing out of the trees, and I dropped to the ground rolling away. One of the back hooves landed on my leg. It was sharp enough to cut right through skin, but the real pain came having all that weight land on me.
My only lucky break was that it landed badly, and it didn’t break the bone. My leg screamed in agony, and I joined right along with it as I stared at the thing that did the damage. It was massive. If it wasn’t taller than me, then I would’ve been shocked. It had the head of a lion, with two massive claws gouging dirt from the ground. The tail looked like a snake’s head, and the back feet were hooves. I blinked at the thing, and started scrambling backward, thoughts a jumble in my head.
