The Curse of Betrayal

by Taylor Lavati

  He rushes into the kitchen. He’s only gone for a second before he comes back with a wet rag and some paper towels. He cleans the floor and then zips himself back into his pants before his eyes meet mine.

  “You think that was funny, huh, little girl?” he teases, his eyes playful. I nod, and he scoops me up into his arms. I wriggle, trying to break free, but he sits us down on the couch, placing me on his lap. “I love you.” He kisses just the tip of my nose and I scrunch up my face.

  “I love you too, Ari.” I lean into the crook of his neck, taking him in, memorizing our moment.

  When I get back to my room later that day, a weird feeling erupts in my stomach. Immediately, I’m on edge, paranoid. I unlock the door, turning the knob as slowly as possible to avoid making noise. I peek in the small crack. When I deem the coast to be clear, I flip up the light switch, illuminating the ill lit room.

  “Kara,” I whisper, hoping she’s in there. When silence greets me back, my heart sinks. I drop my back pack on the floor, causing it to thump and roll over in a clamor. If there’s an intruder, he’d get scared from the noise—I hope.

  Nothing happens, so I chalk it up to paranoia and move over to my bed. I grab my bag off the floor and drop it on my bed. I open the bag and grab my cell from the outer pocket. I text Kara to meet me at the student center for dinner and quickly go to the closet to throw on some more comfortable clothes.

  As I open the closet curtain, a large figure jumps out at me, making me scream and run back towards my bed. I grab my flashlight that I keep on my nightstand and wield it around like a weapon.

  “Stay away!” I yell as I try to figure out who the hell is in my room. I swing the flashlight so the person can’t get close enough to touch me without getting whacked.

  A deep, throaty grumble of laughter erupts, and I know I’ve been pranked. My blonde god stands just outside of the closet, looking smug and beautiful, jolting me.

  “Ollie? What are you doing here?” I yell, scowling at his cruel joke. I cross my arms defensively over my chest since he just petrified me. “I literally almost peedmyself.”

  “I have to talk to you.” His face falls and is suddenly serious.

  “And you thought scaring the crap out of me first was the way to go about it?” I’m perplexed by this guy.

  “I’m sorry. I just couldn’t resist.” He laughs. He walks to me and grabs my hands in his. I can’t help my body as it reacts to his closeness. My palms sweat as my heart rate spikes, making me nervous as hell at whatever news he’s delivering.

  He pulls me towards the bed and lifts me up on it gently. I giggle as his hands clutch my sides, tickling me playfully. He hops up on the bed next to me. My legs dangle off the side, while his are rooted to the ground.

  “I kind of have a plan.”

  “A plan? For what?” I ask back.

  “Your mom,” he says, intriguing me. “Are you going on the field trip this weekend?” he asks, making me roll my eyes. All everyone is talking about is this damn retreat to the middle of the woods. I just don’t get it.

  “I don’t really have a choice. It’s mandatory.”

  “Good. We’re going to meet your mom there.”

  “Really?” I’m not sure what emotions I’m feeling. While I’m excited to see her, I can’t shake the fact that she’s been avoiding me, saying it’s not the right time.

  “What’s wrong? I thought you’d be happy.” Ollie frowns at me.

  “No, I am,” I tell him. I don’t want him to think I’m not thankful that he’s trying to get us together. Because I am. It’s just she’s been so hateful. “She hates me, though.”

  “Ryder, she doesn’t hate you.” Ollie presses his hand to my cheek and comforts me. “There are other things going on. She’s trying to protect you. She doesn’t hate you.”

  “Did she tell you that?” My hopes are up, so I pray that he doesn’t crush me.

  “Yes,” he reveals. “She loves you. I promise. It’s safe now. She’s going to explain.”

  “You’re the best.” I mumble, while wrapping myself around him.

  “I know.” He goes into detail about the plan of action. I try to memorize his every word, wanting this meeting to go flawlessly. I have so many questions I want to ask her—mostly about how she knew about the attack, and when the attack started why she wasn’t helping, but also what she’s been protecting me from all of these years and if she told my dad about her powers.

  “I got all of the information from Professor Onassis. She knows what’s going on and thinks it will help with the curse. I’ll meet you there,” Ollie promises.

  “How do you know she’s going to come?” I ask him, since she hasn’t wanted to talk to me the past times I’ve seen her.

  “I told her if she doesn’t, she’ll lose you forever.” Ollie lifts his shoulder, his eyes bowing like he’s embarrassed.

  “Thanks, Ollie. I owe you.”

  “When we meet her, Ari can’t come.” He stares down at me with stern eyes. His blue eyes are glassed over like he hasn’t slept, but they hold an array of emotions—from lust to protectiveness to sadness and even something angry.

  “What? Why?”

  “I don’t want him to. It’s my condition.” He pauses, waiting for my answer.

  “Fine,” I mutter, dropping my head in my hands.

  CHAPTER TWENTY ONE

  balance of curse making

  I can’t even begin to explain how much I have come to love this place. I take the steps two at a time up to the large library fortress. The stone on the outside makes it look like it’s the oldest building on campus, built way before this was a school. But the inside looks brand new—almost as if they gutted the place to remodel. The air’s musty with the smell of old books. I don’t bother stopping at the counter. Instead, I head straight up the stairs to our private room.

  “Hey,” I say to Professor Onassis. She lifts a finger at me as she mouths the words hold on. I can see that she’s reading to herself. I take a seat across from her and wait patiently for her to finish the page. I drop my bag on the floor with a bang. I’m used to researching my curse with Professor O, so I grab a book from the pile and start flipping through, skimming the pages.

  The Balance of Curse Making is the first book I pick up. I’ve been choosing books based on their names. I always seem to go for the weird ones or the ones that sound ridiculous. I like to read poetry books and children’s books, too. They tend to get to the point a lot faster. But our piles are dwindling, so I pick up the big book and start reading the table of contents.

  “Sorry, dear. I was in the middle of a rather large paragraph. How are you today?” She places her finger on the middle of a page to save her spot and looks up at me.

  “I’m fine. How are you?” I ask her back politely.

  “I really want to figure out if these attacks have to do with your situation. I’m frustrated that we’ve come up short handed,” she admits to me. “I want to help you.”

  “It’s okay. We’ll figure it out.” I smile at her, trying to be optimistic. If I wasn’t, I would have had a mental breakdown a long, long time ago.

  “Well, get to reading. We’ll be here a while.” She lifts her finger back up and doesn’t miss a beat. I flip to chapter one and start reading about how curses work. This book is actually eye opening, because I know nothing of the sorts. I didn’t even know people can just make a curse—so long as you’re powerful enough.

  The more blood of a god you have in your system, the more effective the curse will be. The thing that interests me the most is that curses still have to obey rules. They have to have a way out, and this page really cements in my mind. Even though Hades is really powerful, he had to have a way to back out of the curse.

  Which is exactly what we’re looking for. A loophole.

  I continue reading through the book, probably faster and more in-depth than I’ve ever read before. The words just add up fast, and I read them with ferocity. I finish the book and sit back
in my chair, trying to fully absorb what I just read before I report back to Professor Onassis.

  To make a curse you need a reason—what your outcome is going to be. You need a way to end the curse—or a back out plan. And you need all the parties’ blood to enact the curse. For most, if you’re cursing a person, you need their blood to start it, and then you need to use the blood to finish it.

  It’s funny because when I think of a curse ceremony, I would think there would be candles and altars and some spell you have to recite, but the book says that’s not really the case. All you need is a vial of the blood, a piece of paper that says what the curse is, and its stipulations. Then you pour the blood, no matter how little, onto the paper, and it will ignite in flames if you’ve done it correctly, destroying the paper and the way out.

  “I think I have something here,” I tell Professor O, lifting up the book so she can see what I am reading. “Hades did the curse for a reason. He had some outcome that he wants to happen and he wrote that down. There also is a way out of the curse that only he knows. There has to be according to the balance of curses.”

  “So there is a loophole,” Professor Onassis mutters to herself, nodding her head as if she knew it all along.

  “What would he want to happen from cursing us?” I ask plainly since it doesn’t make sense to me. Ari and Ollie don’t have anything Hades wants. The gods know I don’t either.

  “I guess that’s what we have to find out next.”

  “This is impossible.” I drop my head to the table. There’s no way we’ll be able to figure it out. We’re doomed to live this out forever. Only Hades knows, and I damn well know he’s not going to give it up.

  “We still don’t know if the attacks have to do with you, sweetie. Keep researching,” she commands, lifting her little brows at me.

  “Ugh,” I groan, not wanting to read anymore. This is all pointless. I have a feeling that this curse will never be over, and I’m doomed to die over and over again for the rest of my existence. Nonetheless, I don’t want to upset Professor Onassis, so I read for another hour about other’s curses and how they were able to get out of it.

  I head back to my room to change, but the door is already open a crack. This is becoming a normal thing apparently, so I peek in, being ever-so-silent and see Megan sitting on my bed. She has her legs crossed at the ankles, and she looks distressed. It makes her seem much younger than she already is. I walk in, and when I drop my bag on the floor, her head darts up, her eyes finding mine.

  “I’m sorry I let myself in. I kind of wanted to talk. To just you,” she says, her eyes pleading.

  “Yeah, sure.” I hop up on my bed to sit next to her.

  “These attacks and stuff are kind of freaking me out. I wanted to ask you a favor.” She surprises me. I nod, urging her to go on. “I wanted to see if after dinner, you’d help me in the gym. Teach me some moves or something.” She bows her head, blushing like a ripe tomato.

  “Really? Me?” I wonder why out of all the guys and our friends, she’d ask me for help or advice. It doesn’t make sense.

  “Yeah, I saw you last time. I just trust you more, and I don’t want to tell anyone else. It’s kind of embarrassing,” she admits.

  “Oh yeah, I won’t tell anyone. Promise,” I vow.

  “Want to go after dinner tonight?”

  “Sure.” She must be happy because she leaps up from the bed and hugs me tightly, saying thank you over and over again. She holds onto me fiercely and then finally releases me so I can breathe again.

  “Let’s go to dinner together.” I quickly throw on a coat but leave my bag in the room. I tug my cell out of it and check my messages. I have an email, most likely from dad, so I make a mental note to check it later.

  Megan and I walk to the student center, but I hold my hand up to stop her when I hear some whispers around the corner. She frowns at me, but I shush her, holding my pointer finger to my lips.

  I lead us to the wall of the admin building and look around the corner, spotting Professor Nike and a group of adults. I pause to listen, Megan right behind me.

  “My child is not staying here if it’s not safe. For god’s sake, your school was attacked by a flock of demons!” the person exclaims.

  “Listen, it was an isolated incident.” Nike holds up his hand to control the person. “The school is protected by an invisible barrier.”

  “That doesn’t make us feel better about them going on the retreat!” Another woman confronts Nike.

  “We need to give the children a sense of normalcy. We’re bringing all of the teachers for added safety, but we’ve removed the threat.”

  “What’s that supposed to mean?” the woman, most likely a mother of some child, sneers at Nike.

  “We believe the attack was over a student at the academy. We’ve removed her, and it seems we’re safe. I assure you, your children are in no danger,” Nike sternly says.

  “How do you know?” the guy who first spoke asks.

  “I interrogated them,” Nike answers, which shuts the other right up. I peek again when I don’t hear anything, and the group is walking towards the student center.

  “What was that?” Megan whisper yells at me.

  “I don’t know. Parents don’t think it’s safe here, I guess.”

  “That’s weird, though. All the teachers said it’s safe. I mean, do you think we’re going to be attacked again?” She pauses as we both think in silence. “This is exactly why I have to get stronger! I don’t know if I have special powers. My gods. I’m not good at this.” Megan erupts in hysteria. I grab her shoulders to settle her down.

  “Listen, the teachers say we’re safe, so we are.” I meet her eyes, and she nods at me, starting to calm down. We walk the rest of the way to the student center in a nervous quiet. It’s obvious we’re both unsettled.

  We walk together straight to the food area and buy dinner before we join our group of friends at the usual table. When we sit, the group is having a heated discussion about something having to do with the field trip—shocker.

  “It’s like thirty degrees: I’m not swimming.” Kara gawks at Shane.

  “We’re not swimming, just jumping in and then getting out. It’s fun,” he says, while both Mikey and Carter nod in agreement beside him.

  “You’ll die.” Megan shakes her head at them. She bumps Shane on the arm, so he scoots over, making room for her. She plops herself down between him and Carter. I place my tray on the spot next to Mikey and sit on the end so Kara doesn’t have to move. I look across the table, and Lisa gives me a lopsided smile like she’s not sure how to act towards me anymore. I think it’s hilarious, and I smile genuinely back at her, loving the awkwardness.

  “Why are you jumping in water in February anyway?” I ask them, amused.

  “It’ll be March soon so it’s not too bad. It’s fun!” Mikey says, nudging me sprightly.

  “Right…” I say back, but remain skeptical. I listen to their bizarre conversation as the boys try to convince us to go swimming. I know for sure I am not doing it, so they’re really just trying to convince Kara since she’s the one who’s being the weakest in her argument. I finish eating and spot Megan widening her eyes at me and then averting them to the door.

  I furrow my brows, because I don’t know what she wants me to do. She tilts her head a little to the door again and then shakes her head, so I’m looking at her.

  Realizing she wants to go to the gym, I say, “Hey, guys… I’m going to head out.” I stand with my empty tray in my hand. I dump it in the trash and then put the tray on the belt by the kitchen to go get cleaned. I head back to the table to get my stuff and realize I have to do all the work. “Megan, want to walk with me?” I peer at her so she picks up on my point.

  “Sure.” She jumps up from her spot a little too zealously. She’s blowing our cover.

  “I’ll come, too.” Kara starts to stand, pushing herself up on the table.

  “No!” Megan and I yell at the same time.
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br />   “Um…okay,” Kara mumbles, staring at us both like we have three heads.

  “I mean, you don’t have to. I’m just tired.” I yawn and reach my hands out. I rub my eye, pretending to act like I’m about to pass out from exhaustion.

  “Okay, weirdos.” Kara sits herself back down in her seat, dismissing us with a frown. She rolls her eyes at us and then goes back to her conversation with the group as if nothing happened. I head out hurriedly with Megan trailing me. We jog out of the building, and once we’re in the cold and alone, I punch her arm.

  “What the hell, Megan,” I yell at her.

  “I choked. I didn’t know what to say!” she defends herself.

  “They know something’s up.”

  “I’ll deal with it later, I guess. Let’s just go,” Megan says, and I follow behind her, running through the windy night to the training center.

  CHAPTER TWENTY TWO

  after hours training session

  The training center is shadowy. I’ve never been in here with the lights down or while it’s empty but it’s freaky. The main gym looks much bigger when it’s got nobody in it. The walls are bare, and the floor looks way too shiny for my liking. Megan and I drop our bags near the perimeter of the gym near the bleachers and then scour the walls for the lights. Finally, after we walk around like chickens with our heads cut off, Megan flips the switch on, and the room illuminates a bright, fluorescent yellow.

  “Found it,” she calls since I ended up on the other side of the room.

  “I can see,” I mutter, rubbing my eyes so they adjust to the light. I meet Megan in the middle of the gym, and we both awkwardly stand there, eying each other. “I don’t know what to do,” I tell her, laughing at us.

  “Maybe we fake fight. Grab me or something.” She gestures to me. I grab her from behind and hold her in lock. I clasp my hands together on top of her stomach so she can’t break out. “Ow. I can’t get free.” She tries to push me off her, but she has the strength of a toddler. I loosen my grip so she can do it alone, and she breaks out, turning to face me with a smile.