Love & War

by Kaitlin Bevis

  Persephone plucked another flower from the ground and twirled it between her fingers. “Either way, that means the information we need may not be on the island with you. There’s a chance you and Ares have already found out all you can.”

  I shook my head. “I refuse to believe that. Maybe they aren’t hiding Hades or the weapons here, but Jason, at least, would know where.”

  “I want to try negotiating with him,” Persephone declared. “I could reach out through Narcissus, but that feels vaguely threat-like. I’d rather he come to me.”

  When she gave me an expectant look, I scoffed, leaning back on the blanket. “You’re joking, right? What am I supposed to say? Hey, my friend Persephone wants to talk to you?”

  “Of course not. But Orpheus is a well-known ally of the Pantheon and famous among the demigods. It wouldn’t break cover for you to suggest him as a neutral channel.”

  “Is that a request?” Because the way I’d been created, I had to follow Persephone’s orders. She was generally pretty careful with her phrasing, but the girl had a lot on her mind. So I’d gotten in the habit of following up all her directives with that simple question. Just to be certain.

  Persephone groaned, her head flopping back as she looked up at the brilliant blue sky. “Of course. I’m sorry. Disregard any standing orders. If you can safely suggest that Jason contact me through Orpheus, please do.”

  “Okay.” Now, how the hell was I going to work that into a conversation?

  THE CARIBBEAN MUSIC grew louder as Ares and I walked to the dining hall for happy hour the next night.

  “I’ll get you a drink,” Ares called over the music.

  “Thanks.” I worked to keep a smile on my face. Swimming had not gone any better today. Worse, I was wearing a red sundress that looked like it’d been repurposed from a frickin’ bandana, and it had taken nearly an hour to get my hair to cooperate as opposed to the two seconds it would have taken to cast a glamour. All in all, those were stupid things to be upset about, but they’d been enough to thoroughly ruin my day.

  “Elise,” Medea called, forging her way through the crowd.

  “Medea.” I smiled, thinking of yesterday afternoon, and whinnied at her with a snicker.

  Her eyes widened, and she shushed me, crossing the distance between us in a matter of seconds to grab at my hands. “He’s, like, right behind you,” she whispered.

  I turned to see Zeetes giving me an odd look. “So?”

  Medea dissolved into giggles and yanked me through the crowd and away from him before he could catch on to what we were talking about.

  “Wait, wait.” Medea’s eyes caught on something. “Glauce,” she called, rising to her tiptoes and waving. “Over here!”

  “Hey, Elise,” Nestor said as he passed by. “Did you want a drink?”

  “I’ve got one on the way,” I said with a smile. I turned down three more drink offers before Otrera and Glauce joined us.

  “Oh my god,” Otrera snapped when Idas paused to offer her a drink. “We’re hydrated. Thanks.”

  “I’d like a drink,” Medea joked, but there was a bitterness in her voice that belied the jest.

  I tilted my head, glancing at Medea. Something wrong? I mouthed.

  She shook her head.

  “Sucks to be you,” Otrera quipped, completely missing the undertone as she lifted the hair off the back of her neck with one hand and waved at her face with the other in an effort to combat the oppressive heat. “You’ll just have to get your own.”

  Since girls were a rarity among demigods, the four of us were a constant source of interest to them. Well, except Medea. No one ever bothered Medea because she was with Jason. But the rest of us were fair game, and the fact that I was with “Adonis” didn’t get any respect. The guys were always nice enough. They never got upset when we turned them down or got defensive about it. I’d never seen them be anything other than respectful, but the never-ending flirting still got old after a while.

  Medea rolled her eyes and pitched her voice loud enough to be heard over the music. “Did you guys get anything interesting from the commissary?”

  She’d know, of course, she’d unpacked it. But the question was sure to generate conversation. Shipment days were like holidays around here. Everyone was chatting about what they got.

  Glauce brightened. “You’re looking at it.” The slim demigoddess held out her arms and turned back and forth, showing off what I assumed to be a new dress. “Isn’t it gorgeous?”

  The cut, while daring, didn’t flatter her figure at all, and the color didn’t go well with her golden complexion, but I smiled and fawned over it with the others as best I could without being able to lie.

  “Ooh.” That looks horrific. “That’s such an interesting shade of orange.”

  “Ahh . . .” You actually bought that on purpose? “What a bold choice.”

  Glauce was . . . delicate. Demigods were always ridiculously attractive by human standards—it just came with the genetics—but I got the impression that rather than her beauty being recognized growing up, she’d been picked on for being different. Now that she had near-constant admiration, she didn’t seem to know what to do with the attention. When guys flirted with her, she got defensive, as if she thought they were kidding. But ten minutes later, she’d get all giggly. She was slowly getting more sure of herself, but it was painful to watch her experiment with clothes, makeup, and increasingly awkward attempts to return the flirting.

  “You know what I wish we could do?” I yelled over the music once Glauce was appeased.

  “What?” Otrera said, eying me over her now-empty cup.

  “Go shopping. Like actual shopping. You know, try on clothes before you buy them.” Turning to Glauce, I added, “We could have so much fun.” I was practically itching to help her find her perfect look, if only so I didn’t have to look at the alternative any longer.

  This isn’t real, I reminded myself. I liked these girls, but they weren’t really my friends. They didn’t really know me, and when this was all over, it wasn’t likely they’d ever want to speak to me again, much less hang out.

  Medea glanced around the crowd, as if expecting someone to materialize beside her, ready to contradict whatever she said next. “Well, we don’t have a mall, but . . .”

  Glauce gasped, clasping her hands together and giving a tiny jump that nearly turned into a wardrobe malfunction thanks to the ugly dress. “Oh, Medea, could we?”

  She hesitated. “As long as we replace everything we take with something from our wardrobe, I don’t see why it would be a problem.”

  “I’m lost,” I announced. Then I spotted Ares in the crowd, glancing around in confusion. Stepping on my tiptoes, I waved him over. “What are we talking about?”

  Medea grinned. “There’s a ton of extra supplies, including clothes for situations where our new arrivals packed poorly or lost their luggage along the way.”

  That made sense. They’d gotten Elise’s luggage to me when the cruise ended, but it had taken time. The pajamas Medea had brought me had been enough for my stay in the hospital, but if I’d been out and about on the island, it would have been a different story.

  “So,” Medea continued, smiling at one of the demigods as he squeezed past us. “We’ve got a bunch of spare clothes down there in all kinds of sizes in case someone needs them between shipments. I wouldn’t expect much, since Jason ordered them, but . . .”

  “There’s no reason we can’t go through them,” Otrera said with a shrug. “In fact, we probably should. Make sure they didn’t forget anything important . . . like bras.”

  Ares emerged from the crowd with my drink just in time to hear the tail end of Otrera’s sentence. “Who forgot—never mind.”

  The girls burst out laughing as he handed me my drink.

  “Would an
y of you other ladies like anything?” Ares asked over the music, sliding a hand around my waist. Most of the demigods still treated him with suspicion for his dalliance with . . . well, me. But because he was taken, he was gaining a level of acceptance among the handful of demigods who were more interested in impressing men than women. So Otrera and Glauce accepted the offer for a drink. Because, for all his faults, they didn’t have to second-guess everything he said to them or measure their responses to make sure he wouldn’t interpret something they didn’t mean.

  “Can you take this?” Ares asked, passing me his cup. When I nodded, he said, “be right back,” and kissed the side of my forehead before disappearing back into the crowd.

  “Anyway,” Otrera said. “We should definitely take inventory. Wanna get started tomorrow morning?”

  “Let me clear it with Jason first.” Medea held up her hands. “I’m sure he won’t mind, but we can’t just go digging around down there without letting him know. Let’s aim for early afternoon. We could meet here at lunch.”

  “Down where?” I’d assumed the spare supplies were in one of the storage sheds just across from the dining hall.

  “The basement.” Medea waved toward the dining hall behind us.

  Basement? I took a sip of my punch, my mind racing. Between the two of us, Ares and I had searched almost all the cabins on the island, but we were having difficulty getting into the staff quarters, and anything adjacent to public common areas, like the hospital or the dining hall. I hadn’t even known there was a sub-level to the dining hall. The hospital had some, but it backed up to the cliffs. This close to the beach, I’d assumed we had to be pretty much at sea level. Either way, I wanted to check out the basement before Medea warned Jason we’d be going down there.

  When Ares returned, balancing three drinks for the girls, I handed his cup back to him, then slid my free hand into his and squeezed, to signal we needed to talk. He squeezed back, message received. We maintained some polite banter for a few more minutes before we parted ways with Medea and the girls.

  “What’s up?” he asked in an undertone as we made our way through the crowd.

  I didn’t answer until we reached the dining hall. The music swelled as Ares pulled open the door for me and ushered me inside. Dragging him to a less occupied corner close to the speakers, I wrapped my arms around him and whispered in his ear. “There’s a basement.”

  “Here?”

  I resisted the urge to nod. “Medea says they keep supplies there.”

  He turned his head so that his lips brushed against mine, and suddenly we were kissing. I knew it was because we couldn’t be seen just standing over here whispering conspiratorially. And sure enough, when Ares broke away and flashed me that grin, I knew it had been all for show. Just like when he grabbed my hand and pulled me toward the back hall. We weren’t really just going to continue this somewhere more private. I knew that, but knowing didn’t stop my heart from racing.

  Chapter XVIII

  Medea

  “ACK!” MY PEN snapped beneath my teeth. I spat out blue plastic shards and rolled off the bed to rummage for a new pen in the drawer of my nightstand. Pulling my comforter up around me, I stared at my journal and thought back to my last day in my mom’s hospital. Instead of focusing on my fear or grief, I’d made a conscious decision in that moment to be happy. Grateful. Productive. Up until that moment, I hadn’t realized I could make that choice.

  “What’s a shield?” I’d asked, when Jason had told me why my mom’s security force couldn’t get in the doors.

  Jason laughed and told me that it was a long story, but since we were stuck there for the foreseeable future, he might as well start now. “We’re descended from gods.”

  Cool air from the fan stirred the pages of my journal, so I shifted my grip on the book to hold the pages down. Literal gods. He explained that my generation was incredibly special, because we were getting stronger. Only now, the gods were threatened by our existence and were hunting us down.

  Jason had come to the island in search of a weapon to level the playing field, as well as to find the miracle cure he’d heard about from Tantalus. I still don’t know how he’d heard about it, though. Mom had been so careful to keep everything about me under wraps.

  “I’ll get us out of this,” Jason had promised, peeking between the slits in the blind. He’d tossed me a confident grin. “I always think of something.”

  “I think I can help with that.” Then I’d told him what I could do, and the two of us made a plan. It was dangerous, and morally questionable, but the only thing that had mattered to me, at that point, had been getting off that island.

  Taking a deep breath, I inhaled the lingering scent of detergent on my newly laundered comforter. It had been so clear then. The next steps. Get off the island, destroy the hospital, and go wherever Jason went. But now I wonder if maybe I should have asked more questions. Everything felt very black and white. My mom and everything about that place had been bad. And then a golden prince came to save me, standing for all things good.

  But my happy ending wasn’t an ending at all. It was a beginning. I’m learning more and more about myself—my likes, my dislikes, my wants, my needs—only everything is a lot more complicated than I expected.

  I have everything I’ve ever wanted. I love Jason. I love my friends. I love my life here.

  Don’t I? Troubled, I put away the journal, and got ready for the party. Studying my reflection in the mirror, I wondered if I was starting to show. I had “filled out” as Jason put it, but I didn’t think I looked pregnant. The violet dress I’d chosen brought out the color of my eyes and my dark hair cascaded down my back. I looked otherworldly, witchy even. Smiling, I put on my lipstick, determined to push all these unpleasant thoughts out of my mind and have a good time tonight.

  And it had worked. Hours later, I was still having a great time. Right up until Adonis put a drink in my hand.

  “You gonna drink that, or just stare at it?” Otrera asked, her gold eyes flickering over me with concern as Elise and Adonis left the party.

  I had every intention of ending the pregnancy, so drinking alcohol shouldn’t really faze me. But it felt wrong. Shouldn’t you have thought of that before you asked for the drink?

  But I hadn’t. I’d been caught up in the moment, the bubbly good cheer, the company, the fun. For a second, I’d forgotten. And now that I remembered, the full weight of my predicament hit me like a ton of bricks.

  “Eventually,” I lied with an easy grin, then glanced around the crowded courtyard. “Where’d Glauce go?”

  Otrera glanced beside her in alarm, then looked around. “Dancing with Neleus,” she said, finding Glauce in the crowd. She let out a long-suffering sigh. “I’m on it.”

  We always let Glauce leave with whomever she wanted provided she was sober enough to say so. But we still liked to keep an eye on her once she’d had a few, just in case. Otrera moved toward Glauce, then glanced back at me with a worried expression on her face.

  “No one is going to try anything on me,” I assured her, smiling at her mothering.

  “I’d still feel better if Elise was here.”

  I spotted a familiar figure on the edge of the crowd and pointed toward him. “I see Jason. I should probably spend time with him.”

  Otrera gave me a wry smile. “What a hardship.”

  “I know, right?” Grinning to show I was kidding, I made my way through the crowd to find Jason.

  But before I reached him, Zeetes approached him and said something to him. Jason frowned and turned, following Zeetes through the crowd. Had something happened?

  “Excuse me,” I said squeezing through a group of demigods.

  But by the time I reached the spot I’d last seen Jason, he was gone.

  Chapter XIX

  Aphrodite

  ARES
’S LIPS BURNED against mine as the door swung shut behind us. The heat of his hands seared my back, but I couldn’t bring myself to mind. After what felt like an eternity that didn’t last nearly long enough, he pulled away. “What were we supposed to be doing again?”

  I laughed. “There’s a basement.”

  He blinked. “Right. Yeah . . . that could be important.” But his body leaned toward mine, and he planted a hand on the wall beside my head.

  “If we’re lucky.” I ducked under his arm.

  It took us longer than I anticipated to find the stairs. Hopefully, if anyone noticed our absence from the party, they’d assume we headed home or found a quiet corner somewhere. The whole charade was probably unnecessary, but better safe than sorry.

  When Ares turned on the light in the basement, my heart sank in my chest. The room was tiny. My guess was this corner of the building allowed for deeper digging than the rest of the dining hall, so the resort made use of the space for storage.

  “Look for shields,” Ares reminded me as we explored the small room.

  Ares went left, and I went right. I ran my hand along the wall and kept my eyes locked on the ceiling, looking for any places where the walls and the ceiling didn’t match up. When I met Ares in the middle, I scowled. “Nothing.”

  “Still, this may be where they keep the weapons. Check the boxes.”

  But our search revealed nothing but paper products, non-perishables, and other innocuous supplies stacked on open-backed, plastic shelving.

  “Okay.” Ares took a regretful look around. “We should—”

  Footsteps overhead sent us scrambling deeper into the storage room.

  “Here,” Ares grunted, pushing one of the shelves forward just enough to make room for us.

  “Light,” I whispered harshly, shoving the boxes around to make sure they’d conceal us.

  Ares swore, and darted out long enough to tug on the thin, white string hanging from the low ceiling. Then he squeezed in beside me just as the door opened.