Daddy wouldn’t come for me because I didn’t have one, and the more I explained, the more I feared, because for the first time in my young life I realized it was only my mother and me, and if she never showed up again, then I would be all alone.
The ashen shape of a man wavers in the horizon. I think he’s my father and try to go to him, but every time I get near him he disappears. I can never see his face. I plead with him, asking him to hold me, to recognize me, but the silhouette keeps its back to me, as if he heard my pleas but doesn’t want me. I’m crying now as my stubby fingers claw at empty air, but I remain alone in the grayness.
My mother finally comes for me, and I run across the barren land, hurling myself at her in relief. She takes a step back, letting me fall face first on the ground. My knees sting but I scramble back up to hug her. She sneers with contempt as she pushes me away.
“You don’t get to seek me anymore. You abandoned me. Now you’re on your own.”
My mother sounds like herself, but the coldness in her tone is a slap to the face. She’s never pushed me away before. Not when I had tantrums, not when I struggled with teenage mood swings. She’s always been there, ever so patient, waiting for me to calm down.
But this time is different. This time she’s not rushing to me like she did in the supermarket, her beautiful face torn with worry. This time she walks away from me and joins the gray silhouette of my absent father. This time I’m all alone.
“Please don’t go. Please don’t leave me!” I beg, fear tearing a gaping hole in my stomach. “I’ll be good. I’ll be better. I can’t do life on my own!”
My mother and ghost of a father lock hands and walk away. I fall to the ground, my small fists punching the floor until my knuckles are raw and bleeding. My worst fears have come to pass. I have no family left.
The Pythia’s voice breaks up my pity party. “Now seek your weaknesses, challengers.”
Running footsteps shake the ground under me. I lift my head up to see Gabriel in Ares’s armor, darting crazed looks toward the place he just came from. The Minotaur charges, its gleaming horns back where they belong, ready to stab.
“No!” I yell, jumping to my feet.
The legs I use to sprint between my friend and his tormentor are long and lean. I’m not a child anymore. I stand between them, my arms raised in a cross shape, resolved to die in Gabriel’s stead. The Minotaur rushes forward, the stench of death tickling my nostrils as his horns spear me first. But I feel no pain. I feel nothing.
The beast runs right through me as if I were a ghost myself. Gabriel hollers in pain behind my back. When I whirl round, I see blood gushing from his chest, his armor torn into pieces, the Minotaur gone. Gabriel presses his hands to the scarlet wound blossoming on his fair skin. I scream as he falls backward onto the ground. He’s died again for me.
I run to him, but before I can kneel and try to heal him, another shriek pierces the silence. Kieron lies face down on the drab floor a few paces away, but this time he can’t shake off Hades’s ropes of darkness. I can’t see the death god, but I can feel his icy presence as the bonds tighten around Kieron’s wrists and ankles, making him writhe in pain. A new rope appears around his chest, squeezing the life out of him. Pressure builds inside my skull. The fear is intolerable.
“Fight back!” I urge.
A low rattle escapes his lips as the man I love is robbed of precious oxygen. I teeter between Gabriel and Kieron, both of them dying, both of them needing my help. I can’t save more than one, but making the decision to sacrifice one for the other will kill me.
It is my love for them that endangered them. If they’d never met me, they would both be fine today. My love has weakened them just as it weakens me now. It paralyzes me. Everyone I love ends up hurt—my mother, Amy, Gabriel and now Kieron. I should have let them go. I should let my mother go while she’s still alive at least. Some people don’t get to love and be loved, and I’m one of them. Without love, we would all be faring better.
I try to block out the gurgle of Gabriel’s bleeding chest and Kieron’s strangled wheezes. I need my heart to stop feeling so my brain can start working again. I can’t love these boys, but maybe I can still save them so they can live another day without me ruining everything for them. And yet this heart of mine beats frantically, fueled by my concerns for the boys I don’t want to care for any longer. I’m too weak to let them go.
“You deserve to be happy, Hope,” Gabriel uses his last breath to rasp out, startling me. “Save the man you love.”
Kieron echoes him. “I love you, Hope. Save yourself.”
I fall to my knees, awed by both of these boys’ selfless devotion. I don’t deserve their kindness—not when I’m the cause of their hurt, not when I can’t save them.
But their compassionate words take hold of my heart and expand into a fiery mass of pure love that tears through my doubts and guilt. Their love is a gift that I need to be worthy of. It reawakens my powers surging through my fingertips. From my kneeling position, I throw two laser beams of pristine light toward them. One dissolves the bindings that keep Kieron prisoner, crushing Hades’s ice. The other dresses Gabriel’s wound, stopping the hemorrhage.
I unfurl to my full height, sending all the love I feel for them to their rescue. An exhilaration like I’ve never felt before inflates my chest, bringing out a ferocious scream from me. I’m not weakened by my love. I am stronger for it. Kieron is free and Gabriel’s wound is sutured. I have saved both of them with nothing but my unending affection and tenderness. Light has won over darkness.
“Come out now, challengers,” the Pythia disrupts my savage rejoicing.
The monochrome world disappears, along with Kieron and Gabriel. I take the change serenely now that my demons have been vanquished. The gods are amassed before me, looking solemn. They stand on a platform hovering above the delta of two rivers. One flows calmly west, its gentle hum singing of peace and rest, while the other one gurgles riotously toward the east.
Heath shivers next to me, darting crazed looks at our surroundings as if he’s still locked wherever his vision has taken him. The Pythia comes to stand before us, her arms opened wide to the sides, as if she wants to embrace us.
“It is time to make a choice, challengers. For one of you the journey will come to an end, while for the other one it is only starting.” A low murmur full of expectations comes from the audience. “Pick your destiny and dive into it so you can let go of your fears,” the seer says, pointing simultaneously at the two rivers.
I gaze at the placid river that mirrors my mood. To dive under would be as easy as coming home. This river is the simpler option, the safer decision. But if I’ve learned one thing today, it’s that safe and easy don’t always make right. Life is messy. Moments ago I tried to rid my heart of feelings, to become an insensitive machine so I could be stronger, invincible. I was so wrong.
What I told Kieron about love is true. We as humans are the sum of our love, our fears, and our memories. These strong emotions make us special, they make life worth living. My love doesn’t destroy; it heals. I take long strides toward the chaotic river, my long gown flapping against my bare legs, my breathing light and unencumbered for the first time in weeks.
I don’t stop upon reaching the riverbank, but instead bring my arms close to my ears, ready to dive in. A mad shriek comes out of Heath as I hear him throw himself into the calm river, the sonorous splash his body makes as it hits the water at odds with the placid water. I don’t turn around to see if he won.
I focus on the eddies swirling before me and jump in.
Chapter 40
I stay still as the current drags me down to the riverbed. Destiny has brought me here, and it will sort me out. All I have to do is trust and wait.
Gushes of water press against my face, infiltrating my nostrils and open mouth then filling my lungs. I do not fight the burn, nor the singe that runs across my bones, making me glow golden under the water. I conjure up the beloved faces of my p
ast to keep me company while I suffer a thousand deaths. Every time I die, they resuscitate me and patch me up. They fight for me as I should have fought for them.
The painful attacks of the water dwindle slowly, replaced by incredible lightness that pulls me back toward the surface. I let myself float on the waves, my body radiant like the sun, until the river deposits my broken and mended self back onto the shore.
I search for Heath on the other side, but he hasn’t come out yet.
The Pythia walks up to me. “Stand up, Hope.”
I do as I’m bid effortlessly, surprised not only by the absence of pain but also by the new vigor I find within me.
“On one side the River Lethe, on the other the River Styx.” I check my memory but find it intact—I chose the Styx. “You vanquished your fears and made a weakness your strength. Unlike Heath who succumbed to hatred.”
Thunder roars overhead—Zeus isn’t pleased he lost his last challenger.
“The Styx is wise. It can kill or it can heal. Today it chose you, Hope, to become the new Olympian hero. And it made you invincible.”
I seek the truth within my bones, within the soft fabric of my skin. There is no pain, no weakness that I can detect. I am not just doing fine, I am impervious to harm. My healing powers agree with the Pythia—I am invincible.
Before I can ask more questions, I’m torn away from Erebus and deposited in the center of the Olympian Palace’s throne room. The gods are seated on their thrones in an elegant display of silver and gold. For the first time, it is the sun at its zenith that glows above the oculus and not the moon.
I look for the Pythia, but she is gone. Only the twelve Olympian gods remain. Hades gloats while the rest of his powerful family wear imperturbable masks.
“My challenger won,” Hades brags.
“She is our challenger now,” Zeus shuts him up. He continues through gritted teeth. “Congratulations, Hope Diaz. You fought well.”
I nod respectfully. Fate led me here, but the gods decide my future next.
A commotion can be heard from outside the throne room. Zeus waves his hands and removes the invisible gate that kept the other divinities at bay. They rush in wearing their most precious outfits and jewelry. I curtsy solemnly when I spot Cupid coming, his spine bowed from grief. He answers my gesture of condolences with a sad smile that doesn’t reach his eyes.
Kieron isn’t among the crowd. I wonder if his absence is an act of defiance toward his father or the sign that he has given up on us.
Zeus stands up. “Hope, before we talk of the future, we will grant your wish first. Choose wisely, heroine. You’ll only get one.”
I can’t believe I’ve made it all the way to the end. I will get my wish. My mind jumps to my mother instantly as I try to phrase my wish. Should I ask them to heal her? Grant her immortality perhaps, so she never has to suffer again?
But then Cupid’s hunched shoulders capture my sight. I have lost Kieron. I understand his pain. And here I am, faced with the wonderful chance to save my mother, when he’s lost Gabriel forever. Gabriel who gave his life for me. Gabriel who can’t be healed because he is dead at only seventeen.
The words tumble out of my mouth before I can stop them. “I wish to resuscitate Gabriel Abelson.”
I slap a hand over my mouth, but it is too late. Zeus nods at his obscure brother, ruler of Erebus, who in turn glares at me before bringing forth a dark shape from the ground. When his darkness disperses, Gabriel stands in the center of the room. He vacillates dazedly as his cloudy blue gaze takes in the throne room and the crowd amassed between its pillars.
A gasp escapes Cupid’s lips before he rushes to embrace my friend, cupping his lovely face between strong palms. Near Gabriel’s right temple, his pale blond hair is streaked with black—a souvenir from his stay in Erebus, no doubt. I watch numbly as my friend shares a passionate kiss with his lover. Between love oaths, Gabriel looks at me.
He looks winded but radiant. “Thank you,” he mouths.
I can’t help the smile that blossoms on my face. Bringing back Gabriel was the right decision. The only wish that was truly selfless and worthy. And yet my vision goes blurry with tears. What about my mother? Have I condemned her?
“I have to go back,” I whisper. “I have to return to her.”
Zeus’s incredible hearing catches my whispered words over the general mayhem in the grand hall.
“You won’t go anywhere yet, Hope. Your work has only just started here.” Silence returns in deference to the king. “We granted your wish. We made you invincible. Now you owe us one quest before you can move on with your life.”
I freeze. “A quest?”
Zeus doesn’t look at me as he roars. “Our heroine will return to Earth and tear down the fabric between our worlds. She will right the wrong that has been done to us!”
Rowdy cheering emanates from the crowd. I don’t know what the gods have planned for me, but they’ve been waiting for centuries for it to happen. I’m once again at their mercy. It was foolish of me to think otherwise.
Thunder erupts overhead, but this time it is full of promise rather than threats. Apollo lends his light to his father’s thunder, creating awe-inspiring fireworks inside the throne room. The other Olympian gods add their powers to the display, making it unbearable for my human eyes to watch. I shield them with my hands.
When I pry my hands off my eyes next, the room is empty and only a whirring sound breaks the eerie silence.
I crane my neck to see the Fates spinning their yarn.
“Are you spinning my mother’s life?” My vision narrows onto their fearsome task.
“No, Hope,” the one holding the scissors answers me.
“We are spinning the gods’,’” the three sisters reply in unison.
I stumble away before I can snatch the scissors and cut the yarn myself. The thought of wrecking them all is too alluring right now. I retreat out of the grand hall, into the hallway with the statues.
I don’t know where to go from here. Back to Helen of Troy’s villa to pretend nothing happened? The gods have vanished so fast, they left without giving me directions. Even Gabriel has disappeared with Cupid, abandoning me. What am I expected to do?
My legs can barely carry my weight any longer so I walk backward into a shadowy corner to lean against the wall for support. But instead of finding the hard marble surface, I fall back through a cloud of cool, dark mist. Strong arms catch me before I hit the ground.
In the diffused and strange obscurity, I discern Kieron’s lovely face gazing down at me. Pride radiates from him.
“You made it. You won, Hope.”
“I won,” I echo the alien words. It is the first time I have a chance to acknowledge it. “I—”
Kieron’s lips descend upon mine, stealing my words away. His kiss tastes like victory and love. He doesn’t rush into it. Instead he teases me, alternating between slow and fast, devoted and demanding, erasing every thought from my mind until there’s only him left.
When at last we come up for air, he hugs me close to him so my face is buried in his chest.
“You didn’t give up on me,” I marvel.
“I never could. I love you.”
“Where are we?”
His chin rests on top of my head, his breath ruffling my hair as he answers me. “Neither here nor there. A corridor in the shadows. Away from my father’s scrutiny.”
“You still don’t want him to find out about us?” I look up to him. “I won, Kieron. He can’t threaten me anymore.”
“Then you don’t know my father. Your mother isn’t safe from him yet…”
I shiver. “Should I have saved her? Did I make a mistake?”
“You did what you always do. You chose good over personal gain. That can never be a mistake.” Kieron smiles. “Your mother still lives. There is hope.”
“But how?”
“They will be sending you out to Earth soon. You’ll get your chance to save her. But if I am to help you,
my father can’t know about us. Otherwise he will stop at nothing to keep me from following you.”
“How could you follow me? The fabric between our worlds will prevent it. I don’t even know how I’m supposed to travel back.”
Kieron placates my worries with a breathtaking kiss. “Do not fret, my love. I will stop at nothing to protect you. No Olympian knows my best-guarded secret…Hope, I can shadow travel to Earth.”
My spine goes rigid in his embrace. “You can?”
Acknowledgments
The list of fantastic people who deserve my gratitude for this project is long.
First of all, brilliant author Olivia Wildenstein. Clearly, you know this book wouldn’t exist without you. Thank you for the initial spark and the MANY phone calls that interrupted your work. You’re my colleague, my therapist, my inspiration. I’m so glad we’re family so you can’t block my number.
Next I want to thank all those who contributed to polish the French mess that is now known as Olympian Challenger. Kick-ass editor Jessica Nelson, you rock and your comments made me laugh to no end. Vanessa Wildenstein, thank you for the last brush up. To my mom, my dear friend Adriana, and fellow authors K. Dowling and K.P. Stewart, thank you for lending a kind eye to my first draft and for believing in this story.
To my family, thank you all for putting up with my crazy stories and long writing sessions. I hope my daughter will finally admit mom is a real author, just like the one who did a reading at her school. Sasha, I promise you that you’ll love this story some day (when you’re old enough to read it).
A big thanks to Lori Grundy from Cover Reveal Designs for the cover that brought a story to life. I’m so glad I met you.
Rebecca Hamilton, you made me believe success is attainable. You’re a godsend for every lost indie author and our hope.
Last but not least, thank you beloved readers. Olympian Challenger would feel very lonely indeed without your love and enthusiasm. So would I. I hope I can keep on transporting you for many years to come. Never stop reading and dreaming!
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