by Holly Hook
Maria held up her forearm as we stepped over the threshold. "It's like that curse Prometheus put on us last year. The green lines faded, and now his mark is, too. And do you know what?"
"What?"
"I don't think Mikey and I are even cursed anymore." Maria slugged me. "I don't get that faint headache when I leave campus now. Of course, I need to keep taking the asphodel so I don't mature within the next year." Her tone dropped as she finished.
"Well, that's one thing going right," I said, swallowing. We stared at each other for a bit and Mikey joined in to boot. Only Wendy, who didn't have to fear turning into anything, shrunk back. She moved like she wanted to disappear.
We were all just delaying the inevitable. I could feel it. And I still carried the secret of Maria's father in my chest.
I stayed in my dorm that night and we got out some cards, trying to distract ourselves. What else could we do right now? I had to trust that Zeus would distract Hades and the dark god would get so caught up trying to figure out the modern world that he'd forget about me. What I'd seen in the office was a good sign.
When Ronin knocked, Maria, Mikey, and Wendy got up, sensing that I needed time alone with him. We put away our playing cards when he stepped in. I wanted to know how his conversation with Zeus had gone. Those tended to affect my fate.
He flashed me a grin, one I had never seen before.
Was that relief? Yes, as Ronin leaned on my desk, his shoulders had lowered. I hadn't realized how often he kept them near his ears until now.
"We'll see you tomorrow," Mikey said. "It's only eight, so we might go down to the dining hall, if you want to meet us there."
"Or we can go off campus," Wendy added. "We'd have to find a car, though."
"Speaking of that," Ronin said with a relaxed smile, "I've got one. At long last. At eighteen and a half, I get my first car."
"You what?" I stiffened right in the middle of the room.
Maria pulled my door open and left, Mikey and Wendy following.
"Tell," I ordered.
"Zeus...is getting less harsh on me," Ronin said, pacing as if he couldn't believe it. "I thought the worst when he wanted me to meet with him, but he surprised me. Handed me the keys to a Lamborghini."
The room seemed to expand. Ronin might as well have told me Prometheus had offered to remove my mark and let me transfer. "Are you kidding? He wouldn't even let you have a bicycle before."
"He might have let me have that. I just didn't ask. Too much pride," Ronin said with a relieved smile. "He told me I've been proving myself. He even figured out we stayed at the Fortress over the summer, but he wasn't mad. Zeus was legit impressed that I got you out of there. Wow, now that things are changing, I feel like I shouldn't be bragging." He paced again like he was lost. Relieved, but lost.
"You've got to show me."
"Hey, he might have given it to me so I can take you off campus after school." Ronin motioned to the door and grabbed my hand with a devilish grin. "Dangerous, but maybe he's really starting to trust me. Or he really doesn't trust Hades and I don't blame him."
"But the Lower Order is out there," I said as I fished in my jeans pocket to make sure my keycard was there. Check. "They were here in town just the other night. Zeus is normally a lot more careful than this." But happy tingles raced over my skin. I wanted to get in that sexy car with Ronin and see his driving. He deserved it.
"Oh, he talked about that. Hinted we shouldn't hang around Marchamp in case the Lower Order is still around. There are other things to do." He lifted his eyebrow. "Other towns are just a dozen miles away, and if we go into the city, we're more likely to blend in if we check out some fancy restaurants. You'll need to shop for some different clothes to get in, though." He finished by checking out my body. "And so will I."
"I'm not an evening dress type girl."
He pouted as we walked down the steps. "We'll stand out if we go to some mom and pop pizza place." Ronin had a point. "You know what? We'll stand out no matter what we do, but I'm ready to go out and have some fun. Get out, you know?"
Zeus had parked Ronin's new car at the front of Olympian Academy, right beside the fountain and its colored lights. Frost had started to settle on the windshield, and a small crowd of people had gathered to stare at the sleek, dark gray chariot of awesomeness. Colors danced on the hood, merging with each other in the car's smooth grooves like a disco party.
We are doing an official date. In that. We had to be dreaming.
I recognized Alan, who stood beside the redhead, and she glared at me as I walked to the vehicle, hand in hand with Ronin. Ronin hit the remote and the headlights blinked as the car chirped. The heat blasted to life and the car was already warm as I got into the passenger seat, rubbing my hand along the perfect leather seats. The windows tinted on their own after I closed the door, and the small crowd of Olympian students on the steps of the main building leaned forward, trying to peek at us as if we were celebrities.
"This. Is. Awesome," Ronin said. "I still can't believe it's real." He rubbed his hand through his dark hair and then over the steering wheel, the sleek dashboard, and the seat. "I never thought this would happen. That I'd be--"
"You're good enough," I finished for him. "Now drive, mister."
A huge grin exploded on Ronin's face, and once again his shoulders dropped as he molded into the seat. Ronin did deserve this, every moment of it.
* * * * *
I always had fun when I went out with Ronin, but now a whole new world had opened. I hadn't realized how much tension he'd been holding until I danced with him at the fancy club we stopped at in Tattlesburg, a large town about forty minutes away. Ronin twisted and flopped around like he didn't have a care in the world, and in this club, everyone seemed to be normal, so there was no magical energy other than his for me to accidentally absorb. Once in a while, when someone bumped into Ronin, they looked at him like they weren't sure what to think. His electric atmosphere was surprising if you weren't used to it. But as the night wore on, a larger and larger ring formed around us. These people probably had no idea we were descended from immortals, but something in them must sense that we were different.
I danced with Ronin, glad I was just old enough to enter the club legally, and I let the music sweep me away. It wasn't Orpheus, but almost as good. Ronin kept a solid smile on his face, as if someone had lifted all his tension in one swoop. At least we collapsed into a booth to catch our breath.
"How you feeling?" he shouted over the music.
"Great!" We could barely talk over the roar. People closed in on the dance floor again, mashing together to the tune of another song. The low groan still hung in the background, but it was distant, like a storm that wouldn't hit for another hour yet. This was neutral territory.
We took off a bit after that, and Ronin drove his new ride to a park that was lit by nothing but round globe lights. Peace settled over me. There was no real darkness here, just night. Even the familiar low groan in my head faded. Staring at this icy park, I was just Giselle. And Ronin was just my boyfriend. The air in the car went from an excited tingle to a warm one. Had I always been able to sense Ronin's moods this well?
"Want to go for a walk?" he asked. "All that music is still reverberating through my head. First time I've gone to a club."
"You?"
"Well, I wanted to wait until we were both eighteen and could, you know, get in. Mortal laws apply to us too. Come on."
I linked hands with Ronin and pulled my coat up over my neck, encasing myself in a warm cocoon. The night was still below freezing, and the sidewalk shone with ice in the cracks, but no one else was out in the park this late and in this weather. And for some reason, the place wasn't creepy at all. We walked past a frozen pond, one so smooth the globe light nearby made an almost perfect reflection, and I wondered if Ronin would want to skate across it.
And he didn't disappoint, taking my arm. "Come on!"
We slid onto the pond, almost going down on our butts, and when
the ice of the shore didn't crack, we awkwardly slid out to the middle. But Ronin maintained control, holding my arms.
"I haven't seen you this happy in a long time," I said.
"You don't know what came off my shoulders. Zeus...he forgave me."
Ronin didn't have to say for what. His mother. When the Lower Order sent monsters into the mansion he and her were living in, he hid. His mother fought and died. Zeus held that over his head after that, even mentioning it the night of Pamira's party back in my first year.
"He should have done that eight years ago."
"Well, he was upset. But now he's coming around." Ronin twirled us in a wide circle, and though we spiraled farther apart, we held hands like a pair of figure skaters. The world spun around us. Despite that, I felt like things were starting to make sense. "You needed to come into my life. And I promise you that you're going to stay there."
I don't know how long we skated and spun around on the ice, but I mulled over Ronin's words when we got back in the car and pulled out of the parking lot seconds before a police cruiser came past. "That was close," Ronin said.
No. Ronin hadn't asked me to marry him. He'd need a ring for that, for starters, and he would have done that in style. Besides, we were still young. But his promise hung and covered me in warmth. Would I want that?
We'd already gone through so much together. Fought. Came back together again. Endured curses. Fought some more, and not always with each other. Most couples didn't have to deal with that and I envied them.
The drive back to Cursed Academy seemed to take forever and no time at all. We'd gone out far tonight and I had classes tomorrow. A bit of normal dread settled over me as I thought of how Mrs. Allenson would react to me skipping. Max would understand and Celestus would do the same, and Mrs. Ershaw wouldn't be terrible either, probably just disappointed.
"I hate bringing you back here," Ronin said. "And I'm staying with you tonight, just in case. We're definitely walking back to your dorm together."
"I wouldn't want it any other way." I eyed the dark trees and the vines hanging on either side of the car.
But then the headlights fell on a pair of green Olympian Guard vehicles blocking the drive, and Ronin stomped on the brakes. Thankfully, the car had a great braking system and we stopped well enough in time, though I lurched forward and had to grab the dashboard.
"What are these vans doing here?" he asked, blinking.
Yellow lights spun on the top of both Olympian Guard vans. One of Ares's symbols, the head of a boar, snarled at us from the side of each van. An Olympian Guard, a woman in a green uniform and helmet, held up a shock stick at us. "Out!" she ordered.
"We'd better do as she says," Ronin told me. "Out. Hands up."
My heart raced. Why were two Olympian Guard vans blocking the way to our school? Maybe they were busting Hades for perving on students. But I held my breath, not daring to let my relief fill my chest.
We got out, hands up. The Guard nodded, but shot us a serious look from behind her plastic face mask. "Step to the side. I know you're probably students but we need to check everyone going in and out. We've had a murder."
"What?" I blurted.
Ronin shook his head at me. "This has got to be bad. Giselle...this is just outside Zeus's protective border."
He was right. We hadn't yet passed through the invisible, electric barrier that still hung around both schools, enclosing them in a Lower Order-proof bubble. The school itself was still about a mile away. And now that my eyes were adjusting to the dark, more details popped. More Olympian Guards milled around, about a dozen of them, and a group huddled around something lying in the trees. A shoe sole faced me, attached to a leg in jeans...I swallowed the bile of terror that rose in my throat. I'd seen plenty of violence, but not actual death.
It was a lot different than seeing it on TV.
"Step back," the Guard told us. "Henry here will scan you."
"Who is that?" Ronin asked. "Tell us who it is. We know people over in Cursed Academy."
"A student," the woman said sadly. "Someone trying to sneak off campus. Stand over here for Henry. He's going to make sure neither of you are Lower Order."
"Hold out your hands, palms up," a male Guard ordered. He held a golden wand emblazoned with the symbol of a wing. Whose symbol was that again? "Now. We don't have time for this."
I did as he asked, and my hand tingled as he ran the wand over it. The Guard eyed my palm, and when he saw no orange symbol of Hecate glowing there, he motioned for Ronin to step forward. Why bother to test a son of Zeus? Well, at least the Olympian Guards were fair, unlike a few people over in Olympian Academy.
"Who died?" Ronin asked, stepping between me and the foot of the body lying across the road. But he didn't have to. The Guards, as if trying to block the sight, had moved in front of whoever was lying there. And now I noticed the back end of a car. Students hid vehicles out here all the time, sneaking off campus to use them, but this one seemed to be pretty far from campus. A faint, burned smell tormented my nostrils when I inhaled.
"We cannot say," the female guard said. "Move on. Drive around the left of the vans. There's just enough room, and don't dent up that car. Makes me jealous." She forced a grin, obviously trying to smooth over the situation.
We did so, leaving the scene behind. Our car passed through Zeus's invisible border a moment later and then beyond. Neither of us spoke as we pulled through the motion-sensing gates and back onto the grounds of Cursed Academy a few minutes later.
"That didn't make any sense," Ronin said. "Why walk over a mile in this weather to get to your hidden vehicle? Who would do that?"
"I don't know," I said. Something was very wrong. "Someone else might have wanted to join the Lower Order and tried to back out. You know how they take to that. And it's a full moon tonight. That's when they recruit."
Chapter Five
Ronin and I could barely sleep that night. Had the Lower Order really crept up on the very border of Cursed Academy again? And then murdered a scared student who changed their mind?
The first thing I'd done, of course, was check to make sure the victim was no one I knew. I found Maria sleeping in her dorm, and when Ronin texted Cal, Cal told us that Mikey was all right. That left a few people I knew, including Wendy, and she hadn't been in her dorm. Wendy went out a lot at night. So my heart raced harder and harder the closer the time crept to morning. Even with Ronin beside me, I could barely sleep. He kept his arm over my shoulders, keeping me warm, but nothing could hold the sickness at bay. I listened for Maria's knock--she'd tell me right away if she had news--but it never came.
I might have drifted off once or twice, only to be awakened by a sense of dread that had nothing to do with magic. Ronin stirred with me every time. When morning rolled around, I got up and dressed before Ronin completely awakened.
"Up," I ordered.
"It's six."
"If there's news, it'll circulate before breakfast. Trust me. And the staff like to get up early."
"Maybe Hades is a late riser. I doubt he's a morning person, even in the winter. And it's still dark." Ronin blinked and then his eyes widened. "Oh. Oh, yeah. We have to figure out who died."
I felt bad for disturbing his dreams, and somehow I also felt bad that Ronin and I had been out having fun while someone had died right off the drive to Cursed Academy. The room seemed to close in as I pulled on my jeans. The Lower Order was getting closer...and closer...and closer.
Ronin dressed, and we walked down through the dark to the dining hall. Most people weren't awake yet and I blinked sleep from my eyes once we got down there. Yeah. Empty, except for the lunch ladies, who were busy in the kitchen behind closed window doors. Only the green torches spat on the walls, adding to the creepy atmosphere. With the cold that Hades brought with him, I felt like I was back in the Underworld.
Thankfully, Ronin was right that the dark god wasn't an early riser.
I texted Maria, asking her to meet us, and she did five minut
es later, already dressed. Turned out she had been up all night, too, and Mikey had gone to her dorm, not wanting to leave her alone.
"Should we call Cal over?" Mikey asked.
"Not yet," Ronin said. "We don't know if Lower Order creeps are still hanging around. I don't want him to be the next victim."
"Where's Wendy?" I asked. The shoe looked like it belonged to a male last night, but Wendy was a pro at sneaking around. My thoughts had gone to her all night, but now I finally had the guts to speak her name out loud. "We need to find her. I haven't seen her."
"Probably not everyone heard about the murder," Maria said. "You know she goes out at night and stays up late."
We walked back to Wendy's dorm, and when she answered, her eyes were red. Bloodshot. Her hair was disheveled and she smelled of the cold outdoors.
"Wendy?" I asked, heaving out a giant sigh of relief.
"Sorry I wasn't around or answering your texts. It's been...a rough night." Her eyes were puffy and her skin pale like she'd been sick. "So you heard." She waved us inside her dorm. "Sorry for the oddly appropriate decorations."
We entered the small space. Black blankets were strewn off her bed and a skull lamp glowed purple on the night table. "When did you hear? Why didn't you come up and see us? None of us were sleeping, you know."
"Listen to Giselle," Maria said.
"It was Percival!" Wendy whirled, letting out all her emotion. "He was texting with someone a lot yesterday, but he was still mad at me about the party so he wouldn't tell me who he was texting. I knew it wasn't Serena, since she's quit talking to both of us and I didn't see her texting anyone back. I heard a few hours ago. They found him lying there in the trees, and he...he was mauled by something. Probably werewolves." Wendy hiccupped as tears gathered in the corners of her eyes.
I had never seen Wendy shed tears before.
"Oh," I said. "Percival? Why would he wander off campus?" I had barely spoken to him, but he didn't seem to be a terrible guy. Just caught up in the elite clique.
