by Amy Hopkins
Cisco laughed and nodded. "Yeah. That."
Penny leaned against him, welcoming the reprieve from the crisp wind. "Then it's lucky I’ve got enough balls for the two of us."
Cisco spluttered and began to protest but was interrupted by a call from Red.
"It's ready! Stop trying to get in each other's pants and come help."
The beach was soon dotted with tiny orange flags marking out the area that Red intended to search for the giant gold-digging ant.
Penny held the clipboard, marking off each sector as Cisco paced back and forth inside of it. The sensor he swept over the sand would penetrate the sand, showing any variations in the density below. Red’s theory was that it would pick up tunnels dug by the ant, helping them to pinpoint its lair.
Nearby, Red squinted into a small tablet screen with Amelia watching over his shoulder. Penny glanced up in time to see Amelia point excitedly at the small display.
"Cisco!" Red called. "Jump on over to sector eight. No, the next one." When Cisco paused, counting off each of the squares they'd marked off, Red groaned. "Fine, sector nine. No, that’s— Just take two bloody steps to your right! That's my boy."
"Hey, I can't help it if you're giving bad instructions." Regardless, Cisco swept the sensor over the area, methodically working from one end to the other.
"Stop!" Red dropped the tablet into the sand and darted for the pile of equipment beside him. A moment later, he withdrew old Bessie. He kissed the shaft and held it aloft. "Don't fail me now, love."
"I remember when he used to talk to me like that," Amelia remarked wistfully. Still, she grinned as Red ran over to where Cisco had stopped, patiently waiting.
Penny trotted over toward them. "Red, am I supposed to mark off section four? You interrupted Cisco before he finished it."
Red didn't answer, crowing with delight instead as his metal detector squealed loudly.
"All hands on deck!" Red tossed the metal detector aside and fell to his knees, pushing sand to one side with his big hands.
He had already explained that shovels were out of the question. The goal was to photograph the specimen, not to accidentally decapitate it with a poorly placed spade.
Penny dropped the clipboard and joined the small circle and helping to unearth the gold thief's lair. She jumped back when the middle of their small hole began to collapse, the center writhing and wiggling as a creature pushed two pincers up into the fresh air.
"That's… What is that?" Amelia squealed.
The appendages were huge, each one the size of Penny's hand. The rest of the ant climbed out of the fallen sand, its oversized legs decked with pretty gold chains and bracelets. It crawled over toward Penny, stopping to vomit out a mouthful of mucous-covered jewelry. Penny scurried back.
Red already had his phone out, snapping pictures of their prize. "Isn't he beautiful?"
"It vomits gold, so I suppose it can't be that bad." Amelia grimaced. "But I expected ingots. Where did he get all that?"
Red got down to his belly, trying to get a better image. “I guess ingots are in short supply on a tourist beach these days. That was probably all dropped by beachgoers, lost in the sand."
Suddenly, the ant’s pincers clacked. It scurried away, kicking up loose sand into Red's face as it ran. "Hey! I wasn't finished, you wee prick."
"That thieving bastard is going for our stuff," Cisco yelled. He took off after it, Penny on his heels.
The ant, its speed seemingly increased with its size, had already reached their small pile of gear. It threw aside Penny's cardigan and snatched up her wallet, waving it in the air before diving into the sand.
"Get him!" she yelled as Cisco closed in on the half-buried insect.
Cisco dove, and so did something else. Penny watched in shock as the winged creature plucked the ant from the sand and flung it across the beach.
"What the fuck was that?" Cisco asked, spitting sand out of his mouth.
"I don't know, but that little prick still has my stuff." Penny turned on her heel, racing toward the fallen ant. The flying beast swooped again, tackling the ant and wrestling Penny's purse away from the insect. It struggled to gain height as its foe clutched at the strap.
Penny snatched at her purse, jerking it away from the strange creatures. “Dammit!” The strap dangled in two lengths, snapped in the middle. The winged Myther shot into the air, spun once, then swooped back down to dive at Penny’s head. She belted it with her purse and it tumbled onto the sand.
"It's a gryphon!" Red exclaimed, appearing beside her.
“It couldn’t have been," Penny said. She watched as it flapped back into the air and let out a roar. "Gryphons have a bird’s head. This looks more like a reptile of some kind."
"Dragon, actually. It's a pixiu," Amelia informed them. She shrugged at the bewildered faces turned her way. "Didn’t you see that chart comparing animal mixes back in Madera's classroom? It has the head of a dragon, body of a lion, and feathered bird wings. Unlike a gryphon, which is comprised of—"
"No time for a biology lesson, Amelia," Cisco panted. "But I think you’re right—they’re attracted to gold, too. Look." He pointed to the beast, which was now digging in the collapsed tunnel made by the gold thief.
"Shite." Red ran toward it, waving his arms and hollering as he went. "Piss off, you bugger! Piss off! I need that gold for my assignment!"
Red snatched and waved at the fluttering pixiu, but it was persistent. It roared at Red and swiped a paw at him until he backed off, then resumed its search for the gold.
A flurry of sand pelted Penny's calf as the gold-digging ant took off to protect its stash. It raced into the fray, darting in between Red's legs and tripping him before leaping into the collapsed tunnel. Sand puffed and undulated as it disappeared into the tunnels below.
"No!" Red howled as the ant disappeared into the sand. "That gold was mine, you wee feathery trollop!” He waved his fist at the pixiu, who flapped away down the beach now that the gold was gone.
"It's okay, Red." Amelia went over to help him up, dusting sand off his face before accepting a kiss from him. "I got pictures of them. Two Mythers in one! It’s not gold, but you should get at least a little extra credit for it, right? And anyway, all that stuff was lost property. You would have had to hand it in to the police in case it was claimed.”
Red brightened and kissed her on the cheek. "I knew I kept you around for a reason." When Amelia raised a threatening eyebrow, he backtracked. "Because you're smart. You're clever, and pretty, and wise. Most of all, you’re far too good for a bastard like me."
She grinned and hugged him. “Exactly."
Chapter Eight
Penny left her class with Professor Glass the next morning feeling pretty good about herself. He had—perhaps inspired by her choice of weapons the previous day—run the class through a brush up on medieval weapons. Thanks to her recent practice, Penny had come out on top.
That good feeling had been all but sucked out of her by the end of the next lesson.
“This current influx is not ceasing. No, the pantheons of old are passing over at a higher rate. As it has always been, not all of them mean to live harmoniously with us.” Hardwick slapped the board, leaving a smudge right in the middle of a long list of beings from Greek mythology that had recently been sighted.
Everything from the Hecatoncheires and Cyclopes to the Titans themselves had been seen stalking the streets of America, and other continents. Many of them had been destructive, though the loss of life had been minimal thus far.
“Why aren’t the other gods doing something about it?” Kathy asked.
“Maybe they are.” Penny gave the girl a comforting smile but didn’t elaborate.
Her position at Paddy’s meant that she had a rare insight into the many alliances and safeguards the Mythers were attempting to create in order to stem the tide of malevolent entities. Bacchus in particular was invested in making sure that the reputation of the Greek gods remained good in the public eye.<
br />
As far as Penny knew, his work to build an alliance of the gods was progressing well. They’d managed to talk down some of the more sentient new additions to the real world, and had quietly dispatched a few of the more vicious ones. All that, however, was information she had been asked to keep quiet.
A bell chimed and the class stood, eager to shake off the direness of the class and take advantage of the short break before they attended the Cybermythology lesson after lunch. It was a mandatory class, so Penny knew it would be full.
Penny rubbed her eyes as she wandered to the Academy dining hall. “Two down, two to go,” she said to Amelia. “Dean March must hate us. Why else would she schedule three mythology classes in a row?”
Despite her interest, the Greek Mythology class had been a dry, factual account of the legendary myths, and a catalog of which ones had been sighted. Even the professor’s warning at the end of class hadn’t been enough to take the edge of boredom away.
“Food.” Amelia nodded at the doorway ahead. “Food will wake us up. And coffee.”
Penny and Amelia made a beeline for the dining hall. Just as Amelia shoved the door open and the aroma of warm Mexican food wafted through, Penny felt a hand on her arm. It was Trevor.
“I’ll join you in half a sec, Amelia.” Penny waved her friend ahead. “What’s up, Trevor?”
Trevor fidgeted nervously. “I need a favor.”
“Sure. What is it?” Penny waited patiently, but Trevor didn’t answer until three more students had passed them.
Once they were alone, he continued, “I need you to tell Prof Anand I’m not coming to class.”
“Okay,” Penny answered slowly. “Am I giving her an excuse?”
His eyes brightened and he gave her a wobbly grin. “I’m on a case.”
“Oh. Oh!” Penny raised her hand for a high five. The palm that slapped hers was cold and sweaty. “Are you sure there’s nothing else I can help with?”
Trevor shook his head resolutely. “Not yet. Once I get the go-ahead from Agent Crenel—”
“Wait.” Penny waved him down. “He hasn’t given you a mission code yet?”
Trevor straightened. “He’s about to,” he clarified. “I have a meeting with him now. Then I’m on the case.”
Though Penny wondered if his confidence was entirely warranted, she congratulated him. “I’ll let Anand know,” she promised. “Are you coming in for some lunch?”
Trevor shook his head. “I have to prep my presentation.”
“Presentation?” Penny wondered, but Trevor had already darted away. “I think he might be underestimating Crenel’s love of brevity.” The Special Agent was notorious for his loathing of wordy requests.
Brushing off the encounter, Penny hurried to join Amelia in the queue for lunch. The day’s spread was a large tray of paella with corn chips, tortillas, tomato salad, grilled corn cobs, and guacamole.
Cisco was already in line when Penny arrived. He waved at her and gestured to a table where Red was sitting, a pained expression on his face.
“Oh, the poor dear is starving,” Amelia teased. She flashed Penny a quick grin. “You’re gonna have to help me carry his lunch back.”
Since his wolfish transformation, Red’s appetite had settled a little. He still ate twice as much as a normal human, though, and was prone to letting everyone around him know if a meal was running too late for his empty stomach to bear.
“Fine,” Penny conceded. “But he’s not getting my leftovers until I’m actually finished, okay? If I have to leave for the loo or something, you’d better guard my food with your life.”
“Pinkie swear.” Amelia crooked her little finger and clasped it around Penny’s, giggling.
They filled plates for themselves, and Amelia happily accepted the serving platter Cook handed her for Red.
“Poor boy, he’s wasting away over there.” Cook looked ready to pounce over the servery to hand Red the dish herself. “You make sure you pile it up nice and high, now!”
“Yes, Cook.” Amelia did as she was instructed, confident that even with her boyfriend’s voracious appetite to contend with, the kitchen would have more than enough to feed every student on the premises.
The break passed quickly, and Penny felt ready to tackle the rest of the day with a full belly and a hot coffee when she arrived at her next class.
Anand waited for the last of the straggling students to file in and take a seat before she closed the door. She glanced around, lips pursed. “Where is Trevor?”
Trevor had not only taken a deep interest in the class, but he was also Anand’s go-to when she needed a class assistant. Now, his usual seat in the front corner of the classroom was empty.
“He’s on a case, Professor.” Penny figured there was no need to let Anand know the “case” hadn’t technically been approved yet. Whatever Trevor was working on, he seemed to believe it was urgent enough to miss his favorite class.
Anand looked down over her spectacles. “Trevor is on a case?”
Mara frowned and raised a hand. “I didn’t think our missions were allowed to impact on class attendance.”
“They’re not,” Anand snapped. “Not without permission from their instructor.”
Oh. Penny hoped she hadn’t gotten either Trevor or Agent Crenel in trouble with the usually kind instructor.
Anand moved on with the class, one that covered several instances of computer viruses that defied logic, a string of incredible luck after a chain of emails was passed around, and a wizened old lady who claimed to be cured of cancer through the good people sharing her social media story. Further testing revealed the woman had no DNA. She was a Myther, complete with a convincing but false stack of papers “proving” her medical claims.
“The prevalence of these cyber myths-turned-reality is increasing,” Anand told them. “And the forms they take seem to shift and change as fast as the internet itself. I cannot stress how much care you must take online or on a device whose origins you are not certain of.”
She dismissed the class with one last shake of her head at Trevor’s empty seat, one that stuck with Penny as she headed toward her next lesson.
British Mythology ended with a similar warning—that creatures from Myth and Legend were pouring through the Veil at an unprecedented pace. Over in England, politicians were fighting over what to do about it, with suggestions ranging from a ban on Mythological activity unless properly licensed, to a task force comprised almost entirely of Mythers themselves designed to thwart the less desirable newcomers.
Penny left the class with her head swimming, thankful that Cisco, Amelia, and Red had also been made to choose the class this semester so she could debrief.
“Do they really think they can just conscript a bunch of Mythers into an army to fight their own?” she asked, pushing around tater tots on her plate.
“They’re politicians. They think they could conscript half the population to scrub their bathrooms if they needed to.” Cisco offered Penny a jug of gravy, but she shook her head.
Red pushed back from the table. “It’s all bollocks, anyway. They can’t force them to do anything. If they tried, they’d get their asses handed back to them on a pike.”
“Asses go on a platter, Red.” Penny slid her still-full plate toward him, and he sat back down with a grin as he tucked into her uneaten dinner. “Heads go on a pike.”
“And where do you think they’ll find their heads?” Red asked through a mouthful of food.
“Good point.” Penny wiped her face and eyed Cisco. She jutted her chin toward his napkin and, blushing, he wiped the smudge of grease off his chin.
“Is that my son using something other than his shirt to wipe his face?” Professor Madera walked over, placed a stack of folders on the table, and pulled out a chair, ignoring her son’s groan as he shrank down in his seat.
“Come on, Mom. You promised you’d stop embarrassing me in public.”
“I was complimenting you. Or perhaps whoever instigated t
his new Cisco.” Her smile didn’t entirely reach her eyes, though, and her mouth quickly puckered back into a worried line.
“Mom? What’s wrong?” Cisco leaned over and placed a hand on his mother’s arm.
“Nothing at all. I simply wanted to ask how you are all doing with your classes this semester.” Madera’s eyes flicked to Penny. “We have some new teachers, some from quite a distance away.”
“Classes are fine.” Cisco leaned back and rubbed his stomach. “Boring, but fine.”
“My son. Learning about living, breathing, magical beings, and he calls it boring.” Madera shook her head, patting Cisco’s arm as she stood. “As long as ‘boring’ is as bad as it gets, I am happy. But if any of you are having trouble with your classes—or the professors teaching them—you come and see me, okay?”
“Classes are fine, Mom, and so are the professors. We don’t have another Jones. It’s not like you to worry so much.” Cisco squeezed her arm. “Are you sure there’s nothing wrong?”
Madera quirked an eyebrow. “Wrong? Apart from the newest intake, which is full of egotistical young men and women who are sure that the answer to the Veil’s secret lies on Instagram, seventy papers that need grading, ninety-two applications for the teaching assistant’s job I posted and the pile of washing someone left on the hallway floor this morning? Everything’s fine.”
Cisco winced. “Sorry. Probably should have warned you I was bringing my laundry.”
“Cisco!” Penny thumped his arm. “You lazy shit! She’s your mother, not your slave.”
Madera chuckled. “Actually, the washing wasn’t left for me to do. I recently acquired a fairy prone to doing housework. I happened to ask Cisco if he had anything that needed doing because if she isn’t kept busy, she does tend to get into mischief. Once, she baked ninety-two cupcakes in a single morning. They were hard as rocks, unfortunately.” She eyed her son. “However, her tiny frame is unsuited to lifting a basket piled three feet high with clothes. I almost broke my neck when I tripped over it this morning.”
Cisco stuck his tongue out at Penny, who simply rolled her eyes in response.
