Demeter and I spent the rest of the class in silence. Mr. Williams was watching us all closely now, and we couldn't afford detention with Ekhidna on the loose.
Just thinking of her made me grit my teeth. We had to stop her. She was planning something. She was always planning something. But this time, it was something big. Very, very big. For her to use magick to cloak the mortal world from the Heavens, it wasn't just some petty little scheme. It was war. She had to have known that we'd come down from the Heavens to undo what she'd done, which meant whatever she had planned was worth the risk. And that meant it was bad. Very, very bad.
We were playing a dangerous game. Since Athena's death the last time we were in the mortal world, we all knew the stakes. Not even gods were safe. But that didn't change our duty. It was up to us to defend this world against Chaos, against Ekhidna, whatever the cost.
The bell rang. Demeter was already standing. I quickly joined her.
"You two! Come here!" Mr. Williams called.
We looked at each other and sighed.
As my Hero walked by, Mr. Williams caught him by the shoulder. He handed him a yellow slip. "Not so fast. For texting in class. Name?"
My Hero sighed. "Jason."
He left as Demeter and I headed up to the front of the classroom.
"For talking," Mr. Williams said. "And for whatever you were doing to provoke those guys back there. You're not as smart as you think you are, ladies. Names?"
"Krista. She's Lauren," Demeter lied.
"She can't speak for herself?" Mr. Williams asked, raising an eyebrow.
I never lied. Never had. Never would. I hated lying. And liars. I'd been married to one for almost as long as time had existed.
"Are we done?" I asked, trying not to sound as irritated as I felt.
Mr. Williams looked like he was about to say something else, but he wisely changed his mind. He handed us our slips.
"Are we actually going to this?" Demeter whispered as we walked out.
"Since Jason's got detention too, we can keep an eye on him if we go," I decided.
"Well, then we're heading over there," she said, pointing down the hall.
"What? Already?" I asked.
"It's amazing how fast school goes by when you sleep through most of it," Demeter replied.
I shoved her playfully as we walked to detention.
Demeter peeked inside the room. There were already a half dozen students inside, including Jason.
"After you, ladies," a familiar voice said.
Mr. Williams. Perfect.
Demeter and I quickly walked in and sat behind Jason.
"Welcome to detention," Mr. Williams said. "I'm sure you're all familiar with how this works. No talking. Just do your homework, and in an hour, we'll all be out of here."
When he was sufficiently distracted with his Sudoku, Demeter slipped me a note.
What's the plan?
I closed my eyes. I called my power. Images flickered in my mind. Pictures of the future. Hazy. Ever-changing. But clearer than before. At least that was a good sign.
I jotted down an answer and handed it back. She looked at me quizzically, but I just smiled and leaned back.
Leave everything to me.
CHAPTER FOUR
Jason looked up from his locker as Demeter and I walked up to him. "Um, hey. Do you guys ... want something?"
"Actually, yeah," I said.
"You," Demeter chimed in.
She grinned at me. She was trying to be helpful. That rarely ended well, at least where subtlety was concerned.
"What? What are you talking about?" Jason asked. "Is this some kind of joke?"
"No joke, I promise," I said.
"Look, I appreciate the whole thing back there with those guys," he replied. "I know you got them in trouble for me. But I can take care of myself."
"I know," I said quickly. "But they were being total jerks. I just couldn't take it anymore."
"Don't worry about it. Really," he insisted. "Look, I'm going to be late for rehearsal, so if you want to talk or something, can you make it quick?"
"It's about a job," Demeter said.
Jason hesitated for a moment as he zipped up his bag. "Thanks, but I'm not looking for work right now. I'm swamped with the spring play. Thanks anyway."
He reached to shut his locker, but I caught it before he did.
I tapped the calendar taped to the locker door. The words "Job Interview," circled in red many times, were scrawled on today's date.
"So I lied," he mumbled. "It's none of your business anyway."
"It is if we can help you," Demeter said.
"I don't need any help," he replied.
Proud. I could respect that. But lately, I'd had to swallow my own pride: I'd failed loved ones; I'd relied on mortals, when I'd thought I was above them. If I could do it, so could he.
I closed my eyes. I let the images come.
"Your dad lost his job, right?" I said, opening my eyes again.
"How...who told you?" Jason demanded.
Now was not the time to tell him I could see the future, that I'd seen him talking during his job interview when he let that little secret slip.
"Please don't tell anybody," he begged. "I just ... They don't need another excuse to hassle me."
"Hear us out, and your secret's safe," I promised.
Jason sighed dramatically. "Blackmail."
"Business," I corrected primly. Queens did not blackmail.
Another sigh.
"What choice do I have?" he said. But he couldn't quite hide his curiosity.
I turned and headed for the nearest classroom. Demeter shut the door behind her and Jason.
"This is getting kind of weird, guys," Jason said.
"Just watch," I told him.
I looked at Demeter and then at the row of bean-plants growing on the counter. She obediently extended her hands towards them. They began to twist, reaching for her, longing for her touch.
"Whoa!" Jason said. "How are you doing that?"
Demeter smiled. She was just getting started.
She swept her hands to the ceiling. The plants exploded out of their pots, growing and spreading at dizzying speed. Leaves sprouted. Tendrils intertwined. Before long, they had knit themselves together into a living banner, spelling the word "Jason."
He went pale.
"No way," he said, shaking his head. "No way! That's impossible!"
He backed away, but I was between him and the door.
"What's going on?" he demanded. He was starting to panic. "Why are you messing with me? What did I ever do to you?"
"It's not what you've done," I answered gravely. "It's what you're going to do."
"What are you ..." he started. He shook his head. "I'm out of here."
I didn't move out of his way. I just closed my eyes.
"Look, you've had your fun, whatever this is," he said. "I'm done. Get out of my way."
"Blackmail over," we said at the same time.
Jason paused.
"Stop that," we said in unison. "Stop it! This isn't funny! You're freaking me out!"
Jason stopped talking. He was speechless. He just gaped at me.
I opened my eyes. "You can go. We won't stop you. But before you do, look at the plants. Then listen to what we have to say."
Jason stared at me like I was a snake. I waited. Finally, he nodded.
He went over to the bean-plants. I sighed in relief. My head was throbbing. Seeing the future came at a price. It wasn't only unreliable: it was actually painful. Mortal bodies weren't meant to strain through time like this.
Jason approached the plants cautiously, as if they might attack him at any moment. At first, he was scared to even touch them. But then curiosity won out. It always did with mortals.
Jason ran his hands over the plants. He examined them thoroughly, lifting the pots, checking behind and under the counters, making sure there were no hidden wires anywhere.
"I can't believe it,
" he whispered. "I can't believe it. I can't..." He stopped himself. He looked at Demeter with awe. "How'd you do that?"
"You really want to know?" I asked.
Jason paused. Then he nodded fervently.
"We're gods," I told him bluntly. "Though obviously not in our true forms. We've borrowed the bodies of people you know. It's the only way we can come to your world from ours."
"Gods," he echoed. He blinked. "Right..."
"You've seen proof," Demeter said, gesturing to the plants. They waved in response.
"I've seen ... stuff," Jason corrected, "that I can't explain. Yet."
He crossed his arms. "So, if you're gods, why are you here exactly? Heaven get too boring?"
"Heavens," I corrected. "And watch your tone."
"Right," Jason replied. "Because you're a god."
"Queen of Gods," Demeter informed him. "This is Hera. I'm Demeter."
"Pleased to meet you, your Highnesses," he said dryly.
Anger burned in my chest. These days, all I needed was an excuse, any excuse, to take out all my pain, all my regret, all my frustration on someone. And that someone wasn't very likely to survive it.
Demeter wisely intervened. "We've come to your world to help, to protect it."
"Protect it from what?" Jason asked.
"Monsters," I said. There was no way around it, no matter how insane it sounded.
"Monsters," Jason said. "Like vampires and werewolves and stuff."
"Things you've never heard of," I replied. "Worse things that you could ever imagine."
"Well, that all sounds ... pretty ridiculous actually," Jason finished. "So, good luck with that. And thanks for this. It's been ... memorable."
"But we need your help!" Demeter interjected as he opened the door to leave.
"He wants to go? Let him go," I snapped.
Thread by thread, my control was snapping. My temper was breaking free.
"But we need him," Demeter protested. "You said so yourself. Without Heroes, we can't stop Ekhidna."
Jason stopped. "Heroes?"
"People like you," Demeter said. "We can awaken power inside you."
"Like, superpowers?" he ventured.
His eyes betrayed him. They'd lit up with interest. Power was a weakness gods and mortals shared.
I took out the amulet from my pocket. It caught the light beautifully. The metal was warm in my hand. A living fragment of god power. A shard of actual divinity. The most powerful and precious thing in all the worlds. And I was giving it to a mortal. No. Not just to a mortal. To a Hero. A soldier. A weapon. My weapon.
"It's ... the most beautiful thing I've ever seen," Jason murmured. He instinctively reached out for it.
"It's what will give you your powers," I told him, closing my fingers around it, "if you agree to help us."
Jason straightened. He tore his eyes away from the amulet. He looked at me for a long time. Then he sighed.
"Fine," he said. "If you give me powers, real powers, I'll believe you. And I'll do whatever you say."
"Deal," I said. "Now repeat after me..."
"Hera..." Demeter interrupted. She was looking out the door.
"One moment," I said.
"Hera..." Demeter repeated. There was something strange in her voice. Urgency. Fear.
"What's wrong?" I asked.
Demeter pulled the blinds down over the glass panes in the door. She spun around.
"You know Mr. Williams? The substitute?" she asked.
"Yeah," I said cautiously.
"Well, he's disintegrating into a pile of maggots," she said.
My eyes widened. "A yokai! It must have sensed us somehow."
"It's checking all the rooms," Demeter said. "It's at the far end of the hall."
"Which gives us five minutes," I guessed.
"Tops," Demeter agreed.
"We can't run," I thought out loud.
"So we hide," she replied.
"Until it finds us," I said. "Then we fight."
"Whoa, fight? What are you talking about?" Jason demanded, his voice rising. "What's a yokai?"
"You wanted proof," I reminded him. "Well, you're about to get it."
"What are you talking about?" he asked. He was starting to tremble.
I grabbed Jason and pulled him to the door. I pushed aside the blinds so he could peek out.
There was Mr. Williams. Or parts of him at least. Entire sections of his face were masses of writhing larvae. We watched as he reached out what should have been a hand and opened the door to another classroom. He disappeared inside.
"His ... his hand!" Jason stammered. "It's ... worms!"
I pulled him away from the window. His eyes were wide with terror.
"That's a yokai," I told him. "One of the monsters I told you about. And it's searching for us. When it finds us, it'll kill us."
I gave him a second, a precious second, to absorb that information. But a second was all that I could spare.
"There isn't much time," I continued. "I have to give you your powers now so you can fight. Otherwise, we'll all die."
"Well, Hera and I might not die," Demeter mused. "But you, you'll definitely die. Yokai secrete this paralyzing toxin, and then they slowly..."
"Not now," I interrupted. "What'll it be, Jason?"
His eyes never left the door and the memory of what he'd just seen. "You had me at superpowers."
"Good," I replied. "Repeat after me: I swear..."
"I swear," he echoed.
"By the River Styx," I continued.
"By the River Styx," he repeated.
"To serve and obey the gods always," I finished.
"To serve and obey the gods always," he said.
Jason's eyes glazed, and his knees buckled. Fortunately, Demeter caught his arm before he collapsed to the ground.
"What the hell?" Jason gasped.
"A vow sworn to gods on the River Styx is unbreakable," I explained.
Before he could say anything else, I took the amulet and pressed it against his chest. The cerulean geode in its centre ignited in a brilliant flame.
Jason screamed. I jerked my hand away from the blazing light. He tore himself away from Demeter and fell to his knees, spasming with pain. The amulet seared into him, embedding itself in his very flesh. The sickening smell of his roasting skin filled the air. But eventually the fire died down, then vanished. But words etched into the amulet still shone with azure light.
Demeter quickly handed me a knife from her pocket, and I nicked my finger. I pressed it against the geode. I spoke the words glowing on the amulet, a sacred language known only to gods and heard only by Heroes. And Justin.
Let essence be shared.
Jason collapsed, unconscious.
"The yokai must've heard that," Demeter whispered, as we dragged Jason to the back of the classroom.
"Jason will wake up soon," I assured her. "Then it's three against one."
"You sure about that?" Demeter challenged, eying Jason. He was out cold.
"Just help me block the door," I shot back.
But it was too late. As we ran back to the front of the classroom, the door began to open.
Exchanging a quick glance, Demeter and I hurled ourselves against the teacher's desk nearby, hoping to use our momentum to push it against the door. But the desk barely budged. We strained and shoved with all our might. The desk only slid an inch.
A mass of larvae was slowly reaching through the door. The yokai was being cautious. It didn't know what to expect. Two goddesses and a Hero made dangerous enemies, at least under normal circumstances.
Demeter and I gave one last grunt of effort.
Suddenly, the desk screeched across the room and smashed against the door with enough force to make the room shake. The door slammed shut, severing the yokai's arm. It screamed. A mass of larvae fell to the ground, scattering writhing worms everywhere. They started to inch their way toward us.
Careful not to let them touch us, we crushed them und
er our shoes. When we were certain they were all dead, we turned to the back of the room. Jason was awake, his arm outstretched and shaking, pointing towards the door.
"You moved the desk!" I guessed.
"Yes," he said through gritted teeth. "And now I'm holding the desk. But that thing is trying to get through the door. I can't..."
Then the struggling at the door stopped. Everything went quiet.
"It can't get in, right?" Jason asked breathlessly.
"Not if you hold the door," Demeter assured him.
But I shook my head. I'd already shut my eyes. "It's going to come under the door."
"Then what do we do?" Jason asked.
"Hera, he can't keep using his powers," Demeter whispered. "It's too early. He's still too weak. It could kill him."
Jason couldn't hear her over his own laboured breathing. He was panting like he'd just run a marathon. And he was still running it. His head was bowed. His whole body was shaking. He was in no condition to fight.
"We have to run," I decided.
"The windows?" Demeter suggested. She went over to check them. "They don't open very far."
"Any suggestions?" I asked.
Demeter didn't say anything. She was looking outside. I could tell from her face that she didn't see whatever she'd been hoping for. Then she looked down and smiled.
"Ivy," she breathed.
"Can you use your powers to open the windows with it?" I asked.
"No," she admitted. "But I think I can..."
She was concentrating too hard on using her powers to finish. I turned my attention to the front of the room. The yokai's larvae were pouring under the bottom of the door. They had already formed a writhing pool. I couldn't get close without risking the paralyzing venom.
As I watched, the larvae began to pile on each other like tiny bricks. Slowly at first. Then faster and faster until they were a blur. We didn't have much time.
Demeter manoeuvred a small shovel through the window.
"Please tell me this isn't it," I said, as she tossed the shovel to me.
"No, there's a bag. Probably has some other stuff in it," she said. "But I need more time to get it."
"Fair enough," I replied.
The yokai had reformed. Its head turned. It looked directly at me. It smiled. Larvae crawled along its skin and disappeared into the holes where a mouth and eyes should have been.
Hera, Queen of Mortals (Goddess Unbound) Page 2
