by Holly Hook
Ronin let out a breath. Celestus turned again, this time past the Sorting Temple and down the road that led to Cursed Academy. He pulled into the trees, hiding the car. Now we had to walk to the hole in my barrier, which was set in the woods. I hoped no more Lower Order people were hanging around the opening.
Ronin would run as soon as we opened the car doors. He let out a long, angry breath. "They can stop the monsters from maturing?"
"Yes," Mikey said. "We're only working with them because of that. Trust me, none of us actually like them. They're a necessary evil. Once we defeat the gods, the Lower Order is gone."
And a part of me, the part with glass shards stabbing me everywhere, wanted to let Ronin run. Why did I let myself believe I was anything but dark? Tonight had been a horrific reminder of what I was. I wanted to say something, but couldn't.
I got out, and then Ronin exited the car. Tucking the dagger into my belt, I gulped, knowing I'd have to be just as bad as Hades if he tried to run. But Ronin stood there, waiting for the rest of us to stand and stretch. Celestus did. The two faced each other over the vehicle's roof.
Then Ronin and I looked each other in the eye. He had sobered up some, though his eyes remained red.
"Why aren't you running?" I asked. Around me, the woods stayed quiet and dark. The Lower Order didn't appear to gloat about whatever they planted in the sewer. I could have taken care of the Olympian Guard by myself. All I had to do was scare them. Maybe if Dominique hadn't let off whatever explosive spell had blasted open the sewer, I wouldn't have caused a bizarre chain reaction.
"Because obviously you need me to end of all this," Ronin said, dry. He kept his face expressionless. "I agree. I see Zeus for what he is now."
"You saw?"
"Look, I know you didn't attack him for no reason. Not after what we've been through. I shouldn't have left you alone with him," Ronin said, turning away and rubbing his forehead. "I'm sure Natalia and Celestus will tell me I'm right. But I freaked out when I saw you like that. You weren't Giselle. You were standing there with the Lower Order cheering you on."
Maybe there was hope.
"How do you know I attacked Zeus for a reason?" I had to hear it from his lips.
"Because I've been talking with a lot of former students of Olympian Academy," Ronin said. "Girls. They've been too afraid to come forward about Zeus. What can they do? If they tell their stories, the gods will find ways to keep everything quiet and punish them." Ronin dared to face me, eyes shining with regret. Guilt. "I let you down, Giselle. And now you're this because of me. But you're doing the same to me. You went to the Order."
I gulped, remembering the distressed girl coming out of Zeus's office just a few months ago. I hadn't given it any thought until now. And Ronin had missed the signs, too. A bad taste rose in my mouth. "Ronin, no one wants to see their father acting like this. Or trying to take over the world. And I didn't want the Lower Order to do what they did tonight."
"I should have seen the signs." Ronin punched a tree as sparks danced around his knuckles. He was just as angry at himself as he was at me. The booze was leaving his system, offering no protection from the ugly truth. "I came from a douche bag. Awesome. And for a while Zeus blinded me with that stupid car. I took it out and totaled it, by the way."
Well, I exist because Dominique summoned me from Chaos itself. But I couldn't say the words. "You totaled it?"
"I haven't seen Zeus since that night at the Temple. Not since the storm." Slowly, Ronin faced me as everyone watched. "I've been hiding in the last place he'd expect to find me. And thinking."
Yes. The last place I'd look for a son on the run would be next to my factory.
"He's a rotten father," Ronin continued, backing off from me. "And I've been a rotten boyfriend. I want to get back together, Giselle. I really do. But I am not working with or around the Lower Order. If you have them crawling around here now, I want nothing to do with this."
How could I lie to him? There was one final sticking point and Ronin was not going to budge. And I couldn't blame him.
"They're hanging around somewhere around the school like they've always done, and I don't want to work with them," I said, my voice echoing through the trees.
"You don't want to work with them. That part is a relief. But you are working with them." Ronin worked his jaw, eyes shining with my betrayal.
"She doesn't have a choice!" Maria shouted.
"Ronin, don't make me choose," I said. "Maria and Mikey are going to turn into monsters unless the Lower Order can make the gods go dormant again. If the gods' power doesn't leave the world, Maria and Mikey will mature and, well, you've seen how some of the gods treat the monsters and the people who are descended from dark gods."
"And I'm one of the lucky ones," Wendy said.
"Exactly," I said. "So what am I supposed to do? I don't like the Lower Order. Once we're done with all this and things settle down, we don't have to associate with them anymore." Dominique might not be completely evil, but she'd taken away Ronin's childhood. And that was inexcusable.
"Giselle, I can't do this!" Ronin dropped his hands, opening his palms, but he didn't reach for his sword. "Do you realize the position we're both in?"
"Would everyone kindly listen!" Dominique stepped out from the trees, clapping so loud that the sound made me jump.
Oh.
I'd been so focused on Ronin that I didn't notice the Lower Order itself waiting in the darkness between the trees, even with my elevated senses. Dominique's black robe swished in the dark as she approached. Several black-robed figures stood behind her, waiting.
Ronin drew his sword.
Maria and Mikey backed off. "Now what?" Mikey asked.
His skin was the faintest blue. He needed help. And Maria slapped her hand to her forehead, unconsciously, but the motion wasn't lost on me.
"Ronin. No," I said, stepping forward. With two quick strides, I placed myself between Ronin, his sparking weapon, and the Lower Order. With Ronin at my back, I faced down the witch and glared right into her golden-flecked eyes. My dagger hung heavy on my belt, reminding me what I'd caused back at the motel parking lot.
"Giselle. You brought Ronin," Dominique said with a nasty smile. "Excellent. We will need him later to reach Olympus and crush the tyrant." There was something smoldering under that smile. Rage. Her eyes sparkled and the black-robed figures behind her shifted with nerves. They had heard me. I'd thought the Lower Order would be back in town, gloating over the explosion.
"What did you do at the motel?" I asked.
"We might have planted the right herbs and recited the correct spell in the sewer below the motel. When the blood of Athena and Ares was nearby, the spell would go off." Dominique spoke quickly as if that part weren't important. She punctuated her sentence with a silent glare.
We couldn't hurt each other, but her gaze promised some kind of punishment. She had me, an immortal, by the throat and she knew. The heat drained from my face.
And Ronin remained still. She was destroying my chance with him and she knew that, too. The darkness waited on the horizon for me to call forth, but I tensed, holding back. I wouldn't risk another chain reaction.
"You promised to not hurt Ronin," I said.
"But we need him," Dominique said. "And you have my vow that we will not harm him. However, we need to keep him secure."
"He stays with me."
"Is that healthy?" Alonso asked, stepping forward. "You two seem to be at odds with each other."
"No kidding," Ronin said as electricity spat. I could feel the electric air behind me, hear the tiny lightning bolts zapping along the blade of his sword. But he didn't attack. Ronin was torn. I heard the conflict in his voice.
He hated his father now...and he also hated me. Is everyone a piece of shit?
Holding the tears back, I forced myself to turn to Ronin. "We can talk later," I said. "Maybe we both need to cool off."
"Yes," he said, refusing to soften. "We need to cool off. Show me wher
e to go."
* * * * *
"Ronin hates me."
"No, he doesn't. If he truly hated you, he would have attacked the Lower Order. He wouldn't have walked into Cursed Academy with them." Maria ran her hand down my back, which was brave considering that I couldn't hold back whatever awful atmosphere I gave off while trying to hold back tears.
Yes. I could still manage tears.
I lifted my face from the tree trunk and eyed the opening in my barrier the Lower Order now seemed to be using on a regular basis, considering that the foliage there was stomped down and a dusty trail was forming. How often did they go in and out of the school campus without detection? I wondered if a certain Nyx descendant was helping out. Celestus, Cal, and Mikey had walked in with Ronin and the Lower Order, following the parade after Ronin grudgingly handed his sword to his former rival.
And then I had watched them, Ronin walking between Mikey and Celestus, walk into the trees.
Ronin hadn't attacked the Lower Order. That alone was the only reason I could still breathe. Or maybe that made me feel worse. I wasn't sure what I was supposed to feel. I just knew that I'd stayed behind with Maria and Wendy for some old-fashioned, cry-on-shoulder time.
"We need to get back to the school. It's getting late," Wendy said. "We've been out here for an hour, and we don't know if the Olympian Guard is looking for us. I need to check the news to see if they've reported anything. The whole thing at the motel looked like a Lower Order attack, so I'm sure they'll take the opportunity to smear the monsters."
"They will," Maria said, hiking her shoulders. "They always do."
Both were right. As we walked back to the main Cursed Academy building, Wendy pulled out her phone. The light from it illuminated the trail that the Lower Order--and students sneaking off campus--likely used all the time. Other narrow trials, new ones with freshly-stomped plant life that still smelled of cut leaves, veered off. The woods around the school were full of trails and distant corners. I imagined the Lower Order was camping just off campus, or just within it.
"Giselle?" Wendy asked, holding her phone up to me.
I welcomed the distraction from my Ronin troubles even if it meant facing my screw-up. The news, shot from above, showed the beach-ball sized void hovering above the parking lot of the Old Row. Police cars and Olympian Guard vans kept their distance from it, though an empty pickup truck slid closer and closer to the maw. My chain reaction had opened a void that looked as if it would remain there indefinitely. I swallowed over the lump in my throat. I had done that.
"How did that happen?" I asked.
"No one's had your powers before," Wendy said. "I don't know."
"I should have control of my powers now."
"You do," she said. "You control when you use them. But your magic is like dynamite. Set it up wrong and you get burned." Her gaze turned hard and she took the phone back, flicking a dark strand out of her face.
"That's comforting." Nothing was going right. But at least the void I'd summoned hadn't gotten any bigger, and Wendy's face indicated there hadn't been any fatalities. Good. I didn't want to kill the Olympian Guard. They were just doing their jobs.
My prey was much bigger and more dangerous.
And for the first time, I understood how I might be able to destroy Mount Olympus. A bad taste rose in my mouth as I upped my pace, wanting nothing more than to escape my dangerous, screwed-up nature.
I uttered a long string of curses.
"Giselle. No one was killed," Maria said. "The Olympian Guard evacuated everyone from the motel and they cordoned the area off. The void hasn't gotten any bigger."
"That's not the point," I said, pushing through some pine branches and listening as the insects quieted on my approach. Even the bugs feared me. "I need to talk to Ronin. See him." Celestus and Mikey would do all they could to keep him safe, and my own conditions hung over Dominique. I wasn't her puppet and could exercise some control over what she did, but if she killed Ronin or cursed him, could I withdraw my help?
It would depend on how badly she wanted to help the monsters.
The front grounds of Cursed Academy were bare. Everyone had gone inside. I let my senses take over, and I saw that the middle set of doors, the ones with Medusa carved on the front, had been used recently. The left door hadn't closed quite all the way, sticking out maybe half an inch from the right one. No guards stood out front anymore, either. Prometheus hadn't brought back the werewolf rent-a-cops. Security was my job now.
We went inside, and standing right in the entry hall was Dominique herself. She stood alone, a dark figure surrounded by black marble and spitting green torches. Her hands clasped together as she lifted her face to see under the edge of her hood, which she always wore hanging over her forehead. "Giselle. Alone, please."
I looked at Maria and Wendy. The Lower Order leader left no room in her words for argument. "You'd better head back to your dorms. I'll catch up later."
"You certainly will," Dominique promised.
My mouth dried out because it was clear that she was about to pull something on me. The Lower Order hadn't liked me talking about what we'd do after the whole war was over. I watched as Maria and Wendy walked off, and it wasn't until they had gone through the connecting walkway to the girls' dorms that Dominique spoke.
"Ronin has been placed in the basement, in the secret room."
That didn't sound so bad. "That's it?"
Dominique smiled. I'd showed relief. I had just showed her that she had some power over me. Good job.
"Yes. He must be contained for now and I will not say why. Perhaps you should go and visit him."
I gulped. The more I stood here, the less I liked.
"Well?" Dominique asked.
If I'd stood up to Zeus, I could stand up to her. "What are you pulling?"
"Ronin is fine," she said. "But you cannot free him." A nod promised consequences. Then Dominique looked in the direction of the girls' dorms. What was she doing? Trying to bring Maria and Wendy into this somehow?
I stormed past her and headed downstairs and into the laundry room. Everything looked to be in place, but a wooden chair squeaked behind the panel that hid the secret room. I pried the panel off with ease, waiting for Dominique to come down and watch me, but she didn't. That didn't make me feel any better.
I found that the secret room had been changed. While I'd been attending classes, the Lower Order had been busy sneaking in and setting up a literal jail cell.
Ronin sat on an office chair that had been hauled into the box of metal bars constructed while I--and likely Prometheus--hadn't been looking. One of the cots had been hauled in also, and someone had managed to install an old toilet in the corner that looked as if someone had trash picked it from the side of the road. Ronin barely had the main necessities in his box, which was ten by ten and took up the far half of the room.
He rose as soon as I entered, taking his gaze from someone else seated outside of the cell. "Giselle. The quarters are great. Some welcome. I cooperated and this is what I got. Shouldn't have been surprised."
"You're willing to help with the plan," I said, hating Dominique. "She shouldn't have done this." If I'd gone straight back to Cursed Academy instead of moping out in the woods, I could have said something. Set another condition.
Because the other person in the secret room, obviously guarding Ronin, was none other than Maria's father, Elliot.
"Giselle." The Cyclops offered a polite bow as he trained his single eye on me as he spoke with his intelligent tone. But tension lived there. He hadn't volunteered for this role. "It's nice to meet Ronin."
"And you too," Ronin said, the same fear blooming between his words. He exchanged a glance with me, letting the anger at me drop for one precious moment. We both knew the truth. Dominique had placed Elliot here as a warning. And since I'd never told Ronin about meeting him at the power plant, I knew that Dominique had filled him in.
"The Lower Order has requested that you not let Ronin out," El
liot said. "Neither of us are allowed to free him. She might have mentioned that...something unpleasant will follow if that occurs."
I understood the threat with a punch to the gut. If I let Ronin out, Dominique would reunite Elliot and Maria. And that would destroy both of them. As the thought hit me, Elliot trained his brown eye on me, silently pleading. Forcing his daughter to face him was the last thing he wanted.
"This is who you're working with," Ronin reminded me, flopping down on the bed. "And this whole situation sucks."
"I don't have a choice!"
Ronin looked at me as if I were crazy. "Zeus is powerful. I don't know if there's a way to stop him. He owns most of the world already. I want to free everyone too, but if the Lower Order is the only way to do it, what's going to happen to the world when all this is done? Think the Order is going to sit back and let us all go back to our lives?"
I gulped. "Ronin, we'll have to worry about that later."
"I've been an ass tonight. I know. It's just...w...what's going to happen to you?" He grabbed the bars, pressing his face against them. Desperation lived there. Here stood a man who had lost everything except for me. Now I understood his anger. When the gods became dormant again, I might go with them.
He might lose me forever, just as he had his mother.
"I don't know," I said, drawing close to the bars.
He reached out and took my arm, pulling me close as Elliot backed off. "We can't let it happen this way. There has to be another way to help Maria and Mikey and all the monsters. Let's try to find a way, Giselle. For us and for everyone."
I let him pull me to his lips.
We met.
Ronin gasped as we kissed, as I breathed in, pulling in his scent. His electricity flowed through me, merging with my darkness, but it was nothing like the times I had borrowed his powers. That ability was gone. Despite my darkness, he seized my side, drawing a squeak from me as his fingers dug into my robe and into my soft flesh. My heart hammered with longing. I reached through the bars, running my fingers down Ronin's side and stopping at his hip. I wanted him. Needed him.
