by Holly Hook
“Don't call him a pig,” I said, trying to sound tough. “And you're wasting your time. My powers are going away. I'm useless. There's no way I can do anything for you.”
Dominique smiled. “The asphodel will only last so long. Then you'll reach your destiny.”
My jaw dropped as ice that had nothing to do with Chaos spread through my veins. Ronin backed off faster, just as Dominique snapped her fingers and the eleven figures charged us. They looked like crows closing in. I glimpsed a set of fangs. Blue skin. Even a single Cyclops eye, glowering at Ronin.
“Come on!” Ronin lowered his sword and yanked us through the front door. Hooking his foot around it, he slammed it shut just as someone rammed into it from the other side. Ronin closed his face as he held out the intruder.
“Giselle, go!” he shouted. “Basement. Behind the water heater.”
He was telling me to hide. We were cornered. No landlines came out here and the reception for our cells sucked. Ronin flung me off again, and with him being bigger, I couldn't hang on, even though Dominique's pressure had eased.
Someone clawed at the door. Growled. A werewolf. Someone else hissed like a snake. The fanged woman.
“Fan out!” Dominique ordered, voice muffled. "We only need time."
Ronin squeezed his eyes shut as the clawing stopped. The werewolf had left the door. They weren't the smartest. I stood there. There was no way I was leaving him.
“Basement,” he mouthed, eyes harder than I'd ever seen them. "Wait. Give me a chair. That will buy us a few minutes."
I seized a nearby wooden chair and he slid it under the door handle. The door trembled. A loud bang followed. Ronin broke into a sweat but held his position.
I should have moved. But I couldn't. Something was bothering me. Ronin left the door shut and turned the lock, and as soon as he peeled away from it, tucking his sword back in his belt, the clawing resumed, making me jump. We had precious few minutes.
"Basement," Ronin said, shoving me into the kitchen.
Then I realized with a punch to the gut.
“My phone,” I whispered, feeling stupid.
Ronin's eyes bulged. "Shit."
If Dominique found mine, she'd have the locations of my friends. "We can't leave them."
“I'll get them,” Ronin said, squaring off with me. “Get behind the water heater. There's an emergency passage behind it. I think."
Emergency passage?
"You just think?"
Ronin gripped my shoulders. "Go!"
He could be saying this to make me hide, but I had to trust him. There was no sign of a trance in his eyes now.
“Hurry.”
Someone rattled the handle of the back door.
Terror pooled in my chest and my heart raced, trying not to drown. Ronin bolted up the spiral staircase, keeping his footing, as glass broke at the back of the house.
I didn't stay to watch. I tore open the basement door, glad it never squeaked, and ran down to the vast space I had checked out earlier that morning. The water heater continued to hum, and I ran across and slid behind it as footfalls thudded above. Someone was coming. Someone who might have—
The basement door opened with a whoosh and then a bang.
My knees buckled as I pressed against a solid wall, feeling useless. The water heater was a giant black cylinder, just inches from my face, and I realized two things.
Ronin had lied about there being a secret tunnel back here.
I'd also hidden in the most obvious possible place.
Someone thudded slowly down the steps in an intimidating manner. “Come here, Chaos girl,” a gruff man said with a growl between words. “We won't hurt you if you stop resisting, already. We don't have all day.”
I squeezed my eyes shut. Werewolf for sure. I'd met them before, maybe even fought this one when Wendy and her crew almost got killed. I just hoped he—
Another sound, one I could only describe as a slither, followed the man down the steps. Far above, something crashed. Ronin was up there while I was useless. Stupid herb. I should have just dealt with my symptoms. Now Ronin was up against a dozen cult members who wanted him dead.
I held my breath as tears flooded the corners of my eyes.
It would be my fault.
I closed my eyes, reaching for that dark power. Gripping onto my terror, I listened for the low groan, even as the werewolf slowly stepped closer. He knew I was here for sure. He even made slow, sniffing noises, each one closer than the last.
Come on. Ronin's going to die.
Please!
“You ain't behind the water heater, are you?”
A woman, his partner, hissed. “I smell blood.” The fanged cult member. The lamia. She'd come down with him.
Another loud crash sounded from above, followed by roaring thunder. More footfalls. Angry, muffled shouts.
Ronin.
Still alive.
I had to give him time. It was my only hope. Without my power, my best bet was to give them what they never expected. Max back at Cursed Academy always said to never be predictable.
With a gulp, I stepped out from behind the water heater.
Two black-robed figures flinched: a man with hair on his palms and a thick, hairy brow. He'd attacked when we tried to break into the Olympian library for the first time. The fanged woman, whose pointy teeth peeked out from under her lip, met my gaze. Her eyes widened in shock. They stood no farther than fifteen feet away.
Now I had to stall.
I put both hands up.
And the werewolf looked at the woman—yes, she was a lamia, because a thick, greenish bottom of a serpent stuck out from the hem of her robe and twitched. I had about two seconds before the shock wore off. I reached for my magic again. Sometimes I could still feel it a bit even when I took the asphodel.
Not now.
“Um, how does Dominique treat you all?” I asked. “Does she give you vacation days and overtime pay?”
Another crash sounded above.
“Of course,” the woman said with a wicked smile. “Come with us. We can fix this mistake of an Awakening. It is our duty. We can return the world to the way it was before. Eliminate the Olympians forever. Live free.”
Mistake?
A shudder jolted my spine. I'd figured the Lower Order wanted me to destroy the gods, but having that confirmed turned me to stone. I could barely speak over the lump in my throat. “But why do you want to do that?”
“Get away from her!”
Now Ronin was here. He stormed down the stairs, sword sparking, sweat rolling. He held my phone in the other hand while his pockets bulged. The air electrified. He was using a ton of power. A dangerous amount. My boyfriend stuffed my phone in his pocket and brought his hand back as if to throw something.
"Ronin!"
The lamia whirled, just in time to take a lightning bolt the to the face. She flew back into the wall. A shelf squealed and collapsed with her impact. The werewolf crouched and whirled as fur erupted over his exposed flesh.
"Come at me!" Ronin ordered, charging him.
The werewolf whimpered and fled across the basement on all fours, knocking over a ping pong table. Now a mass of growling and fur, he kicked his legs against the metal ones of the table and collapsed, stuck.
The electric feeling died, leaving the air dead. His sword no longer sparked.
Ronin was—
“Come on!” He lowered his sword, shaking, and crashed into me so hard I had no choice but to backpedal to the water heater. The salt of effort and sweat invaded my nostrils. We crammed behind the cylinder, and before I could tell Ronin we were screwed, he took his hand, which sparked with now-weak electricity, and pressed it the wall.
The air reeked of ozone as the wall vanished with a faint fizzle, revealing a dark archway and a long, long passage blasted through rock. I'd take it. He nodded and I jumped into the cool, musty tunnel. Ronin followed, dragging his shoes across stone. I whirled. Ronin waved at the wall and in an instant the w
all reappeared, made of old brick on this side. Darkness closed in.
Ronin gasped and panted. Something scraped against brick. "Shit."
That summed it up. Shit.
"We need light," I blurted. Any second Ronin would grill me for having a chat with the Lower Order. But if I'd let them take me, he could have hit me with that lightning bolt by mistake.
"Yeah. Your phone." The air moved as Ronin flailed around, still panting.
I grasped around, and at last I closed my fingers around the phone, and briefly around Ronin's fingers. He barely held electricity at all now. He'd come very close to overextending himself and passing out. But I wasn't going to grill him on that. I was the reason he had to do all this fighting.
I turned on the flashlight app. Yep. He was exhausted. Ronin leaned over, catching his breath. Tremors racked his body. He'd even dropped his sword.
“Today was the one day you shouldn't have taken your meds,” Ronin joked, facing me. “Wasn't easy, but I got your phone and your asphodel and fought my way heroically back down to the basement. Forgot to tell you...forgot to tell you I needed to open the wall. Only a descendant of Zeus can do it.”
“That would have been good to know.”
“There wasn't time.”
Good point. Ronin straightened and swayed on his feet, putting his sword on his belt, where it hung and shone in the pale light. He would do no more fighting today. While he hadn't reached the point of passing out, he was close, and I seized his forearm. His muscles twitched, spent and weak.
"The Lower Order called the Awakening a mistake."
"They what? It happened because of that earthquake in Greece. They're making it sound like...making it sound like someone did it."
I hated this new info. That made Ronin, and all of us at both Academies, mistakes by extension. "Me destroying the gods is their confirmed plan."
"Great."
"Where does this tunnel go? And what are we going to do? Can you walk?"
“Baby,” he said, lifting one eyebrow. “I've come a long way since that night I zapped Dominique the first time. But we still need to go to more private environs, and fast. The Lower Order now knows we have an escape tunnel and they're going to look for where it comes out.”
“Then we go. Where's my Chaos Dagger?” While I wouldn't be able to do much with it while the asphodel was in my system, it beat nothing. Only I could defend us now. “Don't tell me it's back in the mansion somewhere.”
“There's a chance Dominique won't even find it. I hid it good. Put it in the safe.”
"The safe? Dominique is going to know it's in there.”
“She can't use your weapon.” Ronin pulled away, leaned on the wall, and crossed his arms, but it was clearly a ploy to downplay how serious this was.
“But I don't want Dominique to have it.” That weapon was an extension of me, or at least my dark side. The thought felt wrong and relieving at the same time.
Ronin eyed the brick wall. “If I go back in there now, I'm not coming back.”
I hated what he was saying, but that made sense. The crazy hero in the woods was gone. Our gazes met, and I saw regret in Ronin's depths.
I motioned for us to walk because the air here was so thick that I couldn't stand the tension anymore. And Ronin needed to breathe. “Come on,” I said, half-relieved that I wouldn't see my dagger again for quite a long time. “Do you think Dominique can use my weapon to find me?”
Ronin walked beside me down the tunnel. My eyes adjusted enough for me to make out the walls. This was just an escape passage because there was literally nothing but jagged, blasted rock down here. And I hoped it led somewhere far from the Fortress.
“I don't think so. She hasn't been good at it so far.” Ronin looked at me. “Someone tipped them off. I think I know who.”
The word Hades had been circulating through my head since the explosion but I hadn't dared to say it out loud. If anyone wanted to send the Lower Order after us it was him. He'd even admitted to sympathizing with them back in the Underworld, a fact I hadn't told Wendy. Well, he'd suggested Wendy join them, which was close enough. “There's one immortal guy who might have known where we could have gone.”
And he, an Olympian, might know where Zeus's hidden mansions were. Hades was Zeus's brother for crap's sake. His grudgy brother I had stolen power from and knew about me before we ever met.
“But Hades can't fight against Zeus and attacking me would break the Oath,” Ronin said, squinting ahead. “He might not have had anything to do with the attack. Wow, this tunnel is long."
“We didn't leak our location to anyone.” At least I could breathe again.
“No. We've been super careful. Well, guess we can go back to Colton Corners?” Ronin grinned at me, stretching out the stress lines around his lips. His strength was creeping back but he hadn't admitted what caused his freak out in the woods.
So I had to break the long silence. I watched the jagged, exploded sides of the tunnel come into the light and retreat again. “Why did you run to the mansion alone when you heard the explosion? Be honest.” Ronin liked to be the hero, but he wasn't stupid.
Ronin wouldn't face me. “I haven't felt right for a few days. When I heard the explosion I...I had no control. For a few seconds I freaked out thinking my mom was in there. I know. Stupid. Maybe Dominique's been watching the house for days and put a curse on me. She's descended from the goddess of dark magic, after all.”
My stomach turned and then a bit of the low groan rose inside. Of course she'd do that to Ronin. “I want to kill her.”
“Don't even try. She can stomp our powers just by looking at us.”
“I know. Trust me, I've felt it.”
The tunnel sloped upward after we walked for another fifteen minutes, and a faint breeze, straight from the outdoors, blew against my cheeks. Ronin took my hand. His palms had dried. I hoped he was feeling better. It hadn't been his fault Dominique had forced him to relive his worst memories.
Or that she'd chosen him to curse.
I thought of Hercules going crazy again. Yeah. The Ancient Greeks probably had a Lower Order-type group.
“How are you feeling?” I asked.
“Better, the farther I get away from the Fortress.” Ronin flashed me a smile. “I like to think I'm immune to curses, but that's my third, baby. Guess I'm so cool everyone wants to curse me down to size.”
I forced a laugh. But I understood why he didn't want me to suffer to spotlight.
Unfortunately, I already did.
At last, we reached a wooden ladder that smelled new despite the fact that the ladder must have been here at least ten years. Ronin climbed, popped open the trapdoor, and peeked out into green and gold as sunshine invaded. “Safe.”
We climbed out. Outside, a small garage waited, nestled deep in the trees and almost invisible. It, like the Fortress, was made of brick, with two closed metal doors that looked impenetrable. Ronin paced in front of them and then did his typical flexing-of-the-biceps. “Looks like someone like me is needed to open these doors. Watch and learn.”
Tingles swept over my body. Ronin's shirt revealed every muscle. I'd seen him plenty of times this summer without it, of course, but the tease took me back to the start of the best summer of my life. “Are you recovered enough?"
"I think I am." Ronin placed his palm on the garage door, like he wasn't sure what would happen, and then the door fizzled and vanished, revealing a storm gray SUV on the other side.
“Um,” I said. “That looks like it hasn't been driven for the past ten years, so I bet it won't start and—”
Ronin faced me, looking like, really? He held up one hand, summoning a few sparks. Oh, yeah. He could jump any vehicle with his touch. “You can fill the tank with gas. There are some cans over here. Then we need to beat a hasty retreat. Looks like the road leading out of here is way overgrown. I can barely see it so we've got to hope for the best."
I filled the tank with gas and started the SUV as Ronin jumped i
t, just in case Dominique had cursed this vehicle and some force came out of the vents. But when just cool air blasted out, I let Ronin take the wheel. The SUV sounded as if we were driving it off the sales lot. When he handed me his weapon, I felt almost nothing from it and dropped it beside my legs. “Did you get my herb?”
“Yes. Got the whole supply. Couldn't grab your underwear, not even that lacy pair I like, so I'm hoping none of those Lower Order guys don't—never mind. Guys are perverts.”
“You are a guy.” I'd ordered that lacy pair as a surprise for Ronin, shipping it to a P.O. box in a nearby town. Yeah, shocking. Giselle, the awkward art girl, actually shops for lingerie. I'd have to buy some new ones, then. “And can we not talk about gross guys and my underwear?”
Ronin gunned it out of the garage and into the woods. At least he was back, and no Lower Order creeps were waiting out here for us. I couldn't even see the Fortress, we'd traveled so far. Ronin went slow, careful not to make much noise, following an almost invisible gravel road covered in weeds and even bushes. At last, we broke out of the woods after traveling a winding access for what felt like half an hour.
We had a four hour drive back to Colton Corners, and neither of us said much. I watched the vast rolling hills of the Appalachians go past and fade. Just last night, we'd been playing video games and snuggling with each other, and now we were on the run.
This was what I got for stealing Hades's power.
And now Dominique would find a way to get into that safe and steal the Chaos Dagger. If anyone wanted me to have it back, it was her.
The sun rose higher in the late summer sky. Ronin turned the AC down to ice. I shivered, since I'd put on a tank top and a pair of jeans. I wasn't a tank top girl, but I'd started to wear them for Ronin. Maria would grill me for info for sure.
“I need to text Carmen,” I said.
“No. We don't know who's tracking us,” Ronin said. “You might want to turn your phone off.”
His paranoia level had gone from a seven to a ten. But I turned my phone off.
We stopped at a couple of rest stops and a drive-thru, and by the time we reached Colton Corners, the sun was getting close to the horizon. My legs were stiff and the asphodel was still working well on me. It usually didn't start wearing off for at least eighteen hours. Ronin drove through town in silence, scrutinizing all the old stores, the bar, and the boarded-up church for possible enemies. I didn't dare interrupt him. With a nod straight ahead, he turned down the drive to Carmen's house.
