by Holly Hook
And I understood.
Serena couldn't just create dark spirits and use them to possess people.
She really was a master of stealth, able to take the form of a shadow. She could also cloak herself with her own shadows and trail whoever she wanted. Including the girl she called her best friend.
But first, getting up.
"Oh," I groaned. Wendy had given Serena a good act and probably gotten a good Combat Training grade to boot. At least she was still top of the class and could give that to her mother. I swallowed down feelings of betrayal. Maybe she remembered more than I gave her.
And she'd given me a vital clue.
Serena was always watching. And if I could grab her power, or Celestus's—
I pushed myself off the floor as a wave of nausea swept over me. Stupid Combat Training assignment. Then I leaned on the wall as the pain slowly ebbed from my jaw and temple.
"Giselle. We were just looking for you."
Mikey and Cal stood at the mouth of the hallway. Cal was golden and vibrant as usual and even Mikey looked more alive than he had earlier that day. "Help?" I waved.
"Why aren't you healing?" Cal asked.
"Asphodel?" I asked. "Don't tell Ronin about this." Then I faced the floor and gagged.
"Shit," Mikey said. "How much did you take? You've got a welt. Who hit you?"
Thankfully nothing came up. "It was for the assignment."
Cal rushed over while Mikey stood aside, a knowing grin on his face. I wondered why. Me having a giant bruise on the side of my head wasn't funny. Neither was this potentially getting to Ronin.
"Why don't you want us to tell him? You know he doesn't want you to get hurt," Cal said, pressing his hand to my throbbing temple.
Immediately, the pain eased and when I blinked, sunshine filled the space behind my right eyelid. "What are you doing?"
"Giving you a healing hand? Can't a guy be nice? Apollo was the god of healing. Makes sense I should have some awesome healing powers, too. Just don't tell the healers at Olympian. They hate it when I one-up them."
"Oh." I sighed in relief, glad he'd changed the subject. "Why were you looking for me?"
"To tell you about the third years' party Mikey just heard about. You-know-who will be there."
I'd just heard. Should I say something? If I told Mikey Wendy had gone postal on me, even if it was fake and she apologized, it would breed tension. Maria and Mikey wouldn't want me to work with her anymore, and Ronin? No way.
She'd help me get close to Serena.
And once again, I'd have to leave Ronin out of this.
* * * * *
While all the cool parties took place with the Olympian Academy kids, and off campus, some parties did happen on the Cursed Academy grounds. Of course, they were mostly held by third and fourth years, so we were officially on the cool side of the school now.
Parties happened in other peoples' dorms, and I knew I "should" open mine up and invite people in, but Prometheus probably had his reasons for giving me a secured dorm and even though I was liking him less and less, I sensed I should not ruin the fact that I had my own secure space. My dorm was one of the few things that made me feel safe anymore. So I kept my mouth shut and let people meet wherever.
"You haven't gone to any of the parties this year except the Halloween one," Maria said after Career Exploration the next day, which was Friday. She shoved open the door to Building C and walked out. Anger propelled her down the gravel trail to join the other departing third years.
Yeah. Maria hated Career Exploration even more than I did. All they did in her class, from what I understood, was talk about lifting techniques and how to follow orders. Grunt stuff. It was so below her.
"I've wanted to go with you guys. Serious," I said. “But Celestus has been making me train with him every night and I'm so tired after that I don't have the energy to hang out.” I was willing to bet so many things were happening with my friends that I'd missed that it wasn't funny. I hated that Celestus was taking that away from me, too. I literally had to spend all the rest of my time with Ronin to avoid going dark. Not that being with Ronin was bad—far from it—but I had other people I cared about, too.
Mikey walked on the other side of Maria. He sighed. “We miss you.”
“Believe me, I miss you guys, too. How's the music coming?”
“Great,” Mikey said. “So long as Cal goes with me, I don't become anything scary when we go to record at the studio.”
“You're going to a studio now?” I had missed a lot. It was late November and I felt like I was getting caught up with my friends for the first time in months. “Wow, I'm such a horrible friend. I'm sorry. I want to go to this party tonight, but I don't know if Celestus will let me.”
Maria lifted an eyebrow. “Maybe he will if you say you're going to prank his sister, or something.”
“What?”
“You haven't noticed?” she asked, hiking up her backpack. The Lethe water she carried in her own vial sloshed inside. “They hate each other. Celestus and Serena never talk. It's like they try to pretend the other doesn't exist.”
“But Celestus is so professional he'd never say yes.”
“You sure?” Mikey asked. “Serena talks crap about him all the time. I overheard her telling Wendy that her brother likes to cheat. He used to be Prometheus's favorite student.”
“Really."
“Yeah,” Maria said. “We wanted to tell you. He used to be top of the class. He and Prometheus are good friends, and Prometheus wrote him a letter of recommendation before he started job hunting."
“Well, looks like Serena really is the most jealous person in the world,” I said. “And I can't take my herb tonight if I'm going to steal Serena's power. Wow, this is going to be dangerous.”
I could go dark tonight. The plan was to take Serena's magic—or Celestus's—and use it to go into shadow mode, get close to Prometheus, and slip him some forgetfulness potion. The thing was, that could take a while, and the longer I held onto Nyx's power, the stronger my own became in response. I'd have to take a lot of the asphodel afterwards just to ground myself back to Earth.
And that promised danger, too.
So much could go wrong.
“Maybe you won't have to,” Mikey said. “Ask Celestus if you can skip. You need to have a break once in a while. And Cal said he's going to get Ronin to come to our party. They're ditching the Olympian one tonight.”
“You know, they always skip going to the Olympian parties now,” Maria said.
I knew the reasons for that and it was me and Mikey. Cal still seemed unsure about going public with his arm around Mikey, a budding monster, and Ronin didn't want us going to Olympian parties since the disaster during my first year. The Lower Order hadn't attacked a party since my first year, since Dominique might not want to return to the scene of the crime, but time had passed and she might be waiting for people to let their guard down again.
In fact, other than her attack on the Fortress, she hadn't made the news lately. And that scared me.
I went up to my dorm, changed from my uniform to a pair of jeans and a sweater, since it was chilly, and headed down to the fake arena without waiting for Ronin to arrive at my door. He'd been here at five every single day, ready to walk me down to dinner and meet me when I was done eating. He hadn't brought up the asphodel again or my dumb move with it, but it was in his eyes when he met me every day.
I found Celestus, still clad in that perfect black robe, walking out of Building C. Nobody else was around, not even Prometheus, and he stopped right there on the trail, parting some hanging vines as he surveyed me.
“Question,” I said. At least Celestus didn't have a temper. “There's a party tonight that I want to go to, and I need just one night off. I'm getting burned out and I think that's why I haven't been able to summon any magic lately.”
Celestus just nodded. “You're right. You haven't done much."
“Well, you keep trying to get me to come up wi
th something new and I'm having trouble. I think I'll feel better after having a day off. I know Prometheus has been pressuring you to get results and I'm sorry.” Did Celestus fear what I'd become? Did he know? The look on his face was impossible to decipher.
Then he frowned and let the vines fall back together behind him. “Prometheus wants you to practice daily. I understand that you need some time off, and you get weekends, but I also believe fatigue is holding you back. There's clearly a factor since you're using your weapon.”
It wasn't fatigue. The issue started with A and I could never tell Celestus that. “I also have Combat Training. That's like having two classes at once. And Mikey says you and Prometheus are friends. Doesn't that mean you can help convince him?”
Then he offered a ghost of a smile. “That's true. You know, Prometheus helped me quite a bit. Wrote me a great recommendation letter before I graduated. Got me hired, which helped my family. I'll talk to him again tonight and tell him you're not feeling well. Trust me, Prometheus is no slave driver. He just seems like one on the outside.”
I could reach out right now and take Celestus's power. Maybe. The low groan had returned, settling into the background of my existence. But as soon as I touched him, he'd know what I was doing and he'd warn Prometheus. No, he wasn't an option for stealing power. Only Serena was.
Celestus backed away.
Yes, he was keeping his distance for some reason.
“Thank you,” I said.
* * * * *
Ronin was waiting for me at the door of the dining hall, and I gave him a thumbs-up as we entered. He'd come over early today. The tables were already packed with people waiting for dinner, about half of whom were out of uniform. Nobody, especially a bunch of teenagers, wanted to walk around in shapeless robes and skirts when there was fashion to be had. Even one of the fourth year centaurs, a guy with dreadlocks, was sporting a new jersey and bling. Excited chatter floated around the room.
Maria grabbed my arm with her semi-strong grip, which still hurt despite her taking the herb, and pulled me to the third years' table. “Did you do it?”
“Yes. But we definitely have to target Serena,” I said with a grimace. "Celestus might suspect what I'm up to. Crap."
"Or maybe he just doesn't want people thinking he's lusting after a student," Maria said. "I bet his sister spies on him, too."
I hoped that was all.
“Hey. Giselle isn't your girlfriend,” Ronin said. "Move aside."
“And how do you know that?” Maria said with an evil grin.
“Because I say so?” Teddy appeared behind Maria, still in his black fourth year robe, and massaged her shoulders.
Maria let go of me. “Well, fine. So, party?”
“I'm assuming it's a go,” Ronin said. “Cal's coming in about an hour. Has homework he has to finish. Sucks to be him. I'd sit with you, but I'll draw some stares. You know what? Never mind.” He led me to my usual spot at the table and took a seat beside me, just across from Mikey.
“Big party,” Mikey said. “Cal and I are playing our new album there and giving away free copies. I think the sample tracks we distributed around the school are doing their job. My powers aren't turning out to be so bad.”
I looked around the whole dining hall. The place did seem noisier than normal, and even some of the first and second years had exchanged their robes for tank tops, tight shirts, baggy pants, and jewelry. Why hadn't I noticed? Had the asphodel really dulled me down that much?
“You used your voice on the whole school?” I asked.
Mikey grinned. “I might as well use my powers for something good. Well, my voice worked well on the guys. And the guys are getting all the girls to go to the party. Whole school's going to be out in the woods after dark. Even the first years are going to sneak over. We're all making sure the guards are distracted.”
Mikey. Had enthralled. The whole school. I glanced at Wendy. Even Serena and Percival were wearing their finest. Serena had put on her leggings with the stars on them and some hoop earrings. Percival had on jeans with fake rips in the knees that were obviously expensive.
Wendy glanced at me and whispered something in Percival's ear.
“I can't believe Celestus just let you out of training,” Maria said.
“Well, I made my case. And he is friends with the principal.” I gulped. I should be excited about this party but I felt anything but. Why did parties have to be the times where bad things happened?
“Good point,” Mikey said with a frown.
“Hey,” Ronin said beside me. “Maybe we should get there a little early. Or take off from dinner a bit early.”
I knew what he meant. Maria grinned at me and heat flooded into my cheeks. Why did she have to figure out everything? Even Mikey reached across the table and poked me in the side.
Well, it was a good idea for me and Ronin to have some fun time before the party if I'd be taking on someone else's dark powers. We retreated up to my room after I had eaten maybe half my dinner—there would be snacks at the party anyway—and Ronin and I got in the shower without another word. Indulging in Ronin's body never failed to fill me with his electricity and more. I wrapped my legs around him, letting him hold me up as the hot water poured over our flesh. We were one sparkling being made of energy and power, and when we had finished, Ronin helped me to dress.
“You'll want to wear black,” he said, zipping up my dress from behind.
I sighed, partly due to the warm glow still left in me. Whenever Ronin and I made love, I felt like I never needed the asphodel again. But the feeling wouldn't last through the whole party.
“What are you going to wear?”
“Baby, I'm so awesome it doesn't matter,” Ronin said. He pulled on his pants and threw on his shirt.
I combed my wet hair, the hair Ronin had washed for me, and we headed outside into the night, hand in hand. My heart thumped as the faintest low groan returned, as if Chaos itself were waiting for me to take on its sister power.
Already, music blasted through the distant trees and I knew they'd set up the party in the woods, farthest from Prometheus's house, and breathed another sigh of relief. Colored lights shone through the stumps, some of which might be magic, and I knew some of the Olympian kids had joined us. Cal's techno lulled me into a trace and Mikey's impossibly smooth voice sang lyrics about just wanting to get close to you. Ronin grinned. “If it weren't for you, Giselle, then I'd be running right into that party.”
I tightened my hand around his. “Mikey's not your type. I wonder what Wendy's going to do to get us close to Serena. She glanced at me while we were eating.”
“No clue,” Ronin said. “I bet it'll be dangerous.” He tightened his grip on my hand in return. It was clear he didn't like this.
We entered the clearing, and already the “dance floor” was full of people moving around, some of the couples very close to one another. A few of the Olympian kids had joined in. Cal and Mikey stood behind a makeshift DJ stand. A couple of generators hummed in the background, leaving the faint whiff of gas in the air, but balls of sunlight and even a few balls of orange and green floated overhead like aimless fireflies. The place looked like a packed fae meeting.
With food.
Tons and tons of food.
Tables lined the periphery, but with Mikey and Cal's music blasting, almost everyone was on the dance floor. Even I wanted to join in on the dancing and pull Ronin into the fray with me.
“I don't see Serena,” Ronin shouted, but not without relief.
I'd one hundred percent expected no less. I didn't want to do this.
“Well, we have to find her,” I said. “And I have to go alone. You grab attention.”
Ronin fake glared at me. “And why would that be? Giselle, let me follow you.” But as he spoke, his words weakened and I knew Mikey's singing was having an effect on him. His Siren voice affected guys way more than it affected girls. Ronin's gaze flicked over to the dance floor.
I swallowed the feel
ing of jealousy. As they danced, some of the girls glanced at Ronin, who was no doubt the tallest, most buff guy at the party. Why had he put on his gray shirt that hugged his pecs? Argh. If he went in there, someone would make a move on him for sure.
“You'll need to keep a bit of distance behind me,” I said, pinching his arm.
“I will.” His hand loosened. Uh, oh. Mikey looked at us, waved again, and I got the meaning. He wanted to get Ronin away from me so I could do my plan. And with all this loud music blasting, I had no way to tell him I wanted different.
A blank look had come over my boyfriend's face. “Come on,” Ronin said, tugging at me towards the dance floor.
Now Cal nodded, face illuminated by the fake sunlight as an orb flew past.
“Ronin!” I shouted.
We entered the fray. Ronin pulled me through moving people, body heat, and flashing color. Then he stopped in the middle, where he launched into a silly dance with his arms over his head. He was helpless before this music, just as Cerberus had been in the Underworld.
People closed in. I was surrounded by guys and girls all moving against each other. A bit of icy plasma spread through my limbs as if trying to defend me from getting crushed. Bodies banged into me. With each one, a new power jolted through me. Strength, raw and uninhibited. Then an infernal red energy I'd never felt. A cold chill of death. Golden blackness. Where was Ronin? A pink top...a guy in a hoodie...Sarah and Jamal jumping in each other's arms...crap, he was gone, another face in the moving crowd. Colors merged and pulled apart, leaving moving pools of darkness.
Wendy.
She stared at me from across the dance floor. She was pulling Percival away into the trees. Percival pulled against her, trying to join the dance, but Wendy remained insistent.
And then the two disappeared into the darkness as the crowd closed in on me again. This was the distraction. The chance for me to get to Serena alone.
Serena would spy on them for sure. This was too juicy for her to pass up.
If I could bump into her by mistake, I could take some of her shadow power. Then I could leave this party and search for Prometheus.
