by Holly Hook
I undid the chain and followed, being careful to put it back in place. Crossing over the hot barrier again, I took a breath. The low groan seemed to run under the whole world. It was a river ready to sweep me into maturity. My body trembled, trying to fight the current.
I'd have to end this soon.
"Not tonight," Prometheus said. "I've got to go meet a friend at the Underground. Promised to buy him a drink." For the first time, the immortals' voice didn't fill everything, as if he were trying to keep this all good and quiet.
"The Underground?" Celestus asked.
"It's just a hangout for myself and some old buddies who work at the power plant. Now, don't get too close to the girls at the party. We'll catch up later. It's close to ten. I really need to be going."
"Huh?" Celestus asked, shocked. It was clear he'd been wanting to spend time with his old friend.
And with that, the titan waved, separating from Celestus. My tutor stood there, watching the titan walk not to the back door of the main building, but around. And he was ditching his own friend.
I cursed under my breath and followed, making a big arc around Celestus. If he could see me, he didn't show it. Instead, he adjusted his robe and eyed the direction of the party. And once again, he was unreadable.
If we headed that way, I didn't know. I hurried after Prometheus.
Two werewolf guards stood at the back door, and one nodded to him as he walked past, not through. I followed, hoping they wouldn't smell me. The woods came right up to both ends of the main building, but the titan walked right into the darkness. Why? He was the principal. He didn't need to sneak around.
I blinked.
A swirling black void greeted me. I had to ground my magic and within the next few minutes. Chaos was growing and I was about to hit my breaking point. The night still cloaked my hand when I held it up, but I sensed that wouldn't last much longer. Reaching into my pocket, I fingered the vial of asphodel I'd brought without Ronin's knowledge. At least I'd remembered my emergency dose.
A small trail veered off deeper into the woods, and the titan took it. I followed, struggling to see. Weeds slapped at my legs, probably including some poison ivy, and the sounds of my footsteps, I hoped, merged with Prometheus's. He moved quickly, head down, rumpled black suit taking a beating. Minutes passed. Breathe, Giselle.
And at last, a large, looming shape formed against the night sky.
A garage.
Vines choked the building. We were so far from the school I wondered if anyone had found this place before.
When I followed, I realized he was headed to a garage, a vine-choked wooden shack buried so deep in the trees that I was willing to bet no one had seen it. I looked back. We were so far from the school I could no longer see the main building of Cursed Academy, either. Panic exploded in my chest.
The titan snapped his fingers.
The garage door slid open quietly as if every hinge were greased. A small car waited inside, a black one I hadn't seen that wasn't in the same terrible shape as Prometheus's other vehicle. It was no Mercedes, but it was no beater, either.
He got inside.
I ducked behind a tree. As I grabbed the trunk, my hand flashed into existence. Chaos was almost done eating Serena's magic.
Gray blobs spread across the back of my palm. A single hairline crack into nothingness grew.
And I was about to be seen.
The car started.
I ducked, reaching into my pocket for the cure. I had to take it. Now. Dry leaves and pine needles from a shrub brushed my face. My insides roared. I was ice. Destruction.
Headlights kicked on.
I could not let Prometheus see me. Light stabbed through the bush, through the thick weeds. It was only because of them I hadn't been caught yet. I breathed out, trying to expel the power, but it did no good. I might mature right here in these woods if I didn't—
I fished the vial from my pocket.
Prometheus pulled out of the garage, crunching down a narrow, weed-choked drive I had never noticed. The car missed me by feet, shining in the pale moonlight for a moment before turning its red taillights to me and sneaking through the trees. But even those were a universe away, a universe above me.
As the red headlights got swallowed by the underbrush, I tapped out some crushed blossoms. With the car gone, it was too dark to tell how much I was about to take.
Or if I would survive.
The hairline crack into nothingness had reached my elbow.
I sat up, put the asphodel in my mouth, and swallowed.
Another type of ice swept through me, carrying the void away. I collapsed, all the breath leaving my lungs, and my entire body refused to move or carry me from the bush I'd landed in. Pine needles stabbed into my face, tormenting my numbing skin. My chest closed. I couldn't breathe. I was going to die out here in the woods and nobody would ever find me.
Darkness almost as deep as the void itself rose from the ground and swallowed me whole.
Chapter Thirteen
"She's cold."
A pair of hands caressed my bare shoulders, but my flesh felt like stone. I was stone. Was that electricity? A tiny bit of life zapped into my flesh, but it abandoned me a moment later.
Ronin.
I might be dead and maybe, somehow, he'd come with me. I floated in darkness. Or I was about to wake in the Underworld and he'd taken the entrance in Colton Corners. Who knew? I could barely keep a thought together.
"We have to get her back to her room." Wendy. "I tried to keep up with her but I lost sight of her as soon as she used Serena's power. Do you know where she keeps her keycard?"
"Yes." Ronin's hand plunged into my pocket. "Maria. Lift her. Mikey. You separated us. And Wendy. You did, too."
Oh.
I was lying on the forest floor with my eyes still closed. I went to speak, but my vocal cords refused to cooperate. My limbs refused to work.
"I don't know how long she'll be in that state," Wendy said. "She must have had to take a big dose because things got bad. But I'm sure she'll recover."
Had I matured?
I couldn't open my eyes to see. I was a cold rock lying in darkness. Birds chirped. It was morning, then. I'd been out here all night.
And I couldn't even tell my friends what I'd heard and seen.
Strangest of all, Wendy wasn't even trying to hide her involvement with us anymore.
"Giselle. If you can hear me, I've got you," Ronin said. I dimly felt something sliding under my arm. Ronin's hand. Yes. The electricity was there, nervous and jolting, though it felt far away.
I tried to nod as someone else gripped me under my other arm. Probably Maria, since I felt no magic. "Giselle. At least you're breathing so we know you're alive."
I rose. A faint breeze blew against my face, just as cold as I was. Something cold tickled my nose and melted. Nearby, the sound of someone rubbing their bare arms followed. It might be snowing.
Maria and Ronin carried me through the woods, lifting me just enough for my feet to avoid the ground. I was still too numb to know if any plants were slapping at my knees. My heart beat slowly as if it were trapped in molasses. I should panic, but this state had choked that off, too.
I may have drifted off again, but when I came to, footsteps approached.
"The back door is clear. Everyone's sleeping," Teddy said. "If we go in through here, we only have to avoid some first years who are studying in the hall. They probably won't ask questions."
"Good," Wendy said. "People will expect this sort of thing after the party we had. Tiffany told me someone poured a bunch of alcohol in the punch."
"Giselle's not a drinker," Ronin said in my defense. "I don't want her reputation taken through the mud. Or for guys to think she's easy."
Wow. I looked awful, then. And I wasn't easy. Ronin and I had taken almost two years to start sleeping together, amazingly enough. I thought back to Serena accusing me of sleeping with her brother. I hoped she forgot about that.
&nb
sp; We climbed what felt like tons of steps, and with each one my feet hit, a bit more of me came back online. I could manage a groan by the time someone unlocked my door and carried me into my room. I recognized the faint smell of carpet and paint right away.
Ronin and Maria placed me on my bed.
And waited.
What would I tell them? Ronin must be sitting on my desk chair, because it squeaked every time he sighed and shifted. He knew I'd taken too much of the asphodel and he'd lecture me on that for sure. The air thickened even as my breathing got easier. We all knew time was running out. Keeping my maturity back might even kill me if we didn't move soon.
But at last, maybe an hour later, or maybe two, I regained control over my eyelids and opened them.
My purple room spread out. I shifted my gaze as much as I could since I couldn't turn my head. Ronin did indeed sit in my desk chair while Maria and Mikey had taken positions on the floor, lying on their favorite beach towels. Mikey lifted his head but he wouldn't entirely meet my gaze. Guilt. Teddy was gone. He must have wanted to leave us alone.
And Wendy stood against the wall like she wasn't sure what to do. She still wore her black skirt from the party last night. Bags hung under her eyes. She'd stayed up all night.
I blinked. Two opposite parts of my world had crashed together. Wendy had never visited my dorm.
"So the asphodel is wearing off," she said with an air of regret. "Good. You should be back to normal by the end of the day. We're lucky it's Saturday. Oh, and Serena is sleeping. She hasn't bothered me and I don't think she will for a while. I'm guessing her memory will be mostly gone for a month or two."
I tried to nod, but no go. "Um hmm," I managed.
"So you can talk a bit," Ronin said, getting up and hovering over me. "Good. Giselle, I'm sorry. I tried to stay behind you, but the music—"
"I didn't realize that was the plan," Mikey said. "Total misunderstanding."
"Yes," Ronin said, working his jaw. The golden flecks in his eyes had dulled again and I knew he was descending into one of his moods. "I was about to ask Zeus to help out with this, since he's been appearing around campus lately, but I couldn't find him."
I gulped. Zeus would be furious about this. He'd blame Ronin for letting me out of his sight and letting me nearly mature into darkness.
Now that I needed to know what the Underground was, I might have to go and ask the god myself.
Yikes.
"You want something to drink?" Ronin asked.
"Mmm hmm."
"I'll get her some coffee," Maria said.
"That might work against the asphodel and flush it out of her system," Wendy added. "Caffeine helps everything."
I took another hour to be able to talk, and Maria let me sip the coffee she'd brought me from the dining hall. Wendy was right. It did help. I wiggled my fingers halfway through, and was able to bend my knees by the time I'd finished with the coffee. Jitters and energy spread through my limbs. Then I realized that I had a problem. "Bathroom," I said in terror.
Yeah, my first actual word after this ordeal was bathroom.
"I'll help you," Ronin said without hesitation.
If he wanted to be the hero in this situation, I'd let him. Ronin helped me walk to my personal bathroom and helped me to sit down before leaving and closing the door. But I felt better afterwards, and able to rise on my own. "Ronin, you're dedicated," I said.
"You seem to be better," he said on the other side of the door. "What happened?"
I gripped the sink as I stood. Here was the part where he got angry. "What you think happened. But I found out Prometheus has a secret car and garage in the woods. And that he sneaks off to a place called the Underground. He parted from Celestus last night to go there." Then I tensed, waiting for the blowup.
"That's...interesting," Ronin said. "I know I should be mad about what you did, but we're making progress. I should have been there so you weren't lying in the woods all night."
Maybe he'd used all his anger on Mikey. "I survived. Ronin, you found me, and that's what matters." I wouldn't dare tell him I was going to Zeus myself and reporting what I found.
An unease crept into my gut, helped along by the coffee. There it was again, threatening to make me fight with Ronin. What was bothering me? Of course going to Zeus was nerve-wracking, but talking to any immortal had that effect.
I opened the bathroom door. Ronin smiled at me and opened his arms for a hug.
I almost couldn't take it, but I collapsed into his arms and let him hold me up. There was no way I could divulge my plan. Um, Zeus? Prometheus sneaks off to some secret place. Would you know where that is?
"We need to find where this Underground is," Maria said as Ronin let me go, slowly, as if to make sure I could stand on my own.
"It sounds like a bar," I said, remembering. "He wanted to buy a friend a drink."
"A friend?" Mikey asked. He dropped his shoulders, probably because we'd changed the subject off his music distracting Ronin.
"I guess everyone but Serena has them?" I asked. "But a drink. Unless we can get into his office, which we can't, we need to get into the Underground."
Chapter Fourteen
As much as I wanted to ask the gods what this Underground place even was, I couldn't because Ronin hung beside me all weekend. We didn't go out shopping or anything, not after what I'd done, but he did stay with me while we hung out in the Cursed Academy dining hall, playing cards and geeky board games.
Oh, and Wendy joined us.
Percival seemed to have taken off for the weekend, and I was getting the idea Wendy had just made out with him on impulse, or maybe just as part of her plan to get me and Serena to fight. I hadn't seen the two show any romantic attention to each other outside of the party. But still, I didn't ask about it. Wendy seemed to have fun playing games with us, and even laughed as we played a board game about a journey through the Underworld. She kicked our butts during that one. All in all, it wasn't a bad weekend.
We might have agreed to be friends months ago, but only now were we actually doing it.
When Monday rolled around, I could barely focus on classes. Mrs. Allenson's class was survivable if you pretended you were listening and taking notes, and during Advanced Magic, Mrs. Ershaw led us through a rite invoking the power of the Fates so we could get impressions about the future. I purposely didn't pay much attention to the rite, or to the symbols drawn on the floor, because I didn't want that information coming from anyone but Natalia. I hated that I didn't have any classes with her this time around.
Max stopped me when we walked into Combat Training and motioned for me to hold up my bracelet. Then I remembered. I'd fought Serena over the weekend and the bracelet had recorded it.
"Up," he ordered.
"Huh?" Mikey asked beside me.
I lifted my wrist, heart pounding. You didn't say no to Max, either. How much did he know? The gods, I knew, had convinced him to set up this assignment.
"You two stand at attention," Max ordered Mikey and Maria.
My friends had no choice. They went to stand in line beside the other third years, including Wendy, Tiffany, and Jamal. Maria shot me a glance.
"Let's see," Max said in a low voice, running his thumb over the golden bracelet. The screen glowed as he did. "Yes. You fought Serena. Collapsed her. Excellent. A five for sure." Then he turned his gaze up at me without lifting his head, lowering his voice. "Did you take her power?"
This was my chance. The world seemed to stop. Max knew.
"Yes."
He nodded as I dropped my hand. Max, though he usually kept up a professional, mean face, bit his lip.
"What's the Underground?" He knew I'd been spying on Prometheus if the gods had told him the deal. There was no point in hiding it.
Max lifted an eyebrow. "The Underground?"
"Yeah. Prometheus was buying a drink there. I've got to find out where it is."
Max looked at his phone, tapped something into an app, and closed it.
"You might want to ask the Olympian folks, then. I'm not sure who's on staff today. It could be any of the Olympians. Save Hades, of course." Then he raised his voice and barked, "Get into line!"
I did so. Max still had a reputation to uphold.
Class consisted of less situational awareness talk and more shooting targets that were all the way across the arena. I had to admit, us Cursed students were getting good, like warriors, and that made me hate the fact that Career Exploration was trying to push a lot of my friends into crappy jobs while I was learning how to manage business finances and pretty much run my own show. Maria should try out for the Olympics with the way she was shooting. And I could blow off steam pelting targets with arrows.
Max dismissed class ten minutes early.
“You going?” Mikey asked on the trail.
“Yeah. Don't tell Ronin I'm doing this for him.” I swallowed as Wendy approached. She'd want to go with me and I knew she'd attract attention if she did. But after what she'd done for me I couldn't say no. And I wanted to have someone with an attitude with me.
“Don't worry. We won't,” Maria said.
I separated from Maria and Mikey. Wendy walked over to the Olympian side of the arena with me, and we passed through the archway in silence.
“You impressed Max,” Wendy said once we were through and under the trees.
“You know, I've never been to the Olympian office,” I said. “When Ron...when I was training over here with my tutor, we never went inside any of the buildings.” My heart raced. We would need to do so now, and we'd stick out in our green robes.
The neighboring school waited, all white marble and the polar opposite of Cursed Academy. Wendy glowered as she stared at the pillars of what Ronin told me was the dorm building. Things seemed quiet except for a few girls in white uniforms parading from one building to another, and none of them seemed to notice us.
“Why do I feel uneasy looking at this?” Wendy asked. “Most of my memory's back, I think, but there are still holes.”
