by Holly Hook
"Hold on," Ronin said, squeezing my hand. "Through the woods. Any attackers won't look for us there."
That helped. More of his magic flowed into me, chasing away the cold. I held up my free hand, which appeared normal still. But that might not last long.
We had to find Prometheus, tonight, or I'd reach my breaking point. I sensed it.
More screams and curses echoed from behind us. Another group of Olympian girls were coming to join the fight against their inferiors. How many were there this time around? I looked back, and glimpsed several white-robed figures running through the woods, towards the main back entrance. I upped my pace as Wendy spread her arms like she was trying to block them from my sight. Her glare propelled me forward.
"Which way was the shed again?" Maria asked once we were well-sheltered in the woods and had crossed the thick pines of the maintenance trail.
"It was way off to the west of campus," I said. At least the dark power had calmed.
"It was just within Zeus's border," Ronin said.
He'd know. I breathed in, glad I'd put distance between us and the fight. My darkness had retreated into the background where it belonged.
I checked my phone. Seven thirty.
If the principal was going to leave tonight, we didn't have long. He should be defending the students, right? He hadn't the first time they attacked. Instead, he'd insisted everyone shelter in place.
At last, the shed came into view. Vines still choked it, and I had to turn my head to make sure the giant square was what I was looking at. Prometheus had hidden it well.
I stopped. "Why have your own private garage?"
"For the same reason Zeus had his?" Ronin nudged me in the side and let go. He was confident I was doing better, and so was I. "He could fear someone's trying to attack him just as much as Zeus does. Though I have to admit he's low profile."
I highly doubted he'd go to the Underground tonight to have a drink, unless everyone was stressed and got drunk due to the latest attack. Zeus would be gone, doing damage control at his plant. The other Olympians would likely be doing the same. But there was always a chance. We couldn't go back to the dorms now, anyway. A full fight must have erupted at this point. At least we were too far away to hear.
My thoughts trailed back to Cal. To Mikey. Even to Tiffany, Percival, Jamal, and the other people I didn't hate. The guys' dorm would be getting attacked, too.
"Let's check the doors," Ronin said. He paced around the building as leaves whispered. Even in the winter, these vines didn't lose their green color. I wondered if they were enchanted or just very hardy. "Nothing. That's weird. It's just a garage door. Let me see if I can open it and then...shit!"
"You have to go to the bathroom?" Wendy asked.
My jaw dropped. There was that rare sense of humor again.
"No. I mean when I touch this garage door, it burns," Ronin said, shaking his hands. "Prometheus layered his fire magic all over this thing. Looks like only he can open it. We have to wait." Ronin retreated from the garage, seething. If he was burned, I couldn't tell in the dark.
He joined me. I grabbed his hand, and though it felt slightly warm, his skin was intact.
So we waited.
And waited. The four of us settled into the trees and ducked down in a small clearing, leaving just enough space for us to barely see the garage and the almost-hidden drive.
And at last, the air heated.
At first I thought it was because I was crouching beside Ronin, hoping to gain a bit of body heat since none of us had coats, but when Wendy snapped her knowing gaze to us, I knew. Despite the terrorist attack on the plant, Prometheus was approaching.
Unlike the night he parted from Celestus, he was walking up the drive, crunching dead leaves and icy snow underfoot. The temperature rose a few degrees, removing the chill from my nose, but tonight this was anything but comforting. Prometheus, just a shadow in the trees, walked up to the garage and touched the door. With a quiet squeal—the cold must be affecting the gears tonight—the door slid up.
I didn't dare check my phone, but I knew it must be around eight.
He was still going out for his Friday night drink despite the attack on the school.
"He's lost my respect," Maria hissed.
Prometheus stepped inside. The air was heavy and quiet save for a key turning in a lock. A car door opened. Slammed. And his sedan started with a quiet purr.
The black car rolled out of the garage and the door closed slowly behind it. Prometheus would drive past our location in seconds, coming within twenty feet of us.
Who had the tracker? The GPS screen?
Wendy rose, a small black device in hand. In the darkness, it looked like a refrigerator magnet, dark side up. And then I realized it would have to be a magnet.
"I should—" I started, but Ronin silenced me by grabbing my hand.
"The rest of you duck," Wendy ordered, crawling through the bare underbrush like a soldier.
I did, because I wasn't going to fight Wendy at this point. Ronin lay down beside me, throwing his hand over me along with an evergreen branch. The smell of pine filled the air.
I couldn't hear what was happening, other than the sound of tires popping twigs and the low motor drawing close. The motor's pitch increased, then lowered, and I knew Prometheus had passed our location.
The sound faded.
Where was Wendy?
My ears rang. I'd been holding my breath. Good job. When I gulped down a breath and looked above me, a dark shape in a black skirt appeared. Wendy. "Get up. The device is on. Got it on something just under the passenger door. Maria. You've got that screen. Ronin, do you sense anyone else around?"
"Nope," he said. "Giselle. We know the ground is comfortable, but we need to get to our own car and follow him. Cal and Mikey will have to fight on their own."
Chapter Seventeen
Maria opened the GPS screen as we walked through the woods, circling the long way around to the front of Cursed Academy. It glowed, lighting our way through thick pines and bare, finger-like branches. They grasped at me as if warning me back. Even the shadows moved behind the surrounding tree trunks, but I hoped that was due to our crappy light source.
Prometheus's car showed up as a blue arrow, moving slowly through a green, featureless section of the map. He was gaining distance on us, and Maria had to zoom out.
"I can't believe this," she said with a disgusted sigh. "You'd think he'd be protecting his students."
"Maybe he vowed to meet someone and buy them a drink?" Ronin said.
I didn't like this. The blue arrow was approaching not the front entrance of Cursed Academy, but the main road that led to Marchamp. Prometheus must be driving a mile away from the edge of the campus border by now. I upped my pace with the others.
We reached the front of campus, where the world cleared and the stars came out. I shuddered, thinking of Nyx's magic. As if sensing my nerves, Ronin took my hand.
No one was out here. All the action was happening back in the dorms.
"I've parked in our own secret spot," Ronin said with a grin.
We stepped out onto the circular drive, which the principal had avoided. Silence ruled out here. The vine-choked fountain was frozen over, unlike Olympian's, which worked all year long. I didn't like the quiet.
But we couldn't linger. The vial of Lethe water in my pocket burned with its impossible chill as if reminding me of my mission. Ronin led us through the motion-sensing gates, which still worked despite the outage, and to the Mercedes he'd parked deep in the trees.
Cal and Mikey wouldn't have fit, so it was a good thing we'd split up. I got inside while Wendy and Maria took the back.
"Okay," Maria said. "He's heading towards town. I can't believe that, either. Just make a right when you get to the end of the drive."
"Roger that," Ronin said, gunning the car through the woods.
We made it past the Sorting Temple and onto the main road. I wondered if Natalia was there tonight, or
if she could see what was about to happen. But the Temple was dark when we drove past. Ronin gunned it and I searched for any taillights up ahead, but none showed themselves.
"Left onto Sturgis," Maria said. "He's not going to the plant. That's out of town. He's just going to downtown. There must be a bar there. They'd be out of power, though."
"Got it."
"Why would Prometheus be going to downtown?" I asked, looking across the open fields. In the distance, where the Marchamp Power Plant looked upon the town with those high fences and huge windows, helicopter lights blinked and spotlights danced. No one but the Olympian Guard and the gods themselves should be over there.
Wendy shifted, making the leather seat behind me squeak. "We're going to find out."
Maria kept a close eye on the blue arrow, and she was staring intently, tracing it with her finger every time I looked. Ronin followed her directions, and indeed we headed into downtown. Stores and restaurants boxed us in. Most were dark, as well as the traffic lights, and a police car had parked near the main intersection. A few stores had lights on inside from emergency generators. Only a crawl of traffic kept us back. I seethed. The Lower Order had knocked out power on a super cold night to thousands of people.
At least hardly anyone would be out.
"Scumbags," Ronin said. "They might not fix the power for weeks now."
"What are these people going to do?" Maria asked. "Wait. He's stopped. Turn down the narrow street just past this next light."
Ronin stopped to let a truck through the four-way. Then we crept through its exhaust trail and continued.
He turned.
A narrow alleyway, indeed. Complete with a brick ground, the path led through a pair of tall buildings, and then another, before cutting over another street and continuing on through a dark neighborhood. Tall fences boxed us in. This wasn't meant to handle larger vehicles, but I knew Prometheus's could get through it fine. I couldn't see his car and I realized the alley went downhill ahead.
"Stop here." Maria trapped on the back of his seat.
Ronin slowed and parked between a dumpster and a bunch of old boxes. Even in a residential area, this was still an alley wedged between tall wooden fences. "I don't know about barging in there. We should keep this quiet, if you know what I mean."
"You? Keep things quiet?" I asked, mainly to calm my nerves. I had no shadow power and I'd have the job of slipping Lethe water into Prometheus's drink. We were unprepared.
"For now, yes," Ronin said, frowning. "Trust me, I hate this. Ninja isn't my normal mode of fighting."
Wendy got out of the car. Maria followed, eyeing her GPS. "His car is a few blocks ahead. The last thing we need to do is drive closer. He's been parked there a few minutes, so I bet he's gone. If we feel the air getting hot, we retreat."
At least we had a steep hill here, blocking us from view, and no ice on the bricks to make us slide all the way down. We walked down the bricks, past more wooden fence, before coming into what was another business part of Marchamp. The Lethe water burned in my pocket, threatening frostbite, and the fake Chaos dagger rubbed against my jeans. I hoped I only needed one of those things.
A trash can thumped behind us.
All four of us turned at once.
No one. A single cat fled across the alley.
"Just animals," Wendy said with a wave. "The GPS says we're a block away."
Of course, I couldn't help but eye the alley for moving shadows. But even when you looked at them directly, they were very hard to spot. We were wasting our time. What if Prometheus never sat down for a drink for more than a few minutes?
I slipped my hand into Ronin's and pressed against his body as we continued. Out here, the Chaos within wasn't as bad. Marchamp was neutral, normal territory. But Ronin's presence helped. Electricity cocooned around me, holding away the cold even as my breath spiraled in front of my face and candles winked between fence posts. We'd come back into a suburb. Everyone was struggling to stay warm.
A hole in the fence made me, and Ronin, stop at the same time. It was the first hole we'd come across. And better yet, an empty black car was parked just twenty feet ahead of us.
"That leads to a house," he said, eyeing a low roof beyond the hole. "Maria."
Ronin didn't have to ask her the question. "My map," she says, "is showing him at this address."
The building beyond the fence hole was just an ordinary-looking house. I caught no sense of the titan. He'd already gone inside.
I thought of slashing his tires. Messing up the engine. Anything. "Ronin, can you mess up that car?"
"I sure can," he said, letting go of me and raising his hands. "Serves him right for abandoning his students."
Stepping up beside me, Wendy squinted at Ronin's sparking hands as he approached the vehicle. Her jaw dropped and she faced the ground. Did she remember giving Ronin old man hands? While she hadn't seen them herself, his gloves must have told her the story. I almost felt sorry for her.
"You're just going to short out the vehicle?" Wendy asked.
Ronin responded by slamming his hands on the hood. "This ups our chances of catching him, too. He won't get away from us." Something fizzled and popped inside the car. Ronin offered me a huge smile. "The Roninator to the rescue, baby."
Wendy just rolled her eyes. "Come on. This vial of water is freezing even more than our surroundings." I'd forgotten that she had one, too.
Once Ronin had joined us again, we crept through the opening and into a small backyard. Children's toys littered the yard, an assortment of old airplanes and trucks. Getting over the sandbox was a trip—almost literally. I messed up the perfect expanse of sand stepping through it, because the other junk in the yard—the boards and the bags of pop cans—wouldn't allow us to cut over the grass.
"This whole place is a noise trap," Maria said. She had since tucked her GPS into her pocket.
Ronin pulled on the fabric of my sleeve, guiding me to the deck. I stepped on, and the deck itself felt creaky and dry-rotted. This house was made of peeling paint and better days. The musty smell told me that maybe no one lived here. Even the toys looked sad in some way.
"Abandoned," Maria said, cupping her hands over her face and peeking through the back door. "Well, now it's time for me to shine in the spotlight." She grabbed the handle of the back sliding door and pulled, snapping the lock. Even with the asphodel in her system, she was still strong.
"You're getting good at B&E," Ronin said.
"Thanks?" Maria crept into the darkness.
The smell inside the house consisted of dust, mold, and mildew. I was glad it was dark, because I didn't want to see what the walls looked like. Still no heat filled the room. Were we even in the right place? Ronin let go of me since we had to creep around the kitchen table in single file. Every room of this house was tiny and discouraged thieves. Or anyone else, for that matter.
Who on earth would buy a drink here?
"Stop," Wendy said.
We did.
Faint music.
From below.
The floor vibrated as if the sound were coming from the Underworld and not a basement.
"There's a hidden bar here or something," I said. "And they've got power."
"And we're not old enough to visit," Ronin added. "I got over two more years. And you can't wait that long, either."
"It's an underground bar. Do you think they care about mortal laws?" Wendy asked.
Mrs. Ershaw's words came back. The gods were immortals, but they were still people with secrets.
The basement door was in the kitchen, just as it was for virtually every house I'd been in. Ronin opened it and the music, an ordinary song about breakups, got a bit louder. Wooden steps spiraled down into the earth.
We didn't have a choice but to take them. I sensed there was another closed door below, since the music wasn't loud, that was muffling the sounds. Heart pounding, I descended first, knowing Ronin would hate that.
But he didn't protest. Now wasn't th
e time.
The stairs seemed to go down forever, when in reality they probably just went down thirty feet. This house's basement seemed to be tucked under a layer of earth between the house and this space. After I'd started getting dizzy, I found myself facing a thick wooden door at the bottom of the stairwell. A single oil lamp hung on the wall beside it, casting a warm yellow glow on the short corridor. I stopped and Ronin bumped into me.
"We can't just barge in there," Wendy said.
Over the music, loud chatter followed. "There are a lot of people. We might be able to blend in," I said.
"I hope," Maria said. "At least we didn't bring our student robes. Let me go in first." She pulled on the door, which opened without issue. Not locked. The burn scar on her hand showed for a second. And then Maria peeked inside, surveying the warm glow on the other side of the door. Music and light poured onto her.
"There are people from school in there," she said, closing it again.
"People from school?" Wendy asked. "Maybe this is a secret club. Why didn't I know about it?"
Maria held open the door a bit so I could look. Electric lights shone. A typical bar, complete with lots of hanging glasses, spread from one end of the long room to the other. Lots of booths and stools hugged the sides of the room. The walls themselves held murals of monsters from ancient Greece. A sphinx, snarling at the party goers. A raging whirlpool of water with vague jaws at the bottom. Another monster with hundreds of arms, reaching out to the bar. Whoever had painted them had done an amazing job.
And people, some of whom were wearing green and black robes from Cursed Academy, were having a good time at the bar or on the dance floor, moving in tune to the music. A dozen folks had gathered here tonight. Another song played, one of Cal and Mikey's. Prison of the Dead. Someone had brought a copy of their CD.
I hadn't realized my heart was racing until it calmed and I took a breath of cool air. This was just a secret hangout for the upperclassmen of Cursed Academy. But something was still bothering me. Prometheus sat at the bar, facing away from us, with a man in a brown cloak seated on the other side of him. And on the other side of the cloaked man, several grown men and women sat. I glimpsed a pair of overalls. A gray uniform from the Marchamp Power Plant. A centaur bartender in his forties washed dishes. Two third years seated in the back were Jamal and Sarah, both with drinks in front of them that bubbled with some kind of blackish light. Sarah took a swig and made a motion like she was wrapping her hand around Jamal's leg. Jamal eyed a back door to the bar, maybe a broom closet, and the two got up, hand in hand, to proceed to the door. They wove around a group of dancing fourth years I didn't know, all huddled in a tight group with drinks of their own, before vanishing behind the door.
