by Melody Rose
“What the hell happened to you?” Violet gaped at me.
I reached up and tugged at my hair, suddenly feeling self-conscious. “Is it that bad?”
“Girl, you look like you have been through hell and back,” Violet said as she cocked out her hip and examined me.
“You have no idea,” I grumbled.
“And Holy Hermes, you smell. Did you even go to the bathhouses last night like you said you were going to?”
“No,” I admitted sheepishly.
“Well then,” Violet waved her hand up and down at me, indicating my sorry state. “I repeat. What the hell?”
“I--” I opened my mouth to tell her what, I wasn’t sure.
It didn’t matter because Officer Buck unknowingly saved me from having to come up with some bullshit explanation. The son of Ares stuck his head out of a dorm room window and hollered down at the pair of us.
“If I don’t see you running in the next six seconds, Cheyenne, I’m going to jump out of this window and chase you until you wake the hell up!”
“I wouldn’t put it past him to Hulk out on you,” Violet said as she tugged at my arm. “Come on. You can talk while we run.”
“Can’t we just run?” I asked wearily as we broke into a steady jog.
My body ached unexpectedly. I wasn’t sure how until I felt the constant pounding of something hard against my sternum. I looked down to find the locket where Erich still hid. I quickly tucked the locked on the inside of my shirt to help stifle some of the banging.
Seeing my half-brother concealed in there reminded me that I had to die for even just a millisecond to get to the Underworld. Did that mean I had to die when Hades brought me back too? If that were the case, no wonder I was so beat.
We made our way off the main quad and towards the outskirts of campus. I knew Violet could have easily outpaced me, even though she was shorter than me. I was lethargic and slower than normal. We were far behind our other third years, but Violet stuck with me like the loyal friend she was.
Or maybe she just wanted more information. Because when we reached the lake on campus and began our two laps around that, Violet broke the silence.
“So, are you going to tell me what you really did last night?” Violet said, cutting right to the chase.
I rolled my eyes, too tired to come up with an excuse. So I tried avoidance. “You wouldn’t believe me even if I told you.”
“Have you met us?” Violet asked sarcastically. She raised her arms up and gestured out to campus. “Do you know where we are? There is nothing so crazy that you could tell me that I wouldn’t believe you.”
“I journeyed to the Underworld last night and met Hades,” I said plainly.
Immediately, Violet stopped in her tracks. I didn’t notice right away and was several yards ahead of her before I heard her scream from behind me. “You what?!”
I turned around and began jogging backward. “See? I told you that you wouldn’t believe me.”
“Because that’s literally the craziest shit you have ever told me!” Violet called out as she picked up the pace. She zoomed up to me, and we ran at a slower pace, this time face to face with me still going backward.
“It gets crazier, I promise,” I said as I whirled back around so we could run in the same direction.
However, Violet had other ideas. She yanked on my elbow, throwing me off balance.
“What are you--?” I balked at my friend, completely confused at what would have gotten into her.
“Shh,” Violet whispered as she held a finger to her lips. Then, she continued to pull me along, off the typical running path.
“Violet,” I hissed back. “Officer Buck’s going to know if we coped out of the run.”
“We’re far enough behind, it’s fine,” she reasoned. “Come on, into the trees.”
I rolled my eyes but managed to free myself from Violet’s grip so I could walk independently of her. Together we ducked into the cluster of trees that marked the edge of campus. Somehow I managed to venture beyond the Academy’s borders at least once a year. My first year, it had been for a joint mission with some Fotia soldier to find and slay a chimera. The next year had been less dramatic but was still harrowing in its own way. There, Ansel and I met Oliver, a son of Dionysis and the drama teacher at the Academy. His nymph friends, the ones he rescued from a forest fire in their national park, still roamed the woods around campus, frolicking and causing mischief.
Violet turned on me once we were several yards deep into the woods and pinned me up against a tree. She pressed her hands into the bark on either side of me, trapping me in. Her eyes grew serious, glowing with a fierce amethyst color.
“Now,” she said, her voice just as firm as her gaze, “start talking.”
“Look, Vi, you can drop the whole interrogation act, okay?” I said as I gently shoved her arms away, giving me some breathing room. “I promise to tell you everything.”
“Really? Will you?” Violet put her hands on her hips and lifted a single foot up on a nearby log. “Because you didn’t last night.”
I bit the inside of my cheek, knowing I didn’t have an excuse for that. Violet caught on to my hesitation and nodded with pursed lips.
“My point exactly,” my friend said knowingly. She crossed her arms over her chest and tilted her head to one side. “We’re supposed to be friends, Shy.”
“I know,” I said as I hung my head. “I just knew none of you would agree with me, but it was something I had to do. So I… did it.”
“You didn’t have to lie about it,” Violet reminded me. “It makes us doubt you, and we don’t want to do that.”
“I get it,” I said, softening my voice. I leaned my head back against the tree and looked up at the bright blue sky peeking in through the trees.
Before now, I hadn’t thought about the consequences of lying to my friends as I had. I was too focused on finding and helping Ruby. That desire definitely clouded my judgment, and now I had more of a mess to clean up than I anticipated.
A flare of anger jumped to my defense. My real friends would have listened to me. They would have believed me when I talked about how Ruby’s death couldn’t have been a suicide. Instead, they all thought I was avoiding the grieving process.
There shouldn’t have had to be a grieving process because Ruby shouldn’t be dead right now. And despite what my friends and boyfriend thought, I had made a deal with Hades, and I had to follow through with it.
But now, I had to deal with the problem of losing Violet’s trust. I could see it in her eyes that she wanted to believe me, but I had bruised our relationship. I didn’t know how I was going to erase that mark. It had been so easy to put it there, but it was going to take some work to remove it.
Absently, I reached up and touched the locket beneath my shirt. As I did so, I could feel the warmth of Erich’s blue flame buzzing beneath the metal. The more I thought about it, the more I liked the idea. If Violet didn’t believe me, maybe a witness to back up my words might help.
I tugged on the chain until it pulled out the whole locket. Violet’s head tilted the other way as her eyebrows pinched together in curiosity.
“When did you start wearing jewelry?” she asked.
“Since yesterday,” I answered. I held the locket in both hands and looked into my best friend’s eyes. “I know I messed up, okay? I know I hurt you and probably Benji and Darren too.”
“Ansel, too,” Violet added.
“Ansel, too,” I agreed. “I was only trying to help Ruby, and I got it in my head that I needed to go to the Underworld to do that.”
“And you’re telling me you actually made it there?” Violet said with a scoff at the end of her sentence. “You do know that’s nearly impossible, right?”
“Yeah, I know,” I said, nerves making my hands shake as I held the piece of jewelry. “But that’s why I needed some help.”
With that, I opened up the locket.
The blue version of the Eternal Flame flew
out and zipped around our heads like a firefly before settling between the pair of us. It grew a little and shook itself like a wet dog.
Violet’s mouth popped open. “You used the Eternal Flame? How?”
“Not just the Eternal Flame,” I said with a weak grimace. “Erich, meet Violet. Violet, meet Erich.”
“Just because you named it doesn’t mean-- Holy shit!” Violet exclaimed as Erich appeared before our very eyes. She bolted backward, running straight into a tree. Instead of scrambling behind it to defend herself, my former roommate stood frozen as she watched Erich move about.
The Eternal Flame expanded from the single flame outward and into a humanoid shape. It adopted Erich’s hairstyle, height, and complete demeanor. The spirit of my half-brother cracked his neck by moving his head from side to side.
“Jeez, sis, took you long enough,” Erich complained as he stretched his arms over his chest, like an athlete preparing for a big game.
“I wasn’t ever in a good place to let you out,” I countered. “I don’t know about you, but I didn’t think it was a good idea to prance you about campus.”
“Why not?” Erich asked with a cheeky grin. “Afraid some cute demigod would steal me away?”
“You’re ridiculous,” I groaned with an eye roll. “I just didn’t think everyone would be accustomed to having ghosts floating around.”
“Yeah, no shit,” Violet croaked from her place by the tree.
Erich turned to look at the Nero soldier. His face broke into a smoldering grin. “Why, hello there.”
“Don’t even think about it,” I said as I reached out and dragged Erich behind me. Now that I was in the middle of Violet and my ghostly brother, I thought I should redo the introductions. “Erich, this is my friend Violet, daughter of Hebe, and Violet, this is Erich, son of Hephaestus.”
“Wait, what?” Violet asked as she pushed herself up off the tree. She pointed from me to Erich and back again. “You’re telling me you resurrected your half-brother?”
“I didn’t… no!” I said, thrown off by her questions. “I don’t have that kind of power.”
“I was going to say,” Violet said, her body slouching in relief. “Because between that, the fire, the metal sensing, and the Seer abilities, you’re starting to become rather powerful.”
I cleared my throat to warn Violet about mentioning the Seer powers, but unfortunately, much to my dismay, Erich picked up on her slip up.
“What Seer powers would those be, sister dear?” Erich asked from over my shoulder.
“I’ll tell you later,” I tried to blaze over the awkwardness and get to the real reason I pulled Erich out in the first place. “Can you please tell Violet what happened to us last night and what we did?”
“Only if you tell me about the Seer powers,” Erich bargained as he crossed his arms over his chest defiantly.
I closed my eyes for longer than necessary, trying to calm my frustration at Violet’s mistake. “My mom is descended from the Oracle of Delphi. So not only did I inherit some of our father’s abilities, I inherited some of hers as well.”
Erich released a long whistle, low and steady with a single note. “How did Hephaestus ever find her?”
“At a Renaissance faire,” I explained quickly, “it was very romantic. Now can you please tell Violet about last night?”
Erich huffed out his frustration, but he complied. Apparently, Erich could see and hear pretty much everything that was going on from inside the locket. He explained that he could witness everything from my perspective, just as I could when he was in there.
He covered everything from my battle with Charon to the almost dinner with the king and queen of death, but finishing with my deal with Hades. When he finished, Erich looked over at me expectantly. “Did I cover everything?”
“Yes, thank you,” I said gently. Then I turned to Violet. “Now, do you believe me?”
“I believe you’re absolutely insane!” Violet shouted. She threw her hands up in the air. “What the fuck were you thinking, Shy?”
“I was trying to help Ruby,” I argued, my own voice rising to her level.
“And what made you think that making a deal, with a god, was the best way to do that?” Violet wondered, though her voice was sharp and pointed. “Not just any god either. Hades. The god of death.”
“It was the only way, Vi, trust me,” I begged. “She didn’t kill herself. She didn’t deserve to die. Not like that. Not so soon.”
Violet looked up at the sky with a sigh. She watched the clouds drift over our heads from between the slats in the branches and leaves. Then she lowered her head and looked at the dirt, stalling. I let her, not wanting to press my friend anymore. I wanted her to believe me, and if she needed time to do that, then I had to give her that.
Finally, Violet looked up and met my eye. “Either way, whether Ruby did or not, doesn’t matter. You made this deal, and you have to honor it.”
“The request was reasonable,” I said, encouraged by her words, even if it was a practical answer and not the exact one I wanted from her just then. “I’m a good blacksmith. I can make the helm of invisibility… I think.” Doubt came through as I spoke the words.
“You think?” Erich asked, stepping in. “What do you mean by that?”
“I mean,” I hesitated and then shrugged. “I’m more of a bladesmith. I’ve never actually made armor like that before.”
“Oh gods,” Erich held a hand to his forehead and spun away from me as though I had just announced someone had died. “You’re doomed.”
“No, I’m not,” I defended. “I can learn.”
“From who?” Violet interrupted. “Ruby’s gone. There’s not another blacksmith on campus. Or at least not one that’s better than you.”
The truth of Violet’s words struck home, making my stomach churn. Ask me to make a weapon of any kind, out of any steel, and I could do it no problem. I specialized in blades and ancient weapons. But armor was a whole different story. While they were both made of the same materials, armor like chest plates, gloves, and helmets took a different kind of technique that I hadn’t mastered yet. It wasn’t a completely foreign concept, and I believed I could learn it, but who was going to teach me?
Just then, my Seer powers came into play. Images of three creatures popped up in my mind’s eye, giving me the answer I needed. Memories of something Eros said to me last year clicked the final piece into place.
“The Cyclops,” I said as I snapped my fingers in time with my epiphany.
“What?” Erich and Violet said together. They looked at each other, surprised by their timings, and Erich smiled at my friend. A red flush crawled up the sides of Violet’s neck, and she quickly looked away from my half-brother’s intense gaze.
“Oh no,” I said as I wagged a finger between the pair of them. “None of that.”
“I was just smiling,” Erich said defensively.
“Flirty smiling,” I corrected. “And you need to cut it out. You’re dead, remember?”
“Don’t remind me,” Erich grumbled, and his smile instantly vanished, soon replaced by a disappointed frown.
Violet coughed, trying to tame her reaction to Erich. “What did you mean by the Cyclops, Shy?”
“I mean, they’re going to be the ones to teach me,” I said, my excitement bubbling up at the prospect of it. “The Hesiodic Cyclops were three brothers, Brontes, Steropes, and Arges, who originally created Zeus’s lightning bolt, Poseidon’s trident, and Hades’s helm of invisibility.” I waved my hands in jubilation, the words tumbling out of my mouth. “Last year, Eros mentioned that I could study abroad with the Cyclops. Since they made the Original Weapons, they would be the perfect ones for me to study under.”
“Let me get this straight,” Violet said as she held out her hand. “You want to leave the Academy and study abroad with the Cyclops in order to finish out your deal with Hades and make him a new helm of invisibility?”
“Exactly!” I said, enthusiastic that she
understood.
“I can see that you’re really excited about this plan,” Violet said, her voice a warning, “but there’s one thing you’ve forgotten.”
“What?” I asked. I scanned through the plan and couldn’t find a flaw, but my friend’s tone made me cautious.
“There’s no way in hell that the General’s ever going to let you go,” Violet said definitively.
12
I am not a patient person. I have never been, and I’m sure I never will be. It’s ironic considering the amount of patience needed in order to be a blacksmith and make the weapons that I do. That’s not something that just happens overnight. It takes days to complete a project and years before that of training, practice hours, and botched materials.
When I was in the forge, it was different than when I was anywhere else. In the forge, it was as though the rest of the world melted away. It was just me and the metal, the future weapon speaking to me so that I could create it to perfection. If anything, it felt as if no time had passed at all when I was creating a blade.
But standing here, in the Olympic Officials board room, as they reviewed my application to study abroad, I could feel every second as it ticked by.
There wasn’t a clock to be seen in the windowless room. I had no actual notion of how much time had passed, but it felt like a million years as they passed around different sections of my application and read them silently to themselves. The only sound was the occasional cough from Egan, one violent enough to knock his monocle out of his eye, and the shuffle of papers as they slid along the table from Official to Official.
I did everything I could to distract myself from the anticipation that crawled up my legs and made my kneecaps jiggle.
There were twelve Olympic Officials who ran the Military Academy of Olympus. They were all the sons and daughters of the twelve Olympian gods.
Next to Egan, the son of Hestia, there was Fiona, the daughter of Hermes. I’d worked with the blonde bombshell last year to rid the school of Love Struck and bring Eros to help save campus. She, myself, and Tené, the daughter of Aphrodite, had taken the lead on the whole ordeal since we were some of the few who hadn’t been as infected as the rest of campus and the Officials.
