We Will Rend

by Nicole Thorn

  “Because if you don’t, then you end up dead.”

  The room got colder as if snow blew in on us. We were in a trap, I supposed. A trap that was impossible to get out of completely. Even if we managed to win the trials, handle our new tool, and win the war, that wouldn’t be it. We would be the champions of the gods, and they would look to us for anything they needed. Any fight. Any task. And they would do it until the day we died, and maybe even after. Would they rip us from our deaths to fight for them? They had done such before.

  I reached out for Jasmine, knowing that I needed her hand in mine. She came in a moment, sitting beside me and taking my hand. She was so much stronger than me now, but I still couldn’t accept it. I didn’t think I would find a way to accept it. Not after finding her dead. I would always want to be right there at her side, making sure nothing touched her.

  “I’ll let you two be now,” Heracles said, pushing off the wall. “I just wanted to say I’m sorry. Oh, and one more thing,” he whispered. “You didn’t hear it from me, but the next person up for their trial is Jasmine. I have no idea what it is, but I thought you’d like the heads up.”

  He left the room, but I was too cold to say anything to him on the way out. I heard screaming in my head, smelled blood. Jasmine would be thrown into a trial all on her own, and right after finding out that we could die in them. I would have to stand there and watch something try and kill her, or watch her break in the process.

  Jasmine laughed, the sound so jarring that I had to take my hand from hers so she wouldn’t feel it starting to shake. I looked to her to see if she had laughed nervously or if she was in shock, but she looked nothing less than delighted.

  “Oh man, I’m going to destroy this,” she said, rubbing her hands together. “They have no idea what’s coming for them.”

  “Jasmine,” I breathed. “You don’t know what they’re going to give you. It could be literally anything.”

  “Yeah, and I’ll destroy whatever they throw at me. How could I not when I’m a goddess? It’s almost insulting that they think they need to test us.”

  I wanted to scream. Not at Jasmine, but at something. Just out loud and in shock that this could even be happening to us. The gods couldn’t even let me have one trial between mine and hers where I could have a little comfort? And what happened if Jasmine got hurt in a way that didn’t heal fast? I was already too laid out to be any kind of comfort to anyone. Would Kizzy be next so I could suffer for even longer?

  Jasmine took my face in her hands, smiling softly as she laughed. “You’re so worried over nothing. I promise you that no matter what, this trial is going to be no problem for me. I’ll walk through it as easy as could be.”

  None of us had gotten through our trials easily. Jasper didn’t even know he had been in the middle of his, leaving him open to failing without even realizing it. For all we knew, Jasmine’s trial could start at any moment.

  “Breathe,” Jasmine told me.

  I tried, but it came out in a gasp of panic. I wanted to lock her up in a closet and keep her safe until everything was over. Just like Jasper said I did. Always making everyone feel useless, trying to keep them from the danger. And he said that by keeping them from the danger made them unprepared when it came. If any of my friends failed, that would be on me too. They wouldn’t think it, but I would know it in my soul.

  “Everything is going to be fine,” Jasmine said with a lilting laugh. “Home, remember? Soon, we’ll be at home like none of this even happened. It’ll all be memories of the time we all kicked so much ass at our trials and impressed the whole entire world with it. People will write songs about us. They’ll call us heroes. We’ll be legends.”

  I didn’t want any of that. I didn’t want songs or stories. I wanted my family safe at home, and without broken minds and souls. What was the good of being a legend when your insides had been hollowed out? The legends would be nothing more than shells by the time they finished this.

  Jasmine

  Z ander seemed worried, but that didn’t dampen my buzz one bit. Unlike him, I knew that I had this in the bag. No matter what the gods handed to me, I would be able to stand against it. And, the biggest benefit was that I didn’t have to watch someone I loved getting torn apart. Namely Zander. Because he only he had been torn apart at the moment, which seemed completely unfair to me.

  I thought these trials had been designed to test us, to make sure we had the strength to do what needed to be done. Instead, they had turned into a ‘let’s all pick on Zander’ game that I hated.

  “Shouldn’t you be more… worried?” Juniper asked the next morning when we all convened in my and Zander’s room. Jasper and Kizzy had come along too, but I didn’t let their presence bother me. Nothing could bother me when I had so much going for me at the moment.

  I wrapped my arms around my sister, giving her a little squeeze. “Don’t fret, Juni. I’ll be fine. Watch, you’ll be amazed at how well I do.”

  Verin frowned at me before pulling his girlfriend out of my grasp. I wondered if I should have been offended by that, but then let it go because I still wouldn’t let anything dampen my buzz.

  Juniper shrugged. “I just think you should be, I don’t know, a little more cautious, considering the last two trials.”

  “What about them?” I asked.

  Zander answered, even though I hadn’t been asking him. “Well, one of them was designed to break Jasper, and we didn’t even know it was happening. For all you know, your trial is in progress right this second. As for my trial, I had to run into a burning building and let someone die.”

  That did put the brakes on for a second. I examined Zander’s face, seeing the strain in his eyes, the way he didn’t want to look at any of us for too long, how his shoulders seemed to droop. He wouldn’t get over that woman for a long, long time. I couldn’t say I blamed him. I’d be upset if the gods wanted me to let someone die as well. But I also couldn’t let his trial affect mine.

  “They wouldn’t give us the same trial twice,” I said, touching his shoulder. “Don’t worry, I’ll be fine.”

  He still looked worried. So did Juniper. Verin and the others exchanged a look that I didn’t understand, but I wouldn’t let that bring me down, either. If they wanted to be negative, then good for them. I knew that I could do this. Worse, I knew that I had to do this.

  Verin and Juniper still had their first trials to go after mine. Verin would probably be fine in his, but my sister… I didn’t know if the gods would know exactly what to do to break her, but I knew that she would be the one that broke the winning streak. Even now, she had huddled up against Verin, her back resting against his front. She looked up at him, frowning as if worried about me.

  Zander rubbed his eyes. “Maybe we should just eat breakfast.”

  “Excellent idea,” I said, pointing to my fella. “I need to fuel up.”

  Someone, probably Heracles or that Hermes kid that had been dragging us around, had sent up a real champion’s breakfast. It had everything that I could dream of, including French toast. I ate heartily, while everyone else picked and grumbled over their food.

  After I’d eaten, I bounced up from the bed. “Excuse me, all, but I have to get ready for my trial.” I still had on my sleep shorts, and while they looked super cute on me, I didn’t think they would do for winning my first trial. I bounced into the bathroom, where I continued to dance, smiling at myself in the mirror.

  Zander followed me. He closed the door while I started to brush my hair.

  “Something wrong?” I asked, looking over at him.

  He rubbed his eyes. “Lots. Are you sure that you don’t want to talk about what this could be? The gods could throw anything at you.”

  I set my brush down and pulled my suitcase to me. “I’m sure it’ll be something grand. They pulled out all the stops for you, Jasper, and Kizzy. They wouldn’t do any less for me.”

  Zander’s worried eyes met mine in the mirror. After I pulled out the jeans and t-shirt t
hat I planned on wearing to the trial, I turned around to loop my arms around Zander’s neck. He let me do this, setting his hands on my hips. “I’m sorry that you’re worried,” I said. “But I’ll come back to you. I promise.”

  He leaned down slowly and set his forehead against mine. “I know you will. If nothing else, I know that you would never leave me.”

  “Well, there you go. What’s there to be worried about, then?”

  I turned around to get changed, but I still heard his reply. “Everything.”

  Ellie came to get us about an hour later. I’d dressed in my comfiest worn jeans. They hugged my butt in a great way, which meant that I walked directly in front of Zander the entire way to the studio—if we could even call it that. I’d also put on a blue t-shirt, and had my hair tied up in a ponytail. Nothing could stop me.

  When we walked into the studio, everything had already been set up. Callie sat in the crowd with Aster and Micha. The Hunter looked uncomfortable being there, but not half as unhappy as Aster. He kept touching Callie as if to reassure himself that she hadn’t wandered off. When she saw us approaching, her smile faltered for a second. When she had it firmly in place again, it looked more like a bearing of teeth.

  She got up, kissed Aster on the cheek, then walked to the center of the stage. “Here we are!” she said, smiling so brightly that it hurt to look at her. “Our trials have gotten off to a banging start, with three wins so far. The fourth trial has been determined, and the person up to bat is…”

  A giant screen behind her started to flash. I blinked at it, finding it hard to focus on the bright lights that seemed so garish even in comparison to the rest of the stage. Then I realized that the screen flashed pictures. Mine, Verin’s, and Juniper’s. I braced myself to act surprised and determined.

  The screen stopped, and Callie turned to the crowd. “Jasmine Nelson!”

  Everyone screamed, and I flashed them a bright smile. Their screaming got louder. I sauntered on up to Callie.

  She turned to look at me. “Are you ready for this?”

  “Of course, I am,” I said as if that had been a silly thing to ask.

  We turned toward the screen, which doubled as the doors into the real world. I didn’t know for a fact that this studio hadn’t been built in the real world, but it felt like it hadn’t. Everything ran too smoothly, without much interference from the people that I could see standing around.

  Callie, still with that sharp smile plastered onto her face, turned me to the crowd. I cocked my hip at them, smirked, and blew a kiss. They all went crazy, screaming at me. It made a girl feel pretty good, actually.

  “The gods have instructions for you,” Callie said, turning to face me.

  “Oh?”

  Callie nodded. She touched the screen, and an image appeared. It reminded me of the park that Kizzy’s trial had been in, but then I looked closer. I could see a lake through the trees, dotted with people in boats, holding fishing rods. A circle had also been burned into the grass by that lake. It looked ominous, to say the least. A group of kids ran past the screen, all laughing and wearing bathing suits. They threw balloons that exploded with a splash of water.

  Callie turned back around, keeping her game-show face on. “You’re to stand in the middle of that circle and not move or speak. If you step out of it, then there will be dire consequences.”

  “That’s it?” I asked.

  She nodded. “That’s it.”

  I turned to look at the crowd, still playing up to them. “They could have given me something hard.”

  The audience laughed.

  I looked at my family, but none of them had an amused expression on their face. Juniper had huddled up to Verin again and seemed to be squeezing his hand so hard that his knuckles had turned white. Zander had his arms crossed over his chest, his head down like he didn’t want to watch. Kizzy and Jasper both looked worried.

  I turned away from them and stepped through the screen. One second, I stood in the studio, the next I stood in grass. The clean lemony scent switched over to the smell of freshly mown grass and crisp air. The sounds followed a second later. People screamed at one another, laughing and pushing each other. Couples flirted mercilessly, huddled up to one another under trees and by the lake itself. It felt like one of those perfect, fresh summer days that we almost never got in Seattle.

  I rubbed my hands together and walked over to the circle. I knew the second I stepped into it, the trial would officially begin.

  Nothing changed once I crossed over. I thought that the air would get still, or the world would calm down. Something to indicate what would happen. Instead, everything remained the same.

  I looked around the park.

  The children hadn’t stopped their water balloon fight. It looked like the older kids had started getting beaten by the younger ones. One enterprising child had taken to the trees with a bundle of balloons, and started throwing them down on his competitors, laughing maniacally while he did so.

  Over by the trees, two mothers watched their children with fond eyes, their arms wrapped around another. They didn’t even seem to notice me standing there. Neither did the people in the boats, or the ones fishing.

  I thought about sitting down but changed my mind. The gods might’ve given me an easy trial for my first go, but they wouldn’t take kindly to me being flippant.

  The child in the tree started shouting down to his comrades. “Hey! I can jump into the lake from here!”

  A dumb thing to do, but I didn’t think anything about it for the most part. I stood in my circle, waiting for this boring trial to be over. I’d wanted something dramatic, something that would show everyone what I could do. Instead, I had to stand in the circle… not moving. What did this show me? What did I have to prove by doing this?

  The kids on the ground started egging the boy in the tree on. I could hear him laughing at them. He looked like an average eight-year-old. He had russet brown skin, curly brown hair, and deep brown eyes, almost black. His smile flashed so white that it almost didn’t look real, and he wore jeans and a t-shirt, much like I did.

  The kid looked down at his friends, who had all started waving at him as if trying to get him to move further down the branch.

  He did.

  I heard something cracking, and my heart started beating faster. I focused my eyes on the branch. It didn’t look that big, barely enough to hold the kid’s weight on the meatiest part. He inched down the branch, moving closer to the water. “You guys wanna see me jump?” the kid called down to his friends.

  “Do it! Do it!” the others shouted at him, laughing harder than they had been before.

  The boy inched further down.

  If he had gotten to jump on his own, it probably would have been fine. He’d have dived into the water, come up laughing, and all his friends would cheer for the stupid thing that he had done. But the branch broke before he could get close enough to the water to jump. He fell like a rock, hitting the edge of the bank with a hard thud and then slid into the water in a boneless jumble.

  My heart started to beat faster. I took a step forward, prepared to run out there to check on him.

  I stopped, looking down at the circle around me. My foot rested about two inches from the perimeter. Crossing that two inches would mean giving up the trial, losing the tool that would help us win the war potentially, and putting my entire family on edge. I looked back at the water, silently willing the kid to climb back up.

  He didn’t. The water rippled where he had fallen in, and I could see a few bubbles, but no one came popping back up.

  His friends hadn’t realized what happened, either. They all stood together, laughing and clapping for their friend.

  I couldn’t even call out to them without losing.

  The kid still hadn’t surfaced.

  I’d told Zander they wouldn’t teach us the same thing twice. But what other purpose could this trial have, if I couldn’t save the kid? I couldn’t even call out that he was in danger. My
heart started to beat faster, and I walked in the tight circle of my cage, careful not to step out of it. No one even looked at me, as if I didn’t exist anymore.

  The gods did this kind of thing all the time. They sat up on their thrones, watching the world below without giving a fuck about who died and who lived. Was that the point of this trial? That I needed to learn not to give a fuck? But if I couldn’t care about a helpless kid in the water, then what would be the point of existing? An eight-year-old, who hadn’t yet learned when not to be a dumbass.

  My heart continued to pound as his friends threw balloons at each other again. How long had it been? Ten seconds? Twenty? He still hadn’t surfaced. What happened in twenty minutes, when no one noticed? How long would the gods make me stand there, helpless to do anything?

  I felt lied to, cheated. They had taught Zander that you couldn’t save everyone already, why would they teach me the same thing? Or were they even teaching us, or seeing if we would do what they wanted? Was that the point of this trial? I had to stand there because the gods told me to. I had to prove that I would listen to them, even when I really didn’t want to. Or maybe they wanted me to prove that I’d break the rules if it meant doing something good?

  But I’d never had issues breaking the rules. If they wanted to test someone on that, they should have thrown Juniper in the middle of this, not me. They shouldn’t have stuck me with this impossible decision. Only I could save that boy, and I had to stand still and watch him die?

  I couldn’t do that.

  “Where’s Billy?” one of the other kids asked, looking around. He looked a little older and a lot like the kid that had fallen in the water. An older brother, maybe.

  The other kids all looked around. A pale girl frowned, and asked, “Did he come out of the water?”

  “He must’ve,” one of the others said.

  “I didn’t see it,” the girl argued.

  I silently urged them to go into the water, fish Billy out, and try to revive him. If it hadn’t been too late. It’d been what, a minute? Longer?