Tala Phoenix and the School of Secrets

by Gabby Fawkes

  He squinted, his gaze in the distance as he started to pace. “Hang on.”

  “Anyone else think it’s pretty sketchy that Stewie just out and told Tala where the base is?” Kian said.

  “Didn’t Artemis say he was dumb as a post?” I said. “And he did think I was just some clueless hooker.”

  “Still.”

  I didn’t say anything. Kian had a point, but I wasn’t about to tear apart the best lead we had. Axel didn’t seem to have heard her either.

  “No, actually it makes perfect sense,” Axel said. He wheeled around to grin at us, looking happy and wild enough to do something crazy, like a cartwheel or rip a tree out of the ground and give it a triumphant shake. “It’s brilliant.”

  “What is?” I said.

  “Half a century ago, there was a big security breach,” Axel explained. “The old DSA base was discovered by some rebels and lit on fire, burning a good portion of it to the ground. Back then, the DSA didn’t have the same clout they do now, couldn’t hide the story. Anyway, story was the DSA regrouped, had a small board travel around to decide where their new base would be. Of course, they didn’t make public the place they eventually chose for the new base.”

  “And this helps us how?” Kian demanded, her voice Underslept Bitch Kian even as she covered her yawn with her palm.

  “It doesn’t,” Axel said. “Especially since they apparently traveled and considered every country on the planet.”

  “Okay…” Demi said quietly.

  She shot a questioning look my way I returned with a shrug. I had no clue why Axel still looked like as happy as a kid who’d had Christmas, Easter, Kwanzaa, Halloween and National Ice Cream Day all on the same day.

  “It’s brilliant,” he crooned again. “So simple that no one would’ve guessed.”

  “Yep, we still haven’t,” I grumbled, glaring at him pointedly.

  Get to the point already, my PV even growled.

  “That’s the thing – the DSA didn’t move their base at all,” Axel said, his grin splitting his face. “Just put it where the old one was.”

  “Hm,” I said noncommittally.

  Them just putting it where the old one seemed too… obvious.

  But Axel was talking excitedly again. “Over the next few years, the rebels got picked off, until no one even knew where the original location had been, other than somewhere in Amsterdam.”

  “Then why are you still smiling?” I said.

  His head swivelled to face mine. “Because guess who was one of the rebels?”

  As we followed him to the temple, our protestations rang on deaf ears. “Won’t the others be sleeping? And how the hell were you one of the rebels?”

  “Probably not,” he said, wholly unworried. “Artemis and Apollo like practicing archery most nights, while Dion is probably…yeah, realistically, he’s still drinking.”

  “And what about the whole you being a rebel thing?” I asked.

  A dark shadow tottered in front of us. “You still haven’t told them?”

  My shoulders lowered in relief when I saw it was just Dion, as happily buzzed as usual.

  Kian peered at him warily. “Can gods die of alcohol poisoning?”

  He slung an arm around her, tipping his head to hers. “Why – worried about me?”

  “More like worrying about being died on,” Kian said, extricating herself. “We still need you.”

  Seeing the hurt on his face, she sighed. “Okay, I may not totally despise you.”

  Dion leapt to the air, upsetting his goblet of wine in the process. “Ha! You do care!”

  “What did he mean, you still haven’t told them?” I asked Axel, turning my attention to him as Kian and Dion verbally sparred.

  But he was already setting ahead at a breakneck pace. “No time now. We’ll have to tell the others and…”

  Abruptly, he stopped, then swivelled so that he was facing me. “If I tell you where the old base was – where the new one probably is, you have to promise me something.” He scraped his hair back. “Not to go rushing off there yourself, until all of us have agreed on a reasonable plan and timeline. What happened at the gala was… too close for comfort.”

  The break in his usual unconcerned expression touched me… but not enough for me to tell the truth. There were times to uphold your character and all that, but this was not one of them. Not with one of my best friend’s lives at stake.

  “Oka…” I said.y

  “You three would never get into the Royal Palace of Amsterdam without us,” Axel said firmly. “It’s extremely heavily guarded, and if you were caught…”

  “What are you not saying?” I said, as we stopped at a gold-encrusted door.

  Even if he had just told me the base location –Royal Palace of Amsterdam – bingo! – I could still see there was more to it.

  The door swung open.

  “What he’s saying,” Apollo said, “is that you’ll have to wait weeks until the timing is right.”

  “You heard all that?” I said, surprised. Then, remembering that I shouldn’t be surprised considering the whole godly hearing thing, said, “Weeks? Why?”

  “Because the royals will be stationed at the palace for their anniversary for the next few weeks,” Apollo said. “Which means that security will be through the roof, as opposed to merely airtight.”

  “So?” Demi said, having followed us. “We can take ‘em.”

  An unpromising pause.

  “No,” Axel said. “Not alone you can’t. And not without causing a scene that will likely attract the DSA’s attention and destroy any hope you have of sneaking in.”

  “Okay,” I said. The solution was obvious. It wasn’t like we could wait around while Jer was locked up and suffering. “Then help us.”

  “No,” Apollo said.

  “Why not?” I asked.

  In the moonlight filtering in, Apollo’s pale face and ringlets looked carved of marble. His placid expression was certainly like a statue’s as he spoke, “Lately, we Olympians have been sticking our noses in places they don’t belong. The DSA have noticed. If they grow too suspicious, then they may stop… allowing us certain liberties.”

  “Such as?” I asked.

  “Not having to explain why and how we knew about a giant mutant bear attacking Times Square, for starters,” Artemis said, emerging from the dark.

  “Oh, forget it,” a higher voice said airily as another figure –Aphie, this time– materialized from the dark. Was night vision another one of the Olympians’ innumerable special powers? “You know reggies only care about one thing – themselves.”

  “They aren’t reggies,” Apollo said patiently.

  “And how do you know that the DSA have noticed?” I asked him.

  “We have friends sympathetic to Olympus,” he said. “Some were at the party. They warned me, offhand and in not so many words. But it was a warning all the same.”

  He looked at Axel pointedly. “And I, for one, am not going to take any chances.”

  “He’s right,” Axel said reluctantly. “We should keep our head down, just for a few weeks, and then-”

  “And then what?” I demanded. I couldn’t believe what I was hearing. Sure, the Olympians had to save their own skins, but what about Jer? If we waited too long, we might have no friend left to save.

  “Besides,” Aphie said, pearly nails drumming her hips. “You don’t even know whether they’re keeping your hideous beast friend in Amsterdam.”

  “That is a point,” Artemis allowed.

  “Watch who you’re calling a hideous beast,” I snapped.

  But before I could say anything more, Axel snorted. “Think, Aphie. Of course, he’s there. Where else would they keep a murderous giant mutant bear? Antarctica?”

  “I was merely trying to change the minds of these pigheaded children,” Aphie said, thrusting her nose up to the sky and storming out.

  “Olympians can’t inhabit two bodies at once, can they?” Demi muttered. “Cuz I swear
, her and Jenna…”

  I turned my imploring gaze to Axel. “You aren’t serious, though. We aren’t actually going to sit around for weeks while our friend rots away, are we?”

  He wouldn’t look at me. “There’s no other choice. If we mess this up…”

  “We may not get another chance, right,” I snapped, my whole body burning as I stormed away. “But if we wait too long, we may not get any chance at all.”

  I left them with that, Demi following close behind.

  “Your talk went that well?” Kian said, joining us as we rushed out.

  When I didn’t answer, she yawned. “Okay, okay, what dumb demands are they making?”

  I rounded on her. “None. They’re making none.”

  “Wha-”

  “They want to wait.” Hot tears sprang to my eyes but I blinked them back. I would not cry self-pitying tears. I. Would. Not. Right now, there was time for one thing and one thing only: Figuring out how we were going to save Jer ourselves.

  28

  A few hours later, after we’d wandered all across the field a few times (avoiding going into the village), and thrown around ideas, we had what even Kian admitted was only a moderately terrible plan.

  “Great, that’s a real confidence boost,” Demi said.

  “Por favor,” Kian said. “You want me to lie? This plan, after all, mostly relies on me. And if you want to know if I’m confident in my weeks-old abilities, the answer is a solid hell no.”

  “You’d think with Dion being a natural mind-controller, he could’ve focused on teaching you that a bit more,” I griped. “Unless he did that… on purpose.”

  Kian’s eyes narrowed at me. “What are you saying?”

  I avoided stepping into what looked to be a groundhog hole. “I don’t know. Forget it.”

  Although I did find how she’d been coming around to Dion lately a bit suspicious.

  “Yeah, yeah.” Kian plopped on the ground and leaned against a tree. “Already told you, Dion hasn’t used the mind control/compulsion thingy on me. And my mind control powers won’t work on him since he’s a god. So your whole theory you can take and shove up your–”

  “Guys,” Demi said. “Shouldn’t we get going?” Although she sat down nearby and began stroking a lilac between her two fingers, causing its purple buds to spurt up higher.

  “C’mon,” I protested, lowering myself between them. “There’s totally something going on between Kian and Dion. She should just admit it.”

  “Just how there’s clearly something going on between you and Axel, even though you won’t admit it,” she retorted. “In fact, you didn’t even tell us what happened the other night at the gala.”

  “Oh yeah,” I said. I’d honestly forgotten to fill them in with all the base madness. “Just that cupcake made me… drunk or woozy or something. I dunno, it had this weird carum herb which shifters are apparently susceptible to. Then I ran into Stewie, who thought I was a hoo–” I paused to clear my throat. “A lady of the night, and was going to sweep me away, until Axel stepped in.”

  Demi gasped, while Kian’s horrified look and muttered ‘creep’ was quickly succeeded with a triumphant smile.

  “So basically, there totally is something going on between you and Asshole Axel,” Kian said, brows raising. “Or do you want the deets on me, while you don’t kiss and tell?”

  “Who even said…” I began.

  “Oh my God!” Kian yelled, jumping to her feet. “You totally did!”

  She fell silent, both she and Demi eyeing me curiously.

  I plucked up a handful of grass at random, smiling at the four-leaf clover in the middle of the palm. Lucky me, I guess? Only… I rifled my hand across the top of the grass, yeah, there were a ton of four leaf clovers all over the place.

  Kian cleared her throat.

  “Okay, I meant to tell you guys,” I said. “Just with everything that happened with Jer…” I got to my feet too. “Speaking of, we should get going and leave already. Before our Olympian friends decide to ‘guard’ us for our own good.”

  Kian yanked me back to the ground. “Oh no, you don’t. You’re not getting out of this that easily. Five minutes. C’mon, Tala.”

  When I didn’t respond, she reminded me, “I told you when I kissed Timmy on a dare.”

  “And,” Demi said, her dreamy voice haughty, “I told you when I kissed my violets to help them grow.”

  I resisted the urge to laugh.

  Anyway, my friends were right. I had to tell them. They were my BFFs. And as nervous as I was to hear their take, I was excited for it too.

  “All right, all right,” I said, catching my breath. “It was back at the Flying Narwhale, after I had this terrible dream. I woke up and Axel was there. He talked, comforted me and…we kissed.”

  “How was it?” Kian asked.

  “Why is he still a jerk?” Demi asked.

  Both Kian’s and my heads whipped to regard Demi.

  “What?” she said.

  “That was so not the thing to say,” Kian said.

  “But it’s true,” Demi protested. “He hasn’t been acting much differently, in fact…”

  Kian gave a much-beleaguered sigh. “Demi, Demi, Demi. You hear the details first, then scold ‘Don’t fall for jerks’ after. Rookie move, goddess.”

  Demi glared at her, although she did shut up.

  “Now, where were we?” Kian asked, looking to me expectantly.

  She was right. I might as well finish what I’d started, even if I did know what my friends thought about Axel.

  “Ok, it was super good,” I said, raising a hand. “But you don’t have to warn me or anything. I’m not an idiot. I know that falling for Axel would be a bad idea.”

  “Meaning?” Kian said.

  I glared at her. As much as I loved having a feisty outspoken BFF, right now I wasn’t loving it so much. I didn’t need a mom.

  “You haven’t told us what’s up between you and Dion either,” I pointed out.

  “Yes, I did,” Kian said. “Nothing.”

  And with that, she got up and started off for the fountain, which wasn’t far off. “We really should get going.”

  I leapt up, storming after her. “You have to be joking.”

  “You want to be the one to explain to Jer that he lost an arm at the DSA cuz you were more interested in hearing about me and the god of alcoholism, then fine,” Kian snapped.

  “Guys,” Demi sing-songed.

  “Says the person who stopped us planning Jeremy’s rescue so she could hear about a goddamn kiss! I can’t believe you.”

  “Guys,” Demi said more sharply.

  “’K, whatever,” Kian said. “Anyway. I’m not putting it off. Because, as I said, there is nothing to tell.”

  She stormed ahead without so much as a look back, although she kept talking, “We’d better get going, since Demi isn’t 100% sure her daughter gave her the right info about this whole Olympus to wherever-in-the-world fountain.”

  “Can you guys please not call her that?” Demi said petulantly, then muttered, “Knew I shouldn’t have given you guys the play-by-play.”

  “Okay, you’re not sure Purse-phony gave you the right deets, okay?” Kian said, stepping onto the side of the fountain.

  “Are you planning on arguing all night, or actually leaving?” a deep voice said.

  29

  Oh… shit.

  I glared at Axel warily. “Here to stop us?”

  He cracked his knuckles. “If I wanted you stopped, you would’ve been already.”

  “So you’ll help us?”

  “If you’ll hurry,” he said, beckoning us to the fountain as he stepped in. “I’m supposed to be here to check on you. Dion wanted to be sure his precious ‘Lips’ wasn’t doing anything rash.”

  “Hate it when he calls me that,” Kian griped, stalking up to the fountain and getting in. She gritted her teeth. “God, it’s colder than Jenna’s soul. We couldn’t just take those flying horse things? Or
go in the good old creepy transporting closet?”

  “Told you, Persephone said only the temple closet could do that,” Demi said, sounding like a grumpy mom.

  It was so weird to think that the best friend I’d known since childhood was suddenly an actual mom mom. I still wasn’t really sure I believed it… But then, the proof was right there.

  “We going, or wasting more time?” Axel said.

  “We’re going,” I said.

  “Good,” he said.

  And with that, he dove into the water.

  As soon as I stepped inside, I shivered.

  Death is what she strives for, yes, my PV whined. And why I should be so unlucky to inhabit such a fool’s body….

  “You’re welcome,” I muttered as I threw myself in face-first.

  Cold rattled through me. I flailed out blindly. But then hands latched onto mine, and I was pulled up and out.

  Thank John.

  Inhaling water-free air never felt better. It took me a few gasped inhales to get my breath, but when I did and scrambled onto hard, stone ground, a quick look around the dark gabled façades of the city streets around me seemed promising enough.

  “This it?” I whispered.

  “This is it,” Axel said, offering me his hand. “Amsterdam.”

  Unthinkingly, I took it and he helped me out. “And we’re going…”

  “That way,” Axel said, already conveying me down a street.

  Beside us, at the sight of our still-held hands, Kian and Demi exchanged a smirk. Kian winked at me.

  “Sorry,” Axel said, withdrawing his hand hastily. “Wasn’t thinking.”

  “Me neither,” I said smoothly.

  If he wanted to play the Aloof with a Secret game, then that was just fine with me.

  “Whatever you and your friends’ plans were,” Axel continued conversationally, “just follow me now.”

  “Pretty unsure of himself, isn’t he?” Kian said sarcastically, flickering her brows.

  I shrugged. “We always have our plan as back-up.”

  It wasn’t like what we’d come up with was that good anyway. I mean, pretending to be clueless reggies, then getting arrested so that Kian could mind-control the guards and we could unleash whatever powers we had to get away? Yeah, it was a long shot. A dumb, risky one we’d come up with in like fifteen minutes. It had been worth it to at least have speed on our side for rescuing Jeremy, but still.