A PHILOSOPHICAL PARTY
I sat on the nearest cot and let Persephone clean off my visible wounds with a damp cloth as I recounted my story of what had happened down in the Underworld with Hades. I’m sure Alec would have happily sat next to me, but on the other side of the tent Apollo was currently taping bandages to his bleeding back. Nevertheless, Alec didn’t take his eyes off me once and I was certain that he was still thinking about our kiss. Hell, I was still thinking about the kiss.
And the prophecy, of course. You can’t forget that.
When I had finished telling the story, Ares exclaimed angrily in Greek, “So you just gave the helm to Hades?! What on earth were you thinking?”
“I have to agree with Ares on this one,” Poseidon murmured, running his fingers through his jet-black hair. “How do you know for sure that Hades will even come to this meeting tomorrow? I can’t say I would be surprised if he screwed us over.”
“Trust me, he’ll show up,” I responded confidently, clenching my fists in my lap. “Let’s just say I gave him an offer he couldn’t refuse.” Thinking again about what it would be like to leave the forest forever, I gulped, but when Zeus raised one eyebrow questioningly, I quickly shrugged it off.
Breaking the short moment of silence, he announced vaguely, “Well, what’s done is done.” And after a few last orders were handed out, most of the gods left the tent in a hurry, heading back in a large group toward Main Street. Yes, even after a full day of saving the world from being taken over, some of the gods still had curfews to meet and lies to tell. So after a few minutes, only Alec, Persephone, Pan, and the Monster Watch remained.
When Persephone had finished cleaning up and bandaging my wounds, I muttered a quick thank-you and began polishing my armor so it wouldn’t rust. Out of the corner of my eye, I saw that everyone but Persephone, who didn’t even have armor, was doing the same, and I simply ignored them as they chatted nonchalantly about who had died and which monsters they had killed that day. I wasn’t in the mood to talk and, frankly, I just didn’t have the energy to socialize.
I’m not sure how much time passed, but eventually Alec strode over to his cot next to mine. I didn’t even have to look up to know it was him so I continued to scrub my breastplate as I asked him seriously, “Are you actually going to have a conversation with me this time, or are you just going to try to kiss me again?”
Alec smirked sheepishly, but I avoided his gaze and kept picking at the dirt on my armor as I waited for him to speak up. When he finally realized I wasn’t joking, he cleared his throat and said firmly, “Athena, I’m not sorry for kissing you so I’m not going to apologize.”
“I know,” I whispered, squeezing my eyes shut, and Alec patiently waited for me to continue. I paused to take a few deep breaths and then, with a shaking voice, I finally admitted, “I’m not sorry either. I’m just . . . confused.”
Alec chewed his lip thoughtfully. “I’m sure you’ll figure something out. You always do,” he told me, trying his best to comfort me. “You’re just lucky you don’t get confused as often as the average person.”
He sat down on the cot across from me, pausing to brush a stray piece of dark hair out of my dirty face and to wipe off a tiny smudge of blood, and then he smirked again. “Damn, you look absolutely gorgeous.”
I honestly couldn’t tell if he was joking or not so I simply rolled my eyes at him. “Why did you come over here again? I hope it wasn’t just to tease me.”
“Oh, right, that reminds me . . . I brought you some food,” he said. I glanced up and narrowed my eyes in slight disappointment as he set down some berries, a few nuts, and a single piece of bread in front of me. Reading my less-than-thrilled expression, Alec explained with a sigh, “I know it’s not much, but the troops already ate the food we brought from your house.”
“It’s fine. I’ve had to live off of less food before,” I assured him, picking up a berry and popping it into my mouth. “So how is your back?”
Alec’s expression darkened, and he looked down at his worn-out shoes. “Hades is a jerk” was all he said as he clenched his fists in his lap.
“How long had Hades been cutting you before I got to the palace?” I asked softly, swallowing down a pang of guilt. But Alec just shut his eyes and shook his head silently so I knew that Hades had been torturing him for a long time—too long to measure and too long to want to think about. Woefully, I took a shaky breath and put my head in my hands. “I’m sorry I couldn’t get there sooner, Alec.”
Alec shook his head. “Athena, it’s not your fault. I’m just glad you got there when you did. Remembering how powerful and alive I felt when I was destroying those monsters with you earlier today and patrolling with the A Team a couple of weeks ago—that’s what got me through the pain. I knew that if I survived to see the gods again, everything would be fine again or at least I would feel fine. And I was right.”
But for how long will you feel fine? I thought to myself guiltily, though deep down I already knew the answer. How long until the prophecy is finally fulfilled?
Seemingly oblivious to my personal emotional struggles, Alec paused for a moment to eat a few berries before he questioned me in an equally grave tone, “Now, how are your own injuries? I have to admit you scared me quite a bit when you showed up looking so bloodied.”
I just shrugged indifferently in response, seeing as neither of us was willing to complain about the amount of pain we were suffering; we both viewed whining as weak. After all, there was no point in dwelling on what could have happened, what the results could have been. Preparing for future battles was much more important at the time.
“Maybe we should talk about something else,” I suggested, tugging aimlessly at the end of my ponytail.
Alec nodded in agreement, passing me half of the piece of bread. “Are you going to tell me about that letter now? You promised you would,” he said, hesitantly reaching for the piece of paper sticking out of the pocket on my leather jacket.
I ducked out of Alec’s reach as I quickly stuffed the paper farther down in my pocket. To be honest, I had almost forgotten that I had actually written it. And when Alec glanced at me suspiciously, I gulped, trying to decide on the best way to handle this. “I’ll show it to you tomorrow,” I replied firmly, thinking about the meeting with Hades the next day. I couldn’t think of any better time to explain it to him, although “better” wasn’t quite the right word.
“Okay, I guess. But speaking of tomorrow, do you want to fight alongside me? I think Zeus will have me stationed in the small meadow again,” he asked in a lighter tone, and I couldn’t help but giggle. “What is it?” Alec’s dark eyebrows knit together in confusion.
“My life,” I responded, rolling my eyes playfully. “Most girls get asked out to dances, but I get asked out to go to battle. Crazy, huh?”
Alec just grinned hopefully. “So is that a yes? Don’t tell me you’d rather go to a dance, Athena, because I am definitely not taking you to another one with the Knowing.”
“Never in a million years would I willingly pass up the chance to kick the enemy’s ass, little hero. You know that. So, yes, I will gladly fight with you,” I answered him with a sly smile. Then I finished polishing my armor and pushed all of the different pieces under my cot, looking up just in time to catch Alec’s eye, and he blushed, slightly embarrassed to be caught staring.
I opened my mouth to reprimand him, but was suddenly sandwiched on my cot by Zeus and Apollo on one side, Poseidon on the other. “Whoa, is this a date? Can we crash it?” Apollo asked, a goofy smile on his face and his blond hair sticking out all over the place, a common result of wearing a helmet for almost the entire day.
Unamused, I retorted, “First of all, you can’t ‘crash’ an event if you ask for permission. And second of all, we’re eating berries and nuts over an old cot—in an army camp, no less! Does this look anything like a date to you?”
“No, but it looks like your idea of a perfect date,” Zeus pointed out smartly, raising his eyebrows, and I tried my best to keep myself from blushing, settling instead for a glare in his direction. Meanwhile, Poseidon and Apollo both started cracking up and Alec just smiled; they all knew it was true.
“But no worries,” Zeus continued, patting my shoulder lovingly. “We’ll join you anyway. We’re all on a date tonight, boys!”
“Ew! I don’t want to go on a date with Athena!” Poseidon exclaimed in mock disgust.
“Your loss,” Alec replied to the lord of the sea, eagerly sticking up for me. He winked at me jokingly, but I just rolled my eyes again and stood up.
“Well, I’ll leave you guys to flirt with each other while I go talk to Cole. He’s probably freaking out,” I told them as I ate another berry, and Alec frowned. Poseidon and Apollo didn’t seem to care, as they were currently stuffing their faces with the food, but Zeus said he would come along with me.
We left the tent together and started to slowly make our way over to the infirmary, where we thanked the nurses (specifically Jan) for their services and picked up Cole, who had been listening to the older blond man sitting next to him tell stories from the battles. Unsurprisingly, Cole seemed to relax a little bit as we left the tent full of strange creatures and sat down on the riverbank about thirty yards from the camp, looking out over the rushing waters. Other than the noises coming from the camp behind us and from the river, it was quiet. Zeus had stopped the rain for the time being, although silver mist hung low and heavy in the air.
“So how are you, Cole?” Zeus asked in English, breaking our state of awkward silence. I thought that he sounded a little too optimistic given our circumstances, but he was probably just trying to make Cole feel better.
“Okay,” Cole replied vaguely. He avoided eye contact, looking down at his shoes and picking at the lush grass instead. Ever since we had passed through the section of the forest with Medusa’s kills, Cole had been on edge, like he hadn’t expected any of this. I had tried to warn him, but maybe he hadn’t taken me seriously until then.
“My parents are probably worried sick about me,” Cole added a moment later, hinting at the fact that he wanted to go home.
Zeus sighed and replied quietly, “Sorry, man, but it’s not safe for you to go back into town without protection. You’re a target for monsters now, just like the rest of us. But don’t worry, I’ll tell someone to make up a cover story for you.” Then he muttered some orders into his walkie-talkie and a minute later, Hermes agreed to talk to Cole’s parents.
“When will I be able to go home?” Cole asked, hugging his knees. He sounded a lot like a lost child and, in a way, he really was.
Zeus looked over to me, figuring that my guess would be better than his, and I thought silently to myself for a moment. “Probably tomorrow, later in the day,” I told Cole with a shrug. “With any luck, the war will have ended by then.”
“You really think so?” Zeus looked at me, mild surprise in his blue eyes, and I nodded. I knew that most of the Knowing had expected the war to run on for at least two more weeks, if not months, though I’m not sure how well they thought it would continue once the gods started school again. If it did, we would be forced to abandon our regular human lifestyles completely, which was never part of the gods’ plan.
Scratching my head, I pondered aloud, “Do you think it’s wrong that we haven’t told the Knowing everything about the war? Why they’re fighting, how this whole thing really started and all that.”
Again, Zeus raised one eyebrow at me, probably wondering why I would ask such an indicative question, the answer to which had the potential to make us gods look too secretive and untrustworthy or possibly even unfit to rule. His expression was deadly serious, however, as he answered me without the slightest indication of hesitancy, “No, they know enough.”
Frowning, he clenched his fists in his lap and glared at them. I wanted to ask, Do you think they would actually fight for us if they knew the whole truth? But I knew another provocative question would only upset the king of the gods, who was already on edge, so I kept the thought to myself.
Uncomfortably, the three of us plunged into another silence, listening to the rushing river, the wind rustling through the tree branches, and the murmurs coming from the camp. Silver dapples of reflected moonlight seeping through the thick tree cover danced across the strong currents of dark waters in front of us, and the only other light emanated dully from the flickering orange campfire behind us. But then I heard a more noticeable sound that didn’t quite belong with the rest—the low rustling of a bush nearby—and I rolled my eyes immediately.
“Stop spying and get over here, Alec,” I called over my shoulder and heard the rebellious hero sigh for dramatic effect as he emerged from the thick foliage. When Alec pointedly took a seat a few inches closer to me than Cole had, Cole narrowed his eyes at him. Alec didn’t seem to notice, but he still sat stiff and rigid, his fists clenched, his muscles taut. I, meanwhile, exchanged amused glances with Zeus, who just grinned at me teasingly and rolled his eyes as well. Boys will be boys, I supposed.
“So what are you guys talking about?” Alec asked me in Greek, as if he didn’t know already, though he was probably just trying to make Cole jealous. And judging by Cole’s sudden restlessness, the plan was working. Plus, Alec was shirtless, showing off his well-defined abs and bandaged back, so he probably looked pretty intimidating. Having Zeus, who was even better looking and more intimidating than Alec, splayed out in the grass probably didn’t help much either.
“Tomorrow,” I answered Alec, also in Greek. “Do you want to come with Zeus and me to meet with Hades? I think it would be beneficial.” He just nodded eagerly.
“He speaks English, right?” Cole suddenly interrupted.
“Yes, you idiot,” Alec rudely snarled back in English, and I shot him a warning glare. I also heard a snicker come from the other side of Cole where Zeus was sitting, but then Alec changed the subject, still speaking English. “Anyway, I thought you might want to know that Pan just updated the map. A scout spotted a huge troop of undead warriors camped out on the east edge of the forest, close to town. It sure seems like Hades isn’t slowing his additions to his army.”
Zeus let out a stressed sigh, running his fingers through his dark blond hair. “As long as they don’t make a move tonight, everyone should be fine. I’ll just send Ares, Apollo, and a bunch of sword fighters in that direction tomorrow.”
“How can you guys deal with this life? You could die any day, but you keep coming into the woods, and now you’ve gotten yourselves caught up in a war,” Cole butted in as he shook his head in disbelief. “You’re only fifteen years old, for crying out loud! Why are you doing this? How could you let this happen? I thought you all were smart.”
Again, Zeus looked to me to give the moral support. (Why was that not surprising?) In the meantime, Alec was staring blankly off into the trees on my other side, doing his best to completely ignore Cole as I explained, “Well, we—and that includes Hades—probably did rush into war too quickly. Now we just have to finish it, rather than let it drag on forever. Adding more and more soldiers isn’t the best way to do that, but Hades is forcing our hand, which is partly why we’re meeting with him tomorrow. I want to get rid of as much extraneous damage as possible. So I’ll tell you the same thing I told Alec when I was training him: it’s better to die a hero than a monster. I’d rather not leave any more trouble behind than I already have. And on a shallower note, being a hero is a hell of a lot more fun than being a lonely villain.”
Zeus and Alec chuckled in agreement, exchanging a fist bump, but Cole only mumbled glumly, “You must be crazy.”
“Well, I like crazy. Crazy can be good sometimes,” Alec spoke up, playfully nudging me in the side with his elbow, and I winced as he accidentally hit a bruise. It occurred to me that I might have cracked a rib or two during my tumble down the steps to the Underworld. When Alec raised one eyebrow at me out of concern, I waved him off, knowing I would heal soon enough. He continued brightly, “After all, you can’t have a philosophical party without a little insanity. Everyone knows the truth is just as insane as the lie.” Both Zeus and I snorted at his bumptious tone, but he was still right.
“A philosophical party, huh? Well, I guess this is a good time to vent about how much my life sucks,” Cole mused halfheartedly, more to himself than anyone else, but it was enough to set Alec off on a rant, to switch his mood in the blink of an eye.
“You think you have it bad?” Alec stood up abruptly and gave a short, hollow laugh. “Really? You haven’t even done anything yet! Try being persecuted for your beliefs, beaten by your own family, and tortured by Hades!” By the time Alec had stopped shouting, his blue eyes were angry and cold.
“Well, sorry—” Cole started, not sounding very sorry at all as he lazily picked at a clump of dirt stuck to his old, white T-shirt. I wished he would’ve been a little more sympathetic, even though he had been unconscious for the most terrorizing part of our visit to the Underworld and being kidnapped was definitely stressful too.
Fuming, Alec interrupted, “You’re just ignorant and innocent, and you know absolutely nothing about suffering! Forget this. I’m done.”
Without another word, he turned on his heel and stalked off toward our tent, the crowds parting for him like the sea. I couldn’t help but think that I was finally catching a glimpse of what Alec was like before he met the gods. Or maybe he had just been spending too much time around Hera; it seemed her jealous nature was rubbing off on him. Actually, with a temper like Poseidon’s, bloodlust like Ares’s, leadership like Zeus’s, love like Aphrodite’s, optimism like Apollo’s, strategies like mine, and more, it seemed Alec really did have a little bit of each god inside of him. I also knew that in the long run these attributes would unfortunately cause both physical and mental problems for us, the gods, and most importantly, for the hero himself.
As I watched the disgruntled hero disappear into the crowded circle of tents, I suggested quietly, “Maybe we should all just go to bed now. It’s getting late.”
Zeus nodded in agreement, stood up, and then followed Alec’s path to the tent, making sure to stop and wink flirtatiously at each of the most beautiful nymphs and Knowing members. I got up next and Cole followed suit, but he grabbed my arm and whispered suggestively, “Maybe you and I could stay out here a little longer? You know, alone”
“Oh.” My mouth went dry, not sure how to let him down without sounding like a jerk. “Sorry, Cole, but I shouldn’t. Athena can’t date. She’s supposed to be a virgin and never marry and all that, so . . .” I let my voice trail off, but when I saw Cole narrow his eyes dubiously, I added curtly, “That means I can’t date Alec either, you know. I was never cheating on you, if that’s what you’re thinking.” Obviously, I didn’t mention the kiss I had shared with Alec just an hour earlier.
Cole brightened up again, but only slightly. We then returned to camp, and I felt the eyes of the many different soldiers boring into the backs of our necks as I led him into the large tent to sleep with the rest of the gods. I simply exchanged nods with Pan, Persephone, Poseidon, and Apollo on the other side of the tent, bidding them goodnight before I settled down on my own little cot while Cole took his place on the other side of Zeus. Alec didn’t say anything, but he caught my hand and kissed it lightly before hastily rolling over on his side, and I heard Cole mutter some profanities under his breath in annoyance.
Next, I squeezed my eyes shut, hoping that sleep would come easily to me, but of course, it did not. My mind was too alert and busy thinking over the terrible prophecy to allow me to rest so, instead, I fretfully tossed and turned on my cot all night long. Nevertheless, morning came much, much too soon.
The soldiers and all of the other gods had a light breakfast of nuts and berries, but I ate nothing. If I had, I was certain I would have just vomited so I only watched as the troops split up around eight, each heading toward a different part of the forest, each led by a different god. After thirty minutes, Zeus, Alec, and I were the only gods left in camp (besides Hestia and the injured Hephaestus, who were helping out in the infirmary with Cole), busy coming up with a battle strategy for the day and waiting for the time when we would meet Hades. Together we monitored the chatter on the walkie-talkies, changed the map and its figures accordingly, then ordered the troops’ movements based on those changes—a true exercise of strategy, a chess match with real-life consequences.
“Alec, how long has it been since you’ve heard from Jason back in Kentucky?” I asked when there was a pause in radio communications.
He furrowed his brow. “A couple of days, maybe? Base camp was under siege at the time.”
Zeus inhaled sharply and held my gaze. Although his expression was stoic, his silence told me his aggravation was mounting. When he finally exhaled, temporarily letting go of his anger in favor of maintaining self-control in front of two friends, he looked back to Alec.
“Well, you’d better call him now. I don’t know what you’re waiting for,” Zeus ordered, his voice tight. “Hopefully the Knowing haven’t been starved to insuperable weakness already.”
The king turned swiftly on his heel and headed toward the infirmary, his stress level obviously increasing by the minute. He was no doubt going to tell Hephaestus and Hestia it was time for us to leave and meet Hades, so Alec and I quickly suited up in our armor.
“Make sure you ask about the other Knowing camps as well,” I added to Alec as he stepped away to call Jason. “Don’t let up about New York.”
The hero just nodded, and a few minutes later both he and Zeus returned to my side. The news wasn’t good; the Knowing base camp had lost a lot of men, and Jason had lost contact with two of the other, smaller camps around the world, presumably due to destruction by monsters. Evidently, we were losing the war on more than one front.
There wasn’t a moment to lose. We walked at a faster pace than the day before since most of the wounds Zeus and I had received had healed overnight and Alec didn’t have any injuries except the ugly gashes on his back. We ran into a couple of undead warriors, but Zeus electrocuted them all with a single bolt of lightning, and they crumbled to dust before Alec and I could do anything to help out. About half an hour later, we descended a small hill and found ourselves next to the entrance to the Underworld I had used the night before, the place we had first met Hades.
While we waited for the lord of the dead to show up, Zeus, Alec, and I stood as silent and still as the gray boulder in front of us, keeping a close ear out for anyone or anything coming our way. I was sure that I heard the loud crack of a tree branch behind me, and I was just about to turn around when the buff Minotaur and golden Nemean Lion walked out in front of the boulder together, keeping just enough distance between them to fit one person: the invisible Hades.
Zeus glanced over at me quizzically, and I just nodded at him, as if to answer his unspoken question. Two guards—Hades had held up his end of the bargain so far, which was a very good sign. I was almost certain that he would agree to my terms of continuing the war only among the gods.
The lion and Minotaur stopped a few feet in front of us, staring hungrily with their yellow and red eyes until Hades gave a commanding cough. Immediately, the lion sat down on his haunches and, out of respect, bowed his head in unison with the Minotaur. Hades chose that moment to nonchalantly slip off his helm of invisibility, revealing his pearl-white body and messy hair that was as black as night—features with which I’d recently become all too familiar. I gulped.
“Nice to see you again,” Hades began coldly, gripping the bronze helmet under his arm very tightly and nodding in turn to each of us. “Let’s get right down to business. I’ve thought a lot about your proposition, Lady Athena, and I’m going to—”
I squeezed my eyes shut, bracing myself. Sometimes I hate being right all the time.
An arrow pierced Hades’s vulnerable forehead before he even got the chance to finish his sentence. Suddenly out of breath, both Zeus and I fell to our knees and watched Hades helplessly crumble to dust in front of us. Just like a monster, I thought bitterly. The only difference was that if you looked closely, you could see his almost transparent soul rise out of the gray ashes and disappear into the treetops, on its way to inhabit the body of the next generation Hades. What a way to die.
“NO!” Alec screamed, reaching out for me. Neither Zeus nor I had the strength to move toward him.
I only panicked more when out of the corner of my eye I saw Hades’s shimmering spirit suddenly dive back down through the forest canopy as if pulled by some powerful outside force toward Alec, into Alec. And the spirit didn’t come back out. I automatically glanced at Zeus, but he didn’t appear to have seen what I had. For Alec’s sake, I hoped that I really was crazy, that I really hadn’t seen what I thought I did.
Simultaneously, the Nemean lion let out a great roar and leaped over Zeus and me, landing heavily on the grass behind us. Without hesitation, the lion lunged for the throat of the clueless archer, who had stepped out from behind a pine tree in order to take the deadly shot. I could only let out a shaky sigh when I recognized him as the man Cole had been talking to in the infirmary. Then the body collapsed and dark red beads of blood sprayed everywhere when the lion latched onto the Knowing Warrior’s neck with its powerful jaws and shook its head vigorously.
With blurry vision, I saw the Warrior’s severed head roll away from the lion, which then started to devour the rest of the man’s muscular body, clawing off his armor in the process. Blood pooled, turning the man’s blond hair red. A swollen tongue stuck out of the head’s open mouth, and its lifeless brown eyes were ripped out of their sockets, hanging only by thin, pink strands of soft tissue. I noticed that his mouth was still open and his facial muscles were still taut in an expression of horror at what he had done, but at least he didn’t have to live on with the guilt of knowing he had killed the gods. The lion was angry, so angry, yet so merciful. I wished I had been merciful to Alec.
As I was lifted up from the damp forest floor, I could only feel relief that the disturbing sights of the dead man and the lion’s furry face speckled with blood were not the last things I would see.
Meanwhile, the Minotaur bounded off in the opposite direction, presumably to spread word that the gods were dying, that the war was over. The monsters had no true purpose for fighting anymore, except to fill their insatiable hunger.
I gasped for air, feeling as if something had just died inside of me, and clung desperately to Alec as he just barely managed to throw me over one shoulder and Zeus over the other. With a sudden burst of superhuman strength, Alec ran through the forest as fast as he could while carrying Zeus and me, repeating over and over under his breath, “No, no, no.”
“You’ll be okay, Alec,” I whispered to him shakily, trying not to cry. “You’ll be okay.”
Alec did not say anything more as we crashed noisily through bushes and ferns, but I felt his body quivering slightly so I gave his shoulder a reassuring squeeze, although I knew very well that it wouldn’t be enough to comfort him. Nothing would ever be enough for him after the deaths of the gods. My heart had this irrational hope that Alec would recover emotionally, at least somewhat, but my brain—my better half—knew he would ultimately choose to live a lonely life filled with sadness, punishing himself for not stopping our deaths even though the prophecy had always been out of his control.
I glanced over at Zeus, who looked like his troubled breathing equaled mine, and he gave me a weak smile before mouthing sadly, I love you. Our matching stormy gray eyes swelled up with tears as we silently relived our past together, but somehow we managed to keep from breaking down completely. We couldn’t let our worshippers see us bawling our eyes out.
It was about ten minutes later that we came upon the camp, and I heard scared whispers from all around us as Alec broke through the crowds. Ahead of us, a limp Demeter was being carried into the tent by the black centaur Anton, and I saw Pan use his strong arms to drag himself through the long grass toward the tent, his furry goat legs failing to support him.
“MOVE!” Alec shouted in despair, racing for our tent at the other end of the circle, and the crowds parted nervously, though they surged forward afterward and tried to follow us into the tent. Enraged, Alec dropped Zeus and me from his shoulders, but still kept an arm around each of us for support as he whirled around and ordered to the crowd, his voice hoarse, “No one comes in here. Get it? Absolutely no one.”
Silence ensued until Cole stepped forward and cleared his throat. “Let me come in. I’m their friend too,” he begged Alec worriedly, not quite sure what was happening.
“No,” Alec snarled maliciously, his eyes flashing like some kind of warning alarm. “You’re friends with humans, not gods.”
The unforgiving hero turned around to lead Zeus and me into the tent, but Cole suddenly took hold of his blue T-shirt and yanked him backward, finishing with a swift punch to Alec’s jaw. Needless to say, Cole had made a huge mistake.
Before Cole could even prepare himself, Alec temporarily let go of Zeus and me—we simply clung to each other in an effort to stay standing—and tackled Cole in one graceful motion. Cole then received a brutal punch to the nose, which broke it, no doubt, and blood began to gush out of his nostrils like two red rivers. I did not have the energy to tell Alec to stop and knew he wouldn’t have listened to me anyway, though I was more than slightly ashamed to admit that I didn’t even try, that I felt nothing. Therefore, the punches continued relentlessly, leaving Cole no chance to fight back, and Alec only stopped his ruthless campaign when Cole went limp—unconscious, not quite dead.
Without saying another word, Alec picked us up again and closed the flap of the tent behind him before laying us down on our small, green cots. I struggled to keep breathing as I glanced around the tent, seeing that Persephone, Hestia, Demeter, Pan, Hermes, Poseidon, Artemis, Aphrodite, Hephaestus, and Hera were on their cots as well. Obviously having heard Alec and Cole’s fight, Anton, Jan, and two water nymphs acting as nurses abruptly put down their bandages and cloths to hurry out of the tent. A few minutes later, Dionysus, Ares, and Apollo were also brought in.
At last, the tent was filled with only the sounds of the gods gasping for air or sobbing violently. This was the end for us. Even Alec, who was usually so strong, had tears welling in his eyes as he held onto my hand, begging me to stay with him. “You should have up to twenty-four hours left here, r—right?” he clarified hopefully.
I shook my head sadly. “We are already tired and weak from the war, Alec. We won’t be able to hold on much longer,” I croaked softly, running my fingers through his hair with my free hand.
As if to prove my point, the Oracle rushed in at that exact moment, carrying the little Eros in her arms. As soon as she sat him down next to Aphrodite, the winged god of love turned his small head full of golden curls toward me, gave a nod as if silently confirming the prophecy, then crumbled to dust without uttering a single word. Aphrodite just sobbed harder, covering her beautiful face with her frail hands. As my stomach began to cramp up, I winced and silently wondered if I would be the next god to die.
“You knew this would happen, didn’t you?” Zeus asked from beside me, noticing my unusual calmness, and as the Oracle sat down cross-legged on the grass, all of the other gods turned their heads toward me.
My slight hesitation gave them the answer, and they responded with only a chorus of sighs. When my forlorn gray eyes met the Oracle’s solemn green ones, she nodded in encouragement, so I monotonously recited the prophecy that had been haunting me for years, “Still you must listen, for the goddess of wisdom will no longer be free of that blasted curse called love. Her beloved hero is great, but he is only bait for the man who will decide this mighty one’s tragic fate.”
Between all the sobs and sadness, the other gods and Alec exchanged confused glances. I took a short pause to let the words sink in before I admitted, “That was the second part of the prophecy. Hades, Eros, and I were the only gods who knew about it.”
“The ‘mighty one’ referred to your entire generation of gods, not just one person,” the Oracle concluded blandly, as if it wasn’t obvious by then, and I nodded.
“I guess the Oracle and I were the only ones who realized the gods would die. Hades always seemed to think the ‘mighty one’ would be Alec,” I added, meeting my hero’s deep blue eyes once again.
“Well, this explains a lot,” he muttered darkly, apparently flashing back to when Hades had tortured him only the night before and when Eros had confronted us a few days earlier.
Then the Oracle cleared her throat and all eyes turned toward her for the second time as she whispered, “And the man who killed you—Jerome, if I’m not mistaken—was one of Alec’s old acquaintances. He was loyal, just following you to protect you, I think. Unfortunately, he did his job too well.”
Staying quiet, Alec did not look too concerned over the death of Jerome; his sad eyes were focused solely on me, one of few he was really worried about.
“I’m sorry,” I whispered in distress to everyone in the room, “but telling you all about the second part of the prophecy would have had no benefits. I—I didn’t want to hurt you.”
Depressed silence ensued, and I felt a few hot tears run down my face, if only because I was leaving Alec to fix the corrupted Knowing society and the chaos that would rage on after we died—things someone should never have to face by oneself, things we should have been able to fix while we had the chance. In truth, he wouldn’t have to face them completely alone, but I knew he would want to.
It was the very first time I had cried, really cried, since I was little, which, of course, caused me to think of my human family. Sighing, I let go of Alec’s hand for a moment and pulled out the crinkled paper from my jacket pocket. “Alec, I want you to post this letter on the DANGER sign outside the forest and make sure someone finds it. Can you do that for me?”
Alec gulped as he took the letter from my shaking hands, finally realizing why I had hidden it from him earlier. “Th—this is a suicide letter, isn’t it?” he said, his voice cracking with emotion.
I wiped my eyes. “Well, technically it’s not suicide, but yes. I figured that the people in town deserve to know something about what happened to us.”
I watched him hesitate for only a heartbeat before stuffing the letter into his jeans pocket, his woeful eyes meeting mine for less than a second, but it was plenty long enough to make my heart race. He left my side for just a minute in order to bring a few other gods some cool water and wet cloths for their foreheads to try to control their rapidly rising fevers—a result from both fighting in the rain for long hours on end and our internal organs finally beginning to fail us.
All of a sudden, the tent was once again filled up with a bright light.
When we had all regained our vision, our generation’s Aphrodite was dust. Then Ares, flashing out with a frustrated war cry, was instantly followed by Dionysus and Hephaestus. Feeling as if some other vital organ had stopped working inside of each one of our bodies, we remaining gods let out a collective gasp. I couldn’t breathe, let alone shout out, as I helplessly watched sweet Hestia’s soul rise up out of her ashes in another flash.
Alec, meanwhile, raced around like a madman, unsuccessfully trying to deter the deaths of each one of us, and our old friend Pan crumbled to dust in his arms. Everything was happening so fast. Unfortunately, I had yet to see a god’s spirit make it safely out of the tent and soar on to inhabit another baby human somewhere else in the world. In other words, their spirits, like Hades’s, were still among us in the tent, in a different body, and they probably weren’t going to leave.
“A—Alec,” I was just barely able to gasp, and my little hero whirled around, bits of Pan’s gray ashes still slipping through his fingers, panic in his wild eyes. I couldn’t speak any more words as my head exploded with searing pain and my stomach twisted in knots, making me feel as if my whole body might burst into flames at any second.
But simultaneously, Persephone and Demeter began having the same issues on the other side of the tent and they too cried out to Alec for help. Not knowing which way to turn because he knew he couldn’t save all of us, he froze up like a lost puppy, and a tear leaked from one eye as the other bedridden gods looked on powerlessly. “Alec, go to her,” Persephone finally whispered, a pained smile on her face and love in her soft, brown eyes.
Then she grabbed her ailing mother’s hand and their bodies were reduced to ashes.
Sniffling, Alec raced to my side and gripped my hand once again. “Hang on, Athena,” he pleaded and gently kissed my forehead before slipping outside for a moment.
As my mind continued to race at full speed, I turned my head to face the Oracle and beckoned for her to come closer. Sensing that what I was about to say was important, she scrambled over to me immediately and put her head near my quivering lips. “Alec. When I look at him, I see . . .” I tried to whisper my confession to her, but my voice trailed off when I started to cough up golden blood with so much force that I was sure my ribs were cracking.
“Yourself?” the Oracle guessed, her eyes boring knowingly into mine.
I nodded. “Yes, and the other gods. It worries me for more than one reason.”
“As it should.”
“He will never be happy. A long time will pass before his work fixing the Knowing is done and our world can regulate itself again.”
The Oracle smiled. “Hearing that from you, I’m not sure if it’s an understatement or an exaggeration. But I know. I promise to keep an eye on him for you.”
“Thank you,” I whispered to her, closing my eyes and sighing. I felt strangely at peace now, but I wished the pain would go away.
When Alec returned mere seconds later, my leather journal, which would later become this book, was in his rough hands. I forced myself to ignore the fact that Cole’s dried blood was still smeared over them. Apparently on a mission, Alec swiftly opened the journal, placed it in my lap, held out a pen for me, then told me hoarsely, “You have to finish this. It’s what you wanted.”
Still incapable of transforming my thoughts into coherent speech, I simply nodded and took the pen from Alec’s warm, blood-covered hands. That was when I finished this book, and these are the last words I shall ever write:
As I watch my closest friends and fellow gods vaporize around me, I think about the prophecy one last time. Before the war, I constantly worried about when and how we would die; I was not afraid of death or the pain that would come with it, but I worried about the timing most of all. What would happen to the human families of the gods? What if our deaths caused even more terrible things to happen?
But lying on my deathbed, I just worry that I haven’t prepared enough for our passing. Maybe I should have left something besides a letter for the citizens of the Woods, and maybe I should have made certain that every Knowing member knew all of the gods would die at once. My biggest regret, however, is that maybe I should have confided in someone else about the entire prophecy, rather than take sole responsibility for their lives. But I see that it didn’t matter anymore, and it probably never really mattered because the ending would have been the same either way. Our fates were sealed immediately with the revealing of the prophecy, and nothing could have stopped our deaths from happening at one time or another.
Now, if you are actually reading this, you might be wondering how on earth I knew that my generation of gods was the “mighty one” referred to in the prophecy. Well, it was obvious to me for many reasons, the first being that this ending made the most sense. Honestly, how much longer could we have kept our powers and true identities as gods a secret from the tight-knit families in our tiny town? As I mentioned briefly, many of the other gods’ human parents (besides those of the Monster Watch) were starting to be suspicious of how their children seemed to disappear almost every day and why they always came back with scars. In short, lies about going to the mall in Pine Grove were no longer believable.
And what were we all supposed to do when we were older? Outside of our hometown, it would have been awfully hard to get normal jobs and try to stick together at the same time and, going off of my argument above, we definitely couldn’t stay in the Woods for much longer. I suppose we could have fled to the Knowing base camp, but I am positive that none of us would have been able to stand the nonstop worship from the people there for very long. We would become wanderers then, though even a seemingly simple group of good-looking people would be closely watched by others.
This is one of the many troubles with being a god: you’re always going to be noticed, but you can’t just hide away because somebody somewhere will find you eventually, whether it happens by accident or due to a prophecy, like what happened with Alec. Plus, you’re always going to have things to do and people to care for, no matter how much you hate your job or would rather be doing something else. Ignorance causes more problems than it’s worth. Perhaps my generation of gods, the Forest Gods, as the Knowing called us, figured this out too late and should have tried to establish contact with Hades years earlier. Or perhaps, deep down inside ourselves, we just liked to cause problems. After all, problems need attention and so do gods. I told Alec and Cole that it is always better to die a hero than a monster, but I should have followed my own advice a little more closely all along and tried harder to prevent the war in the first place; causing problems is not in the least bit heroic.
Secondly (and I promise I’m not trying to be snobby or anything), the gods were probably the only ones worthy of dying in the prophecy, besides the man who would ultimately kill us. In Alec, we would have lost a great fighter and the only person I ever loved as more than a friend or family member, but, theoretically, his death would not have had a huge effect on anything, except for causing sadness and pain amongst the gods, his only friends. And apart from Alec, there weren’t many other significant people in our lives who could be even remotely considered as having to do with the prophecy.
Therefore, the whole prophecy was about us. It always was, and I knew that. I knew what was coming, but that didn’t mean I was completely prepared. Sadly, it took me six years to realize that accepting all of our fates alone might not have been the fairest reaction to the prophecy. Would it have been better to tell the others and probably cause the war to start sooner and last longer? Would it have been better to suffer together than alone? There are no right answers. Possibly, the rest of the gods and I could have stayed in the forest for years and years without even bothering to come out, trapped in a constant loop of wars against Hades and his giant army, wars fought over disagreements that would never be completely settled until we were all dead anyway. Possibly, you could say that I sacrificed all of the gods’ lives sooner than was absolutely necessary. It was about time for our remarkable reign over the forest (and the rest of the world, I supposed) to come to an end.
Now, I would love to say that I deserve more time in this world, but I don’t. Overall, I had a fulfilling life; I did all I needed to do and had everything I ever wanted or required, except for more time with Alec. One summer was simply not enough, but perhaps he can read this story over and over again to remind himself that he actually was happy once, that the Fates aren’t totally merciless.
All of this reflection brings me to the original reason I wrote this book, something you should understand. The truth is, most people worship gods for two reasons: hope and blame. The wisest people, however, view gods as examples and know that they too have the ability to be better than the gods, at least in character. After reading this book, I hope you all can learn from my tips and from the mistakes made, whether you believe in the Greek myths or not. I always thought G. K. Chesterton said it best: “Fairy tales are more than true—not because they tell us dragons exist, but because they tell us dragons can be beaten.”
Who knows? Maybe one of you out there will read this book and say, “Hey, these kids and their powers remind me of my friends and me.” Well, congratulations; you and your friends may be members of the next generation of Greek gods. If so, my final piece of advice to you is this: don’t get too excited, for being a god takes a lot of work and is not as fun as it seems. Please, remember the Hades of my generation, whose hunger for power caused a horrific war. Remember me and how a single choice ensured all of our downfalls. You probably wouldn’t want to meet the same “tragic fate” so early on in your own lives.
At last, here is where I put down my pen permanently, for the pain crushing my chest suddenly becomes too much to bear and my hands shake uncontrollably. But thank you for reading.