Thirty-Four

“Last known whereabouts: Zeus’s fist,” Jax said. “That’s not a lot to go on.”

It was nearly dawn, and they were somewhere in northern Greece, huddled together in the only hideout they could find: an abandoned shepherd’s hut on a hillside. Jax had healed the puncture wounds on Ava’s shoulder from Athena’s talons while Ava had caught up him and Arnold on Hestia’s contribution to Medusa’s story.

Inside the circular one-room hut, they had found some loaves of stale bread to gnaw on and some flasks of water to drink. Fia had started a fire and raised the flame just enough to take off the chill—but hopefully not enough for either men or gods to see the smoke. The fire threw strange shadows up against the stone walls: Arnold’s wings crossed behind his back, Layla nervously lengthening and shortening her hair, Fia silently pacing back and forth, flicking the lighter. Ava shared the others’ anxiety. How much time before the gods found them? Athena surely had reported their Olympus break-in. Ava was certain the “goddess of heroes” had it out for her. Her only hope—Fia’s only hope, as well—was to find Metis.

“Zeus probably didn’t swallow her again,” Layla said. “I mean, if she got out of him the first time—”

“But he wouldn’t want her around either,” Jax said. “He must have imprisoned her somewhere. But where?”

“Tartarus?” Arnold offered.

“Possible,” Layla said, “but if she was down there, you’d think she would have found Hecate or that Persephone might have mentioned her.”

“One trip to Tartarus was enough,” Ava added, and no one disagreed.

“It would have to be someplace where Zeus could keep a close eye on her,” Arnold said. “Like he does with us.”

“The Accademia!” Ava said.

“Ha ha,” Layla replied. “Very funny.”

“I wasn’t joking.” Ava seized Fia’s arm. “The flypaper on Mr. Orion’s windows! What if he wasn’t trying to keep flies out”—Fia’s face brightened—“but in! What if Zale’s job has something to do with Mr. Orion’s ‘fly’ problem?”

“Zale has a job?” Layla asked.

“Zale’s been helping Mr. Orion with a secret task in his office!” Jax said, sounding excited. “He goes there practically every day.”

“Zale told me Mr. Orion had a monster locked up in his office,” Arnold added. “What if he’s been keeping a goddess there instead?”

“We have to go back,” Ava said.

“But that’s crazy!” Layla said. “The gods will catch us.”

“Not necessarily. We know Athena’s gone to raise the alarm that we barged into Olympus. So the gods are probably back.”

“But even if the gods have left the Accademia, Mr. Orion will still be there,” Layla said, “and I bet he’s a thousand times angrier than he was before.”

Layla was right. Orion would be furious. But this didn’t frighten Ava so much as irritate her. Why were the male gods allowed to get angry and they weren’t considered out of control and monstrous? Even the goddesses were portrayed as emotional—Hera was jealous, Aphrodite was fickle. Only Athena could get mad and was still considered wise, probably because her anger was usually directed at some other woman, such as Arachne, or on behalf of some male hero she liked, such as Odysseus. Just like Owen, Orion would want to lecture Ava, to prove that his feelings mattered more than hers. But maybe, just maybe, there was a way to use Orion’s rage against him.

“His anger could work to our advantage,” Ava said. “Listen up. . . .”

Arnold raced the light of dawn back to Venice, swooping down outside the window to Ava and Layla’s bedroom just as the floating city emerged from the darkness. Layla pried it open, and the others quietly climbed through. Inside, Ava cut up her sheet, and Jax used it to bind Arnold’s and Fia’s hands tightly behind their backs. But the weirdest part was when Ava bound her own hands, then blindfolded her own eyes.

“Sorry,” she said as she wound the cloth around and around Layla, who had transformed into her. “But the more powerless I look, the less likely Orion is to do anything right away besides lecture me.”

“No worries,” said Layla. “I just hope this works.”

“You’re definitely smart enough to be part goddess, Ava,” Arnold said.

“Part monsters are smart too,” Ava said, tying a knot at the back of Layla’s blindfold.

Fia nodded in agreement.

“There’s just one problem with your theory that we’re related to the gods,” Jax said. “According to the stories we’ve heard, Medusa didn’t have a child before she was cursed, so she must have had one afterward. But how could she have had a child if she turns all the men she meets to stone?”

Ava had to admit it was a good question. Perseus had survived only by looking at Medusa in reflection, but that seemed like a tough way to conceive a child.

“I don’t know,” she admitted.

“Did your family tree show who the father of Medusa’s child was?” Layla asked.

“No. It just showed the direct line from Medusa to her descendants. Maybe Metis knows. Speaking of which, we better go before the rest of the school is up.”

Ava slipped on the helmet, but Jax’s question continued to bother her. There wasn’t time to dwell on it, though. She followed Jax out the door through the still-dim hallways to Mr. Orion’s office. A sliver of yellow light beneath the door indicated that the headmaster was still awake. Ava wondered if he’d slept at all.

“Ava,” Jax whispered.

“Yes?” she whispered back.

From the way his brows were knit together, Ava expected him to say that he had changed his mind, that her plan was too risky. But all he said was “I’ve got your back.”

Then, before she could answer, he knocked frantically on the door. “Mr. Orion!” he said. “Mr. Orion!”

The headmaster’s door banged open. “What!?”

Mr. Orion loomed in the doorway, looking even larger than Ava remembered. Dark bags hung beneath his eyes, and he worked his heavy jaw. “Jaxon Baldwin! Young man, where have you been?!”

Mr. Orion lunged out of the door and reached for Jax, forcing Ava to jump back out of the way.

“I found her, sir!” Jax said.

Orion’s muscled arm fell to his side. “What?!”

“My mom told me to bring Ava back to the Accademia if she ever ran away, so I did! And I caught her friends too.”

“Where are they?”

“Tied up in Ava’s room.”

Orion’s eyebrow jutted up. “You did that all by yourself?”

Ava looked desperately at Jax though she knew he couldn’t see her. Orion was suspicious. Jax didn’t even have any powers yet as far as the headmaster was concerned. She should have thought of that. How believable was it for him to round up three other rebellious students?

“My roommate helped,” Jax blurted out. “He’s got Layla too.”

“Zale?” Comprehension settled over Mr. Orion’s face. “Of course! He was raring to find Ava.”

“I led Zale to them,” Jax said. “He was more the muscle—”

“And you’re the brains,” Mr. Orion said. He clasped Jax’s shoulder. “You make the Accademia proud, son. And me too.”

Six months earlier, Ava would have been jealous of such praise. But now she knew it was worth nothing. She darted through the open office door just before Orion slammed it closed behind him. It nearly knocked into her, but she jumped out of the way just in time.

She was in.