The Forest Gods' Fight Read online

  “And how are the archers and the other Warriors doing?” I asked him. After all, we couldn’t exactly win a war with an unorganized bunch of wimps as our army.

  “They’re doing great, but I’m honestly bored. Compared to life in the Woods with you gods, base camp is even duller than I remembered. I’ve been itching to get my hands on a monster for days, but these stupid guards won’t let me out of their sights, let alone the actual camp boundaries,” Alec informed me with a sigh, his voice lowering as he went on to signal he was divulging secrets meant for only a god’s ears. “In the meantime, I’m making sure Jason contacts the other Knowing camps of which he’s aware and warns them they’re about to be attacked by Hades’s army. I still don’t know how trustworthy he is, though. He claims he hasn’t been able to reach the New York camp, but that’s where he originally came from so I think the real problem is just animosity. No one seems to know much about his past there.”

  Suddenly, the line went quiet and I could hear muffled noises in the background. It sounded to me as if Alec had been caught.

  “Alec, get to bed right now!” I heard the familiar voice of Jason yell angrily, confirming my suspicions. “Being a hero doesn’t mean you get to ignore all the rules! Who are you calling right now anyway?”

  “I have to go,” Alec complained in annoyance, and I frowned at Jason’s grumpy remark, not liking its tone of superiority at all. “I’ll call you later. Bye, Lady Athena,” he finished loud enough so that Jason would be able to hear who he was talking to. Hopefully, Alec wouldn’t get into too much trouble.

  “Good luck and, as usual, try not to die. Keep me updated on the Jason situation,” I told him in Greek, smiling to myself. Then I hung up the crappy flip phone, stuffing it into my pocket. “We’re set,” I notified the others and the four of them nodded in unison. When I grabbed another handful of popcorn, Zach started up the movie again.

  Unfortunately, that was when the doorbell rang. Becca, who was still wrapped in Zach’s arms, yawned and Connor groaned in annoyance that the movie was being interrupted yet again. After Luke made it clear he wasn’t going to answer it, Zach just yelled loudly toward the door, “Who is it?”

  “It’s Cole,” Cole’s voice said from outside, and everyone in the room turned to glare at me, like his being there was my fault. They all knew he had a crush on me. Sure enough, Cole asked, “Is Ashley there?”

  I shrugged and protested quietly, “I didn’t invite him.” Zach, Luke, Connor, and Becca only gave me dubious looks, none of them bothering to get up to let Cole in. Even though they too were his friends, they just wanted to finish watching the movie in peace. Such a simple act had been a rarity for us gods since the start of summer when Persephone had been reunited with us after many long years and Alec had first arrived in our forest.

  “I’m not here,” I whispered to the four gods pleadingly, sinking down in my seat and hoping Cole hadn’t seen me yet. I already had to deal with Alec’s romantic advances and in my opinion that was more than enough work.

  “Ash is grounded,” Luke shouted back at Cole who still stood outside in the dark. Technically, this part of the story was the truth, but then Luke added, “And our parents aren’t here so we’re kind of not allowed to let anyone in.”

  As if that had stopped the two rambunctious brothers before! I could remember many times when they had thrown wild parties without permission from their parents, some of which Cole had even been at. Jack would try to sneak in a few bottles of beer or wine every once in a while since he thought no high school party was complete without something illegal, but the Monster Watch would never allow it when I was in attendance. I had seen what that poison did to my father and didn’t want anyone else to suffer the same terrible symptoms. As Dionysus, the god of wine, Jack alone was able to handle the dizzying effects on a regular basis.

  But knowing Luke only meant to throw salt on his wound of exclusion, Cole stopped asking questions. “Oh, okay,” he said awkwardly after a moment of thought. “I guess I’ll probably see you tomorrow.” I heard the old floorboards of the porch creak a couple more times then everything went quiet so I knew he was gone. Finally, we could finish watching the movie . . . or so I thought. Because that was when a huge crash sounded from down the street followed by a male’s terrified scream. We gods could never seem to catch a break.

  Chapter 2

  THIS WAR HAS ALREADY STARTED

  The five of us only paused to exchange worried glances then simultaneously leaped off the comfortable couch and raced out the front door, heading down the empty street toward the direction of the scream. We were prepared to defend whoever was in trouble with only our pocketknives and godly strength. Down the road and cloaked in darkness one figure stood hunching over another. An old, wooden cane was lying on the pavement.

  That meant it had to be Shane, or Hephaestus, lying in the middle of the street and yelling in pain. As the five of us slowed to a stop, we could see that the person standing over him was none other than Cole wearing an expression of fear and shock, his caramel-colored hair shining under the stars.

  “What’s going on?” Zach shouted, glaring at Cole accusingly.

  But Cole didn’t answer, his brown eyes just locked on me. Oops. “I thought you were grounded,” he said, his voice tight.

  “I am, technically. I just . . .” my voice trailed off guiltily.

  “Escaped, snuck out, ran away—whatever you want to call it,” Cole finished for me now frowning. “You were at Zach’s house the whole time, weren’t you?”

  When I nodded slowly, not bothering to hide the truth anymore, Cole only turned away from me, a mixture of hurt and anger in his eyes. Before the start of that summer, if I had been in a situation like this, I would have had the desire to suddenly blurt out the whole truth, to get the secrets that had been weighing me down off of my chest and onto somebody else’s for even a mere minute. My life as a god used to be an escape from my life as a human and I used to think bringing them together would make dealing with problems simpler. But not anymore. Things had changed. We were in a time of war now for one, though perhaps the most important thing was that our, the gods’, attitudes had changed—if only a little—and Cole’s had not. He was still that same Sightless boy from six years ago, the one who would rather pull pranks on a school bully and run away to hide than take a bigger risk. I realized now that he, as well as most Sightless humans, would never understand our experiences, our responsibilities, or our loyalties.

  Meanwhile, gasping in agony, Shane explained, “I was walking home and one of those blasted harp—” He managed to stop midsentence right before he said “harpies” and his dark eyes glanced up at us in pure horror that he had almost given away our secret.

  “What?” Cole asked in confusion. “When I got here, Shane was just lying on the street yelling in some weird language. Was it German? I don’t know. I just came over here to try and help and that was when you all showed up.”

  The gods gave a collective sigh of relief that Cole hadn’t seen anything important and, thankfully, I could see no golden blood anywhere on Shane, although his left leg was bent at an odd angle under his jeans. In a way, it was a good thing that his already crippled leg was the one that was now broken so at least he could still walk a little bit.

  I was about to discreetly ask Shane what had happened to the harpy when I noticed a little pile of gray dust lying next to him. I had no idea how, but the short, seemingly unarmed Shane had managed to kill a huge flying bird with the torso of a woman.

  Silently, I pointed the dust pile out to my fellow gods and they nodded in understanding. Shane saw what I was trying to ask as well and wordlessly picked up his cane. As soon as Cole looked away, Shane pressed a tiny red button on the cane which I was sure he had installed himself and a small knife covered in gold-green monster blood shot out from the end. We all gasped in surprise and Shane clicked the button again just before Cole turned around to see what was going on.

  “I think my leg’s
broken,” Shane complained as he tried to get up, but he failed miserably and fell back down on the damp pavement. His rough hands grasped his mangled left leg as he groaned in pain. I handed him his wooden cane, and Zach helped him off the ground.

  “Um, you should probably go home now,” I advised Cole awkwardly.

  “Oh, of course. I wouldn’t want to intrude on whatever the hell this is,” Cole snarled, motioning to the rest of us. “Since you obviously don’t want me here to help.” Then he turned on his heel and stormed away toward his house a few streets south, disappearing into the night.

  Becca raised her eyebrows at me in a silent question, but I just shrugged it off. At the moment, I didn’t care what Cole said or did. A god life always comes before a human life.

  “We need to take action,” Zach announced in Greek and, sure enough, we were back to being our godly selves. His blue eyes flashing in anger, the king continued, “This is the second time today that Hades has directly threatened a fellow god. I’m done avoiding fights.” Poseidon, Apollo, Aphrodite, Hephaestus, and I all nodded in agreement.

  “Tomorrow, I’m sending Hermes to tell the other gods about what just happened and he’ll also go down to the Underworld for one last try at peace. From now on, I want at least one patrol in the forest at all times during the day, and no god goes in there alone.” Again, the five of us nodded and Zeus loudly clapped his hands together, ending the conversation right then and there. “That’s it. Everyone go home. Be safe.”

  Aphrodite helped Hephaestus as they slowly headed in the direction Cole had gone toward their own houses while the Monster Watch—Zeus, Poseidon, Apollo, and I—turned around and walked back to our homes together. As I quietly climbed back up to my balcony and into my room to get ready for bed, I thought about all I would have to tell Alec the next morning and all there was still left to do to prepare for battle.

  The next morning, I woke up breathing hard and feeling very grumpy; I had not slept well at all. Terrible images of my friends falling around me had haunted my dreams, ripping my heart to pieces. Automatically blaming Hades even though Hypnos was the Greek god who really controlled dreams, I angrily punched my fluffy white pillow before showering then dressed in jeans and a simple tank top. I grabbed my pocketknife, rock/sword, and walkie-talkie and raced downstairs, hoping to also grab a bite of breakfast before either of my parents came downstairs.

  But as usual, I was unlucky. I was right about to open the door, a granola bar in hand, when my mother grabbed the back of my shirt, stopping me before I could get away. After all, I couldn’t exactly punch or flip my own mother; I would have just gotten myself grounded yet again and then I would have been back to square one.

  “Ashley, you have some explaining to do,” my mother told me in a no-nonsense tone. I sighed and slowly turned around to face her as she continued, “Why on earth are you home almost two weeks early?”

  Similar to Cole, she was both infuriatingly oblivious to the war and infuriatingly nosy as of late. I didn’t have time to be interrogated. Moreover, I didn’t have the patience. So I looked right into her big, brown eyes and lied just like I did to everyone but the gods and Alec. “The camp was cancelled. Didn’t you hear about the flood?” I asked innocently.

  My mother frowned and shook her head. I shrugged and turned around, ready to go meet the rest of the Monster Watch. “Wait,” she whispered in a pleading voice. “Did you know your father was coming home?”

  I raised my eyebrows, somewhat surprised that my father hadn’t told her about the debacle at the airport, but I supposed he didn’t want to worry her after his running away, seemingly never to return. Maybe my argumentative, alcoholic father and I really did have a better understanding of each other than I wanted to admit. “No,” I replied to her simply, deciding that if my father chose to keep my actions at the airport a secret, I would too.

  I watched my mother carefully to see how she would react. She just sighed, running her fingers through her curly brown hair, and suddenly she looked much older to me. I noticed that her pale skin was much more sunken in than it used to be and that she had lost some weight. Even though I knew nothing lasted forever, the fact that the people I loved were growing older seemed so strange to me. After all, the town itself hadn’t grown and we, the Monster Watch, had been doing the same things in our free time ever since we were six years old. But I also recognized that I had never really paid much attention to what went on in town, outside of the Fire Pit.

  I tilted my head to one side, wondering how I appeared in my mother’s eyes. Was I still a little girl to her? Innocent and oblivious to what was going on around me? I hoped not, since I was really the exact opposite and had been for many years. Sometime or another, she would have to let go just like everyone does at some point. Just like I would have to.

  “You can go now.” She released me somberly, and I tore out of the house without saying another word, sprinting toward Main Street.

  When I opened the creaking door to the Fire Pit, I saw that Connor, Zach, Luke, Alicia, and Haley were already waiting at the back table, slurping down lemonades even though it was around nine in the morning and still cool outside. “Hi,” I greeted them as I sat down next to Haley and they flashed me small smiles. “What’s the plan for today?”

  “My patrol has first watch until around lunch and then yours takes over,” Zach said and I nodded. After checking his watch, he glanced over to Alicia and Haley and asked, “Are you ready?”

  “As ready as we’ll ever be,” Alicia muttered unhappily as she tied her reddish-brown hair up in a high ponytail. Haley only sighed in agreement while Connor smirked, silently mocking the two girls. “If anyone asks, Haley and I are at my house with Maddie,” Alicia told us before picking up her own little walkie-talkie from the table.

  Then Alicia, Haley, and Zach—or Hera, Hestia, and Zeus—scooted from the table and gave Luke, Connor, and me one last wave before they headed out. However, the three of us weren’t alone for long because about two minutes later Josh and Cole walked through the swinging door. Automatically, Josh’s brown eyes lit up and he started making his way toward our table.

  But Cole just stopped and watched, his normally friendly eyes growing cold as they focused on me, obviously not happy that I had lied to him the night before and that we had sent him away when he was just trying to help Shane. While he stood like a statue in the middle of the doorway, I knew he was debating whether or not to sit with us. Sighing to myself, I figured I would make the decision for him since he was apparently slow at thinking on his feet.

  I stood up and turned to the two boys, already tired of the drama that surrounded my normal human life. “I need to get my hands on a monster before I explode. Who’s up for an early start?” I asked eagerly.

  Luke grinned, his blue-green eyes lighting up as he nudged Connor in the side. “Sometimes I forget how feisty—and annoying—this chick is,” Luke joked then continued only slightly more seriously, “but Patrol Three doesn’t have watch until two so I have plenty of time to kill. Get it? Kill.”

  Connor nodded his blond head in agreement with Luke, but Josh just sighed. “I should probably stay here and deliver some messages, not to mention babysit Cole,” Josh said as he frowned, looking directly at me. I simply rolled my eyes at him then turned on my heel, and Connor and Luke followed me out of the restaurant. I didn’t even make eye contact with Cole as I pushed past him. He was still standing dumbly in the doorway, a blank expression plastered on his face.

  The three of us stopped just inside the forest to throw on our armor and then I pulled out my walkie-talkie. “This is Athena calling Patrol One. Poseidon, Apollo, and I are coming in right now. Need any help?”

  A second later, Zeus’s voice came over the device. “No, we’re good for now, but have the guys show you the army at Pan’s camp,” he told me and I gave him a quick reply. Poseidon led the way as we trudged west toward the hideout by the river.

  Strangely, we only ran into one monster on the wa
y, which Apollo quickly killed with an arrow before it could even get close. But I didn’t stop to think about the thousands of possible reasons for the missing monsters because I knew we were nearing our destination.

  Sure enough, we rounded a familiar bend a few minutes later and climbed down the side of a small waterfall, touching down on the soft grass. What was formerly just a small deep swimming hole with Pan’s rock and moss throne to the side was now the setting for a reasonably sized Greek army base camp. Rectangular marquee tents—much like the ones at the Knowing camp—were set up in a tight circle beside Pan’s throne, only these were smaller and green camouflage in color as opposed to blue, purple, or red. I even spotted the Oracle’s tiny, old, battered tent among the mix, meaning she had come for protection just like the other nymphs and satyrs milling about. I had never before seen so many gathered in one place.

  In the midst of all the chaos stood Pan, who was pulling at the curly, reddish-brown mop of hair on his head in anguish and gripping his own walkie-talkie very tightly, but his stance relaxed and his dark brown eyes immediately lit up when they focused on Poseidon, Apollo, and me. “Look who it is! I thought I heard a rumor you were back in town, Athena,” Pan exclaimed in Greek and the nymphs and satyrs immediately parted and bowed to the three of us when they finally noticed us trying to get through.

  I grinned and was about to say something when all four of our walkie-talkies crackled to life with Hermes’s voice. “Hey, Hephaestus just got back from the doctor’s office and his leg is broken pretty badly. Luckily, blood didn’t seem to be a problem.”

  “All right,” Zeus’s voice answered. “Thanks for the update, Hermes. Keep up the good work, everyone.”

  Then Pan motioned to the three of us and we huddled around a large parchment map of the entire woods, which was spread out on a table under an open-sided green tent. There were tiny wooden figurines representing each of the gods as well as a few portraying the more well-known satyrs, nymphs, and monsters set up at different points. The figures representing Poseidon, Apollo, and I were currently stationed at the point on the map that signified Pan’s camp while the ones representing Zeus, Hestia, and Hera were positioned at a point just east of the meadow.