The Forest Gods' Fight Read online

  So what did I do, you ask? I answered it right in the midst of battle, of course. Was that a bit arrogant of me? Yeah, probably. But in my defense, it was an important call—the call that the other gods and I had been waiting for all morning to be exact.

  “Hey, Alec,” I gasped as I swung my sword at the headless undead warrior’s midsection.

  “Hey, Athena,” came the reply. “What’s up?”

  I was about to answer him when the unthinkable happened. I took a step backward and tripped on a tree root, falling hard to the ground right as the headless undead warrior stabbed at me, the tip of the scorching iron blade catching the inside of my collar bone. I let out a yelp of pain as a burning sensation seared through my left shoulder. Knowing the undead would come back for more, I rolled out of the way just as the sharp sword jutted down and luckily stuck in the soil instead of my flesh.

  “Are—are you okay?” Alec stammered in Greek into the phone, his voice suddenly sounding extremely worried.

  “I’m fine,” I said through gritted teeth, trying to ignore the pain and the golden blood seeping out from the wound in my shoulder. I squeezed my gray eyes shut for a moment and tried to pull myself together as I heard Apollo let out a similar cry from somewhere behind me.

  “Do you want me to call back later? Or wait for you to call for backup?” Alec still sounded concerned.

  “It’s . . . fine,” I breathed again and kicked the headless warrior to the ground as it unsuccessfully tried to pull its sword out of the firm soil. Before it even had a chance to try to get up again, I brought down my sword with one hand, slashing the brittle skeleton right across the spine. It crumbled to dust just in time for me to avoid tripping on its long, black cloak. “Only four left.”

  “Um, four left of what?” Alec asked curiously.

  “Undead warriors,” I answered with a deep breath as I twirled my sword around in my free hand, waiting for the next nightmarish creature to come at me.

  “Wow. Are you sure you don’t want me to call back later?” Alec clarified as I blocked the right swing of the next skeleton’s black blade with a loud clang. Was that doubt in his voice now or still just worry?

  I winced as my and the undead’s swords collided, sending a shock wave of pain through my wounded left shoulder again. “No,” I said firmly, readjusting my grip on the sword. “Keep talking.” I needed to hear how he was doing and I needed him to know I was doing okay too. The pain only made me stronger, more determined.

  Alec gave a forced chuckle and I knew he was still worried about me. “You may be the best multitasker ever, you know that? A very good-looking one, I might add.”

  For a fleeting moment, I wanted to scream at him, to tell him to forget about me, to forget about all the gods, and to stay wherever the hell he was. I was better off alone, I told myself, and so was he. We gods were better off dismissing the humans as unimportant and the forest was better off without a hero. His role in the war hadn’t been truly confirmed so maybe, just maybe, he could still be pushed out of range of the wrath of the prophecy.

  But the forest wasn’t the only thing we were obligated to save. The Knowing still remained and after forcing them into a war, giving them yet another reason to reject us, a single young hero wouldn’t be able to fix their corrupted beliefs on his own.

  So I just held my tongue and redirected my aggravation into a jab at the musty rib cage of the skeleton and the bones shattered with an earsplitting crack. I knew I had hit the undead’s weak spot when it crumbled to dust and I sneezed as the breeze blew its remains into my face.

  “Anyway, training is going well,” Alec’s voice continued rather lightheartedly. “No one else at camp has attacked me yet.”

  Still pressing the phone to my ear with one hand, I forced a smile for his sake as I came to the aid of Artemis to help kill the last few undead warriors surrounding her. “You know, the Knowing are starting to call your generation the Forest Gods,” Alec notified me.

  “I wonder who gave them that idea,” I muttered sarcastically through gritted teeth, flashing back to when he and I had jokingly decided to call our time here on earth the Not-So-Golden Age of the Forest Gods.

  Within two minutes, the last three undead warriors had been killed and Alec had finished with his story. Artemis helped her brother up out of the mud and we quickly looked each other over, checking for wounds. Apollo had a deep gash on his leg, but Artemis looked fine for the most part. Still, I knew we had to get to the emergency supply kit and warn everyone at Pan’s camp of trouble as fast as we could.

  Moreover, I figured it was about time I did what Zeus had asked me to do and tell Alec my other reason for keeping him waiting on the phone.

  “And when this so-called war goes down in the history books, Jason wants to call it the War of the Woods,” Alec was saying, aware that I wasn’t really paying attention. “I think it’s kind of cheesy, but whatever. He still claims the New York Knowing are unreachable, by the way.”

  “Alec,” I said seriously into the phone to get his attention, wincing slightly as I switched hands. How to refer to our generation of gods and its conflicts was definitely not at the top of my list at the moment.

  “Yeah? What’s wrong?”

  “Hades almost went out onto Main Street about an hour ago . . . and you need to come home now.” I bit my lip and tried to keep my voice from shaking. Even though I didn’t want to, I was calling him right back into the prophecy’s storm, my storm. Only knowing that he would brave this storm anyway kept the guilt from eroding my sanity.

  “Bring as many sword fighters and archers as you think are necessary. Fast as you can. But leave most behind because the base camp will probably get attacked too.”

  “Of course,” Alec breathed quietly, sensing my concern. “Anything to get out of this goddamn hellhole,” he added lightly. If I hadn’t been so preoccupied with thinking about him, I probably would have smiled. His obsession with the gods and need for peril were mysteries to me. While the Monster Watch’s everlasting quest for danger stemmed from a yearning to use our powers freely and a decade’s old exaggerated definition of fun, Alec’s seemingly stemmed from us.

  “You know I miss you, right? All of you crazy gods.”

  This time I really did smile, shaking my head in wonderment. “Yeah, I know. I still can’t figure out why since we’ll probably end up leading you to your death.”

  He laughed. “Oh, most definitely, but I live for danger in case you haven’t noticed so I’m going to go get ready. Is that okay? I’ll call you whenever I can,” Alec promised me confidently. He hesitated not more than a second before trying to finish quietly, “I lo—”

  “No, Alec,” I warned him seriously, because neither of us needed his feelings for me to become a distraction. “Don’t you dare say those three little words to me. I’m not allowing it. I’m not going to say them back.”

  As my mind whirled and my heart started to race, I heard him snort softly on the other end of the phone, which made it awfully hard to stay mad at him. He understood the gravity of my tone, but, in an effort to keep his spirits high, chose to completely ignore it. “Just try not to die,” I told him, rolling my eyes and giving up on reasoning with him at the moment.

  “I’ll be there soon,” Alec bid me farewell, still chuckling, and I hated how contagious his laugh was.

  Next, I stuffed the old flip phone in my pocket and Apollo radioed the others before the three of us started to walk west toward the meadow where our emergency supplies were hidden. Artemis shot me a questioning look with her hazel eyes, but I just shrugged and shook my head, silently expressing my annoyance with Alec.

  About an hour later, Artemis, Apollo, and I had cleaned and stitched up our wounds as nicely as we could in the middle of the forest so that the bandages weren’t too noticeable under our clothing. We had already checked in at the army camp by Pan’s hideout and safely made it back to the edge of the woods just barely avoiding Python, the small dragon originally from Delphi, w
hen Patrol Three came in for its turn to watch. The three of us quickly hid our weapons and armor in the hollow logs and then turned to face each other, wincing in pain.

  “Another shirt ruined. How in the world are we going to explain this to our parents?” Artemis asked no one in particular, gesturing to her ripped shirt. “My father already suspects me of coming in here. He says I’ve been hanging around with the Monster Watch too much.”

  I sighed and leaned against a tree for support. “That never used to be such a bad thing.”

  “No, just a little dangerous,” Artemis qualified, meeting my gaze. “You used to come out of the woods looking like heroes, but now you come out looking fatigued. Even though people can’t seem to place their fingers on it just yet, they’re noticing it subconsciously.”

  “Is there a good explanation for any of this?” a distraught Apollo pointed out, rubbing a bit of his own golden blood between his thumb and forefinger.

  “Not one we can use,” I muttered forlornly. “But I’ll figure something out.”

  Artemis nodded, showing her confidence in me. “Just don’t try and fight this war on your own, Athena. I know you would.”

  I looked away from her and Apollo off into the mist. “Alec and the Knowing troops are on their way here. I won’t be alone, but still you shouldn’t be content. Honestly, I’m not sure their help will affect the outcome of the war either way.” I heard Artemis kick a rock and sigh as she stepped out of the woods and into the sunlight. This time I didn’t turn to watch her go.

  I spent the rest of the afternoon alone in my room working on art history and physics homework for my online classes since I had nothing better to do and my shoulder still felt like it was on fire. I kept checking my watch and looking out my window as if Alec were going to show up on my balcony any second, even though I knew it would be at least two days until he appeared with more soldiers. I doubted that the Knowing could get fifteen plane tickets for the same flight to Washington on such short notice.

  That night, I went to bed early after a short video chat with the rest of the Monster Watch and woke up equally early the next morning when the sound of Connor’s guitar floated through my open window into my room. I knew no one else but him would be up yet so I grabbed my leather jacket and headed next door to Connor’s quaint, cozy house, a one-story that was painted a pale yellow almost like lemonade. He forced me to play some violent video game based off of wars for a while, but I beat him every time. When he had had enough of losing, the two of us walked to Zach and Luke’s house where we ate a small breakfast of cereal in their kitchen before moving to the old green couch to watch the news. Maybe that was an odd pastime for kids our age, but we gods liked to know what was going on in other parts of the world. To put it simply, watching the news helped Zach and Luke decide which people deserved a monsoon, hurricane, or gigantic earthquake in their area. They dealt out punishments only when they felt especially inclined, however. We were still fifteen-year-olds living in a tiny town in practically the middle of nowhere and, frankly, we weren’t very concerned with what was happening elsewhere in the world even if it was our responsibility to pay attention. And although I, along with most of the other gods, knew better, I let our near-isolationism continue anyway.

  Around eleven, the four of us decided to walk through the thick fog to the Fire Pit for lunch since none of the patrols were having a formal watch that morning. Zach was also ordering my A Team to take the entire day off, probably because Camille, or Artemis, had told him about my attitude and what I’d said at the end of the day. Moreover, we hadn’t spent a full day out of the forest in sight of the townspeople in what seemed like ages.

  We opened the creaking door to the restaurant and automatically walked to our booth in the back of the room, nodding at the townspeople socializing at the bar stools on our way. Becca and Camille joined us a few minutes later.

  I heard the front door of the Fire Pit creak open again and Zach, Luke, and Connor, who happened to be facing the door, glanced at me with raised eyebrows, appearing a little uneasy. Therefore, I knew the next customer had to be Cole before I even turned around, slowly, in sync with Camille and Becca. Sure enough, there he was, standing in front of the door next to Josh, both of them sweaty and wearing running shorts. While Cole took his time to glare at me angrily, Josh looked back and forth between his best friend and the rest of us gods, trying to decide with whom he should sit.

  Eventually, Josh followed Cole to a small, round table that was about as far away from our booth as they could manage. My expression emotionless, I turned back to face the others and met Becca’s pleading blue eyes. “Why don’t you just apologize to him?” she asked me, shaking her head, apparently mystified.

  “Because I have nothing to be sorry about. Cole’s the one overreacting and we can’t let him in on our secret, so what’s the point?” I fired back at her, biting my lip after realizing how insensitive I had sounded.

  “Would you apologize to Alec?” Becca pointed out.

  “Alec is not Cole. Besides, it depends on the situation. Apologizing to everyone for everything is just weak,” I protested, crossing my arms. “If Cole really cared, he would be over here talking to me about it.”

  Camille only sighed and tied her curly blonde hair into a tight bun as she leaned back in her seat. “No, Cole just doesn’t think you care about his feelings so he’s not even bothering to try to talk to you. And you have to admit that you are kind of acting like you don’t care,” she tried to explain further without offending me. As my best friend, besides the boys of the Monster Watch, Camille knew she had a better chance of reaching me than Becca.

  I shrugged and took a sip of lemonade before arguing, “I have a lot on my mind right now. Like the war, remember?” Becca smirked as if she wanted to add Alec to the list of things on my mind, but thankfully she didn’t say anything.

  Zach sat up a little straighter and his blue eyes met my gray ones. “Then maybe you should go tell him that. Not the war, of course, but definitely the other part,” he advised me. I just sighed and turned back to look at Josh and Cole, still debating my options.

  But my mind was made up for me when I was pushed off of the seat by the goddess of love, so I reluctantly weaved my way between the wooden tables toward Cole and Josh. When I reached the two of them, Josh glanced up at me knowingly. “Becca?” he guessed and I nodded. Cole, however, just seemed confused.

  “Are you here to apologize?” Cole said harshly.

  “No, not exactly,” I started, and Cole’s gaze hardened again. “I just wanted to say that I’ve had a lot on my mind recently, so . . .” My voice trailed off, unsure of what else to say as I glanced back at the other gods at the booth in the back of the room.

  “Look,” Cole began coldly, catching my attention again. “If you don’t—”

  But he was interrupted by the ringing of the cell phone coming from my pocket. Once again, I didn’t even have to check the caller ID to know it was Alec; that boy really did pick the absolute worst times to call.

  “I’m so sorry, but I have to take this,” I told Cole sheepishly, my hands shaking involuntarily, and I risked a look back at the other table to see a scene that was almost exactly how I had expected it to be: an annoyed Camille rolling her hazel eyes, my temporarily defeated love counselor Becca with her pretty little head in her hands, and the three boys, along with Josh next to me, trying desperately to hold back laughter. It was safe to say that they all knew who was calling.

  “What do you want now, Alec?” I asked in English and Cole shot me a curious glance. At least it wasn’t a glare.

  “Speaking English today, I see. Is someone listening to you?” Alec responded, also in English.

  “Yes,” I said, impatiently tapping my foot on the hardwood floor. Cole’s look seemed to be getting colder and colder as the seconds ticked by.

  “All right, I’ll hurry. I forced Jason to give me a cell phone so I could call you and tell you that we’re in Nebraska right now. We
’ll probably be in the Woods by late tomorrow night or early the next morning,” Alec informed me.

  “Okay. Any troubles so far?” I asked him.

  “All three harpies showed up last night and tried to eat us for dinner, but no real injuries,” Alec stated. “I brought Jan, the head nurse, along.”

  “I bet she’s helpful. So is that all?”

  “Hmm . . . can you give me a long-distance hug?” Alec asked me hopefully. I could almost hear that mischievous smile playing across his lips, the look that made all the teenaged girls swoon over him back at the Knowing camp.

  “No, I’m not giving you a long-distance hug!” I hissed into the phone and heard him start to whimper, pretending to be offended. “Just don’t die,” was my annoyed three-word farewell.

  “I’ll try not to,” Alec completed our little ritual and we hung up the phone at the same time. Then I stuffed the small, black flip phone away and looked back at Cole.

  “Who’s Alec?” he asked.

  Josh quickly jumped in to answer him. “My cousin. He visited here a couple of weeks ago, remember? You know, a sort of handsome dude with dark hair and blue eyes . . .” Cole nodded, a flicker of jealousy flashing through his eyes, and Josh’s voice dropped off as he realized that he could have left off the “sort of handsome” part.

  “Why would Josh’s cousin be talking to you?” Cole was still glaring at me and I silently hoped he would stop soon. I missed the mellow personality of the boy who played pranks during his free time, though I knew it was partly my fault that Josh wasn’t as free to help him with that.

  “Well, I tutor him in chemistry via webcam,” I lied fluently, but Cole just gave me a dubious look. I can’t say I blamed him for not believing me, even though I did happen to have a bachelor’s degree in chemistry so it really was a plausible story.

  “But it’s summer,” Cole said bluntly.