The Forest Gods' Fight Read online

  Strangely enough, he didn’t look mad or drunk as usual. He was simply leaning against the doorframe, running his fingers through his thinning light brown hair when I walked into the room. His dark eyes, which were narrowed like a hawk’s, peered down at me suspiciously. “Have you been hanging out with Cole lately?”

  Though taken aback at first, I quickly regained my composure and decided to give a diplomatic answer, just to be safe. “Not any more than the Monster Watch or anyone else. Why are you asking?”

  My father frowned and stroked the sorry excuse for a beard that was on the tip of his chin. “Cole called to ask you out on a date. He’ll pick you up at seven tonight to take you out for dinner,” he told me slowly, and my jaw dropped to the floor.

  Outraged, I glared at him and shouted, “You said yes for me? You didn’t even ask me about it! What the hell is your problem?” I yanked at my ponytail in anger, suddenly wishing that I had never come downstairs and that I had ignored Cole instead of making up with him like Becca had suggested. But cursing under my breath in Aphrodite’s name wasn’t going to help the situation.

  My father sighed. “Calm down, I’m not that stupid. I know you didn’t want to go,” he hissed and my jaw dropped for a second time, wondering again why he had said yes for me. I was starting to think even less of him than I had before, but then he elaborated, “You’re going to do this to cheer up your mother. So please, act like a normal teenage girl for once. These past couple of weeks I swear she’s had about five heart attacks from worrying too much about you in the forest.”

  I took a deep breath, finally understanding him and his reasoning, although I still wasn’t happy about it. My father was using me to use Cole, just to try to repair my relationship with my mother and his formerly contented marriage with her, which I sometimes thought shouldn’t have happened to begin with (but then again, I wouldn’t be alive without them). Talk about complicated relationships.

  Growling, I shot my father one last glare for good measure before I raced back upstairs and into my room where I was met with three shocked expressions. “Did I just hear what I think I heard?” Artemis asked me in Greek, her eyebrows raised and feet dangling off the side of my bed. My only response was an angry nod before I started to pace around my room in circles to try to calm myself down.

  “What am I supposed to do? I don’t have time for this! We have a war to win. Oh no, Alec’s going to be so mad when he hears about this,” I huffed in Greek, barely even taking a breath. I rubbed my forehead to try to stop my head from pounding, but to no avail. That was when I saw the movement of Zeus’s head from out of the corner of my eye and turned to face him expectantly. But rather than showing any signs of bewilderment, Zeus just pulled out his own black walkie-talkie and muttered three words into it as calmly as possible: “Get me Aphrodite.”

  About an hour later, we helped Aphrodite climb up to my balcony and into my room where we filled her in on my father’s plans. While Apollo, Artemis, Zeus, and I were still slightly horrified, Aphrodite just sat back on my bed and smirked to herself as she absentmindedly braided her gorgeous golden hair. The very first thing she said was, “Let’s find you something to wear.”

  For a moment, I felt like punching her. “How do you expect me to go out for a nice dinner when an invisible Hades is running around town?” Aphrodite sighed, her blue eyes settling calmly on mine. “I didn’t say this was going to be fun. Knowing you, I bet you’ll be worrying about Hades the entire night, but it’s better than making Cole mad and suspicious all over again,” she pointed out and I groaned. She stole a glance at the black alarm clock on my nightstand then continued, “We have three hours to get you ready. That should be enough time.”

  My jaw dropped for the third time that day (which was quite an unusual occurrence, mind you). “Three hours? I can get ready in twenty minutes. That leaves plenty of time for me to make a quick run into the forest. Artemis, are you coming?” I said defiantly, and the goddess of the hunt smirked wickedly. Meanwhile, Aphrodite just shook her head in wonder and guessed, “You’ve never been on a real date before, have you?” My only response was another glare in her direction.

  A few minutes later, Aphrodite had forced Apollo and Zeus to go away while the three of us goddesses had some “quality girl talk” (whatever the hell that meant). I took a short shower then the two blondes tried to help me pick out an appropriate outfit. As a goddess, I was good-looking enough so that I didn’t even need makeup, despite Aphrodite’s repeated efforts to get me to wear a little mascara.

  The three of us automatically assumed that Cole was taking me to a fancy restaurant in the next town over where most teens around here went for their dates. Aphrodite tried to force me into a dress, but, luckily, I convinced her that it would seem like I was trying too hard to impress Cole. Eventually, we all agreed on a cute navy blue blazer over a tight-fitting striped top with a deep V-neck. I also traded my ripped skinny jeans for black ones and my combat boots for ballet flats, since Aphrodite adamantly refused to let me out of the house wearing anything I would wear to fight in the forest.

  Before I knew it, the time on the clock read 6:30 and Aphrodite and Artemis were just leaving me to wait for Cole. Alone again, I sat on the edge of my bed impatiently tapping my feet on the blue carpet as I mindlessly glanced at the hundreds of books on the tall bookshelves that lined the perimeter of my room. The seconds were ticking by way too slowly and, already, I just wanted the date to be over with.

  Unexpectedly, the walkie-talkie on my nightstand crackled to life and Pan’s voice blasted through the small speaker. “This is Pan calling in an emergency situation. I mean, it’s not really an emergency now, it’s just sad—no, horrible.” Pan’s voice continued to rant on and I wished he would get to the point before Cole picked me up. Finally, he said, “We have our first casualty of the war, a fellow satyr named Berry. There will be a vigil tonight. Just thought you should know. Over.”

  I hadn’t known Berry very well compared to some of the other satyrs; his presence at Pan’s hideout parties was often placid. But with his death, the war became even more real. For the first time that summer, I was thinking in depth about how many people were going to die because of my fellow gods and me. Was power really worth the fight? Maybe not, but I thought going to a vigil was definitely worth missing my date with Cole.

  “I’m not going on the date, Aphrodite,” I whispered through the walkie-talkie.

  “No, you’re still going,” Aphrodite hissed back in determination. “We’ll just tell everyone that you send your condolences and that you wish you could be there.”

  “She’s right,” came Zeus’s tired voice. “Right now, you have a more important obligation. You just take care of Cole. Good luck.”

  “Thanks,” I said glumly, knowing that I would, in fact, need a bit of luck to avoid thinking about all of the mythical distractions in order to survive the date.

  A few minutes later, I heard a car pull up outside and my feet started to move involuntarily toward the door while my mind was still whirling. I remember getting into the black SUV and Cole greeting me, but the long ride to the restaurant was filled with stiff silence. I realized too late that Alec still hadn’t called and even though I had my cell phone in my pocket in case of a true emergency, I couldn’t call him now so I simply cursed myself during the rest of the ride as I stared out of the window.

  Cole let the valet service park the car then a nice waiter brought us to a cramped corner of the room where a table set for two stood, empty but daunting. Half of my brain was rapidly working out strategies to use if Hades or a monster happened to attack during dinner while the other half was trying to come up with good topics for conversation with someone Sightless. I knew the hardest part of the date would be trying to focus on Cole and to forget what was going on in the forest.

  “You look nice. I mean, you always look nice, but you look especially nice now,” Cole whispered, obviously noticing my outfit. It was like the awkward moment of the first
date in every romantic movie, except my life wasn’t meant to be a romance. I barely even took notice of Cole in his buttoned-down shirt and black slacks, squirming nervously in his seat across from me; my mind was still on the wild hero with blue eyes.

  Involuntarily, I found myself thinking of what Alec would have said in that same awkward moment. Probably something impulsive, such as, “You look better in battle armor.” And while most girls would have been offended by a concise comment like that, I would have smiled because that was exactly what I thought too.

  Forcing the thought of Alec out of my mind, I gave Cole a tight smile and then we ordered our food. If you really must know, I had chicken carbonara and it was delicious. There’s not much else to say; I wasn’t planning to burden you with the details of our insignificant conversations. Besides, it’s Aphrodite’s job to hand out free dating advice, not mine. And this is my book, not hers.

  I will tell you, however, that the dinner could not have gone by any slower for me. I kept nervously fingering the belt loop on my hip, the one where I usually kept my walkie-talkie. It was the first time in many days that I didn’t have my walkie-talkie on me and I felt guilty and naked without it. It’s safe to say that I would not have had the upper hand if a battle had suddenly broken out during the meal.

  Every flicker of the lights, every draft of cold air blowing, and every shadow moving around me set my teeth on edge as if the lord of the Underworld might pop out to kidnap me at any second. I gripped my chair tightly and told myself that Hades wasn’t watching me, that everything was okay, but deep down inside I knew that everything was not going to be okay.

  Blackness seeped into the edges of my vision, like a shadow trying to pull me into a state of unconsciousness. But I was able to resist its temptation. This time, the airflow that tickled the back of my neck and sent shivers down my spine wasn’t frigid but warm—his breath, I discerned. How long had he been there?

  Preparing myself for the worst, I closed my eyes tightly and didn’t bother to open them again. Heart rate rising, I could feel his thin, pasty lips press seductively against my left ear as he taunted in Greek, “How does it feel to know you’ve lost?”

  “I wouldn’t know,” I hissed back, sliding my chair directly into his side. The invisible god stumbled and fell and Cole jerked his head up, startled by the sound. The waiter walking by our table tripped then scurried off in embarrassment, as if nothing had happened. He didn’t notice that he’d dropped an empty wine glass or that the glass had seemingly stopped in midair about five inches off the ground before being noiselessly set down.

  “What was that?” Cole asked.

  “The waiter must have dropped something.” But instead of watching Cole or the waiter, my eyes were locked on the front door, waiting expectantly for it to open without being pushed by a visible being. As confident as I could be that Hades had actually left the premises, I looked back to Cole.

  Finally, my quiet wishes and prayers were answered when, at that moment, my phone rang. Cole looked up at me in confusion and I just shrugged, pretending it was no big deal. I then desperately yanked the cell phone out of my pocket and pressed it close to my ear. I knew that if Cole found out Alec was the one calling me, he would have gotten mad again so I just pretended the young hero was someone different.

  “Hello, Father,” I hissed in English, hoping Alec would catch on quickly. “What do you want? I’m on a date with Cole, remember?”

  There was static on the line for a moment until Alec’s voice answered. Unsurprisingly, he sounded extremely hurt and angry. “What? Your father forced you to go on a date with Cole?!”

  “Yes,” I answered impatiently, “and I’m not happy about it either.” Seeing Cole’s confused expression, I added randomly, “No, you’ll just have to talk to Mom later.”

  “What? Oh, never mind,” Alec said bitterly and I could tell he was still angry. “Anyway—”

  “Look, Father, I don’t have time to talk with you right now. You just need to know that he has the helm,” I interrupted. In front of me, Cole gazed blankly at his plate and twirled his fork in circles, not even seeming to try to understand me any longer.

  “He? Helm? What helm?” Alec sounded baffled for a brief moment before he regained his composure. “Oh, you mean the helm of invisibility. Wait—Hades has it? When did this happen?”

  “A few months ago. We just figured it out,” I hissed back at him and slammed my fork on the table, angered by the mere thought of the lord of the dead. “So he might know where you’re coming from and when you might get here. I have to go now, but good luck and don’t die.”

  I hung up the crappy flip phone and stuffed it in my pocket before Alec could say another word. Hopefully he would forgive me for ever going out to dinner with Cole.

  The rest of the date seemed to pass quicker, mostly because we just had to wait for the check. Cole offered to pay and even I found that kind of sweet. In just over an hour, I was back on my front porch. Cole awkwardly bid me farewell and I knew that he wanted to kiss me, but, thankfully, my dad was watching so he didn’t.

  With that, I raced into the house, not even bothering to stop and talk to my father about my date, and he just raised his bushy eyebrows suggestively at me. I gave him one last glare for the day, and he chuckled softly in spite of himself before I burst up the staircase and into my empty room to get myself ready for bed.

  I came out of the bathroom a few minutes later and was about to crawl under the covers when I noticed shadows moving behind the turquoise curtains of my balcony doors. I quickly grabbed my pocketknife and yanked open the door, ready for some monsters to come at me, but was only met with the curious expressions of the rest of the Olympian Council. All eleven of them.

  “What are you doing here?” I hissed in Greek at the crowded group of gods on my tiny balcony even though I knew very well that they just wanted to know how the date went. News travels fast in small towns, after all, and especially news about me.

  Aphrodite, Artemis, Demeter, and Hestia rolled their eyes at me in unison. “How was the date?” Zeus asked, slipping one arm around my shoulders protectively and Hera narrowed her dark brown eyes to slits. I ignored her and rested my head on Zeus’s shoulder.

  “Well, Alec called and I told him about the helm,” I started, my voice trailing off a bit. Sensing my hesitancy, Zeus raised his eyebrows expectantly.

  “And?” Apollo coaxed aloud.

  “And Hades showed up just to breathe down my neck and tell me we’re going to lose this war,” I admitted in a rush. Nothing traumatic had actually happened so I didn’t want the other gods to dwell on it.

  “Are you kidding me?” Zeus hissed, his voice low and angry. He probably would’ve yelled and summoned a full-blown thunderstorm had he not known my father was downstairs. “I swear I’m going to send that piece of shit down to Tartarus myself. Tomorrow.”

  The other gods muttered their own impassioned choice words while I just shook my head, doubting the likelihood of that scenario. “We’ll see,” I said, eager to change the topic. “But how was the vigil?”

  Poseidon sighed as he ran his fingers through his jet-black hair. “Sad. There was a lot of crying and whatnot, but the nymphs and satyrs seemed glad we were there.”

  “We buried Berry next to Alec’s dad,” Ares, the god of war, added quietly, actually showing a feeling other than anger for once in his life.

  I nodded solemnly, but after a rather short moment of silence for Berry, I extricated myself from Zeus’s arms and ordered grumpily, “If that’s all, I would like to get to bed and forget this date ever happened. So, I hate to be rude, but you should leave now.”

  A couple of the other gods chuckled and groaned in disappointment, but they jumped off my balcony without complaints, one after another. When I finally had some peace and quiet, I locked my doors for the night. Then I walked straight to my bed and tucked myself in, desperately hoping that an invisible Hades wasn’t hiding somewhere in the dark corners of my room, pa
tiently waiting for the right moment to kill me.

  It was quite a creepy thought, actually.

  Chapter 5

  THE ORACLE AND I EXPLAIN

  Where are you, Hades?

  That was the question begging to be answered. My head was pounding with a thousand thoughts and theories at once, the world seeming to spin faster and faster around me . . .

  Hades had the helm of invisibility. He had the helm and I should have seen it coming. At that exact moment, he could have been in a million places, even in my dark and lonely room, but he was only in one. I tried to tell myself that Hades wouldn’t be in my room, waiting to kill me, that it was illogical. Today he’d approached me alone for the first time and there had to be a reason for that, yet he never tried to harm me—only rubbing it in my face that he was one step ahead of me, that he didn’t have a human persona to maintain. Furthermore, why would he be there in my room when he could be stalking around in the forest, listening to the troops’ conversations to gain even the slightest knowledge of our battle plans?

  The troops. That thought alone sent me bolting upright in my bed to face the alarm clock and check the time. 12:05 a.m. Alec and the Knowing should be here by now, I thought to myself. But they obviously weren’t. Before I had gone to bed, I put my walkie-talkie volume on the loudest setting possible so, just in case something happened, the sound of the announcement would wake me up. I had not foreseen that I would be getting so little sleep in the first place.

  Rubbing my forehead in anguish, I rolled out of bed. The first thing I did was grab my walkie-talkie and pocketknife from the nightstand as well as the rock/ sword that I had apparently knocked to the floor in my restless sleep. Holding onto them tightly, I opened my balcony doors and took a quick glance at Zeus and Poseidon’s house, silently hoping one of them would be awake to talk to (preferably Zeus). But I was disappointed to find it dark and cold. I knew that Artemis, being the goddess of the moon and stars, would probably be up and about at her house, though her company wasn’t what I was truly looking for. I just wanted the second opinion of someone who had known the forest for as long as I had, someone more likely to run into battle right now than wait for morning to come and Hades to make the first move. I wasn’t stupid enough to sneak into the forest alone.