Chapter Thirty-Three

“Really?!” Sarah exclaims. “Awesome… I mean. Yeah sure.”

“Can you please just do it for once?” I demand.

“Yeah, yeah, yeah, I’m on it,” she grumbles as she walks away.

I sigh, dropping into the closet chair, leaning my head against the cold metal table.

Please let me have made the right choice, I pray. Before wondering who exactly I was praying to now.

“Lenzie a little help!” A voice calls.

With a groan I stand up and head outside. It was Gwyn and she looked excited. Her brown hair was up in a bun and her golden eyes sparkled.

“Hi!” she says. “So I’ve been thinking.”

I couldn’t help the snort that escaped my mouth. Almost immediately I cover my mouth with my hand.

“I’m sorry, that was, that was mean,” I say quickly.

Gwyn glares at me but ignores it, “As I was saying before rudely interrupted. I’ve been thinking-”

I snort again, covering it up with a cough this time, but she knew exactly what I had did.

“What if we don’t need to find a cure for Alex or a way out of Tartarus,” Gwyn asks.

“Then we need an award for the most people sitting on their butts while their friends are in trouble,” I reply, turning to walk away.

“Hey! Listen, Derek and I were thinking-” she pauses to glare at me, to see if I would laugh again.

“Well you should’ve led with that,” I say, turning back towards her.

Her glare intensifies, “Whatever. What if the person we have to cure is Nykole?”

“Then we’re all dead,” I say.

“Why do you say that?” Derek asks, walking up to stand by Gwyn.

“Because I’ve known people like Nykole,” I say, thinking of Clato. “And those kinds of people only ever care about themselves. Not anyone else, and no anyone else’s feelings. So there is no way in hell that Nykole is going to care about us. She only cares about herself. She doesn’t want anything but power. She doesn’t have any feelings. And she doesn’t have a heart.”

“That’s kind of a stock characterization isn’t it?” Gwyn demands.

It takes me a second to get over the shock of her saying such a big word.

“Nope,” I say finally. “It’s the truth.”

“Look, you don’t know Nikki like I do!” Derek exclaims.

“I don’t need to,” I say simply.

“So just like that she’s the villain? That’s seriously unfair!” Derek shouts.

“No, she’s the villain because she chose to be one,” I reply, trying to remain calm.

“You’re a hypocrite,” Gwyn snaps.

“Excuse you?” I demand, turning to face her.

“What makes her different than anyone else in this town?!” Gwyn says.

“Ummm, oh, I don’t know? Her alliance with the enemy?” I say, letting it come out as a question.

“But if we can just talk to her I think that I can get her to be on our side,” Derek says. “She’s confused. Scared. Sad. And hurt. Hades isn’t exactly Father of the Year. You can’t blame her for choosing the other side.”

“Yeah, I can, she almost killed half of this town!” I say.

“But she didn’t,” Derek argues.

“But she wanted to,” I say.

“Lenz,” Gwyn says. “You have to give her a chance.”

“Give me one good reason to,” I say.

“Because Derek is a member of this community and he believes that some part of her is still good. You owe him a chance to prove that to everyone,” Gwyn says. “Just like you did with me.”

“Gods I hate repaying favors,” I grumble. “Fine. Gather a party and try to talk her out of being evil. But when you fail don’t die out there.”

“Come on,” Gwyn says. “Before she changes her mind.”

Her and Derek run off. I roll my eyes and head back into the Athena House, slamming the door behind me.

“I hate friendship,” I hiss under my breath.

I walk over and cross Nykole’s name off of the list of enemies. Praying that I was correct on my calculations of friendship. Maybe I was wrong about Nykole. But I was sure that even if I wasn’t, friendship usually always won out in the end. I just hoped that I was right.

۝

Nykole

“We have accomplished Phase 1,” Ares says behind me. “Soon we can move on to 2.”

“Halt all preparation for war,” Hypnos says.

“Excuse me?” Ares asks.

I turn around with a frown on my face.

“You’re excused,” Hypnos replies with a flick of his hand.

“No, I mean, why should we halt the war prep.?” Ares demands.

“I assure you I know exactly what you meant. However the answer you get is the only answer you will receive,” Hypnos says.

“I followed you for one reason!” Ares shouts. “YOU PROMISED WE WOULD BE GODS!”

“You had your chance at being a god,” Hypnos replies. “It’s my turn now.”

“You backstabbing liar!” Ares shouts as he was dragged out of the room by Hypnos’s Cloudmans. Warriors made out of clouds.

“Well that’s rather harsh,” Hypnos says, pressing a hand to his heart. “Perhaps your mommy never taught you to play well with others.”

Hypnos waves his hand and a Cloudman steps forward, holding a syringe of blood red liquid. It was pulsing with energy and glowing with light. Ares backs away, eyes widening with fear.

“What are you doing?” I demand, having no idea what that liquid was.

“What has to be done for me to be King,” Hypnos replies.

He nods his head and the Cloudman injects Ares with the liquid.

“What are you doing?” I repeat. “What does that liquid do?”

“It makes a god turn mortal, slowly, painfully,” Hypnos replies. “I had one made up specially for every single god or goddess.”

“That wasn’t part of the deal!” I exclaim.

“You don’t need to know certain things, therefore I don’t tell you them,” Hypnos replies.

“That you’re going to take away the gods powers?!” I snap. “I think that I should be needing to know that!”

“Of course you don’t,” Hypnos says.

Ares’s screams were the only thing that could be heard for a minute, and then they too were silenced as the Cloudman took him and threw him on Olympus.

“You’re dismissed as well,” Hypnos says.

“What?” I taunt. “You gonna take my powers and leave me to die?”

“Of course not,” Hypnos says. “No one would care about your death.”

I scoff and stomp away, muttering profanities under my breath as I went. I slam the door to my room and fall down onto my bed.

“Bad day?”

Normally I don’t scare easily, but in this case I jumped up and screamed. I turn around and come face to face with Derek.

“What the hell?” I say. “How’d you get in here? Why are you in here? How are you still alive?”

“Hi, nice to see you too. I’ve been well, thanks for asking. How are you?” Derek says sarcastically.

“How’d you get in here? Why are you here? And how are you still alive?” I repeat.

“Sooo much for small talk. I thought we were getting somewhere. Damn,” Derek says.

“We’d be getting there a lot faster if you’d answer my question,” I point out.

Derek shrugs, “The door was unlocked. Wanted to see what happened to my friend. Annnd I don’t get out much.”

“Really? Cause the last time we spoke you told me that I wasn’t your friend. And called me a liar,” I say.

“Well in my defense you were trying to kill me and my newly found friends,” Derek points out.

“Yes, too bad I didn’t succeed,” I grumble.

“You don’t mean that,” Derek says.

“How would you know?” I ask, curious despite myself.

He shrugs, “Cause I’m your best friend that’s why.”

“Since when?” I ask. “Cause the last time I saw you, well, you were saying something of a different sort if you catch my drift.”

“It’s caught,” Derek says.

“Why are you here Derek?” I ask.

“Because I wanted to tell you that I know you’re not evil. That I believe in you. And that it’s not too late to make things right.”

“What if I don’t wanna make things right?” I demand. “What if I think that they’re right the way I have them right now?”

“You don’t have to be evil to be powerful,” Derek says. “You can obtain power by being believed in. By having friends.”

“Like the gods?” I ask, putting as much venom into the last word as I could.

“Well yeah, they need to be believed in to have power. That doesn’t have to always be the case. Sometimes all the power you ever need is the power of friendship,” Derek says.

I sigh, because the thing was, I couldn’t just kill him. He had been my best friend for years. He still was. That type of bond doesn’t just break. And even if it did, the memories still haunt me. I hated it, but I was unable to kill Derek Demos.

“Hypnos has some kind of potion, it makes the gods and goddesses mortal. It’s how he plans on winning this thing,” I reply. “Now get the hell out of here.”

“Not without you,” Derek replies.

“Yes without me you idiot!” I snap. “It would be more beneficial for you lot to have someone on the inside. So get out.”

“That’s dangerous,” Derek protests.

“Oh really? I hadn’t noticed,” I say sarcastically.

“Which is why you need to come back with me! You could die here!” He says.

“I could die out there too,” I point out. “Just go before I change my mind and murder you.”

Derek hesitates then turns and walks over to the door.

“WHAT ARE YOU DOING?!” I whisper-shout.

“Uh leaving?” Derek says.

“What are you planning on doing genius, walking through the front door?” I hiss.

“Well that is the way that I got in here so why can’t it be the way I leave here?” Derek asks.

“Because you’ll end up dead?” I offer.

“You really think so?” Derek asks.

“Yeah,” I say simply.

“Challenge accepted,” he grins, and then walks out of the room.

I groan and fall back onto my bed, there was nothing else I could do without giving away that I wasn’t as evil as the hell bunnies. Ten minutes later I still hadn’t heard the alarm go off.

He actually made it out. I think, slightly impressed.

۝

Quinn

I duck and the lightning bolt flies over my head. Barely. They weren’t normal bolts either, they were a dark orange instead of yellow. I look up just as another one barrels through the air towards me. I roll to the side, but the bolt still hits my shoulder.

I gasp, the pain that erupted from the scratch was not normal. It felt like someone was holding fire next to my skin, slowly letting it melt off. And then pouring ice cold water over that. Now I was pissed. Very. Very. Very pissed off.

I go to stand, but before I can a lightning bolt hits me in the chest, sending me flying backwards. I slam into the fountain that was behind me. The water immediately drenches over me. For a second I frown, wondering why I didn’t notice that there had been water here before.

Just as the water started to heal me and give me power, an orange lightning bolt descended from above. The bolt electrifies the water. I cry out as the lightning infused water hits me.

For a second everything goes black. And then when I open my eyes, something extraordinary happens. I was still breathing. I pull myself out of the fountain, falling to the sidewalk, coughing. I will myself to become dry.

“You’re not fried alive! How?” a voice demands.

“No thanks to you,” I groan.

“That should’ve killed you!” the boy growls.

“Well geeh, thanks,” I say sarcastically.

“How are you alive?” he snaps.

“Um well, you see. My mom met my dad and they loved each other soooooo much that they wanted to have a child. And after doing that I was born,” I say. “Which is how I came to life! Ta da!”

“That’s not what I meant!”

“Sorry man, the answer I give is the answer you get,” I say.

His raises his hand, his fingers cracking with orange lightning. Only for a second though. The lightning goes out.

“What the-” he starts.

I frown as I felt something tingling up my arm. Looking I see that the orange lightning was now attached to me. Moving around my arm in a comforting way, like it was my best friend. Except I was a child of Poseidon, not Zeus. So I did the only logical thing. I yelped and waved my arm like a madman. The lightning extinguished itself.

“What the hell did you do to me?!” I shout, glaring at the boy.

“You stole my powers!” he accuses.

“I stole your powers?” I exclaim. “What the hell are you talking about?”