21
OMENS AND WARNINGS
ALEXIS: THE NEXT MORNING, ONE DAY UNTIL THE INITIATION MASSACRE
“Alexis?”
I woke up with a start.
A storm raged outside, making the morning unusually dark, as rain streaked drearily across the window. The hellhounds, Fluffy Jr., and Poco slept in a big pile on the floor.
The room was quiet except for a strange muffled rattling.
Helen and Charlie were absent, probably already at their morning class, but the rest of us had the day off from training because the initiation massacre
was in one day.
“Alexis?” Ceres called.
Groggily, I pushed myself out of bed, wrapping a sleepy Nyx around my neck as I went into the adjoining room.
Ceres was sitting on the floor, chewing on a pen, her pink hair askew, surrounded by piles of ancient tomes.
She held up a blank page with a squiggly symbol on it. “Can you believe
it?”
“Believe … what?”
She pointed to the two dots on the top of the symbol. “This umlaut! It’s an extremely rare configuration that is seldom seen in this ancient language. Yet here it is. Right in front of me all along. So obvious!”
“What l-language?” I asked, struggling to follow her words because she talked faster than anyone I’d ever known.
Wait, what does this have to do with getting your memory back?
Lavender eyes sharpened. “The words of predestination.”
A sense of foreboding slithered down my spine.
“I’ve seen this umlaut before,” Ceres said in a rush. “I remember—it was crucial, a rare moment of clarity. The pieces all fit together, and it made sense. It was clear. It’s never clear. And I realized that I’m on the right track.
I have to be. Because … Guess which ancient Olympian House book I found this symbol in? Guess. Please guess. Guess. You must guess.”
She blinked up at me expectantly.
“Um.”
Ceres made me realize that I was a very low-energy person.
Wait, am I anemic?
“Guess a House,” she demanded. “Guess. You gotta guess. Just do it. Do it quickly.” She practically vibrated with excitement.
“The House of … Zeus?”
“You got it!” She slammed the page down and picked up a heavy tome, flipping through it. “I’m right, I know I am. The House of Zeus had something to do with your disappearance and my memory loss.”
She beamed at me.
“But it’s so satisfying because my memories are finally coming back. It’s Plato’s cave—I’m in the dark, then I’m turned to the light and suddenly I can
see. Duh, right?”
“Sure?”
I felt stupid.
“This girl needs so much help,” Nyx hissed.
“Want to sit here while I read?” Ceres offered slowly, suddenly looking self-conscious. “It’s nice to have someone around.”
I nodded.
She nudged my shoulder as I sat down next to her on the floor. Her smile made me feel warm inside.
I’d never had a girlfriend. Now I had her and Helen.
A few hours later, there was a ringing in my bad ear and a cramp in my
lower back. Ceres was reading a book in silence.
With a groan, I stood up to leave.
“Alexis—” Ceres grabbed my arm to stop me and I startled. Her lavender eyes were shockingly bright. “Have you seen this symbol before? It matters tonight.” She ripped a page out of her book and held it up to me.
The cream-colored page had a single drawing on it.
The symbol was extremely crude. It was a straight line with a circle at the top, and a squiggle over the line, with two puffy clouds floating on either side of it.
I squinted. It looked familiar, but I couldn’t place it.
“Maybe … I’m not sure,” I said, confused what was going on. “What’s tonight?”
She tilted her head and stared like she was studying me, uncharacteristically silent.
“Ceres … Wh-why?” I repeated, feeling increasingly awkward.
In a flash of movement, she crinkled up the piece of paper and threw it aside. She turned back to her book and resumed reading like nothing had happened.
“Uh—Ceres,” I said, “why did you j-just crumple up that symbol? What do you mean it matters tonight? What were you—”
“What, Alexis?” She smiled. “Sorry, I’ve been lost in thought while reading.”
“The symbol you just showed me,” I whispered, deeply unsettled. “What
was it?”
“The umlaut?” Ceres asked.
I reached down and picked up the wrinkled piece of paper and did a double
take—the page was blank.
“I think that was just scrap paper.” Ceres went still. “Wait—Alexis, can you see something on it?”
I stared at the empty page, feeling sick.
“No, n-not anymore. I swear it just had a …” I shook my head. “Never mind. I must be tired. Sometimes when I’m exhausted, I imagine a man is watching me sleep. My mind runs away from—”
“Stop, Alexis.” Ceres stared up at me. “All we are is what we perceive.
Right or wrong, real or not. Predestination speaks in a language that no one truly understands.” She pressed a hand to her heart. “It’s a feeling—and if you’ve felt it, you need to believe in yourself.”
I backed away, dropping the paper.
“I’m just t-tired.”
Ceres looked grave. “You need to trust yourself. I trust you, with my life.
You need to do the same. Believe in yourself, in your abilities.”
I backed into the other bedroom.
“I just need to rest,” I said, shutting the door before she could reply.
Falling into Helen’s pink bed, I pulled the cover up over my head, then grabbed my pocket graphing calculator.
Dragging my fingers over the shiny buttons, I admired the linear equation I’d been working on.
“Dear Diary,” I whispered into the microphone. “Ceres is acting strange, and my recent graph supports that the Riemann zeta function has its zeros not only at the negative even integers but also with complex numbers with real
halves.”
I paused.
“Also, I think I’m going crazy. I’m seeing things. A strange symbol. The grim reaper. And I feel like I’m dying every time I think about my husbands.”
I clicked it off.
Knock.
Knock.
“The heir to the House of Hades has been requested to meet in the dining room,” a servant called through the closed door. “It’s urgent.”
I groaned.
Is a single day of rest really too much to ask for?
Less than a minute later, I cautiously pushed open the door to the dining room with the animals all huddled at my feet.
I peeked inside.
Spooky.
It was midday, but the curtains had been pulled, and the dining room was dark. The only light was from the smoldering fireplace, its flames burning low, and the scent of smoke was sharp.
Wind howled outside, as sheets of rain slammed against the long windows.
The storm was picking up.
Cautiously, I slipped inside with the animals in tow.
“Uh, I was s-summoned … Is anyone in here?”
Lightning flashed.
The door shut behind me with a bang.
“Welcome … wife,” Kharon said quietly.
He stood at the middle of the long table, twirling a dangerous hunting knife between his fingers. “We’ve been waiting for you.”
I blinked.
Not dramatic at all.
Augustus was next to Kharon, leaning his hip against the table, like he was blocking something, arms crossed over his chest, expression stony.
“Uh,” I said eloquently, not sure what the best practices were when it came
to dealing with deranged men.
Something clattered loudly.
Kharon and Augustus stepped away from the table.
Lightning flashed—Patro was bound and gagged; Achilles was tied to a chair next to him.
My mentors turned their heads toward me.
Patro shouted, the sound muffled behind a gag, as he kicked and struggled.
Achilles sat perfectly still beside him, eyes narrowed with rage, trussed up in silver restraints. They were the same kind of chains they used to secure Titans.
Kharon pointed his knife at a single seat on the other side of the table. The rest of the chairs had been removed from the room.
“Please sit, wife,” Kharon said calmly. “Join us.”
Nyx hissed as she slithered from my waist and coiled tightly around my arm, ready to strike. Fluffy Jr. crouched low, and the hellhounds and Poco silently stared at the men.
I straightened my shoulders and held Kharon’s fierce gaze.
“Or … what?” There was no way he’d hurt me.
I knew better.
Do I?
Kharon pointed the knife at Achilles’s face, then he hovered the blade over his left ear. “If you don’t, I will avenge the wrong perpetrated against you.”
I inhaled sharply. “You wouldn’t.”
Kharon’s smile was pure sin. “Want to test me?” He pressed the knife into the skin above Achilles’s ear, features twisting with mania.
Patro screamed and kicked his bound feet at the table leg next to him.
Achilles stayed perfectly still.
Shock morphed inside my chest into something dangerous and seething.
Kharon’s face sharpened. “Please—sit. We have … important matters to
discuss.”
Augustus stood silent.
With careful measured steps, angling my body to keep them in my sight, I walked in the opposite direction around the table to the chair.
I stared across at them.
Kharon laughed harshly, a familiar mocking sound. “Smart choice.”
“Sit,” Augustus ordered.
Indignation kindled inside my stomach.
I remained standing.
Midnight eyes narrowed into slits. “Sit,” Augustus repeated with more force.
Kharon bared his teeth. “You’re outnumbered and you have no weapons.
Don’t do anything you’d regret, carissima. You have no other choices.”
How dare he.
I raised my right arm toward my husbands, finger pointed, thumb cocked.
Kharon tipped his head back and chuckled mockingly.
Black scales shimmered into existence as she became visible—Nyx’s head hovered over my pointer finger, mouth wide open, fangs on display. She coiled tighter on my arm, ready to strike—vibrant purple snake eyes watched
Kharon.
Thunder cracked.
Everyone in the room froze.
Kharon opened and closed his mouth, no sound coming out.
“Alexis,” Augustus said with menacing softness, his gaze locked on Nyx.
“Please tell me that snake doesn’t have purple eyes … because that would mean you’re pointing a venomous echidna at us like it’s a gun.”
