Chapter 12
A few days passed before Persephone permitted Fay to return. By then, it was the day of the trials and the camp was a flurry of activity. Rumours circulated on what exactly the trials would contain, how the hounds would be tested. Bets were placed, arguments resounded around camp fires, tensions between rival squads ratchetted tight. She slipped through the chaos to her squad’s tent. At the entrance she hesitated, then thrust her hand in and yanked the cloth to the side. She stepped in, exhaling. Chatter flooded her ears, then died abruptly two seconds later.
All eyes were on her. Someone let out a low whistle. Alexander, maybe. Only Remus spoke first, glancing up from the end of the room, and nodded approvingly.
“Welcome back – how do you feel?”
“Fine. Ready for work,” said Fay.
A silence drew on. Remus cleared his throat, like he was trying to clear out the silence, fill it with something else – anything, really.
“Gear on. We head out soon to start the trials,” he ordered. He bent his head to Nadia’s ear, then strode off, straight past Fay.
As the curtain closed behind him all at once the squad rushed to their feet, to her, and voices erupted into a multitude of questions. At the front Nadia grabbed Fay’s shoulders, inspecting her from head to toe, looking for damage or something. Glancing over her shoulder Fay saw Alexander lingering at the back, watching her with guarded eyes. What was going on his mind, given his brother had been so deeply entangled in the fighting ring?
“Were you really with Persephone?”
“What did she want?”
“Why did she save you?”
Fay felt like a deer in headlights, bewildered for a moment, mute. Nadia stepped in front of them all, a shield. The questions faded away and finally, in that brief snatch of silence, Fay could gather her story together and speak.
“Because she owed me,” said Fay simply.
At the back of the group Diana snorted scornfully. “She owed you? What could you have possibly done to merit such a debt?”
Despite Diana’s tone, which might’ve normally earnt a reprimand, the rest of the squad looked at Fay like they wanted to know. After all, what could one hellhound do to earn the debt of a Goddess? Fay considered spinning a story but there were too many chances to be exposed, so she picked a safer option.
“I am bound to silence, as you can understand,” replied Fay with a coy smile. “They’re prickly like that.”
“Oh, yes, your friendships with the Gods!” Diana proclaimed waspishly.
The others moved aside as Diana strode to her, eyes flashing angrily. The way she looked at Fay was like she’d murdered a bunch of orphans in a horrid way, that she was some kind of monster and she was angry at being the only one to see it. Her hands were balled into fists at her side, though they still shook with fury.
“Is there something wrong?” Fay asked calmly. “Have I done something to upset you?”
She may have been baiting Diana, just a little, whom rose the occasion with predictable fire.
“You! You’re going to get everyone in this squad put down permanently,” she hissed. “You’re dangerous and downright arrogant.”
“Now isn’t the time for this, Diana,” scolded Nadia. “We need to be a team.”
“Everything has been a disaster since she got here! We never had problems dealing with demons until her, nor any entanglements with the illegal rings until she caught the eye of Daphne!” Diana snarled. “She doesn’t belong in this squad and I’m the only one who sees it.”
The squad fell silent. No one rallied to Fay’s side but they didn’t rush to Diana either, no one moved for what felt like an eternity. Small mercies, she supposed. Even Nadia was silent, her expression stormy, though Fay was unsure what she was angry about.
“Perhaps you should take a walk, Diana. Cool your temper,” intoned Lucilla. “You wouldn’t want Remus to see you like this.”
Diana stared down the indomitable Lucilla, looking more and more like a petulant child everyone was ignoring. After a second she cursed and shoved past Fay, storming out of the tent. Only when the curtain closed behind her did the tension ease a fraction. Nadia sunk onto a nearby bunk, as did many of the others.
Fay looked to Lucilla, whom appeared more troubled, if anything. “Thank you.”
“Don’t thank me. Diana was right. Your arrival has caused problems and was, if anything, poorly timed, which you can’t be blamed for. She was already nursing wounds when you came, this new pet of Remus-“
“I’m no one’s pet,” cut in Fay.
Lucilla levelled a cool, dismissive look at Fay. “In her eyes, you are.”
“That’s enough,” warned Tiberius. “We should just let Diana cool down. She’ll return.”
“Why are you all so protective of her?” Fay burst out.
From the second she’d arrived she’d been at odds with Diana, physically fought with her and had to fight her at every turn. Yet no one in the squad, aside from Remus, intervened, like they were okay with her outbursts and antics. Used to it, even.
“Because we know her and know of her life, what drives her,” said Motep softly, grimly even. “As we know all of each other’s story. With you, we have found more secrets and lies on your part, which has made a similar affection hard. That, and you are peculiar – you can stare down Hades, fight a Command, Command demons, owed favours by Goddesses, you’ve got Nebiru’s eye. It’s a curious array for a Hellhound, don’t you think?”
So, the moment had come. She was wondering how long it’d take them to question her over her demon ability, though she’d hoped they’d accept it as a rare but otherwise not impossible trait. Given all the small things she’d let slip, she gave them credit for being silent for so long.
She opened her mouth to speak but a sharp pain shot through her head, knees buckling beneath, sending her crumpling to the ground with a sudden cry. Her head pounded like someone was driving something sharp right into the middle of her brain, the waves radiating out in crippling intensity throughout her body. For what felt like an eternity she was captured by the pain.
Then, as quickly as it had come, the pain was gone and the world, so briefly captured in flashes of dizzying light, dimmed, focused into detail. The squad was around her and, within moments, their voices floated down. A hand was on her shoulder. Nadia.
Not yet. You will need them. Andromeda’s warning slithered into her mind, low, cold.
Fay shuddered. She had been about to say something but Andromeda didn’t want that. So, had everything before simply been of Andromeda’s will, therefor not crippling Fay in pain? It was like she was a dog to be trained, pain as the control method.
“Fay? Fay, what happened?” Nadia entreated.
She dragged in a deep, trembling breath, staring at her shaking hands. “I can’t say.”
It was all she could say, if only out of fear of Andromeda lashing out again, crippling her.
“Well isn’t that convenient,” drawled Alexander.
Something inside of Fay snapped. Her head shot up, eyes narrowing immediately on Alexander, cold fury in her gaze.
“I tried to talk and that’s what happened. Now, can we drop it for now? Hades isn’t the only one with a noose around my neck,” she snapped waspishly.
Alexander shrank back from her gaze, warning accepted. Even by everyone else, it seemed, whom said nothing but seemed to have a grudging acceptance for her words. Her vague explanation was, for the moment, enough.
Outside the tent, a bell tolled. It was time to go.
They were late. It was Fay’s fault whom, after her fit, had been shaky dressing in the battle gear, which was new and somewhat stiff on her body. Nadia said that it would soften quickly, that she only had to be patient. Fay shot her an arch look, then followed the others out. Then, when they raced through the camps to the fields that bordered the forest, they found the majority of the Hounds gathered. The attempting squads were already lined up.
Remus joined them at the fringe of the crowd. He didn’t look angry, though if he was, he hid it well. With a flick of his wrist he told them to keep their heads high, act like they were on time, and that was that. They moved their way past the murmuring crowd and joined the end of the line of the squads. The captain of the next squad, whom was dressed in gold, shot them a withering look.
“Late, Remus? How unlike you! That newcomer of yours must be terribly trying on your squad,” he sneered.
Remus, for a moment, acted like he didn’t even exist, staring ahead at the empty dais. Then, with a lazy, bored glance, looked at the man. “Did you say something Octavius?”
Octavius flushed, angry and opened his mouth to reply but a rumbling resounded thunderingly nearby. The murmuring crowds, too, fell silent and all eyes reverted to the dais expectantly. A plume of black smoke burst atop the dais, swirling in dizzying patterns for a moment before Thanatos emerged from the darkness. Fay went to exhale in relief when, in the next breath, Hades emerged.
A chill flooded through her. At the back of her mind she felt Andromeda’s presence stirring, as though through whatever thin link connected them, she felt his presence. Hated it, hated him. Fay balled her fists, inhaled deeply, exhaled, then released her hands and pressed them flat to the side of her leg. Beside her, Nadia bent her head a fraction.
“You okay?”
Fay went to reply but she found Hades gaze drift across the crowd and find her, as if he’d been looking for her the whole time. She pressed her lips together, forcing herself into silence, rather than risk saying something reckless. Nadia followed her gaze, then went rigid, saying nothing further.
Hades glanced back to the general crowd and gestured for Thanatos to speak. The dreary speeches that followed Fay ignored until Hades stepped forward to speak, a hush settling over the crowd again. It seemed even the Underworld, with its quiet, steady thrumming heartbeat, grew so quiet that the silence itself felt deafening.
“I will not understate the importance of this mission, even of these trials. I will not send armies into Tartarus, for the Titan himself, has only permitted a small squad entry. As such, it will fall to today’s winning squad to discover the threat, report, then destroy it. I will not have failure, so if you do so, consider Tartarus your new home.”
Around Fay the squads shifted. There had been an excitement about the mission, about the glory it might offer. No one knew failure meant exile into hell’s deepest pit. The risk, now so clear to all, left a feint feeling of reluctance, though no one was about to admit that, and tried to look confident. The result was that, in the corner of Fay’s eye, she saw their forced smiles and confident stances. Even her own squad, though perhaps less overcompensating, still seemed uneasy at the new development. Even Remus.
Hades clasped his hands together, a thunderous bang resounded. Fay flinched. “Now, let the trials begin!”
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