Aella
“Just stay close tous, okay? Strength in numbers.”
“Strength in numbers?” I chuckled. “Are we under attack?”
Tycho, Nitsa, Theron, Ionna, and Daciana did not laugh with me. Nitsa moved around the couch, stepping in my bolt hole. “Aella, you missed a lot this week, including what people are saying about you. The whole school blames you for Galen’s death.”
My lips pressed in a thin line. “They should,” I croaked. “It was my fault.”
“I would not repeat that to anyone outside of this dorm,” Theron said. “Don’t give them any more ammunition.”
“I own my mistakes, Theron.”
“But not your accidents. Not this one, Aella.” Grasping my shoulders, he made me face him. “Galen was the son of a former councilman. There were rumors that he would become the first child of a Titan to take a seat on the council. His powers were that rare. That powerful. You have no idea the hope he brought to the army.
“Imagine a battle where you can just freeze the typhon, lop off its head, and then everyone heads to the tavern for drinks and cards. Galen was going to turn the tide—spare the soldiers countless casualties... and now he’s dead.”
“Dead because he tried to help a girl who...” Nitsa trailed off. “Well, they’re saying a lot of things about you, Aella.”
“Like what?”
“Things that can’t be true,” she said firmly. “I knew you were a good person from the first day I met you. The Titans are spreading a bunch of lies to whip up the hate against you—”
“—so don’t make it easy for them,” Theron finished. “Stick close to us. Sisypheans look out for each other.”
“Thanks, guys.” I finished packing away my last notebook and hitched my bag on my shoulder. According to our schedule, we had battle strategy, combat, history, self-mastery, and field medicine that day, the day after, and the day after that. From sunup to sundown five days a week, there was no letting up in our training.
“Why is this window blocked out?” I asked as we piled out of the dorm. “After lunch, there’s an hour and a half before we report to combat training. Do we have a break?”
Tycho snorted. “No. It’s a special class for the Titans. Children of the same god get together and form battle strategies that play off one another’s strengths. You know, if one child of Poseidon can create water out of the air, but the other can only draw from a source. Put them together and they’re unstoppable.
“The Sisypheans don’t participate,” he said. “But we still have to watch. So no, not a break.”
“Got it.” I filled it in on my calendar. The majority of these classes I’d have to just sit through and endure, but two could be useful to me: field medicine and history.
The lamia brought books of all kinds, but none that praised gods or denounced monsters. If there were books on spells, potions, enchantments, or medicines that tamed a beast, I did not see one in the last eight years. As for knowledge of all the gods and goddesses that once ruled the heavens, earth, and underground—cursing humans to turn into monsters or shunning monster gods. The lamia wasn’t handing that over to us either.
My first step was finding out who the goddess is. Was she another monster goddess like Echidna, the mother of monsters? That would explain why she had such a hatred of the gods.
But then I never heard of Echidna’s descendants doing the things she could do. They don’t change form. They don’t prey on minds or infect souls. If I was dealing with the original Echidna herself, why did she need me? She had hundreds of thousands of children ready and willing to kill demigods. They’ve been doing it for centuries.
Sighing, I scribbled notes, questions, and things to research on the back of my schedule. The only thing I knew for sure was that I didn’t know enough. My knowledge of the gods was limited to the tales my mother told me, and the nice, sanitized history they told small children. I didn’t know Medusa was cursed by Athena because Poseidon raped her. Not until the lamia told Iris why she should feel no pride at being a child of Athena.
No one could argue what the two of them did to that innocent woman was hideous. After being violated in the worst way, Athena comes along, turns her hair into snakes, steals her beauty, and gives her eyes that turn a man to stone. There were more than a few figures in history that had good reason to hate the gods, but which one of them was so wronged, they wanted every trace of them wiped from existence even if it meant slaughtering the innocents who housed a piece of their essence.
That’s the bitch I needed to find and stop.
Together we entered the lecture wing, me bringing up the rear of the group.
“Did you finish Georgiou’s paper? Man, he’s going to have your ass.”
Boots shuffled in and out of my peripheral vision. The hall was stuffed with students heading in every direction. We may have the same schedule, but there were many instructors teaching them. According to my schedule, I had battle strategy with Captain Hondros. Luckily for us, they handed out schedules by going down the dorm hall and giving out one set until they ran out and moved on to another set of instructors. Everyone in my dorm had the same classes.
“I will not wear those hideous colors. Tan pants won’t stop a scylla from coming for my throat.”
“But what if... Psst, Sirena, look.”
“What the fuck? You’ve got to be kidding me?”