“Hades is back.” I state bluntly. “He’s been more insistent with his demands for me to find a wife and have a child.”
“Do you need me to step in or are you handling things for now?”
“It’s fine. I can handle it. I’m just sick of him butting into my life.”
“Understandable. If things get worse, let me know.”
“Will do.”
“Now, I want you to get to know Miss Day, I believe you’ll thank me for it in the future. She’s a very special young woman and I believe she may be the catalyst that pushes our mission to its conclusion.” He doesn’t give me a chance to question his cryptic words, simply vanishes with a slight pop, leaving me standing in the now empty room, wondering if I’m going to have to swallow my pride and apologise to who I had thought was a human.
I head down to the arena hoping to burn off some of my annoyance in some sparring. Even if it ends up being just shadow boxing against my own shadow, at least it’ll burn off some aggression before I have to face the guilt eating at my chest.
FIVE
RYXA
I hate to admit it, but it took me several minutes of glaring before I could get back to my feet afterJuniorknocked me over. My poor tailbone copped the brunt of the impact but it was more my pride that felt the worst of the pain. I finally gather the courage to push the door all the way open and step inside.
“Have a seat Miss Day, we need to talk.” In my peripheral I see the man point to a chair in the middle of the room. Sitting down carefully so as not to hurt my tailbone further, I finally raise my eyes and gasp.
There’s no mistaking that dark hair, dark eyes and sculpted body, even if it is hidden behind a suit. I’m sitting in a room with the God Ares.
Of course, I’m in a room with Ares; he is the principal of this school.
My gaze flicks to the left as I see movement and another gasp leaves my lips. Long grey hair, piercing blue eyes and the face of a forty-year-old on a body that looks carved from stone, yup, no denying that one either. Poseidon in the flesh.
Another figure moves into my line of sight on my right. I don’t bother gasping; I’m straight up out of the chair and backing towards the door.
“Sit down, Ryxa.” Zeus growls as my shoulders hit the door. “You’ve been requested for a special assignment; however, we would like to offer you a more profitable assignment.” He gives me a look that clearly states I should already be in the chair, but I can’t move. I’m frozen to the spot out of sheer terror.
In the last fifty years, no human has seen Zeus let alone spoken to him. He doesn’t even speak to the governments of the world. Poseidon usually handles all of that. I can’t for the life of me figure out what the F he’s doing here, talking to the likes of me.
“What Zeus is trying to say,” Ares looks pointedly at the chair, “is that we believe your talents may lie in a different direction.” I finally find my legs long enough to cross the room and collapse into the chair, Ares continues speaking once my ass is in said chair, “So we would like to offer you an alternative assignment than the one that was requested. You would still be working with those who requested you, however you would be working for the three of us, not those boys.”
“Why and doing what?” I ask in a squeaking voice.
“We need someone we can trust to keep an eye on them. Keep them out of trouble. They’ve been a problem for some of the human students in the past and in order to maintain our co-existence with the humans, we believe that if we had someone close to them, who could monitor and report back to us, we may be able to keep them in line.”
“No. You’ve got the wrong person.” I blurt out. My face turns all shades of red as I realise that I’ve not only denied Zeus, Ares, and Poseidon what they want, but I’ve just saidnoto actual, real-life Gods. I’m sitting in a room with Gods. Not Gods-in-training. Gods, ones who could smite me where I sit. Pretty sure my mind is fried.
Or I’m about to die.
Either way I’m screwed.
Zeus looks like he’s about to explode. His chest puffs up and his face goes almost as red as my own, but Poseidon holds his hand up and says, “Very well then. We’ll give you some time to think things over. We would appreciate your assistance, but we are not in the habit of forcing anyone to do something they do not wish to do.” The warning seems to be more to calm Zeus than me, but I nod anyway.
“You may return to the rest of the human students.” Ares says, dismissing me with a wave of his hand. I’m embarrassed to say, I flinch from the sudden movement.
“I presume we do not need to warn you not to speak of this to anyone.” Zeus says just as my hand touches the door handle.
“As far as I’m concerned, this conversation never happened.” I throw the words over my shoulder as I walk out the door. I’m not sure where my bravado came from, but the moment I’m outside in the courtyard, my legs give out on me. I collapse to the ground, head in my hands.
“Holy shiitake mushrooms.” I gasp. “Did that really just happen?”
SIX
TY