I slumped down in the seat, already exhausted, and I hadn't done any research at all. I pulled out my laptop and started typing keywords, like “Aries,” “gods,” and “Olympus,” and searching the connections.
Aries, “the ram,” is the first of the twelve zodiacal constellations, and in Greek myth represents the animal whose fleece was sought by Jason and the Argonauts.
Zeus placed the ram's image among the stars in honor of its heroism.
Everything Caellum and Bolton said had connections back to mythology. The density of the search engine left me wondering which information was more true.
Ares, the God of War.
Aphrodite's lover and was held in contempt by her husband, Hephaestus.
Was he a god himself or the ram Zeus honored by literally writing him in the stars?
I was already knee deep when I used a website to calculate my astrological sign and was shocked to see the archer populate in the images on my screen.
I pried my mind open. I broke all the rules, but it was hard for me to believe there was something in existence that truly broke all the rules like this.
Sagittarius: Zeus, the God of the Sky, Lightning and Thunder
My mouth hung open too long before my hand clamped over it. I looked down at my shaking hands that shocked not only Bolton but Caellum too. Lightning? My dream threatened another cold sweat, except this time I wouldn't be sleeping.
My twitching fingers moved over the mouse pad and kept reading the information that none of us could really prove beyond the status and the ramblings of an old prophet.
Zeus exposed liars, as he was the keeper of oaths.
Zeus' arrow is equivalent to Sagittarius' archer.
No wonder they were convinced they needed me, they thought I was the most powerful god there was.
I felt like Zeus behind my computer screen, exposing whatever lies I could find and keeping some kind of oath by keeping their secrets.
Guess it was my secret now too?
The deeper I fell down the hole, the more things connected and entwined together like a ball of rubber bands you were trying to pry apart. I had more questions than answers.
If each one of them was a god who represented an astrological sign, then what did that mean for mortals?
Why are they stuck here only now?
Where were they before this?
Why were they together, but I was changing schools every year?
It was like all my questions summoned Bolton’s existence, and his quiet steps went unheard, until he leaned down over me, looking at the same screen I was.
“You weren’t in class.” There was no concern, and his voice didn’t go up at the end asking a question. It was just a fact he was stating out loud.
“And? I’m really busy, Bolton.”
“Alba isn’t a joke. He’ll write you up.”
He sat on the table next to my computer, and it wasn’t lost on me that he was perched up higher than me on a fake throne. Bolton could make anything a throne. From what I had been reading for the last few hours, apparently it was exactly how an Aries should act.
Lust for blood.
Chaotic nature.
Thoughtless aggression.
I focused on the screen, reading though the history I knew Alba wasn’t going to teach in class. He just started touching on mythology when I needed something more specific.
Bolton’s shoe kicked my leg on purpose as he sat there, staring at me, waiting for me to bow. “Finally finished his journal?”
I shook my head as my words fell out: “Nope. Caellum gave me the CliffsNotes.”
I didn’t have to be this close to him to realize how tense he had gotten, just at the sound of his name. “Caellum? As in my enemy?”
I twisted in my chair, facing him. “Yes, let me guess… he’s an Aquarius? Power trips, rebellion, and avoids feelings at all costs; that rings a lot of bells. That’s why you two really clash—the love of being crowned king.”
“Oh, so now you believe it? …when he tells you?” His mouth fell open, and I watched his jaw freeze, while he mulled over my loyalty for the second time in a few days.
He was the one who told me not to apologize, so I wouldn’t.
“I don’t know what I believe. This is a lot to swallow. I have too many questions.”
He turned to face me, still sitting on the top of the table. “Shoot.”
My mind scrambled for a question to ask at the same time my mind searched for a snide comment about gods, but my knowledge of unbelievable elements started with Twilight and ended with The Vampire Diaries. No mention of Greek gods.
“I thought you said you were all children of Zeus? Wouldn’t that make you a perv with a fetish for incest?”
His lips stretched into a grin but didn’t disrupt his cut jawline that begged to have a tongue swiped over it. He started laughing, while his palm hit his knee at my comment was meant to be an insult. Bolton was hard to insult when he was so comfortable being king. “He’s the most powerful god. He rules Olympus. Wait, you actually think you’re Zeus? Like the Zeus?”
My eyebrows shot up to my hairline, questioning how he put two and two together. That was the only thing I could put together and the only thing that made any sense.
“My hands, you guys need me to go home, the bow and arrow?” My voice was timid and every second more of his rare laughter made me not even believe what I thought I was sure of.
“Zeus was a man, sweetheart.”
“Don’t be gender bias, dick,” I shot back quickly. At least my sarcasm wasn’t broken.
“You aren’t Zeus. He died a long time ago. You’re his daughter.”
I shrunk down into my seat. No one liked being wrong, but I was pretty sure no one liked being told they were something made of myths either.
Now I didn’t just have a dead parent and parent who couldn’t stay away; now I had one who I never knew at all.
Just my luck. The constant new girl and the unwanted daughter.
“So why did you all get to stay together?” I looked down at my hands resting on the keyboard of my Mac. I was unwanted in every aspect, unless it was convenient for people.
“It just happens to be you most of the time. You don’t like to stay put.”
I snatched the coffee sitting against his thigh, just as his fingers held it up with no real grip. “This is crazy, you know that right? I'm not special.”
He leaned forward, watching me sip my coffee. “Do you trust me?”
I shook my head no with the cup still to the edge of my lip. I trusted the human parts, but this god shit? I wasn't that gullible. He stood up anyways and demanded I come along. To where? I had no idea, but I concluded staying in the library all day after skipping was a sure fire way to get caught.
Shoving my Mac back into my bag, I followed Bolton down the stairs, before he stopped, spinning around to face me and towering over me even a step below me. “Just don't tell the circle you know anything.”
My eyes hooded, cutting my vision down, but not my ability to glare with purpose. I questioned everything, exposed liars for their true nature, and kept important oaths to myself—all the things my research told me I am.
He didn't explain, and I didn't push to know why. I knew enough and that seemed like politics instead of facts.
I followed Bolton into the brisk chill outside when he headed to the edge of campus towards the abandoned building that no one uses, except to blow off steam.