'Oh but this is much, much better! It appears you have a gatecrasher, big brother. I forbid you to get involved,' he sneered. The temperature plummeted.
'You forbid me to deal with trespassers in my own realm? Who do you think you are?' Hades hissed.
'I am your King,' Zeus replied, growing fast so that he towered over Hades. 'Fill the hourglass! Persephone's new test is to rid her guests of this pest!'
'What?!' I exclaimed, and span to see a tiny form in the hourglass. I swear my heart stopped beating for a second as I recognized the figure.
It was Skop.
Twenty-Six
'Wait, you can't expect me to fight that, I'm human!' I yelled, as I turned back to the two gods, the phoenix still frozen in mid-air behind them.
'You are a human competing to become an immortal queen. You will do as you are bid,' said Zeus, his eyes narrowed and a sneer on his beautiful lips.
'Brother, this is too far!' Hades words had an edge of desperation to them, and Zeus's smile slipped for a beat as he turned to face him.
'You are the one who went too far, Hades,' he said quietly, and fear gripped at my insides as the tension grew between the two gods, venom in their locked gazes. Zeus wasn't going to back down. I was going to have to kill a phoenix before Skop drowned. My throat seemed to lock up at the thought of the kobaloi dying, heat burning behind my eyes again. He would die because of me, because I chose his feather. That wasn't fair, he'd done nothing wrong. His job was to make people laugh, for fuck's sake, why should he be punished for being my friend?
'I'm sorry,' I thought desperately at him, knowing he couldn't hear me but needing to tell him. 'I'm sorry, Skop.'
'Don't fucking apologize yet, get me the fuck out of here!' his desperate voice replied.
'Skop! You're not unconscious?' I whirled to look at the hourglass, where he looked for all the world like he was fast asleep, in naked gnome form.
'It's damned difficult to knock out a sprite completely. My body is useless, but you can't keep a brain like mine down for long.' My heart swelled on hearing his defiant words, and determination started to battle with my fear. A bright flash made me turn again, and Hera was there between Hades and Zeus, regal and stunning with her peacock feather.
'Enough,' she said, her voice melodic and soothing. 'Olympus is watching, and we have promised them entertainment. Good luck, Persephone,' she said, and then the three of them vanished. I blinked in the bright light, then a wave of heat blasted over me as the phoenix was released from Hades' spell and its huge wings beat towards me.
'Move, move, move!' Skop's voice spurred me into action, the shot of adrenaline shooting through my system making me feel sick, but adding a speed to my legs I didn't know I had. All the pent-up tension from my moment with Hades seemed to be pouring itself into my muscles, and I felt strong as I raced towards the stage area, as far from the bird as I could get. It gave a screeching squawk, and then flapped its wings harder, lifting itself high into the cavernous ceiling of the room. What was it doing? I took the few seconds I had with it so far away to study it, searching for any signs of weakness. It was fierce looking, with a bright yellow hooked beak and eyes the same color. The bulk of its body was scarlet red and the flames rolling from its feathered wings burned through an orange ombre to an almost white tip. It straightened in the air, facing me, its massive tail feathers pointing down and flames dancing from them towards the ground. People were scattering across the ballroom, many glowing different colors, and I assumed they were calling their own powers, ready to defend themselves if they needed to. None would be able to help me though. And I had no power. Slowly, I moved my skirt aside, hooking Faesforos out of the sheath on my thigh. It felt good in my hand, but as I held it up towards the enormous flaming bird, my positivity took a nosedive. How the fuck was I supposed to use a weapon like this on that? A tiny part of my brain piped up, giving voice to the thought I was trying to ignore. It's too beautiful to kill. A mindless skeleton was one thing, but this? It was freaking magnificent. And to be fair, right now it was just hovering, staring at me, doing me no harm at all. Why should I kill it?
'Hello,' I called out to it, trying not to feel stupid. I heard a laugh somewhere in the room. Most likely that big-boobed witch Eris. The phoenix pulsed its wings. 'Please could you leave?' I asked, as politely as I could. This time I heard a louder laugh, and it was male voice. The phoenix's eyes turned inky black suddenly, and a voice boomed through the room.
'You think you can return here, after all these years, and it would be OK? That you would be forgiven?'
My skin felt like it was contracting around me, ice-cold dread trickling through my insides. This person was here for me. And they knew something I didn't.
'I don't know what you're talking about,' I shouted back. 'This is my first time in Olympus.'
'Lies! You deserve to rot in Tartarus for what you have done!'
'I don't know what you're talking about!' I couldn't keep the fear from my voice. My terror was not of the beast before me or the owner of the voice, but of the words he was saying. What had I done?
There was a bark of anger, and when he spoke again the voice was a disbelieving hiss.
'If what you say is true, then rather than punish you for your crimes, the gods let you drink from the river Lethe to forget your past? The injustice is unrivaled!' The last sentence was so loud I involuntarily clapped my hands to my ears. The phoenix let out another piercing screech, then dove towards me.
'You need to find whoever is controlling the phoenix and kill him, you can't stop the bird itself!' Skop's voice sounded in my head as I began to run.
'You can't talk to me, I'll get disqualified and they'll kill you!' I told him frantically. There was no reply, and for a sickening moment I wondered if they had done just that. I skidded as I turned, the phoenix roaring down behind me and I felt searing heat against my back. I pelted towards the hourglass, my worst fears confirmed as I neared it. Sand was falling so fast that Skop would be dead before I reached it. With a scream, I drew the arm back that held Faesforos and launched the dagger at the thin glass center of the hourglass, the neck where the two halves met. The sound of metal on glass was followed by a splintering crash, and relief coursed through me. As I'd hoped, I'd hit the weakest part of the structure, and the sand now gushed out of the broken hourglass onto the floor. Skop remained slumped inside but his head was clear of sand. He could breathe. I ducked down as I reached him, only stopping long enough to scoop up my blade from amongst the bits of broken glass, then veered off to my right. I couldn't worry about how the gods would deal with me breaking the sand timer now, I would have to face that later.
Another blast of heat told me the bird was just behind me, and I scanned the room desperately as I ran. Skop said someone was controlling the bird, but who? There were about eighty people here. Could it be Eris, or Minthe, or Erebus? All of them had made it clear that they didn't like me. But that voice... So full of unsuppressed hatred and anger - none of them could have interacted with me all evening and then blown up like this, surely.
My eyes were drawn to the people in the room who were giving off faint light, and there were a number of them, all moving hastily out of my way as I charged through the room, my skirt flying and the phoenix on my tail. I ran past Eris, who was beaming, a deep red energy crackling around her. Even if this wasn't her doing she was enjoying it. I passed Hecate, still standing at the back of the room where I had left her. She had a blaze of purple emanating from her, her eyes milky white. What was she doing?