Hades’ Daughter (The War of Fate) Page 8

  “Thanks,” I mutter to him, flashing him a quick smile, as I chuck the pack of cigarettes and lighter at him. He smirks at me but doesn’t say anything. I take a seat, placing my bag at my feet.

  For the lesson, I zone out, knowing I won’t fall behind, as I’m fluent in most languages. My mind starts to go over everything that happened earlier. I think about my dad sending Kyle up and how I overreacted to my dad just wanting me to be safe; I think about Hunter’s friend, the demon; and I think about what Mr. Ward said about my family. The more I think about it, the more I start to doubt what I was told by my family. Did my dad abduct Persephone? Did my dad and Zeus not get along at one point? All the questions start to play on my mind, and they won’t leave me alone until I get reassurance. I resolve to ask Kyle about it when I hear Tasha’s voice break through the fog.

  “Class is over,” she says to me when I look up to where she is standing next to my desk. I look around the rest of the class and see the last students are slowly trickling out.

  “Sorry, I wasn’t paying attention,” I admit.

  She chuckles. “You can say that again. What’s your next class?”

  “Physics,” I tell her.

  “I think Lily has Physics now. I’ll see you tomorrow,” she replies.

  “Oh,” I reply distractedly, knowing I won’t be attending. It’s the last lesson of the day, and once I’ve got my answers from Kyle, I may as well go home.

  Tasha and I split ways in the hall, going to our different destinations, me making my way back to Kyle’s classroom. I don’t care if he is teaching; I’m not going to rest until I have reassurance or the truth. I look through the glass in the door to find that he is teaching.

  I steel myself for a couple of minutes, my hand resting on the handle, convincing myself that my view of, and everything I know about my family, is going to change. My reasoning has gone out of the window, probably as a result of being away from my dad for the first time in somewhere I’m unfamiliar with. I know the doubts are irrational, but they are still there. Telling myself I’m being stupid, I finally push the door open.

  “So today I thought we would…Scar, what are you doing?” Kyle asks, surprised.

  “I need answers,” I reply, ignoring everyone who is staring at me.

  “Can’t you see that I have a class?” he asks me pointedly.

  “Yes. I do have eyes. Hello!” I say as I look to the right and see that the students are all looking at me with the same curious gaze as Kyle. I give them a small finger wave and a smile before turning my attention back to Kyle.

  “We can talk later,” he says through his teeth, just low enough that a human ear can’t hear it.

  “We can, but no, we talk now,” I reply at the same level, putting a slight assertion in my tone.

  He sighs, agreeing. “Okay, out into the corridor.”

  I turn back to the students, giving them another wave before turning around and pulling the door open. I chuckle as I see the awe and horror on the students’ faces.

  A minute later, the sound of the door closing makes me look up and find Kyle standing before me, his hands in his pockets.

  “What answers do you need?” he asks.

  “Earlier, when I was in World History, we were doing about my family and their origins. In the lecture, Mr. Ward said something about my dad abducting Persephone and that Zeus and my dad didn’t get along at one point. Is any of it true? I don’t really want to think of my dad as an abductor.”

  His shoulders fall as if he expected something worse, and his worried face softens into a smile.

  “None of that is true. You know about your dad and Zeus’ relationship and the fact that some facts are twisted for the humans.”

  I listen to his heartbeat, seeing if he’s lying. He causes me to relax slightly when I hear that it’s steady.

  Why do demons have a heart? We need something to pump blood, ours and any other we drink, around our body; otherwise, our body would be unable to function. The blood is different to a human’s because it has healing qualities. If I were to plunge my hand into Kyle’s chest and rip his heart out, it wouldn’t kill him; it would hurt, but the blood in the body, with help from the brain using other muscles to push the blood to where it is needed, would slowly start to form the heart again with blood that would also start pooling in the cavity where the heart was. The blood’s healing qualities keep the body alive long enough for it to repair the missing piece (unfortunately, our body cannot repair anything outside of our body, so if we lose a limb, we lose a limb). It apparently feels like you are unconscious. If I were to cut the brain’s connection to the rest of his body, meaning it would not be able to send a message to the kidneys to alert the bone marrow to make more blood to help in the healing, I would kill him.

  “Yes, I just doubted myself,” I explain. “What about Persephone?”

  “She’s a jealous bitch,” Kyle says with a shrug. “It was when your dad was younger, before your mom, and he got sick of the possessiveness, so he dumped her. It was also the period when your dad and your family started to realize that the incest was weird and wrong. Persephone was unhappy and started to spread rumors on Earth.” His heartbeat continues to stay steady.

  “What about the pomegranate seeds? Is that true?” I ask.

  He shakes his head with a smile. “She was obsessed and wanted an excuse. I thought your dad would have told you.”

  I sigh, bringing my hand up to my hair, pushing it back from my face.

  “He did. I wish I had listened.” I chuckle. “I’m sorry for interrupting. I feel like an idiot. I’ve just had a very stressful day, and you know how stress gets to me.”

  He laughs. “It’s okay. I was bored anyway,” he assures me. I give a small smile, bringing my hand down from the back of my head. “However, you shouldn’t be out of class,” he admonishes playfully.

  “So? Are you going to do anything about it?”

  “No, of course not, you saved me from boredom, and for that, I’ll be ever grateful,” he jokes, placing his hand over his heart. I’ve missed Kyle, and I didn’t realize until now. “Didn’t you want to come up to Earth? I thought you would be more eager about it.”

  “I did. I just don’t care about doing the whole school thing. I wanted a change of scenery, not go to another Hell. I’m only here for a year, and it’s not like my future depends on what happens at school.”

  He lets out a loud laugh before changing the subject with a sigh.

  “Well, I should get back to class, even though I don’t want to. Be good,” he orders, pointing his finger at me.

  “When have I ever been bad?”

  “Should I remind you of that time when you went to visit your uncles and aunts?”

  “I did a lot. You’ll need to be more specific,” I joke, even though I know what he’s talking about. It’s the time that always gets brought up.

  “Two words. Showers. Blue. I’m not even sure if they have been able to get it all out of the showers.”

  I laugh at the memory. Jack was blue like the water he can control for at least a month. That is by far one of my best pranks.

  “I learned from the best,” I say, pushing Kyle’s shoulder with a wink. He’s always been, and always will be, my partner in crime. He doesn’t disagree.

  “I never knew you would do it so well when I taught you.” He laughs. We both reminisce for a bit longer before Kyle says with finality that he has to get back to his class.

  As the door closes behind him, I can still hear his chuckles. I smile and decide to make my way home. It may not be that bad at this school if I have Kyle by my side.

  Chapter 7

  What Are We? Toddlers?

  I sigh as I rest my head on my hand, tapping the pen with the other. I thought the homework that Mr. Ward has set to spite me would be easier. After all, I am writing about my family. If I weren’t worried about saying too much, or something that the humans don’t know, I would be able to complete this easily. My dad made
sure I knew every legend surrounding us, but I would never listen, thinking that I didn’t need it.

  After talking to Kyle, I realized that school is part of the experience of Earth and I may as well give it a go, even if I do it reluctantly.

  I have found an electronic device with a screen and a detached rectangle with the alphabet jumbled up on it, which I recognize as a computer, in a room on the ground floor. This is where I am sitting now, trying to write the paper. I quickly learned how to use it, finding an app that would allow me to type it and then send it to a printer in the same room. My dad had taught me on a high level how to use all inventions on Earth, but I never actually used some of them.

  I stop fiddling with the pen, putting it down, and wiggling the mouse to wake the screen up. I look at the word count and see that I have just over seven hundred words. I’m not used to writing essays or reports, so I doubt this is going to be good anyway.

  I start to type out a sentence when the doorbell goes. Thankful for the distraction, I get up and walk out of the small room and through the open living room to the entrance hall and the door. I look through the window beside the door and groan, beginning to walk back to the computer.

  The doorbell rings again, but this time, repeatedly. I try to ignore it, thinking they’ll stop, but when it continues, I spin on my heel, pulling the door open forcibly.

  “What?” I snap at Hunter who has a goofy grin on his face as if it was normal for him to be here. “How do you even know where I live?”

  “I followed you home,” he says as if it were not a big deal.

  “And you do this often? Are you my stalker now? I left before school was even over.”

  “So did I. I’m interested in where the new bad girl lives,” he tells me, ignoring my other questions as he looks past me and into the house.

  I put my hand up on the door, blocking his view. He returns his gaze to me with an amused smile.

  “So you are my stalker,” I tell him, bringing my hand down from the door and crossing them in front of me. “What do you mean by ‘bad girl?’”

  When he goes to look past me again, I replace my hand with my whole body as I lean against the open door, giving him a raised eyebrow.

  “You know, when a girl is seen as dangerous, or scary, and troublesome, they are usually given the bad girl label,” he states like he’s reading it from the dictionary.

  “I know what it means, but where did you hear it about me?”

  “It’s the big thing going around the school, and seeing as though I am the ‘bad boy,’ I thought I would come and get to know more about you, and the first thing is seeing where you live. I was also curious,” he explains, leaning back and looking through the window.

  “And why does everyone think I’m the bad girl?” I ask.

  Hunter stops peeking into my house and looks at me straight on.

  “You don’t know? You’re bitchy with Tiffany and the teachers. You have scary friends, and there is something about you which is threatening,” he tells me, looking me over for effect.

  A smirk touches my lips; I would be disappointed if I didn’t make people frightened.

  “Is there anything else I can do for you?” I ask him pointedly. “You’ve seen where I live like you wanted.”

  “Can I come in?”

  “Nope.”

  “I’ve only seen the outside, and I won’t leave until I see the inside,” he says with a pout.

  I make a noise which is halfway between a sigh and a groan.

  “Fine, five minutes.” I relent, opening the door wider as I move out of the way. I shake my head when I see his triumphant smile as he swaggers past me.

  “Wow, Newbie, what did you do to get this place?” he asks almost breathily in awe.

  I was born the daughter of Hades.

  “I know the right people,” I answer vaguely but truthfully.

  This causes his eyes to widen before they trail over my body again and turn back to the living room.

  “This would be a great house to hold a party in,” he comments, looking out the through the glass to the hot tub, pool, and beach below.

  “It would, wouldn’t it?” I wonder aloud as I look around, trying to see it from his perspective.

  “Yes, you should throw one this weekend. You know to welcome you to the school,” Hunter suggests.

  I let out a loud laugh.

  “Let me get this straight. I throw a party to welcome myself to the school?”

  “Yep.”

  I scoff at him in disbelief, pursing my lips as I think about it. Although the way he suggested it was silly, I decided to do it anyway. I like a good party, and it’d be nice to go to one which doesn’t end in death. Well, hopefully. Usually, demons leave Hell to bring a human down so that they can play with them before killing them at the end of the night. It’s strictly against the rules, but my dad can’t always stop them, and I usually ignore it.

  “Okay,” I agree but add on a condition, “Only if you supply the drinks.”

  He looks indignant. “What? No!”

  “Why not? You wanted me to have this party. It’s only fair you bring the drinks,” I counter with my hand on my hip.

  He lets out a huffy sigh before relenting. “Fine.”

  This time, I’m the one with the triumphant smile. I let my hand fall from my hip and walk toward him, turning him around.

  “Your time’s up,” I tell him as I push against his back, and he stumbles toward the door.

  “Jeez, I’m going, woman. Stop pushing me,” he exclaims, looking over his shoulder.

  I stop, allowing him to open the door.

  “Bring the drinks on Friday,” I request as he walks out.

  “Sure!” he calls back as he starts to walk down the drive. “Nice car and bike, by the way, Newbie.” He pauses next to them to get a better look.

  “Goodbye, Oldie,” I shout, hoping he’ll get the message. I watch his black leather jacket disappear around the corner before I turn and re-enter my house.

  I lean against the door as I look around the living room. The party will be fun, I try to convince myself. If anything, it’s an excuse to get drunk. Adrian and I would always smuggle alcohol into Hell. We had to be careful, however, as it was a hazard with all the fire around.

  I chuckle at the images of how we found out. Adrian’s face was priceless.

  I reach into the bowl on the side table, taking out my keys to lock the door. I move through the white furniture and back to my small study, steeling myself to write the rest of the paper.

  I fall down into the chair, swiveling it slightly. When I face the monitor and wake it up with the mouse, I read what I was doing last. Where was I going with that? I groan, not thankful for the distraction anymore as I delete the beginnings of a sentence. It’s going to be a long night.

  ***

  The next morning, my alarm’s screaming wakes me up. Without thinking, I roll over blindly, throwing a ball of fire toward it. That should shut it up.

  When it eventually stops, I roll back over and hug my pillow closer to me. It takes me a moment to realize that the room is warmer than usual. It’s not unbearable; it’s almost normal, but my tired brain slowly realizes that I’m not in Hell anymore.

  I open my eyes and see the wall I am facing has an orange glow to it. I roll over, sitting up as I go, to find the alarm is now alight. I kick myself mentally; the appliances aren’t fireproof.

  “Shit!” I shout. I grab the fire like it’s a blanket off the alarm and run into my bathroom, placing it in the sink before I turn the tap on. If it were still attached to my hand, only I could extinguish it, but once it loses contact with my body, it’s almost like normal fire. The only difference is that I can pick it up, move it around, and control it.

  I amble back into my room, checking the time on my phone. 7:00. Crap, I need to get ready! I run into my closet, searching through the racks and drawers of clothes. I pick out a pair of tan ankle boots and a tank top a couple of shades lighte
r. I slide a pair of denim shorts on under my tank top before making my way out of the closet, picking up a long necklace on the way. I do a quick layer of makeup before making my way down the stairs and to the kitchen.

  I lean down to the cupboard under the sink, grabbing two bags of blood this time. That should keep me satisfied for the day. I don’t want another episode like yesterday’s. I wolf down the first before taking slow sips of the second. After finishing, I check for any remnants on my face before I realize I should get to school.

  Deciding to take my bike today, as it’s faster, I run back up the stairs to get my helmet and my leather jacket. I take a moment to admire the sunrise over my balcony, the colors reminding me of the fire of Hell. I don’t get this at home.

  I jog back down the steps, picking up my sunglasses, my keys, and my bag which holds the essay I finally finished late last night. Most of it ended up being drabble and me repeating myself over and over.

  I lock the door behind me and make my way down to my bike. I open the storage compartment, stuffing my bag into it.

  I arrive at the school, earlier than yesterday, with a short amount of time until the first bell goes. I clamber off the bike, pulling the helmet off my head. As I neaten up my hair, I notice that everyone is staring. Again.

  “Are we really doing this again? I’m not exactly new!” I shout, annoyance ringing through my tone. Everyone suddenly finds the floor interesting or finds something else to do.

  “Thank you!” I shout, pleased. I move past and through the students who are avoiding my gaze and into the school building. I walk down the crowded hallway, hearing gossip about me that I didn’t even know about myself. I stop at my locker and find that Tasha, Lottie, Max, and Lily are all waiting for me there. I give them a smile in greeting as I enter my combination.

  “Hey, where did you disappear to yesterday?” Lily asks as I place my helmet and some things that I don’t need now into the locker.