The Unclaimed (University of the Gods Trilogy Book 1) (27 page)

She remembered the vines growing out of Charlie’s hands and the power with which Chaos had been reaching for her and shuddered. She reached for her neck which felt stiff and felt a dull headache rise just behind her temples. She tried to move her body but it wouldn’t obey her commands, not as usual, and suddenly Cassandra realized that it would take much longer to get back to her former shape than she had initially hoped. Much, much longer.

She felt like she wanted to cry but instead she went down into the kitchen and made herself some breakfast amidst the chaos. She chewed in silence, still wondering where it had all gone so terribly wrong before she finally took out the broom and started cleaning up the mess.

About a week later, she was called to the Dean’s office. Heracles wrote her a short note saying that he wanted to talk to her about the incident in the tunnels, but Cassandra guessed that it would also have to do with her future at the university. She hadn’t been able to attend classes for more than two weeks now and she was afraid that he would set her a deadline for when she had to return.

The teachers lived in the right-hand wing of the palace and when Cassandra came there, note in hand, she was already expected. She was admitted by a grumpy looking servant who asked her to follow him quietly. The servant led her through living quarters that were at least as opulent as those of the demigods, the only difference being that there weren’t as many guards present. There were delicate engravings etched into the wooden doors on the first floor to which she had been led that showed Heracles’ famous twelve labors in elaborate detail.

The second one showed him slaying the nine-headed hydra, the fifth showed him cleaning the Augean stables. In the end, he had been given immortality and had earned a place among the gods on Mount Olympus which he had never taken. When they passed a door that was only half closed, Cassandra had an idea why he might have chosen to stay on earth instead: there was a pool table and ashtrays filled with cigar stubs and in the background she could see a tray filled with the finest alcohol. There was the smell of perfume and Cassandra thought she saw the naked leg of a girl passed out on a sofa but they were past the door too fast to be sure. Wine, game and women. As far as she knew, Hera wasn’t having any of that on Mount Olympus, at least not anymore.

They finally arrived at Heracles’ office and the servant, after making sure that she was really welcome, opened the door for Cassandra who was immediately drawn into a tight embrace by her teacher Hippolyta who looked at her with a mixture of concern and reproach.

“It’s been two weeks”, she said. “You should have let me know how you were doing.”

Then she held Cassandra at arm’s length for a more thorough inspection.

“You look tired, child”, she said. “Medusa must have hurt you more than we thought. You should have healed by now. Still, you need to get back in the saddle soon, otherwise you’ll fall too far behind.”

The dean, who hadn’t looked up when Cassandra had entered, nodded and frowned when he saw Cassandra’s pale face.

“Icarus, stop pacing”, he bellowed, but the skinny vice dean didn’t seem to hear him and kept going restlessly back and forth, doing some sort of complicated calculation only he seemed to be able to understand. When Heracles saw that Icarus wasn’t listening, he directed his attention to Cassandra who felt uncomfortable under his stern stare. Cassandra took a place across from the man that was her father, wondering whether there was anything they had in common. She waited until Hippolyta had taken the place next to her before she asked why she was here.

“I wanted to go over what happened in the tunnels once again”, Heracles said and there was more than a hint of hostility in his voice.

She felt Hippolyta tense up beside her and Cassandra quickly pressed her hand to show that she was ok with it.

“I am prepared to answer any questions you might have”, Cassandra replied calmly, wondering where all of this was going.

Ben had told her that Heracles had ruled all of this an accident so why was she here answering questions again? Maybe something new had come up that she wasn’t aware of yet but she knew that she had to tread very carefully from now on.

Heracles asked how she had prepared for the challenge, why she had decided on taking Pandora and then he wanted to know everything about their encounter with Medusa. He seemed to be especially interested in the relationship between Medusa and Pandora and kept insisting that they must have known each other from before. Cassandra told him again and again that this was impossible until he finally seemed satisfied that she was telling the truth.

Suddenly Icarus was right beside her.

“The door to the flood control has been tampered with”, he said and the sudden change of direction put Cassandra’s teeth on edge.

“I thought nothing was found that would indicate a break-in”, Cassandra said, remembering how Ben had said that they had found no trace of anyone tampering with the lock or flooding mechanism.

She looked at Hippolyta and then at Heracles who only shrugged.

“Someone very skilled opened the door and left little to no trace doing it”, Icarus continued, still breathing uncomfortably close to her ear. “To the naked eye it might have looked like someone had simply used a key but I saw traces of a sharp object being expertly used to open the door.”

Cassandra had a fleeting image of Pandora climbing up almost vertical walls to open windows behind which she thought something valuable might be hidden.

“It’s just a thought”, Icarus said and Cassandra felt the hair on her neck rise. “But considering the special skill set your sister has, we think that it is fair to say that it is not entirely improbable that she had something to do with it.”

“That’s ridiculous”, Cassandra said evenly, finally seeing where all of this was going. “My sister was down in the caves with me when the water came.”

“She could have opened the lock before that day”, Icarus said and Cassandra wondered how they knew about Pandora in the first place. Then she remembered the look their father had given them when they had left the orphanage.

“No one had been up there in over a month”, Icarus continued. “There was no need to flood the lair before the contest. We wanted it nice and dirty for you.”

“It doesn’t make sense”, Cassandra said. “Even if someone opened the door before the challenge, how would they have made sure that the door stayed open? Or that they wouldn’t be found out by accident?”

Icarus shrugged.

“That’s a chance they had to take”, he said.

“My sister has nothing to do with this”, Cassandra said with more confidence than she felt. “She would never do something like this.”

Icarus huffed.

“I am sure you believe that”, he said and finally stepped away from her. “Maybe she is not who you think she is.”

Cassandra didn’t know how to reply to that. The wild, uncontrollable creature her sister had become had nothing to do with the girl she had grown up with and the realization that she simply wasn’t sure anymore broke her heart.

“Yes, be that as it may”, Heracles said and thereby effectively stopping any more questions Icarus might have in mind. “The question of what we are supposed to do with your sister remains wide open.”

Cassandra didn’t like the sound of that at all.

“She has until the end of the semester to learn to control herself”, he said and Cassandra suddenly felt afraid.

“Or else?” she said with more confidence than she actually felt.

Hippolyta reached for her hand again but Cassandra pushed her away, angry and lost at the same time.

“We’ll deal with it once we get there”, Heracles said. “I know it’s not her fault, Cassandra, believe me. But we don’t have a choice. It’s not safe to have her here, not until she learns to control her second nature, just like we all do.”

That sounded like he actually wanted Pandora to get better but all Cassandra wanted was to get out. She felt like she couldn’t breathe anymore and her eyes were burning with anger, shame and desperation.

“Can I go now?” Cassandra asked, biting her lips so that she wouldn’t start crying in front of them.

“Two more things”, Heracles said and Cassandra felt like screaming. “There will be no third challenge. And we’ll have a ceremony for River on the last day of the semester. We expect you all to be there.”

“Of course”, Cassandra said. “Is that all?”

Heracles nodded and Cassandra got up and left without looking back. Finally, she found it in her to go see Pandora. She needed to see her, talk to her but Madame Margot’s people wouldn’t even let her through the front door. Apparently Pandora had told them during a moment of clarity that she needed to do this by herself. Hector had been sent away, too. Apparently Hector’s presence made it impossible for her to do what was needed of her. She was too afraid of hurting him and that fear made her turn every time; so they had decided not to let anyone through.

Frustrated and feeling utterly helpless, Cassandra went back home to check with Hector that this was true. Then she went up to her bedroom, fell on the bed and starting crying. She was still sobbing when Hector came in and took her into his arms. They sat like this for a while, then Cassandra took her brother’s hand and pressed it tightly.

“I almost lost hope, Hector”, she said, her voice still rather shaky. “ut by the gods, she is still there. Our little sister is still in there.”

And with that she finally found it in herself to smile again.

In the end it took Cassandra almost four months to get into shape again. She managed to pass her exams, both physical and written, and knew she could have done better. But it didn’t matter anymore because tomorrow would be her last day at the University of the Gods.

Pandora was still unstable and turned at the slightest provocation. Every time Cassandra had gone to see her sister, Madame Margot had sent her away again, telling her that it was no good, that Pandora still needed time. Cassandra had also repeatedly tried to see Alexander and then had started to send notes. But when she hadn’t gotten a reply after the twentieth, she thought that this was a sort of answer, too.

Ben never spoke to her. Once he had even refused to fight against her in training. It hadn’t helped that his silver band had glowed like crazy every time she came near him and she knew that it hurt him; she still felt left all alone. Hector had often ended up inviting Summer along when Cassandra asked him to do something together and then Cassandra had felt like a third wheel.

If it hadn’t been for Hippolyta’s constant support and the fact that her teacher wouldn’t take no for an answer, Cassandra would have given up months ago.

She hadn’t seen Charlie since that fateful night but when she had found the little silver flask filled with Ambrosia lying on her bed after one particularly bad night, she knew that he hadn’t forgotten about her. But he wouldn’t come to see her either and seemed to spend most of his time away from home. Jim, too, had been a rare sight. If it hadn’t been for the occasional explosion in his room, they would have counted him for lost, too.

On her last evening at the university, Cassandra tried her best not to feel sorry for herself but she felt cheated. Cheated out of a life that could have been hers. She sighed when she looked around the room that had been her home for almost a year now and she knew that a much bigger part of her wanted to come back than leave the next day but she also knew that she had no choice. Heracles had made it very clear that Pandora could only stay if she managed to control herself.

She had talked to Madame Margot the other day and there was a place where Pandora could go and where they would keep treating her. But it would cost money, a lot of it, and that kind of money wasn’t earned by staying here at the university.

She hadn’t talked to Hector about it yet but she could see by the way he was looking at Summer that he wouldn’t be coming back here either. Summer, sensing that Hector might be making that choice, clung to Hector and cried a lot but she never once asked him to stay, at least not while Cassandra was with them.

Cassandra stuffed the last of her clothes into a bag and zipped it shut. Then she sat down on her bed and waited. At 2 a.m. she got up again. There was one thing she needed to do before they left the next day. She snatched up the black coat she had gotten from Ben and then made her way towards the palace.

Part of the reason why she hadn’t seen Alexander in such a long time was that he had been under close medical supervision the past few months. The untarnished Ambrosia helped him get better and there were rumors that he was now able to move his hands and one arm and that he had regained feeling in his legs. If that was the case, she needed to go see that for herself but most of all she needed to ask him why he had refused to see her all this time.

It was an almost full moon and she drew up the hood of her cape when she neared the palace. She waited for a cloud to cover the moon and snuck past the servants’ entrance. She went to the side of the palace and tested her grip on the wall. Then she started her slow ascent towards the balcony where Alexander and her had spent New Year’s Eve. She almost slipped when she stepped on ivy and once she misjudged the depth of a crack in the wall but in the end she drew herself over the ledge and landed on the balcony without making a noise. She went to the door leading into the palace, removing the hood and reaching for a hair pin in the process and went to work on the lock. She heard a satisfying click and knew she had done it. Quietly, she opened the door and slipped into the big hall, drawing the door closed behind her again.

All the chairs and tables had been removed from the big hall that still smelled slightly of food after all this time. Cassandra quickly crossed the room, approaching the doors at the other side. After the third try, one finally opened. Cassandra entered the corridors and quickly made her way to the living quarters of the demigods. She met one guard when she came out of the servants’ staircase and quickly took him out. The second took a bit longer but she managed to get him down and silent without raising attention. She took a moment to calm her beating heart and that’s when she heard something that didn’t sound like a guard making his rounds.

She threw a quick look around the corner and was lucky that the two people standing at the doorstep to one of the rooms were too busy to notice her. She had always known that there was something going on between Bear and Arissa. She had seen the possessive way he grabbed her hand from time to time but she would have never thought that it would go that far. She had thought that Arissa was bound as much to Ben as he was to her but apparently it only went one way. There was no holding back between the two. She heard Bear make a guttural sound and then the door to his room opened and closed again. There had been no shame in their behavior, no fear of getting caught. Cassandra felt sick at the thought that Ben knew what was going on but chose to ignore it.

She suppressed the urge to go into Ben’s room and confront him about it but it was neither the time nor her place to do something like that. He wasn’t hers to protect. But Alexander was.

Cassandra turned the last corner with her hands raised, showing herself in full. Like she had hoped, Alexander’s door was guarded by the one person who would at least consider letting her through.

Sam, leaning comfortably against the door while simultaneously blocking it, was carefully watching her approach. She knew how dangerous he was and the thought of approaching him in these surroundings when he was responsible for Alexander’s safety, did nothing to slow down her pulse. She tried to look as inconspicuous and non-threatening as possible but of course he saw the knife she was carrying at her side.

“Silver?” Sam said with a huff and showed his ugly metal teeth. “That only helps against werewolves.”

“Really?” Cassandra replied, slowly edging forward while trying to figure out how he felt about her being there. “It’s only dipped in silver to make it look pretty. I’ve got myself a nice little wooden stake here too.”

Sam extended his fangs just a little more and she knew he could smell her fear.

“No way you would be fast enough”, he said, flaring his nostrils and licking his lips with an unnaturally long tongue.

“Wanna try me?” Cassandra said and stepped even closer, at the same time tilting her head to the side so that the veins on her neck showed.

She saw the hungry look in his eyes and for a moment she thought she had gone too far but then he relaxed and shook his head as if to clear it.

“You are too cocky for your own good, girl”, he said, growling, his teeth only partly retracting.

Cassandra indicated towards Alexander’s door.

“Does that mean you will let me in?” Cassandra said, close enough to catch a whiff of wet earth and decay.

“And here I thought you came all this way just to see me”, he said but when she reached for the doorknob he did nothing to stop her.

Cassandra nodded her thanks and was about to go in when she saw the pained look on his face, the disgust. He involuntarily tried to cover one of his ears with his shoulder and Cassandra realized that he must be hearing pretty much everything that was going on around him.

“Why don’t you tell your brother?” she said quietly and Sam’s face contorted into a mask of agony and with surprising gentleness, he slid Cassandra further into the room and closed the door behind her. Nothing to be said, nothing to be done.

Cassandra took a moment to sort herself out before she let the reality of finally being in Alexander’s room again sink in. The smells in there greeted her like an old friend. Even though the room was only dimly lit she had no trouble finding her way around. There was a light in his room and she softly called out his name but there was no answer. Maybe he was asleep after all but when she reached it was clear that he was not.

“Aren’t you a sight to see”, she murmured and Alexander, who had been pretending to read, stretched himself and then lay aside his book, making sure she could see just how much he had changed since the last time they had seen each other.

Cassandra, steadying herself against the doorframe, quickly took in his overall appearance but she was sure that there wasn’t much that she could have missed considering the fact that he was basically wearing nothing but shorts.

Alexander had always been beautiful but now he was almost too much to take in. His skin looked golden, shining with a healthy glow and he had gained at least thirty pounds, most of it muscle on his upper body.

“Red? With polka dots?” she said and could hear that her voice was a little shaky. “Seriously?”

He grinned and shrugged and Cassandra bit her lip when he moved and revealed clear-defined V-shaped muscles.

“How long have you been waiting for this moment?” Cassandra murmured and went closer when he indicated to a spot at his side.

“A while now”, he said. “You gave me enough time to make it impressive.”

Cassandra snatched up a shirt and held it out to him.

“Put this on”, Cassandra said. “I can’t concentrate looking at you like this.”

“You mean when I am half-naked and irresistible”, he said and Cassandra threw the shirt at him.

She immediately regretted it. He had trouble lifting his arm but was too proud to admit it. At first she pretended to be interested in something else but eventually she gave up and crawled closer.

“In Zeus’s name, will you just ask me to help you?” she said and put his shirt over his head. Eventually they managed to get him dressed. Cassandra straightened his hair that had gotten ruffled in the process and suddenly Alexander took her hand and put it to the side of his face.

“I missed you so much”, he whispered.

It would have been so easy. All she had to do was give in to her desire, to
his
desire, to bend down and kiss him. His eyes told her how much he wanted her, that he would be good to her, that he would never hurt her. All it took for her was to take this last little step, to cover the distance between them and make it all happen. But she knew she couldn’t do that. It wasn’t just a matter of a few inches that separated them and it wasn’t true that he would never hurt her. Suddenly she remembered why she had been so angry, why she had felt so betrayed by him. Alexander, seeing the change in her mood, frowned and let go of her hand.

“I see”, he said quietly, pained. “You still don’t want me. Not while I am broken.”

Something within Cassandra snapped. She edged away, needing to bring some distance between them.

“You were
never
broken to me”, she said. “It was you who shut me out of your life, not the other way around.”

Alexander first looked surprised, then angry.

“I never shut you out”, Alexander replied heatedly. “It was always you who made the choice not to be together. On New Year’s Eve, on the day of the second of the challenges when you went ice-skating with Ben instead of coming over to me.”

“It was never my intention to hurt you”, Cassandra said and stretched out her hand towards Alexander once more but he shoved her away.

“You will never look at me like that, will you?” he said, his anger and hurt almost tangible.

I just did, Cassandra thought.

“I thought we were friends”, Cassandra said hoarsely, still hoping that they would find a way to make this all good somehow.

“I never wanted to be your friend”, Alexander said, his voice colder and more cutting than Arissa’s had ever been.

Cassandra felt hot tears spring to her eyes and knew it was time to leave.

“I guess there is nothing more to say then”, Cassandra said and felt her insides turn to ice once more.

She made herself get up and go towards the door but when she looked back to see whether there was something, anything in his eyes that told her that he hadn’t meant it, that he didn’t want her to leave, there was nothing.

“Good-bye, Alexander”, she whispered and left.

Alexander watched her leave. The only outward sign of his inner turmoil was the slight twitch in the corner of his mouth. When he heard the door close behind Cassandra, he grabbed a cushion and tore it apart. Then he took a bottle filled with his medicine and threw it against the wall. By the time Sam came in, he had pretty much destroyed everything that was within his reach.

Sam, seeing that Alexander wasn’t hurt, busied himself by kicking away some of the glass shards to give Alexander time to compose himself.

“She has that effect on people”, Sam said and then went to get a bottle from the other side of the room.

He felt sorry for Alexander because he knew how terrible it was when everything was out of your control, when your own body felt like it didn’t belong to you.