The Unclaimed (University of the Gods Trilogy Book 1) (6 page)

When Cassandra passed Ben, she noted that his eyes were expressionless but his breath accelerated slightly when she accidently brushed up against him. She felt herself blush and was glad when the fresh autumn air cooled her down a bit. She felt Ben watch her every movement but for a moment she was distracted by the sight of Alexander. He was sitting with his wheelchair turned sideways, enjoying the late autumn sun, and once again, Cassandra was struck by his absolutely perfect features. Hearing them come, Alexander opened his eyes to give her a short, warm smile.

“I see you are feeling better”, Alexander said and she involuntarily stepped a little closer.

His voice was seductive and she felt herself wanting to be close to him. Charlie on the other hand stayed where he was, not least because Ben had let a heavy hand fall on his shoulder. Alexander’s smile vanished when he looked at Charlie.

“Do I know you from somewhere?” Alexander said and Charlie, who didn’t look half as smart as during the opening ceremony but not nearly as bad as when Cassandra had first met him, stroked his beard, scratched his belly and unsuccessfully tried to hide his embarrassment.

“Don’t think you do”, Charlie said, coughing.

“Of course I know you”, Alexander said coolly. “You were the gentleman screaming his head off in the Ladies’ room the other night. Or was that supposed to help your friend in any conceivable way?”

Charlie had the decency to look ashamed but Alexander had already lost interest in him.

“You came here to bring me something that belongs to my sister?” he said, his voice now not exactly harsh but not very friendly either.

Charlie stretched out his hand and the son of Hades took the towel from him. The he spread its contents before Alexander. He was careful and didn’t touch the big necklace although he seemed to be more curious about the little one anyway.

“The Necklace of Harmonia”, Alexander said and shook his head. “Beatrix should have known better than to take it with her.”

He looked at Ben.

“Make sure it is sent back home to Aphrodite”, he said and then took a closer look at the small necklace.

“I wonder why my sister made such a fuss about losing this one”, he said, gingerly picking it up with his good hand. After inspecting it for a moment, he simply tossed it onto the ground.

“It’s worthless”, he said dismissively, then he looked up at Cassandra and stretched out his hand.

“I apologize for what happened the other day”, he said and Cassandra couldn’t help but take it. The skin on his hand was soft, his grip stronger than she would have expected. “I promise that she won’t bother you again.”

Cassandra, who was hit by a sudden vision, staggered back and would have fallen if Ben hadn’t caught her. She quickly disentangled herself from him but still felt slightly dizzy from what she had just experienced.

“Are you ok?” Alexander asked, worry showing in his eyes and Cassandra nodded, confused.

From one moment to the next, Alexander’s face changed into a horrible mask of pain and he turned away from them.

“You should go now”, he said and Cassandra bit her lip.

Then she murmured a short good-bye and indicated to Charlie that it was time for them to leave. They exited the servants’ entrance and Charlie, looking flushed and sweaty, told Cassandra that he needed to get a drink and disappeared.

Cassandra wasn’t unhappy about being alone because that gave her time to think about what she had seen when she had touched Alexander. Again, her vision had been unusually specific: she had seen two people holding each other in a tight embrace. One had been a tall girl with brown hair who had her back turned to her. And the other one had been Alexander. An Alexander who had been looking directly at her and who was able to stand on his own two feet again. His hair had been a little longer but it had definitely been him. Cassandra had no idea what to make of that.

That night she had one of her bad dreams again. She woke up, drenched in sweat, unable to breathe. And then Hector was there and took her into his arms. It took a while for the panic to subside but her brother’s presence helped. He waited until she was able to breathe normally, then he asked her to go back to sleep. He stayed at her side until he was sure she was ok, then he lay down on the floor.

That was how Pandora found them the next morning: Cassandra, curled into a ball on the bed with her hand touching her brother’s big frame and Hector still covered in dust and dirt from the road and snoring so heavily, the room was shaking.

Pandora gave a cry and then threw herself at her brother and started to kiss and cuddle him, before she demanded he tell her everything. Hector, smiling with an unusual strain at his pet sister, indicated to Pandora that he would rather have something to eat first. Excitedly, Pandora clapped her hands together and was out of the door as fast as she had come in, crying out for them to join her in the kitchen.

Cassandra, who had seen Hector’s initial reaction before he realized where he was, put away the knife she had drawn from under her pillow.

“Don’t ever do that again”, Cassandra said and her brother nodded, slowly hiding the knife with which he had almost hurt Pandora because, for a moment, he had forgotten that he was safe now.

Cassandra, stretching out her hand, was helped out of the bed by her brother and drawn into a quick hug. Then they went downstairs to have breakfast.

When Hector and Cassandra came down for breakfast, the kitchen was almost empty except for Charlie who lay passed out on the sofa again and Pandora who seemed to have put it into her head to make pancakes for them. They were soon joined by Summer who shyly introduced herself to Hector and then went to tell Pandora to step away from the oven. Pandora, covered in flour and egg yolk, looked at her hands, then at the black mass that had once been butter, and sat down next to Hector pouting. The clouds on her forehead soon disappeared when Hector smiled at her and she started talking animatedly to her brother.

Jim, stretching and yawning on his way into the kitchen, stopped dead in his tracks when he saw Hector.

“Are you a giant?” he asked, caught between fear and fascination.

Charlie coughed and then opened one very red-rimmed eye to look at the new arrival.

“Wow”, he said hoarsely and sat up a little straighter. “It’s not hard to guess who you descend from. Only that, unlike Hephaestus, you somehow managed to get lucky in the face department.”

Hector, frowning, raised an inquiring eyebrow towards Cassandra who shrugged and told him that Charlie was harmless. Jim, who was still staring open-mouthed at Hector, asked whether it was safe to come in, to which Pandora replied that he shouldn’t be ridiculous. Hesitatingly, Jim came in and sat down next to Hector. Their brother, choosing to dig into the pancake Summer had made, lay a heavy hand on Jim’s when the little boy tried to take another one Summer had served them and shook his head. Jim, shrieking and then clapping his hands over his mouth, scrambled to the side.

“Don´t worry”, Pandora said. “He is really nice.”

“But he is so big”, Jim whispered but came back to sit beside her again.

Hector stuck his fork into a pancake, laid it on Jim’s plate and then nodded. Jim, checking whether he actually meant it, gingerly reached for the plate and then started eating, too. Hector murmured an appreciative thank you towards Summer for yet another pancake. Summer, blushing, quickly turned away.

“Not very talkative, your brother”, Charlie said and fell back on the sofa, groaning. “Unlike your sister who doesn’t seem to want to stop talking.”

“Why don´t you go to your room if you don’t like it?” Pandora said but Charlie had already covered his ears with a pillow and seemed to want to go back to sleep.

They quickly finished their breakfast and then left towards the general direction of the Colosseum. Cassandra was feeling edgy and nervous while Hector seemed relaxed enough. His obsidian skin shimmered in the early autumn sun and Cassandra smiled up at her brother, telling him about Arissa and the necklace, her run-in with Wolf and Bear and the other demigods, especially about Alexander and Ben. When she spoke about Ben and how fast he was, Hector started looking at her strangely but she was relieved of any further explanation when they finally arrived at their destination together with ten other Unclaimed and about fifty Claimed.

The latter were dressed in full-battle gear while the Unclaimed had nothing much but a fierce look of determination in their faces and Cassandra, who didn’t fare much better in the outfit department, wondered how long that would sustain them all.

It got a little better when they entered the training arena and saw that there were weapons and equipment waiting for them. The arena was bigger than anything Cassandra had ever seen and bustling with activity. There were servants hurrying around putting up armor into weapons’ stands, preparing the training machinery, raking the sand and sweeping away the gold, red and brown leaves from the huge trees at the side of the arena. Some stood simply at the ready to take care of the arriving Claimed and helped them adjust their protective gear. The Unclaimed stood at the side, waiting for their teachers to arrive. Cassandra and Hector joined them. The demigods had already arrived and Cassandra indicated to Hector who was who.

Wolf and Bear, not hard to recognize because they were wearing their animal hides again, were checking out their weapons and raised them in mock greeting towards Cassandra. They saw Hector standing beside her and hesitated, then seemingly decided to leave her alone for the moment. The demigods called River and Sol were engaging in a playful scuffle, their energy palpable through the arena. Sol, the son of Apollo, had a fierce intensity to his moves while River, who seemed to be gliding rather than walking, evaded most of his friend’s strikes with an ease that seemed in direct contradiction to his languid manner.

Hector didn’t need her to tell him who Ben was. He was standing with his back turned to them, polishing his silver sword and seemingly uninterested in what was going on around him. When River called out to him, he turned around, a smile playing on his lips, but didn’t approach his friends. It was as if there was an invisible line that no one dared overstep and the son of Hades made no attempt to close the gap either. He was wearing black again and looked entirely at ease by the way he moved and relaxed his shoulders. Then he swung his sword to test its flexibility and Cassandra found it hard not to stare at him. As if feeling her look at him, Ben stopped. He frowned when he saw Hector and her standing so close together, then he turned away again. Then he joined his friends who were getting jittery with suppressed energy.

Finally, their teachers came in but there was no introduction, no explanation, no motivating speech. Ajax shouted at them to lose the weapons and start running twenty laps while Hippolyta went to inspect the general set-up, making suggestions for improvement along the way. Some of the servants were putting up a ramp towards a row of spectator seats and Cassandra wondered whether they were expecting Alexander but was immediately distracted by the task set for them. Cassandra, feeling the sweet release of getting her body to exert itself, found her spirits lift with every lap they ran while Hector, who didn’t like running, obediently trudged along, indicated to Cassandra to go ahead. Cassandra didn’t need to be told twice.

The demigods had naturally taken the front position with Ben leading while most of the Unclaimed stayed at the back. Somewhere along the tenth round Cassandra saw something glint above and there indeed was Alexander sitting in the spectator’s row guarded by three heavily armed descendants of Ares. She involuntary picked up her pace when she saw him watching her, closing up to Bear with ease. She wished Bear, who was grunting and sweating heavily, a good morning. Bear frowned and then pushed her to the side. Cassandra caught herself at the last moment, swore and went at Bear. The son of Hephaestus lost his footing and almost fell, too. Suddenly Ajax was beside them and screamed at them to do 200 push-ups.

“Now”, he cried and pointed to the floor.

Bear and Cassandra immediately followed his orders, with everyone else either having slowed down or coming to a stop beside them.

“I won’t have that kind of behavior on my grounds”, Ajax shouted.

Bear grunted and gave Cassandra an ugly look. She winked at him and continued doing the push-ups, adrenaline still pumping.

“And just that nobody gets smug”, Ajax continued. “This goes for all of you. Down. Now. 200 push-ups for everyone thanks to the Unclaimed and our hot-headed half-blood here.”

Everyone did as they were told, even the other demigods.

“Yeah, that’s right”, Ajax shouted. “I don’t care who you are or where you are from or what you think you can do. These are my training grounds and you will follow my rules. Is that understood?”

When no one answered, he asked again and this time there was a unanimous yes. Cassandra wondered whether Ajax might actually turn out to be fair after all but she guessed his actions had more to do with establishing his own power, especially over the demigods, than with the fact that he actually thought they were all equal.

Once they were finished, Ajax and Hippolyta split them up and each took half the students with them. Cassandra was glad to find herself in Hippolyta’s group. They started with hand-to-hand combat and then went on to some powerful muscle training over a couple of hours before it was time for their first break.

Cassandra, who was feeling the strain on her body, retreated to the side of the training arena with Hector. They were handed some water and fruit by the servants but ate only a little. Hector, who had been in Ajax’s group, was red-faced and sweating but looked happy enough and Cassandra, feeling the sweat trickle down her back, knew that this would be much harder than she had first thought. Some of the other students already looked quite shaken up, some receiving massages for cramped legs, other looking like they were about to throw up and one boy had strained his shoulder so much that Hippolyta had to send him to the infirmary for treatment.

“We are off to a good start”, Cassandra murmured and watched how Alexander animatedly talked to Ben and River until they were called back to training.

Ajax said that they would hold the challenges again this year, just like the dean had mentioned in his welcome speech, only that they would open them to everyone from first to third year for the first time ever. With the demigods attending university, it would indeed be a shame not to see them fight this year already. Ajax also told them that the first of those three challenges would take place the following week. It seemed to be mostly about fighting but Ajax made no further mention of the specifics. He said it would be a surprise, as usual.

When Ajax asked for volunteers, barely any hands were raised. All the demigods would join the challenges and in the end, there were only seven Claimed who seemed to dare to go against them. Cassandra and Hector stepped forward and raised their hands, too. There was a murmur of disapproval but both Hippolyta and Ajax nodded, even though Ajax looked furious doing it.

Hippolyta told one of the servants to write down the names and then they were back to sword-fighting. When Cassandra wanted to pair up with Hector, she was stopped by Ajax.

“No, not you”, he growled. “I have something else in mind for you. You think you can take part in the challenges? You have no money, no proper weapons and you have nothing that sets you apart from the other badly trained, awkward Unclaimed fighters I see failing here every year. So how dare you sign up for the challenges, Unclaimed?”

He spat out the last word like the insult it was supposed to be. Cassandra, who was used to verbal abuse, didn’t answer to that.

“You think you can survive next week?” Ajax hissed and then threw a sword on the floor in front of her. “Pick it up. Get a shield. You are with me today. We’ll see how long you’ll last.”

“My name is Cassandra”, Cassandra said through gritted teeth, ignoring the sword lying in the sand in front of her.

“By the end of this day, you won’t be able to remember your name”, Ajax hissed. “Now do as I said. Unclaimed.”

Cassandra looked at the sword and then at Ajax. The muscles on his arms were bigger than both her thighs together. She wouldn’t stand a chance, not like that.

“Can I take another weapon?” Cassandra asked and Ajax started laughing.

“Take whatever you want,” he said and then went on to the sandy part of the training arena, shouting orders at those already training, not even bothering to get warmed up.

Cassandra went to the weapons stand for the Unclaimed and picked up a knife and weighed it in her hands.

“What are you doing?” Ben said, suddenly turning up beside her. “Do you really think you stand a chance against him like that? He is much stronger and much more experienced. Tell him that this isn’t fair and he needs to stop this.”

Cassandra ignored him. She quickly surveyed the rest of the knives and in the end, she decided on a heavy wooden training knife and the biggest shield she could find. The shield was almost too heavy for her to carry but that was kind of the point.

Ajax laughed when he saw her standing before him, wooden knife in hand, a shield almost as tall as her leaning against her thighs.

“Ready?” he said, taunting her with his laugh and mock-raising his sword.

Without answering, Cassandra threw the knife straight at his nose. Had it been a real one, he would be dead now. Instead, his nose was broken.

“All it takes is to survive, right?” Cassandra murmured and took instant cover.

Ajax screamed with rage. Cowering under the shield, she did her best to shield herself against the mad blows Ajax dealt her. Even after the first one, Cassandra knew she wouldn’t be able to keep this up for long. It already felt like he was pounding straight through the shield and it was only a matter of time before he would do it for real. Suddenly the shield was ripped from her hands and Cassandra, scrambling away from Ajax, found him following her with a raised sword and she knew that it didn’t matter that it was only a training sword.

It was Hippolyta who rescued her. With surprising force for a woman so small, she threw herself sideways at Ajax and then redirected the strength of his movements to her advantage. Despite the fact that Ajax was twice as big as her, Hippolyta had no trouble disarming him. Cassandra made a mental note to ask her how she had done that sometime. For now she was just glad that she had survived.

The arm with which she had been holding the shield, felt numb and when she touched her ears, she felt warm blood coming out of them. Ben was kneeling beside her, saying something she couldn’t quite hear but by the look on his face he was angry with her. Ajax, who was holding on to his nose which was swelling rapidly, looked beyond furious but when their gazes met, he nodded. Then he turned away from her.