The Blood of Athens (5 page)

“
I don't
know,” Minnie said. “Like... a backyard barbecue with my dad.”

Lewis scowled,
“The Nectar of the gods tastes like barbecue sauce?”

“
No. It
tastes like that feeling. Like summer and family and good food.”

Nick reached
over Minnie's shoulder and dipped his finger in to the Nectar. As
soon as he had tasted it, his lips spread into a devilish grin. “It
tastes like skinny dipping at sunset on the beach. With a hot girl.”

Teddy laughed
and high-fived Nick. “Sweet.” He reached into his bag and pulled
out a shot glass that he had bought at a gift shop earlier that day.
Teddy dipped it into the basin and drank. A peaceful expression
washed over his face. He opened his mouth to speak, and froze.

“
What?”
Peter asked. “What is it?”

“
Eating root
beer barrels in a tree at my parents’ vineyard in California.”

“
I have to
try this,” Lewis said, snatching Teddy’s shot glass from his
relaxed hand. He pushed Minnie aside and dipped the shot glass pack
in the basin. Lewis drank.

Everyone from
The Pantheon took turns drinking from the basin and telling what they
felt. While everyone was interrogating Evan on his insights, Peter
scooped up a bit of Nectar with his empty water bottle and saved it
for later. He just didn’t think he had a happy enough memory to
relate it to. What if it didn’t taste good for him? He didn’t
want everyone watching while he drank.

Evan was being
practical. He held up his wrist, showing off his silver watch. “Guys,
we've been here for ten minutes. You think the tour might be missing
us?”

“
Oh, crap,
you're right!” Lewis said.

Nick rolled
his eyes. “Who cares? We're on Mount Olympus, for Christ's sake!
We're gods! Nobody gives a damn about the school.”

“
What about
my Mom?” Penny asked. “You don't think she'll be a little
worried?”

Lewis opened
his backpack and pulled out a water bottle. He dumped the contents on
the marble floor and tossed it to Evan, who barely caught it. “Fill
'er up, Evan. We'll take some back for the rest. Penny is right.
We've got to move.”

“
Who put you
in charge?” Nick asked.

“
Give it a
rest, Nick” Minnie said. “It's always about who's in charge with
you! How about who's right? This is really cool and I'd love a chance
to explore the whole city, but people are going to be looking for us
and I, for one, do not want to be drawing attention to our group. In
case you've forgotten, we've been responsible for a few dead bodies
in the last year. I'd like to keep a low profile.”

Nick mumbled
something.

“
Speak up or
shut up.” Minnie pushed past him and started off across the hall.
The others followed. “When we exit through the portal, stick close
to a column. We're less suspicious if we come out from behind a
column, rather than appearing smack dab in the middle of nothing.

Minnie waited
as each member of The Pantheon stepped beyond the columns and
vanished, returning back to the steps of the Acropolis. Nick was the
last to step through. Minnie put her hand out to stop him.

“
What?” he
asked, sticking his tongue against his cheek and refusing to look her
in the eye.

Minnie stepped
close. Nick towered over her, but somehow, that didn't matter. Her
eyes swirled with silver fury. “When Zach's not here, I am in
charge.”

Nick’s brow
twitched in shock at the shifting of her eyes. He pulled himself
together and scoffed. “Whatever.”

Minnie watched
him walk through the portal and followed close behind him. Dr. Davis
was waiting for them on the steps.

“
Where did
you all go?” she asked, keeping her voice hushed but harsh.

“
See those
two columns?” Lewis pointed back with his thumb. “Some kind of
wormhole.”

“
What?”

Minnie shook
her head at Lewis. She stepped in front of him so she could whisper
to Celene. “Basically, what he means is, we have to figure out how
to catch up to the class without taking a portal to Mount Olympus.”

“
What?”
Celene asked again.

“
The
short of it, for now, is that we shouldn't be walking between those
two columns,” Minnie said. “We'll tell you the rest at the
hotel.”

“
I will
reveal to you a love potion, without medicine, without herbs, without
any witch’s magic; if you want to be loved, then love.”

-Hecaton
of Rhodes

vi.

The
occasion for the great celebration
was the marriage of mighty Zeus
to Hera.
All of The Pantheon was in attendance
for the wedding
feast.

A
golden throne was brought forth to match the King's,
as great the
couple was seated side-by side,
a tree erupted from the ground and
blossomed:
a gift from the earth.

From
the tree that Gaia gave them, there sprouted
a perfect crop of
gleaming golden apples.
It was a great blessing for their wedding
day,
a day of pure bliss.

“
No
better thing befalls a man than a good wife, no worse thing than a
bad one.”

-Semonides
of Amorgos

VI.

It hadn't been
easy, scraping together a short-notice wedding on a Monday afternoon.
On the way into town Sunday night, June had tracked down a minister
who did weddings out of a tiny chapel in Savannah, Georgia. They got
in well after dark and went straight to sleep, preparing to wake up
early the next day to handle paperwork.

Zach and June
filled out all the forms, showed two types of identification, and
even paid the extra fees for not going through a marriage course.
Eight hours and one sassy courthouse clerk later, they were standing
before a minister, witnessed only by the minister’s wife and an
elderly assistant.

The chapel was
small with painted hardwood floors and simple, block, stained-glass
windows. The minister’s wife had hung white Christmas lights from
the rafters. They twinkled like stars above them. The evening sun
pouring in through those windows cast squares of colorful light on
June's tea-length white dress. Zach wore his charcoal grey suit with
a white tie they had picked up earlier that day. The rings had also
been found that day at a pawn shop.

As June
repeated the last words of her vows, she slid the simple gold band on
Zach's finger. “...for as long as we both shall live,” she said.

“
We're
married,” Zach said, flipping open his wallet to find the key card
for their hotel room. He missed the lock with the card as he stared
at June. They had run from his Roadster to their hotel room through a
light rain shower and her hair, styled that afternoon with gentle
curls, lay flat and wet against her back.

“
We
are,” she said, reaching around him to take the card and unlock the
door. He was obviously too distracted, staring at the droplets of
rain that beaded on her shoulders. Zach ran his knuckles along her
arm.

“
I
can't believe we drove all the way to Savannah and got married.”

“
Do
you regret it?” she asked as the lights on the door blinked green
and she turned the doorknob.

Zach
shook his head. “No.” He laughed. “Not one bit.” Zach pushed
the door open and pressed his body against June, pinning her to the
wall in the hallway at the front of their room. He kissed her,
sliding his hand along her jaw and burying his fingers in her wet
hair. June seemed surprised, but only for a moment now. She was
married and she reminded herself that there was nothing anyone could
say about her if she gave into Zach now. She was his wife. She had
every right to be in this position.

June's
hands gripped the lapels of his soaked suit jacket and pushed them
over his shoulders. She grabbed his tie and pulled him back down to
her level. Zach was officially, legally hers. It was time to let her
hair down.

Zach's
phone rang silently in his pocket. Eight missed calls that day. All
from Dr. Jason Livingstone.

“
Most
men are within a finger's breadth of being mad
.”

-Diogenes

vii.

In
the deepest woods of the wildest regions,
a towering inferno
blazed in the night.
Drunken women who had abandoned their
homes
danced around the flames.

This
was a temple built beneath the heavens
without stone walls or
doors to keep people out.
This was the place where they went to
worship him:
King of Revelry.

And
when a beast would wander into their church
they would pounce upon
it and tear it to bits
as an offering for the beautiful god,
great
Dionysus.

“
For
the things we have to learn before we can do them, we learn by doing
them
.”

-Aristotle

VII.

The hotel the
school had reserved did not feel like an American hotel. It was a
narrow building that sat right at the edge of the street. You could
spit over the black iron railings on the balcony and hit a passing
taxi. Many of the students had.

The tiled
bathrooms were small and so were the rooms reserved for the students.
There was no headboard, only twin lamps mounted over each bed on the
wall that was half-white and half-black with paneling. Each room had
a pair of double beds with bright coral comforters and a small tube
television.

Tuesday
evening, after a day of walking in the National Archaeological Museum
and dinner outside of a café, the students were back in their rooms.
Lewis and Peter had sneaked down to the room that Penny shared with
Minnie. Minnie and Lewis were in the bathroom, rinsing out hotel
shampoo bottles. They knew their only hope of getting the nectar from
the throne room back to the states was in FAA approved miniature
toiletry bottles. “Everyone takes the shampoo from their hotel,”
Lewis said. “No one will even think twice about it.”

Monday had
been a late night. With jet lag and the day of walking up hills and
crumbling stone steps, none of The Pantheon had been too animated.
Tonight, however, they had turned in early and had energy to spare.

“
Guys!”
Teddy came tearing down the hall. A maid shouted after him in Greek,
something he could only assume was a command to stop running.

He stepped
into the girls' room and closed the door. Nick, who Teddy was sharing
a room with, banged on the door. “Hey, you locked me out.”

Teddy opened
the door and let Nick inside. When the door was closed, Teddy jumped
up on one of the beds to make his speech. His head almost touched the
ceiling.

“
I,
brilliant and cunning, put a piece of tape over the catch on the back
door while a bellhop was out there smoking.”

“
So?”
Penny asked.

“
So? We have
a way out the back door without going past reception. We can sneak
out!” Teddy started dancing on the bed. “Who wants to partay?”

Nick shoved
Teddy, who fell off the bed and rolled on the floor.

Someone
knocked on the door. “What's going on in there?” Mrs. Matthews
called through the door. “Open this door. The door needs to stay
open if there are boys in here.”

“
Nosy b--”
Nick started, but Minnie jabbed him in the side with her elbow on the
way to the door.

“
Let's not
make her any more angry, Nick.”

Minnie opened
the door and smiled. “I'm sorry, Mrs. Matthews. Teddy was showing
us stupid human tricks and fell off the bed when you knocked.”

Candace
Matthews, the frizzy-haired English teacher who was sweet on Jason
Livingstone, poked her head in the room and looked around. Her gaze
lingered on Penny for a moment before continuing its sweep of the
room. “What is Mr. Mercer doing in there?” she asked, pointing to
the bathroom.

“
Washing my
hands. I hear you get diarrhea really easily in foreign countries,”
Lewis said.

Mrs. Matthews
flushed. “Keep this door open,” she said.