That night I didn't sleep well. I dreamt of the minotaur. And Alec. Layna, too. My mind was jumbled with a bunch of confused thoughts, and I was trying to make sense of them all. After I woke up for the third time in the middle of the night, I slipped on my leather sandals and got up to go to the restroom. I was walking along through the cool night air, minding my own business and glancing up at the thick clouds that were threatening rain, when a flash of movement caught my eye, and so I turned around, finding myself face-to-face with Layna. Quite the coincidence.
"You couldn't sleep either?" she questioned, her green eyes opened wide. I only blinked at her, distracted by the fact that she was wearing only a skimpy pink nightdress, her bleach blonde hair tousled by the warm breeze. She continued, "I feel really bad about what happened with Alec in the infirmary too."
I rolled my eyes. "You shouldn't feel bad," I told her. "That's just how Alec acts. He's been that way ever since the gods died."
"Really?" Her eyes got even wider. I thought it was cute. Not that I would ever tell her, of course. "What about before the gods showed up? What was he like then?"
I shrugged, scratching my head. "Alec always kept to himself, like he does now, but he was never this angry. He was happy when he was with the gods, I think." Layna just looked at me expectantly, and so I paused before elaborating, "In the Woods, I always saw him with them. He even slept in their tent and ate with them and fought with them. He was just like them, without all the powers. Jan says Alec lost his best friends that day, not his gods."
"What is Alec's deal with Jan anyway?"
"I don't know," I answered honestly, stuffing my hands into the pockets of my flannel pajama pants. "Jan is the only person Alec will tolerate for more than a few minutes. Damien and Darius think Jan knows something about Alec and the gods that no one else does, but that's all just speculation."
Suddenly, I heard the familiar clanking sounds of armor from off to my right, followed by a loud grunt of frustration. Layna obviously heard the noises too, because she immediately looked to me to lead the way. I frowned, but waved for her to follow me as I slowly wove my way between the tents, until we came upon the sword fighting arena. I bet you could guess who was there.
Alec, of course. Who else would break curfew to practice battle all through the night? The poor hero must have been training before Layna and I walked up, but now he was just collapsed on the sand near the practice dummy in the center, lying flat on his back with his hands behind his head and glaring at the twinkling stars above him. Alec was obviously not expecting an audience or a real fight because he was shirtless, wearing no armor whatsoever and thus showing off all of his well-defined, upper body muscles. A shining kopis sword was sitting on the opposite side of the arena, and I guessed Alec had purposely thrown it over in that direction, probably the origin of the sound Layna and I had heard.
"Are you two really sneaking out to meet each other in the dead of night? If I didn't know any better, I'd guess that you want Jason to be angry with you," Alec suddenly sneered, keeping his gaze locked on the heavens, and both Layna and I jumped. We didn't think he had noticed us.
"Well, what are you doing here?" Layna answered his question with a question, crossing her arms defensively. "You're breaking the curfew rules just like us."
"I don't sleep much," he said. "Never have."
Silence followed. I watched in wonder as Layna slowly hopped the low stone wall that circled the arena and bravely went over to lie down beside Alec, but not too close. Then I followed her lead, forcing myself not to stare rudely at the mysterious old scar that ran across his six-pack abs and halfway around to his back, but Alec only glared at us before redirecting his gaze back to the stars. "You should leave," he whispered to us, closing his eyes and not seeming at all affected by Layna's suggestive attire.
"Happy birthday," Layna suddenly piped up with alacrity, completely changing the subject.
Alec looked utterly confused. "What?"
"I think it's past midnight, so happy birthday."
"Crap. I forgot about that," Alec mumbled bitterly, and it became clear to me that he really had no accurate way to keep track of time when he was living like a hermit in the dark forest he called home. Again, Alec sighed. "Jason's planning a party, isn't he? He really shouldn't have. It's going to be terrible."
Neither Layna nor I felt the need to answer his question. But apparently Alec did not feel the need to bid farewell to us, either, because he just stood up, retrieved his sword, and left the arena without saying another word. Surprised, Layna and I only watched in silence as he faded away into the darkness, the moonlight acting as a spotlight by illuminating one of his two tattoos, a detailed black owl with wings stretching between his shoulder blades on his upper back, which alone had more scarred-over gashes than I could count.
After a long pause, Layna admitted thoughtfully, "You know, I expected him to have a lot more tattoos. I didn't even see his Knowing identification, and you said those are required."
I snorted as I pushed myself off the ground and beckoned for her to follow. "Did you see all his scars? Unless he wants to reopen some old wounds, he has no room left for tattoos. And his identification is at the top of his neck, usually hidden by his hair. It's only about an inch in diameter. That's why you didn't see it. I'm not sure why he chose to put it there."
"Is he ashamed of it or something?" Layna wondered aloud, and I shrugged, though I guessed he probably was. Then, as we slowly walked back to our little tents, she asked curiously, "If he doesn't like tattoos, what's with the owl?"
"His patron was Lady Athena, goddess of wisdom, war, and skill," I replied before saying a quick good night, surprised she couldn't have guessed the answer herself. I certainly couldn't see any other explanation.
.
The next morning, Alec actually showed up for breakfast. I saw him talking in low voices with his mother, who was trying to force his baby brother, Felix, into his arms, but as usual, the hero looked angry and annoyed. You might think he would have at least tried to be nice to his own family, but apparently not. Then, instead of sitting with Jason and his advisors, Alec chose to sit at one of the regular round tables (alone, of course). No one dared to disturb his meal. No one but the twins, Hannah, Layna, and me anyway.
When we walked up, Alec had his nose in a familiar-looking leather book or journal of some sort, eating spoonful's of Greek yogurt with his other hand. He did not even bother to look up at us as we sat down around him, but suddenly the entire mess hall grew quiet, and everyone turned around in their seats to watch us with surprise. How would Alec react? I honestly had no idea. Jason was glaring at us as well, and I couldn't help but feel my face get red, attracting much more attention than I wanted.
Darius didn't seemed to care, though, so he was the first to attempt to break the ice. "Isn't that the same book you were reading last time you visited?" he asked lightly.
"No," Alec responded firmly, but the twins, Hannah and I just frowned at him dubiously. With an annoyed sigh, the hero reached behind him to grab the black backpack that was hanging behind his chair and revealed its contents: five other leather journals with identical covers. I wondered what was inside them. But before anyone could say anything else, he stood up and started to walk away.
After exchanging bewildered glances with the rest of us, Darius quickly and cheerfully called out to Alec, "Happy birthday!" No answer.
When Jason spoke up, however, Alec reluctantly stopped in his tracks to listen. "You're going to give the Warriors a battle demonstration at ten o'clock," our leader ordered firmly, standing up and glaring at the hero's back.
With that, Alec left the mess hall. I couldn't see his face, but I was sure he was rolling his eyes.
Meanwhile, everyone left in the mess hall turned back to finish their meals and to start gossiping with each other about Alec. Because no one had seen him fight in person since the War of the Woods, I guessed Jason had planned this exhibition match specifically so that Layna could see what "good form" really meant, though every other Knowing member was bound to show up for a taste of the action as well. It was safe to say that lessons would be cancelled for the second day in a row.
Sure enough, once the mess hall was cleaned up, the twins and I headed immediately to the sword fighting arena in a large group with other people, while Hannah and Layna went to catch up with Brady for a while. He had been pretty grumpy ever since Layna had started hanging out with us instead of him.
Although the twins and I thought we were arriving early, by the time we reached the arena, the rows of stone benches set into the lush green hillside were already packed with Knowing members chatting excitedly. In the middle of the arena, an anxious Jason stood next to Alec, who already had his armor on and who seemed to be inspecting the blade of his sword with way too much interest. I saw Brady and his crew in the stands too, but they had just forced a group of younger boys to give up their seats in the front row and were laughing hysterically at themselves. When I saw Layna and Hannah sit down beside the jerks, I felt like throwing up, and I noticed the twins were frowning too.
As Damien, Darius and I grumpily sat down cross-legged on the grass at the bottom of the hill, Jason started ordering everyone to quiet down. He then turned to Alec and asked, "Who would you like to fight?"
Alec finally stopped inspecting his sword and the blade suddenly retracted, leaving in his palm only a small, gray rock, one of the finest magical inventions of Hephaestus, the late smith god. The hero looked up, now scanning the crowd, and wordlessly motioned to a few of the older, stronger, more experienced Warriors, including Nicholas, and finally to Brady and his crew. I couldn't help but grin as I watched the overconfident guys head over to the armory shed, since I knew they were about to realize that they really weren't as skilled as they thought, but then Alec jabbed his thumb at Damien, Darius and I. Gulping and shaking nervously, our heads hanging low, the three of us slowly walked over to join Alec's other chosen opponents.
A few minutes later, after we had all put on our armor and picked up our swords and shields, we returned to the center of the arena, facing Alec, whose rock had returned to sword form. The final odds were ten Warriors versus one hero, but neither side seemed concerned. When Jason gave a shout and jumped out of the ring, the fight began, and the crowd started to cheer even before the first blow.
Nicholas was the first to charge at Alec, but Alec quickly ducked under the wide swing of the larger Warrior's sword, whirled around, and kicked him in the back of the knee. Nicholas fell to the sand with an angry shout, and Alec made a stabbing motion into his back. The crowd gasped in horror, but Alec was in complete control of his body the entire time, and so his sword flashed back into a harmless rock only a fraction of a second before the blade would have pierced Nicholas's tanned flesh.
"Dead!" the hero shouted at him. "Work on leg strength. It's obvious that your legs haven't fully recovered since the war." And so, with his head hanging in embarrassment, Nicholas, who was actually expected to be the last one standing, scrambled out of the arena as the next two Warriors raced towards Alec.
These two larger Warriors were also beaten down relatively quickly. First, Alec pinned himself against the low wall of the arena so that he wouldn't have to fight two men on two sides at the same time, and then he disarmed them one by one with quick flicks of his wrist. The dark-haired teen had to chase the two chickens all the way around the arena before he was finally able to give them fake stabs in the chest and in the side.
Next, Alec turned to Brady and his crew, who surrounded him simultaneously. I saw only a flurry of slices and stabs aimed at the center of the huddle, but somehow Alec managed to hold his ground. In one smooth motion, his muscles rippling with stress, he used his round shield as leverage to send Brady stumbling backwards and falling helplessly over the stone wall encircling all of us. He blocked the relentless swings of Brady's goons and, taking advantage of holes in their defense, was able to "kill" the three of them in about two minutes. I could have sworn I saw sparks flying from their clashing blades as the sound of clanging metal filled the air.
Then Alec stepped up to meet me and the twins, confidently twirling around his sword in one hand and waiting for us to make the first move. When none of us did, however, he launched an offensive attack on Darius, whose strength was no match for his own. Darius was able to block a few swings, though he didn't even get the chance to hit back before Alec shouted, "Dead!" Damien had the same troubles, but together the twins had managed to last longer than any of the others so far.
Finally, it was my turn to take on the hero. The crowd had fallen silent, but they were nervously shifting in their seats. I just hoped that I would last long enough to impress Layna, and so I couldn't help but take a quick glance over at her and Hannah, who was nervously biting her nails, her soft brown eyes glued to Alec's back. When I saw Layna flash me a worried smile, I nodded to myself in encouragement and returned my attention to Alec, whose eyes were closed. Again.
"Alec?" I whispered questioningly, thinking something was wrong, but he just held up his hand and retracted his sword blade, as if to ask for silence. Utterly confused, I turned my head to look for a sign from Jason telling me what to do, but all of a sudden, I felt my arm be yanked violently out of its socket. The next thing I knew, I was lying face down on the ground with my arms pinned behind my back, and then I felt a cold, small, round object press lightly into my overheated skin.
"Dead," he whispered, and I had to admit I certainly felt like it. My shoulder was screaming with pain, and my head ached. I could hear nothing but the sound of my own heavy breathing trying to regulate itself again, and the audience looked on in complete silence, just as dumbfounded as I was. They didn't even clap or cheer for the brilliant hero and his finished work.
"That was cheating! You tricked me," I heard myself shout as I forcefully pushed Alec off of me. He stuffed his rock into his pocket and started to walk away, but my feet dragged by body along, angrily running after him. Ignoring the part of my brain that knew better, my voice argued, "That wasn't fair!"
"Life isn't fair!" Alec yelled back at me as whirled around on his heel to face me, his blue eyes flashing, and I gulped. "If I see an advantage in a fight, I'm going to take it. Do you think the monsters are chivalrous? NO! They're going to kill you even faster than I did in a situation like that! You know, I'm beginning to wonder how everyone here even managed to survive the war in the first place." He paused and looked up at the rest of the crowd to address them seriously. "All of you, if there is only one thing you ever learn from me, learn how to focus. Don't let anything distract you. Especially not girls."
He literally ripped off his armor and threw the pieces into the armory before disappearing behind some tents, since all of his opponents in the fight were heading towards the infirmary, his regular home away from home, to get patched up. Meanwhile, the audience quickly dispersed to prepare for Alec's birthday party later that night and to clean themselves up. As the minotaur was no longer an issue, Jason was eager to send out a group of Knowing to acquire food and alcohol for the party. Needless to say, this party was going to be huge and out of control, just how Greeks liked.
Thoroughly embarrassed, the twins and I stayed in the infirmary for much longer than we needed to, even going so far as to skip lunch. The twins had already gotten their cuts and scrapes bandaged up, and Jan had massaged my shoulder so that it no longer felt sore, but we stayed in there to try to coax Jan into giving us information about Alec. Not surprisingly, she stayed mum, especially when Alec walked into the tent around sundown, just before the party was supposed to start. That was when Damien, Darius, and I left to go find Hannah and Layna, who were just leaving Brady and his posse alone to continue teasing a younger child.
As soon as the sun set behind the clouds and the first stars started to appear in the stormy night sky, someone rolled out the orange extension cords from the bath house all the way to the stage at the center of the camp, where large black speakers suddenly burst to life with the latest song by Katy Perry, and I found myself wondering who on Earth had made the playlist. As all the Knowing members started to gather, food and drinks - packaged or bottled goods, like chips and beer and wine, which had obviously been bought by the Knowing members who had gone into the nearest city earlier that day - were brought out and placed on a long snack table over by the mess hall.
Within an hour, most of the men and a few of the women were completely drunk, laughing and shouting at nothing in particular. Not unexpectedly, some of the bolder teens, Brady included, had managed to sneak some alcohol into the bath house for themselves, while other teens and the younger children stayed in the vicinity of the stage, dancing and singing and whatnot. The slightly more awkward people, like the twins, Hannah and I, were glued to the snack table.
It was Hannah, of course, who first noticed that Alec had not yet shown his face at his own sixteenth birthday party. Feeling curious and confused, we all decided to look for him. Strangely enough, he wasn't at the infirmary or the sword fighting arena, so we tried looking in the bath house, where we found Layna, who had just gotten her official Warrior tattoo, cracking up with Brady, his friends, and a few other teens I recognized. When she found out what we were doing, Layna eagerly agreed to help look for the missing hero. The five of us had given up looking around outside and were just returning to the bath house when Layna finally spotted Alec sitting alone on the roof and watching the party play out below him. How he got up there was a mystery to all of us.
"What are doing?" Layna called up to him in English, and he glanced over at her with narrowed eyes. "You're missing out on your own party with your people. I just got my Knowing tattoo!"
"I didn't want a party," he responded stiffly, watching as she gestured excitedly to the small black circle imprinted on her fair-skinned ankle. "It's obvious that you and I have very different views of the Knowing."
Layna snorted. "What did the Knowing ever do to you? Nothing, I bet. You know, I understand what you're going through, but that doesn't-"
Alec interrupted her with a chuckle of the hollow, empty, sarcastic kind. "Really? You think you understand what I'm going through? Okay, how many of your friends have died in your arms? I'm up to fifteen so far!"
"That's not what I meant," Layna whimpered softly, a mildly horrified expression on her face. "I-I just meant that I know what it's like to feel alone. I was on my own before I came here, too." She paused before asking rhetorically, her voice a bit stronger now, "Like I said, what did the Knowing ever do to you?"
I gulped and exchanged frightened glances with Hannah and the twins, seriously expecting Alec to blow up. But instead he just whispered to her in shock, "You mean you really don't know? No one told you?" When the confused Layna didn't answer, Alec glanced over to me, and I reluctantly shook my head no. Again, I expected him to blow up and to start explaining the whole stupid backstory, but then he just scoffed with disappointment, "Wow." Apparently he wanted to save that lesson for a later date.
After that, we were all plunged into awkward silence, until Hannah opened her arms and reprimanded him softly, changing the subject, "You should be grateful that the Knowing put this party together for you. Come join us. You've done nothing but act ungrateful since you got here."
"Ungrateful?" Alec raised his eyebrows and rolled his bright blue eyes in disbelief. "Oh, Hannah, I'm more grateful than you will ever know. But just look at those people. They don't really care about me. All they wanted was an excuse to party, and I was the perfect excuse. You five are apparently the only ones who even noticed my absence." He paused and motioned to all of the people happily spinning and twirling and singing around the stage, and I realized he had a very good point. He had been alienated by his people before he became a hero, and he always would be alienated by them. Or maybe this time he was alienating them in return.
"Besides," Alec continued in a tight voice, after a long moment of silence, "why would I celebrate when all I can think about is how the gods never made it to their own sixteenth birthdays?" He then put his head in his hands, letting out a shaky sigh. "I should have died, not them."
"What are you talking about?" Layna asked, just as confused as the rest of us, but Alec didn't answer. Instead, he jumped off the roof, rolling as he hit the ground so he wouldn't hurt himself, and went inside the bath house, presumably to use the restroom. We followed him.
But as soon as Alec stepped inside, he froze in place, staring wide-eyed at the group of teens drinking beer in the far corner of the little common area, which also doubled as a tiny tattoo parlor. "What are you doing?" he whispered to them, his body beginning to shake involuntarily.
"Hey, calm down," Layna told him with a bewildered shrug as she walked over to grab a bottle of her own from Brady. "It's just beer. I bet you've seen it before at plenty of other parties. I heard the gods liked to party, too."
"No, no, no!" Alec exclaimed, raising his voice and sounding panicked. Speechless and suddenly sobered up, the rest of us teens watched on with wide eyes as Alec began to race around frantically, yanking the dark brown bottles out of each person's hands and dumping the amber substance out on the tiled floor. "You don't understand! Before you know it, you'll be an alcoholic and then you'll be angry all the time and then you're throwing bottles at your own daughter when you don't mean to so she runs away and suddenly she's dead and then everyone's dead!" he shouted, barely even pausing to take a breath. He pulled at his dark hair in anguish, like he was going to rip it all out.
"DAMN THE FATES! They're all dead!" As he broke out into a cold sweat and fell to his knees with the last empty bottle still in his hands, everyone else was left stunned and horrified and very, very confused. I realized then that Alec wasn't just depressed and angry about the deaths of the gods, but he was probably suffering from PTSD as well.
Exchanging frightened glances with each teenager still in the common area, I took a hesitant step closer to Alec to try to comfort him somehow. As he looked up, however, his bright blue eyes caught sight of the one thing he never should have found hidden at the back of a shelf full of tattooing supplies: a long, black, leather whip. The one Jason usually used for punishments.
"I-I thought Athena destroyed that," he hissed angrily, clenching his fists. When no one responded, he whirled around to face me and questioned, "How many times has Jason used this since the gods died?"
At first I didn't answer, not wanting to get in trouble with Jason for yet another thing, but then Alec grabbed me by the collar of my t-shirt and pinned me against the wall. "Th-three, but only a couple whips per person," I finally admitted, a little scared he might hurt me, but then he just dropped me and grabbed the whip and sprinted outside, all of us teens following close behind. We didn't want to miss the spectacular showdown that was about to take place.
"JASON," Alec screamed, and all of the Knowing spun around to face him. "This was supposed to be destroyed!" The music stopped, and our lanky leader stepped out from behind the stage, his green eyes widening in terror when he saw what Alec was holding.
But Jason recovered quickly, as he cleared his throat and explained calmly, "Well, I thought we should keep it, since it is one of the only things we have left to associate with the Forest Gods. Specifically the Lady Athena, of course."
"Bull. Shit. Athena wanted nothing to do with this whip. If you really wanted to honor the gods, you would have disposed of it, like she planned on doing," Alec growled menacingly. "You haven't changed one bit! I knew Athena should have killed you when she had the chance."
The entire crowd gasped. "You take that back," Jason ordered, shaking his finger at the hero.
However, Alec only ignored our leader and turned around to face Layna. "You wanted to know why I am so upset with the Knowing," he confirmed, and the blonde nodded reluctantly. Alec paused only to take off his old blue t-shirt and threw it to the ground before gesturing at the dozens of nasty scars on his back and saying, "I bet you want to know where I got these scars, too."
"Y-yes," Layna whispered meekly, already guessing what Alec was going to say.
He sneered in disgust, "Well, Jason here whipped me over thirty times in front of the entire camp as punishment. And do you know why he was punishing me?"
"No." Layna shook her head and gulped nervously, obviously noticing Alec's ice cold glare and overly aggressive body language. These two things, coupled with his dark, messy hair that just barely shaded his eyes, made him appear quite wild and dangerous.
Raising his eyebrows, the hero explained, "At the beginning of summer, I had a vision, but no one believed me, so I ran away to investigate. When I returned over a month later, instead of celebrating the fact that I wasn't actually dead, Jason punished me because I had disobeyed his orders to stay at camp and because I brought back an outsider. And do you know who that outsider was?"
Again Layna shook her head, her green eyes growing wider and wider. Furious, Jason tried to interrupt, and the other Knowing members also watched on in fearful anticipation of the revealing of their darkest hour, but Alec immediately waved them off and threw the whip to the grass. He then yanked out his sword from his pocket and started hacking away at the long leather strip, cutting it into tiny pieces. When he was sure no one would ever be able to repair the torture device, he smirked and turned the sword back into a rock with a squeeze of the hilt. Meanwhile, with his face reddening, Jason just stood in place, clenching his fists and probably wishing he could kill the righteous hero right then and there for threatening the camp's fragile balance.
"Athena," Alec continued bitterly, shifting his gaze back to the newest Knowing member. "The outsider was Athena. I didn't even get a chance to explain before Jason had both of us tied up and gagged. She always thought the worst part about my punishment was that not a single Knowing member spoke out against it."
"You mean no one but your family," Layna clarified, her voice shaking slightly, but Alec shook his head no. Truthfully, even his mother had been egging Jason on. I remembered seeing it with my own eyes that day, from the back of the crowd with the twins.
"So tell me, Layna, what do you think of the Knowing now?" Alec whispered darkly, stuffing his hands back into his pockets. "I don't know about you, but I like to keep my enemies close. The War of the Woods may be over, but apparently this battle field hasn't been cleaned up yet. Right before she died, Athena told me the fight wasn't finished. It's too bad I couldn't see it for myself until tonight."
And that was how Alec crashed his own birthday party.
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Alright, so it turns out that "Athena Rising" (that option had the most votes) is already a real book, and I decided I didn't like the other new title options for "Into the Woods" very much. Now I'm thinking "The Forest Gods' Reign" because it creates some parallelism in the two titles and I think it encompasses everything that happened in the book pretty well, but what do you all think? This is a pretty big decision, and I want everyone to be involved :)
Also, tell me what you think of this chapter! I love hearing from you! What do you think of Alec's outbursts? Jace's? More about Layna's past coming soon xx