Page 3 of Artemis' Bow
“Okay.” I blow out a breath and square my shoulders as if preparing for battle.
“You’ve got this.” He squeezes my hip and steps back, giving me space to be the leader.
“Look, I get it,” I call to the students gathered. “War is scary and dangerous, but it will find us all.”
“There’s no escaping it,” Jayden agrees. “The best bet we all have of surviving is to stay here and train for the battles to come.”
“Are we going to be able to leave?” a girl asks from the front.
I shake my head in exasperation. “We aren’t going to force you to stay and fight. That’s not what we are about, but I wouldn’t advise leaving.”
Raven steps forward. “How many battles have we faced? How many times have Beth, Jayden, and I saved you from the threat of the world ending and now you want to run and hide? There is nowhere to run. This war will reach every part of the world. You have all seen the effects the war has already had. You have seen the effect the gods have on the world.”
The cafeteria grows silent around us as the other students glance between each other. It’s going to be useless if they already have their minds made up to leave. We can’t stop them from taking the easy way out.
“If you want to leave, we can’t stop you. We won’t because we don’t want to be the controlling assholes that the gods can sometimes be. We still warn that it’s safer here, training for what is inevitable.”
“Some of us are already dealing with hate for staying behind,” a blond Apollo student shouts from the back.
Chiron stomps a hoof to quiet everyone. “Anyone found bullying other students because of their godly parent will be punished severely.”
I nod to him. “All are innocent until proven guilty. If you want to side with us against Hera and her minions, you are welcome. Even if you don’t want to fight, that’s fine too, but betrayal will be dealt with swiftly and brutally.”
“They have been acting against us from the beginning.” Jayden clenches a fist at his side. “They were behind the monster attacks on campus. Why would any of us side with them? It doesn’t make sense when they have tried to kill us all on more than one occasion.”
“Some have already sided with their godly parents, and we can’t blame them for that. The hard truth is that we will see our friends in the upcoming battles.” My shoulders slump.
This is hard because many of the students at the academy only saw monsters once they got here and clearly believe that Halfling Academy is not the safe space it’s supposed to be. My friends and I have seen much worse. We were chased through the human world by monsters and know that they are everywhere.
“I was never attacked outside of the academy,” the girl from the front calls.
Weakling. She would be the one to voice my own thoughts. My gaze finds Raven’s and she rolls her eyes and shakes her head, most likely thinking the same thing as me.
“You’re a child of Hermes, right?” I ask the girl.
“Yes,” she responds with confusion.
“Hermes is on our side in this. The monsters that didn’t go after you last time will now be hunting the children of the gods that oppose Hera above all else because make no mistake, Hera is the reason they are alive and roaming the world now.”
Raven nods. “The same monsters that attacked the academy before. The monsters she sent here to kill us all will be hunting those who oppose her.”
“Even if we don’t wish to oppose her? That’s not fair.”
“Did you learn nothing from Cross’ history classes? Do you think fair is something the queen of the gods worries about?” I laugh.
My friends all shake their heads in exasperation. This is pretty damn stupid. Most Hermes kids aren’t fighters. We learned that when the majority of them were kidnapped just after the start of the term.
Raven sighs. “We know the gods pretty well at this point, between classes at the academy, and you know the battles we’ve faced together. The things we’ve learned about the majority of them don’t give me warm feelings of happiness and they definitely don’t speak of fairness.”
“These gods are millennia old. They can’t change their ways now, and anyone who thinks Hera won’t retaliate against you just because you don’t fight is a bigger idiot than I expected.”
Several sharp gasps and a few outraged shouts fill the room. Did they really expect anything less from me? We said we were opening up lines of communication to them not coddling them. That’s not who I am.
“How dare you?” The Hermes girl stomps her foot, outraged that I would call her out.
Jayden steps forward, shaking his head and holding out his hands in a placating gesture.
“We said we would be honest and though I don’t exactly agree with the delivery of the truth, she isn’t lying. All the gods have been vengeful to people who didn’t deserve it at one time or another, so to think that fairness is a concern in our world is naïve at best.”
