The Forest Gods' Reign [Published]

Chapter 13: Leaving the Woods

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Zach, Connor, Luke and I were biking down Main Street towards the Fire Pit, eager for delicious lemonade to help cool us down on the sweltering summer day. It had been only one week since Alec had gone down into the Underworld, but it felt like it had been so much longer. Most of my days had been filled with playing reverse hide-and-seek with the rest of the Monster Watch, and I spent long nights training with Alec and sometimes hunting with Artemis. Hades had made no other threats so far, although there were a few more monsters roaming the forest than normal, and life was pretty good overall.

Anyway, when the four of us gods reached the restaurant, we lazily dropped our bikes on the burning sidewalk and walked into the Fire Pit, where old electric fans were humming, plugged into every available outlet in the entire building. Not many of the ancient buildings in our town had air conditioning, after all, and just sitting outside made me break out in a sweat.

Martha, Zach and Luke's mom, looked up to see us walk through the swinging door, and her blue eyes immediately brightened. We sat down at the bar seats, since we weren't planning on staying for long, and waited while she happily made us four fresh lemonades. While Zach and Luke were bickering about what to do after lunch, I glanced around the room to see who else had stopped in for lunch.

Becca, who was sitting at a small table across from Matt, was flipping her golden hair, obviously flirting, while Matt was gazing at her in some sort of dream-like state with his big, brown eyes. It looked kind of funny, since Matt, who dressed like a stereotypical angry guy from a biker gang and happened to be the complete opposite of the gorgeous Becca, was totally falling for her, nodding his head like he was in love with everything she said.

I simply rolled my eyes in amusement and continued to look around the room, noticing the crippled Shane and the laughable Jack chatting at the Monster Watch's usual booth in the back. Perhaps they had been waiting for us to join their party of two, because no one ever dared to steal our table; ever since the Monster Watch had come out of the forest unscathed for the first time, we were considered almost untouchable by the townsfolk. Confirming my suspicions, Shane saw me looking over and waved, offering to make room at the booth, but Jack was too busy gulping down an entire glass of lemonade in just three huge sips to notice me. Shaking my head in wonder, I was about to jump back into the rest of the Monster Watch's playful argument when someone else caught my eye.

Josh and his best friend, Cole, happened to walk into the restaurant at exactly that moment. Cole's soft brown eyes locked onto me, and hoping to avoid an awkward conversation, I quickly turned away from him to pretend that I was actually paying attention to what Connor was saying. Unfortunately, my plan didn't work out as well as I hoped.

I felt a tap on my shoulder and I hid a grimace as I reluctantly swiveled around on the bar stool to face Cole. "Um, hi," he said awkwardly, scratching his head. "Can I talk to you for a minute? In private." Part of me wanted to say no and run into the woods as fast as I could, but the guiltier half got the better of me. So then I glanced at Zach for permission to leave the Watch discussion, and he nodded curiously. Sighing, I walked with Cole out of the restaurant and onto the street.

"What is it?" I asked him, with more of an edge to my voice than I meant to have.

"What happened in the forest last week?" he whispered to me, sounding quite frightened. "The only thing I remember is waking up by the side of the road."

I bit my lip, rapidly trying to think of what to say to explain. There was no way I was going to tell him what had really happened. He never would have forgiven me. "We walked about 20 yards in before you just blacked out. It was weird. Zach helped me drag you out here," I lied fluently, keeping my expression calm. "Zach and I didn't want to get in trouble by telling someone you were in the woods, so we just...ran back in."