The Forest Gods' Reign [Published]

Chapter 19: Monsters and a Movie

Hopefully this chapter was as good as you hoped! As mentioned before, this online version of The Forest Gods' Reign will be split into 2 books in print. Book 1, titled The Forest Gods' Reign, will be published in print around May/June of 2015. This is the start of Book 2, which will most likely be titled something slightly different when it finally reaches print.

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START OF BOOK 2

PART 1: THE CALM BEFORE THE STORM

People always talk of the "calm before the storm." As I looked into the deep blue eyes of the god of the sea, that phrase came to mind. The urgency in my tone had silenced him, and now he was just studying me, trying to guess exactly what type of storm was coming and what type of damages could be left in its wake. He could afford to be unaffected for a few moments, but I couldn't. In the metaphorical sense, there is no "calm before the storm" for the ones who know it's coming, the ones who are more or less responsible for it. You see, in this case, I was the storm.

"I—I think Aphrodite's in the woods," Poseidon stuttered quietly, finally realizing that something was very wrong. I released him from my tight grasp, then turned on my heel and took off in a dead sprint, heading straight into the forest we called home. I didn't even bother to fill in him, Apollo, or Zeus, none of whom had shared my haunting visions of the dead goddess of love and beauty. It wasn't part of the prophecy—not even the part they didn't know about.

What was happening now, our reign over the forest deteriorating, was entirely my fault. No, really. It was obvious to me that Hades, lord of the dead and our current enemy, meant to harm Aphrodite because she represented love. He was sending a message. Somehow he knew that Alec, my young hero and destined savior of the war, had feelings for me—and that I maybe had feelings for the Knowing boy, too.

You shouldn't have let Alec stay here, I told myself angrily, for probably the hundredth time since I had met him a few weeks earlier. Zeus, my best friend and Mr. King of the Gods, had given me the final say in the matter, and I'd told Alec to stay, simply because I would have felt guilty about letting him die on his own in the forest. I should have known not to get attached. I should have let him perish alone, rather than let him build such a dangerous friendship with this generation of Greek gods. Here's the simple truth: I thought I would have more control than I actually did.

As I raced onward, I heard the sound of the Monster Watch frantically running to catch up with me as I threw down my black backpack at the edge of the trees. I didn't pause to pick up any weapons as we raced by the hollow, moss-covered logs where our makeshift armory was; there was no time for that, so the metamorphic rock/sword and my pocketknife would have to do. The guys must not have had anything at all with them, however, because I could no longer hear them panting behind me, so I assumed they had paused to grab the master lightning bolt, trident, and a bow with a leather quiver full of arrows.

Glaring ahead in determination, I made a hard right, now heading north along the same winding path as in my dream, a route I had taken hundreds of times before. Low-hanging branches smacked my face as I raced along the uneven path and jumped over any old, fallen trees or boulders in the way, but I ignored the stinging sensation spreading across my face and ran faster. I had to make it in time. I had to.

When I heard shouting in Greek coming from behind me, I knew that the Monster Watch had caught up again, this time with their godly mindsets. We were now fully prepared for anyone or anything to come at us at the end of the twisting trail. No more joking around.

The branches of the pine trees reached out across the overgrown path like arms trying to grab the four of us as we sprinted along the narrow trail in a single file line, with me in the lead, since I was the only one of us who actually knew the complete story of what was going on. I heard a girl's terrible, blood-curling scream coming from farther along the trail and knew that we were close, but the question of whether we would make it in time to save Aphrodite still remained. So, I took a deep breath before pulling out all of my energy to run faster than I had ever run in my entire life. Time never seemed to be on our side.