The New Demigods

Chapter 18: Trials of a Demigod

I could feel the tension in the air of the throne room, the Gods and Titans fell silent when we opened the doors, but it was clear an argument had broken out.

Hades, Gaia, Prometheus, Styx, Scarlett and Piper all stood in the middle of the room while the Gods of Olympus and their DemiGods sat in their thrones facing them - as if they were on trial.

Everyone turned their heads when Horace and I walked in; the Gods of Olympus were shocked, their DemiGods were in disbelief and our mentors just looked relieved.

"What did I tell you? Not a scratch on them," Piper broke the silence.

"Perhaps there has been some sort of misunderstanding," Demeter said.

"Of course there was. Nobody would win a fight against my tribute and not have a scratch on them!" Ares bellowed. Alistair sat in her throne, in front of Ares, with her arm in a sling from Shadow dislocating her shoulder.

"They did! They attacked us!" Zach's voice cracked as he yelled in frustration. The rest of the DemiGods just seemed confused by our healed appearance as they all still had wounds from last night.

"Enough." Zeus commanded the room, staring deeply at Horace and me. His eyes were intense, I tried to look as innocent as possible, as he looked us over. We hadn't attacked the other DemiGods, but I could tell the Gods didn't trust us.

Zeus looked from us to Zach and finally to Hera, who seemed to be equally confused.

"We must continue with the plan." Hera announced. "Today you will all begin your trials to prove yourselves as proper DemiGods. Take your seats."

I followed Gaia to our thrones and noticed she avoided eye contact as we sat.

Hera, and the rest of the Gods of Olympus, proceeded to explain what we had been training for. The Greek gods had been slowly losing their power for hundreds of years. The Olympians had once ruled the Earth, coming and going as they pleased to interfere with the lives of mortals which meant more worshippers for each of them. However, the Gods had been tricked, during the 9th century, to give up their free rule of Earth and were no longer able to harm mortals in any way. The mythical creatures that walked the Earth were also unable to engage or be seen by mortals. The Gods were slowly losing their power and only held on by creating Demigods to keep their faith strong. In recent years, all of their Demigods had mysteriously disappeared leaving them too weak to walk the Earth freely.

"And you think we can save you?" Piper asked, surprising everyone in the room, as it didn't seem like an interactive conversation.

"That's what you need to prove to us," Zeus responded. "Today you start a test fit only for DemiGods. When you complete it, you will be worthy of restoring balance to our world."

He paused, looking over the room, again locking eyes with me and pausing longer on me than any of the other DemiGods. I returned his stare, in an attempt to dismiss any guilt left from Zach's accusations.

"Well, let's get this show on the road, brother," Hades cracked through the intensity.

We all stood on our feet, following the lead of Zeus and Hera who led the way out of the throne room. The Gods of Olympus followed with their DemiGods in tow, followed by the Oracles, then our group of Outcasts. Waiting to leave, I had been watching Gaia out of the corner of my eye, hoping she would turn to me or acknowledge me in some way, but she kept her eyes glued on the exit.

We filed in line behind Piper and Prometheus exiting the throne room and into the courtyard. I wasn't able to do any exploring throughout my stay, so I didn't know what to expect as we followed the Gods quietly down the pathway.