literally torn apart, because of me. I swallowed my real thoughts, plastering my practiced smile across my face and hoping it wasn't a grimace. This little get-together was going to be just the reminder I needed that these people were freaking nuts.
Six
Persephone
'So, do you guys have any idea what's coming up next?' asked Hecate, and began to gulp from her glass of the divine fizzy liquid. I copied her.
'None. Although we have heard a little rumor about the last Trial of the Second Round,' said Hedone, eyes shining with excitement.
'Ooo, do tell?'
'I couldn't possibly,' Hedone said coyly. I clamped my teeth down on the inside of my cheeks to keep my smile in place. I seriously couldn't handle this shit. It was like secrets were currency in this place, nobody told anyone anything without making a great big deal of it first. A gong sounded and the chatter broke into a fevered buzz before dying out completely. I looked around the room for the smug pretty-boy commentator, and spotted him in front of the dais.
'Good evening Olympus!' he sang out. My eye twitched. 'Tonight we mark the start of Round Two of the Hades Trials. Now, we'd better keep you all in the loop on what's been happening... Those seeds little Persephone asked for weren't just any ordinary seeds, folks! She's not as simple as she looks!'
'Hey!' I protested, but my words were instantly drowned out by his booming, amplified voice.
'Those seeds contained power! So our only human contestant is no longer at quite such a disadvantage.' He beamed at me as my mind raced at a hundred miles an hour. He knew about the seeds? He hadn't mentioned who I really was though, so whoever had told him was pretending it was new power, rather than my original powers returned. But why had they told everyone who was watching? The answer came to me straight away. If I suddenly did something magical in front of the world they would have a hard time explaining it. It would look like they had lied about me being human.
'And now, please welcome your gods!' With a blinding flash of light, the gods appeared behind him, their respective thrones shimmering into existence. My eyes were drawn immediately to Hades, his dark smoky form translucent and unnerving. I scanned the smoke for any glimmer of silver and found none. Shoving my disappointment deep into my gut, I looked along the row of thrones as I dropped to my knees and clapped with the rest of the crowd.
Aphrodite was impossible not to stare at, this time with snow-white skin, black lips and eyes, and baby blue hair cascading down her shoulders in a poker-straight sheet. She was wearing a sheer blue dress that split almost at her hip, and it was clear she had nothing on underneath. I felt heat in my cheeks, and forced myself to look on. Athena and Hera were dressed as they had been at the start of the First Round, traditional and serene looking, and Artemis and Apollo were both wearing gleaming gold armor in the style ancient Greeks wore in my books at home. Enthusiastic smiles shone out of their youthful faces, their amber eyes alive with excitement. Ares too was fully clad in war gear, as he had been before, and Hephaestus shuffled backwards in the same leather tabard.
But Poseidon looked completely different. Instead of the serious man with cropped hair and simple toga, I found myself looking at a fierce tan-skinned man, with long white hair that should have aged him, but instead made him look dignified and extremely attractive. He was still wearing a toga, but I could swear it was made from the ocean itself, greens and blues and whites crashing together across the fabric in rolling waves. A gleaming silver trident shone in his fist, easily three feet taller than he was. I couldn't help gulping. This was a god who had made it clear he didn't like me, and today he looked like he did not want to be fucked with. Had he done that on purpose? I dragged my eyes from him, and found Hermes and Dionysus both grinning at me, and both wearing matching Hawaiian shirts with bright orange palm trees and parrots on them. A smirk leapt to my lips and they flashed me the thumbs up.
At the end of the row, and just as imposing as Hades' swirling smoke and Poseidon's glowing trident, was Zeus. He seemed to have