the thick canopy of leaves caught its stunning red wings as he extended them, then leapt from the branch. I couldn't outrun this thing, or hide from it, I thought, the pain in my thigh increasing. But as he landed gracefully opposite me, leaves swirling across the ground as his wings beat, the forest around me tilted and lurched hard, then vanished as a distant gong sounded.
I took a heaving breath of relief as the stark hall came into focus around me, the nauseating dizziness melting away fast. I'd done it. The ten minutes were up.
'Sorry, Persy,' I heard Dionysus' voice say, and blinked up at him on his throne in front of me. 'That's not how I wanted you to see my realm, Taurus. But I'm afraid I didn't have a choice. Nicely done though,' he added with a slow smile.
'Was the wine drugged?' I asked, trying to slow my breathing and willing my racing heart to slow down too.
'I happen to be the god of madness along with wine. Lots of Taurean wine causes hallucinations.'
'Wait, hallucinations?'
'Yeah. What did you see?' I felt my mouth fall open.
'You mean the huge cat with wings and a scorpion tail wasn't real?'
Dionysus chuckled softly.
'Had someone recently described a manticore to you, by any chance?'
'Y-yes,' I stammered, recalling the brief chat with Hedone I'd had before the Trial.
'Well, your sub-conscious remembered the conversation and your imagination did the rest.'
'So I was running away from nothing? I nearly killed myself in that tree for no reason?'
'I've seen people do a lot worse,' he said slowly.
A sharp pain in my thigh made me look away from him and down at myself. Through my torn skirt I could see a long gash on my leg, bright blood trickling down my bare skin. I summoned the power Hecate had taught me to access earlier, concentrating hard on the wound. Thrills of excitement pulsed through me as the skin glowed a faint grassy green, then began to knit itself back together. The pain faded almost instantly.
Confidence filled me as I watched my thigh heal. My most crippling fear was heights, and I had just fallen out of a freaking tree and survived. Not just survived; I hadn't given up. Last time, at the chasm, I'd quit. But this time I'd pushed through the fear, and won.
One test down, one seed safe, and now I knew I could definitely heal myself.
Bring it the fuck on.
'Hera,' I said, standing up abruptly before the commentator could say anything. I strode past Hermes, then Zeus, and stopped in front of the Queen of the Gods. She was wearing a teal gown that would be classed as a toga, but had a distinctly modern feel to it. Her black hair was piled high in a complicated collection of braids, all held in place by a glittering tiara with a peacock eye at its center. Her dark eyes glittered as she leaned forward and handed me a goblet.
'Drink from the cup of marriage and birth, and see if you shall be tested,' she said as I took the cup. I steeled myself, and took a sip. It tasted like blueberries. Nothing happened, and I handed her the goblet back and she nodded.
'Who next, Persephone?' called the commentator.
'Poseidon,' I answered. He was at the far end of the row and I marched towards him. Poseidon had already tested me once this round; I could handle anything he might throw at me.
'Drink from the cup of the ocean and see if you shall be tested,' he said, and handed me a goblet. He was in full god-of-the-sea garb again, sporting a long beard and holding a smaller version of his trident. Waves crashed in his blue irises as I drank from the cup. I tried not to pull a face as briny water filled my mouth, salt making my throat contract. But nothing else happened, and I handed him the cup back with relief. Artemis and Apollo were in the next two thrones, looking significantly younger and more cheerful than all of the other gods.
'Make your next choice,' said the commentator.
'Apollo,' I said, and the sun god beamed at me. He was shirtless, wearing just a toga style skirt, and his skin almost glowed gold, making him look as though he'd been carved from the precious metal. His body was so perfect that my brain struggled to register it as real. His face was the same, the planes so refined, the symmetry exact. Hades' muscled torso