The Shadow Archer Twins

It only took me three seconds to realize I had a crush on him. I mean, he was seriously cute. Tall, blonde hair, muscular, handsome face and intense grey eyes. Dark as storm clouds. Even in a weird orange shirt with what looked like Greek lettering on it, and a faded pair of jeans, he looked great. But I had to stop myself from blushing. Otis would kill me if he knew I liked this guy, and besides, we had other things to worry about, like that creepy guy from the café.

Trying to get some of the millions of other questions out of my head, I asked the guy, Malcolm, “How are we going to get to the airport from here? I don’t think it would be smart to leg it across town in the middle of July, would it?”

He replied, in a rehearsed way, “I have a car in the lot across the street. If your mom can hold him off long enough, we can get to it and haul butt to the airport. Luckily, it’s just a straight shot on Route 61 to get there.”

“Alright,” I said, “Sounds like a plan. But what was that you said about being a ‘son of Athena’ or something?”

In a tone that sounded like he was explaining something to a child, he replied, “Did you two ever read or learn about Ancient Greek mythology?”

Catching on, Tox said, “Like the Olympian Gods, Hercules and all that?”

“Exactly,” Malcolm said, “So, what if I told you that they’re still here, and that they control humanity in the same way that they did three thousand years ago. Those gods have kids, and I'm one of them. My mother is Athena, goddess of wisdom, crafts and war strategy.”

My head spun. Tox stepped back like he had been punched in the gut. But, looking into Malcolm’s intense grey eyes, I didn’t see any glimmer of deception, or joking. He believed in that fact, and his conviction snapped me out of my confusion. Thinking about it more as we continued running towards the lot across the street, things started to click.

Having a ‘eureka’ moment, I said, “Wait, that makes sense. Aren't kids like that usually hunted, though?"

"Oh yes," Malcolm confirmed, "That's why I have to bring to camp as quickly as possible. The guy following you today is a monster, called a manticore. They are really hard to kill, and extremely dangerous. As soon as kids like you get to a certain age, monsters like him start tracking your scent, trying to find you."

"Trying to find you," I murmured, "Hey, Tox, remember that guy who followed us home last year, and then ran off when Mom saw us?”

“Yeah,” Tox remembered, “He was at least seven feet tall, and I swear he only had—”

“One eye?” Malcolm asked, finishing Otis’ sentence for him, “And did you just call him Tox?”

“Yeah,” Tox said, “It’s a nickname. But how did you know about the guy who followed us?”

“You guys were really lucky. You only ran into a baby one. A Northern Cyclopes, on the hunt for prospective demigod soldiers, or snacks. He probably was working for Gaea.”

“Wait,” I said, confused again, “Like Mother Nature?”

“Close,” Malcolm commended, “But more like Mother Earth. Gaea is the primordial embodiment of the Earth, and she is almost awake. All of her second wave of children, the Giants, have arisen, and right now, my camp is on the brink of war.” His face creased into a frown of concern at that. He must be really worried about his camp. “No offense to you guys,” he continued, “but it isn’t exactly the best time to be demigods right now, even though we need more soldiers.”

Finally, we got across the six-lane street and found Malcolm’s car in the lot. It was an inconspicuous silver sedan, something that a passerby would think of as nothing in particular. I realized that he probably picked it for that reason. It was a getaway car.

We piled in and Malcolm got us onto I-61, heading for the airport fast. Tox’s eyebrows were furrowed, as if he still had one more question to ask, and after an eternity, he said,

“You called us ‘demigods,’ which I know means half-god and half-human. I’ve heard about kids like that. Heck, Katie and I even know some kids who had to move away because that word got passed around too often. And our mom is the mortal side of that. Her family came from Greece, a small island called Kos, near Turkey, and settled in DC. But if she’s our mortal mother, who’s our father?”

Sitting on the passenger’s side in the back set, I could see Malcolm’s face. He actually looked relieved, and maybe a bit impressed. I think he thought that he wouldn’t have to explain as much to us as he thought.

“Good question, kid,” he remarked, “But even I don’t know that. You’re going to have to wait until you’re claimed by your dad at Camp.”

I asked the only question I had left. “What camp? Where are we going?”

“Camp Half-Blood,” he replied, “Long Island, New York.”

We rode in silence from then on, and after about an hour, we got to the airport. Malcolm ditched the car in a back parking lot, and pulled out three white boarding passes from his back pocket. I had never noticed them, and they hadn’t been there when we had gotten into the car. Resourceful, smart, and cute. I was falling in love.

We got through security without a hitch, which surprised me seeing as I was sure Malcolm’s huge sword would have set off every metal detector in Louisiana, and boarded the 3:40 flight to La Guardia. Malcolm said that there would be people waiting there to pick us up. We all sat together, with Malcolm on the aisle and Tox in the window seat. I was very aware of Malcolm right next to me, his strong arms stretching the sleeves of his orange t-shirt. All of a sudden, Tox asked me,

“Are you blushing, Katie?”

I responded with something really smart, like, “Duh, um, uh, no. Of course not. Why would I be blushing?”

Tox raised his hands in a ‘don’t-blame-me’ gesture, saying, “Just asking.”

Thankfully, Malcolm didn’t seem to notice. He was staring intently at the stream of passengers getting on the plane. After the door had closed, he seemed to relax.

“I don’t think I caught anyone who looked troublesome. We should be fine for now. Rest, you two. You’ll need your energy once we get to Camp.”

I didn’t need any further invitation. I needed time to process the day’s events, and time to take everything in. I felt my eyelids getting heavy, and I drifted off to sleep. I didn’t wake up until I heard the screams.

My eyes flew open, and what I saw thoroughly disturbed me. The plane looked like it had been cut in half, with electrical wires sparking and metal flying off in bits and pieces. Malcolm had been knocked unconscious, and Tox was struggling to get free of his seatbelt. The section of the plane we were in was falling, straight down, and I could clearly see the ground. I swear I saw a face, a woman’s face, smiling as we fell to our deaths, murmuring,

“Come to me. Return to the awakened Earth.”

I closed my eyes, and waited for death. But when I opened them again, the plane was normal. Everything was how it was when we had boarded, without a single thing out of place. Tox was asleep next to me, and Malcolm was keeping watch in the aisle seat. I tapped his shoulder, hard, and whispered,

“This plane’s going to crash. I know it will!” My voice was cracking with a crazy edge that scared me as much as it did Malcolm.

“Woah, kid. Calm down,” he said slowly, comfortingly. Carefully, he enunciated, “How. Do. You. Know?”

Rapid-fire, I responded, “I had a vision, I guess. It’s never happened to me before, but it was so vivid. I could see us dying.”

Looking at me with a mixture of renewed curiosity, sincerity, and concern, he said, “A vision, huh? That’s bad, real bad. Who was it from? What did you see?”

“I saw a sleeping woman’s face, smiling, and—”

“From Gaea, then. She’s onto us. We need to get off this plane. Wake up your brother, and I’ll get the parachutes from my backpa—”

He never finished his sentence. With an almighty ripping sound of metal tearing metal, the plane broke in half like some random god had cut it with safety scissors. A piece of metal bodywork flew up and smacked Malcolm in the face, knocking him out cold. This was déjà vu, I thought, this is it!

I woke Tox, and his eyes looked around, confused and scared. I tried not to panic, and, remembering my dream/vision thing, helped him undo his seatbelt so that he wouldn’t be stuck. As we began falling, I reached for Malcolm’s bag and found three silver parachute cloths, with straps for the riders. I tied Malcolm into his, and threw Otis the second parachute. We both got strapped in as fast as we could, seeing as we had never learned how to get into a parachute, let alone in a crashing plane.

I could hear the people screaming around us, but I was helpless to save them. They didn’t have sons of Athena with cleverly-packed parachutes to protect them. I started to cry as Otis and I freed ourselves, and, hanging onto Malcolm’s limp body, we jumped, and right below, just as before, I saw the sleeping woman’s face, Gaea’s face, chuckling,

“Yes, YES, my children, return to me!”

We fell, slowed by our parachutes, down thousands of feet. I looked back just in time to see the back half of the plane explode into the side of a hill. I thought about all of the heroes that the Olympian gods had produced, and how they always saved the day, no matter the circumstance. I had failed those people. I wasn’t a hero. I was a selfish demigod.

Notes

Sorry if this chapter goes through some of the stuff that has to be repeated whenever new demigods are discovered, but it had to be written in order to get things out of the way.