The Blood of Athens Read Online Free PDF

charge with
you! How about who's right? This is really cool and I'd love a chance
to explore the whole city, but people are going to be looking for us
and I, for one, do not want to be drawing attention to our group. In
case you've forgotten, we've been responsible for a few dead bodies
in the last year. I'd like to keep a low profile.”
    Nick mumbled
something.
    “ Speak up or
shut up.” Minnie pushed past him and started off across the hall.
The others followed. “When we exit through the portal, stick close
to a column. We're less suspicious if we come out from behind a
column, rather than appearing smack dab in the middle of nothing.
    Minnie waited
as each member of The Pantheon stepped beyond the columns and
vanished, returning back to the steps of the Acropolis. Nick was the
last to step through. Minnie put her hand out to stop him.
    “ What?” he
asked, sticking his tongue against his cheek and refusing to look her
in the eye.
    Minnie stepped
close. Nick towered over her, but somehow, that didn't matter. Her
eyes swirled with silver fury. “When Zach's not here, I am in
charge.”
    Nick’s brow
twitched in shock at the shifting of her eyes. He pulled himself
together and scoffed. “Whatever.”
    Minnie watched
him walk through the portal and followed close behind him. Dr. Davis
was waiting for them on the steps.
    “ Where did
you all go?” she asked, keeping her voice hushed but harsh.
    “ See those
two columns?” Lewis pointed back with his thumb. “Some kind of
wormhole.”
    “ What?”
    Minnie shook
her head at Lewis. She stepped in front of him so she could whisper
to Celene. “Basically, what he means is, we have to figure out how
to catch up to the class without taking a portal to Mount Olympus.”
    “ What?”
Celene asked again.
    “ The
short of it, for now, is that we shouldn't be walking between those
two columns,” Minnie said. “We'll tell you the rest at the
hotel.”

“ I will
reveal to you a love potion, without medicine, without herbs, without
any witch’s magic; if you want to be loved, then love.”
    -Hecaton
of Rhodes

    vi.

    The
occasion for the great celebration
was the marriage of mighty Zeus
to Hera.
All of The Pantheon was in attendance
for the wedding
feast.

    A
golden throne was brought forth to match the King's,
as great the
couple was seated side-by side,
a tree erupted from the ground and
blossomed:
a gift from the earth.

    From
the tree that Gaia gave them, there sprouted
a perfect crop of
gleaming golden apples.
It was a great blessing for their wedding
day,
a day of pure bliss.

“ No
better thing befalls a man than a good wife, no worse thing than a
bad one.”
    -Semonides
of Amorgos

    VI.

    It hadn't been
easy, scraping together a short-notice wedding on a Monday afternoon.
On the way into town Sunday night, June had tracked down a minister
who did weddings out of a tiny chapel in Savannah, Georgia. They got
in well after dark and went straight to sleep, preparing to wake up
early the next day to handle paperwork.
    Zach and June
filled out all the forms, showed two types of identification, and
even paid the extra fees for not going through a marriage course.
Eight hours and one sassy courthouse clerk later, they were standing
before a minister, witnessed only by the minister’s wife and an
elderly assistant.
    The chapel was
small with painted hardwood floors and simple, block, stained-glass
windows. The minister’s wife had hung white Christmas lights from
the rafters. They twinkled like stars above them. The evening sun
pouring in through those windows cast squares of colorful light on
June's tea-length white dress. Zach wore his charcoal grey suit with
a white tie they had picked up earlier that day. The rings had also
been found that day at a pawn shop.
    As June
repeated the last words of her vows, she slid the simple gold band on
Zach's finger. “...for as long as we both shall live,” she said.

    “ We're
married,” Zach said, flipping open his wallet