And we were back to sparring, as if nothing had happened at all. Alex's claim that Gregory wasn't all-powerful didn't stop me from approaching him with weary eyes. He took advantage of my hesitation and swept my feet from under me. Again.
It was easier on the floor. I should have stayed there and never gotten up. I should learn not to ask questions when I know the answers are just going to make everything worse. But some lessons are hard to learn.
At that precise moment, another player entered our game, sauntering into the mirrored room, the padded floor her catwalk. She had black hair and a soft face, with eyes of icy blue, so sharp I couldn't hold their gaze. I hadn't noticed they were blue the other night, what with her climbing up and down Hector like he was a pole and she a trainee firefighter. But the Fates were kind: she was mercifully dressed this time. Her black attire clung to her body. Show off.
The wings were missing. It threw off the whole atmosphere around her. She seemed smaller now. No less of a bitch, just smaller in stature.
"This is what I'm working with?" she asked the room, already silent from her arrival. Her eyes scanned me up and down, those cold irises peering into my soul.
"Ouch. I'm hurt." I dusted myself off as I stood, preparing to square off with Lindsay. I'd been beaten, frightened, threatened, and all in just the last hour. I wasn't in the mood for her. That's when the word vomit took over. "But judge all you want. Supposedly I'm the only one who can bring Hades to victory. I've also just been informed that you're a major disappointment who can't manifest an ancient Fury within her, so there's that."
The words just found themselves in my mouth and then I couldn't take them back once they'd escaped. Petty jealousy reared its ugly head. I didn't feel important, it's not like I was the only Fury he had access to; I had no reason to believe Jasper when he said that my loyalty was key and that my cooperation would tip the balance for good and evil.
Trying to cover up my folly, my confusion, the shock at my own reaction to her presence, I crossed my arms over my chest defiantly. Lindsay just laughed. My arms became a defensive shieldâI'd be damned if I let her know how her disapproval got under my skin.
Still laughing, she said, "You believe that crap? They get dumber and dumber every year, don't they, Alex?" Lindsay clutched her stomach in a big show of pain from the incessant laughter. "I know all about you, Autumn, and Hades asked me as a personal favor to teach you how to be a real Fury, like myself, and not some myth that even the Fates can't predict. You have large shoes to fill so I suggest you try be a little more impressive."
Gregory choked on a laugh from my right. I'd never heard him laugh before and I didn't want to ever again. "Hades has her now, he has hope for the cause; what would he ever want from you?"
But if he hated her so much we might become friends yet. Can a Fury and a dragon be friends or was it like cats and fish, one always wanting to snack on the other?
Lindsay ignored him and smiled at me. Teeth shone through her lips, too many teeth. Without breaking eye contact, she transformed. It was the most beautifully horrifying thing I had ever witnessed.
Her tanned flesh radiated and the roots of her hair shone in a halo of heat emitting from her scalp, fire beneath the follicles. The rest of her body was far less angelic. She unfurled her wings, taut and fleshy like a bat's, from her back and her fingers curled into claws that ended in deadly talons. Her face continued to grin, knowing that I was watching her eyes shift from bright blue to a molten gold. Her teeth sharpened into points, just to top off the transformation finishing its way through her body.
This was a Fury; this was what I needed toâand couldn't find the strength toâbecome.
She was hideous but in a different way than Gregory's transformation had beenâhe had looked unnatural but she looked strong, powerful. The longer I looked, the clearer I saw the monster in front of me. Something about her was feral and dangerous; it was in the eyes, those eyes like fire scalding through her irises trying to escape. It wanted to eat me but take its time to savor the sweetness of the marrow in my tiny human bones. She was waiting for something.
I hated her more than I wanted to go home.
"So, little girl," she eventually said. Her grin forced me into an involuntary flinch. I hated her for that. The odds were stacked against us ever being friends. "This is what Hades needs you to become if we are to conquer. Are you ready to embrace your Underworld blood? If not, I will readily take your place."
What choice did I have, when it came down to it? None. I weighed my options; refuse her and Hector and never go home, or play the game and escape when the opportunity presented itself.
"What do I have to lose?"
No sooner had the words come out of my mouth than my newest mentor flicked a fireball at me. I dropped to the floor, all too aware of the burning smell coming from my shoulder. The flaming trajectory had been heading for my stomach and I, ever the student, fell rather than dodging or jumping out of the way. At least I wasn't dead. It could always be worse.
"Are you trying to make me laugh? Get up. Do you think Hades would have sent me here to train you if I wasn't the best? Forget these two sorry excuses for myths. They haven't done you any favors thus far." Lindsay stood over me, hands on hips, disappointment written on her face.
What gave her the right to look down her nose at my teachers? Alex and Gregory were the only two creatures who seemed unburdened with dislike of me. Though I had only met a handful of peopleâgods, myths, creatures, but people nonethelessâJasper wanted to eat me and Hector wanted to use me. I had to hold what few "friendships" I had in vice-like grips and never let go.
I can't say that I'm proud of what happened next. But it took her by surprise and I will forever hold the memory of her shock as a precious victory.
I launched myself at her knees, taking the Fury down to the mat beside me. She grunted in shock but recovered all too quicklyâbefore I could crawl up beside her to land a punch she had thrown me across the room. Something crunched in my arm but I didn't feel it. Not only was something probably broken but my ass would sport new bruises before this was over. Lindsay might just kill me before we had the chance to declare war.
That realization kicked in and it happened again, the anger rolled through me. I just got mad: she thought she was so much better than me, she flaunted her status and relationship with Hector over me, and I was done with her attitude.
"Bring it on," came the challenge from my lips.
My body reacted before I even noticed. Let me at her, the voice in the back of my head screeched. The edges of my vision blurred and turned a deep, rusty red. A noise erupted from the back of my throat but it wasn't human by any stretch of the imagination. Somehow, that didn't bother me. What bothered me instead was the distance between my enemy and myself. Lindsay snarled, reading my mind, anticipating my attack.
Though she acknowledged my need for violence, she didn't give me the attack I had been hoping for. The body in front of me reverted to a humanoid shape and Lindsay bowed her head.
When she wanted to rumble, I delivered. When I wanted to spill her guts, she backed down. What the hell?
A scream burst from my lips and I rushed her. My body felt funnyâalmost wrong, like it wasn't mine and I wasn't in control of it. But it was mine, of course it was; I was just in a different body. Fueled by my frustration, I had transformed. Like the other Fury in the room I had tough skin, darker than my human flesh, and talons emerging from my fingers where my nails would have been. Wings propelled me across the floor, closing the distance between Lindsay and myself faster than running would have. With my talons, hard as steel in my fingers but not heavy, I wanted to tear her head from her shouldersâand I knew I could do it, tooâbut she did not move. I roared at her, a menacing sound built on a foundation of rage. My hands found their way to her shirt and I flung her into the nearest wall. She went without a fight.
"Don't back down now, I'm just getting warmed up!" The voice that came from my throat was mine, and yet it wasn't. It felt heavy, deep. It felt like a voice in command.
"You are not ready for this, Autumn. You're out of control and it's bad if I'm the one pointing it out to you." Lindsay didn't look at me while she pushed herself off of the floor. Alex and Gregory were nowhere to be found; maybe they snuck out to avoid getting caught in the carnage. "It was my mistake for thinking you were ready to meet the Fury. You do not know how to use this form and you do not understand what it is capable of. So put on pretty little Autumn's face and we can get started."
She was so condescending, so patronizing. "Then train me. Isn't that what you're here for?" I demanded. My hands swept along my transfigured body, a motion of defiance. "Isn't this what you wanted from me?" My voice was monstrous, a grating sound that was much lower than my regular tone.
I didn't wait for more speeches. Absolutely nothing made sense in this new body, a body I unintentionally acquired like a sweater two sizes too big. There was too much room in my skin. Discomfort didn't even begin to cover the extent of my physical body. The only thing that I did understand was my desire to tear Lindsay's head from her body. To bruise her, to bloody her, to make it so that she could never grin again.
My elbow found her temple too hard, too quick, smashing her still-bowed head to the left. A tiny cut formed over her eye, satisfyingly red. She didn't make a sound as she came at me for retribution.
Lindsay's fist landed in my gut and I took the heel of my palm to her nose in an upward sweep. She lifted a knee despite the blood dribbling over her lips and introduced my face to it, a blow I barely felt in the rage. Then she pushed me away from her. I stumbled over my feet on legs that I didn't know how to use. In a moment of serendipity I caught my footing before she could attack again and tackled her to the mat, pinning her with one knee on her chest, my hands holding her arms down. She breathed on me, deliberately puffing air in my face. Her breath was a fire, brewed deep in her lungs.
I gasped, bringing the steaming air into my own lungs. It forced me into a coughing fit, ruining my upper hand, and she took advantage; Lindsay rolled us over and straddled my middle.
She grinned at me again, no longer afraid to look at my face. I coughed a few times before I realized that my coughs sounded as human as they always had. The Fury transformation had been lost in the fight.
"I am training you and I'm telling you to walk it off. You have no idea of the things you can do, whereas I have mastered them all. Just because you can put on the guise of the Fury doesn't mean you can use her power. You are no use to Hades as you are. Get yourself cleaned up and come back when you're ready to learn."