“I do what I can,” I say with a shrug.
Fifteen minutes later we make it to the amphitheater, with the vulture flying right alongside us. When we get there, the celebration is still going on and the games are in full swing. But the four of us—and the vulture—ignore them as we move to the center of the orchestra where the cauldron sits, PT’s tools still scattered around it.
“Well, here goes nothing,” I say as I lean forward and press the candle flame to the wick inside the cauldron.
Long seconds pass when nothing happens, and I start to give up, thinking I’ve made a mistake. But then I decide to give it just a few seconds more.
One, Mississippi. Two, Mississippi. Three—the cauldron explodes into flame so fast that I almost lose the candle—and my arm.
“Hey!” Someone shouts from the beanbag-toss area. “Did you just see what Penelope did?”
Soon, half the school is gathered around the cauldron, and me.
I start to freak out—this is way more attention than I bargained for—but then I look up and see Dr. Minthe grinning at me. And I decide that maybe things are happening exactly the way they should be.
Epilogue
SERIOUSLY? ARE YOU NOT DONEstudying yet?” Fifi throws herself across her bed. “The exam isn’t until next week and I’m starvingnow.”
“I told you to eat more at dinner,” I say without looking up from the essay I’m reading for our ethics class. “And you can totally go to the kitchen without me.”
“But I don’t want to go without you.” She pouts. “You’re my best friend.”
“I am,” I agree. “But that doesn’t mean we have to do everything together. I’m pretty sure you can make a sandwich without me watching over you.”
“I can’t. I’ve forgotten how.”
“Ask someone down there. I’m sure they’ll be able to help you out.” I stop to highlight a particularly important quote before moving on to the next page.
“Come on, Ellie!” This time she throws herself across the bottom ofmybed. “Pleeeeeeeeeease.”
I lower the book so I can look her in the eyes. “We’re going down to make a sandwich and get a drink. We are not going down to talk to whoever is around for the next three hours, watch a movie, and play group Scrabble all at the same time. Agreed?”
“Of course I agree. I mean, when has that ever happened?”
“When has it not?” I snort as I reach for my bookmark and slide it into my textbook before dropping it on the nightstand next to my bed. “Twenty minutes.”
“I’ll only need ten, I swear!” She bounds up from my bed and slips her feet into her slides.
“Somehow I doubt that.” I shove my own feet into the giant flamingo slippers Fifi got me as a present. As I do, I glance at the ketchup-stained list above my bed and can’t help but smile.
I haven’t gotten all the labors done like I planned. And I still haven’t even completed the lightning storm one, though it definitely feels like I should have. But I’ll never forget how good it felt to come back to my room after the festival—and everything that happened there—to find labor number nine crossed off. “Create a pattern from chaos.”
Or how good it felt to actually help Prometheus and Pandora after all those centuries of lies and suffering.
I head for the door, then reverse course and grab my phone. Just in case my twenty-minute time limitmiraculously turns into two hundred minutes. I’m sick of getting stuck down there without anything to do while Fifi talks to everyone in the entire dorm. No exaggeration.
“I think I want some candy,” she tells me as we step into the elevator.
I shoot her a look. “I thought you were hungry, not snacky.”
“I can be both.”
“True, but maybe we should hit the kitchen first, then the candy room? Just so you can, you know, get some nutrition?”
“Where’s the fun in that, I ask you?” As soon as the doors open, Fifi links her arm with mine and starts propelling me down the maze of hallways that leads to the gaming lounge and—eventually—the candy room.
“There is none,” I say, giving in. Mostly because Fifi is an unstoppable force of nature and I’ve learned to pick my battles, but also because I could really go for a bag of M&M’S. I don’t care what my mother says—being an Aphrodite has taught me that chocolate really is brain food.
