I would have thanked the gods that I wasn't dead again if I wasn't in so much pain. The asshole who hit me didn't even bother to stop. Guess people drive like they do in Toronto all over the world. I jostled around on Erik's shoulder as we headed down the sewer tunnel, following, what I was told was a fox spirit.

“I think I can walk now.” I told Erik for the fourth time, but he still won't put me down. Finally he stopped running and I wasn't bouncing around on his shoulder. He set me down gently like an elderly person. Looking over my legs, he shook his head.

“You really ought to be more careful. I don’t know how you manage to have such poor luck.” He said, bending my knees in and out. They made an awful crunching sound but I was able to push back some resistance. I knew the Scythe would knit me back together eventually, but it seemed like a slow going process.

“Ow,” I complained. “I slaughtered an entire caravan of gypsies once. Don’t know if that has anything to do with it.” I joked about my poor luck. In reality, it had always been like this. I distinctly remember falling out of a tree I was climbing in my front yard as a kid. I had been so proud that I got all the way to the top. When my Dad came out and saw me up there, he screamed at me to get down. Looking down, I knew I was screwed and in my fear, I let go. I tumbled out of that tree, and hit every branch on the way down. Which, in hindsight, probably stopped me from a straight plummet to the ground, and a far worse injury. I had broken my shoulder, collarbone and both legs, and the whole way to the hospital my Dad just kept telling me how much of a fuck-up I was. Enough that the paramedics had to tell him to lay off.

I wasn't sure why that memory had stuck with me for so long, or why it was important here.

Erik stared at me for a long moment, his face blank.

“I didn't actually kill any gypsies.” I admitted.

"Right, I knew that." He nodded, eyeing me over. I guess with the power of the Scythe, murdering an entire encampment of people wasn't outside the realm of possibilities and Erik was just checking to see if the weapon was in the wrong hands.

I saw Tadashi up ahead, kneeling in front of a three-tailed fox who was sitting pretty with its head cocked to the side, regarding our team.

“What’s up with your new pet?” I asked Tadashi. He turned around and looked at me like I had insulted his ancestors. His frown was telling.

"Have some respect. Aiko was the one who got us away." He said coldly.

“My bad." I shut up quickly after that. The fox yipped and tilted her head up, as if the thought of her being a pet was undignified.

Tadashi motioned with his hands, like the lady from Wheel of Fortune, as if to prove his point. Almost like he understood what the fox was trying to say.

“Is she really a Kitsune? Can she transform?” Amelia asked, approaching slowly, admiring the elegant fox.

The fox nodded and stared directly at me. It had steely eyes that had almost human expressionism.

“Errr...I'm sorry for calling you a pet?” I told her. The fox looked over the group, like she was taking in each of our faces. It was like she was counting us. When she seemed content, she scampered off, back down the way we had come.

This book's true home is on another platform. Check it out there for the real experience.

“Thanks, I guess." Erik called after it, looking back at the fox and then offering his hand to help steady me. I took it and stood, putting my weight on his shoulder as to not agitate my poor shattered kneecaps. Ethan clapped his hands and moved up to Tadashi.

“Can you speak fox?” He asked innocently. Tadashi raised both of his eyebrows in shock and looked like he was about to say something. Instead he sighed and shook his head.

"No Ethan, I do not speak fox." He said, exasperated. He walked away from Ethan to move further down the tunnel, probably scouting ahead. After a while, we all followed along behind him.

It was weird being down here. I could feel the auras of all the people that had been buried beneath the city of Athens. I could see wisps of light, which I assumed to be spirits or ghosts that had a hard time passing on. I wondered if Alma would be busy here, or if there was an Athens-specific Reaper that dealt with this kind of thing. She hadn't come back in a while, and I was starting to notice her absence. She had been around on and off since the hospital, but had been distant since all the undead began worshipping her on the ship. I wondered if I had said something to offend her, as I often did.

We arrived at a service ladder leading upward and we ascended to the world above. I went up last, moving slowly as my knees threatened to buckle every time I stepped up a rung. When I finally got up there, the sun was still high in the sky and burned the crap out of my eyes. I hissed in discomfort and pulled my hood back over my head. I heard one of them chuckling at me, but I didn’t turn around to figure out who.

The Parthenon was not quite what I had expected. Due to all the magical stuff I’d seen lately, I had expected the place to be a shrine to Athena, in pristine condition and serviced by priestesses. Instead I found myself staring at a bunch of scaffolding holding up the rocky remains of what used to be a work of art. There were steel guard rails all about the cracked terrain and security guard shacks all over the place, manned by fat, sweaty security who didn't seem too interested in doing their job.

Erik led the group up over the white stone outcroppings and passed the guard rails. Before we could all get up and inside the actual temple, a security guard called out to us.

“Den boreíte na páte ekeí! You can’t go!” He shouted. I’m glad he did his own translations of the first part of what he said for us, seeing as how none of us spoke Greek. Anders should have let Kalysta tag along, so we at least had a translator. But he had cautioned us against doing exactly what we were doing. Probably for good reason.

Erik turned on this guy, looking like he was ready for a fight, but Orion put his hand on his chest and trotted back down to the security guard. He was far enough out of earshot that I couldn't hear what he was saying, but he laughed loudly a couple of times and made very dramatic gestures with his arms. He turned and motioned to us and there was some more hand waving. The guard looked hesitant, but he smiled and nodded shortly after. Orion came jaunting back up to us, with his signature grin.

“What did you say to him?" Erik asked, as Orion let us up, gesturing dramatically at the stone ruins of the Parthenon.

"I may have lied about being a youth group for teens with special needs." He said, laughing. Despite the connotations, I laughed too.

It was all open space when we got to the top, but the back opened into an amphitheater looking space. We spaced out and started looking around. I assumed they were looking for things that only trained Order members would find, so I kinda just stumbled around touching stuff. I would have to get some proper field training sometime when we weren't sneaking around off mission. The stone was chalky and cold, despite the sunlight. The craftsmanship was probably nowhere near as impressive as it would have been originally. Off of the main stage of the amphitheater, I found an old corridor, partially collapsed. It looked like it might have contained rooms or cells once upon a time. In a small alcove was a statue of the Virgin Mary or something, carved from a very different kind of stone, like it had been placed hear much more recently. Underneath, by the statues feet, there was a symbol painted in black ink. I had no idea what it meant. I ran my fingers along it, tracing the intricate markings and then moved up to run my hands along the statue. Someone had clearly put a great deal of effort into it. I touched the base and tried to pick it up. It lifted, but only slightly and I heard the click of some kind of mechanism beneath me.

I instantly regretted my curious nature as I fell through the floor and down a flight of stairs that had opened up beneath me. As I rolled down the long flight of stairs, cursing my rotten luck, I wondered how long it would take the rest of the team to find me.