Chapter One: Nothing
The stars winked brightly overhead, as if to mock her.
She stumbled through the woods, darkness swiftly overtaking her. Her muscles ached with every step while her lungs burned as she gasped for air.
Physical pain was a newly found sensation- one of the many prices to pay for the act of betrayal she had committed.
Tears began to fall as she continued to stagger through the twilit forest. She had lost everything because of him.
Because of him, everything she had was gone: her home, her family, Ladon, her immortality, her legacy. All of it, for naught, for the accursed bastard had promised her everything and left her with nothing. Now, even the memory of her would fade from the earth, and she would be forgotten forever, just like a mortal.
"Damn you-" She choked on his name, for she had sworn on the River Styx to never speak it again.
"Accursed hero," She snarled. Even the thought of him brought back bitter memories.
Never again would she see Ladon, with his hundreds of heads, or her four sisters, or the gardens she had cherished above all else. She had naively bought into the hero's mellifluous lies, and he had shattered her faith and dreams, and with it, her world.
She let out a strangled sob and finally allowed herself to cry aloud. After all these days of wandering brokenly through the woods, she finally let herself embrace the truth.
She, Zoë Nightshade, had nothing left.
By the time she summoned up the energy to stand, the moon had already risen high above the treetops, bathing the forest in a silvery glow.
It was deathly still- not even the air stirred. An ominous breeze fluttered through the trees for a moment before dissipating, leaving Zoë with a sense of great unease.
She unsheathed her only weapon-a small dagger forged from celestial bronze. It was yet another painful reminder of the hero, and the weapon he had creating using the gift she had given him. Anaklusmos.
Shaking her head to clear her thoughts, Zoë raised the dagger aloft, nerves tingling with a combination of fear and anticipation.
She heard the hiss and scarcely managed to roll out of the way in time, briars, branches, and other forms of foliage cutting into her skin. Where she had been standing not a moment before, there was an explosion of heat and light, tearing the soil from the earth.
Zoë pivoted to face her attacker.
Manticore.
There stood before her a lion-like creature, it's maw gaping open to reveal several sets of sharp, pointed teeth, ready to tear into her flesh. A leathery, thorny tail thrashes about, ready to wreak destruction.
Zoë resisted the overwhelming desire to flee, for the sight of the Manticore's tail told her that she wouldn't make it far.
Instead, she grasped her dagger and glared at the Manticore in the eye. Perhaps, if she imagined it was the hero, she would stand a chance.
The Manticore launched more thorny projectiles her way, trying to either impale or explode her. Despite the agonized screams of her muscles, Zoë darted to one side, trying to find a way to approach the vicious beast without having her head blown off.
And suddenly, the Manticore leaped, claws outstretched, a ferocious roar emitting from its maw that threatened to split the very trees in two.
Zoë Nightshade leapt backwards, knife still raised, but she knew that it was much too late. She could already feel the metallic claws ripping into her, tearing the life from her.
A howl shattered the night sky, causing her blood to freeze in her veins. Zoë glanced up to see the Manticore with a solitary silver arrow piercing its hide. The Manticore twisted in its fury, attempting to locate its attackers.
Its attackers, Zoë 's saviors, stood at the edges of the clearing, dressed in white robes. For one moment, she had the foolish notion that it was her sisters, the Hesperides, come to save her.
But of course, that would never be. She had left them, and they would never meet again.
The Manticore howled in agony once more as another silvery, lethal arrow pierced its foreleg. In a matter of seconds, its whole hide sprouted with arrows, so that it resembled a larger-than life cactus.
There was one last twang of a bowstring, and a silver arrow protruded from the Manticore's forehead. With one last wail of bitter anguish, the monster burst into golden dust, sent back to the pits of Tartarus.
"I must wonder, what is a Daughter from the Garden doing here?"
Zoë turned towards the sound of the voice. It belonged to a young girl, who could not have been over thirteen years old. Her auburn hair burned like fire in the night, and her eyes gleamed silver as the moon.
The words lodged in her throat. It had been a long time since someone had called her by that name.
"Who art thou?" Suspicions nagged at the back of Zoë's mind- suspicions fueled by curses her father had spit at the gods from atop the mountain.
The girl tilted her head, mouth quirking into a wry smile at the irony that she should meet the daughter of a titan on these grounds.
"I am the Maiden goddess of the Hunt. I am Artemis."
It was everything she could have asked for. Another chance at life- immortal life. She would have a home again, a family. She could have sisters again, ones who would never desert her.
And the only price to pay was to forswear men forever.
To Zoë, that was not a price; it was a benefit. To gain a second chance at having an immortal family while at the same time renouncing those who had been the cause of all her strife: the Fates must be feeling very merciful indeed.
Perhaps Zoë had already known, before Artemis had asked her, that she would recite the pledge to the goddess.
She took a breath, her last breath as a forgotten mortal, and recited the vow that would change everything.
"I pledge myself to the goddess Artemis. I turn my back on the company of men, accept eternal maidenhood, and join the Hunt."
"I accept it." The silver goddess said, her voice starlight. "Welcome to the Hunt, Zoë Nightshade."
And with those words, nothing would ever be the same.