Chapter 11

Stairway To Heaven

The mansion wall-to-wall with the Devil's Pub was Lucy's home, a four story high, brown bricked house with dozens of windows looking out to the Palace of Westminster and the River Thames. Each of us was assigned to a room more luxurious than any place I had ever been in. I laid Perseus' sword on the white nightstand and stared at the perfectly done bed with white silk sheets and goose feathered pillows. It seemed so clean and pure that I was afraid to touch it, let alone lie on it.

After a few minutes sitting on a Louis XIV chair, I was defeated by exhaustion and crashed on the celestial bed. The sheets and pillows received me like the arms of a beautiful girl and I felt in heaven, falling asleep as soon as I took the first breath with my eyes closed.

A sweet perfume filled my lungs as I breathed again, massaging all my inside organs with care, making all the pain, all the stress go away. That new sense of well being made me open my eyes and enjoy the moment for minutes, before focusing my sight and jumping on the bed. I was in a room covered by red walls and white candles, laying alone in a circled bed, on top of dozens of red and pink heart-shaped pillows.

I got up, rose petals covering the white marble floor everywhere in the gigantic room. Forget what I said before about never being in a place as luxurious as Lucy's house, that place made her home look like my tiny room at the back of Mr. Hedge's library.

"Hello, Jack." Said a voice that made my body tremble from head to toe. I turned around and standing there was simply the most drop-dead gorgeous vision I had ever had. For a second, I thought it was Mary. The same big lips and sparkling brown eyes, but then I started recognizing other traits in her face, faded memories of girls that had captured my affection in the past. The woman smiled and I recognized in her flawless cheeks the same cute dimples Jane had when she laughed.

I tried to speak, but the words were stuck in my throat as if they were the size of a battleship. The woman laughed and the sound of it made my knees lose strength.

"You have no reason to be shy around me, Jack. Not you, who always had women fighting over you since you were a little boy. Even I am powerless against Poseidon's dazzling green eyes."

She sat on a white and gold couch, spreading her long red dress around her, capturing the attention of the entire world. I unconsciously sat on the couch in front of her and stared at every single detail about her. The rose in her light brown hair snapped me out of my trance. Suddenly, everything made sense.

"You're Aphrodite," I said. "Mary's mom."

The goddess nodded and laughed.

"I've been called many things in my life, but I like 'Mary's mom'." She winked at me and suddenly her eyes were green like my own. "My baby girl is beautiful isn't she? Sweet like her father. He was the Governor of the Caribbean Islands when we met. Ugh, I miss the beach. I love London, but this weather could be a little better."

I swallowed dry and stared at my hands, I touched the couch stuffing and felt it perfectly between my fingers.

"Is this real?" I asked.

Aphrodite arched an eyebrow and thought. "Hmmm… Think of it as an erotic dream. It's real while you're in it. And sometimes a dream can give you more pleasure than real life."

My throat went dry. "So this is a dream?"

The goddess of love rolled her eyes and chuckled. "You won't let this go, will you, Jack? Yes, this is a dream. But it doesn't mean that I am not here, talking to you. Do you understand?"

I nodded. "No."

"Well, you don't need to, what's important is that you understand of what we're going to talk about here. Your heart." She pointed at my chest and I felt my heartbeat accelerate rapidly.

"What about it?" I said, instinctively, trying to catch my breath.

"Well, don't you realize yet, Jack? You are kind of divided." Aphrodite smirked and I thought of Mary. The resemblance was incredible. Then I noticed Jane's adorable dimples on her cheeks, and her green eyes carrying a well known sparkle of intensity. "Do you see? My baby girl is gorgeous, I know, she can distract any man. But the reason why you haven't realized this, Jack, it's because she has always been there beside you, always accompanying you, ready to take a life to protect you."

I widened my eyes and felt a hole in my chest. Aphrodite was right, something was missing. She was always there with me, always watching over me, always beside me. A knot closed my throat and my heart speeded like a Pegasus in the sky.

"Jane. How did you… How did you know?" I said.

Aphrodite rolled her eyes. "They call me the goddess of love for a reason, Jack."

I still couldn't believe in what my own heart was telling me. I was so busy admiring Mary's beauty, that I didn't even notice how much I missed Jane when we were apart.

"I can understand what you see in her, Jack. Her father does the same with me. All that intensity, the fire in their eyes. It just makes you feel so alive." The goddess of love closed her eyes and bit her lip. The sight of it made my entire body burn and, before I could realize, I was covering my lap with a pillow.

Aphrodite looked at it and chuckled. "You don't have to hide it from me, honey, I'm used to it. Well, I'd be worried if you weren't hard." She winked and threw her hair back.

"The reason why I brought you here, Jack, is because a divided heart is a sad heart. A man can love two women, but he can only truly love one. The destiny of all of this you see, of the entire Olympus, of all the gods, lie in your hands, son of Poseidon. And I don't want you to fail just because your heart wasn't in the right place. I'm here to help you."

"All you did till now was make me more confused." I said, scratching my head.

"Your heart was already confused, honey. I only realized you of it." Aphrodite shrugged. "And that is all I can do for you, unfortunately. I did what I had to do, now it's up to you and your heart to decide. What's it going to be? My daughter's unparalleled beauty and charm, or the daughter of Ares' intensity and loyalty?," She got up, took off the rose in her hair and offered it to me. "Whatever you decide, just be sure to listen to your heart. Be sure that it is where it truly belongs."

I touched the red petals of the rose and suddenly everything was blackness. For a second, it was as if my consciousness was lost in the emptiness, detached from my body. Then all I could see was the tester of the large four-poster bed in Lucy's mansion, the silk sheets and pillows all around me. I looked over to the window and saw a fading light on the horizon. Could it be that I had awaken with the sunrise? But we came back from seeing Lady Thames at almost 6 in the morning. Only after a few minutes I realized that I was looking west, not east.

I sat in bed and felt the weight in my head, result of sleeping with the sunlight on my face. I got up, put on my boots and strapped Perseus' sword to my belt, before rushing out of the room and down the long and tall corridor that ended in the dining room.

"Good afternoon, sunshine." Jane said, her mouth full of bread. "We've been expecting you since we woke up, thirty minutes ago."

I looked at her and my heart sank, sitting beside her on the bed was Mary, watching me with her brown eyes while eating soup. She smiled at me at the same time that Jane did and I felt as if my heart was going to explode in two pieces.

"We slept all day," I said, trying to distract myself. "Where's Lucy? Gregory?"

I sat on the table in front of them and focused my attention on the feast served before me. There was enough meat, turkey and fruits on the table to keep me fed for an entire month. Jane shrugged and I looked at the mountain of food on her plate.

"According to the maids, Lady Fair goes to work as soon as the sun rises. As for prince charming, no sign of him." Jane's fiery green eyes focused on my face and I tried to restrain my cheeks from blushing.

"Aren't you worried about Gregory?" I asked Mary, who seemed to be in a trance, staring at her soup. She snapped out of it, looked at me and smiled.

"What? Oh, no. It's okay, he can handle it on his own."

"It's weird though. I mean, what was he doing all this time?" I said, trying to focus my mind on something other than Jane's breasts and Mary's lips.

"He's probably sleeping, like all of us. I had such a good time sleeping, by the way. What about you, Jack?" Jane asked.

"Weird dreams." I said quickly, before returning my attention to the food before me.

After a brief silence, Mary sighed and Jane grunted in reaction.

"What is it, you miss your prince?" She asked, rolling her eyes at the daughter of Aphrodite, who stared sadly at the roasted turkey in the middle of the magnificent table.

"No, I don't. Not one single bit." Mary said, distracted. "That's what worries me."

Jane put as much food on her plate as she could and got up, her eyes going from Mary to me. "You guys depress me. Seriously. I'm going to eat by the window."

Jane got off the table and sat on a luxurious chair near the window, the sunset light making her hair shine in an orange flare, almost as if her head was surrounded by a bright flame as intense as the Aries blood that ran in her veins. My heart pounded against my chest. I've always known Jane was a beautiful girl, but that much? I wondered how I could have been so blind.

"Jack…" Mary's voice whispered, I turned to face her and saw a sublime sadness in her eyes.

"What is it?"

Her eyes moved, as if she was looking for something in my gaze.

"Nothing." She said, sadly, before returning to the food on her plate. I took a deep breath and sighed. Aphrodite was right, a divided heart is a sad heart.

The night took over the sky and Lucy appeared in the mansion, ready to come with us to the well on the 23rd street north of the Palace of Westminster, where Lady Thames told us was the entrance to one of Aphrodite's secret passageways to Olympus.

"Where's the son of Zeus?" Lucy asked when we mounted Ace and Cherry.

"No sign of him." I said, holding my breath while Jane wrapped her arms around me.

Lucy, who was mounted behind Mary, looked worried at the full moon above us.

"I thought you didn't care for the prince." Jane said. Lucy looked at her and shrugged.

"I don't." She said, trying to hide something I couldn't figure out. "That's a nice Pegasus you two got there, by the way. Where did you find him?" She looked at us with a playful smirk on her face.

"Sorry." I said, stroking Ace's neck. Lucy smiled and chuckled.

"Don't worry. Let's just say he's your early Christmas present, cousin."

I smiled and we galloped through the night, Cherry and Ace racing vigorously toward the 23rd street. The shadows in the corners and alleys of the city seemed thicker and darker that night, and I immediately knew that something was off.

"This is going to be a long night." I heard Jane whispering behind me. More than that, it would be a night that would never end.

We arrived at our destination, twenty minutes after we left Lucy's mansion. The 23rd street was one of the many merchant streets of London, surrounded by nothing but commerce on either sides of pavement. I could see why Aphrodite picked that place to hide her secret passageway – at night the street was completely deserted.

We got off the pegasi and circled the large stone well. It seemed just as common as any other well in England, except for a little detail that went by unnoticed by most people.

"Guys, look." Mary said, pointing at a stone block at the top of the well. It was carved with the shape of a rose. "My mother's symbol. This is it."

Lucy leaned forward to look into the well and sighed. "Not a big fan of water. Jack, you want to go first?"

I looked at her, Mary and Jane and shrugged. The first, the last, it wouldn't make any difference. I prepared myself to dive into the well when a voice sounded from the darkness.

"It's a wise choice. This entrance was designed for a being of the water, something tells me only a child of Poseidon could bear to open it." Gregory emerged from a dark alley, his white clothes and silver armor stained with dirt, as if he had lain down in the street.

Beside me, Lucy narrowed her eyes. "How long have you been here? Did you try to open the passageway by yourself?" She said, pointing at the son of Zeus' wet boots.

We all looked at him and he seemed surprised. "What? This is nothing! Don't let her play with your minds, she only wants to turn you against me. Believe her and we're doomed, Olympus is doomed!"

"Where were you all day, huh?" Lucy said, standing closer to him, her chin raised in defiance.

"Trying to stay away from you, hellhound!" He screamed on her face. Lucy closed her eyes with fury and removed her ring, making the dark bladed sword appear in her right hand.

"You are getting on my nerve, Gregory." She whispered in a terrifying way. Thunder cracked the night and Gregory smirked.

"I want to see you try, Lucy Fair." He said, pulling out his sword. They were raising their weapons when I got between them.

"You two, stop! This is not the time!" I said, my head turning from Lucy to Gregory. "We have a job to do here, a job that is more important than you, than me, than any of us. So please, let's focus!"

After seconds, Lucy was the first to put her sword away. "You're right, Jack. Let's do this."

Gregory stared at me and Lucy and lowered his sword, watching in silence as I prepared to go down the well. I looked at the dark water and took a deep breath. Not that I'd need it, but it was a force of habit. I jumped inside the well and fell for almost ten meters, before diving inside the cold and soothing water. Swimming down, I quickly reached the bottom of the well, using my hands to try to find something in the darkness, some type of switch that would open the passageway.

After almost 5 minutes, my fingers touched a brick with carving on it. Using the tip of my fingers, I felt what seemed like the shape of a rose. Sure that I had found the switch, I pressed the brick with all my strength. A click echoed in the water as the brick was pushed inside the wall and I felt something pushing my ankle.

And then total disorientation. I couldn't see or hear anything while a strong force pulled by the ankle in great speed, going down, then up, then forward, then up again. I opened my arms and felt stone walls covered by water around me. After minutes, I saw myself being thrown out of the water and falling harshly on a stone floor.

Completely dry, I looked around. I was in some type of underground temple. Greek columns and statues were all around me, torches illuminating the place, making me feel as if I had been sucked back to ancient Greece, given the perfect state of the monuments around me. In one of the walls, huge marble doors with the shape of a rose carved in the middle stood before me like two giants. I came closer and touched the cold marble. The gigantic doors slowly opened sideways, making a loud noise of stone sliding on stone.

After some time, I was able to see what was on the other side – a large spiral stair, made of white marble, that went as high as the eye could see.

"Woah." I whispered to myself. Before turning back to the water and waiting for the others to arrive. It didn't take much time, after a few minutes, I saw Jane being thrown out of the water and onto the stone. She coughed violently as water poured out of her mouth. I ran over to her and tried to help her, but she got up before I could do anything.

"That was fun." She said, coughing furiously, gasping desperately for air. In less than a minute, the other three appeared beside us, first Lucy, then Mary and for last Gregory. They all needed some minutes to recover from the ride. I guess holding your breath for minutes while being violently pulled in all directions wasn't exactly easy for other demigods.

After some time, we seemed to be ready to move on.

"My gods," Lucy said, staring at the endless staircase. "The road to Olympus at last. My father would be proud."

"Yes, he will be proud."

Before I could do anything, my knees went numb and I fell on the floor, my entire body tensed and hurting. I heard steps near my head and a chuckle that made all the hair in my body stand up.

"Thank you for the help, Jack, ladies." Gregory said, going toward the staircase. "Got to be sure Lord Hades finds the door open when he gets to Olympus tonight."

My mind raced in confusion. Gregory? What was happening? Beside me, I heard Lucy struggling to whisper something. I looked at her in time to see her using her last energies to talk to me.

"I… Always… Knew." She managed to say, before closing her eyes and passing out because of the electric shock that Gregory unleashed on us. Behind me, I could feel Mary and Jane completely inert on the ground.

The son of Zeus approached me and pulled me by the hair, but I didn't feel any pain. He kneeled on the ground and whispered in my ear.

"I win, Jack."

And that is the last thing I remember before falling unconscious, exhausted by the power of Gregory's lightning.