Page 2 of Lies Among Gods

Clara rolled her eyes, the gesture sharp and dismissive. Without another sound, Clara and Emily retreated down the dimly lit hallway.

A hollow ache twisted in Lyra’s stomach, a cold, churning dread.It’s impossible she doesn’t know, could she? My parents don’t even know. I got the letter before they could even see it. No one should know because it is not a public record when a God denies you. They only make it public when they accept you to worship. Maybe I said something wrong yesterday. Maybe someone told her a lie. It can’t be about the rejection letter; there’s no way.

Every muscle in her body screamed with a dull throb, mirroring the tight knot of tension coiling in her stomach. A sickly, sour wave of nausea crept up her throat, tasting the bile. The urge to bolt, to escape and bury herself in the familiar comfort of home, was a palpable pull. But she lifted her chin, the smooth, cool skin feeling taut against her resolve, and forced herself down the echoing hall.My parents would ground me for the rest of my life if I ditched.

Each step echoed softly on the polished floor as she navigated the long hallway. The air, thick with the indistinct hum of hushed conversations, grew into a cacophony of distinct murmurs. Then she saw him. Adrian laughing with a circle of friends. A lock of disheveled, rich chocolate brown hair fell artfully over one eye, reminding her of her favorite one of the Fallen Boys, Georgie. The instant his dark brown eyes, so warm moments before, met hers, the laughter abruptly ceased, replaced by a chilling haughtiness that settled over his features like a shadow. In that heart-stopping second, a tidal wave of every gnawing fear crashed over her.He knows I was denied.She didn’t know how he knew, but she knew he did.

Her breath hitched as she recoiled, a primal urge to bolt overriding the icy dread of parental fury. She wanted to shrink into the shadows and just vanish from existence.

“Lyra,” Adrian yelled across the hall. Snickers came from behind him as his friends turned to look at her.

She could feel the eyes of everyone in the hall boring a hole into her soul. Her face burned as she knew there was nowhere to run now that she was in the spotlight. She recoiled, the icy disdain in his eyes like a physical blow, a sharp chill prickling her skin.

A smirk played across Adrian’s face as he stopped about five feet away. He swept his gaze over the sea of faces as a murmur rippled through the throng. He paused as if confirming the crowd attuned to his every word. Her heartbeat so fast in her chest she thought it might break free of her ribcage. She clutched her book to her chest, as if it were some shield that might protect her from her worst fears coming to life.

She had been in love with Adrian from the first day she saw him in kindergarten. For years, he’d passed her by; she was a silent ghost in the periphery of his life. Then, a shift last year, and he started talking to her. She had been so surprised since she had just watched him from a distance, never thinking he would look her way. When he asked her out on that first date, a wave of pure elation washed over her, so intense she felt a dizzying lightness, as if the very air around her had thickened and hummed. She had spent the last year making sure he didn’t break up with her. She only ate the foods he liked, she made sure to never eat too much; she hung out with his friends, did the things he wanted to do, only wore shoes that made sure she stayed shorter, and she had even applied to worship the same God as his family just to make sure he would be happy with her. If he didn’t like an outfit, she got rid of it. Haircuts needed hisapproval. She had based her whole life on him, and now she felt that life crumbling.

The enveloping crowd went quiet as if to make sure they heard every word. Tears pricked the corners of her eyes while she tried to fight them back. She swallowed the lump in her throat, unable to speak around it.

“Did you think I wouldn’t find out?” he said, dramatically shaking his head. His voice was so loud she thought it might carry to every ear in the school.

“I don’t know what you mean.” She could hear the tremor in her voice as she tried to control the raging fear and sadness swamping her heart.

“You can stand here and lie all you want,” he snorted. He brushed a hand through his hair, removing the strands from the eye it had covered. “But I’m done lowering myself to your standards.” His mouth twisted into a cruel smile. “I need a partner who’s… divinely aligned. I can’t date you anymore.”

She stood there, staring at him. Hoping this was a joke, some prank that was being pulled on her for some childish video that would be posted on Pantheia later. That at any moment someone would jump out with their phones, laughing at her for believing this cruel joke.

“Don’t you get it?” he laughed cruelly. “This is me breaking up with a girl who wasn’t worthy enough to worship my God. So go—crawl back to whatever forgotten corner you came from. Maybe some pathetic deity will accept what the pantheon wouldn’t. May the gods ever be with you.”

Adrian turned to his friends, his shoulders shaking as he laughed. “Did you see her face? Like, did she expect me to keep dating her? She wasn’t even that pretty to begin with. I always could do better.”

“I don’t even know why you dated her to begin with. We all know Elio wouldn’t accept someone like her,” one of his friends said.

“That was my last charity case,” Adrian laughed before entering the classroom.

Tears streamed down her face as the crowd dispersed. She knew their eyes were on her, but she could no longer feel them. She knew they were whispering, gossiping about her, but she couldn’t hear the voices over the crushing pressure of her heartbreak. Her heart felt like it had shattered in her chest, the shards tearing at her insides, causing internal bleeding.

She tried to take a breath, to push herself to put one foot in front of the other, but she was rooted to the spot. The crowd thinned, shuffling to their classes, but she didn’t move. The bell rang, signaling that class had started, causing her to jump. She looked at the empty halls, no longer caring if she got into trouble. She turned, her vision blurred and headed towards the exit.

Chapter seven

CHAPTER 2

When the Ocean and Earth joined the Sun, balance was achieved, and balance demanded gratitude expressed through devotion. It was then that Zephryn Vale descended, her unseen hands testing us with wind and time, teaching us to endure without breaking.

Snippet from “The Book of Natural History” By Priestess Antonella Killoran

Present Day

Lyra looked up from her bowl of cereal, her spoon filled with milk and crunchy bits. Her mother’s face, a mirror image etched with years, loomed above her. Diane’s chocolate-brown eyes were clouded with a heavy, silent disappointment, a palpable hopelessness settling in the air between them. Lyra knew she was about to get the speech about hanging in there,and she would get approved. She would no longer be the ‘unaligned one’, a title that had followed her since her first rejection at sixteen. Then she could find an actual job and move out. Her two brothers had already moved out and married, and here Lyra was, recently fired again for what seemed like the millionth time because she was not properly aligned with their core values, aka godless. Lyra sighed, thinking about how she was applying for the last god on the list, the fifteenth god she would apply for the god of strife. He denied no one, so she was a shoo-in for a life of misery and menial tasks.

“Honey, you just need to keep your chin up,” Diane Nymphaea finally said, her voice thin. She placed her hands flat on the table, leaning slightly forward. “There is still a god left. You haven’t tried the Goddess of Peace yet, have you? They’re a quiet congregation, but they accept people. There’s always the God of Shadows as well. Or...” she hesitated, her gaze drifting to the window as if the solution lay somewhere outside, “Or you could try the God of Strife. Alaios. He accepts anyone, right? Even if the worship is... difficult. It’s still a place to belong.”

Lyra pushed a piece of cereal around her bowl; the milk was almost gone. “I tried the Goddess of Peace last year twice and last month, Mom. Remember? She said my aura lacked submission. And the God of Shadow said my light was too distracting. I’m applying to Alaios today. He’s the very last one on the list. I have faced rejection from every god but him. Some multi-times.”

A long silence settled between them, broken only by the clinking of Lyra’s spoon against the ceramic bowl as swirled the last bit of cereal around.

“Maybe start by showing him proper respect and calling him by title,” Diane sighed. “You should call him God Alaios, not just use his first name.”