Dreams were late in coming that night, and Alice spent most of the hours before dawn turning this way and that, until the covers were a tangled mess, and Altair retreated to the couch. Finally she forced herself to lie still, staring up at the ceiling blankly.

Her mind was too busy, she couldn’t stop thinking about the arrow. It was locked in the desk  downstairs now. The chest was sitting on top of the box with the dagger in it. Soon she’d have an entire collection of weird magical weapons. But did the arrow really give her a hint about which god was coming next, or was it just a weapon? She supposed she could always try stabbing a god to see what it did…

She snorted, and then buried her face in the pillow to keep her giggles quiet. It wouldn’t do to have to explain to Altair why she was laughing like a lunatic at three in the morning. The lack of sleep was clearly getting to her brain.

She had spent half the evening researching greek gods, and now she tried to list off all the gods that came with arrows: Artemis, Apollo, Eros…

Another fit of giggles seized her as she pictured herself battling cupid.

Okay, maybe not Eros. If she was honest with herself, the arrow probably had something to do with Apollo, who had a silver bow with golden arrows given to him by some kind of immortal blacksmith. So that meant that Apollo, god of light had some kind of beef with her? That didn’t seem right. It wasn’t as if she’d ever met the guy.

Maybe they were reading way too much into it. Maybe the arrow was, as Azura had suggested, just something for stabbing with. Something that would help her fight whatever crazy came her way next. But the fact that this mysterious order had given her something else to fight with, implied they thought something else was on the way….

She sunk deeper under her sheets, eyes still fixed to the ceiling. They were right last time.

The ceiling became slowly fuzzy the harder she stared at it, and she blinked sleepily, wondering if she was finally dropping off. She didn’t feel like she was falling asleep. Her brain still felt very awake….

But…the room was starting to fade. It felt like she was sinking deeper into the soft mattress….there were sounds around her suddenly, crickets chirping, the trickling sound of splashing water….

The bedroom was gone.

She was in the jungle again. This time she looked around and there was no one with her. If she tipped her head back and looked up through the heavy green tree tops she could make out the sky. The sun was setting, painting the clouds orange.

Did she recognize this part of the jungle? Had this been the same part she’d walked through to get to the black rock?

Crackling in the underbrush made her freeze, and she spun around, heart slamming against her rib cage. A figure emerged from the trees several feet away. A tall, tanned figure in torn black jeans.

The man in the mask was silent and still as he regarded her, and Alice could hear her blood thrumming in her ears. Her face felt suddenly hot. Every detail was the same, his dark skin, his muscular chest. He finally moved, taking a cautious step towards her. He still moved like a predator, like a hunter.

Was he hunting her?

It didn’t matter, did it? This was only a dream. Besides, as he moved closer, lips curling into a smile, Alice had the distinct impression that this dream man did not intend to hurt her.

The way his eyes glittered behind the mask promised that, Yes, he would hunt her. But if he caught her, the results would not be unpleasant for either of them.

She shivered, arms stiff at her side as he drew nearer.

He stopped, only a foot away from her. His mouth moved underneath the mask.

“Alice.”

The man reached out one hand, touching her cheek, trailing his fingers down her neck onto her bare shoulder. She looked down, shocked to see she was in the same white dress as last time. The collar was too low, it left her feeling venerable, and she tried to concentrate on changing it. This was her dream, right? She should be able to change it.

Nothing happened. There was a soft chuckle, and she looked up to find the man was closer now, his face mere inches away from hers. His lips were so close…

His hand slid around the back of her neck, and he leaned down to whisper something in her ear, his breath tickling her skin, sending goose bumps down her arms. “Alice, wake up.”

Alice sat up straight, gasping in the dark. There was someone standing over her, and she gave a strangled cry, pushing herself back on the mattress.

“Alice! It’s me, just relax.”

She blinked furiously, night vision slowly blurring into focus. Altair was standing over her. He was wearing only boxer shorts, and his hair was messed from sleep. He looked concerned.

“What?” she gasped. “Is someone attacking? What’s wrong?” She started to get up, but Altair put a restraining hand on her arm.

“It’s fine. No one is being attacked, you just had a bad dream, that’s all…”

“I…what?”

“You were mumbling in your sleep, thrashing around and stuff…I came to wake you up and you freaked out.”

Alice could feel her cheeks flush. “Oh, sorry. I didn’t mean to wake you up.” The memory of the dream came back in full, and she hoped Altair couldn’t see her too clearly in the dark. He would certainly ask why a bad dream had her blushing.

“Look, I’m going to sit up for awhile.” She swung her legs over the side of the bed and grabbed her dressing gown off the post. “I’m not sleeping well, and there’s no point keeping you awake. I’ll just stay up and read.”

Altair didn’t protest much. He looked very tired, and flopped over onto the mattress after Alice insisted he get in bed instead of going back to the couch. She was barely out the door before she could hear him begin snoring.

She went straight for the kitchen, where she made herself a cup of tea and set up her lap top on the table. There was no way she was going to get back to sleep. The man in the dream, his voice, it had reminded her of Adam. But was her mind making things up now? Was it possible that she had pinned the “mystery dream man” onto him and now the dreams were changing, only because she wanted them to?

She decided to dismiss the dreams for now. Dreams were dreams, and there was little she could do about them, even if they made her feel guilty. The face of the gorgon woman kept popping up in her mind now that she was awake, and she shivered and wrapped her hands around the tea, watching the steam rise up over the lip of the clay mug. The woman, gorgon…whatever she was, could have turned her to stone. Would have, if it hadn’t been for Adam.

She let one hand hover over the keyboard and slowly typed it the word “gorgon”, clicking on the first search result that popped up.

In Greek mythology, a Gorgon (plural: Gorgons) (ancient Greek: Γοργών or Γοργώ Gorgon/Gorgo) is a female creature. The name derives from the ancient Greek word gorgós, which means "dreadful.

Alice grimaced and took a mouthful of hot tea, ignoring the fact that it scalded her tongue. The woman had been dreadful alright, with her misshapen, scaled face and snake hair. What would her eyes have looked like if she’d taken off the glasses?

She read the next paragraph, mumbling out loud to herself,

While descriptions of Gorgons vary across Greek literature and occur in the earliest examples of Greek literature, the term commonly refers to any of three sisters who had hair made of living, venomous snakes, as well as a horrifying visage that turned those who beheld her to stone. Traditionally, while two of the Gorgons were immortal, Stheno and Euryale, their sister Medusa was not, and she was slain by the mythical demigod and hero Perseus.

Alice drummed her fingers on the table top. So which one had attacked her? If Medusa was dead ,it had to be Stheno or Euryale, right? Or were there more gorgons then just the two of them? Adam had made it sound like there were more than three. But if there were only two gorgons left, wouldn’t they have better things to do than run around attacking people in back alleys?

Which meant someone sent her. Alice leaned back in her chair with a groan. It seemed likely, didn’t it? She got a mysterious package at the front door, and then a gorgon jumped out at her…there was no way that was random. So who had sent the gorgon? Naturally, one of the gods. She rolled her eyes to the ceiling and let out a huff of air that stirred the stray hair hanging in front of her face. Probably a powerful god.

The question was, was it a god who could be effected by the arrow, or did the arrow symbolize which god it was?

She found herself smoothing the half moon charm on her bracelet between a finger and thumb and felt a flash of irritation at Aunt Ruby. Couldn’t she have left a note behind or something? Even a post card explaining that, “Hey! You’re probably going to attract a bunch of insane greek gods. Just thought I’d give you a heads up!”

Yeah right. Too convenient. Mostly, she admitted to herself, she was irritated with this mysterious order that kept popping up, but never really explaining anything. Vague warnings weren’t much good. And weapons were helpful, but a little explanation would have been nice.

She took another sip of tea and then pecked at the keyboard again, typing “Golden arrow, greek gods”. It was really too much to hope for, but…

Her gaze raked over the search results, which were pretty much what she’d expected. Lots about Apollo, Cupid, Artemis…something about Poseidon. She swallowed hard. None of them were good choices, least of all Poseidon. Who wanted the god of the sea after them? She imagined trying to stay away from beaches for the rest of her life, and sighed miserably. This sucks.

Something near the bottom of the page caught her eye, a blog titled “The God Conspiracy”. Idly, she clicked on it, and found herself on a website with a bright green backdrop. The top article was about the “modern gods” and how they “walked among us”. Alice rolled her eyes. A few years ago she would have laughed at this site and dismissed it as the work of a crazy person. Now, instead of clicking out, she scrolled further down the page.

There were more articles, some of them mentioning gods by name. She spotted the words “Epimetheus” and stopped, heart skipping a beat.

Epimetheus Missing! The article shouted in bold black letters. Last known whereabouts: Masquerading as the rockstar, Alexie Ambrose, who many say disappeared quite mysteriously after a highly publicized run in with sorceress, Alice Cunningham.

The tea suddenly tasted bitter in her mouth. Highly publicized? She knew that people talked about it, but she wasn’t aware of any media coverage or anything. The trashy tabloid magazine “Witches” had tried to interview her after, but she’d left them behind when she’d moved the shop, and they didn’t exactly have her phone number.

She scrolled down, feeling the bite of anxiety in her stomach. Were there more articles about her? Had anyone connected her to Athena? She didn’t see how that would be possible, since Athena hadn’t been pretending to be a rockstar. Hopefully nobody knew about her.

Another flashy subtitle caught her eye, “Secret Anti-God Order?” Her hands shook, and she forced them into stillness, clicking on the title. It took her to another page with a longer article.

Secret Anti-God Order?

There is speculation of a top secret order calling themselves “The Halfmoon Order” who practice their activities under the cover of full night. Some say they seek the annihilation of all gods. Some say they exist only to keep the balance and protect the world from the immortals. Others speculate that they are there to further a different agenda altogether.

As of today, there is no known location where the order meets, and no known members to step forward. There is speculation that to step forward would mean instant repercussions by the gods. Are the gods aware of this mysterious order? None of them have ever commented on the subject.

Alice only realized how hard she was chewing her thumbnail when she nearly bit the tip of her thumb. She jerked her hand away and scrolled down frantically. That was the end of the article, there was no more. She cursed under her breath, hitting the back button to search through the rest of the site.