by S. L. Stacy
“I told them!” Farrah insists, cowering tremulously. “I told them they were better than this—”
“This has all been under your watch. Your supervision. Your unparalleled wisdom,” Hera sneers.
“It’s not her fault!” Victoria protests, making Farrah jump. “I hadn’t accomplished anything before she got here. She had to make up for my failure.”
“That’s very endearing, coming to your mother’s defense. But it doesn’t change the fact that both of you have proved to be completely inept. And all of you,” she adds, brown eyes sparking as they sweep the room. “Those Real Housewives bicker less than you do. And is this how you welcome someone into the bonds of your sisterhood? With half-hearted attempts at conversation, sideways glances, disgusted frowns? Poking fun at her behind her back? Accusing her of deception?” She looks directly at Tanya, who’s eyes shift quickly to the floor. Then, Hera’s head turns to me. “Only one of you was kind to Harriet. Made her feel welcome just as she was.”
“Just look at them,” Athena pleads, gesturing at all of our hunched shoulders and hanging heads. “They understand that the way they’ve been acting is wrong—that they can’t go on like this. They’ve learned their lesson. Please, Hera—we have so much to do. One of the sisters is missing and—”
“Oh, silly me.” Hera shakes her head in disbelief. “How could I have forgotten that little misstep? One of your sisters is possibly in grave danger, and you let yourself get distracted by rush parties and dances and getting revenge on the Alpha Rhos—not to mention holding one of their members hostage in the basement!”
“Yes. I know. I know I went too far,” Victoria says. “So punish me. Do whatever you want—to me. But leave them out of it. Their actions are merely a reflection of what’s really wrong with this chapter: bad leadership. Don’t take it out on them. Hold me accountable.”
“I do,” Hera assures her. “Oh, I do. But I’m about to teach all of you a little lesson in accountability.”
Athena’s dark eyes grow even darker. “Your Highness, don’t do this. Don’t act so rashly. We should talk about this.” Her eyes dart between Farrah, herself and Hera.
Hera shrugs. “It’s already done.”
The rest of us look at each other in confusion. Then, clutching her stomach, Tanya realizes: “The brownies—”
The word ends in a squeak as my roommate, along with everyone else—everyone except me, Victoria and our Elders—start to shrink.
Once again, bones grind and shift. Muscle ripples underneath flesh that’s rapidly sprouting downy white feathers. Legs and feet shrivel and harden into pinkish talons. The wings erupting from their slightly plump bodies are smaller and somewhat less majestic than those of Nike’s descendants.
And before I can really digest what is happening around me, instead of being surrounded by thirty-something smiling, laughing sisters, I’m peering down at thirty-something cooing, preening doves.
“You can’t do this!” Victoria shrieks. There’s a crack of thunder outside on this cloudless, sunny day. “Turn them back! Now!”
Athena wraps a sturdy arm around Victoria’s trembling shoulders. “You could have waited. You’ve just ruined our chances of getting Carly back.”
“I didn’t ruin anything,” Hera says. “I may have made things a bit more difficult…you’ll just have to work harder, I guess. But that won’t be a problem…will it?” Turning on her heel, she walks toward the front door, slender shoulders back, head held high like she’s carrying a stack of books on it.
“But w-wait!” Farrah breaks out into a run, reaching for Hera. Her fingers grab hold of the back of Hera’s ill-fitting dress. “They can’t just stay like this forever! Tell us how to change them back!”
“Hands off, harlot,” Hera barks, and Farrah pulls her hand back, folding her arms across her chest. “The girls shall remain like this indefinitely. Prove yourselves worthy, and I will gladly give you the antidote that changes them back to their human forms.”
“But how do we do that?” Victoria cries to the back of Hera’s head. “How do we prove ourselves?”
Without another look behind her, Hera says, “That is for you to figure out, and me to judge.” She whisks out into the warm sunshine, letting the door close with a bang.
***
“What are we going to do?” Victoria says for the millionth time today, sitting hunched over at the kitchen table. One of the doves has landed in her lap, and she pets it absently. A few others are waddling around on the floor. The rest have found perches all over the downstairs.
“You’re the super advanced deity,” I grunt as I try to pull the strap of my purse out from underneath one of the dove’s butts. “Figure it out.” As I tug harder, the bird seems to settle further into place, puffing out its chest stubbornly. It glares at me sideways with one of its beady black eyes. I’m pretty sure it’s Tanya.
“I still can’t believe she did that,” Athena sighs, shaking her head.
“I can.” Farrah comes out of the kitchen, a container of non-fat yogurt in hand. “Hera’s always been a conniving bitch.”
I raise my eyebrows. “That’s a far cry from ‘Your Magnificence.’”
“She’s our queen. I have to butter her up a little,” Farrah insists. “Not that she needs it. She’s pretty full of herself as it is.”
Suddenly, my purse breaks free as the Tanya bird takes off, swooping toward the dining room. Something white plummets through the air as she passes over Farrah’s head before coming to perch on the back of one of the kitchen chairs. Farrah’s jade eyes flare with anger as she gingerly taps the top of her head with a finger.
“You shit on my head,” she hisses, shoulders quaking. “Which one of you shit on my head?” Farrah glowers at the dove as it buries its face in its shoulder, nipping its feathers with its beak. “You better hope we don’t get the antidote any time soon, because when we do, I will—”
“Let it go,” Victoria says. “Be nice. You know she didn’t mean to.” Her lips twitch as she tries not to laugh. Athena has less restraint and has to cover her mouth with her hand.
Taking a deep breath, Farrah straightens up and starts upstairs. “Well, I’m off to take a shower. Then, we have work to do. My hair,” we can hear her whimpering as she disappears around the bend in the stairs. “My beautiful hair!”
Speaking of work. “Oh, God!” I exclaim, raking my fingers through my hair. “How could I forget? With everything happening so fast, I just—”
“What is it?” Victoria asks as she tries to nudge the bird off her lap. “Shoo. Shoo!”
“I…I know where Carly is,” I tell them, a guilty blush rising to my cheeks.
The dove shoots off her lap when Victoria jumps to her feet. “What? How? Well, where is she?”
“One thing at a time.” Athena makes a calming motion with her hands. “Siobhan, tell us what happened.”
“Apate’s brother told me everything—”
“I thought Eric had him imprisoned somewhere!” Victoria cuts me off.
“He does. He told me…in my head.”
“Uh-uh.” My big sister shakes her head. “That’s not possible.”
“It is. He communicated with me through this.” Reluctantly, I take the shield necklace out from underneath my shirt. “I sort of…borrowed it from Carly,” I explain before Victoria can interrupt me again. “Well, she gave it to me to give back to Alec, but then I just sort of kept it.”
Athena looks alarmed. “You need to take that off. Right now.”
“I will,” I promise, “but I want to keep it on for a little while longer—in case we need to contact Dolos again.”
“What does it do?” Victoria asks.
“It connects the minds of the people in the army to each other—and to Eric. He uses the jewelry to control them. Anyway, Carly is trapped in the same place Dolos is. Something about the space between universes.”
“Pandora,” Athena says, nodding. “But we can’t get in there without th
e—”
“Jar,” I finish for her. “He said it’s in the Sigma Iota house. I figure I can get Max to help us.”
Victoria frowns. “I’m not so sure he will.”
“He better! We just rescued his cousin. He owes us, big time.”
Athena gets to her feet. “If you can get the jar, I know a ritual that will get us in.”
“We can’t do it here,” Victoria points out. The doves seem to bob their heads in agreement.
“Call Hermes. Ask him if we can use the bar.”
While Victoria calls Hermes/Lou on her cell phone, I call Max. He answers after a few rings, waiting a beat before saying, “Hey, Siobhan.”
“Hi, Max. We need your help.” Might as well cut to the chase. “We need something from your house. The jar.”
He hesitates again. I hear quick footsteps on the other end, then a door being closed. “You know I can’t give you that,” he whispers loudly into the phone.
“You can, and you will. We rescued Vanessa. And you’re part of the reason Carly’s in this mess in the first place,” I remind him, my voice low and icy.
“I know, and I—I really am sorry. They made me do it. You have to know that.”
“Fine. You’re sorry. Help us if you really want to show it.”
He sighs noisily. “Okay. Okay, I’ll help you. Meet me here tomorrow at—”
“This can’t wait until tomorrow night, Max! Carly needs us now. Please tell me you can get the jar to us. Today.”
He sighs again. “We have a mixer with the Delta Chis tonight off campus. Everyone should be gone by seven. I’m not going anyway, so we can meet up then.”
“Seven. Okay.” I feel a rush of relief. “See you then. And thanks, Max.” We hang up. “We’ll have the jar around seven,” I tell Victoria and Athena.
“And Lou said he’ll close up early, and we can use the bar,” Victoria says. “He’ll bring reinforcements, too. Although he’s not happy about any of it.”
“Because even the slightest disturbance could bring the walls crashing down,” Athena says dramatically, rolling her eyes.
“He’s not wrong.”
“He’s always saying that. Personally, I think he just feels a little helpless. He’s really the one who’s supposed to direct messages and traffic between the worlds. Under normal circumstances, he usually isn’t very busy, because there isn’t supposed to be any movement. Now that everything’s out of control, everyone’s been ignoring his jurisdiction.” She looks pointedly at Victoria, who grins sheepishly. Then, she glances at the clock on the mantel. “In the meantime, I’m going to go work out. Anyone want to join?” Victoria and I both shake our heads. Athena shrugs and goes upstairs to change.
“There’s something else I should confess,” I tell Victoria as she plops down on the couch, narrowly missing the bird dozing there. “It’s…bad.”
She looks skeptical. “Worse than tying someone up and hiding them in a closet?”
“I guess not. At least, I don’t think so.” I stay standing as I say, “I knew Jasper was back before this morning.”
“How long?” My big sister says it with some surprise, although she doesn’t look nearly as stricken with betrayal as I thought she would.
“He’s been back for about a week. In fact, he returned last Friday night. Dolos said they sort of traded Carly for Jasper—to keep the balance between worlds. Although, if what Athena said is true, I guess they didn’t have anything to worry about.”
“It’s not as trivial as she seems to think it is,” Victoria says. “So it was Jasper you were with after the masquerade?”
I nod. “I understand if you’re mad.”
“I’m not wasting any more energy on being mad at this point. I am, however, wondering how you managed to keep it from me.”
“I blocked it from you.”
“You what?” she cries, getting up again and gaping at me. If telling her about Jasper didn’t get a sufficient reaction out of her, this confession gets a much bigger one than I expected. “But—how?”
“You’re the one who told me Olympians could block their thoughts from each other. I just taught myself how to do it.”
“Yes, Olympians can block their thoughts from each other. I’ve never heard of a halfling who could.” She walks up to me and studies me like I’m some kind of alien creature.
“Maybe it was this,” I realize, fingering the necklace.
“No. I don’t think so. You can resist Jasper’s allure—well, when you want to. Lou told me you could sense when Apate was tricking you. You can block your thoughts. You were able to…kill Sam,” she says with some reluctance. It’s like you’re—”
“If you tell me I’m special, I will punch you.”
“And I’m sure it will hurt,” Victoria humors me. “Seriously, there is…something…about you. Even just the fact that you still have your soul. You’ll never die.” She seems to have forgotten the bits of Vanessa’s prophecy she overheard, and I’m not really in the mood to remind her.
“What’s the point of reincarnation if I can’t remember my old life?” I say instead. “Remember who I am?” This is what’s always scared me about death, even with what I know about myself now. It’s not the dying part—it’s the forgetting part. The not-knowing-who-I-am part.
“So you can get a fresh start?” Victoria muses. “Being different isn’t a bad thing, Siobhan. It should give you strength.”
“I never asked for any of this. All I’ve ever wanted is to just fit in!”
“But you don’t. You can’t change it, so you might as well embrace it.” She puts her hands on my shoulders and gives me an encouraging shake. “I know you don’t see it, but you are powerful—a force to be reckoned with. Don’t ever let anyone make you feel otherwise.”
I look away from Victoria in embarrassment. “Thanks for the pep talk, Big.”
“Anytime. Now, go take a nap or something. Relax. We have a big night ahead of us.”
Chapter 29
“What in the world are you wearing?” Victoria exclaims, watching me come down the stairs. It’s a few minutes before seven p.m.
“This?” I look down at my black leather pants and jacket. “This is my bad-ass-ninja-spy-rescue-mission outfit.”
“Please don’t tell me you bought it especially for tonight.”
“I was Buffy for Halloween a few years ago. Okay, I was Buffy for Shade Con,” I admit.
Victoria shakes her head at me and opens the front door. “Let’s go, dork.”
We go outside and cross over to the Sigma Iota house. I’ve already texted Max to let him know we’re on our way, but I ring the doorbell anyway.
“This better not be an ambush,” I say, taking a step back from the door.
“It’s not,” Victoria assures me, biting her lower lip.
Two blue eyes peak through the blinds on the window, then Max opens the door and lets us inside. He points to the massive, black ceramic vase sitting on the floor by the fireplace.
I gape at it. “When I heard ‘jar,’ I was picturing something a little smaller. More discrete. No wonder you wanted to help me carry it,” I add to Victoria.
“You guys should just take it and…go,” Max says, eyes darting around nervously. Victoria and I each take a side of the vase and hoist it up. Max follows us to the door and holds it open for us, closing it behind him.
“On your way to the mixer?” I ask, adjusting my grip on the jar.
Max shakes his head. “I told you—I’m not going. In fact, I think I’m done with Sigma Iota. You were right. I shouldn’t have just joined because of…” he trails off, glancing at Victoria. “Well, you know. And, since that’s never going to happen, I realized I have no other reason to stay. Even without the weird rituals and magic vases, I’m not sure I’m buying the whole brotherhood thing. It’s not for me. And I’ve had it with the paranormal scene. No…offense.”
“None taken. Well…goodbye, Max.”
As Victoria and I lug the vas
e back to the house, I feel like, this time around, it truly is goodbye. I won’t see much of Max anymore—or his futile attempts to win me back. A calm acceptance has settled on his face, as if he, too, senses the finality of his moment. Even so, I can’t help thinking there’s a strange glint in his eyes as he watches us shuffle away—a flicker of resentment. But then Farrah opens the trunk of her silver BMW, and I have to break eye contact with him as Victoria and I carefully set the vase inside, covering it with a blanket.
“I think we have everything,” Athena says, coming out of the house. The four of us climb into Farrah’s car, and we take off for The End.
When we get there, the first person we see is Apate, perched at the bar, sipping on what might be a Rum and Coke. “I was starting to think you weren’t going to show.”
“She doesn’t really need to be here,” Farrah says like Apate’s not even in the room.
“She’s like herpes,” Lou says, emerging from the back room. “I can’t seem to get rid of her.” He ignores Apate’s scowl as he glides up to Farrah. “You, on the other hand, I don’t see nearly enough.” Taking Farrah’s hands in his, he pecks a kiss on one of her golden cheeks, then the other.
“It’s wonderful to see you, too,” Farrah says, giving his hands an earnest squeeze. “We missed you at the council meeting.”
“Someone had to stay behind, keep an eye on things here.”
“Well, you look good.”
“And you are a breath of fresh air, Aphrodite. You are as beautiful as ever.” He leans into her ear and adds in a stage whisper, “Although the last time I saw you properly, you were in my bed, wearing far less.”
Farrah gives a tinkling laugh and playfully smacks his shoulder. “Be-have. In case you haven’t heard, I’m a one man woman now, and that man is Hephaestus.”
