by Nicole Thorn
The two of us headed upstairs. None of the tenants poked their heads out of their rooms, so I assumed that most of them had gone to bed. Which in turn meant that they wouldn’t be awake to hear my mother screaming and berating me. Their opinions didn’t really matter, but I didn’t want the cops to get called on us again. It always embarrassed me and got me into more trouble.
I let Callie into the apartment, and her eyes darted around the space, taking in everything that she could find. Her eyes looked so bright and happy when she saw some of my paintings, all pushed against the corner wall. She rushed over to them, touching the canvas. “These are great!”
“Thanks,” I said, stuffing my hands into my pockets. “Being Apollo’s son comes with some perks.”
“Do you play an instrument too?” Callie asked.
“Only the harmonica,” I said. “Mom doesn’t tolerate anything else.”
Callie frowned, then beamed. “I’ll get you a guitar or a violin or something. Then you can really show off.”
I started to smile, but it quickly got wiped away when my mother’s door flew open. She saw me standing there. Callie might as well have not existed. Mom stormed out of her bedroom, her eyes blazing with fury. “Where the hell have you been, Aster?” she demanded, stopping in front of me with her hands on her hips. She might have been much shorter than me, but I still felt about two inches tall when she gave me that enraged look and disappointment.
“It’s kind of long story,” I said. “One that you don’t want to hear.”
She huffed out a hard breath. “A long story? Is that a joke? First, those . . . those charlatan gods appear in my house, acting as if they own the place. They touched all of my things, then when I didn’t agree to their presence immediately, they knock me out, and when I wake up, you’re gone? And all you can say is that it’s a long story?”
My mouth opened, but I didn’t know what to say. I settled on, “I didn’t realize so much time had passed.”
Mom’s eyes blazed even hotter. “You didn’t know how much time had passed? Is that a joke?”
She grabbed me by the hair and dragged over to the window, Callie’s squeaking in surprise at the action. Mom ignored her as she thrust my face at the glass. “Do you not see the sun and the moon? Is your father not the sun god? Are you really going to tell me that you can’t tell what time it is?”
“That’s not what I said.”
Mom released me. “Are you backtalking me?”
“No,” I said.
She turned me around, her eyes narrowed even further. “I’ve told you a thousand times not to go off with gods, not to talk with them, and never let them into the house. A thousand times.” She slapped one hand into the other. “And you still aren’t listening. Can’t you do anything right.”
“He didn’t have a choice,” Callie said.
Mom’s eyes darted to her with the same kind of distrust that she would have given a god if they showed up right then. “And when you do come back, you have a girl with you!” She threw her hands up in the air. “Where did you find her? On the street?”
“She’s the Oracle,” I said.
Before I could explain more, my mother had taken a step back from Callie, her eyes closed. “Wow. Wow. I can’t believe that I’m hearing this. After everything that I’ve tried to teach you, you’re just going to ignore it?”
“Mom . . . ”
She shook her head, stepping further away from me. “I don’t think you want me talking to you right now. I woke up on the couch yesterday, confused and alone.” She took in a shaky breath. “I didn’t know where you were, I didn’t know what you had done, if you were even alive. Then you come home without even giving me a phone call, acting as if I’m the one being crazy? I expected better from you, Aster. I thought you would be a good son.”
She turned on her heel and walked off. My heart sank as she slammed the door behind her. I knew that she wouldn’t talk to me for at least two days, but she would keep giving me that wounded look, as if I had done something terrible to her. I didn’t know how to act when she did that, other than take it.
Callie rocketed forward, wrapping herself around me. “I’m so sorry!”
“What?” I asked, staring down at her, confused. “It’s not your fault. I should have come home immediately, or at least called.”
Pulling away, Callie stared at me with huge eyes, blinking at me. “No, you didn’t do anything wrong. You can’t fight the gods, and if they wanted to take you, then nothing you did would have stopped them.”
“I could have called my dad a little faster,” I said.
Callie shook her head, taking my hand. “No, that would have only created more trouble for you in the long run.”
I gave her a bitter smile. “You should probably call your friends to see if they could pick you up. I don’t think Mom would insult you, but I’d rather not find out, either.”
“I could take her,” Callie said, putting her hands on her hips. She had the most determined look in her eyes, and it actually brought a light feeling to my chest. I pictured Callie screaming back at my mother, and that light feeling spread, until I unhunched my shoulders.
“Well, as much fun as that would be to see, I’d rather not put you in danger. Why don’t you call your friends?”
Callie sighed, pulling her phone out of her pocket. She pointed it at me. “Fine, but don’t expect me to drop this just because you’d like that.” She turned the phone around, then started tapping on the screen. I heard the dial tone go off three times before a groggy voice said, “Wha . . . ?”
“Zander, that’s mine!” another voice said, followed by a solid thump. Then the voice came over the line, sounding sugary sweet. “Hello, Jasmine, proper owner of the phone talking, how may I help you?”
“Can I get a ride?” Callie asked.
CHAPTER TEN:
Yay, A New Buddy
Callie
I STOOD ON my bed, scrawling detailed notes on a purple sticky note. There were a lot, and it required three by the time I finished. Athena had been talking about something that seemed important, bickering with Demeter. I tried to do colors for all the gods, and then colors on top of colors for the subject matter. The problem being that so much of it seemed random up until the moment it didn’t. I had colored clusters of things all carefully put together, and the solved pieces right there with them. There were few solved pieces . . .
I hadn’t heard from Aster all morning, which worried me greatly. Between fretting over him and hearing Zeus having sex with a couple in Greece, it had been a stressful few hours.
Aster’s mother seemed absolutely awful. Normally, I tried to see the best in people, but she made my insides feel all weird and tense. I didn’t think he was in any danger really, but it couldn’t be good for him to live around a person like that for too long. Clearly, Aster should spend all his time with me.
I heard the garage opening downstairs, making my heart jump to my throat. I told myself I wouldn’t be in trouble, because I didn’t do anything wrong. I couldn’t get grounded for being the Oracle, or for going off with the gods. You did not say no to the gods. Ever. They could smite you.
I jumped off of my bed, landing on my feet as I heard footsteps out in the hall. I thought it would have been better if I met them out there, instead of making my parents come and find me.
When I snuck out to the hall, I saw my mom and dad shuffling toward their bedroom. I called to them, and two bleary eyed people turned to me. Those bloodshot eyes all widened.
“Where the hell have you been!” my father shouted, then winced along with my mom.
“I could ask you the same.”
“Could you?” Mom asked. “Three days. It’s been three damn days, Callie.”
I took careful steps toward them, telling myself it would be fine. “I’ve been home since last night. I don’t suppose you know where you guys were?”
My mom’s chest pumped hard, and she couldn’t quite look me in the eyes. “I w
as floating, Callie. Floating in the air! I was on the ceiling for a half hour before your father got back home. Everything is all blurry after that.”
Dad rubbed his temples, his eyes shut. “All I remember is dark hair and a suit, and he kept pouring us drinks and insulting us. He wasn’t very nice.”
I blinked. “Did he mostly drink wine? Maybe have a really pretty girl with him, young, and looking like she should live in the woods?”
Mom gasped. “She didn’t have shoes on.”
I decided not to point out that my parents had probably been out drinking with a god. They had enough to deal with. “I was safe,” I promised them. “Those people that made me leave, they didn’t let anything happen to me.” Ignoring how they brought me to the underworld. Another thing my mom and dad didn’t need to know.
Mom watched me, her throat working. “You need to tell us right now what’s going on. What happened? Who were those people?”
“You know who they were,” I said.
“No, I really don’t. I don’t know a damn thing.”
My mouth flattened into a hard line. “I’ve been trying to get you to believe me for years now, and you can’t pretend this isn’t happening. I’m the Oracle, and you met Artemis and Hermes. My friends are the seers, the people the gods have decided to see the future, the present, and the past. Their partners are demigods, and children of Olympians no less. I’m not sick. I’m not crazy. This is my reality.”
My parents looked at each other for a long moment, and my mother couldn’t speak. Dad could, and he covered his mouth with his hands, muffling his words. “I don’t know if I can believe this.”
“You have to,” I told him. “Because believe it or not, it’s true. Not believing is dangerous to you.”
Dad shook his head. “If I believe this, then I need to believe that for the past . . . however many years, that we’ve been putting you through hell. I don’t even . . . I can’t imagine what that would be like.”
“I’m not upset,” I promised. “This would be a lot for anyone to take in, and it wasn’t like I had all that much proof before this.”
Mom looked horrified, her foot tapping on the floor. “Gods . . . How the hell is it that the Greek gods are real?”
I shrugged. “I have no idea. I didn’t know about them until a few years ago.”
Dad held his hands up. “Okay, if I’m going to believe this, then I think you need to explain to us how this happened. I don’t understand.”
I agreed. “Dad, you and me are descended from Pythia. She was the original Oracle of Delphi, and that means that our bloodline is the line that is most chosen when a new Oracle is needed. There are others, but ours is the strongest. Apollo thinks that’s why I can hear the gods so well, even when they don’t mean for me to hear it. Normally, an Oracle can’t hear nearly as much as I do.
“When I was fourteen, Apollo came to see me. He told me that I was special and chosen to do one of the most important jobs that a human could be blessed with. He told me that the last Oracle died, and they were in desperate need for a new one. I was the best choice, given my age and bloodline. He showed me what I would do and said that I could save people with my prophecies. I have.
“When I accepted Apollo’s request, I became the Oracle. That was it. Now I can hear the gods talking sometimes, and it’s my job to figure out the things they try to say to me. Right now, they’ve sent me a prophesy about my friends. That’s what I’ve been trying to figure out for a while.”
Mom took a seat in the little chair we had beside a table in the hall. We kept it for display purposes, but it looked like she really needed it right then. She put her head against the table, groaning.
“Sorry,” I said, “but this is the whole truth.”
“Why would you say yes to this?” Dad asked, his tone sharp. “Why would you decide to take something like this on without telling anyone? Without thinking? Are you in danger? What does this mean for you?”
I tried to answer his questions as best as I could, but it didn’t seem like he wanted to hear anything I had to say. “It was my duty,” I said. “It would have been yours if you were the right age, or your siblings. I didn’t want to turn my back on this.”
“You were fourteen!” Dad yelled. “They had no right to ask this of you.”
“That’s not really a thing the gods think of. I haven’t been in danger as of yet. All I do is tell people what they need to know, and that’s it.”
Mom took another breath, looking up at me as she leaned against her hand. “Except for when you were taken a few days ago. Did someone hurt you?”
“Not at all,” I said with a shake of my head. “I only had to go somewhere and feel out the area. They wanted me to see if I could figure out what had happened there.” I didn’t get into more details, feeling like it would have been best that way. Why add to the stress when I didn’t have to?
Mom kept on staring, but she aimed it at my dad. “So, are we going to believe this now? Do we decide that all this is true?”
“As opposed to what? Staying in the dark? You were floating, honey.”
She opened her mouth to say something, but nothing came out. It had been easy to pretend before, but they’d seen magic. They couldn’t forget that, and especially not when the proof kept on piling up. Eventually, they would be able to find a way to deal with this, but for now, they both looked panicked.
“What does this mean for you right now?” Dad asked me. “Those people just came and asked you for a favor, so does that mean they’re going to do it again?”
“I have no idea. They’ve never done anything like that with me before. The most that’s happened was when the demigods and seers would come by asking me if I knew anything. I listen to whispers, and I sometimes know what’s going on with the gods. Like if there’s a fight, or something bad about to happen. They don’t bother involving me in it. I’m only a human.”
I couldn’t tell if that made my father feel better. “You haven’t been hurt?”
“No. I’m not exactly a target in the magic-y world. I have no power, and all I can do is hear the gods. I wouldn’t be good to use against them, because the gods could just kill me if they needed.”
Mom whimpered, and I regretted my words. “How did the last Oracle die?”
“Apollo never told me.”
I’d horrified both of my parents again, but there wasn’t much I could have done, if they really wanted to know the whole truth. I wasn’t a liar, and my parents kept on asking questions. I would tell them anything they wanted to know.
Dad took the other free chair, rubbing his eyes one more time. “Can you tell . . . Apollo . . . that you don’t want to be the Oracle anymore? Maybe you can get out of it and let someone else do this job for you.”
Even if that had been possible, I would never have asked for it. I liked what I did. It felt important, and I didn’t know what I would have been without this part of my life. My mind wouldn’t go back to the way it had been before, and I had been forever changed by the things I knew now. I would feel even more powerless.
I shook my head again. “No.”
Dad’s jaw set. “I don’t want this life for you.”
“It’s my life to live as I feel is needed. This is it for me.”
Mom sat back in her chair, her eyes distant. “There’s nothing we can do about this? We just have to hope that nothing comes to hurt you? No monsters lurking in the night?”
“I’ll be fine,” I promised. “I’m always fine.”
***
My parents hadn’t really looked at me in hours, even when I walked in front of them. They’d been in the living room together, and then Dad decided that he needed to go to work for a little while. I only found out because I heard him mention it to Mom before he left. She went to her room, shutting the door behind her. I took that to mean I wasn’t invited to come talk to her.
I reminded myself not to take this personally, and that anyone would have reacted like this. I didn’t
have to feel bad just because my parents couldn’t accept this without hesitation. It would be fine.
Needing air, I went outside. The rain had let up, so I thought it was safe. It felt like a day Kizzy might have spent planting things in her backyard, bringing color into a world that looked hazy.
My backyard was open, and we didn’t have nearby neighbors. I stood in the middle of the yard, staring at the sky for no reason. I didn’t even know what I thought I would get out of this, but I didn’t want to be locked up behind walls.
I sat down on the grass, my knees pulled to my chest while I stared out at the trees. Nothing moved, like the world had frozen. I liked it that way.
My eyes closed, forehead pressing to my knees as I listened to the sounds around me. The birds chirping, the cars in the distance. The world kept going, even when things started to feel awful. I found that odd sometimes. I thought that things should have paused. A pause for every bad thing that happened to people would have only resulted in a frozen world. So, I had birds chirping and cars honking.
And wolves growling.
My eyes ripped open, searching for the source of the disturbance. It took me a moment to spot the black wolf slinking forward. He was massive; much taller than a normal wolf. Maybe double the size, if I had to guess. His fur stood on end, his mouth curled in a snarl. This was no beast out hunting for a meal. He wasn’t even really a wolf.
I’d never seen a werewolf in person, but I had no doubt this was one. He didn’t pause, but the thing moved slowly.
Pointlessly, I looked around to see if maybe the wolf had another target in mind. I was the only thing around. If I ran, then the wolf would only start moving faster. He could outrun me without effort, so that would be pretty much choosing to die. Though, sitting there wouldn’t have done all that much else. I died running, or I died sitting still.
Or I could reach forward, grab that huge branch, and die like a moron.
I took the branch, getting on my feet in less than two seconds. The wolf moved no faster, maybe knowing that the branch wouldn’t protect me. I must have looked like a joke to this person.
