by M. W. Muse
But why that number? And why did Adin tell her to be careful in that dream when he showed her that number? Even odder, Adin had warned her to be careful around the Gorgos family before she knew what the number meant. Then today, she found out that the number was, in fact, linked to the Gorgos family.
No. That number was just a coincidence.
Coincidence? River told her there were no coincidences, but those words seemed truer now. River was worried about his mom, so maybe some force was telling her to watch out for Ms. Gorgos through her dreams. Then it hit her.
Lissa said her mom would be contacting her. She didn’t know when or how. How? Could her mom be sending her these messages through her dreams? Was the Gorgos family the people she’d run from all those years ago? If what River said about his family and her family was true, then Legacy could understand why her mom had felt threatened. If his mom wanted to stop Legacy from attaining her full powers, whatever they were, then maybe that was why her mom had left. Lissa said her mom was powerful, so she could have been able to defend herself from the threat. Maybe she separated herself from her daughter so that Legacy could live a normal life in peace without the constant threat of danger.
Her mom had never been in any danger. Legacy was. And now, her mom could become a part of her life once she turned eighteen because the danger would be over. She would no longer be a sitting duck, waiting for her time to go through changes—she would be finished. Legacy would be powerful too.
For the first time, she fully believed that.
She quickly drove home, feeling the certainty of her fate settle into her bones. Okay. She was accepting this. Now, she needed to learn as much as she could. Tonight, she’d enjoy being a teen with no problems as she hung out with Adin, and when the time was right, she’d used that cell number River had given her.
Legacy showered and put on some loose, comfortable clothing. It was really sticky outside, so she wanted to minimize any sweat damage.
When Adin arrived, she yanked opened the door, ready to throw her arms around him. But what was in his hands stopped her.
“I missed you so much,” he said as he stepped up to the threshold, handing her the flowers he was holding. “These are for you. I figured the ones I gave you last week are probably past their usefulness,” he teased.
The bouquet was not a dozen red roses like he’d given her at the beginning of their first date. These looked to be much more than a dozen and contained an array of colorful roses that were elegantly arranged. Every color of rose she could imagine was represented and the aroma was simply heavenly. It seemed as if the flowers had an understated feeling, but a clearly defined purpose.
“Thank you. They’re beautiful,” she said as she took them from his hand, gave him a big hug, and turned into the house.
Adin followed her to the kitchen where he saw that the roses he had given her were dried with petals lying around the vases. He reached for one of the vases to discard the roses.
“What are you doing?” she protested as he pulled the roses out.
“I’m getting rid of these.”
“No. I want to keep them.”
“Legacy, I plan on giving you flowers all the time. There’s no need to keep the dead ones.” He chuckled.
“You don’t have to give me flowers every time you take me out,” she said as she gently took the dead flowers from him.
“I haven’t given them to you every time we’ve gone out.” He smirked.
“Still, these were the first ones you gave me. They’re from our first date, so I want to keep them.”
“Okay,” he said, smiling. “I won’t complain about these dead flowers, but I don’t want to see your room covered with dead flowers by the end of summer. Surrounding yourself with all that death isn’t healthy.” He chuckled.
“I think I know the difference. But fine, I won’t save every single flower you give me,” she said as she rolled her eyes and laughed. She put the fresh flowers in a new vase and then picked up the two vases of old roses. “I’d better put these somewhere safe,” she teased.
Adin waited downstairs in the living room with Lissa while she put the roses safely away in her bedroom. When she came back downstairs, he took her hand and they left for their date.
Like last week, he opened doors and held her hands at all the right moments. They ate pizza, talked, and laughed. It was easy being with Adin. She could hardly remember what it was like when she secretly obsessed about him. She didn’t have to be secretive about her feelings anymore.
When they got finished eating, they didn’t leave. The restaurant provided a nice place for them to be alone with each other without the need to rush off. They spoke freely about anything that came to their minds. Anything except the goddess stuff. Tonight, she was normal.
When they were in Adin’s car, he raised their joined hands and kissed the back of hers.
“My mom will be back in town on Wednesday. I’d like to bring you over to meet her—you know, formally.”
“Okay,” she whispered. So they were taking the next big step in their relationship. But still no kiss.
“Don’t worry. You’ve already met her, and she’s still really nice. Besides, I’ve already told her all about you,” he said with a grin.
“What did you say?”
“Well, I told her things like how funny and kind you are and how you’ve grown into a beautiful woman, though I’ve always thought you were a beautiful person.” Adin lips quirked into a half-smile, and she knew the last comment wasn’t about her looks. “And I told her how I feel about you.”
They had pulled in her driveway, and Adin turned off the engine without getting out.
“How do you feel about me?”
Adin reached over and played with a strand of her hair. “Since we’re taking things slowly, I think we should save this conversation for a later time,” he murmured.
Her heart was pounding, and she blushed. “I can wait,” she whispered.
He lifted their joined hands to kiss the back of hers again before letting it go and getting out of the car. He walked her to the door. “Do you mind if I come over tomorrow night after you get off work?” he asked under the glow of the porch light.
“I’d love that.”
“Good.” He smiled.
Then Adin stepped closer to her, put one arm around her back, and put his other hand on her cheek. He leaned down and kissed her exposed shoulder and then kissed her neck. Now, he placed his lips at her ear.
“I hope you have a wonderful night’s sleep. Dream beautiful dreams. I know I will because I’ll be dreaming about you.”
He slid his lips down her cheek and kissed her softly at her jaw. Then he started to step back, but she quickly turned her head. Their lips grazed and a strangled groan rumbled in Adin’s chest. He quickly kissed her chastely on the lips, then moved his mouth to her cheek and kissed her there again. He squeezed her in a tight hug and then stepped back and took both her hands into his.
“I’ll see you tomorrow,” he murmured as he licked his lips while staring at hers. He wanted more. She could see it.
Legacy didn’t know what to say, feeling her heart pound harder by the second. “Bye,” was all she managed to get out, and it sounded strangled.
His jaw clenched and nodded slowly. “Bye.”
He stood there several more seconds before letting her go and walking away.
Chapter Ten
After several nights of no dreams, her dreams about weather returned. Most of the elements were the same. She was still being chased by a tornado from one side and snakes from the other. This time, she actually found a storm cellar for her to take cover in, but as she ran down the steps, she saw the little girl already inside.
“What took you so long?” she asked with narrowed eyes. She seemed to be disgruntled.
“I didn’t know what I was looking for,” she said, talking about the shelter, but feeling happy she was already safe inside.
She walked over to her
. “It’s been right in front of you the whole time,” she said as she reached out with her index finger extended and touched the middle of her forehead.
For an instant, she felt as if she knew the answers to everything like she did the last time she’d touched her forehead. She gasped in her dream and then woke up with a gasp, sitting straight up in her bed, clutching her blanket at her chest. But she couldn’t remember the revelation at the end.
As she sat in wonder, she considered the fact that if her mom was communicating with her through her dreams, then maybe this girl could give her the answers. She wondered if she could subconsciously make herself ask the girl questions the next time she dreamed about her.
Thunder crashed outside, jerking her out of her thoughts. She looked over at her window and saw the dark clouds hovering in the sky. She got up and walked over to the window. Water was everywhere. It must have rained all night. She guessed her theory about River’s mom manipulating the weather was true. She was on the schedule to work today. After all, there were no coincidences.
She got dressed and headed to work. During the ride in, she hydroplaned in several places. She was so tense when she finally got there that she stayed in her car, taking deep breaths. The weather itself never bothered her, but she hated feeling like she was going to skid off the road.
She wrenched her hands out of the death grip she had on her steering wheel and made a run for the front door. Yale was inside mopping up water, and River was up on a ladder taking down waterlogged ceiling tiles. Apparently, the roof had leaked from all the rain. She felt a little smug that Ms. Gorgos’s store suffered from the consequences of her actions.
She went to the supply closet and retrieved another mop to help Yale.
“How bad is the damage?” she asked River with her head down, focused on the floor.
“We’re not sure. I’m not going to put in new tiles until the leak is fixed, though. Mom left right after she got here. She’s going to get the handyman. Since it’s Sunday, he’s not in his office.”
“I take it she’s not in the best of moods,” she commented as she glanced up at him.
River stared down at her with a wistful expression. She could see that he wanted to apologize, but he couldn’t. Not with Yale around. Besides, he seemed to be a stickler about the no-talking-at-work-about-Greek-stuff rule, so maybe he wouldn’t voice anything anyway.
He straightened his face before he spoke. “No. She’s not.”
She nodded and went back to watching the floor as she mopped.
“Legacy?” River asked as he stepped down the ladder.
She looked at him. “Yes?”
“Will you come with me to the basement? I need to see if it’s flooded or if there is any water damage.” Then he turned to Yale. “Yale, stay up here and get ready for the store to open. Turn on the sign in five minutes.”
Legacy took Yale’s mop from her and put both of them back in the closet. Then she followed River down into the basement.
He turned to look at her.
“We’re not checking on flood damage, are we?” she asked.
“No. I already checked down here before Yale arrived,” he said quickly.
“Then what are we doing?”
“I need to talk to you.”
“You said we couldn’t talk about things here anymore.”
“I don’t have a choice.” He paused. “Are you okay?”
“Yeah, why?”
“Because I know you’re aware of the weather connection to my mom. I’m just really sorry,” he said, stepping closer to her.
She stepped back, shrugging, and realized she was now up against a wall. He took another causal step in her direction. They were now uncomfortably close—though, she was the only one who was uncomfortable.
“It’s not your fault,” she said, looking away from him.
“It is partly my fault,” he said, looking over at her and forcing her to meet his gaze. “I know my mom has some vendetta against your mom and, more recently, her negative feelings against you have intensified. I know I’m the reason for that,” he whispered.
“Don’t worry about it.”
He sighed and almost smiled. “I don’t have a choice. I have to worry about it because I worry about you.”
“River,” she breathed, and shook her head. She didn’t know what to say. She didn’t want to hurt his feelings, but she didn’t want to give him the wrong impression either.
“Don’t,” he started, and raised his hand as if he were going to touch her lips to keep her from talking. Then he stopped himself and put his hand back down. “I understand how you feel. I don’t want to put you in a position where you can’t stand to be around me. Even if we’re not meant to be together now.”
“Stop,” she whispered. “I don’t want to think about that.” She stepped to the side so she could walk away from the wall. He turned to watch her. “I really do appreciate your honesty, but I’m with Adin.” She looked into River’s eyes. “I want to be with Adin.”
“I know,” he whispered, and looked down.
Ugh. Why was this happening? “Look,” she said softly, walking back toward River, “I do like you…as a friend. My life changed a few weeks ago, and I feel like you’re someone I can really talk to about…about things that I can’t talk to about with other people.”
He smiled, but it looked pained.
“I don’t want you to be sad about how things are with you and me. I like our friendship, but if you can’t handle keeping our relationship as it is, then maybe we shouldn’t—”
“No!” River said panicked. “Don’t say that. I…um…you’re right. We can keep things strictly on a friendly level. Just don’t say you don’t want to be friends with me. I get that you want to be with Adin, but I couldn’t bear the thought of you not being in my life at all. Friends, I can do.”
“Friends,” she emphasized.
“Friends,” he agreed.
She waited a moment to let that sink in. She wanted to be sure he was clear on how she felt about him before they went on. “Can I ask you something?” she asked after several seconds had passed. She’d been wanting to pick his brain since the other night, but hadn’t had a moment alone to call him.
“Anything,” he whispered. And she was absolutely sure he meant that.
“I had another dream last night about weather. Since Lissa said my mom would be contacting me—but she didn’t know when or how—I think that maybe these dreams are my mom’s doing. What do you think?”
“Hmmm…I’m not entirely sure the dreams are coming from your mom.”
“Why not?”
“I think it’s more likely that it’s your own subconscious trying to work things out.” That wasn’t the first time she’d considered this alternative.
“But I’ve received some signs in the dreams that I couldn’t have given to myself.”
“Are you sure about that?” He was actually curious, but that made her think of the reasons she’d considered when she tried to explain to herself why those images—Adin’s house, the store’s street address—came to her. She’d thought that maybe she’d seen them before but never really noticed.
“I’m not sure about anything,” she confessed.
“Well, I guess it’s good you’re trying to consider all the possibilities.”
She gasped. “Do you think it could be your mom’s doing?” She hadn’t even thought about that until now!
“No,” he said calmly. “She can’t get into your dreams. We’re not descended from Hypnos’s line.”
“Who’s Hypnos?”
“The god of sleep. He had four sons with Pasithea: Ikelos, Morpheus, Phobetor, and Phantasos. Their sons were known as the Oneiroi. But Morpheus is the Greek god of dreams. If one of the gods is involved in manipulating your dreams, I would think that either Morpheus himself or one of his descendents who retained some power over dreams would be the one behind that. We’re not part of that lineage, so I know my mom can’t do that.”
He spoke so freely about his Greek mythology knowledge. She immediately found herself wanting to get more out of him while they had the opportunity.
She stepped quickly over to him and grabbed his arm. “You have to tell me more.”
River was startled, but willing. “Um, what do you want to know? There’s so much.”
“Who did you descend from? Did you ever live here before? Do you know why it’s been prophesied that we’ll be together?” She tried not to squirm when she asked the last question.
“I came from the line that started with Phorcys and Ceto. They were sea gods who were both created from Gaia, a goddess of nature. They had some monster offspring that paired themselves with more noble mates to produce a better line. But since the monster genes are in my family’s gene pool, sometimes new gods can be more monster than noble.” He paused and looked down. “Even those of us who are not monsters tend to have evil tendencies.”
“What does that mean?”
“Well, let’s just say my mother’s behavior comes naturally.”
“What about the rest? Have you ever lived here before?” She didn’t want to repeat the other question.
“Yes. Well, not in this town. We lived about ten miles out of town when I was a baby.”
“So your family is why my mom left?” She tried not to shriek, but she wasn’t successful.
She still had her hand wrapped firmly around River’s arm. He took a deep breath and exhaled slowly. “I don’t know for sure, but yes, I think my family was partly to blame. It’s not like my mom gives me a play-by-play of her actions, and I could never ask her about what happened back then. Especially not now.”
She dropped his arm and folded hers over her chest. “And the prophecy?”
“I don’t know anything else about that. Like I said before, I just found out about it a few weeks ago. I already told you everything I know about that,” he whispered.
