by M. W. Muse
Legacy nodded. “So you’ve threatened her then? About not killing me?” she asked as she sat on his bed next to him.
“Yes. I figure the closer you get to eighteen, the more reckless she’ll get, but for now, it seems like she’s trying to be discreet about her attempts.”
“You have to tell me when you find out about these efforts. Even if you thwart her.”
River reached up and tucked a strand of her hair behind her ear. “I just don’t want you worrying about her, baby.”
“I’m not going to worry, but I need to be prepared. I was expecting some major offensive attack from her, but it seems like she’s being very cunning with her methods.”
“I’m going to do everything in my power to keep you safe,” River whispered as he leaned closer to her.
She nodded, and he leaned even closer, stroking her hair again. “I, er, should probably go. It’s getting late.” She stood up.
“Okay,” he whispered as he stood up, too.
She and River walked out of his room to find Calli. When they did, she was busy flirting with Paul. Legacy felt bad for intruding, but the party was over, and she was ready to go.
“Are you ready, Calli?”
Calli glanced up at her and shook her head.
She stepped over to her. “You live right next door. You could be back here in thirty minutes.”
Calli sighed as she stood up.
“I can take you home, Legacy,” River said.
She turned to River. “No, that’s okay.” She turned and faced Calli. “Calli’s going to take me home.” She stared at her to make sure she understood what she wanted.
“How about you stay the night with me tonight?” Calli said with a glimmer of hope in her eyes.
“I have stuff to do tomorrow,” she said, shaking her head.
Calli reluctantly followed Legacy to her house where her car was parked, and the guys followed behind them. River opened the passenger door for Legacy, and Paul grabbed Calli’s door for her.
“Happy birthday,” she murmured to River while she stood by the passenger seat.
River stepped closer to her and placed his forehead against hers. “Thanks, baby,” he barely whispered. He leaned back and looked deep into her eyes. Then he reached up and placed his hand over his heart, patting his chest. It was his way of telling her that he loved her without saying the words where the others would hear.
She smiled at him as she got in the car, and he continued to stare at her until they drove off.
“Thanks for coming with me to the party. I could tell it really made River’s day,” Calli said.
“Thanks for talking me into it.” She smiled. “So, what do you think about Paul?”
“He’s gorgeous, but it’s too soon for me. It has only been a week, and I still think about Zach a lot. Paul was just a nice distraction.” Calli laughed, but it almost seemed like she was missing something.
“You’ll want to date again soon.”
Calli shrugged her shoulders. “Did Adin ever call you back?”
“No, and I’m a little worried. I know he’s busy with fraternity stuff this weekend, but even when he’s doing that, I usually hear from him by now.”
They pulled into the driveway, and she got out of Calli’s car. As she turned around to walk into the house and Calli pulled out of her driveway, she glanced over at Rose’s house. Adin’s car was parked in her driveway, but that wasn’t the only thing she saw.
Adin stood on the porch with his arms crossed, and even though he was several yards away, she could see his cold, hard eyes staring at her. There was no mistaking why she hadn’t heard from him.
He was furious.
Chapter Five
When their eyes met, Adin dropped his arms and walked back into his grandma’s house, slamming the door.
Legacy jumped from the force of the door being shut. She knew she needed to go over there and face the music, but she was chicken. She went inside and showered since the rainwater had matted her hair and streaked the makeup on her face. When she got out, she put on some sweats and lollygagged around the house, giving Adin some time to calm down since now he knew she was safely home.
After she stalled as much as she could, she had to find her big-girl panties and pull them up. She went to Rose’s house and knocked on the door. She stood there waiting, but it was taking Adin a long time to answer the door. After a few minutes had passed, he finally opened the door and stared at her without saying anything and without moving.
She should have waited a little while longer.
They continued to stare at each other as the minutes passed, and then finally, Adin shifted his position. “I don’t want to talk to you right now,” he whispered.
Those words were like a stab to her heart. She felt her breathing hitch as rain started to mist around them. She didn’t cry, though—the earth was crying for her.
Part of her wanted to walk away and cry tearless sobs in her bedroom, but the other part of her wanted to stay and make Adin talk to her. She stood there, staring at him while it continued to mist, and not knowing what part of her she was going to listen to.
Her stubborn side won. “You don’t have a choice,” she whispered back.
“Legacy, I’m sorry I’m upsetting you, but I am too angry to talk to you right now. I just needed to see that you’d made it home safely. We can talk in the morning.”
Adin started to turn away from her, so she grabbed the back of his shirt. “No, we’re talking now.”
She walked around him without making eye contact and headed straight for his room. When she got in here, she kicked off her shoes and sat on his bed. She was preparing for the long haul.
Adin walked in and shut the door, but that was as far as he was coming. He leaned against the door, folding his arms and staring at her.
“Why are you angry with me?” she asked point blank.
He shook his head, shut his eyes, and put his hands over his mouth, not saying anything as he was sucking in air.
“Fine,” she snapped. She stood up and started untying the drawstring of her sweatpants.
“What are you doing?” Adin muttered.
“You obviously don’t want to talk right now. You said we could talk in the morning, so I’m going to bed. Goodnight.”
She turned to Adin’s bed and pulled back the covers. She heard him walking toward her, but she didn’t look at him. He stopped a few feet away from her.
“You can’t stay here.”
Her eyes cut to Adin’s. “The hell I can’t.”
“Legacy, I have so many emotions running through me right now. I don’t want to talk because I don’t want to say something I’ll regret.”
“I already told you we didn’t have to talk tonight,” she reminded him.
“You should go home.”
“No.” She turned back to Adin’s bed, fluffing the pillows. “I was mad at you for fighting with River the other night, and I let you stay with me. Fair is fair.”
“I should have killed him when I had the chance!” Adin roared, twirling away from her with his fists in the air. All it took was mentioning River’s name to open up the floodgates. “If I had killed him, then I would have gotten his powers, and he wouldn’t even be an issue! Instead, he ascends, and I have to live out my life as a mortal! He’s a monster, Legacy. Not a god!”
“Which is it, Adin? Is he a god or a monster? You couldn’t have gotten his powers if he wasn’t going to be a god. And he can’t be a monster if he ascended.” She knew her sarcasm wasn’t helpful to the argument, but she didn’t care.
“Do you not understand how dangerous it is to be around him? Around his mother? You couldn’t possibly understand this. Otherwise, you would not have gone over to his house today!”
“River wouldn’t let Medusa hurt me.”
“River ascended today, Legacy! There’s no telling how powerful he is now. You could have gotten hurt!”
“But I didn’t.”
“Bu
t you could have.”
She stared at Adin and took a deep breath before continuing. “You told me you wouldn’t interfere with my friendship with him. Today was the most important day in his life. I wanted to be there for him.”
Adin’s eyes narrowed. “So if I came over to your house tonight and told you that I spent the day over at Venus’s house, you wouldn’t be upset with me?”
“Venus?” she said, shaking her head. Why did they always have to talk about one if they were talking about the other? “I’d be livid,” she whispered, too enraged to speak above that out of fear of waking up his grandma, though that apparently wasn’t a concern Adin had.
“Do you think it’s fair that you hold me to a different set of standards? I don’t.”
“I don’t hold you to a different set of standards, Adin.”
“Legacy, that’s exactly what you’re doing,” he snapped as he pointed his finger at her. Then he tapped on his chest. “I don’t go running to Venus every chance I get. I know she’s trying to take me away from you, so I do everything I can to stay away from her.”
“Except rescue her when she does her damsel in distress act and then walk her home.”
“Exactly,” he whispered, relaxing his stance. “Why would I go asking for trouble when it already finds me?”
“Me being around River isn’t asking for trouble.”
“River is a danger to you, and he’s a danger to us.”
“You only think he’s dangerous because you’re jealous. Why? I have no idea.” She shook her head, looking away from him.
Adin laughed sarcastically. “Of course I’m jealous. He gets to spend eternity being a god, and so do you. I’ll expire in about seventy years if I’m lucky.” He sighed as he sat down next to her. It seemed like getting his anger out helped him calm down. “I would give anything to be able to spend eternity with you. Yet you spend all this time with him when my time with you is already so unfairly limited.”
“But I’m in love with you, Adin. I only want to be with you. If you make me choose my love for you over my friendship with River, then there is no choice. You are my love, my life.” She felt her breathing hitch. “There’s only you in my heart.” She shut her eyes and tears leaked over.
She felt Adin wipe her tears away. “Let’s finish this in the morning,” he whispered. “I didn’t want to upset you.”
“But you’re mad at me,” she whispered as she looked up at him through her wet lashes.
He shook his head and shut his eyes. “I’m mad about what you did, and I’m furious with River for not putting your safety ahead of his selfish needs. But I’m not mad at you.”
She pursed her lips and stared at Adin. She didn’t think he was being completely honest about his current feelings toward her.
Adin sighed. “You know I hate your relationship with him. I’ve never hidden that fact from you.”
“And I don’t like Venus being here either,” she murmured.
“I know,” he breathed.
She shook her head. Maybe they did need to save this conversation for the morning. She stood up and looked at Adin. “Do you have a shirt I can sleep in, so I don’t have to walk back home?”
Adin sighed, but a small smile formed. “Yeah.” He walked over to his dresser and pulled out a t-shirt and gym shorts. “These will be a little big on you, but there’s a drawstring.” He handed her the shorts.
She nodded at him and walked into his bathroom to change. The t-shirt was big enough that she didn’t really need to wear the shorts, but she tried them on anyway. They were way too big and bulky. She took the shorts back off and folded her clothes, leaving them on the counter. She stared at herself in the mirror wearing nothing but Adin’s t-shirt and her panties as she contemplated if she should walk out wearing only this.
Technically, this was all she usually slept in when Adin wasn’t sleeping over, and the last time he’d stayed with her, he’d slept without a shirt on because that was how he usually slept when they weren’t together. Besides, after the events from last night, maybe it didn’t really matter if she had on the shorts. He had seen her in less. And it seemed like Adin wanted them to be completely alone when they had sex for the first time, so with his grandma asleep down the hall, he wouldn’t to try anything. Maybe he wouldn’t anyway with the mood he was in.
She shrugged as she looked at herself one last time and grabbed the shorts before walking out.
Adin was staring outside his window wearing only his pajama pants when she stepped into his room. She walked over to his dresser and opened the drawer where he’d retrieved the shorts. When he heard her opening the drawer, he must have turned around because his breath caught.
“Do you want to try another pair?” Adin asked as he walked over to her.
She shut the drawer and turned to look at him. “No. This is how I usually sleep when I’m alone.”
“Oh,” he whispered.
They climbed into Adin’s bed, facing each other. They weren’t touching, but they stared. After a few minutes, Adin reached over and stroked her hair. She shut her eyes at his gentle touch and felt tears slide down her face. Adin scooted closer, but they still were not touching.
“I’m sorry I was mean to you earlier,” Adin whispered, and his voice broke. She opened her eyes to look at him. His eyes were red; he was fighting his own tears. “I didn’t want to push you away. I just knew if we talked about it tonight, you would be upset.”
“We don’t have to talk about that right now,” she murmured as she scooted closer to him. She kept her eyes on his and half-smiled at him. “Hold me, please,” she murmured.
Adin scooted against her and wrapped his arm around her. She wrapped her arm tightly around him and slid her leg on top of his. His knee moved up, draping his leg over her bottom leg while her other leg stayed on top. Adin stroked her back as he leaned his forehead against hers.
“I love you, Legacy.”
“I love you too,” she whispered.
He leaned his head over and gently kissed her. They kissed softly for several seconds before falling asleep in each other’s arms.
That night, she dreamed her familiar dreams again. But another new element was present. After River came charging for Adin and before Adin told her that he would always love her, she said something to him.
“What we should do and what we want to do are two different things,” she said, staring at him.
She woke up the next morning thinking about the dream. Adin had told her that exact same line when they were making out in his car. She wasn’t sure why she was the one saying it in her dream, but she figured it wasn’t necessarily related to sex.
After she and Adin got out of bed, they started talking. And they talked for hours, clearing the air about everything.
“I think our problem is that neither one wants to hurt the other’s feelings, so we’re keeping our emotions bottled up when it comes to River and Venus,” she said.
“I think you’re right. I know I never want to say anything that could hurt you.”
“Well, I think we need to talk about everything—the things that we do with them and how they make us feel—without worrying about hurting each other.”
Adin nodded. “I think that’s a good idea. Maybe if we stop avoiding what’s happening to us, our relationship will grow stronger.” He was right. Denial wasn’t working.
“Yeah, we need to be able to turn to the other and vent without anyone getting defensive.” They would both need to work on that.
And so they did just that. They talked about the two people in their lives that neither one of them was happy about. It was very hard for Adin hearing how much River meant to her, and it was shockingly devastating to hear Adin talk so nicely about Venus.
But they kept talking, and that felt good. Since they were being so open with each other, she thought about the night she’d met Venus and Adin mentioned she wasn’t the only thing he was keeping from her for her protection. It was time to put all thei
r chips on the table.
“What else have you been keeping from me because you didn’t want to hurt me?”
Adin gave a puzzled look. “Umm, I’ve already said everything there is to say about Venus.”
“I know, but after your banquet, you told me she wasn’t the only thing you were keeping from me.”
Adin’s eyes grew wider. “Sweetheart, I’d really rather not talk about that.”
“If we’re coming clean about everything else that bothers us, then I think we should talk about what you know, so we can deal with it together.”
He sighed and looked down. “It’s about the prophecy.”
She gasped. “What about it?”
“Well, you said that River told you the two of you would be together as long as I’m alive, and besides the fact that I don’t believe you two will ever be together anyway…umm…there’s a possibility I don’t have to worry about you being with him because of the prophecy.”
“What do you mean?”
Adin hesitated, looking away from her. He took a deep breath and faced her again. “Legacy, my father believes I’m going to die soon.”
“What?” she gasped.
“He thinks I’m going to die protecting you. Protecting you from Hades, Medusa, River, Venus, anyone who is a threat to you.” He stroked her face. Tilting his head to the side, he said, “I would die for you.”
Legacy breathed heavily, trying to catch her breath. She stared at Adin, trying not to cry and not doing a very good job. “I don’t want you to die,” she whispered.
Adin put his arms around her as she started to sob. He held her while she clung to him. “This is why I didn’t want to tell you,” he murmured.
She pulled away from him, looking into his eyes. “We have to be really careful, so nothing happens,” she said frantically, shaking her head.
“Please don’t worry about this, sweetheart. I’m not. You’re my number one priority.”
“I’m glad you didn’t come over to River’s yesterday looking for me. If Medusa saw you there, she could’ve killed you. She believes in the prophecy too. If she killed you, she wouldn’t have to worry about me being with River.”
