“Nia?”
She turned to see Bradley ambling into the cavernous observatory room. He halted in the rectangle of mid-afternoon sunlight streaming in through the open portal. The ends of his hair winked with golden highlights in the bright light.
She sent him a smile. “What’s up?”
“The Campfire Scouts are here. For their tour.”
“Oh, fiddle. Is that today?” How had she forgotten another tour?
“I can show them around them if you want.” The offer of assistance came with a smile. “I have nothing else on my schedule.”
Nia moved across the decking on the platform, her footfalls echoing off the girders supporting the rounded ceiling. “Nah, I’ve got this. The little nippers usually have interesting questions.” She climbed down the steps. “You are certainly welcome to join, if you wish. Always nice to have your creative brand of wit along for these things.”
Crossing the room, she made her way to the small table by the door. She took a quick slurp from the drink she’d left there when she’d come into the room. The sugary beverage hit her system with a burst of energy and vigor.
She picked up her smartphone and did a quick check of her email. Still nothing from her sister, Callie, regarding the challenge they faced from Pierus. The presumptive demi-god had surfaced recently and resurrected his daring attempt to free his imprisoned daughters and conquer the world. Starting with her family’s corporation, Olympus Enterprises.
Clio, another of her eight sisters had faced the trial last month, and been successful. Now, the first of Pierus’s disgusting magpie daughters, Tyranny, was safely locked in the aviary on Olympus. Tension had grown to monumental proportions as they waited to see which of Pierus’s daughters would be unleashed next, and which Muse would be chosen to respond.
For now, Nia subscribed to the idea that no news was good news. It was wishful thinking to hope that after his last defeat, Pierus had abandoned his quest to free his daughters from the punishment Zeus had decreed thousands of years ago. Being magpies suited those bitches. In the meantime, all of the Thanos sisters waited and remained vigilant.
Glancing at the bank of world clocks on the far wall, Nia was shocked to discover she’d been in the observatory for three hours. She always lost track of time when gazing at the cosmos.
“Maybe after the tour, you’d agree to go get that drink we’ve been talking about for the better part of the month.” Hope flourished in Bradley’s tone.
More like the drink she’d been avoiding for the better part of the month. He was a nice guy, but she wasn’t in the least bit attracted to him. And never would be. Head down, she scanned her email messages while mumbling, “You have an appointment you’ve forgotten about.”
Bradley snapped his fingers. “Wait, I forgot I have a session with my personal trainer tonight.”
Success! “Oh, guess that drink will have to wait for some other time.” Nia didn’t know why she didn’t just tell him she wasn’t interested. Maybe because she hated any form of rejection herself. Had for the entire millennia. In each lifetime, this type of situation had come up. She used to be better at telling people no.
Through the open door, the high pitch squealing of a gaggle of young girls reached the usually quiet confines of the telescope room.
Bradley looked over his shoulder toward the noise filtering in through the open doorway. “We better get going before they shriek the roof down.”
Nia silenced the phone and then slipped it into the back pocket of her jeans. As she walked toward the exit, she double-checked she had her nametag on. She did, but it was upside down. A quick flick of her wrist and she righted it. Bradley dogged her heels as she moved toward the steadily increasing sound of little girls shrieking.
A group of girls dressed in identical navy shorts and white blouses waited in the octagonal lobby. All but one had a red kerchief knotted around their necks. The large central room was one of Nia’s favorite at Helios. The ceiling was midnight blue with maps of the constellations depicted in phosphorescent paint that glowed at night when the lights had been dimmed. In the center of the room, a recessed area held a mammoth replica of the Earth. The globe rotated in the manner of the real planet, making a full circuit each hour. Strategically placed lights shifted from day to night as the globe spun. It was surrounded by limestone railings. Visitors typically clustered around the observation area and checked the position when they first entered.
The good-sized group of uniformed eight-year-olds stood at the rail, pointing and gesturing as the orb spun slowly on its axis. The group leaders clustered to one side, keeping a watchful eye on their young charges.
Nia made her way to the adults. “Hello, and welcome to Helios.”
“I’m Peggy Dartmoor, group leader. Thank you for hosting us today.” A woman in yoga pants and a Spandex top extended her hand, offering Nia a limp handshake.
Nia resisted the urge to adjust her hand in the girly grasp and tighten her grip. Instead, she settled for a toothy smile. “We love to have groups of impressionable kids visit. We never know when we might influence someone to be the next Sally Ride.” The astronaut was one of Nia’s greater triumphs. The first American woman in space had started out wanting to be a professional tennis player.
The vacant look on Peggy’s face indicated she might not know whom Nia was talking about. The woman’s blond ponytail slapped against her shoulder when she jerked her head to the side. “Bridget, you stop that this instant.”
Nia followed the woman’s sharp glance to discover a little imp attempting to crawl over the railing onto the globe. Same blond hair, same skinny build. Most likely they were mother and daughter.
Clapping her hands together, Nia raised her voice and began the process of herding cats. “Here now. Why don’t we step into the classroom?” She nodded to Bradley, who led the way across the lobby. The troop followed like giggly lemmings.
The little girl not wearing the kerchief attached herself to Nia’s side, instead of hanging out with her friends. The cherub, a halo of glittery golden curls surrounding her face, sent her a shy smile. “My name is Hailey. What’s yours?”
“I’m Nia.”
“It’s very nice to meet you, Ms. Nia.”
The child’s manners and mature demeanor should have charmed the socks right off Nia. But kids and her didn’t mix well. Never had. “Pleasure to meet you as well, Hailey. Have you been to the observatory before?”
The kid snuck her small hand into Nia’s. “My uncle brought me here last week to see the Per…Per…” she paused and squinted. “Persnickety shower.”
Nia grinned. “The Perseid meteor shower?” The spectacular celestial display occurred every August. The observatory always drew a huge crowd for that. Crowds made her tense, but so did children. Nerves tightened along Nia’s shoulders. She attempted to disengage her hand from the child’s before she broke out in a sweat. Hailey gripped her tighter.
The long blond curls jiggled when the girl nodded her head vehemently. “That’s it! Did you see me?”
“There were a lot of people here that night.” Nia tossed a frantic glance around for Bradley, spying him already in the classroom ahead. She pointed him out to Hailey as they crossed into the large dimly lit room. “Um, Mr. Bradley can help you find a seat. Why don’t you run along and ask him.”
The child lifted her eyebrows and made sad eyes at Nia. Sucking her bottom lip between her teeth, she dropped Nia’s hand, and tucked hers behind her back. This is what it feels like to have to reach up to scratch a snake’s belly. Shame flamed around Nia’s chest.
She relented. “Listen, Hailey. Maybe you’d like to sit up front while I’m talking?”
“Can I?” Her voice had lost the notes of excitement it had held earlier.
Goddess, she landed in the soup this time. She’d hurt this little girl’s feeling simply because young children made her uncomfortable. Stupid phobia. She was a freaking Muse, meant to inspire others toward greatness. Well, who the
Hades was going to inspire her to be more comfortable around children? If her gift worked on kids this age, she’d mentally message Hailey to go attach herself to Bradley, or one of the other Campfire Scouts. But, except in rare occurrences, children under a certain age were not susceptible to suggestion.
Too damn bad, as far as Nia was concerned.
“Sure, come on,” she told Hailey. “I have rock star seating down in front.”
“I have to sit on a rock?” Hailey tipped her head to the side, a quizzical smile on her face.
Note to self—kids take everything literally. Nia touched the child on the shoulder, aiming her toward the front of the small auditorium. Bradley was already passing out the age-appropriate take-home packets they’d designed and prepared for visiting school groups.
Nia left her little shadow in the center seat and walked up the two steps to the raised platform reserved for staff and visiting lecturers. She drew a deep breath and addressed the eager little faces assembled in front of her. “Welcome to the Helios Institute, home of Delphi’s world-renowned observatory and planetarium. If you’ve been here before, please raise your hand.”
Ten small hands shot into the air, fingers wiggling. The volume of chatter escalated until Peggy shushed everyone, waving her arms wildly at the girls, a massive scowl on her face.
Nia wasn’t bound by age restrictions as far as Peggy was concerned, so she directed a stare at the woman and muttered under her breath, “You look quite tired. You want to sit down.” Satisfaction rippled in her ribcage when Peggy yawned and dropped into a seat right next to her mini-me, Bridget.
Nia continued her talk about the facility, gearing the words and tone to the eight-year-olds, not worrying about whether the parents were bored. There was a lot to discover at Helios, regardless of their age.
Clicking the remote that operated the electronics in the room, Nia dimmed the lights and began the laser show that projected various constellations on the ceiling. The professionally narrated show about how the star groupings were named lasted only a few minutes and the audience applauded when it was all done.
Bringing the house lights back up, Nia couldn’t help but notice the chagrined look on Hailey’s face.
The child waved her hand in the air. “Ms. Nia?”
“Did you have a question, Hailey?”
“Uncle Thomas said the stories are all made up. Those people the constellations were named for never existed.”
“We call them myths, but usually, stories like this are handed down from age to age, and might have some basis in true life.” Nia knew most of the tales behind the information accompanying the light show were factual accounts. She’d lived through all of them. “But you can choose to believe or not. It’s up to you.”
“Thomas says not to believe in anything you can’t see or touch.”
What the heck kind of uncle turns a kid into a jaded skeptic by the third grade? Nia started to argue, but changed her mind. Getting into it with a kid in front of a bunch of other kids would only end in disaster. “Okay, then. Let’s continue our tour.”
Bradley herded the youngsters out of the small theater. Several of the Campfire Scouts grouped together, alternately whispering behind their hands and pointing back toward Hailey. Nia was certain the cornerstone philosophy of the Scout organization was to be a decent human being. Someone should give the little stinkers the definition of what kindness entailed.
Hailey hung back, crowding next to Nia, as though afraid to catch up with her troop-mates. Nia let her, but kept her own hands in her pockets to make sure Hailey didn’t have the opportunity to cling too closely to her.
The girls giggled and the accompanying moms gossiped instead of paying attention to the details of the tour. Resentment simmered in Nia as the entire group grew more distracted. She had many more important things to do than spending time with disrespectful women who should be setting an example for their daughters.
She never liked unleashing her unique brand of persuasion on people who were focused only on the importance of being them. Individuals like that truly couldn’t be inspired to think of bigger pictures. Typically they had no interests beyond the tiny universe where they played the sun and everyone else orbited around them. It would be useless to try to nudge the inattentive chaperones to tune in to what the institute was all about. She didn’t believe in wasting of her energy.
So rather than send them a mental shut-the-fuck-up command, she cleared her throat quite loudly. It worked in gaining their attention. “We’re about to enter the observatory. Each of you will have a chance to look through the telescope to see the stars.”
“Ms. Nia?” Hailey spoke up. Her brown eyes were over-large in her face. “It’s daytime. How will we see the stars?”
It was something usually asked by the adults. “Excellent question. Even though it is day here, the stars are still out. Because they are a long, long way from Earth, the light from the sun dims their twinkle during our daytime. With my super-duper telescope, we’ll be able to see all the way to where they are in space. The stars will look like big points of light in the dark blue sky.”
“My mommy and daddy are stars now.”
Nia paused as she reached for the handle to pull the heavy steel door open. That sounded like something you’d tell a grieving child. Unsure of how to respond to the girl, she continued opening the door to the observatory.
Her pride and joy—her baby—stood dead center in the massive space. The barrel of the larger refracting scope extended twenty feet from the edge of the viewing platform. A smaller version was piggybacked above it. The entire structure dominated the room and was focused on a section of the sky Nia knew would be visible at this time of day.
Bradley organized the kids in a line at the foot of the viewing platform while Nia hurried up the steps with a wooden box the youngsters could stand on to look through the viewer. She double-checked the sharpness of the image visible in the eyepiece, twisting the focus knob to better define the edges.
She straightened and looked at the line of expectant faces at the foot of the stairs. Pointing to the first child, she said, “Okay, come on up.”
One by one, the children all took turns, with the chaperones mixing in. Nia relished the chorus of oohs and aahs as they spied the celestial objects millions of miles away. Once the last person took their turn the tour was officially over. Nia and Bradley escorted the group back to the main lobby, where parents waited to retrieve their kids. Bradley hustled out of the area without as much as a glance over his shoulder, leaving Nia alone with the dissipating crowd.
The last remaining child was Hailey, who stood forlornly next to Peggy and Bridget Dartmoor. Peggy heaved a deep sigh and checked the time on her phone. “Hailey, your uncle is coming, isn’t he? He’s late. I have to take Bridget to ballet class.”
“He should be here. What if something bad happened to him?”
Now that the tour was officially over, Nia had intended to return to her office. The panic in the child’s voice punched her gut like a fist. She might not be the most nurturing woman alive, but she couldn’t leave the frightened young girl.
Peggy crossed her arms under her chest, exaggerating her already awesome cleavage. “The only bad thing that’s going to happen to him is me yelling at him for being late.” She shook her head and muttered, “It’d be easier to get mad if he was ugly as sin.”
Nia started to laugh, and quickly hid her reaction behind a cough. Peggy might have thought she was quiet, but Nia had enhanced hearing, part of the territory for being a Muse. Not much escaped her.
And suddenly, she was intrigued by the idea of seeing what Hailey’s uncle actually looked like.
The entrance door burst open and a man raced through. He paused just inside, doing a rapid scan of the area. When he caught sight of their little group, his smiling gaze zeroed in on Hailey. Nia felt a sharp pang in her chest. Her breath shortened as the intensity of the man’s grin brightened the shadowy lobby. His longish blond hair swe
pt the collar of his cobalt T-shirt. Black jeans rode low on his lean waist. The leather flip-flops on his feet finalized his surfer look. As Hailey hurtled toward him, he stooped low to catch her. The denim of his jeans hugged his powerful thighs in a way that made Nia’s mouth water.
Definitely not as ugly as sin.
Preorder now on Amazon
Also by Gemma Brocato
Paranormal Romance
Mayhem Coming Nov 2016
Greed Coming Dec 2016
Contemporary Romance
The Five Senses Series
Cooking Up Love
Hearts In Harmony
Exposed To Passion
Bed Of Roses
Five Senses Shorts
A Winter Wedding
A Spirited Love
Playing With Fire
Romancing The Vine
Risking The Vine
Science Fiction Romance
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About the Author
Gemma's favorite desk accessories for many years were a circular wooden token, better known as a 'round tuit,' and a slip of paper from a fortune cookie proclaiming her a lover of words; some day she'd write a book. All it took was a transfer to the United Kingdom, the lovely English springtime, and a huge dose of homesickness to write her first novel. Once it was completed and sent off with a kiss, even the rejections addressed to 'Dear Author' were gratifying.
After returning to America, she spent a number of years as a copywriter, dedicating her skills to making insurance and the agents who sell them sound sexy. Eventually, her full-time job as a writer interfered with her desire to be a writer full-time and she left the world of financial products behind to pursue an avocation as a romance author.
To learn more about Gemma and her works,
@GemmaBrocato
gemma.brocato
www.gemmabrocato.com
[email protected]
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Tyranny: Goddesses of Delphi Page 19
