by Kieran Scott
But still. I felt like running the idea past someone for some reason. Someone with an actual opinion. And it wasn’t like I could talk to my dad, who was already 100 percent onboard. Or my brothers, who were too busy to care. Or Josh, who would probably tell me to shut up and stop thinking like a girl. True, I realized suddenly, was the only friend I had around here. The only person in this town I could really talk to.
And the last time I’d seen her, I’d yelled at her to leave me alone.
“Don’t worry about your little job,” Darla whispered to me teasingly. She lifted her pages so I could see her salary. “I’ll take care of you.”
I smirked, but something inside me twisted. Because even though Darla and I made sense on paper, I wished I was sitting next to Katrina.
CHAPTER THIRTY-FIVE
True
“I can’t believe those jeans didn’t fit,” I grumbled as I slipped a light-gray dress over my head.
“That’s what happens when you eat a dozen cupcakes a day,” Hephaestus called out. Someone in a nearby dressing room guffawed.
“So you’re telling me I can’t drink or eat?” I replied, shoving my arms into the sleeves. Back home I could have eaten five dozen cupcakes a day, plus a roasted pig, a vat of potatoes, and fifteen chocolate-dipped strawberries, and not one millimeter of my body would have ever changed. “I hate this place.”
Hephaestus laughed. “Let’s see the dress. It’s more you anyway.”
I checked the mirror. Hephaestus was right. The soft cotton fell half an inch below the knee and cinched in at the waist, the sleeves puffing slightly and the eyelet neckline framing my face. I shook out my freshly conditioned hair—Hephaestus had taken me to a salon that had done wonders—and smiled.
“Are you going to show it to me or what?” Hephaestus asked.
I opened the slatted door and stepped out. Hephaestus eyed me appreciatively. “Add a leather belt and you may have something there.”
“It’s quite comfortable compared to everything else I’ve worn here,” I said, turning back and forth in front of the three-way mirror. “I had no idea how binding earthly clothes could be.”
Hephaestus widened his eyes at me. I could practically feel the woman in the next dressing room listening in. I rolled my eyes and snatched a sweater off the discard rack. It was red—my favorite color next to white—with an open weave and a high neckline.
“What do you think?” I asked, holding it up to my chest.
“That’ll look great with the tan cargoes,” he replied, backing his chair up a bit as the other shopper emerged from her room, a pair of jeans slung over her forearm. I couldn’t believe she’d been in there for even longer than we had and had only found one suitable pair of jeans. Being human really was a trial. “Grab everything from the yes pile and let’s go find your mom. I’m sure she’s out there terrorizing some poor unsuspecting Gap girl.”
The moment we’d arrived at the mall, Hephaestus had sent my mother off to try to find a job, telling her to tell anyone who asked that she was a single mom, recently divorced, who’d never worked but suddenly found herself in need of an income. She’d been so distracted by the display in the window of the YSL store that I was fairly certain she hadn’t heard a word of it. Hephaestus was right. We had to find her soon, or who knew what kind of mess she’d get herself into? Hera had probably invited the upper goddesses over for a viewing party to watch her navigate the job search. I imagined them eating grapes together, their heads thrown back in laughter at my mother’s expense.
The thought sent an awful, terrified chill down my spine.
“Hephaestus!” I hissed. “What if Zeus is watching us right now? He can’t be happy you’re helping us.”
“Don’t worry,” Hephaestus replied. “No one up there has paid any attention to me in centuries. Besides—”
“But they are paying attention to me,” I replied as I quickly changed back into my velour sweatpants and zipped hoodie—an outfit Hephaestus had approved before we left the house. “What if they—”
“Besides,” Hephaestus said pointedly, “Harmonia said she figured out a way to cloak my actions. If they are watching you right now, as far as anyone up there can tell, you’re shopping by yourself.”
I opened the dressing room door. “How? Harmonia doesn’t have that kind of power.”
“I don’t know how, but if she says she figured out a way, we have to trust her.”
He turned away from me, effectively ending the conversation. Unfortunately, it continued right on in my mind. Were Harmonia’s powers growing like my own? Or had she sought the help of an upper god? Not my father, surely. Hera? Harmonia did have a special relationship with the queen, regardless of the rivalry between her and our mother. But my sister knew better than to trust Zeus’s wife with something as huge as this. Right?
“Don’t overthink it,” Hephaestus said over his shoulder. “Everything’s gonna be fine.”
“Easy for you to say. The love of your life isn’t on the line,” I muttered.
We made our way to the register. My arms were laden down with comfortable but stylish pants, flowy skirts and dresses, colorful sweaters, and a few basic T-shirts. I had found jeans to be far too constricting in general and promised myself I would never ask Orion to wear them again. If I ever saw him again. As I laid everything on the counter for the woman to scan, Hephaestus took out some bills and started to count.
“Where did you get all this money?” I asked.
“I’ve been working for a long time now,” he replied, casting a warning look toward the saleslady.
“Doing what?” I asked, fingering a beaded bracelet on one of the counter’s displays. I slipped it onto my wrist and admired the way it caught the light.
“I work on cars,” Hephaestus told me. “Bringing wrecks back to life, tricking out old rides. It’s my specialty.”
“Sounds about right,” I said, adding another bracelet to my arm. Back home Hephaestus had been one of the most artistic gods I knew, aside from Apollo. He could forge anything out of metal, and everything he made had a unique beauty unparalleled by anything man had ever created. He’d once made an intricate cup for Harmonia that looked as delicate as glass but was as strong as steel. She kept it by her bedside to this day.
“I landed a new job yesterday when I got into town, down at Gino’s Auto Body?” He raised his eyebrows at me, like I was supposed to be familiar with such an establishment. I shrugged. “Gino’s a cool guy,” he said, eyeing the numbers as they flashed across the register’s screen. “But his employees are a bunch of idiots.”
The woman behind the counter laughed. Hephaestus shot her a winning smile, and she blushed.
“Anyway, I figure I’ll go to school with you tomorrow, see what’s up, and try to help you turn things around.”
“Thank you, Hephaestus. I can’t tell you how much I appreciate you’re being here,” I said. “I’m honestly starting to think that I have no idea what I’m doing.”
“Did you say something humble?” Hephaestus teased.
“This place has changed me,” I admitted, sliding a third bracelet onto my wrist. “I thought I was up for the challenge, but . . .” I sighed, my heart pounding with nerves. There was something I wanted to ask him, but I was terrified of the answer. I screwed up my courage and leaped. “Did Harmonia say anything to you? About Orion?”
The teasing look in Hephaestus’s eyes died.
“That’ll be seven hundred fifty-five dollars and ninety-eight cents,” the woman said as she started to pack my new things into paper bags.
Hephaestus drew several bills out of his roll and slid them across the counter. The saleslady did a double take but quickly entered the bills into her machine.
“Hephaestus, what?” I asked. “What did she say?”
Hephaestus twitched his head, telling me to lean closer. “He’s alive. Confined, but alive,” he whispered in my ear, sending chills right through me. “Zeus, however, is none too pleased wit
h your lack of progress, and you know what he’s like when he’s frustrated.”
My jaw clenched. I stood up straight. I knew exactly what Zeus was like when he was frustrated. He took it out on every undeserving being in sight. Starting, I was sure, with Orion. I missed him so much. I couldn’t stand the thought of him being subjected to Zeus’s whims, not after how far he’d come. . . .
• • •
I sat at Orion’s bedside, his sleep marred only by the occasional twitch. It was four weeks into my visit, and Orion was slowly improving. When he awoke, his blue eyes locked on mine, and he smiled.
“I’ve already made your tea,” I said, rising from my chair.
I had cozied up his quarters over the last two weeks, bringing in warm blankets and thick rugs, an intricate iron guard for the fire, and a painting of a whaling boat from the last century, which I often found Orion staring at when he thought I was busy cooking or baking. Yes, I had basically become a housewife, but it suited me, at least for the moment. It wasn’t something I could imagine doing forever, but for him, for now, I was loving it.
“You don’t have to do this anymore, you know,” he said as I poured his Earl Grey. “I’m sure there are far more important things you could . . . you should . . . be doing.”
I hesitated, an unpleasant and unfamiliar sensation clawing at my gut. Was this his way of saying he didn’t want me here?
“Such as?” I asked, turning to him with a smile.
“Such as matching couples from the heavens, wielding those legendary golden arrows of yours,” he suggested, swinging his legs over the side of the bed to accept the steaming cup. “Insuring the perpetuation of true love?”
For some reason, my heart skipped at his last two words. “The world is doing fine without me,” I assured him. “When I return to Mount Olympus, I’ll double my workload.”
Orion sipped his tea, watching me with a pensive expression. When his brow furrowed this way, he looked like a different person. In his first life, he was never serious. Always laughing or mocking or focused on the hunt, but never serious.
“Why do you linger here?” he asked, glancing around at the fresh bread on the counter, the fire crackling in the fireplace. “Why lower yourself this way? You are a mighty goddess. You should not be playing housemaid.”
“I linger here because I’m responsible for you,” I replied, an edge in my voice. “I brought you here. I made you mortal again. I’m not going to desert you to fend for yourself in the modern world. What kind of goddess would I be if I—”
“I apologize,” Orion said, placing his strong hand gently on my arm. “Please, forgive me my queries.” He set the tea aside. “I simply don’t remember you being this kind.”
His eyes were teasing.
“Is that so?” I asked.
“You did match me with Artemis as a joke, did you not?” he asked, raising his eyebrows. “Because she had claimed that loving a mortal was beneath her?”
“How did you know that?” I asked.
“One hears things,” he said, for the first time in this millennium flashing that cocky grin I had once known so well. Somehow, I knew it was Apollo who had told him. I had no idea why he had done it, but he had.
“Do you still love her?” I asked.
Orion’s jaw clenched, and he stood up to walk to the window, which overlooked the hills of our pretty island, now green with the first buds of spring, and the rooftops of the small village on the water down below. “I haven’t loved her since the day she took my life.”
“She didn’t mean to do it,” I told him, clueless as to why I was defending her. “She was tricked.”
He turned halfway, barely glimpsing me over his shoulder. “But she knew what she was doing when she hung me with the stars. And for that, I will never forgive her.”
A flutter of nervousness warmed my stomach, and I looked at the floor. I felt the blush lighting my cheeks and couldn’t believe I was reacting this way. Excited by the mere possibility that Orion’s heart was free. I could have read his thoughts, his desires, his needs a thousand times over, of course, but I refrained, feeling somehow that it would be a violation to do so without permission. After everything he’d been through, after what I’d done to him, I felt he deserved his privacy.
“There’s one other thing I didn’t remember about you,” Orion said. He stepped up to my chair, his knees almost touching mine. I looked up, and our eyes met.
“What’s that?” I asked, breathless. The fire warmed my face and I felt suspended, as if at any moment I could either drop to the earth like a stone or float weightlessly into the clouds.
Orion reached out, the side of his calloused thumb barely grazing the skin of my warm cheek. “I didn’t recall the depth of your beauty.”
• • •
“Here’s your change.”
I blinked, startled, as the saleslady slid a few bills and coins across the counter to me. I grabbed them and turned to storm out. The memory of Orion had rattled me, as well as the thought that the gentle, loving, trusting guy I loved was being subjected to untold tortures right this very minute. Thanks to me.
“Wait! Your bags.”
The woman hefted two heavy bags up onto the counter. I grabbed them and started, again, for the door.
“Wait!” she shouted again.
“What?” I snapped back.
“Were you going to pay for those bracelets?” she asked, her eyes flicking judgmentally toward my arm. I groaned and looked at Hephaestus.
“Have I mentioned I hate this place?”
Hephaestus handed the woman two more bills. “Keep the change,” he said with a wink.
“Oh, no. I couldn’t. It’s against store policy to—”
“Oh, I think you can,” he said.
He shot her one last grin as he rolled toward me, taking one of the bags and hanging it from his chair as we made for the door. I walked right over to the closest bench and sat, hanging my head in my hands.
“How do you do it? How do you live here?” I demanded as Hephaestus caught up with me. “The clothes don’t fit, you have to pay for everything, when you take what you want people take offense. It’s impossible.”
“You get used to it,” Hephaestus said with a laugh.
“I don’t want to get used to it,” I told him as a woman pushed two screaming babies past us in a stroller. “I want to complete my mission and get the hell back to Mount Olympus. And back to Orion.”
“So that’s what you’ll do,” Hephaestus said simply, smiling at a pair of women who blatantly checked him out as they strolled by in their ridiculous high heels. “Tomorrow everything will start to turn around. You’ll see.”
“What makes you so positive?” I asked.
“After a couple hundred years living on this Earth, you realize there’s no surviving it without a good attitude.”
“I did it! I secured a job!” Aphrodite was striding toward us with a triumphant grin. I hadn’t seen her look so awake, or so upright, since we’d been banished here. She’d consented to a shampoo and haircut, and her shiny blond locks now swung around her cheekbones. Every man in the immediate vicinity drooled as she swept by. One of them even tripped over a potted plant. “You said it was not possible, but I’ve proved you wrong,” she declared, lifting her chin haughtily at me.
“I’m duly impressed,” Hephaestus said. “Where is it?”
“It is at a very brightly lit establishment called . . . Perfumania,” Aphrodite said, reading from the name tag in her palm. “It smells putrid, but the women working there are universally beautiful, so it was the only place I felt comfortable.”
“Well, this is fantastic,” Hephaestus crowed. “A new beginning for everyone.”
I reached for Orion’s arrow and hoped he was right. Because the timer was running low, and my heart couldn’t take much more uncertainty. I had made Orion a promise, and with Hephaestus’s help, I might finally figure out a way to keep it.
CHAPTER THIRTY-SIX
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Katrina
I jogged down the stairs toward Ty’s car on Monday afternoon, feeling about ready to skip. It was over. My English presentation was over. And according to that last note from Charlie, I’d done great. In spite of Stacey. I thought I’d bounced back from that pretty well. Thanks to Charlie. Cara had even caught up with me in the bathroom afterward and congratulated me. It was like I was my old self again.
Honors English. I was doing it. I was really turning things around. I felt as if the sunlight on the back of my neck was actually my dad smiling down at me.
“Hey, Ramos!”
I paused at the sound of Raine’s voice. Even as my heart slammed a nervous beat, I gave her, Lana, and Gen a big smile.
“Hey! What’s up?” I asked.
“Where’ve you been?” Raine asked, glancing past me toward Ty’s car. “It’s like you’ve dropped off the face of the earth.”
“Is it true you moved in with Ty?” Lana asked excitedly.
“I . . . how did you hear about that?” I asked.
“Raine told us,” Gen said, popping her gum.
I narrowed my eyes at Raine. “How did you hear about it?”
“Not from my best friend,” she said coolly. “Ty came into Pizza City the other day. He told me about it while he was having a slice.”
“Oh. He didn’t tell me he saw you,” I said, feeling this icky sourness inside my stomach.
“I guess he has secrets too,” Raine replied, crossing her arms over her chest. “So why have you been avoiding me?”
