Solstice

by P. J. Hoover

  Chapter 27

  Hurricane

  I return from the Underworld and find myself by the Spanish Oak. Reese is nowhere to be found. Overhead, the birds flutter through the trees. Birds. Phoenix. I look up and imagine I see a purple and red bird overhead bathed in flames, but there’s no fire. There’s no sun. A giant gray cloud fills the sky, and the wind picks up and starts blowing leaves off the tree.

  I know I need to go back home and see if my mom will tell me what’s going on. She’s keeping secrets from me about who I am. Who she is. It’s like I don’t know her. And I don’t even know myself.

  I try to piece it out in my mind, but there’s just nothing that makes sense. I’ve lived with my mom my entire life. That’s all I am. Still, there has to be something more. Otherwise, why would two Greek gods suddenly be fighting for my attention?

  A gust of wind slams into the tree, and a cracking sound cuts into the air. I hardly have time to jump out of the way before a branch from the Spanish Oak falls to the ground right where I was standing. Would it have killed me? Would I be judged just like Randy Conner? I try to think of the good things I’ve done in my life. Are they worthy of paradise?

  As I walk out of the woods, the wind starts to really pick, so I run until I’m in front of the shuttle stop. My tattoo aches, and it’s turning red again. The ink has faded a few shades, but the raised scar underneath remains. And I think of the face I saw in Asphodel. Like a shadow of Chloe. It had to have been a shade of Reese in disguise, but the ghost Chloe reminds me too much of the fading tattoo. I brush it with my hand, and it deepens again.

  When the shuttle stops, I hop on and head for her house. The wind’s blowing so hard it pushes on the shuttle, but the driver has his hands tight on the wheel. It’s getting dark outside, almost like night, and I think most people will be heading inside. But around the steel struts that reach upward to form the domes, there are work crews everywhere. I get off the shuttle at Chloe’s stop, but before I walk the remaining distance to her house, I move closer to one of the steel legs and try to see what’s going on.

  There’s a panel open, and one of the workers is guiding a sand truck that’s dumping into it. My mom told me they use sand to help grow the glass in the dome, but I thought the domes needed time to recharge. I walk up to the nearest worker and tap him on the shoulder. He turns around to face me.

  “What’s going on?” I ask. From above, tiny drops of rain begin to fall down. They’re heavy and sparse, and I can see each drop when it lands on the concrete surrounding the steel supports.

  “You need to get inside.” He looks back at the panel.

  “Why? What are you doing with the dome?”

  He flips the control panel he’s been working on closed and finally looks me in the eye. “Running tests,” he says, and I see his lie thick on him, growing like a dark gray fungus.

  I wipe the rain off my face. They shouldn’t be doing anything with the domes. I pull out my FON and text my mom. I’m still freaked that she knows Reese, but I’m not going to ask her about that now. It’s not like I can text the message, “why do u know the god of war?” and get any kind of real response.

  “what’s going on with the dome?” I text her instead.

  She responds in seconds. “get home. talk when u get here.”

  I start to type out the next message, to tell her about the sand, but then stop. I’m not ready to head home yet. I pocket my FON and sprint to Chloe’s house. The wind has started blowing hard enough I have to fight against it as I run. My hair’s blowing every single way and getting in my eyes, and anything not tied down is starting to move.

  Chloe’s sitting outside when I get there, arms wrapped around herself, legs drawn up into her. It’s like she doesn’t even realize the wind is blowing. Overhead, a tile blows off her roof and crashes to the walkway where it shatters. The streets are littered, and where any trees still stand, branches snap off and fall.

  “It’s freezing here.” She doesn’t even look up at me, but she has to know I’ve arrived because there’s no one else around she could be talking to. “Have you noticed how cold it is?”

  I stand over her. “Chloe, we need to get you inside.” More tiles pull from the roof. We’re under the patio cover, but the way the wind is blowing, one good gust and it could be gone.

  “The world feels like ice.”

  Ice. I think of the River Cocytus between Hell and the Elysian Fields. Frozen over, but still the wraithlike monsters swim underneath, hoping for an opening but never finding one.

  She lets me help her up, and then we walk inside. Her mom shuts the door behind me and starts telling me how’s she’s been trying to get Chloe inside for the last half hour. Chloe’s mom is normally a calm person, but she’s freaked. Her eyes look bloodshot from worry, and she keeps hovering over Chloe.

  The rain comes down in sheets then, pounding on the roof of the patio. I’ll have to stay at Chloe’s house until the storm relents. My mom may want me home, but she won’t want me walking or taking a shuttle in this mess. I text her a quick, “waiting til storm stops” and leave it at that.

  Chloe’s mom finally goes into the kitchen to make us some coffee which leaves Chloe and me alone. We sit on the sofa, and I try to figure out how to start this conversation with her. There’s been so much going on, I don’t know where to begin. So much has happened even just today. This hurricane is only the most recent part.

  “I missed you at the funeral,” I say and put my hand on Chloe’s. But I yank it back at the touch. She is freezing. Like she’s kept her hand in an ice bin to numb it. I force myself to reach back out and put my hand on hers, rubbing it to warm her. I try to ignore the sound of the wind beating against her house and the memories of Minos accusing me at knifepoint.

  “I was there. In the back.”

  “I didn’t see you,” I say.

  “I saw Randy.” She turns to me at this, and her eyes dig into mine, but they look odd. Like her pupils are tiny dots in the center of giant, oversized irises. Irises so big they should touch the boundaries of her eyes. But there’s white all around—encompassing them. I remember something I heard once about white showing all around the eye. Something about violent death.

  My heart skips a beat, and I’m afraid to look away. Like Chloe might vanish on me or something. Sink down right now into the ground and be swallowed up. “Randy’s dead,” I say. “It was his funeral.”

  And Chloe cannot be seeing ghosts.

  But Chloe shakes her head so furiously, I’m actually happy. It’s the first bit of emotion she’s shown since her near-death experience. “No! I saw him there. He was watching. Listening.” And she grips my hand with such force my knuckles feel like they might pop.

  Her mom walks back in the room right then and sets two cups of steamy coffee down on the table. She gives me a small smile, but then a boom of thunder hits. We all jump, and Chloe’s mom bumps her hand into one of the cups, splashing coffee over the side. I pull my hand away from Chloe’s and reach for a towel to wipe it up.

  Chloe’s mom mouths me a silent, “Thank you.”

  I nod in response, and then she leaves the room.

  Chloe takes a long sip of coffee and then rubs her hands together, warming them. “So what’s going on Piper?”

  This is it. I can tell her about everything. Reese. Shayne. The Underworld. I can warn her to stay far away from Reese. But as I go over the phrasing, it just feels so off. I’m walking around in a world of mythology; who is going to believe that?

  Outside, there’s a groaning, like a giant metal monster has just woken up. Chloe and I both jump at the sound because it sounds like something is going to crash in on us. I look to the window, but she has the shades pulled. And then the sound stops.

  I wait for my breath to return. “I’m not sure where to start,” I say.

  Chloe gives me a smile. “Start anywhere. I feel like I’ve lost the last week.” It’s like it’s the old Chloe. She’s back. And Death has left her behi
nd.

  I scoot closer to her and relink my fingers with hers. Her hands have warmed up again, and her tattoo is normal. I look to mine and see they match. Black and solid. Sacrifice.

  For some reason, Minos’s words come back to me. Do you know what the penalty for killing a phoenix is? I ignore them.

  I start with something easy. “My mom got back today,” I say, grasping for straws. “She said my father wants custody.”

  “Custody?” Chloe’s voice echoes my own amazement.

  “Yeah. Weird, huh?”

  The metal outside groans again though not as loud. I think the wind must be hitting against the metal beams.

  “Totally weird. You’re eighteen. Parents don’t get custody at eighteen.”

  “That’s what I thought, too.” And then I lean closer though no one is around to hear. “I have to admit I’m a little curious, Chloe.”

  She moves her fingers until our thumbs press together. “About your father?”

  I nod. “I might get to meet him. And he wants me in his life.”

  Chloe purses her lips. “I don’t know, Piper. He got convicted as a terrorist.”

  “That’s what my mom says. But maybe she’s lying. Maybe she’s just been keeping me away from him.”

  Chloe doesn’t answer. She knows if it were up to my mom, I’d live with her until I was a hundred years old.

  “Seriously, Chloe. I want to meet him.”

  Chloe doesn’t seem to hear me. Or she chooses to ignore me. “He was so sad, Piper.”

  “My father?”

  Chloe shakes her head. “Randy. His father beats his mom. And his little sister. Did you know that? She’s only seven.”

  The blood freezes in my veins at her words, and the chill that runs through me knocks the wind out of me. How could Chloe possibly know Randy Conner’s final sorrow? How could she know about his abusive father? I lived next to him for four years, yet I had no idea.

  “He asked me to help. Wanted me to do something.” Chloe looks away, and I can finally blink when her enlarged eyes leave mine.

  I believe her. She’s talked with Randy Conner’s spirit as surely as I’ve gone to Hell. “What can you do?” When I say it, I’m not really asking her. I’m asking Shayne, but I know he won’t answer. His realm is the Underworld, not abusive dealings of the world above. He’s made that clear.

  Chloe sighs, but she doesn’t answer. She wraps her arms back around herself, and turns away. “I did it again, Piper.”

  “Did what?” I ask. At this point, I have no idea where Chloe’s disjointed conversation will take me. And I realize she’s not ready for me to tell her anything about my life just yet.

  “It was this weird urge,” she says.

  “Weird like how?”

  Chloe actually lets out a laugh; there’s not an ounce of humor in it. “I cut my sheets into thin strips.”

  I try to hold my face steady and act like maybe this is a normal thing. “Oh. Why?”

  Chloe shakes her head, making her brown bandana fall askew. But she doesn’t straighten it. “They felt so dirty. I washed them but it didn’t help, so I cut them up. But I still can’t sleep on the bed, Piper, so I moved to the floor.”

  My breathing has stopped, but I manage to get words out. “Why did they feel dirty?” Out of nowhere, I imagine Chloe sleeping with someone on her bed and then needing to wash the sheets afterward. I know Chloe’s slept with two guys before, but there’s no one I’m aware of at the present.

  Chloe doesn’t turn to me and doesn’t reply.

  “What’s wrong, Chloe?”

  In profile, I see a tear creep into the corner of her eye, but her lips stay together. I’m tempted to press her—to ask her again. But the wind slams into the house again, and this time, it hits the window and sends glass scattering into the room. I jump up but Chloe doesn’t even move. I hear her mom from the kitchen calling in to ask what happened.

  “Are you going to be okay?” I ask.

  She nods. “You need to leave, Piper.”

  Hurt runs through me. I start to ask why, but she talks again.

  “Now, Piper. Just please leave now.”

  Chapter 28

  Retribution

  I nod and stand up and wipe the tears that spring into my eyes. Chloe acts like she’s two different people. But she is right. I need to get out of here. I need to get out of the city. The metal groans again, and all of a sudden, I know what it is. They are opening the growth slats on the domes; they’re going to try to grow the glass. Even though the domes haven’t had time to regenerate, they’re still going to try.

  I take a step for the door, but Chloe doesn’t even look at me. Maybe the sheet ripping thing was just like the light bulbs—just some near-death recovery thing. It’s only been a few days. Chloe just needs time to recuperate. I’m almost at the door when it blows open. From the kitchen, I hear Chloe’s mom call out again, but I don’t want to talk to her, so I run out the open door.

  The sky is furious. Clouds as black as the River Acheron spin in the sky, and rain comes down so hard, it hurts when it strikes my face. The blast of sirens is almost muted from the storm. I glance up at the steel struts of the dome. Glass is growing fast. In the seconds I watch, it grows downward by a foot. I need to run to get out of the city. I take off and don’t look at anything around me. I don’t look back at Chloe’s house; she’ll be fine once the dome is sealed. She’ll be fine when she gets some rest. Debris fills the streets, but no one is around. There’s no sign of the work crews that had been there earlier. And I’m willing to bet a shuttle won’t come.

  Litter flies past me and tumbles down the street. Something hard strikes me on the back and knocks the wind out of me, but I can’t turn to look. I have to get out of here. I’m vaguely aware of my FON vibrating in my pocket, but I ignore it. My mom’s calling, I’m sure, and given this storm, I don’t blame her. It’s like nothing I’ve even imagined before.

  I’m almost out of the last steel support of the dome when the metal groans a final time. And then shards of glass start to fall to the ground. I dig into my reserves and run like I’ll die if I don’t. Once I’m free and clear and twenty feet away, I spin around and watch the destruction of the dome the city had prided itself so much on. Glass showers down, mixing with the rain until I can’t tell one from the other. My FON is going crazy in my pocket, so I stop under the overhang of a house’s roof and pull it out.

  “b home in a few,” I text my mom. She’s probably absolutely nuts with worry.

  “please tell me ur okay,” she sends back.

  “fine,” I text.

  “i love u so much piper. i never want 2 lose u,” she writes, and I surprise myself when a lump forms in my throat and pushes tears upwards to my eyes. Her words are simple, but she cares so much.

  I wipe my tears, and wait until the storm begins to subside. I stand there under the patio roof of the house and watch as the clouds first blow away east of Austin and then nearly evaporate from the sky. The rain stops next, and when it clears, I see that most of the glass from the dome is gone, too. All that’s left is the shattered skeleton near the sides of the steel beams. The sky transitions first from a dark gray to a creamy butter and then to a denim blue. Then it’s back to the color of topaz, and the sun shines down from above, reflecting off every bit of glass littering the ground and the sky. The transformation is so sudden, so complete. There’s been a hurricane in Austin, and now, only its destruction remains.

  The city is a wreck, but I don’t head back to Chloe’s house or anywhere near the dome. I need to get home to my mom. Because even with everything that’s happened, I want to be near her. I want her to tell me there’s been some mistake. That she was just angry and that she has no idea who Reese really is. But as I walk home, my stomach starts to turn queasy. My mom knows I went on a date with Reese; they know each other. And she wants us to move. Again. She’s been to see my father, and whatever path we lived on in the past has changed. I just don’t know to
what extent yet.

  The first thing I see when I get home is Reese’s pink calla lilies, still smashed on the floor, and nearly every pink petal missing. I pick a single stem up, and before I think about what I’m doing, I infuse life back into it.

  The blossom moves under my energy, and even the green stem is given rebirth. Power flows out of my hands into the flower, and it bursts into color and vibrancy. I touch the bottom of the stem, and roots grow and twist around my hand and fingers. In turn, I pick up each of the remaining flowers and do the same, and when they’ve all reformed, only then do I stop and realize what I’ve done.

  The cut flowers, once dead, are alive. I feel their life with my hands. I’ve had a green thumb my entire life, but this is paranormal. But then again, so is everything else that has been going on in my life recently. If gods walk the earth, then why can’t flowers regrow in seconds? I stick them back in the water-filled vase on the counter.

  “Maybe you should just let them die.”

  I turn and see my mom standing there watching me.

  “I can’t.”

  “Throw them out, and tell him to never come back.” She shifts, like she wants to say so much more than she is. Like she wants to run to me and hug me.

  I set the plant on a shelf next to the sink. “Didn’t you already do that?” I walk past my mom, brushing her shoulder on my way.

  “Of course, Piper. But he won’t give up.” Her voice shakes as she talks. “He’ll keep coming back because he thinks he has some right to be with you.”

  “But why?” I ask.

  My mom throws her hands up in the air. “I don’t know. I just don’t. He showed up here and said he was supposed to take you away. And I can’t let that happen.”

  “Who am I, Mom?” I have to ask the question even though it sounds absurd to my ears.

  My mom doesn’t even hesitate. “You’re my daughter, that’s who you are.”