“Um, do you want help us out with the Harvest Ball?” Sawyer said.
Owen narrowed his eyes. “What are you talking about?”
“Well, that was why I came to talk to you in the first place. We’re working on getting ready for the Harvest Ball, you know, the decorations and all that kind of stuff. I thought it might be a good way for us to try to bury the hatchet. Since the only way I can ever hang out with Nora again as if I hang out with you.”
Owen swallowed. “I’m not creative. I don’t think I’d be any good at decorating the Harvest Ball.”
“Well, there will be noncreative things you can do.” Sawyer was still looking at his finger, wriggling it around, as if he didn’t really believe it was real.
The easiest way to get away from Sawyer was going to be to say yes, wasn’t it? Owen nodded. “Okay, fine.”
* * *
Phoebe stood in the door of her tent, looking out after Nora as the girl walked away. She took another long swallow of her drink.
A voice from behind her. “You still going to deny that something’s going on?”
Phoebe turned around. “Coeus.”
He folded his arms over his chest, “You’re planning something with her. The two of you have been at it all year. Tell me I’m crazy, like you have been.”
She rubbed her forehead. “Oh, what does it matter anymore? Yes. Yes, we’ve been trying to find out what Owen Asher’s plans are. And now we know. He wants to take over the council and rule Helicon. He has been siphoning power away from the Influence. Power that has the gods’ power signatures. We’re not sure what he plans to do with all that power, once he rules Helicon, but I can’t imagine it would be good.”
Coeus let out breath with a low whistle. “Well.”
Phoebe gestured to a couch. “You can sit down. I think I’m going to.” She collapsed on the couch and took another drink.
Coeus came over and sat down next to her. “So, you used one of the tweens to spy on him?”
Phoebe sighed. “She volunteered.”
“Oh, well that makes it all better than. If a fifteen-year-old girl says she wants to be a spy, then by all means, we should just let her—”
“She’s nineteen,” Phoebe said.
“I stand corrected. That makes all the difference.”
“You can be sarcastic all you want. She was close to him. She was willing. He happens to be tween age himself, you know. It made the most sense. It wasn’t an easy decision to make, but I fear Owen. He wants to launch an offensive against us, and you know the muses are not prepared for or capable of fighting a war.”
“I suppose you are, though, since you’re willing to sacrifice little girls.”
Phoebe hung her head. “I can’t say I’m proud of myself. I know that… I shouldn’t have asked it of her. I see that it’s taken a toll. And she’s gone farther than I…” Phoebe dragged a hand over her face.
“Gone farther? What do you mean?”
She gave him a pointed look.
“Oh,” he said in a different voice. “You mean with Owen.” He shook his head slowly. “Well, not only have you put her in danger, you’ve gotten her raped.”
Her face twitched. “Don’t be ridiculous. She did it of her volition.”
“So you made her rape herself.”
“That’s not even possible, Coeus.” She clenched her teeth.
“You’ve never liked her. Why?”
Phoebe met his gaze. “Why would you say that?”
“I can tell,” Coeus said. “It’s in the way you treat her.”
Phoebe shook her head. “I have absolutely no problem with the girl. I don’t know why you would say anything like that.”
“You treat her differently than—”
“I most certainly do not.” Phoebe got to her feet. “I won’t discuss this anymore. I have nothing against the girl.”
“Is that why you let her talk you into continuing? Is that why you allowed her to continue this dangerous charade? Because you like her?”
Phoebe walked over to the opening of the tent. She pulled aside the flap, and looked out over Helicon. “No, that’s not why.”
“Then why?”
Phoebe pointed. “All of that. That’s why. This place where we live. This paradise. I did it because I care about this place. If she has a chance of stopping him, making it so that we don’t have to engage in some kind of altercation with him, then I want a let her try.” She let the flap close. She turned. “I’d do more than put a tween in danger, if it meant that I could preserve all of Helicon. I’d send a dozen tweens to their deaths. Five dozen. A hundred. If it meant that we would be safe, I would do it.”
Coeus stood up. “You don’t mean that. That’s not who you are.”
“When disaster came to Helicon before, I not only didn’t stop it, I caused it. You’d better believe that I will never let myself be the cause of suffering here again.”
* * *
Sawyer was staring at his finger. It’d been a long time since he’d had five fingers on his right hand. It felt odd. He had grown used to one of his fingers being gone. He kept wriggling his fingers in front of his face. Then he would set his hand down. But then before he knew what he was doing, he found himself picking up a hand again, and moving the fingers.
Owen had fixed his finger.
His first reaction to that piece of knowledge was a bit of terror. How powerful was Owen? What kind of a person could put their hands around someone’s fingers and make a whole new finger? Sawyer didn’t know, but he was fairly sure that anyone who could do something like that had a whole lot of juice running through his veins. And Owen was the last person on earth Sawyer wanted to have that kind of juice.
But the second thing that went through his head was simply shock. All the things he’d expected when he went to talk to Owen, he hadn’t expected that. And the strange thing was, it had happened even before he’d gotten the chance to ask Owen to work with them for the Harvest Ball. That was meant to be the olive branch, the gesture which allowed Owen to know that he was now accepted into Helicon. Sawyer hadn’t even gotten to do that. In the end Owen had—
Lute sat down next to him. “What are you doing?”
Sawyer thrust his hand in Lute’s face.
“Gods,” Lute said. “Your finger. How did that happen?”
Sawyer snatched his hand back and stared at the finger again. “Owen did it. I think he was trying to apologize. Not sure if he actually did say he was sorry, but he said that it was unforgivable and that he shouldn’t have done it and a bunch of other strange things. And then he grabbed my hand, held onto it really tight, and when he was done, my finger was back.”
“Wow.”
Sawyer nodded.
“You know, maybe Nora’s right. She said that he was changing. Maybe there’s something inside him—”
“No.” Sawyer shook his head. “No, there’s nothing good inside Owen.”
Lute bit his lip. He opened his mouth as if he was going to say something, and then he stopped, seeming to think better of it.
Sawyer lifted his chin, a challenge. “You have something you want to say?”
Lute shook his head. “No, I’m sure you’re right. No part of Owen is good.”
CHAPTER TWENTY
When Nora tried to talk to Owen about what he’d done for Sawyer, Owen didn’t seem at all interested in speaking about it. He brushed it away. “I shouldn’t have made him cut his finger off anyway,” he said. “Let’s not make a big thing about it.”
In fact, he was so insistent that Nora couldn’t get him to say anything else about the matter at all. When she did try to push a little, Owen started to get angry.
So she dropped it. “I went to see Phoebe today,” Nora said.
Now Owen was very interested. “You asked her about the politics enclave?”
“I did, and she got very worried,” Nora said. “She said it was suspicious. She said that she thought maybe you were up to your old tricks, an
d that if you left any more hints about wanting to have some kind of political power, she’d make sure you’re exiled again. I don’t know, maybe she was in a bad mood. She didn’t give it any thought at all. And I think she knows, somehow, what it is you’re planning to do.”
Owen groaned. “Someone in our group. Someone that comes to the meetings. A leak, a spy.”
Nora hadn’t thought that he would jump to this conclusion, but she realized it was a logical one. Honestly, it was just a spur of the moment decision that had led her to say that Phoebe seemed to know what Owen was up to. She said it because otherwise it didn’t make sense for Phoebe to be threatening exile.
“We have to stop the meetings,” Owen said. “Damn it.”
Nora was pleased but did her best not to show it. “I’m sorry.”
But Owen just shook his head.
“You’ll have more time to help out with the Harvest Ball. I hear you agreed to be part of the committee to decorate.”
Own made a face at her. “I did because they’re your friends. I know you miss them. I made the mistake of trying to separate you from your friends before. You’ve been away from them too long. That can’t work long term.”
Nora surveyed him. “Besides, you’d like to get me out of your hair so that you can work on your secret plans.”
Owen smirked. “What are your secret plans? You still haven’t told me where you went during Halloween.”
It was Nora’s turn to smirk.
They surveyed each other, staring each other down.
As exhausted as she was, and as much is Owen irked her, Nora had to admit there was a little bit of fun interacting with him this way. Every day was a challenge.
“Anyway, don’t worry about that,” Owen said. He came close and kissed her on the forehead. “You know all my secrets.”
Nora was sure that wasn’t true, it was heartening of him to say so.
So, time passed. Owen did come in did help out with Harvest Ball decorations. At first, it was awkward. Her friends didn’t seem to know how to speak to him or what to do.
Agler was particularly stiff. He didn’t seem to understand how to do what Nora had asked. It was fairly obvious that Agler still hated Owen.
But, in the end, that was probably for the best. It made things more reasonable. If Owen had thought that everyone suddenly forgave him, he wouldn’t have believed it.
And so, they all worked together on the decorations. One day, Nora found Owen laboring over the centerpiece design for the tables. He was rearranging gourds and candles, stepping back to look at them, then moving them again.
She started to go over to help him, but Maddie seemed to get there first. “How’s it going?” Maddie asked him.
Owen was gruff. “I don’t know how to do this. I don’t know how to make it look good.”
“Calm down,” Maddie said. “You’re doing fine, really.”
Owen surveyed the centerpiece in the middle of the table. “No, it doesn’t look right,” he said. “When you guys, you muses, do something it always has this, I don’t know, perfect look to it. Because you’re so creative. I’m just… not.”
Maddie shrugged. “I think you’re being too hard on yourself.”
Owen pressed his lips together. He grimaced. “Believe me. I don’t admit that I’m not very good at something often. I’m admitting this. This whole activity makes me nervous.”
Maddie cocked her head, surveying the centerpiece. “Well maybe move the candle this way a little bit.” She did it, and then stepped back to look at the effect.
Owen gestured. “See? That’s what fixed it. Just moving it a little over to the side. Now it looks great.”
“I don’t know about great,” Maddie said. “And besides, you’re the one who got it all set up like this. All I did was move the candle.”
Owen glared at her. “It looks great. You’re good at this. I’m not.”
After this exchange, Maddie sat down with Nora. “Did you see?” Maddie asked.
“Yeah,” Nora said.
“Our plan isn’t going very well, I don’t think,” Maddie said.
“Oh, I do,” Nora said.
“You do?”
“Yeah. That was genuine. At least as far as I can tell. He certainly was frustrated, and he allowed himself to have a weakness. That isn’t that Owen does. It shows that he was feeling comfortable.”
“But he was mad,” Maddie said.
“Yeah, even that’s a good thing.You know what I said before about emotions. If Owen is feeling something and showing it, then he feels safe. We need him to feel safe in Helicon.”
Maddie sighed. “But it’s not enough, is it? I mean, we don’t have enough time to do this before the Harvest Ball.”
Nora chewed on her lip. “Well, maybe if we can show some progress, maybe then Phoebe will give us a little bit more time.”
“Is that what you want?” Maddie said.
“I don’t know.” Nora sighed. “If I thought there was some way to break up with him and not destroy all our progress, I would. Being around him is like… Well, it’s better now that you guys are around. Maybe it would have been better if I hadn’t kept it from you all year.”
“Maybe it would,” Maddie said. “But we can’t go back in time.”
Nora shook her head. “No.”
They watched as Owen set up the next centerpiece on the table, making sure to copy exactly what Maddie had done.
Later that evening, when they were back in Nora’s tent, Owen complained loudly about how annoying it was to have to do all the decorations, and how much he hated it.
But then he sat down in the hammock and noted that it was better to have something to do now that he couldn’t meet with his group of loyals anymore. He yanked off his shoes. “And besides, your friends aren’t half bad.”
Nora smiled to herself. They were making progress.
* * *
Sawyer looked up to see Owen standing next to him. They were at the tweens and rebels fire pit, and the council meeting was going on down at the main fire pit.
Owen looked a little uncertain. “Anyone sitting there?” He pointed.
Sawyer felt surprised by this question. But the bench was empty. He shrugged. “Not that I know of.”
Owen sat down. It was quiet.
“Nora’s doing something with Maddie,” Owen said. He stared into the fire.
Sawyer nodded. “Yeah, Lute’s doing music stuff. You’re not down at the council meeting? Don’t you always attend those?”
Owen shrugged again. “Wasn’t feeling it tonight. They’re all the same anyway.”
Sawyer figured it was best not to have a discussion about the council with Owen. So, putting aside the fact that it was abundantly strange for Owen to be sitting with him, he decided to try to find a way to change the subject. “All the decorating for the Harvest Ball is coming along well.”
Owen rolled his eyes. “I only signed up for that because Nora wanted me to. I’m shit at that stuff. She knows it. And she likes it. She likes it when I screw up at stuff. What’s up with her, anyway? Ever since I ran into her last year… she’s different. Sometimes I wonder if…” Owen studied his fingernails. He looked up at Sawyer for a second and then back down at his hand. “I heard you guys thought that maybe something was going on with her.”
Sawyer wasn’t sure what to say.
“I know it was because of me.” Owen pointed at himself. “And honestly, that’s part of it. I can’t figure out why she would be with me. It seems like she should hate me. At first, I told myself that she missed me, because were were meant to be together, that we were always meant to be together…” He shook his head. “And if she was still the same old meek little Nora that she used to be, then maybe I’d believe that. But she’s not. She’s strong, and she plays these head games with me.”
Sawyer still didn’t know what to say. “Uh… I think we decided that she was okay. We actually did go to the mundane world and get this potion to see if we could
… it’s not important. She’s fine.” It wasn’t good that Owen was suspicious.
Owen took a deep breath. “Yeah, I’d like to believe that. Because in some ways, I like the head games. And I like to think that she enjoys it too. And that that’s what makes us actually perfect for each other. Like maybe we really are meant to be. I’d really like to think that.” He shot Sawyer another look, and this one could almost be called hopeful.
Sawyer’s mouth felt dry. He realized that Owen was coming to him for reassurance. He was interacting with him not in a way to manipulate or control him, but actually seeking out Sawyer’s opinion. This was kind of huge. “I think you should think that,” Sawyer said quickly. “Because that might be right.”
Owen narrowed his eyes. “All right, let’s be honest here. Maybe I fixed your finger. And maybe you’re playing nice because you miss Nora. But you don’t like me. Why would you—”
“I’m not saying I want it to be true,” Sawyer said. “I can think of some other guys that might be better for Nora than you. But if she chooses you, then that’s her own business, isn’t it? You’ve been together practically for a year, right?”
Owen stood up. “You know what? Forget it.”
“No, it’s cool,” Sawyer said. “Where you going? Sit down, have a beer.”
“What’s going on with you?” Owen said. “Really? Why are you asking me to hang out?”
Sawyer shrugged, inwardly panicking. “Just trying to be nice.”
Owen nodded warily. He backed away.
Sawyer cursed underneath his breath. He’d thought he was getting somewhere with Owen. Now it seemed he might have ruined everything. Maybe Nora was right to have kept it from all of them all year long. Maybe having everyone embrace Owen was far too much.
Sawyer watched as Owen disappeared into the distance.
He turned back to the fire. Damn it all.
When he looked up, he came face-to-face with Daryl.
Daryl sat down next to him. “You were talking to Owen.”
Sawyer nodded. “That’s true.”
“And I’ve seen him with all of you guys, while you guys are working on decorating for the Harvest Ball.”
Echoes Page 25
