"Let's walk while we talk. Drew, you can start."
"Seriously, you guys are making such a huge deal out of this. I was wondering when you'd get around to telling me that Drew was my Dad." With that said, Dylan walked briskly toward the path, leaving Drew and I with jaws in the dirt, gaping behind him.
"Ho-how did you know?"
"I'm twelve, Mom, not an idiot." He scowled at me and jammed his hands in his pockets.
I looked at Drew, eyes wide. "Well?"
"Rumors?" he asked lightly.
"Genetics. I look nothing like my Dad, but I have your eyes and nose. We learned about genetics in the fourth grade." His voice sounded so bored, but there was a tightening in his shoulders that betrayed his mood.
I did what any mother would do. I grabbed him and pulled him into a hug. I knew it wouldn’t help much in the way of lightening the heavy load of the news. However, it let him know that no matter what, he was MY kid. "If it makes you feel any better, I didn't know until about a month ago," I murmured against his hair.
"Yeah, but you knew that Dad wasn't my Dad and you lied to me. That's not cool." His muffled words clenched at my heart and I tightened the hug.
"It didn't make a difference. He's your Dad. You didn't need to know because it doesn't change a thing. Right?"
He shook his head against my chest and returned my squeeze. "No, I guess not."
"You are mine. You get that kid? You are mine and it doesn't matter who donated the sperm. I am your Mom and it's always going to be you and me, no matter what." I took a step back and peered into his eyes, looking for understanding.
Tears were threatening, but he staunchly refused to let them fall. That was my Bubby. He was going to get manly about it. But, he knew that it was okay to let it out if he needed to. He coughed once and then, "Why did you decide to tell me now?"
"Well," Drew finally piped in. "It's mostly for your protection and kind of because I want you to be mine too." As he stressed the word mine, his gaze met mine and we had one of those five second eye conversations.
'No, he's not,' my eyebrows told him.
'Try keeping him from me,' said his.
'You need to earn this,' I commented in turn.
'Fair enough,' he replied and nodded in acknowledgement.
"Oh my God! Are you guys doing that eyebrow conversation thing again? Just say what you want to say. You guys drive me crazy lately with the fighting. I don't know what's going on, but you have to stop."
That effectively called a halt to the non-verbal sparring. I threw one last scowl over Dylan's head and said, "You're right. We'll get it worked out. We should just have the conversation so you can hear it, too."
He nodded and dug in a little. This was the problem with being away from home. The routine was disrupted. Everyone had started treating him like he was a mini-adult instead of the child that he was. "Hey, I know that things are topsy-turvy right now. We'll get it worked out okay?" He nodded again.
"Hey," Drew interjected. "I want to let you know that I registered you in the Official Records as soon as you were born." He said it like we should be proud of him. Instead, I glared and shook my head.
"Yeah, thanks," said Dylan. He wasn't impressed. It was like someone had taken a blender to Drew's brains and made him forget who this kid was. It was time to steer this conversation in a better direction.
"Okay, look - there's a fountain over there. Let's go cop a squat and talk this out. Things are awkward. Don't things feel awkward?"
They both nodded. In that moment I couldn't believe how I hadn't seen it before. My head dropped back and I took a deep breath. Man, I was pretty blind in the midst of self-pity, neurosis and whatever the hell I'd been for the last six months.
Like a troop of masochists on a death march, we shuffled to the fountain and took opposite corners. There was no angst here. No Sirree! "Okay, so the first issue we have here is that only one of us knew the whole truth this entire time." I threw a pointed glance at Drew. "Next, there is a lot of confusion on what this means. Am I right?" Dylan was on the receiving end of my next questioning gaze.
"I guess," he muttered.
"Yeah," Drew agreed.
"Okay. So Drew, are you sorry?" He nodded an affirmative and I continued. "Great, that leaves us with the two of you working this out. Dylan, he's your father."
My kid never ceases to amaze and amuse me because what he did next left me on the ground with tears in my eyes. "NO," he screamed. "That’s Not True! THAT’S IMPOSSIBLE!"
To which Drew responded, "Yes, Dylan. I am your faaaather."
It took me awhile to breathe again and when I finally stopped with the fits of giggles, they were grinning at each other.
"Hey, you wanna go play Halo?" Drew asked him.
"I didn't bring my stuff with me," Dylan replied with a pout.
"We can just jump down to the house for a bit, then."
"Whoah! Absolutely not."
Drew frowned and asked, "Why not?"
"Why did we come to Olympus in the first place?" With a suddenness that put a damper on the previous light mood, I was all seriousness. "Well?"
Drew took a deep breath, closed his eyes and responded, "He'll be with me. He'll be safe."
Every atom in my body, every breath was telling me that this was such a bad idea. But, there comes a time when you have to let go. Most mothers don't have to deal with it until their kids hit 18 and are on their way to college. Some have to give it a go a little earlier.
I suppose this was my time. I looked at Dylan - really looked at him. He was changing so fast, growing so tall and shedding the chubby bits that kept him as a perpetual four year old in my mind. He wanted to go. I could see it in the tense set of his shoulders. He was holding his breath, waiting for me to decide.
It was good that he got this. He couldn't push. I had to let go on my own. "You know the rules. You’ve got one hour. You have to take Scooter with you. If that house isn't left as clean as it is when you step through the door, you're going to be grounded forever." I pointed at him and nodded. "I'm serious. Forever."
His frame slumped with relief as he took a breath. "Like I ever mess up the house," he scoffed.
"After we game, I'll make sure he eats. I know you have a thing with Hephaestus."
"I don't have a thing." It was said too quickly and probably an octave over my normal voice.
"Riiiight," he replied. "Anyway. Whatever, the kid and I are going to bond. It's been a month since we got to hang out."
"I don't have a thing," I persisted. Dylan raised his eyebrows at me and I shook my head. "Well I don't. We still have training."
"Whatevs, Mom. You should probably think about dating or something. You're getting squidgy."
"Get out of here," I growled. "Before I change my mind."
Drew laid a hand on Dylan's shoulder and as they popped out, my stomach dropped. Oh it's so easy to be brave when faced with two hopeful faces. Once that expectation is gone, it gets rough.
"So you're free to train?"
I jumped a mile in the air and turned around snarling. "Would you fucking quit doing that? I thought you weren't supposed to leave your lair, or something!"
He didn't deserve my shouting but the entire 'people sneaking up on Grace' theme was getting old. Sure, I should pay more attention to my surroundings, but damn!
He bit his lip and looked suspiciously like he was hiding a grin. “A-are you laughing at me?" I asked incredulously.
"No?" He answered, and turned away so I couldn't see his face.
I marched right up to him and poked him in the chest, forgetting how incredibly BIG he was. "Listen, I get that you have to train me but this habit you have of sneaking up on me is stupid. Announce yourself, or something. How in the hell are you so damned big, but don't make any noise? You should sound like a fucking lumbering bear or something."
He gurgled as his stomach spasmed. I threw up my hands and turned to walk away. "Not just yet, missy," he called. "We still have w
ork to do, so come along."
He grabbed my wrist and we ported into a frozen wasteland.
Rumor has it that the Vikings pulled a sneaky and named Greenland such to keep invaders away from Iceland. I guess if you think about it, it makes sense. Who wants to visit Iceland when Greenland is just sitting there begging to be plundered. Farmland and breasty vixens just waiting for every man!
Yeah, it's not green. It's the ninth circle of Hell. I'm pretty sure that in that moment, Heph and I were the only two living organisms on the rock they loosely called a subcontinent.
My teeth started pounding together and I huddled into myself, trying to combat the wind pelting ice at my lightly clothed body. "Wh-what are we doing here?" I stuttered.
"Training," he boomed over the wind. "And dinner. I believe I asked you to eat with me."
"I d-don't s-see anything t-to eat." Why wasn't he shivering like I was? It was colder than a witch's tit and he seemed to be as comfortable here, as he was in his forge. "Aren't y-you c-cold?"
"Remember the trick with raising your temperature? You can lower it too."
"L-like a s-snake?" God, I was getting tired of this stuttering.
"Sure. If you want to think of it that way, you can. You're not cold blooded like a snake is, though. You just have the ability to regulate your temp when you want to. Think about something that leaves you emotionally frigid and see if it helps."
Of course I immediately thought of Brandon. Hah! Oh I cracked myself up. The laughing helped calm me and the air around me was no longer quite so bitter. "Wouldn't I want to raise my body heat?"
"Why would you do that? You consume more energy fighting the elements. It's better to work with them." He looked at me like I was obviously an idiot. Maybe I was.
"Fair enough. So what is out here to eat?" Maybe if I pretended to get it, he'd take me to a nice Italian restaurant. Hell, I'd settle for McDonalds at this rate.
"Dinner after your teeth stop chattering. I'll be back in a few hours. You have that long to figure it out."
"Are you kidding me?" I bellowed. He was deserting me on this frozen rock? "What if a polar bear eats me?!"
He simply quirked his eyebrow at me, waved and then disappeared.
Son of a bitch.
I thought of Drew and Dylan sitting in my cozy house, playing videogames in my cozy living room. They were probably drinking hot tea and eating hot soup. I could have been there. But no – I had a thing.
Chapter 16
I couldn't get the jingle 'What would you do for a Klondike Bar?' out of my head. "Would you kill a bitch?"
"Yes," I answered myself. "I'd kill two bitches to get off this rock."
I was mad. My skin sizzled where it was hit by the ice. Sure, Heph had said to cool it down, but I was pissed so it was harder to control. I'd been wearing sandals in Olympus and my feet were sinking into the ice and snow. Rivulets of freezing water gushed between my toes with every step, reminding me not only how much I hated Hephaestus right now - but how much I really hated being cold.
I was afraid to stand still because, with my luck, I'd sink too far to get out and they would find me in a thousand years on some crazy expedition, frozen like some cave-woman. They would give me some crazy Latin name which would really mean Idiot Popsicle.
"Quit whining, Grace!" I yelled it out to no one in particular. It made me feel better, though. I'd turned into some kind of whiny kid in the last year and it wasn't suiting me. What I needed was to think my way out of this.
Brilliance was certainly not my claim to fame, but if I couldn't come up with a way to get out of this situation – I deserved to freeze to death.
My first instinct was to reach out to the earth…see if I could pull something up to make a cave of sorts. Nothing happened. The ice was too thick to reach through to the dirt beneath. I briefly wondered if there was anything but ice here.
But that was good. At least I was thinking now, not just reacting. Okay, what else did I have up my sleeve? The answer? A growly stomach. Heph had said that I'd use up more energy fighting against the elements. Looked like he was right.
I huffed over to a snow drift, trying to imagine myself in deep water with each step. I could tell when my body hit its normal temperature, my teeth started chattering again. Taking a deep breath, I pictured myself sinking further into the pool of water where sunlight couldn't reach. It was dark and cold there. People caught hypothermia all the time. It stood to reason, imagining that kind of cold reaching my body would cool me down.
Ice crystals clung to me like little parasites, biting my flesh just to annoy me. I was pretty annoyed by the time I figured it out. I'd spent all of this time trying to visualize the effect when all I needed to do was reach inside me and think – cold.
Dur, Grace! Of course I was over-thinking it. I over-thought everything.
They say that women have stronger imaginations than men because we can take a concept and visualize it to its completion. I think I'm proof that this isn't true. I'd prefer to get a video play-by-play of the shot.
Who knows how long I sat buried in a drift of snow, thinking about my situation. The events of the last six months continued to play in my mind. Simplicity was what I strove for and nothing had been simple for so long. Not wanting to delve too deeply into the personal stuff, I focused on the recent spate of not-so-natural disasters.
I just didn't understand the catastrophes, the appearance of my sister or her continued interest.
If she had a human father and my mother's powers to draw from, she shouldn't be able to knock my proverbial dick in the dirt every time we met. I know that my mother had super-human reflexes, but no more so than I did. Her gifts were illusion, healing, spell-casting and Rifts. She was an excellent Hunter because she trained constantly.
What was making Hope so good? I'd read the reports kept on her and there was nothing to suggest that she was ever anything other than a mediocre Hunter. Her biggest claim to fame was her romance with Adonis and the fact that she was Diana's daughter.
There had to be an outside source at play, here. But who or what could it be? My mind wandered back to Persephone. We'd all assumed that she was working for Geb. What if the timing was all a coincidence?
Something that Drew had mentioned earlier popped into my head. He said that he'd registered Dylan at his birth. Where would I find this registry? Would it have all of the Alancean births and deaths recorded? What kind of information was provided?
Better yet, who had access?
I needed to get into those records and find out if there was anyone who could be directing all of these events. Okay, first I needed to get out of this cold. I wasn't freezing anymore, but my mind wasn't staying on topic for more than a few seconds at a time. Why in the Hell would Heph just leave me here?
I got tough love training, but this was ridiculous. The sun was sinking below the horizon and I was still here. Was anyone missing me? Were they at least looking for me? Now would be a good time to tap into the teleportation powers.
I gasped. Was Heph the one behind all of this? Besides Athena - who spent a great deal of time with him - nobody really knew him. He'd blocked himself off from the social scene of Olympus and was inadvertently shrouded in mystery because of it.
He had the juice. But, could he do it? He was a smarmy bastard, to say the least. I could imagine him doing it after this entire episode. The thought left me shivering and not from the cold. What if he was behind all of this and he'd left me out here to starve to death. Who would find me in this mess?
Wait! Georgie would find me, assuming that she still had me tagged. I prayed that she did.
Within no time I had myself worked up into a frenzy of paranoia and conspiracy plots. It completely destroyed my ability to regulate my temperature and I was back to shivering and crying. The tears froze before they could drop onto my cheeks, making it difficult to see.
Was it painful? Yeah, it was. Even if Hephaestus wasn't the criminal mastermind behind all of this destruction
, I hated him for this. I understood that he didn't want to hold my hand, but this cruelty was uncalled for.
My shoulders shook as I sobbed harder. I'd stopped saying that I was just a Romance Writer and actually started believing that I was something more. He’d stripped that pride from me and left me feeling vulnerable and helpless.
I cupped my hands over my eyes and warmed them enough so the ice would melt. The last thing I needed was frozen eyeballs. How would I write and read my favorite books without eyesight?
He came upon me hunched over and shivering, muttering obscenities and death threats.
"You were supposed to learn how to control your body temperature. All I see right now is a crybaby freezing to death."
That voice. I hated that voice. I wanted to attack, but my body was weak and my spirit broken. I had nothing left in me. "You're an asshole of epic proportions. Just in case nobody has ever said that to you. Epic proportions."
"I was going to take you back home but if you're going to be that way, I'll be on my way."
"Fine! Leave me here, you puke-faced shit encrusted asshole!" I was shrieking like a fishwife. It didn't matter. I was so mad that he could have left me here. As long as I was able to tell him what I really thought of him, it would be worth it.
"That's it? I've heard you spit out much worse in the last few hours. That's all you could come up with to say to my face?"
I stopped screeching. My eyes widened in surprise. He'd been here this entire fucking time? I took a few deep breaths trying to control the rage, because my body heat was rising to nuclear capacity.
Screw control - I was going to fire-bomb his smug face even if it meant obliterating Greenland. Who the fuck cared about Greenland, anyway?
"I especially liked the conspiracy theories. I can see why you're a best-seller. You have quite the vivid imagination."
My body hurtled through the air towards him at a speed I hadn't thought I’d possessed. We both hit the ice and fell into a skid. I hoped that he was getting an ice burn. "You've been here the entire time?" I yelled incredulously.
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