by Skyler Andra
“I wasn’t dead,” I protested. “I was just hanging around in the underworld.”
“Well, you know what they say.” Under the shower, the water cascaded down his perfect body, and I traced every droplet trail. “If you talk like a chicken, walk like a chicken...”
I stepped into my outdoor cubicle and turned on the water. “Whatever.”
After two days of exercise, I was exhausted. Dirt covered every inch of me, and I stripped bare, letting the long silky gown fall to the floor. With a soft sigh, the first rush of hot water hit me, and I relished the feel of it dripping on my skin.
“Hey, princess!” Robin shouted from his cubicle next door. “The shower will run out of water if you don’t start scrubbing.”
Guess he had a point. I cleansed away the dirt, remembering the time I’d showered with Byron, then with Mads, causing a longing to well up inside of me. I missed them like crazy. A month was too long to be separated from the men that had wormed into my heart. I fought back tears, recalling my dream, and wondered if they were in trouble or pain.
A hard knock on the shower wall interrupted my thoughts.
“Almost finished?” Robin inquired, tossing a towel and some clothes over the wall between us.
This guy was beginning to grate on me, and I scowled, flipping him the bird even though he couldn’t see it. Feeling ten times better after the shower, I checked out the clothes he’d brought me as I dried off. Hmm. A long and flowing skirt with bells hanging off the drawstrings that made me think of hippies and a tank top emblazoned with the phrase “Medievalists Do It in the Dark Ages” right over my breasts.
“What about shoes?” I asked Robin.
“Wear your sandals, sexy,” he said, waiting for me outside my cubicle.
I rinsed them quickly under the water to remove the grime, then toweled them dry too.
By the time I emerged, Robin was already outside waiting for me, dressed in a pair of low-slung jeans and a black polo shirt. Outside of his green man gear he looked younger, more like a Burning Man punk rather than someone liable to quote Shakespeare at you without warning.
“Thanks for the clothes,” I said, pointing to my chest. “Hilarious.”
“You’re being sarcastic while wearing clothes I gave you,” he pointed out. “Figures that you would be with Mads.”
I was still in Robin’s debt for drawing me out of the underworld, and I needed him onside to tell me about Mads. “Yeah, it probably does.”
Robin stomped into some heavy boots that were set nearby. “Come on. I need to let you in on what the idiot of all liars needs you briefed on, and I’ll be damned if I’m doing it on an empty stomach.”
Great idea, I could do with some food. Something about being in the land of the living and closer to my men renewed my hunger.
He led me to a rusty old truck and drove me into town in it. There was nothing special about the town; it was just your average little tourist village with novelty shops, cafes, and bakeries all catering for the weekend visitors from out of town.
Once inside the single diner in town, Robin pulled some cash from his well-worn wallet and paid for the burgers and fries like a gentleman, which was more than I could say for Mads.
“Did hanging out with Mads give you fancy tastes or something?” he asked, leading me to a booth. “This is really the best burger that you’re going to get unless you want to get on the freeway.”
“No,” I laughed at him, suddenly understanding why they might be friends. Robin said whatever was on his mind. Mads just didn’t shut up. What a combination. “Just… it’s nice to be around someone normal.”
“Someone alive?” He looked at me and laughed, a sound that started low in his body and then when it came out, shook his whole frame. It turned him from sort-of-cute to handsome, the kind of handsome that promised you a good time, no matter what form it took.
“Yeah,” I replied, but he didn’t stop laughing. “What’s the joke?”
“Oh, darling, I ain’t normal,” he said, reclining in his seat, throwing his arm over the top of the booth. “No one who runs around with Mads is.”
I thought for a moment. Guess he was right about me. “What’s your damage? What god are you ponying for?”
Robin looked a little offended at that, shaking his head. “I wouldn’t let a god ride me if his dick were plated with gold.”
I laughed, stirring sugar into the coffee that the waitress just delivered. “Well, that’s an image I need playing in my head before I eat lunch.”
Robin chuckled, seemingly taking great delight in toying with me.
“So you’re a friend of Mads,” I pushed, wanting answers, but refusing to let Robin dick me around.
“Sort of. Your boy Mads doesn’t have friends.”
For once I wished I had Mads’ powers of suggestion. Thinking of him made me wish he was with me, making me laugh, talking me through things.
“So you’re not a god… just a liar?” I pressed.
He laughed at that again, then took a deep slug of his Coke. “A liar? Darling, no. I’m famous.”
Okay, I thought that men were easy since I’d started working my phone sex job—or more accurately, I’d thought they were easy since I was fifteen and developed breasts. When I saw Robin puff up with offense at my disbelief, I saw that whatever he was, he was easy too.
“Mads is the avatar for a god that’s practically a scrap bin,” Robin declared. “Liars and thieves and business and travel, he handles it all.”
Ego much. “And you are?”
“You might know me as Thoth,” he said with a grin.
Finally, we got to his longwinded bragging point. Thoth. That sounded Egyptian. It explained his Middle Eastern appearance, but not his English sounding name. Now was the time I wished I’d paid more attention in ancient history class. At least then I might know what I was up against with Thoth. Was he a trickster like Mads? I mean, if those two were friends, it can’t have been good. Seriously, what sort of shit I was about to get into this time?
“God of?” I prompted, raising an eyebrow.
He gestured with his forefinger, winding it in circles. “You know. The ibis head.” When I remained unmoved and unimpressed, he leaned in and whispered, “writing, magic, wisdom, book of the dead.”
If I were being perfectly honest with myself, while this conversation was enlightening and I wanted to hear more of his story, that wasn’t the important thing right now. What mattered was figuring out where the avatars were being held, and the man sitting across from me might hold the answers I needed.
Thank god the waitress arrived with the burgers. My eyes widened at the site of them. Homemade, thick, juicy beef patties in a bun, accompanied by lettuce, tomato, ketchup and mustard. Unable to help myself, I took a big bite of the burger, moaning at how good it tasted.
“Look, man,” I mumbled, not caring if my mouth was full, because well, this guy didn’t have any manners. “I just want to know where Mads is.”
Something hard flashed across Robin’s eyes, but he smiled even though there was nothing nice behind it.
“Mads told me to keep an eye out for you. My kind, we’re good with knowledge, knowing the location of doors between the realms.”
Right. Once I got out of here, I was going to have to research dear old Thoth.
“Without me,” Robin bragged, “you would have been trapped between the land of the living and the land of the dead forever, unable to choose.”
I leaned in and sneered. “You nearly pulled my hair right out of my head.”
“I merely reached down to give you a hand.”
I wanted to say thank you, but the back of my scalp still ached.
Robin waved his hand dismissively. “Ah, don’t thank me. I didn’t do it for you. Mads is going to owe me one for quite some time for pulling his darling out of the muck.”
Now it was my turn to laugh. “Come on, you know Mads. He’s not going to do a damn thing that he doesn’t want to do.”
Gold c
ord between us or not, I couldn’t imagine Mads being bullied into doing anything that he damn well didn’t want to do for my sake, but Robin shook his head.
When he finished a bite of his burger, he continued, “Mads doesn’t send messages asking me to rescue anyone. He must really care for you. But that’s hardly my business. What’s left of my task here is to clue you in on what’s going to happen next.”
“All right,” I accepted, sick of the toing and froing. “Give it to me. Where is he?”
Chapter 8
Locke
Robin laughed setting off my alarm. There was a note of pity in his voice when he replied, “Jacksboro, Tennessee.”
“What, that’s it?” I asked.
Robin took another swallow of his Coke and a bite of his burger. After some moments of waiting on my part, he finally said, “That’s what the man said.”
I put my burger down and wiped my greasy fingers. “No address, no phone number, no— nothing?”
“Nope,” Robin popped the p on the word looking unbearably smug. “I guess he has a lot of faith in you to find him.”
Something in me wanted to swipe his Coke and pour it on his head. Sure, he was good-looking but what an ass. Over the last six months, I’d bedded three hunks but it was nice to realize I’d finally set some standards on who I was attracted to.
I sighed. “Guess it’s up to me to figure this out then.”
Looking down at my chest, I examined Mads’ cord, following it about four hours north of my present location. That meant I had to be somewhere in Georgia. Of all the places to emerge from the underworld. Hah!
Robin adopted a curious countenance. “You’re actually going to go?”
Once the food and coffee were in my belly, it was adios to this ass of an Egyptian avatar. “I didn’t climb three thousand stairs for nothing.”
Robin’s eyes brightened turning thoughtful almost respectful. “Hmm. Maybe Mads isn’t a pure idiot after all. Anyone who climbs that far is a keeper.”
Did he just compliment me?
I swallowed the last of my coffee. “You sure you can’t give me anything more than Jacksboro, Tennessee? Like where the hell am I now?”
A rather crafty smile swept across his face. “We’re in Atlanta. I could get you to Jacksboro in a few hours if that’s what you wanted.”
I pushed aside my plate. “Would I owe you too?”
Robin tapped the counter as if striking drums. “I see you understand the way of things.”
First Hades and now Robin. The two of them couldn’t be any more different yet they both didn’t do a damn thing without a deal for themselves. With a pang, I realized that Mads, Rane, and Byron hadn’t asked anything from me the way Hades and now Robin did. Rane might have moved me around a board like a pawn, all to get me to the Greek pantheon, but he’d never make deals like this. What I needed hung over me like an anvil on a thread—ready to fall and crush me as the weight of it intensified.
“No thanks,” I said. “I’ll figure this out on my own.”
“Just like you figured out how to return to this world?” Robin spoke with a syrupy malice that evoked the image of knives covered in sugar.
No, I didn’t like him at all no matter what was going on between him and Mads. At this point, I figured that if I knew all the details I’d probably like Robin even less.
In a moment of pique, I examined his cords finding where his heart lay. Two red cords trailed off in the same direction from him neither broken, but strangely a third, crimson and strong, arrowed off somewhere else entirely.
“So, the two people you’re with,” I said. “Do they know about number three?”
A part of me blanched at peering into his private life like this then vindictive half of me filled with satisfaction when his eyes widened.
“I’ll take that as a no,” I said then slipped out of the booth leaving him to recover.
I’d be damned if I was going to owe that ass something. I left the diner walking along the sidewalk. I stopped to sit on a stump by the road and wait for a truck to pass so I could hitch a ride.
Deja Vu hit me like a smack to the back of my head. I’d been in this exact spot five months ago. No wallet, no money, no phone. I’d happened upon a kind soul to drive me to Byron. What I needed now was a repeat of that same luck. Because all I had were the clothes on my back, the magic trick of being able to pull condoms out of nowhere, and the ability to see people’s sexual and romantic attractions. Oh and that life altering cord-shredding little trick that I only reserved for true emergencies.
When I glanced at the three gold cords stemming from my heart relief flooded me at finding them still in place, all three pointed north. Wherever they were, they were together.
I tugged at the golden cords hoping for a strong impression of what my men were doing at this moment. Impressions of things: distant, occasionally powerful, and sometimes disturbing flashed into my mind. Dreams. All dreams. Despair and longing writhed inside of me. Whatever sleeping curse held Byron captive in the catacombs now also gripped Mads and Rane. Holding Mads’ thread, I rubbed it between thumb and forefinger.
Got your message, my love? I thought. I’m on my way. I won’t leave you. Please wait for me…
A van puttered along the road and I glanced up from my reverie. Eyesore orange assaulted my eyes but I jumped to my feet and stuck my thumb out. Thank Eros the van pulled up. A big woman busting out of her corset wound down the passenger side window.
“Great shirt!” she shouted grinning widely at me. “Were you just at the Faire?”
“I was,” I said while approaching the door. “Where are you headed?”
“Nashville!” she said.
Phew. At least we were headed for the same state. “I need to get to Jacksboro.”
A whispered conference rushed through the van as the woman conferred with her friends.
Then the door slid open to reveal another woman in a corset and a skinny guy in a knight’s outfit who was driving the van.
“I’m Laney. Hop in,” said the woman. “We can get you as far as southern Chattanooga!”
Awesome. That was one less worry off my mind. I hunched over to climb in, taking the empty seat behind the driver. Behind me sat the two girls.
I sent a surge of love along that gold cord to my men. I’m coming, my loves.
Maybe somewhere they felt it and relaxed in their sleep, knowing I was coming to set them free, and deal with the dark suits once and for all. Then maybe we could get to pantheon business and find Eros before the gods went mad and destroyed the Earth.
“Hi, I’m Ryan,” greeted the driver, a dorky looking guy in his forties. How he drove in the knight’s armor impressed me. “That’s Betty.” He gestured to the woman in the seat behind me.
I smiled and waved at them. “Hi, I’m Locke,” I said, too excited to see my men than come up with a fake name.
Laney hogged the conversation, telling hilarious stories from her time at the fair. I didn’t mind. Loud, flirty, totally Midwestern friendly, she kept my mind from straying to my worry and doubt of whether I could save my men. Save the gods. Personally, I was incredibly grateful for the little slice of reprieve.
***
They got me as far as Chattanooga, as promised, and Ryan stopped at a gas station. While Laney filled up the van, he called a friend of his who drove a long-distance trucking route that passed through Knoxville, who also agreed to give me a lift. Before they departed, Betty handed me a heavy bag with food and Laney slipped me a twenty.
My heart did little flips in my chest and I nearly burst into tears. “Thank you so much.”
“No problem,” Laney said, all smiles. “Good luck in Jacksboro.”
As Betty gave me a hug, I checked the cords that came from all of them. I thought maybe Laney and Ryan were together, but I was startled to see a glowing mess of cords, passing over, under, through and around, weaving between all three them that is was so bright, so messy and so lovely it took my breath
away.
“Oh wow…” I said. “You’re all an item. I didn’t know.”
Laney laughed. “Honestly, we thought you did.”
Smiling, I hugged her too and reached out to stroke the strands that ran between them. One reason they had stopped for me, from what I interpreted from her thread, was because their bonds of love made them stronger, more daring to take risks when on their own they might have been timorous. God, but it was so beautiful to see, and as I accepted a fist bump from Ryan I helped their connections grow. When I was done, it was more vivid, brighter and bolder than it was before. They turned to gaze each other with a kind of happy-dopey-love that made my heart sing as I waked away, waiting for Ryan’s trucker friend Dan to arrive.
An hour later, Dan pulled up and I jumped into his air-conditioned cabin, which smelled like cigarettes and ketchup. Heavy set, with kind grey eyes, he had a thick beard that could put a lumberjack to shame. Nothing was really going to make him handsome, but his stoic face suggested something good about him, something that made me feel as if things might be alright for once.
As we hit the road, I wondered if I was doing the right thing when I didn’t know what was waiting for me down in Tennessee. But at least I had a better idea of who I was and what I was capable of, especially with a few new tricks up my sleeve. It made me realize that I was capable of good as well as bad, and hopefully the three men in Jacksboro proved it.
“Thanks for the lift,” I told him.
“No problem,” he said. “I’ve been driving through the southern United States for almost four years now.”
Ever since I inherited my Cupid powers, I’d gotten a bit nosey so I inspected his cords. There was only one and it led straight to a graveyard in Abilene, Texas. From it, I interpreted that he possessed a resolute kindness that made me feel safe, and that was all that mattered.
At the center of him, however, was something that looked like a glowing seed of red. When I touched it, I watched it grow stronger as it put deeper roots in the fertile soil of his heart.
Grow little love seed, grow.
