by Nicole Thorn
“Ah, how could I be so silly?”
When I turned to go in the other direction, I got to look at Jasper again. And I smiled at him. “A very good question. You should work on that.”
I went past him and finally found the kitchen. “Ha! I told you so.” I spun on my foot and pointed at him. “I win.”
“I suppose you did.”
I put my hands on his shoulders and forced him onto a chair. “You are going to sit here while I make you something. You may not tell me where anything is. And if you feel the pull to, remember that I can make flowers grow in your tummy. You don’t want that.”
He smiled and nodded. “I’d never provoke the wrath of a demigod.”
“Good,” I said. “‘because my brother-in-law is Hades. I bet he’d let me call in a favor.”
“Isn’t he also your uncle?”
I looked at the floor. “We don’t talk about that…”
He laughed. “I wouldn’t want to talk about it either.”
I started going through his kitchen, looking for the stuff I needed. Everything was very organized and it reminded me of how Juniper was at my apartment. I was careful to not make too much of a mess and to clean it up.
Zander said he felt all of them, what was inside. It wasn’t good. It was like a little cloud over their hearts. So I started looking at them harder. He was right. I could see it in their eyes. Something was wrong with them like there was something wrong with us. Zander thinks it’s why Jasmine likes us and why Juniper doesn’t. He doesn’t think they know.
I got out four pieces of bread and a little jar of honey. My mother loved honey. After the bread was toasted, I covered the pieces with honey and cut them diagonally. I cleaned up and put everything away before I brought it to Jasper.
I set it in front of him and he looked at it for a moment. “It’s good,” I promised.
He picked up a piece and put it his mouth. I didn’t take one until he swallowed. He didn’t seem to hate it.
“So,” I said. “What’s up with you guys?”
He didn’t seem to understand. “What do you mean? The Seer stuff?”
“No. I meant, I’m fucked up and Zander is fucked up. I wanted to know why you guys were all fucked up.”
He still wasn’t understanding. “How are we fucked up?”
Oh dear. Well, Juniper has had the same kind of outfit each time I met her. Not like me, but as far as the colors and the specific kinds. Jasmine day drinks and not in a way that seems normal for a girl her age. It’s not just partying, so says Zander. And he’s never wrong about someone’s insides. Jasper… he always seems somewhere else when he’s beside you. Not on purpose and I think that only made it worse. But to say that would be cruel, so I went softer. “Let’s start with the fact that we’re strangers and you guys seem keen on getting yourselves in the middle of a futile fight. That’s a little self-destructive don’t you think?”
He took another bite. “Not really.”
They’re not stupid. That wasn’t what this was. It was blindness. Funny that the Seers couldn’t see what was inside of them. “Okay, let’s assume you guys are just really nice. To the murderers that you keep inviting into your home.”
“Zander said you didn’t have anything to do with that.”
“It takes two.”
His eyebrows pinched. “Are you saying it’s your fault that they hurt you, or your fault that Zander killed them?”
“Yes,” was my response.
He took a breath. “I’m starting to see that whole messed up thing you were talking about.”
I picked at my toast so I wouldn’t have to look at him. “People don’t just hurt you for no reason, right?”
“I think that you were a kid. So if you were being hurt, that had more to do with them than you.”
“You don’t have the whole story.”
“I don’t need it. A little girl versus two grown adults. I doubt you did a thing to earn what you got. I don’t believe the same for them.”
My hands started shaking and I had to set the toast down and pin my hands between my knees. I didn’t cry and I was very happy about that. He didn’t need to see me crumble again. One issue at a time.
“Are you okay?” he asked.
I smiled and it hurt. “I’m fine. You?”
His face was a mask of concern for the broken half-god in his kitchen. Maybe he thought I would freak out and do something horrid. There were enough stories to justify that thought. The gods liked spreading misery when they wanted to. I was half-human, but that was only in the smallest and least important ways. I was more inhuman than I was human. Did he see me as a potential monster or a girl?
My hands stopped shaking and I could breathe evenly. Jasper was kind enough to ignore the breakdown for the most part. That was nothing, what just happened. I knew what was coming later. When I was lying alone in the dark, I would think about the nights the door cracked open. The only way to make it better was when I slept next to Zander. He was so kind about it. Five years later and he still slept on one side of his bed, making room for me for the nights I couldn’t be alone. I didn’t have to wake him up for him to move. I just got into bed and finally felt safe. Nothing would hurt me with Zander there to protect me.
Jasper and I ate our toast quietly. Though it did break through the sadness when I saw a little jasmine flower on the counter. At least someone liked it.
Sitcoms and books say that I’m supposed to try and make conversation to get to know this boy that’s risking his life for me. So I dove in. “What do you guys… do?”
He blinked and was in the room again. “We just stay here mostly. Jasmine is really the one with a life, even that’s shaky. Juniper doesn’t like leaving and I spend a lot of time working with clay.”
“Oh. That sounds interesting.” I wasn’t even lying. I liked the idea of making something from the earth. It seemed calming.
“I enjoy it. What about you? What do you guys do?”
“Um, not much. We just turned eighteen, so we got kicked out of the place we were staying. We couldn’t do much there but read. Zander snuck out sometimes. He had a few people he liked. Aphrodite’s charm makes him very appealing to humans. They like spending time with him. Not a lot of people like hanging out with Poison Ivy. I tend to yell at people when they do something offensive. Like blatantly waste things. It pisses me off a little bit. So mix that with being so obviously not right. I mostly just read.”
“What about now? What do you guys want to do now?”
Because I didn’t remember until it was too late that I was supposed to provide fluff, I said, “Not die.”
“…reasonable.”
“I think so.”
It was a little too quiet for a couple minutes. So I fixed that. “I’m sorry.”
He looked up from his toast. “Why?”
“About a lot of things. Like how I’m being to you. I know I’m kind of awful, but I don’t know how to be anything else. I’m sorry that Jasmine had to see that vision. And I’m sorry that you had to do the same. That Juniper is scared out of her mind. That you guys really are risking your lives just by being near us.”
“I don’t think you’re awful,” was the first thing he said. “And you’re not making us help. We’re choosing to. We’re the Seers, I have to believe that the gods brought us together for a reason. Maybe we were meant to help you.”
I smiled. “Or a god is having fun for the sake of killing time. Remind me to tell you the werewolf story sometime. As if you need more proof that we’re really all just little things to play with for them. They need us, but it’s a twisted love they have.”
His smile was off. “Interesting, though.”
He finished another couple pieces of toast before we were joined by my book toting brother and Jasper’s sisters. Juniper looked half in thought as she walked and Zander had to tug her out of the way of a counter corner so that she wouldn’t meet with a terrible fate.
“Anything?” I asked.
>
“Computers are bullshit,” Jasmine said. “Zander said that.”
“Sounds about right.”
Juniper took a book from him. “I have these and he said that most of what he skimmed was fairly accurate. So I plan on going through these later. I can make some notes and get back to you. There has to be a way to get you out of this. Your parents are Olympians, so would they really let this happen?”
I looked to her. “Technically, we aren’t supposed to fight a thing like this. It’s our version of the justice system. They’re not supposed to meddle. They helped us when it first happened and that was even too much. The other demigods might ask for favor and not all parents are willing. It can make the kids bitter; cause trouble. They have to be careful.”
Jasper’s voice drew my attention. “They helped clean up but they didn’t stop you from getting hurt for months?”
I swallowed. “No. They didn’t stop it.”
My mother was a wreck when she finally came down. I wouldn’t ever forget the agony in her eyes. It was why I couldn’t be angry.
Zander put the books down on the table. “So I think we need to go home for the night. Juniper is gonna do some reading and you and I are gonna look up some book places we can go to. Maybe Mom has some contacts near us.”
“She has them everywhere,” I said. “A benefit of being friendly.”
He pointed at me. “She didn’t sleep with that donut girl, Kiz, so lay off.”
I smiled. “Why do we always get free donuts then?”
“Because they’re friends. Mom likes her parents. They helped her a few decades ago. Something about a satyr that kept eating their trash. She took care of it and they got her a special candy bar. I don’t know the whole story.”
The Seers were staring at him, not used to this like I was. So I stood up. “Let’s go then.” I looked down at Jasper. “Thank you, again.”
He held the toast up. “You too.” He smiled again, just for me and there was a weird twinge in my chest. I didn’t know what it was, but it was interesting as much as it was a little worrisome.
Yeah, I need to leave.
Jasmine went in to hug me and Zander intercepted this time. It wasn’t so much because he wanted to hug her, but because he knew I didn’t want a body pressed against mine.
“See ya later.” He hugged the girl, lifting her into the air. She seemed to enjoy it. She didn’t notice what he did.
Zander grabbed the paper and we were out the door. We got in the car and Zander carefully put the parchment away while I watched the front door. I dodn’t know why, but I worked a little magic. I made a little vine grow along the top of their door. Thorns poked out and a little bud bloomed into life. It was a rose. It grew a stem and I decided that it shouldn’t have thorns. I took them back and focused on color. The flower’s base started as a deep pink and that faded up into a lighter shade. Those were just the outside petals. Inside was blue. The very tips of each petal was a deep red, just a touch. I let the stem break off and the flower fell to the porch. As we drove away, I vanished the vines above the door. They didn’t have to know it was me. And I ignored why I picked those colors.
They meant nothing. Of course. They were just pretty colors that I could mix and I liked playing God too much.
We got home and Zander was the first to walk in. He paused at the door and blocked my way in. I couldn’t see past him, but his hand came out and shoved me into the hall.
“Hey, what the hell?”
He looked back and I got a chance to see inside. It was… destroyed. The walls were covered in gashes that looked like a lion’s claws ripped them apart. Our crappy couch was destroyed, cushions torn and thrown about. Every lamp was broken. The floors carved up. Doors off their hinges.
“Zander,” I said in a distant voice.
He walked out into the hallway and found a fire alarm. He pulled it and the sound from above almost made me scream. The alarm went off and Zander went back into the apartment.
“They were here,” he yelled over the alarm. I could hear people in the hall as they poked their heads out to see what was happening. They started quickly filing out of the place and I followed Zander. “They might still be here,” he added. “Everyone needs to get out. The Furies won’t care about casualties if we make them get in the way.”
The glass of our balcony door shattered inward at us. Glass showered and cut us all over. Hardly anything to worry about. The wounds would be gone in minutes, most likely. Our healing kicked in the second that the damage was done. The worse stuff hurt, but this would only sting a little, if that was all.
There was a boom before a cloud of fire burst in. Zander covered my body with his and he took most of the heat. Our skin turned red and the pain was enough to make me yell.
Zander ignored his pain and grabbed my hand. “We have to go!”
The apartment was covered in growing fire. The cushions caught and so did the wooden table, as did my little plant on the counter. I watched it burn and it broke my heart. A silly thing to mourn, but it was mine. And now it was dead. Because I destroy everything I touch.
The fire almost consumed our place by the time we got to the end of the hall. We ran as fast as we could and I could already hear sirens. If they saw us, they’d want to treat us. We healed far too quickly for that, so we needed to get the hell out of Dodge.
We got outside and so many people were gathered. They were all looking up at the smoke and the fire pouring out of our home. The firemen were pulling their truck to a screeching halt and getting ready to take care of what I started. It was too late for our home, but maybe they could save these other people’s. So I guess this is the second time I took a home from my brother.
“We need to get out of here,” Zander reminded me when I stopped running. He got me in the car and he didn’t waste a second pulling away and driving like a bat out of hell.
Then the healing started for the both of us. We both winced and my arms felt like fire as my focus went to it.
Here we go again.
7: Hospitality
Jasper
The girls were making their plates. I had come up for a glass of water. Most of the day had been spent down in my studio, with me too exhausted to do anything but push clay around. Apparently having visions from the things that gods have touched is akin to running a marathon.
My sisters were making dinner, but I wasn’t hungry. They were having grilled chicken. Juniper made fries for Jasmine, but she was having a salad with hers. They were sitting down to start when the doorbell rang. I paused with my bottle of water halfway to my mouth.
“I’ll get it,” I offered, peeling away from the counter. My sisters went back to building up their plates.
Night had just started falling. The living room was dark enough that turning on lights was smart, but still had enough illumination that it wasn’t necessary. I popped open the front door and paused. Zander and Kezia were on my porch. They were looking kind of… off.
“Can we come in?” Zander asked, tone more serious than I’ve ever heard from him before. I stepped aside. “Sure. Is everything all right?” I asked, even though I already suspected the answer. They had been here earlier and everything had been fine. Now, just going on their expressions, things were not fine. They looked harried and their clothes were dirty and torn. Worse, I heard those clothes whispering. It was the faintest of sounds, but enough to warn me.
Something bad had happened between when they left and when they returned. I was careful not to accidentally touch them. Currently, I felt fine, but I wasn’t willing to risk dropping into another vision until I had some rest. I probably needed it anyway. It had been three days since I last slept and I wasn’t dumb enough to assume the vision would have been the same if I wasn’t already exhausted.
“Thanks,” Zander said, hauling Kezia behind him. “Sorry to bother you, but I wasn’t sure where else to go and Kizzy didn’t know either.” He shrugged his big shoulders and then flopped down on the living room co
uch. I closed the door.
Kezia looked around. “Where are your sisters?”
As if on cue, they appeared. Jasmine took one look at them and rushed forward, towards Zander. “Are you okay?” She demanded, tugging on his sleeve. They each looked like a wreck, but at the same time, they didn’t look injured. If it weren’t for the way their eyes were haunted, it would be hard to tell something was wrong with them.
Zander made some reassurances to my sister, even as she picked at his sleeves until she could be certain that he wasn’t hurt. When she was satisfied, she nodded and sat back against the cushions. She made no move to touch Kezia.
“What happened?” Juniper asked. She had maintained her distance. She looked worried for them and I knew that was genuine. Just like I knew they wouldn’t see the underlining panic. Her hands were clasped together tight enough that her knuckles were turning white. Her eyes kept darting back and forth between them.
I stepped forward. “Hey, the girls were just starting dinner. Why don’t the two of you go in there and join them?” I asked.
Kezia looked at me. “Aren’t you eating?”
“I’m not hungry.”
She blinked. For a second, I thought she was going to say something, but then Jasmine hopped up and grabbed Zander’s arm. “Yes. That’s a great idea. Let’s get something to eat and you can tell us what happened. You look like you’ve been put through the ringer. I’ll feel better once you’ve been fed.”
With Zander being dragged away, Kezia squirmed uncomfortably. Finally, she popped up to her feet and followed. She didn’t look back. Juniper looked at me and I waved her off. When she saw what I was doing, she sighed in relief and then followed our sister out of the room.
I grabbed the fabric cleaner out from under the fish tank—it was a big tank and we utilized its storage space—and a rag. I sprayed the couch where soot had rubbed off and scrubbed. It didn’t take as long as I would have thought, to get the dust off the couch. I doubt Zander and Kezia had even been aware of it. The stains were small enough that I could barely see them.
