We Will Heal These Wounds

by Nicole Thorn

“They’re fine,” I said, crossing my arms over my chest. “You, however, are about to get smothered with a pillow.”

  “What? What did I do? Was I sleep eating again?” she asked. “I’ll tell you later,” this she said to Zander when he looked at her, dumbfounded. “There aren’t any wrappers on the floor. I couldn’t have been sleep eating that much, if I did it at all.” She crossed her arms over her chest.

  “No, but you did shove me into a room with Verin,” I said, mirroring her stance. I gave her the full weight of my glare, hoping that she would see how much I wanted to hurt her.

  “What’s wrong with sharing a room with Verin?” Jasmine asked. “Oh, he was messy, wasn’t he? I bet he was messy. And he probably snores. Do demigods snore? Probably left food all over the place, and didn’t put it in the trash like he was supposed to, right? Or—”

  “He kissed me,” I said, all the outrage I could push into my voice.

  “Wha . . . ?” Jasmine said, staring at me, her mouth hanging open. Zander gave me a similar look from behind her. The shock in their eyes stung, embarrassed me, but didn’t surprise me.

  Jasmine and Zander finally recovered from their shock. It had given me enough time to hide my hurt. It would only upset them, and I didn’t want my sister to feel guilty. I had learned over the past few months how to hide from Zander too. Not an easy feat, since he could sense emotions, but I had gotten good at it. I just had to hide behind another emotion. Like anger.

  I pulled it out and used it as my shield from the demigod. He didn’t even blink twice at me. I should’ve felt guilty, but I couldn’t let Zander see what lurked inside me.

  “He . . . what?” Jasmine asked. “Is he stupid?”

  I glared at her. “How the fuck should I know? It’s not like it was this huge, planned out thing. He just did it, and then I punched him—”

  “You punched him?” Zander asked. “Why did you punch him?”

  “Because his mouth was on my mouth, and I didn’t give him permission for that!” I shouted, throwing my hands up in the air. “What was I supposed to do? Kiss him back!?”

  “Yes!” Jasmine said. “Absolutely. I mean, have you seen him. He’s no Zander, but he ain’t bad looking either.”

  “Thanks, Jazzy,” Zander said. I couldn’t tell if he was serious or sarcastic.

  “That’s not a good enough reason to let him kiss me!” I said. “There is no good enough reason, and he deserved to get punched. It’s not like I actually hurt him. He’s a demigod. He probably won’t even bruise, the bastard. I should go and punch him again. This time, I’ll make sure to hit him just right.”

  Jasmine grabbed my arm, and hauled me over to the little table in the corner. She forced me into a chair, and I wiggled around until I felt comfortable. Jasmine ended up in the chair across from me, with Zander at her side. “No, you shouldn’t punch him again. Tell me everything. From start to finish. Now.”

  I blinked at her. “We aren’t going to have a gabfest, are we? I don’t have the energy to ignore all the details about you and Zander again.”

  “What?” Zander asked.

  “Relax,” Jasmine said. “She’s my sister. It’s cool. And yes. Gabfest. Gab away, oh sister of mine. Gab now.”

  I was realistic enough to admit she wouldn’t let me out of this room until I had told her everything. So, I did. Including the bit where I told Verin about the prophecy, but I left out my mini panic attack. I just told her that I rambled, and he decided that silence would’ve been better than listening to me talk.

  Jasmine grinned. “So, it was awesome right?”

  “No!” I said. “It was not awesome.”

  Jasmine frowned. “If you had wanted it, would it have been awesome?”

  I opened my mouth to deny it, as hard as a person could deny it, but found that I couldn’t. I closed my mouth, opened it again. “All right, fine. Yes. If I had wanted it, it probably would have been in the top five best moments of my life. Are you happy now, Jazz?”

  “Yes!” she crowed, leaping from her seat. She did a little dance behind the chair before plopping down again. “Thank you for admitting that. Your first kiss should always be much better than you were making it out to be.”

  It hadn’t been my first kiss, but she didn’t know that. I just rolled my eyes, and sat back in the chair. “You are not being helpful,” I told her. “In fact, you are being extremely unhelpful.”

  “Oh, don’t worry. I’ll kill him for taking liberties with you that he shouldn’t have, and he’ll beg for mercy long before I actually give it to him. Zander will help me, right Zander?”

  “Sure. I’m sure that between the two of us we can take on the son of Hades. He probably won’t see it coming, thinking that we’re just being friendly and whatnot, right up until he’s on the ground in agony. Is that what you had in mind, Jazzy?”

  My sister blinked at him, looking almost dazed. “If my sister weren’t here, I would say it’s a crime that your pants are still on.” She cleared her throat, and turned back to me. “Is this what you had in mind? I can get more ruthless if you need me to. I can scare the living daylights out of him.”

  I looked at my sister, with her hedgehog hair, wearing Zander’s shirt, and no makeup, and smiled. “Yeah, that’s what I had in mind.” Kittens would be scarier than Jasmine, but I loved her for it.

  “Wait,” Zander said. “So, you told him about the prophecy, and his only response was that he wouldn’t let it happen?”

  “Yeah,” I said, nodding.

  “This was before the whole making out thing, right?” Jasmine asked, to clarify. Only it made a nasty little thought poke at the back of my head, and I didn’t like that thought. I shoved it aside, and nodded at her.

  “I like his certainty, but if it were that easy, then we wouldn’t have to worry about it,” Zander said. He looked at Jasmine with his heart in his eyes again. His fear waited there too. He had so many issues with her being human. He knew that he would lose her one day. The prophecy had been like a huge joke being played on him. He finally got everything he wanted, and came to the conclusion that it would’ve been worth the risk . . . Only to have a death threat leveled at the woman he loved.

  I sighed. “You two should get ready. I’ll go see if Jasper and Kizzy are up.” I rose to my feet, and left them. They didn’t really notice. Jasmine started trying to bring Zander down again, now that he got all worried.

  Out in the hall, I didn’t knock on Jasper and Kizzy’s door. I allowed myself to think that nasty little thought. Verin only kissed me after the prophecy had been revealed. He knew that he would be a part of it, but the other demigods . . . they were in relationships with my siblings. He probably just assumed that that had to be part of it. That he needed to be with me like that.

  It sounded like a stupid thought, as well as a nasty one. Verin straight up refused to believe that the prophecy would come true, so why would he do something like that? He wouldn’t. So, why did he kiss me?

  Shaking all the ugliness away and knocking loose that nasty thought, I straightened up from the wall. None of that mattered. I couldn’t dwell on my own feelings, because we had a dog to find and a god to appease.

  I knocked on Jasper’s door, and waited. He opened it up a second later. Judging by his damp hair, he had just gotten ready. I could hear the shower running in the background, and assumed Kizzy had hopped in. “Hey,” I said. “Feel up to dog hunting?”

  He looked at me, and it felt like his eyes saw right through me. He crossed his arms over his chest, and said, “What happened?” Despite his hard tone, I got ready to argue. He stopped that by saying my name.

  Instead of answering, I said, “You should punch Verin.”

  Jasper raised his eyebrows. “Hard enough to break something, or just hard enough to wind him?”

  I thought about that for a second. “Wind him,” I said. “We might need to use him as a demigod shield if something goes bad.”

  Jasper nodded. “I’ll be sure to make him regret
whatever he did.” The shower shut off, and Jasper looked over his shoulder. “We’ll meet in Jasmine’s room. See you soon.” He closed the door, and I heard him talking with Kizzy. I could have told him about what happened, but I didn’t think I could handle seeing the same shock on his face that I had seen in Jasmine and Zander’s.

  My stomach hollowed out just thinking about it.

  I turned away. Someone had to collect Verin, and everyone else had things to do. Great . . . Just great.

  I opened up our hotel room door, and stared at him. He tucked some things into his suitcase. Not clothing, but stuff from the minibar. I decided not to ask him why the hell he did that. Instead, I said, “We’re meeting in Jasmine’s room.” And closed the door before he could say anything.

  About ten minutes later, we all gathered together. Jasmine and Zander both had wet hair, and I tried not to think about how they both managed to shower before we came in. I already know too much about their relationship.

  Before anyone said anything, room service arrived. Zander handed me a small bowl of fruit that I wouldn’t eat since Verin already fed me. I still thanked him as Verin walked in. Jasper, without missing a beat, slammed his fist into Verin’s stomach. The demigod had been caught off guard enough that he bent double, and wheezed out a breath.

  Jasper looked at me. “Good?”

  “Yeah,” I said.

  Verin recovered just as Jasper sat down. He looked at the demigod. “What did you do to my sister?”

  “Oh, I snogged her,” Verin said without missing a beat. “But if it makes you feel better, I’ll make an honest woman out of her as soon as I can.”

  I choked while everyone else gaped. At him, at me, at each other. It didn’t even matter, because I had to wrap my head around that. When I finally got air in, I said, “What the fuck is wrong with you!? Don’t say that!”

  “Why not?” Verin asked. “I figured your brother would like to know that I’m serious, considering he just punched me.”

  Kizzy grabbed Jasper’s arm, like she feared he would go for Verin again. Jasper looked too shocked to do anything else. And there it is. The surprise that someone would want to kiss me, let alone actually do it. The hurt tried to rise up again, but I couldn’t let it, because Zander would know. I fumbled around with my emotions for a second, and pulled out anger again.

  “Don’t lie just to avoid getting hit again,” I said. “You’re a demigod. That should have felt like a love tap. And don’t think you’re getting anywhere near me, ever again. I don’t even know if I want you sitting at this table.”

  “I’m not lying,” Verin said, straightening up, rubbing his stomach and approaching the table. “Does snogging one of your sisters always end up with someone getting hit?” he asked Jasper.

  My brother shrugged. “No, but she asked me to do it.”

  Verin looked at me. “I feel betrayed. You were the only Nelson that was supposed to hit me.”

  “Oh, in that case,” Jasmine said, standing up. Verin had to have let her kick him in the shin. How else did he think that would end? He rubbed his leg, and stared at Kizzy and Zander. “Are you two going to abuse me as well?”

  “No,” Kizzy said. “Not until you give me a real reason to.”

  Zander shrugged. “Wait and see.”

  Verin shook his head, and said, “Now that we’ve gotten the abuse portion of the morning behind us, how about finding Cerberus before he kills someone else, and the humans realize that they’ve got a three-headed dog walking around Portland?”

  I cleared my throat, and looked at Zander and Kizzy. “I could probably find him, if you’re willing to let me try.”

  Verin’s brow pinched. “Why do you have to ask permission.”

  “Long story,” Zander said. “I’ll tell it to you sometime.”

  “Is it like when we were looking for Arachne?” Kizzy asked.

  I nodded. When we had been hunting for Arachne, I had managed to find one of her followers in a vision, and it acted like GPS. I hadn’t liked it, because I fell too far into their head, and got dangerously close to not finding my out again. Plus, I had taken off into the woods without waiting for my siblings, and could have gotten killed by a scout, if there had been any. It had been dangerous so I asked the demigods if they had any objections. They had weird feelings about our visions. They didn’t like us doing anything without them there, for example.

  “I think we can do that,” Zander said. “As long as we’re with you the entire time.”

  Kizzy nodded.

  I called the image of Cerberus to mind, like pulling something from a dusty box. He rose up in my head, and then the world drifted away. I could see the three-headed puppy. He laid on his back in some grass, rolling around in utter bliss. A man stood on the porch, watching him, and looking put out.

  I told everyone in the room this, even as I rose up. I felt them all scramble to follow me as I headed for the door. Verin touched me, and I could see him through my vision as well. He asked the others what happened, and kept me from running off without him. I pushed that image away, and focused on the dog. He sniffed around a fence now, and I saw people on the other side.

  We needed to move, before someone saw Cerberus, and he decided to use them as a chew toy.

  CHAPTER SIXTEEN:

  Who Let the Dogs Out? Oh . . . We Figured that Out Already . . .

  Verin

  I didn’t like how everyone looked worried over Juniper. Not that they worried for her. Obviously, she deserved to be worried about. But that she needed the worry; like something bad would happen to her for what she did.

  Kizzy and Zander left ahead of us to check out, and we gathered our things for the car. Juniper looked out of it as we led her from the room, but I knew what actually happened. I wanted to be the one guiding her walking, but Jasper wouldn’t let me touch her. You’d think I did something wrong, for the way he treated me. His sister and I shared a lovely kiss, she had been overcome with her feelings for me, hit me, and that would be a great story for our grandchildren one day.

  “How about you sit in the back?” Jasper suggested once we reached the car.

  I smiled kindly at him. If some fella came along wanting my sister, then I would do the same thing. “No thank you.”

  Jasper narrowed his eyes at me as Juniper climbed in. “Really, I think you should.”

  My arms crossed. “I feel like I should make it clear that I’m going to be with her. Like it or not, you aren’t involved in this choice. Glare at me and Zander all you want, but he’s not the kind to hurt Jasmine, and I’m not the kind to hurt Juniper.”

  “Unless you count kissing her against her will. Sorry if that kind of thing pisses me off.”

  Damn, his look to Kizzy spelled something else out for me. After she got in the car, I spoke again. “I would never force anything on Juniper, and I think you know that. I didn’t plan on kissing her. It just happened. If she’d pulled away and told me to stop, I would have. She took off, and I didn’t chase her. As hard as that was, I stayed put. So, I promise you that the next kiss we have will be started by her, because I won’t kiss her if any part of me thinks she won’t want me to. But there will be another kiss, because I very much believe that once she starts seeing some things about herself a little clearer, she’ll want to be with me.”

  We piled into the car, and I sat beside Juniper. This would be a tricky one. I’d never had to win a girl over before. My charm didn’t do anything but piss her off. As hot as I found it when she got angry, I didn’t intend to piss her off. Perhaps it would work if I just started showering her with compliments and affection. Though . . . she seemed the kind to assume I did it just to fuck with her. I suppose I would just have to try harder.

  She gave out directions to Zander. I kept quiet, looking out to make sure Juniper didn’t need help. I didn’t want her to hurt herself so we could find Cerberus. I’d find him anyway, and my girl didn’t need to risk her mind.

  Something tapped my shoulder, and I loo
ked behind me. Jasmine had tapped me, and she smiled when I looked at her and Kizzy in the backseat. Jasmine and Zander seemed to be the only ones here not angry with me. Kizzy seemed in the middle about the whole thing.

  “You okay?” Jasmine mouthed to me.

  I nodded, and I moved to the back with the girls. I sat between them, leaving Juniper to her direction with the men up front. “I feel like I may have gone about this wrong.”

  Kizzy shrugged. “I don’t know if there’s a right way to do it. My first kiss with Jasper was me full on assaulting him.” Her eyes got distant with memory. “I wrapped my legs around him and just . . . Mmm.”

  Jasmine shook her head, almost smirking. “The way I see it, as long as you take care of my sister, I think this is great. I don’t believe you have any malicious intent for her. You’re too nice.”

  I smiled back at her. “I’m lovely, I know.”

  Kizzy snorted. “I cannot believe this. You’d think Juniper would go for someone a little less . . . ”

  “Cocky, arrogant, irritating?” I asked. “Well, that’s all right. I don’t mind being a bit of a tool. Girls just love it.” I bumped Jasmine with my shoulder.

  “I’d give you advice, but I’m not sure what to go with. My sister is a complicated woman.”

  I’d give her that one. I didn’t want to be one of those pricks that said, ‘she wanted it, even if she didn’t know she wanted it’. But . . . I didn’t know . . . at least one moment of that . . . that kiss, she enjoyed. I needed that to be true. I needed her to want me, because I wanted her. Sure, I could work my way from the ground up, but I didn’t want that. I wanted her to like herself a little more, and start believing that she had more worth. I wanted Juniper to want more for herself. That didn’t have to be me, but I would have liked it to be.

  “What are my chances?” I asked. “Am I doomed already?”

  “Probably,” Kizzy said.

  “Maybe,” Jasmine threw in. “I’m an expert at wooing, so you’ve come to the right lady. I get a lot of presents for Zander, but that wouldn’t really work on Juni; she’d just see it as clutter.”