“Yes! Exactly!” she says, turning to make sure that I’m decent, then swirling around. She’s wearing a long white dress that’s all shimmery.
“But you’re a seer,” I tell her. She looks confused, but she often looks confused. “Shouldn’t you be the ghost of Christmas future or whatever?” I ask.
“Oh, Christmas yet to come? Nah, I wanted present. I mean, seeing into the future is my day job. I wanted this to be, you know, special.” She smiles and I can’t help but return it.
“I thought you were royally pissed at me,” I say. “I mean...I did kill A LOT of monsters.”
Cassie nods. “Yeah, you’re still in hot water with real Cassie, but Christmas Ghost Cassie is just here to show you a few things.” She holds out her hand.
I take it and again that zooming feeling overtakes me. We’re somewhere bright and glittery and... “You took me to the strip club?” I ask.
“OMQ,” Cassie says as a vampire stripper does a dominatrix act on the stage. Instead of a whip she has a giant candy cane, and red tassels to cover her nipples.
“It’s OMG,” I tell Cassie.
“Whatever.” She shrugs. “I just didn’t know that a person could bend that way.”
“Why are we here?!” I demand, getting her attention away from the act.
“Oh right. This way…” She leads me to the back, through a door, and down a set of stairs. In the basement room are Hermes and Hades, hovering over a body.
“What is Hades doing here?” I whisper.
“They can’t hear you,” Cassie tells me. “YOU CAN BE AS LOUD AS YOU WANT!” she shouts.
“Okay, but…”
“Just watch,” she tells me.
“This better work,” Hermes is saying. “I mean, all the minor gods are going coo-coo bananas. There’s no hierarchy. No respect for the major gods.
“You’re telling me,” Hades says. “My school has always been chaotic, but now there are no rules. Students leave when they want, and not just the vamps, I mean the actual dead. Someone fabricated a bunch of passes and it’s like Mardi Gras every day. The living come, the dead leave. We need someone to take care of this mess.”
“Did you hear about Athena’s idea of a “new Zeus?” Preposterous,” Hermes says.
“Yes. We need the old Zeus.”
I step forward and I realize whose body they are talking over. “They have Zeus’ body?!” I shout.
Cassie nods. “They do.”
“And…” it comes to me. “They want Fern to try and heal him?”
She smiles. “Ding, ding, ding.”
“That’s insane. She can’t heal the dead. And even if she could...” Sure, the world sucks now that he’s gone but Zeus was a terrible king. He was selfish and hateful and only his lackeys benefited. I step back. Hermes and Hades were two of his biggest supporters.
“So, are you still gonna…” Cassie makes a grabbing motion then claps her hands together.
“Huh?” I ask.
“You know, kidnap Fern and ruin her life and the lives of a bunch of other people too?”
“Oh.” I shrug. “Fern’s not gonna be able to heal Zeus. He’s dead. So why shouldn’t I get paid?” I ask.
She nods. “Okay, so not convinced?”
I laugh. “Convinced of what? Not to make bank? Of course I’m not convinced.”
“Fine.” She snaps her fingers and we zoom somewhere else, a place I’ve never been.
“Where are we now?” I groan.
An abandoned building, more of a shack, really, sits before us. I laugh. One good storm and the thing will fall over.
I laugh again and say, “I huff and I puff and I…” The joke catches in my throat and I see Chester, of all people, walk up to the lean-to door and go inside.
“Why is he here?” I ask. “He lives with me.”
Cassie motions me inside and I follow Chester, curious despite myself. In the one room shack lies a little boy, sleeping on a bundle of blankets and…gods, is that the stripper from earlier? The one with all the feathers? Did my lowly little assistant actually score a stripper? And bring her to a murder house? Oh man, does he have a secret mistress and love child? I’m so confused.
“Chandra!” Chester hugs her. “Sis, how are you!?”
“Oh, that makes a lot more sense,” I say to Cassie. “I didn’t figure he could land a body like hers.”
“Nico!” Cassie delivers a slap to my upper arm that has more sting than expected.
“What?” I ask, rubbing the spot. “She’s got a nice set of legs on her.” But now Chandra is crying and I feel like a total jerk.
“Oh Chester, it was terrible. I know we need money but...I just couldn’t. I felt like a piece of meat.”
“A breast and leg combo,” I whisper to Cassie, which earns me another slap.
“I told you not to go,” Chester tells her. He glances at the sleeping kid and lowers his voice. “I’ll ask Nico if you guys can move in with me. He’s not a bad guy, not really…”
“I think he was there, at the strip club,” she says. “I mean, unless there are a ton of one-eyed guys running around that reek of werewolf. He just let them humiliate me…”
“Okay. Look, we’ll see if the MOA people have anything for you. Fern can look at Tim; they might be able to heal him.”
“Aaaaand, the kid’s sick?” I ask Cassie, rolling my eyes. “So cliché.”
Tim wakes with a coughing fit and I can’t help feeling bad for him. He’s so little and fragile and, oh hell. Maybe I’ll let Fern take a look at him before I kidnap her. What would the harm be?
Chandra takes Tim in her arms and pats his back.
“C’mon, I bet you’re hungry,” Chester tells him. He nods his little head. “We’re going to a party. They’ll be lots of food and nice people. Uncle Chester’s friends.”
Tim nods. “I love Christmas.” The kid pronounces it like cwismas and even I want to scoop him up in my arms and give him a cuddle.
I take a deep breath. Get ahold of yourself, Nico. You’re supposed to be impervious to cuteness.
“Gets you in the feels, huh?” Cassie says.
“What? No. I don’t know what you’re talking about.” I turn on her. “Well, let’s go to the party. That’s where we’re going next, right?”
“Just wait for it,” she tells me, leading me through the ramshackle door, but instead of outside we burst into a bright room filled with people.
Or…wait. Not quite a room. Unless you call a mausoleum a room. There are tightly closed tombs all around us, but they’ve been decorated with holly and mistletoe. Edie and Val are sitting on one tomb, snuggling close. He’s wearing one of his “I’m so ironic T-shirts” that has a picture of a nutcracker and says, Crushing It.
From across the way Mavis tells them they’re so cute together she wants to vomit. I suppress a shudder and try to tell myself it’s because they’re sitting on a tomb and cuddling, not because I still have feelings for Edie. Feelings for a shifter who loves a vampire. Gross.
But Cassie isn’t fooled. “Hard to watch?” she asks, one ghostly hand resting on my shoulder.
“No,” I shoot back. “I’m just thinking about what horrible Moggy babies they’ll have.”
“Babies!” Cassie yells, clapping. “I love babies!” Her celebration is cut short as the mausoleum door cracks open. A sheet of rain and the brisk wind almost pull the festive wreath from where it hangs. Fern and Marguerite enter, followed by Chester, his sister Chandra, and Tim cuddled in her arms.
“Fern!” Edie shouts, leaving Val’s arms to hug her friend—and my target. I’ve got to remember that this is the present I’m in right now, and even if ghost Cassie is trying to drum some morality into me, there’s no reason I can’t get some recon in at the same time.
“Remember Chester?” Fern asks, pulling him forward. He blushes shyly as he greets Edie.
“This is my sister, Chandra,” he says. “And her son.”
“Nice to meet you!” Edie tells
her. Then all the girls seem to laser focus on Tim. “He is so adorable.”
“Can I hold him?”
“What’s his name?”
“How old is he?”
Tim looks around, squawks, then turns into a fluffy baby chick. Everyone squees more and Chandra asks if there is a place he can rest. “Tim hasn’t been well,” she tells them.
“Oh, of course,” Fern says. “I can look him over too, if you like…”
“That would be so kind,” Chandra says and they go to find a quiet corner.
My eyes glide to Edie as she takes a seat next to a brightly blazing candelabra. “Is Greg coming?” she asks.
Val nods. “He should be here any—”
Just then there’s a sharp crack as one of the tombs splits, and a pale, skinny hand emerges. Greg hauls himself up out of the underworld with a huge grin as Val pulls him into a bro hug.
“Good to see you, man,” Val says, and Greg’s eyes scan the crowd, visibly disappointed.
“Where’s Cassie?” he asks, just as the door flies open again. The wreath flutters off this time, and the gush of wind and rain that blows Cassie into the room also huffs out half the candles.
“Sorry, sorry, sorry!” Cassie is saying, just as the ghost Cassie at my side sighs.
“I was having a good hair day, too,” she says. “Now look at it.”
Her hair hangs down her back in one wet sheet, but I don’t think it really matters. The way her eyes shine when they land on Greg says everything.
“You look beautiful,” I tell her.
“Oh thank you!” she says. “I even put on coveralls.”
“Cover… what?”
“Coveralls,” Cassie says, pointing to her face. “For my zits.”
“Cover up,” I correct her. “Cover up.”
“Well, whatever,” ghost Cassie says, tossing her hair. “It’s all melted off now.” It is, but she’s still glowing when she pulls Greg into a hug, practically picking him up off his feet.
Everyone talks and laughs and it’s all so boringly cheerful. Fern returns with Chandra and they tell everyone that Tim is sleeping and Fern gave him a potion that should help the cough. Finally Edie gets everyone’s attention.
“Let’s play a game!” Edie says.
“Let’s play, ‘Who am I?’” Mavis offers.
“I love that game!” Cassie yells, immediately dropping Greg and turning to her friend. “I’ll go first.”
“Okay everyone, who am I?” Cassie puts on a very stern face and puffs out her chest, walking over to Fern as if she were a gorilla. “Do you know how to kill someone with your bottom lip? I do!”
Fern laughs and covers her face as Cassie moves in. “You’re Kratos!”
“Yep,” Cassie says. “Val, you go!”
Val’s fangs erupt and he drops to all fours, arching his back and growling deep in his chest. He’s got one eye squinted shut as he gallops over to Mavis, where he immediately rolls over onto his back and whimpers like a puppy, squirming and showing her his belly.
“Aww….hey there...Nico,” Mavis says, laughing as she leans over to scratch his stomach. He wiggles happily, then seems to suddenly change his mind as he flips back over to all fours and runs to Edie, where he again rolls over onto his back, totally submissive at her feet.
Everyone bursts into laughter, Mavis’ particularly loud.
Cassie, I notice, isn’t laughing. Neither is Edie. She pulls Val to his feet, giving him a pinched look.
“What?” he says. “I play to win. And that was a great impression.”
“It was,” Marguerite agrees. “Except you forget the part where you murder some innocents.”
Chandra’s arms tighten. “That’s not funny.”
“Neither is Nico, when his temper is up,” Marguerite goes on. “I’d say he sleeps with one eye open but…”
There’s laughter again, but more subdued this time. Chester clears his throat.
“Nico isn’t as terrible as you think,” he says, glancing around the room to see if his words are landing. “He has a softer side.”
“Awww…” ghost Cassie turns to me, her cheeks pink. “Chester’s defending you.”
I only grunt in response, aware that no one else in the room has taken up my cause.
“Maybe, if there’s a side of him that only maims and doesn’t kill,” Fern says. “I’ve healed wounds he inflicted on people in Kratos’ class. Val isn’t the only one who plays to win.”
“No,” Edie says. “Chester’s right. Nico isn’t all bad. There is a part of him that wants to be good, I truly believe that.”
I feel a flutter in my chest, something moving that I squashed long ago. The feelings that I felt first for Mavis, and later for her sister, Edie. Edie, who is staring down the room and daring anyone to contradict her.
“Nico can’t help the way he was raised. Who can say how I would’ve turned out if I’d had Maddox Tralano for a mother? Or if you did, Mavis?” Edie continues. Mavis likes to argue, so I’m surprised when she drops her head, and the room turns quiet.
“Oh, I’m sorry, everyone,” Edie says. “This is supposed to be a party and here I am, giving everyone a sermon. I’ll go next!”
Edie suddenly rolls her eyes back into her head and falls into Val’s arms in a mock swoon. “There will be tuna for lunch on Friday…”
“Oh, oh!” Cassie jumps up and down. “You’re the lunch lady!”
“Oh gods,” Fern moans. “Cassie! She’s you!”
Laughter erupts again, and I’m astonished to find that I’ve joined in, pulled into the festive feel of the room, the warmth among the group, the camaraderie of…friends. I get the feeling in my chest again, a movement like my heart has skipped a beat. These could have been my friends, and maybe some of them were, once. Then I followed in my mother’s pawprints, spilling blood and demanding vengeance.
There’s a tug on my sleeve and ghost Cassie is motioning to me that it’s time to go. Weirdly, I don’t want to. I want to stay here and watch these people, soak in the friendship that I’ve forsaken in order to…in order to what? To avenge my mother? My eye? And then, finally, to have a smelly old panic room full of money?
Was it worth it?
7
Ghost Cassie pulls me toward the door of the mausoleum, and we wander outside, where the wind has stopped. It’s oddly still, and a thick mist covers everything. I swipe my hand left and right, but it won’t disperse. Cassie’s hand is no longer on my arm and I whirl, looking for her.
“Cassie?” I call. “Cassie, where are you?”
I spot movement in the mist, a shadow that catches my eye. I head toward it, tripping over a broken tombstone that catches my toe. I go down hard, my own fist curling into my belly. I gasp for air, fighting the urge to vomit. Something looms over me and I shift instinctively, my teeth bared in a snarl as I back away.
It’s not Cassie; it’s Edie.
She’s in her dragon form, but it’s like nothing I’ve ever seen before. Her wings have always shifted color with her moods and emotions. Right now they are an opalescent black, her head is bowed low, her dragon eyes heavily-lidded. She breathes onto me, a little warmth spreading across my body as I shift back into human form.
“Edie,” I say, reaching for her. But she pulls away, pointing to the west. I follow her gaze to where a faint glow is burning away the mist.
“You want me to go there?” I ask, and Edie nods, her eyes still downcast. I take a step, then turn back to her, my feet oddly heavy.
Fear—a feeling I thought I lost long ago—sits in my stomach.
“What will I see?” I ask, my voice wavering.
But Edie doesn’t answer, only points again, extending one talon toward the eerie glow. Something about that light doesn’t sit well with me. I’ve faced down monster hordes and torn throats out of satyrs, but that light makes my hackles rise.
I thread my way through the graveyard, climbing over toppled stones and open holes that rattle me even furthe
r. Those holes don’t look like they were dug…it looks like something tunneled up out from the earth. As I get closer to the light, a warmth starts to spread, but it’s not comforting.
It burns, like vengeance.
And that’s what it is, I realize, as I get close enough to see the source. It’s Zeus. Mr. Zee, who should be dead, sitting on a throne of broken tombstones.
He’s raging, gnashing his teeth and sending lightning bolts out to torture those who lay at his feet; Edie, Val, Mavis, and a handful of other students from Mount Olympus Academy that were outed as Moggies. Mr. Zee had always hated the mixed bloods; that is, kids whose parents came from two different magical types.
But this isn’t right. Traitors or not, Edie and the others are helpless under Mr. Zee’s lightning bolts, and he’s not killing them. He gives them enough of a jolt to send them jerking, foaming at the mouth, their clothes sparking with flame. Then he stops, waits for them to recover, only to do it again.
I look away, back to dragon Edie, who stands next to me.
“This can’t be right,” I tell her. “This can’t be the future. Zeus is dead! You killed him!”
Edie shakes her head mournfully, extending one talon again. I go where she directs me, away from Mr. Zee and the heat. The mist splits to reveal two figures huddled over a small grave. It’s Chester and Chandra, but I hardly recognize them.
Chandra’s body is changed, withered and worn. She’s stick thin, and her brother isn’t looking much better. There are dark hollows in Chester’s cheeks, and a ragged cough tears through his chest when he tries to talk.
“Maybe it’s better this way,” he says, looking down into the grave. “No child should have to live in the end times.”
Chandra nods like she wants to agree, but tears are brimming in her eyes as she lays a tiny bundle into the open grave. A bright yellow feather slips out of the blanket, floating up into the air.
“No!” I spin toward Edie, a denial on my lips. “Not Tiny Tim!”
But Edie says nothing, only pulls her onyx wings closer around her, as if to protect herself from this horrible, bleak future.
“It can’t be!” I shout at her. “Fern is going to heal him! Fern—”
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