by Raye Wagner
Standing before her, buck naked. Oh, gods. She blushed and dropped her gaze.
“Son of Ares.” Poseidon’s voice was soft but carried over the surf. “What do you want with my young captain?”
Xan bowed low, and when he stood, he kept his eyes averted. “I was seeking an audience because there are Mer leading humans to their death, Lord.”
Poseidon frowned. “What are human lives to you? How is this your concern?”
Xan shifted his feet in the sand. “My concern is for your people, Lord. The humans have spotted the Mer. If they continue to see them, they will hunt them.”
“You know how men think?”
She was hearing verbal ping-pong, and one of the players was a god. A god that could make his own rules.
“I know how fear and anger think, Lord Poseidon. Man will hunt what he fears. It behooves us all if your people remain in their realm,” Xan responded.
Hope risked a glance and saw Poseidon’s pursed lips as he studied Xan. “I will think on this, young demigod, and discuss it with my generals.” Then Poseidon pointed at Hope. “What are you doing with this demigod?”
Her heart pounded, and fear coated her throat. Words wouldn’t come.
“She is at the conservatory with us, Lord. She is my charge. I am her trainer.”
Poseidon studied her, his gaze piercing.
“Ah, the rumor is true.” His face lit up.
The water on her feet warmed, and the waves calmed.
“I wish you the best of luck, daughter of Leto.” He inclined his head.
Her fear dissolved. She wasn’t sure if he’d kept her secret on purpose or just been misleading, but she felt a surge of gratitude all the same. “Thank you.”
He shifted his gaze back to Xan. “I will take care of the Mer. They will not bother the humans again.”
The god turned, and Hope blushed again before he dove under the surface of the water and disappeared.
“Shite.” Xan’s voice broke the spell. In two strides, he closed the distance and pulled Hope in for a hug. “He could have killed us.”
Hope pulled away from him. “Stop it.”
“Sorry.” His eyes were wide, and he wrung his hands. “Leto? Wow! No wonder you’ve kept it a secret. I mean, wow.”
She couldn’t figure it out. Why had the god kept her secret?
HOPE WALKED INTO THE kitchen and stopped. Silence greeted her. Xan sat at the table, engrossed with his phone. He gave Hope a nod of acknowledgement when she came in but returned his focus to the screen in his hands.
While she flipped pancakes, she wondered where the other demigods were. Dahlia, Obelia, Endy, and even Thenia had yet to make an appearance. Even the somewhat spacey Kaia, Demeter’s daughter, was nowhere to be seen.
“Xan?” Hope set a stack of pancakes on the table between the two of them, then handed him the extra plate. “Where is everyone?” She buttered a pancake and poured syrup over the top.
Xan grabbed four pancakes from the stack. “Dahlia is taking a break. Obelia and Endy are probably avoiding me still, and Thenia and Kaia haven’t come home yet.”
“Come home?”
“From when they were combing the streets for you.”
That seemed like forever ago, but Hope realized it had only been three days since she’d come back from her time as the Sphinx.
“I sent them another text. I think they’re out having fun.” He waggled his eyebrows as he doused his pancakes with maple syrup. “Girl time.”
A sharp pain of loneliness seared her heart as her thoughts went to Haley. Hope pushed the pain away. She’d left her friend a message on her way back to the conservatory after suffering through her time as the Sphinx but never heard back. Hopefully they were safe somewhere. “When someone disappears . . .”
He finished his bite before answering.
“Everyone goes out. Or at least everyone is supposed to. Endy is still too young to be of any help in a search, but . . .” His eyes hardened, and his lip curled. “Let’s leave it at that.” He took another bite before going to the fridge.
“And Dahlia?”
He pointed at the milk container in his hand. “Do you want some?”
“Yes, please.”
He poured them each a glass. “I’m glad you brought this up. We never really talked about it, and we should. You’re lucky Dahlia was here when you got here.” He set the milk in front of their respective places and took his seat. “In the future, I think it would be better if you had one of us with you. Or at least let one of us know where you are.”
“You think I need to worry about Endy or Obelia?” She had a hard time believing either of them would attack her. Obelia was wimpy and Endy too much of a pretty boy.
Xan cut another piece of pancake, and another, and another. “Ah, no. But I don’t trust them.”
She didn’t either.
“Where’s Dahlia now?” She sipped at the milk.
He speared several large pieces of pancake. “Dahlia has a hard time when someone disappears, and then we had to go to Half Moon Bay. She’ll probably be gone for a week, out coping. Anyway, I just got word that Dionysus’s son is supposed to be coming any day. Things will really change while he’s here.” He stuck the loaded fork into his mouth.
Did he really just shove that bite in his mouth? It took a second for his words to register. “Change how? And what’s Dionysus’s son’s name? I don’t remember reading about a current son in the notes Obelia gave me.”
He loaded up his fork again. “Ha! I’m surprised you haven’t picked up on that yet. Obelia’s teaching—”
“Is the best ever?” Obelia stepped into the kitchen, arms crossed and voice sharp. Endy trailed after her, and both wore matching expressions of smug superiority.
Xan faced the other demigods. “That wasn’t quite the message I was going to give, but, whatever.” His smile was tight and without warmth. Hope remembered it from when they’d first met.
Obelia glared at him, her hands on her hips. “Oh? What were you going to say?”
Xan set the fork down and took a deep breath.
Endy stood next to Obelia, scowling at Hope and Xan. Hope measured the two demigods, one bright as day, the other dark as night. If it came to an actual fight, she and Xan would win. But she remembered Xan’s warning to get along.
Xan stiffened and glared at the other demigod. “Hello, Sun-boy. Did you enjoy your time off?”
Endy clenched his teeth and took a step forward. “Time off?”
“From responsibility, honor, integrity.” Xan stood and cleared his place, setting the mostly full plate and glass in the sink.
Endy took another step toward him. “Are you trying to insult me?”
“I don’t think I’m trying at all.” A muscle in Xan’s neck jumped.
Endy gritted his teeth and clenched his fists.
Both of them appeared to understand some boundary not to be crossed. Hope itched to hit them. If Endy struck first, would it be okay to retaliate?
Xan closed the remaining distance. “Do you have something you want to say?”
“You know, Xan, you can be a real shab.”
Xan tilted his head to the side as if measuring the insult. “Shab?” He turned toward Hope. “Is that even a word?”
She bit her lip and managed to shrug one shoulder. The tension filled her stomach, leaving no more room for pancakes. Should she go stand by him?
Xan leveled his gaze at Endy. “Am I supposed to be insulted by a nonsense word? Go on.” Xan waved dismissively at the other demigod. “Go work on your vocabulary, you git.” The glare disappeared, and he addressed Hope, “Thanks for the pancakes, luv.” He said it like the confrontation had never happened, but the tightness around his eyes told otherwise.
Hope waited for Obelia and Endy to leave the kitchen before addressing Xan. “You hardly ate any. And what’s with them?”
“Endy’s always been a D-bag. I don’t know why it’s getting worse, but I’ll have Thenia
talk to him and Obelia when she gets back.”
Hope had a theory, but she wasn’t going to share. She took her half-full plate to the sink, turned on the water, and scraped their food down the garbage disposal. What a waste. “Shouldn’t we do some grocery shopping? I don’t think I’ve contributed anything since I got here.”
Xan blew out an extended breath and rolled his neck. The tension level seemed to drop as he shook his head. “No need. I put money in the community pool for you last week. You can cover me next week, when money’s due again. You have money from your mom, right?”
“Of course.” She wasn’t sure how much money a god would give their child, but the trust fund from her grandmother would be more than sufficient. As she washed, Xan chatted about some new military weapons he was getting.
“They’re all U.S., which some argue isn’t as great as the Israeli, but in my opinion they can hold their own. These aren’t new per se, but I don’t have them, so I’m excited.” For as irritated as he was ten minutes ago, he was now bouncing with excitement.
“What are you getting?” His enthusiasm was almost contagious. It was clear he wanted to tell her.
“An AT-4, which is an anti-tank weapon, an M20 grenade launcher, and a couple machine guns.”
She listened to him without understanding. Finally, she interrupted, “Why is it that you need these weapons?”
A slow grin spread from his lips to his eyes. “I don’t need them. I like to know what’s out there, give her a try. I should be familiar with all weapons, all types of combat. It’s part of who I am.”
Hope wanted to laugh at him and his fascination with big guns. “You don’t seem like the bloodthirsty type that I envisioned a son of Ares to be.”
“No?” He frowned. “Hey. I think that’s the first time you acknowledged my immortal parent.”
“It took me a while to actually believe it. You really don’t fit what I would have thought.” At all.
“You mean totally crazy about killing, accumulating power, a complete arse?”
“Something like that,” Hope quipped. She thought back to the list Obelia had given her: Genghis Kahn, Attila the Hun, and Basil the Bulgar Slayer. That last one sounded like something from a kitchen, not a fierce warrior. But these demigod children of Ares had been responsible for killing hundreds of thousands of people. Xan just didn’t seem to be in that same vein.
“I get that all the time. Believe me. I got it from my father a lot. But he eventually got tired of saying it, and he left.”
“What do you mean he left?” Most gods didn’t raise their children. Had his childhood been like Athan’s?
“I mean, he completely stopped coming to check in on me. I was seven when he told my mom I’d never amount to anything. Then he left us.” There was a soft silence, and then he continued, “Me mum . . . I’m sure she’s why I’m normal.”
Hope shook her head. “Who told you you’re normal?”
Xan laughed. “Okay. But she’s probably the reason I’m not out slaughtering everything that moves.” Xan put the pan away and flicked the towel at Hope. “I do love fighting, and there is something to having his blood in me. The weapons, the hand-to-hand combat, the strategic planning, it all comes pretty easily.”
He flicked the towel again, but this time she caught it.
“What a gift,” she joked, “brother of Genghis Khan.”
“Better than Hitler.” Xan pulled on the towel and drew her close. His demeanor shifted, and the smile faded. With a pensive expression, he studied her. “We all have power, Hope. As demigods, more than most. As individuals, we get to choose what to do with our power. It is that choice that makes us who we are.”
His words made her uncomfortable. As if he could see something good and strong within her. Something she knew wasn’t there. And if he really knew her, what she was, he wouldn’t be so nice.
“That’s a bit thick.” As soon as the words were out, Hope wished she could take them back.
“It is what it is.” He dropped the towel on the counter. “I can’t wait to try the new weapons. You should come with me. It’ll be fun.”
Hope tilted her head to the side. “You have the most interesting definition of fun.” She made air quotes as she spoke. “Fun, in a sick masochistic way.”
“Oh, come on. They aren’t immortal weapons, so they’ll hardly hurt. Unless you shoot yourself. But if you’re that bad, you deserve what you get.”
THE NEXT SEVERAL DAYS were quiet. Xan told her Kaia and Thenia had decided to do a girls trip to a conservatory in the South. Obelia and Endy were still making themselves scarce. And Dahlia had told Hope she was working on a project and then disappeared.
Hope and Xan spent hours exercising and studying different martial arts and shooting weapons. The arms he’d received were military grade, and that was the freakiest thing Hope could think of. How had he gotten military weapons? He’d refused to say.
Of everything they did, her favorite was Han Mu Do, a Korean martial art that focused on stand-up grappling. Hope found she could use Xan’s weight in her favor, and she loved tossing him to the ground.
But there was still a lot of free time. Hope put her head down and pushed forward, taking every opportunity to search about her curse.
THE HOUSE WAS QUIET as Hope tiptoed down the hall. It was late, well past midnight, and she’d just finished the last of the books she’d taken to her room that afternoon. As always, there was nothing there to tell her how to break the curse but plenty to tell her what she already knew. Apollo was a selfish jerk.
She cracked the door and listened, and when only silence greeted her, she tiptoed down the stairs. She’d skipped dinner, and a midnight snack sounded perfect.
Hope flipped on the kitchen light and froze. There on the wall was the phone. She’d forgotten all about it. She picked up the receiver and heard a dial tone. Without any regard for the time, she punched in her best friend’s number, hoping it still worked.
“Hello?” Haley’s voice was thick with sleep.
“It’s Hope.” Emotion clogged her throat, and she coughed to clear it.
“Hope! Oh, gods! Are you okay? You got away? We got away. Where are you?”
Hope wanted to tell her everything. About the curse. About Athan being a liar. About Xan, Dahlia, even Endy. But she couldn’t. What if they monitored the line? What if she put Haley and her family at risk? She’d never be able to live with herself.
“I’m in Seattle. I miss you.”
They chatted for a few minutes, but Hope worried that someone would catch her. Every minute was a risk. She didn’t know the rules, but she couldn’t afford to break them either. They said their goodbyes and promised to stay in touch. A promise Hope was determined to keep.
She just needed to break the curse.
The next morning, she skipped practice and told Xan she wanted to do some reading. Sitting in front of the fire in the study, she flipped through brittle pages about humans cursed during the early years after the Titans were overthrown. Deciphering the spidery scrawl used every ounce of her concentration, and she moved her finger across the page inch by crawling inch.
“Hey, there you are.” Xan plopped into the chair next to her. “I should’ve known you’d be in here.”
Hope closed the book. “Hey, yourself.”
“What are you reading? Anything good?” He reached out and grabbed the book, hefting its weight but not even cracking the cover. He handed it back to her, a furrow creasing his brow. “That’s some heavy reading. What kind of report does Obelia have you working on?”
Hope mumbled incoherently as she shoved the book to the bottom of the stack. “What have you been up to?”
“Weapons training. And Dahlia decided to join the realm of the living again, so I had to kick her butt.” He nudged her with his foot. “You doing all right?”
She sighed. Truth was she wasn’t doing all right. She missed Priska. And Haley. Her old life with her mom. And when all this was over, then w
hat? Or worse, what if she couldn’t break the curse? “I’m trying to figure out what I’m doing.”
Xan blew out his cheeks. “What do you mean?”
Hope almost told him everything.
“I . . .” She couldn’t do it. “I don’t know what I’m supposed to do. I mean, what’s next? Once I’m done here, then what?” It was the best truth she could share with him. And yet, even that felt like a lie.
“What do you want?” he asked.
His words caught her off guard. “Want for what?”
“You know. What do you want with your life? It’s really not much different than anyone else, mortal or immortal. At some point everyone asks themselves, What do I want to do with my life? And you know, you can go do whatever you want. Some demigods are hedonistic, others altruistic. You get to decide.”
And that was the crux of it.
“I can do whatever I want?” She already knew the answer. She couldn’t. She wasn’t going to be able to decide.
“Sure,” Xan said. “It’s not like anyone’s going to tell you what to do. Take some time; figure it out. There are lots of things that you can do here or out in the world.” He waved his hands around.
“Like Athan is a, what did he call it, Psachno, right? And he chose that?” Where did that come from? She hadn’t thought of Athan for days. And here he was sneaking back into her thoughts.
Xan studied her, his brow furrowed. “Aye. Athan takes his job very seriously. Psachno are seekers. They find demigods and occasionally immortal creatures, like monsters.” He softly tapped at her knee as he said it. “He’s very good at it. Mostly because he doesn’t do much of anything else. Except occasionally work for his dad, Hermes.”
“Like what?”
“He helps escort the dead, delivers messages to the gods—that sort of stuff.”
Hope remembered Athan telling her about his father’s business. What he’d said made more sense now.
“And what about you? What do you do?”
Xan’s face cleared, and he laughed. “It doesn’t seem like much right now, huh?”
“No, I didn’t mean it like that.”
“It’s okay. We all have different roles. I’ve been Psachno. I’ve been Daskalos, a teacher. Earlier in my life I was an Archarios, a learner or novice, what you are now.” Xan pointed to her then dropped his hand to his side.