The Helicon Muses Omnibus: Books 1-4

by V. J. Chambers

  Phoebe walked between the couples, stopping as she passed the first couple but still standing in the middle of the row of them. “Join hands,” she told the first couple. They did. Phoebe took a ribbon from her arm and wrapped it around the couple’s joined hands. “As I bind your hands, so may your hearts be bound for one year and one day.” The couple kissed.

  Phoebe walked to the next couple and repeated the process.

  As she proceeded down the line, the bound hands prevented her from walking back the way she had come, and so she walked through the couples, binding their hands with ribbons, until all were bound. After she finished, she said in a loud voice, “May your unions bless you creatively and inspire you as we seek to inspire!”

  Everyone cheered again. The couples wandered off, their hands still tied together.

  Phoebe was smiling. “Though we have had a trying year thus far in Helicon, we have much to celebrate. Enjoy yourselves today and create!” She paused while the muses applauded again. “Also, I think the food’s ready.”

  After that, music started again, and muses rushed into the grass to dance. Others filled plates from the loaded tables near the main fire pit. Still others filled tankards and glasses with wine and ale, which the wine and spirits enclave had brought in large quantities. Nora was heading to get food with Maddie and Sawyer when Owen wound through the crowd and grabbed her arm, his face stormy.

  Without saying a word, he dragged her away from the gathering, down below the Maypole, past the musicians playing. Once they were out of sight of the rest of the muses, he dropped her arm. “What was that dance?”

  Nora was confused. “Dance?”

  “I don’t want you dancing like that in front of all of these people,” Owen said.

  “Like what?” Other muses had gone to dance to the music, but she’d been headed for the food. She really wasn’t sure what he was talking about.

  “The Maypole dance was very suggestive,” said Owen. “You looked like a slut up there, jiggling all over the place.”

  What? “It’s the Maypole dance, Owen,” said Nora. “It’s supposed to be about fertility and stuff.”

  “That’s disgusting,” said Owen.

  Nora was starting to get tired of this. Owen always seemed to find something to blow up at her about. She didn’t feel like dealing with it. It was a festival for goodness sake. She wanted to get some food, dance a little, talk to her friends, and have fun. She really didn’t want to deal with Owen’s drama. She sighed heavily.

  “It would be one thing if we were actually doing it,” said Owen. “But we’re not. You always say no to me. And then you’re up in front of everyone in Helicon, doing this dance that makes you look like you’re saying, ‘Come and get it.’”

  “That’s not how the dance looked!” Nora glowered at him. Owen was overreacting. “And anyway, I see what this is all about. You’re pissed off because I’m not sleeping with you. Well, get over it. The way you’re acting these days, I don’t know if I ever will sleep with you.”

  “You’d do that, wouldn’t you? Just to spite me.” He shook his head at her.

  “Not to spite you, Owen,” said Nora. But she didn’t feel like arguing about this anymore. She’d hoped Owen could be part of her good time today. More and more it seemed like Owen was never in a good mood, however. “I’m going to go eat food and dance and have fun, okay? This is supposed to be a party.”

  “Oh, great,” said Owen sarcastically. “So what am I supposed to do, then? How am I supposed to have fun? It’s your fault I feel like this, and you aren’t even going to apologize?”

  “I didn’t do anything wrong!” Nora felt like the words ripped out of her. Owen was always accusing her of doing thing to make him angry, and sometimes she could see his point of view, but this seemed completely ridiculous. “You’re the one who’s getting bent out of shape over nothing.” She turned on her heel and started to walk back to the May Day festivities.

  Owen put a hand on her shoulder. “Nora—”

  “Don’t touch me,” she said, shaking him off. She kept walking.

  He didn’t follow her. She went back to fill up a plate with food and joined Maddie and Sawyer, who were already eating.

  “What was that about?” asked Sawyer.

  “Owen was being an ass,” Nora muttered.

  “Seems like a pattern with him,” Sawyer said.

  Nora wondered if he was right. But she didn’t feel like dwelling on unpleasantness, so she did her best to distract herself with food and dancing. She even managed to snag a drum for a while, and she joined in the music, pounding out the drum beat along with other muses. The afternoon wore into evening, and the sun began to sink behind the horizon. The fires all over Helicon burned brightly, dotting the growing darkness with flashes of orange. She hadn’t seen Owen since their argument, and she began to wonder if she should go to him and try to patch things up. Maybe she’d been too curt with him. She looked around for him among the other muses, but she didn’t see him anywhere. She wondered if he’d gone back to his tent.

  Then she noticed something strange. She saw a spark of light fly up out of one of the fires and hover there, like a hummingbird. It darted up away from the fire, flying through the air of its own volition. She stood up.

  There were more of these sparks, suddenly, swarming out of the fires, flying haphazardly throughout the gathering, like demented fireflies that never switched off.

  She felt Maddie at her side, clutching her arm. “The fairies,” Maddie whispered. “The fairies are here.”

  Nora turned to her sharply. “What?”

  “It’s a cross-quarter day,” said Maddie, still speaking softly. “May Day and Halloween both are. At dusk and dawn on a cross-quarter day, the divisions between the worlds are flimsy and thin. It means that things from other worlds can cross into ours. And the fairies have crossed over into Helicon. They’re here to share our May Day celebration.”

  “Fairies are real?” said Nora. Considering she was a muse, and that a few days ago, she’d met a Greek god, this seemed like a stupid question. So. There were fairies. She’d have to keep making these little adjustments.

  The whole of Helicon seemed filled with spots of brilliant light. The fairies lit up the sky like stars, but they moved quickly, flying in and around the muses and their surroundings.

  Maddie tugged on Nora’s hand. “Let’s go dance with them.”

  Nora let Maddie lead her into the swarm of glowing dots. The music of Helicon had grown more ethereal suddenly, and then Nora realized that there were different musicians than the muses. They were small people with pointed ears and wide child-like eyes. Their skin had a greenish tint to it. She watched as their spindly arms plucked oddly shaped string instruments and fingered gleaming flutes. The music swelled around her and Maddie.

  They clasped hands and spun in a circle, fairies flying around their faces and limbs. Up close, Nora could see that they were no bigger than insects, but that they did have human-like bodies. Their wings whirred around them, propelling them through the air. They were all manner of colors—from purple to gold to bright orange.

  As long as she danced to the fairy music, Nora had no thoughts of Owen. No thoughts of any kind, in fact. She was mesmerized by it, pulled into its haunting rhythms and airy melodies. She and Maddie twirled and pranced through the grass, fairies alighting on their limbs from time to time. It was magical and beautiful. Nora’s heart soared.

  Then Sawyer was next to them, pulling them both away. “I just saw Phoebe and Dionysus go off alone together. We’ve got to go see what they’re saying.”

  “What?” said Nora. “Why?”

  “To make sure it doesn’t have anything to do with the portals, of course,” said Sawyer.

  “But fairies,” said Maddie.

  “Come on,” said Sawyer, dragging them past the fire pit.

  Phoebe and Dionysus were standing in the darkness beyond Phoebe’s tent. Sawyer, Maddie, and Nora crouched behind it so that t
hey could observe and listen out of sight. The two appeared to be arguing. Phoebe’s arms were folded over her chest and Dionysus’ face didn’t have its usual carefree expression.

  “No one else can tell,” said Phoebe, “but as head of the council, I can. And I remember a promise you made to me that you would stop.”

  “Come on, Phoebe,” said Dionysus. “It’s only for a little fun now and then.”

  Phoebe shook her head. “We don’t have the energy to spare here, Dionysus. Helicon can’t afford to be drained in this way.”

  Sawyer looked back at the both of them. Nora swallowed. Were they talking about the portals? Did Phoebe know that it actually was Dionysus doing it?

  “You used to like to have fun,” Dionysus said. He reached for her. “Remember fun, Phoebe?”

  She backed away from his hand as if he had the plague. “I don’t see what’s enjoyable about stealing energy from Helicon. You’re hurting people.”

  “This place is full of energy,” said Dionysus. “You have lots to spare.”

  Phoebe laughed bitterly. “That’s not true, and you and I both know it. Or had you forgotten what got us into this mess in the first place?”

  Dionysus sighed. “What do you want from me?”

  “I want you to leave,” said Phoebe. “I want you to stop abusing the privileges I foolishly granted you so long ago. You’ve done nothing but cause harm to this community. I have to protect it.”

  Dionysus’ jaw dropped. “You’re kicking me out? So much for muse hospitality, huh?”

  “You know I can’t kick you out, although I certainly would if I could,” said Phoebe. “But I’d rather you weren’t here. I think you’ve outstayed your welcome.”

  “Can’t I at least stay until the end of May Day?” asked Dionysus. “This is the best part. Drunk fornicating in the fields. It’s what I live for.”

  Phoebe looked disgusted. She put a finger in his face. “You leave tomorrow morning. And you stop what you’ve been doing and never do it again, like you promised.”

  Dionysus’ shoulders slumped. “Okay, okay. But I don’t know when you turned into such a killjoy, Phoebe.”

  Phoebe shot him a murderous glance and swept past him.

  Sawyer, Maddie, and Nora pulled back into the shadows so that she wouldn’t see them when she passed by. They held their breath as she disappeared into the darkness. When they looked again, Dionysus was gone too.

  Sawyer looked pleased with himself. “I told you it was Dionysus. He’s creating the portals. It was obvious, wasn’t it?”

  Nora had to admit it had certainly sounded that way. The portals drained Helicon of energy, and Phoebe had accused Dionysus of doing that. He’d also admitted that he was draining Helicon for fun, like they’d theorized.

  “If Phoebe knew it was him,” said Maddie, “why didn’t she say something before? Why is she talking to him in secret?”

  “She defended him at the council meeting.” Nora chewed on her lip. “Do you think she’s in on it?”

  “It didn’t sound like it, did it?” asked Maddie.

  Nora shared with the two of them her conversation with Coeus about Phoebe. “She apparently doesn’t particularly like being the head of the council. It’s a thankless job. That’s what Coeus said.”

  “But she was telling Dionysus to stop,” said Sawyer. “It seemed like she was protecting Helicon.”

  “Right,” said Maddie, “and it also seemed like she was protecting Dionysus at the council meeting.”

  “We need to find out more answers,” said Sawyer. He started walking back in the direction of the main fire pit. Nora and Maddie followed suit.

  “How are we going to do that?” asked Nora as they walked. “Besides, if it was Dionysus, maybe he’ll stop making portals now that Phoebe told him not to.”

  “Maybe,” said Sawyer. “But I think this is deeper than that. There’s something weird going on with them.”

  The fire pit came into view, still surrounded by swirling fairies. Nora caught sight of Agler on the other side of the fire. His eyes lit up when he saw her, and he sprinted over to the three of them. “Hey, what are you guys up to?” Agler asked.

  They exchanged a glance. Should they tell him what they’d found out?

  “Um...” said Sawyer.

  “Because the veil between the worlds is thin,” said Agler, “so a bunch of us are going to slip into the mundane world for a few hours. You guys want to come?”

  “What?” said Nora. “You’re going to the mundane world?” She guessed it made sense, sort of, that if the fairies could get here, the muses could get to the mundane world, but it didn’t sound safe. “What about the Influence?”

  Maddie shook her head at Nora. “The Influence is weak on cross-quarter days. Tweens like to go over to the mundane world on May Day and Halloween. But it’s usually older tweens. I’ve never done it.”

  Nora did remember Maddie saying something about muses going to the mundane world. And Sawyer had been born to human parents, which was also part of it, right? Muses sometimes visited the mundane world and made half-muse babies? So this was how they did it.

  “So,” said Agler. “Do you want to come?”

  Nora shrugged. “Um, you know, I did sort of just escape that place. I don’t know if I’m really excited about going back there.” She turned to Maddie and Sawyer. “But you two can go if you want.”

  “I think I’ll stick around Helicon,” said Sawyer. “Thanks, though.”

  And then Maddie shocked Nora by saying, “I’ll go.”

  Nora gaped at her. Maddie didn’t even drink. She was volunteering to go with a group of tweens out of Helicon?

  Agler looked a little surprised as well. “Okay. Come on, Maddie.”

  He and Maddie walked away, heading towards the tweens and rebels enclave.

  “I can’t believe she just did that,” said Nora, still reeling.

  “Our Maddie’s growing up,” said Sawyer in a mock-adult voice, putting his arm around Nora. He made fake sniffling noises.

  “You sure she’ll be safe?”

  “They do it every year,” said Sawyer. “I went last Halloween. Nothing happened.”

  “You did? What do you even do once you’re there?”

  Sawyer looked at the ground. “Well, I went alone. I focused on my mother, and I found her. I kind of watched her for a few hours. I didn’t talk to her or anything. I wanted to make sure she was okay, I guess.”

  Nora squeezed his hand. “Was she?”

  Sawyer nodded. “Yeah. She had another kid. A little girl. She was dressed like a princess.”

  Nora wasn’t sure what to say.

  They were both quiet for some time, gripping each other’s hands and staring into the fire.

  Then Sawyer took his hand away to point. “Is that Jack?”

  “I think so.”

  “I can’t believe he didn’t go into the mundane world with Agler,” said Sawyer. “You mind if I go say hi to him?”

  Nora grinned. “Of course not.”

  Sawyer ambled off, and Nora watched from a distance. Within minutes, she saw that Sawyer and Jack were engaged in a smiling conversation. When Jack threw his head back and laughed, she decided maybe she should find something else for herself to do.

  Before the fairies, she’d been thinking about going to find Owen and making up after their fight. The problem was that in order to make up, she was probably going to have to apologize, and she wasn’t sorry. Owen didn’t have any right to be angry with her for being in the Maypole dance. And when she thought about it, he really didn’t have any right to be angry with her for not having sex with him either. She wasn’t ready. He should respect that.

  But maybe he’d realized all of that and wanted to apologize. Maybe if she went and found him, he’d tell her he’d been wrong, and they could actually salvage the rest of May Day. They could have a nice time together.

  She set off. First she wandered through the celebrating muses, looking for Owen’s f
ace in the throng. He wasn’t near the fire. He wasn’t near the Maypole. He wasn’t with the musicians. Then she began searching the outskirts, where it was darker, but she only found couples in the grass kissing. Then she realized some of them were doing more than kissing, and she ran back in the direction of the fire as quickly as she could, embarrassed. It was a fertility holiday, she supposed. And the muses were not a particularly shy group of people. Still, Nora thought there were some things that should not be done out in the open like that.

  She was in such a rush to get away from it that she wasn’t as careful at looking where she was running as she could have been.

  She tripped over something and went sprawling.

  Then she realized she was tangled up in the limbs of another person. She’d tripped over a two people doing it in the grass out here. Nora did her best to untangle herself. She didn’t think she’d ever been so embarrassed in her entire life. “I’m sorry,” she mumbled. “I’m so sorry.”

  She didn’t want to look at the people she’d tripped over, so she averted her gaze, pushing herself to her feet to start running again.

  But the light from a nearby fire basket reflected against blue eyes, and Nora froze.

  It was Owen. She let her gaze travel over him, making sure.

  Yes. And he’d been lying on the ground with one of the fairy women—not one of the tiny ones with wings that flew around—but one of the others. The greenish ones with the spindly limbs. The fairy looked up at her with huge eyes. She was beautiful in her own strange way.

  “Nora?” said Owen. He was yanking his clothes back on. The fairy didn’t bother. Her thin lips twisted into a smile, like she was taunting Nora.

  Nora was rooted to the spot. She shook her head. She hadn’t seen this. She couldn’t have seen this.

  “Nora,” Owen said again.

  Nora didn’t say anything. Was there anything to say? Were girls supposed to come up with scathingly witty remarks when they found their boyfriends with other women? She tried to keep her breath steady. Owen had cheated on her. She’d caught Owen cheating.