The Helicon Muses Omnibus: Books 1-4

by V. J. Chambers

  Maddie giggled.

  “He says they’re going to look awesome on us, and he’s never wrong about stuff like that, so I guess we just have to trust him.” Nora threw herself down on Maddie’s hammock. “But I’m exhausted from carrying them around.”

  “I’ll turn down the heater,” said Maddie. “They look warm.” She sorted through the fabric, trying to figure out where one dress ended and the other began.

  “Yours is the pink one,” said Nora. “Mine’s the brown one.”

  “Pink? Brown?” Maddie squinted. “There’s a zillion colors here.”

  Nora sat up, her feet dangling off the hammock. “In shades of pink and brown. You also have a lacy rose layer.”

  Maddie spied some lace in a rose pattern. She held it up. “This?”

  “Yup, that’s attached to your dress.”

  Maddie screwed up her face.

  Nora hopped down. “Here, I’ll help.”

  Together, the girls, managed to extricate the dresses from each other.

  Maddie held hers up. It was elaborate. It had a pretty pink bodice, covered in sequins and embroidery, and then it flared out into a huge, wide skirt with tons and tons of layers, all in various shades of light pink. “Wow,” she breathed.

  Nora grinned. “He did good.”

  “Heck yeah, he did.”

  “I’ll help you get into yours, and then you can help me get into mine.”

  Maddie and Nora got into fits of giggles trying to figure out if it would be easier to step into the gown, or if it would be easier to pull it over her head. The skirts were so voluminous that it made everything difficult. If Maddie tried to step into the dress, the layers all swam together, and she couldn’t find the floor beneath, so her feet got tangled up in the dress. Similarly, it was next to impossible to find the hole in the skirts to pull it over her head. It didn’t help that every failure sent them into gales of laughter. Maddie couldn’t help it. It was funny watching Nora flop backwards into the brown skirts of her own dress.

  Finally, they forced themselves to be very serious, and, concentrating as hard as they could on not laughing, they managed to gather up the skirts and make it possible for Maddie to step inside the dress.

  Nora zipped her up in the back, the pink bodice snug around Maddie’s rib cage. “Geez,” she said. “You’re really tiny, Maddie.”

  “Thanks,” said Maddie, smiling. She surveyed herself in the mirror. She was tiny. But there was a little bit of a pudge under her chin she wanted to get rid of. She touched it, making a face. When she did, she saw that her upper arms were a little bit jiggly. “I’m almost at my perfect shape, I think. Just a couple more pounds need to come off.”

  “What?” Nora laughed again, but it wasn’t the same sound as before. This laugh was disbelieving. “You aren’t still trying to lose weight, are you?”

  Maddie turned back to Nora. “Not much. I have a few problem areas, but I’m mostly done.”

  “I don’t know what you’re talking about. You look great. In fact, I mean, you might be too thin. I know they say you can’t be, but I can see all your ribs.”

  Maddie’s gown only had tiny straps—no sleeves—and it was fairly low cut. So most of her décolletage was bare.

  Maddie looked back at herself in the mirror. “No, you can’t.”

  “Seriously, I think you should stop losing weight.”

  Maddie turned back to her friend, smiling. “You’re probably right. I’ll lay off the diet.” She wasn’t going to do that, of course. But she’d had enough rows with Agler about her weight to know that there was no point in arguing. After a while, she’d just started lying to him about the diet, and it looked like she was going to have to do the same thing with Nora. It was easier that way. No one understood. But when she finally did get done losing weight, and she was perfect, they’d all appreciate the final product.

  Nora smiled too, looking relieved. “Good. Because you look great.”

  “Let me help you with your dress,” said Maddie.

  It was easier to get Nora’s dress on than Maddie’s, because they’d figured out the trick of separating the layers to find the center of the skirt. It went on fairly easily.

  Nora’s dress was all shades of chestnut, toffee, and cinnamon. There were fur lined layers, feathers, silk, and lace. The bodice was just as sequined and embroidered as Maddie’s. But instead of having straps, the dress was cut in an angular line, so that there was only one strap and her other shoulder was bare.

  “It’s beautiful,” said Maddie. “Sawyer knows exactly how to make you look good. The colors are lovely with your hair.”

  Nora fingered a red lock. “Yeah, it does look good.” She sighed.

  “Hey,” said Maddie. “Before, in the snow, when I asked about you and Sawyer? If there is something wrong, you know you can tell me, right?”

  Nora looked up. “What?”

  “Are you okay?”

  “Oh. Yeah.” Nora made her way over to the mirror, her skirts swishing. “It’s just…” She pulled up her hair with both hands and turned from side to side. “Do you think I should put my hair up?”

  “It’s just what?” Maddie put her hands on her hips.

  Nora let her hair fall and looked over her shoulder at her friend. “He’s perfect, you know? He’s the best boyfriend in the history of the universe.”

  “And this is a bad thing?”

  “No.” Nora looked into the mirror again. “Sometimes, I don’t feel like I deserve it, I guess. I mean, I was kind of awful to him last year. There was all the weirdness with the sex and everything—”

  “But now things are clearly going fine in that department.”

  Nora shot her a dirty look. “Shut up.”

  “Sorry. But you guys were loud.”

  “And then he died, and I nearly lost him. And now, I just keep feeling like I’m living on borrowed time or something. Or that it’s too good to be true.”

  “Hey, you can’t think like that. Of course you deserve all the good things that you get. You had fifteen years of your life with Owen, in foster care, being miserable in the mundane world. You’ve done your time. Now, you get to lie back and enjoy.”

  A grin stole over Nora’s face. “Okay. Maybe you’re right.”

  “Of course I am.” Maddie hurried over. “I’d give you a hug, but I don’t think the dress will let me reach you.”

  Nora laughed.

  The girls smiled at each other.

  “So,” said Nora. “I should put my hair up, right?”

  * * *

  “What do you think?” said Sawyer. “Too much?”

  Nora took him in. He and Agler had decided to meet them at the ball, and she and Maddie had just arrived. Agler was looking normal in a billowing white tunic and dress pants.

  Sawyer, on the other hand, was in a dress, as was his habit. Nora had seen the dress in the tent, but she hadn’t seen it on Sawyer, so she was unprepared for how the dress fit him. She had seen the skirt. It was layered, like hers and Maddie’s. Sawyer’s was a mix of iridescent colors—magentas, blues, greens—and black layers. He had a lot of feathers. But the most shocking thing about the dress was not its skirt, but its bodice. Or rather, its lack of one. The skirt met a bit of black fabric, which made a V around Sawyer’s navel and then stretched behind to Sawyer’s back. The fabric covered his entire back and was secured with a sequined black choker around his neck. But his entire chest and arms were bare. Well, except for a smattering of glitter.

  Sawyer’s stomach muscles and pecks gleamed in the lights. He had glitter on his face too. His eyes were heavily made up with glitter all over his eyelashes. His hair was piled into a bunch of curls that cascaded down his back. But he hadn’t bothered to shave his upper lip for the past few days (which she’d noted was strange, but he wouldn’t talk about it), so he had a tiny mustache.

  “Nora?” he said. “It is too much, isn’t it?”

  “I love it,” she said. The thing about Sawyer’s look tha
t she always found so appealing was the way he mixed together his maleness with feminine things. This dress was a perfect example. It was very feminine, but the fact that he bared his chest meant that he was announcing his masculinity—just like the mustache. It was a perfect blending of both genders.

  She ran her fingers over his chest. “You look hot.”

  He backed away, but he was grinning. “You’ll rub off all my glitter.”

  “How come I didn’t get any glitter, huh?”

  Sawyer raised a finger. “One sec.” He reached into his skirts. (One of the things that Nora loved about the dresses that Sawyer made is that they were always so practical, unlike the dresses made in the mundane world. He would sew in various pockets for keeping one’s belongings in places that were both convenient and undetectable.) Pulling a vial of glitter out of one of his pockets, he said, “Close your eyes.”

  “Why?” She did it, though.

  “Okay,” said Sawyer.

  She opened her eyes. “What did you do?” He pointed at her cleavage. It was covered in glitter. She giggled. The more she looked, the more glitter she saw. It was on her shoulders, on her arms. She shook her head and some tumbled out of her hair. “Oh. I see.”

  He held out his hand to her. “Come, then, my glitter queen.”

  Together, they stepped into the ball, which was a beautiful icy wonderland. The snow sculptures that the muses had made decorated the smooth, white surface of the dance floor. A chandelier made of icicles dangled in the center. Muses from the music enclave were playing instruments in one corner. And muses glided over the dance floor in pairs, each of them dressed in bright and beautiful outfits.

  Nora let Sawyer pull her out to dance, and together they joined the other couples.

  He pulled her close, so that their bodies were touching.

  She laughed softly. “I thought you were worried about your glitter rubbing off.”

  “I’ve got more.” His voice was husky.

  “I love you,” she murmured.

  “I—” Sawyer broke off, his brow furrowing.

  “What?” She looked over her shoulder in the direction he was looking. She could see that a few other tweens had come into the ball. Rufus Twigg, Twyla Grass, and Lute Thundercloud. She turned back to Sawyer. “Have Rufus and Twyla been bothering you again?”

  He shook his head. “No.”

  “Are you okay?”

  He hesitated. “Maybe I should tell you something.”

  She cocked her head to one side. “Tell me what?”

  He didn’t answer right away. He kept dancing, staring into her eyes.

  She felt swept away by the depth of her feelings for him. She never wanted to be separated from him. He was beautiful and fascinating and perfect and strange. Everything she needed. Everything she wanted. She reached up and touched his lips.

  He made a soft noise. “Nora, I do love you.”

  “I love you too.” She shut her eyes. The moment was perfect.

  “But I should tell you this.”

  “Is it about Rufus Twigg? Because if it’s nasty stuff that people are saying about you, then maybe we should just forget about it for tonight. Maybe tonight should be about you and me having a good time. We can deal with the ugliness tomorrow.”

  “It’s not about Rufus.”

  She opened her eyes. “Is it going to make us feel happier?”

  He didn’t answer.

  “If it’s just going to bring us down, then tell me later.” She grinned. And she pressed her lips against his.

  * * *

  Agler handed Maddie a glass of piping hot apple cider. “You want to dance?”

  Maddie was watching Nora and Sawyer together. “Oh, I don’t know.” She grinned up at him mischievously. “You remember what we did last Winter Ball?”

  He furrowed his brow. “No.” Then he did remember. “Oh, wait. Weren’t we both depressed? Didn’t we just grab a bottle of wine and go wandering around in the snow, drinking and complaining about our lives? I feel like we both passed out before midnight.”

  She laughed. “Well, the depressed part and the wasted part I could do without. But it was nice to go on a moonlit walk in the snow. We should do that again.” She slid her hand into his.

  He gazed into her eyes. If he’d known last year that he’d end up with Maddie, he wouldn’t have believed it. He honestly hadn’t thought of her as anything more than a kid—or as Nora’s friend—for the longest time. Everything had changed at May Day last year, though. He’d seen her, really seen her. And sure, he’d been blind drunk at the time, but that didn’t mean what he’d seen hadn’t been real.

  The past couple of weeks, his best friend Jack had been giving him a lot of crap, saying that Agler was acting too old for his age. Jack didn’t think that Maddie and Agler should be so settled already. He thought Agler should be out having fun with lots of people. Casual relationships were fine, but Jack was incredibly unsettled by the way that Agler and Maddie looked at each other.

  Agler thought he was crazy. Looked at each other? What the heck was Jack talking about?

  Jack said it was way too intense, like there were little invisible strings attaching the two of them. Wherever you go, she’s still attached to you, he said.

  When he put it that way, Agler was pretty sure he understood what his friend meant. There was a profound tie between him and Maddie. It was different than anything he’d ever felt before, and he knew this relationship was serious. Maybe they were young, but there was something about the way they were together. It was right.

  Maddie had seen all the worst parts of him and somehow still fallen for him, even in the midst of all his shortcomings. He wasn’t sure if he’d seen the worst parts of her, but he was well aware that she had her problems. The thing was—problems didn’t break them. They were stronger together than apart, and they were both better equipped to handle problems with each other than on their own.

  “You want to go walk in the snow?” he said, his voice softer, almost teasing. “It’s cold out there.” He touched her bare upper arms. “You’ve got a lot of bare skin.” Inside the Ball area, there were heaters set up to keep the muses warm. Magic kept the decorations from melting.

  She pressed close. “I’ll put on my coat.”

  “The bottom of your dress will get wet.”

  “I’ll take that chance.” She raised her eyebrows. “Come on, it’ll be romantic. Don’t you want to be alone?”

  His smile widened. “Okay. A walk sounds nice.”

  She grabbed an unopened bottle of wine from the drinks table, seized his hand, and dragged him out of the ball. They stopped to pick up their coats from the closet where they’d hung them on their way in, and then they took off over the snow, holding hands.

  The snow had been trampled into paths, which crisscrossed all of Helicon. They stayed on these trails at first, wandering away from the bright lights and music, down between the math enclave and the dance enclave—both of which were covered in a thick blanket of snow.

  Maddie stayed close to him, and he liked it. He put his arm around her, and they drifted softly over the frozen landscape. It was cold and still and perfect, and they were alone.

  “See,” she said. “Isn’t this good?”

  “You were right,” he said. “It’s good.”

  They walked on in silence, moving further and further away from the center of Helicon, with its celebration, noise, and brightness. But they drew closer together, both physically and emotionally as they did.

  “I know where we should go,” said Maddie. She was whispering, but he could hear her perfectly. There was no sound out here except the sweep of a gentle winter breeze.

  “Where?” He was whispering too.

  “The edge,” she said. “We’re close.” Helicon was actually very small compared to big land masses like those in the mundane world. It stretched out just far enough to contain all the muses, and then it stopped. If you kept running, you’d fall right off the edge of Helicon.


  “I don’t think I’ve ever been to the southern edge,” he said. Tweens weren’t really encouraged to go horsing around near the edges. Tweens in Helicon had a reputation for being reckless and drunk (at least after they were sixteen or so). It wasn’t a great combination, considering that the drop off the edge meant that one dropped into nothingness, falling forever. It was a horrible way to die. Still, just because something was discouraged didn’t mean that the tweens didn’t go to the edges anyway. Agler had been out to the northeast edge before.

  “You haven’t? Then you have to see it. There’s a waterfall, and it just tumbles down into space. It’s beautiful.” Maddie cocked her head. “I wonder if it’s frozen!”

  He laughed a little, enjoying her excitement. “Well, lead the way,” he said.

  She did, chattering away about how the muses’ inspiration threads were purified here in a cave, using an old spinning wheel. “See, when the muses make the inspiration threads, they aren’t pure inspiration, they’ve got everything else the muse did when they were creating. If they got into an argument or if they were interrupted or if they had problems. So, that’s why they need purifying. That way, when they get to the mundane world, the humans only get pure inspiration, not any of the nasty stuff.”

  He tightened his arm, pulling her even closer. “I think I knew that.” By now, they’d moved off the paths, and they were now trudging through virgin snow. No one had walked down this far in all of Helicon—not since before it snowed, at least.

  “Well, I saw it.”

  “Really?”

  “Yeah, Sawyer, Nora, and I climbed down into the cave. We were looking for these smooth rocks that Sawyer wanted to give to Jack back when they were dating or whatever.”

  “You want to do that tonight?”

  She looked up at him in alarm. “No way! It was really dangerous, and we could have died. Tonight, everything would be frozen and dark and cold and—”

  “Okay, okay,” he laughed. “We won’t climb into the cave.”

  “Good.” She snuggled into him. “We’ll just go down far enough that we can see the waterfall, okay?”

  “Okay.” He was making sure to keep a keen eye ahead of them now. They didn’t have anything with them to light their way in the dark, and he didn’t want them blindly wandering right off the edge. Before they stepped forward, he made sure he could see the snow stretching out in front of them.