But they all said that Maddie was crazy.
Right.
Maddie knew she wasn’t really fat. It was only nymph magic making her look fat. But it was still horrible to look this way and feel this way. Dakaste had made her really, really fat. Fatter than Maddie had ever been. She had rolls of fat on top of rolls of fat. Her stomach hung down nearly to her knees, and the fatty rolls of her thighs fell to her ankles. She had a quadruple chin. Her face was practically lost in all the rolls of fat. When she walked, she had to waddle, because she was carrying around far too much weight for anything besides that. It was impossible for her to dance, and she missed that acutely.
Every day, the nymphs set out huge spreads of food for her—succulent sides of beef, mounds of decadent ice cream smothered in chocolate.
Every day, Maddie refused to eat it.
The nymphs scolded her in high pitched voices. They told her that her eating didn’t have any affect on her body size now. She was fat, anyway. She might as well indulge.
But Maddie knew that she wasn’t really fat. And she knew that if she didn’t eat anything at all, she’d put her health in real danger. Before, when she was in Helicon, she’d always made sure to eat a little bit of something. Now, she really wasn’t eating at all. She was on a hunger strike.
She figured that the nymphs wouldn’t be able to keep this up forever. If she was actually in danger of dying, they’d have to stop, take back the fat. And Maddie dreamed of how much thinner she’d be when they undid the magic. Her actual body must have lost so much weight by now.
It was a waiting game. She’d wait them out. She’d win.
Well. There was that one time when she’d eaten a little bit of the apple pie they’d put before her. Or the time when she simply couldn’t resist a few bites of lasagna. Or the time—
But the point was that usually she didn’t eat at all. She was beating them. They’d see. She was stronger willed than they were.
One morning, Maddie was sitting at a huge table next to the lake. The table was straining under the weight of the breakfast spread that had been set out for her. There were stacks of pancakes smothered in maple syrup, mounds of French toast dripping with butter, rashers of bacon, piles of sausage, hash browns and home fries, grits, cinnamon rolls, various fruits, cereal, a tall glass of orange juice and an even taller glass of milk…
Maddie was drinking coffee. That was it.
Dakaste sat at the other end of the table, gleefully shoving her face full. In between bites, she would only talk about how good everything tasted and how Maddie needed to give in to her desires and eat already.
Maddie just stared her down from inside her fat suit. She wasn’t going to eat. She wasn’t even going to speak.
All around her, other nymphs cavorted about, some in the trees, some in the lake, some stealing bites of food from her breakfast spread.
Suddenly, there was a noise. A low rumbling, coming from underground.
The table started to shake.
Maddie sat up straight, trying to keep her coffee from spilling. Did they have earthquakes in Nysa?
But no, the nymphs looked alarmed. Dakaste was out of her chair, looking this way and that, eyes full of terror. Maddie stood up too, feeling wary. This was just her luck. Stuck in Nysa, ridiculously fat, when something bad happened.
There was an eruption of earth, the ground exploding. Clumps of dirt went everywhere. One smacked Maddie right in one of her four chins. Others knocked food off the table. Others sailed into the lake with a loud splash.
But the rumbling had stopped. There was a crater just a few feet from the table, and in the middle of the crater stood a woman with long black hair and light blue eyes. She was wearing a long purple gown, and she had a very familiar object in her hand. The dimension device! How had she gotten it?
The woman lifted her chin in triumph. “Nymphs of Nysa!” she cried out. “I have blocked your exchange of power and strength with the mundane world. If you wish to have this restored, you will cooperate with me and give me what I require of you.”
Dakaste rushed forward, rubbing her hands together, making green sparks fly everywhere. Other nymphs did the same thing, all lunging for the woman.
But the woman only laughed. “I am intercepting your power and strength, you stupid nits. Your magic has already started to fade. It will not work on me.”
Dakaste and the other nymphs turned the green sparks on the woman anyway.
The sparks hit her body, making her glow bright green.
But then they fizzled.
The woman threw back her head and laughed.
Dakaste narrowed her eyes. “You will not find the nymphs of Nysa cooperative. Whatever your plan, you will find that we will foil it, be it only through the strength of our will.”
“Oh,” said the woman patronizingly. “That sounded very brave. But I think you’ll find that you don’t have much choice. And at any rate, you’re not why I’m here.” She turned to look at Maddie.
Maddie looked to her left and her right, but no one was there. Was this woman talking about her? But why? Why would someone like this even be interested in someone like her?
“A muse child,” murmured the woman. She waved her hand.
Maddie almost lost her balance as the extra weight she’d been carrying around melted away, and she was left in her normal form. She surveyed her now-thin-again hands. Well, maybe this woman wasn’t so bad after all.
“You’re going to help me,” said the woman to Maddie. “I’ve been looking for a muse child for so, so long.”
Maddie swallowed. Wait a second. Muse child? She remembered what Nora had told her about that trip to the mundane world two years ago, where she’d been taken captive by Owen, who’d tried to kill… “Nimue,” she whispered.
It had to be. It was the only thing that made sense. And Maddie was betting anything that this was the same person who’d gotten the dimension device away from Owen as well.
The woman’s face lit up. “Oh. You know who I am.”
* * *
It was a late summer night in Helicon, not that the weather was any different than usual. The Science and Math Gala had come and gone weeks ago, and now there was a long stretch of time before there was another festival. Nothing until Halloween, in fact.
Sawyer liked this time of year. There was nothing pressing, no flurry of activity and preparation. It was a great time for lazy late mornings and staying up late at night drinking beer and talking. He and Lute had been growing closer and closer over the past few months. They were officially a couple these days, and he was allowed to actually call Lute his boyfriend, something that always made him swell up with the impossibility of it all. He’d never been happier, at least he didn’t think he had.
He felt a little bad about it. He was a little withdrawn from his normal circle of friends, and from their issues. Nora and Agler were both missing Maddie, and Sawyer knew he should be more concerned about her too. But he couldn’t help but be caught up in his joy over his new relationship. It was perfect, Lute was perfect, and he didn’t have room in his soul for too much sadness.
One evening, he and Lute were sitting together in his tent. They often spent their nights together, sometimes in his tent, sometimes in Lute’s. He loved the closeness between them and the passion and heat as well.
Lute liked having Sawyer half-clothed, and—at his urging—Sawyer was lounging bare-chested, but wearing one of his skirts. He particularly liked the skirt. It was a simple purple, but it had tiny rhinestones stitched into the fabric, making it shimmer in the light if Sawyer twirled. But he wasn’t twirling now, just relaxing.
Lute had pushed the skirt up over Sawyer’s knees, and he was idly tracing patterns on the other muse’s calf.
It tickled, but Sawyer liked it.
“What do you think about that, though?” said Lute.
They were discussing the fact that engineering’s and philosophy’s feud had gotten so big that they were forming a committee t
o make sure that enclaves were fairly distributed to assist with the upkeep of Helicon.
“It’s probably a better idea than the way things have been going,” said Sawyer.
“Yeah, but we’re going to be volunteered to help, and we don’t have a representative on the council. That’s not cool.”
“No, I guess not. I don’t know why they think that tweens can’t think or make decisions. Just because we’re young doesn’t mean we’re idiots.”
“They think we drink too much.” Lute lifted his glass.
Sawyer snickered and raised his as well. They both drank. Sawyer set down his glass and grinned at Lute, feeling stupid happy.
Lute raised an eyebrow suggestively, and then leaned over to kiss him.
Sawyer opened his mouth for his boyfriend, reaching up to stroke his hair.
Lute pulled back.
Sawyer kept his hands tangled up. “You have great hair.”
Lute laughed. “You have great… everything.” He lowered his mouth to Sawyer’s chin and kissed his way down the other guy’s neck, over his chest, down his belly button.
Sawyer closed his eyes and groaned, fairly sure he knew where this was going.
But Lute stopped. “I want to ask you something.”
“Mmm…” said Sawyer.
“Are we ever going to have sex?”
Sawyer opened his eyes. “What? We do have sex.” He sat up straight and furrowed his brow. “Like every night.”
Lute reached for his beer. “Babe, we sixty-nine each other, but we’re not like… really doing it.”
“We are so.” Sawyer got his beer too and took a long drink. “What made you say this right now?”
“I don’t know. I’ve just been thinking about it.”
Sawyer sighed. “Sometimes you’re so… straight.”
Lute picked up a pillow from the floor and hurled it at Sawyer. “You’re just as bi-curious as I am, ass.”
Sawyer ducked the pillow. “Bi-curious?”
“Yeah, Nora said it one day, when she was describing us. Apparently, it’s something they say in the mundane world. I thought it fit.”
“I guess.” Sawyer had more beer. “It’s just that you have this narrow way of looking at sex. You think of it like straight sex.”
“No, I don’t.” Lute blushed. “Trust me, I’m well aware of the fact that you and I are not in possession of the equipment to have straight sex.”
“But you don’t think we’ve actually done it.” Sawyer shook his head. It was weird, because he felt like he’d been having sex with Lute for months. He felt like they’d been having sex right away.
“Well, it’s not like it’s been bad,” said Lute. “I mean, what we do together is…” He grinned his mischievous smile and his voice dropped several octaves. “Awesome.”
Sawyer grinned back. He leaned over and kissed him. It was hard to resist Lute when he was smiling like that.
Lute sighed. “I’m only saying that if I’d been doing the same kind of stuff with a girl, then I wouldn’t think we’d done it yet.”
Sawyer pulled away. “See, that’s what I mean about thinking about us like we’re straight. We’re not. It’s different.”
“So, what would you consider sex between us? Blow jobs? Hand jobs?”
“Yes,” said Sawyer.
“Huh.” Lute considered this.
“You don’t agree?”
“No, that’s not what I was thinking. I was just thinking that you told me that you’d never had sex with another guy, and I didn’t realize that meant that, uh…” He leaned close and whispered, “You’d never had any dick but mine in your mouth.”
Sawyer felt the words go through him like a jolt. He grabbed Lute, his lips feverishly seeking the other’s lips.
Lute kissed him back. His mouth was like fire.
Sawyer fumbled with the other guy’s pants.
“I haven’t either, you know,” Lute breathed. “Yours is the only dick I’ve—”
“I want it now,” said Sawyer. “I want you now.”
Lute groaned, letting Sawyer’s hands free him, find him. Sawyer stroked his lover. Their tongues tangled together, and Lute’s hands thrust their way under Sawyer’s skirts.
They didn’t talk for a while. They made noise, but it was more of the moaning and gasping variety.
When they were both quiet, they lay back together, leaning against one of Sawyer’s pillows. Lute was snug under Sawyer’s arm, and Sawyer liked him close like that. He kissed the top of the other muse’s head.
Lute peered up at him, almost sleepy. “I haven’t done anything else, either, Sawyer.”
“What are you talking about?” Sawyer rubbed Lute’s bare shoulder.
“I haven’t had any other kinds of gay sex.”
Oh. That. Sawyer felt uncomfortable, and he turned away. “Did we knock over our beers?”
Lute chuckled, and Sawyer could feel the movement of his boyfriend’s body against his. “You don’t want to talk about this, do you?”
Sawyer turned back. “You obviously do.”
Lute extricated himself from Sawyer’s arms so that they were at the same level, and he could look into Sawyer’s eyes. “You don’t want to do it with me? You don’t want to try it?”
“I…” Sawyer rubbed his face. This was a conversation he’d never really had with someone, and he wasn’t even sure if he could put it into words. “It’s just, I don’t know, it doesn’t sound very… sexy.”
“Seriously?” Lute shook his head. “I don’t believe it. You’re I-wear-skirts Sawyer, and you’re not into having gay sex.”
“I’m into having gay sex.” Sawyer glared at him. “I have gay sex with you daily. Sometimes several times a day.”
“Yeah, but I mean… You know what I mean.”
Sawyer found his beer. He took a long, long drink. It was warm now, but he didn’t care. “Just… have you really thought about this? It sounds kind of messy and painful and… gross.”
Lute gave him a funny look. “I can’t believe you’d say that. I don’t think anything about you is gross.”
This was coming out all wrong. Sawyer didn’t know what to say.
Lute grinned. “You’re scared.”
Sawyer looked up at the top of the tent.
Lute crawled over to him, speaking in a soft, seductive voice. “I’ll be so gentle with you, Sawyer. I swear, I—”
“So, you’re automatically topping me?” said Sawyer. “That why you’re so interested?”
Lute sat back. “I don’t know.”
“Would you be so eager for it if we were talking about jamming something up your ass?” Sawyer took a furious drink of beer. “You know, just because I wear skirts does not mean that I’m the ‘girl’ in this relationship.”
“No, of course not. I didn’t mean…” Lute cleared his throat and trailed off.
They were both quiet.
Lute licked his lips. “Okay,” he said quietly. “Then, yeah, you can do it to me.”
“No,” said Sawyer. “I don’t want it like that. When we make love, we do it together. Nobody’s doing anybody else.”
“Maybe I want that, though,” said Lute, holding his gaze. “Maybe I want to be… I don’t know, taken or something. Maybe that would be…” He ran his tongue over his perfect white teeth, and his voice got low and rumbly. “Don’t you want to take me, Sawyer?”
A knot formed in Sawyer’s stomach, half because he was incredibly turned on, and half because he was terrified. He just stared at Lute, wordless, his mouth too dry to swallow.
Lute crawled over slowly. He ran his fingers over Sawyer’s chest. “I want to do everything there is to do with you, you know that?”
Sawyer backed away, shaking his head.
Lute furrowed his brow. He was hurt.
Sawyer tried to summon his voice. It came out unsteady. “I’m sorry. I don’t think I want…” He left the sentence unfinished.
Lute sighed. “Okay. Fine. Whatever.�
� He turned away and began fishing through the pillows on his floor for his clothes.
“What are you doing?”
“I think I’m going to go back to my own tent.” Lute’s voice was dull.
“Wait, you don’t want to stay?”
Lute looked over his shoulder. “I’ve confessed all the weird and strange desires I’ve ever had to you, and you’ve never made me feel bad about one of them.” He struggled into his pants. “Until now, that is.”
“Lute, you know that isn’t what I meant.”
Lute picked up his shirt. “I need to be alone is all.” He headed for the front of the tent.
Sawyer went after him. “Don’t leave like this.”
Lute hesitated at the tent flap. He turned and kissed Sawyer quickly. “I’ll see you tomorrow.”
And then he was gone.
Sawyer felt like a dark cloud had just descended on his happiness.
* * *
Nimue kept trying to make Maddie drink this foul concoction that Nimue called tea. But Maddie wouldn’t do it. At first, Nimue had tried to force it down Maddie’s throat, but all the nymphs had ganged up on Nimue and pulled her off, making her spill her tea.
After that, Nimue took a more hands-off approach. She said that she’d get Maddie to cooperate eventually. Nimue had closed off the nymphs’ way in and out of Nysa, so they were all trapped. The nymphs had no more magic, and they were weakening. Soon, they wouldn’t be able to fight against Nimue, and then Maddie would have to do whatever she said. Nimue didn’t even bother chaining them up. The boundaries of Nysa were small. It barely extended very far past the lake and the tree houses. It was a tiny place, and the nymphs didn’t have anywhere to run. Neither did Maddie.
In fact, she stayed in the same tree house she’d been sleeping in thus far. She didn’t know where else to go.
Every morning, Nimue came in with a new glass of steaming tea. It smelled horrible, and Maddie cowered on her bed. That morning was no different.
The Helicon Muses Omnibus: Books 1-4 Page 106