"Yes, no doubt," Katie Jones replied as she gestured for Helen and Zack to help her to her feet. "They could sense that she had been here. My guess is that they will try the store, the house, and the school, which won't be good at all."
"But, it's early," Helen pointed out. "No one is going to be any of those places yet. It's barely five in the morning."
"They start stocking at five at the store," I interjected, my mind flying to all the people I worked with, sleepily going about their jobs, stacking produce and putting out the fresh cuts of meat for the day.
"The entire town has been evacuated to the high school," Katie Jones added. "Which means if the Furies and Deborah attack the school, they may very well wipe out the entire town."
"Where's your family?" Helen asked Morris.
"Ma and Uncle Joe went to the high school with everyone else," he said, his voice full of a fierce protectiveness I’d never heard before.
"What about your parents and your brother, Helen?" Zack asked. "Do you want to try to call them again? I know you couldn’t reach them last night."
"No," Helen replied flatly. "I don't want to waste time finding a phone."
"They'll be worried about you by now," Zack said.
"Probably, but I can't help them by calling to say hi. I can help them by helping you guys fix this mess."
Helen's cool tone and resolution seemed to concern Zack, but Morris and I understood perfectly.
"What about your injuries?" Haley asked Katie Jones.
"Not much I can do about them now," she replied ruefully.
"Can I do anything to help them?" I asked, wondering if my power over life might be able to do something.
"Maybe, if you were better in control of yourself," she answered with a grim chuckle. "But, right now, I trust you about as far as I can throw you."
I was a little hurt, but it was the truth. Remembering the plants and almost-zombies at the graveyard, I knew I was raw and unstable.
"We should get to the store," Zack said. "We need to try and beat the Furies there."
"Not all of us should go," Haley replied, his hands stroking a cooling, soothing rhythm on my back. "Zack, you and Stephanie go to the store. The rest of us will go to the school and try to protect the people there."
My eyes shot up to his, confusion in my face.
"I don't understand," I whispered, every cell in my body ripping a little at the thought of separating from Haley. Didn't he want me with him? It was irrational, but my ability to be rational had jumped off this merry-go-round days ago.
"Zack is strong enough to help you and protect you," Haley explained quickly as he led us back through the darkened restaurant. "If you find the Furies, the kind of control I can offer you is the last thing you will need, and he can protect you better than I can because of the nature of his power. If Deborah is at the school, Miss Jones and I have a better chance of weakening her and protecting the others. I have faith in you, my love."
I looked up at him, searching his face for any sign of pretense, but for all the secrets Haley had to keep from me, he had never lied to me, and he wasn't lying now.
"Has anybody seen my dog?" Helen asked suddenly.
We all scanned the sidewalk and interior of the restaurant for signs of the three Min Pins.
"Cerberus? Here, boy!" Helen called out sweetly. "Come to mama!"
There was a crash and a shuffling sound from deep inside the kitchen, and eventually, Cerberus trotted slowly toward us, three bellies fully distended.
"They found the food locker," Morris said.
"Is that a piece of lo mein hanging from his mouth?" Haley asked.
"He just burped in unison," Zack pointed out.
"He does look rather smug and self-satisfied," Katie Jones noticed.
"Shush, all of you, and leave my dog alone," Helen replied with great dignity as she scooped the three roly-poly pups into her arms. "You were just fortifying yourself for the battle ahead, right?" she crooned worriedly at them.
The only answer she got was three synchronized yawns as Cerberus promptly fell asleep.
She looked at me, and I looked at her and shrugged. It was her idea to bring the dog, not mine.
"Come on, Stephinator," Zack said, clapping me on the back. "Let's go kick some Furies' ass."
I rolled my eyes and prayed...to myself, I guess, that I wouldn't end up killing Zack or anyone else by accident first.
CHAPTER THIRTY-ONE
ZACK AND I STOOD across the parking lot from the grocery store. It was still burning.
He wrapped a sympathetic arm around my shoulders and squeezed a little too hard, forgetting his supernatural strength again. But, I didn't mind. It was nice to feel something after the shock of seeing the store so completely destroyed.
I strained my eyes, trying with my freakovision to peer through the smoke and count the people being treated by the paramedics, hoping that everyone made it out in time.
"What are you looking for?" Zack asked.
"Trying to count survivors," I replied. "But, every time I think I have a number, a cloud of smoke gets in the way."
"There's nothing you can do about it," Zack said quietly. "You can count survivors all you want, but you can’t do anything about those who didn't make it."
"But, it's my fault this happened," I whispered.
"This is not your fault. This is Deborah's fault. She had a choice of how to react when you broke the spell, and she chose badly. Don't worry. She'll be held responsible for all of this."
I studied Zack's fierce expression as he stared out at the inferno. I felt like I had just gotten a rare glimpse into the hidden, serious side of Zack Smith...or rather Zeus. This was a guy I could believe was a god of all things, who chose to bear all the responsibilities of the world with a good-natured laugh.
"Come on," I said. "I want to see one more thing here."
We dodged fire trucks and police cars as I led him around to the back of the store. We had to duck into the woods and approach the graveyard that way because the back of the store was completely roped off.
"Where are we going?" Zack asked.
"My graveyard," I replied.
"Yours?" he chuckled.
"Yes, mine. I've cared for it for years now. I grew the flowers in it. I watched over the graves. I saw Haley here for the first time."
The shadowy figure from that night before school started seemed so long ago, but now, I knew. I knew who had touched the graves with such reverence. I knew who had stolen my flowers. I knew him like I knew my own heart.
"Oh, no!" I cried as we came out of the woods.
I rushed out to the broken gravestones and smoldering stalks of my plants. Everything was destroyed. The headstones were nothing more than rubble, and all the plants and flowers were no more than ash. Ashes to ashes. Dust to dust.
Rage flowed easily through me, and I grew warm from the inside out. I didn’t care. I would light up the sky with my revenge for what my mother and the Furies had done to those I cared about.
"Easy there, Stephinator," Zack cautioned, staying well back from me. "You're glowing again. Save it for when you actually get to see them all. The firefighters are already dealing with one fire, they don't need another one."
I forced calming breaths into my body and imagined exhaling the excess power, cooling myself down, both figuratively and literally.
"Let's go check out your house," Zack said, gently taking my arm and guiding me back through the woods to the main road, where we had left yet another stolen car. His touch was soothing, but not cool like Haley’s. Instead, it felt like he was siphoning off some of my energy, absorbing it into himself.
"You drive this time," I said, still clenching my teeth. "I feel better, but I don't think I'm fully in control yet."
"Good call," Zack replied, sliding into the driver's seat.
After a few tense moments of driving in silence, he spoke again.
"You do know what we might find at your house, right?" he asked
softly, his voice gentler than I had ever heard it before.
"Yes," I replied.
"If they're not there, we won't have time to linger. We'll have to make tracks to the school. I don't know how long Haley can hold them off, especially with Katie Jones in bad shape."
"Don't forget Cerberus."
"I didn't," Zack said drily, clearly expressing, without words, his opinion of the dogs' usefulness.
Another few minutes brought us to my house, or, as expected, what remained of it.
Which wasn't much.
My hands clenched into fists as I surveyed the charred foundations of what had been the mortal home of my mortal self.
The sky was lightening in blues and blushes as a new day dawned, and never had I felt less human, less sensible, less mortal.
All that had tethered me to this existence had been ripped away from me: my mother, as I knew her, the routine of my school years, my job, my town, my graveyard, my home.
With the trappings of normalcy literally burned away from me, I rocketed away from simple ideas of a simple life, shooting into a higher, clearer atmosphere.
I knew now that I was not a rational creature. Logic was the tool of mortals like Helen and Morris. I was life itself, wild, untamable, unconquerable. I was the very rush of sensation experienced in the conception of life. I was the only one who could defeat death, who could summon new life and bid it commence and conquer all obstacles.
I was Persephone, giver of Life and lover of Death. Finally, I fully understood the great and terrible power of my true nature. I was the promise of resurrection that has proclaimed the truth since time began. I was the only thing strong enough to balance Winter, to turn the Earth, to force it to face the sun, to bring Spring again to the world.
It would have been a mistake to confuse Spring with a season of softness. Spring is a terrible season, full of power and violence, cloaked in beauty. You could almost hear it if you listened closely enough. The cracking, bursting, pounding, pushing, groaning, crying, and rushing. From the mother animals' birth agonies, to the bursting of buds through sleeping wood, from the thrust of the blade of grass through the frozen earth, there was an undeniable cry of assertion and triumph in Spring’s primal power.
A new day was dawning, and I was new along with it.
"It is time to end all this," I said quietly, and I saw Zack shudder at the tone of my voice.
"Well, then," he said sadly. "Let's go."
***
We ditched the car a quarter mile from the school and arrived on foot. The police let us through the barricade around the school when we explained we were running from the fires downtown.
They reassured us that the National Guard was on its way, but it had taken a while to notify them—someone had actually had to drive to the nearest base because all the airwaves in Darbyfield had been blocked somehow.
"Well, that explains the lack of news coverage," Zack muttered to me.
I nodded absently, singly focused on one goal only: find my mother and stop her.
Zack held my wrist in a firm, calming grip as he wove us through the crowds of families huddled together, milling anxiously around in the gymnasium.
It was odd to see glimpses of all the kids from high school with their families. I saw Jordan and Kara with their parents and siblings, standing together nervously by the doors. The girls looked frightened and strangely young to me. Their parents looked like a thousand other parents, and it was strange to think that even Jordan and Kara were loved by a mother and a father.
Even Jordan and Kara were full of life, the spark that was my creation and my responsibility. Even Jordan and Kara were under my protection and care.
The smallest part of me that was still the mortal Stephanie Starr tried not to grin at the idea of having Jordan and Kara at my mercy.
Zack and I went inside to the gym where the majority of the families were sheltered. Banners for Homecoming were still hanging up, and it was amazing how little any of it meant now, especially seeing a thousand frightened people, cold and tired, clinging together in Red Cross blankets.
"Do you see Haley or the others?" I asked, trying to catch sight of them.
"No," Zack said. "And, I don't feel them in here, either."
He glanced wistfully at the Homecoming signs and sighed.
"Sorry about the game," I said, patting his arm.
"It was fun while it lasted," he replied quietly, and he led me out of the gym.
Suddenly, he stiffened, and my body jolted too with an alarming awareness of the unleashing of a tremendous amount of power.
"Quick, out back," Zack ordered, pulling me along as we ran for the sports fields.
My heart almost stopped at the sight before me.
Haley and my mom were standing at opposite ends of the football field. He was holding out a warning hand toward her, gesturing for her to stay where she was.
On one side of the field, Katie Jones was being thrown to the ground over and over like a rag doll by invisible arms, and Morris had grabbed a baseball bat and was swinging at the ghostly gusts in an attempt to protect her. Zack ran over to them, his hands glowing with the readiness of his power, which exploded into a shimmering dome over Morris and Katie Jones. I ran towards Haley, trying to take in everything that was happening around me.
Helen and Rob Furlong were trying to get all the families who had come to see what the commotion was about back into the gym. Rob's face was drawn and haggard with pain, his arm still encased in its cast and bound to his side. But, he was calm and steady, showing a kindness and bravery I had never guessed he possessed.
"Stop this now, Deborah," Haley called out to my mom, who was slowly walking towards him across the field, each footstep a heavy, earth-shaking boom, her face twisted in a monstrous mask.
"You have no dominion over me!" she screeched, raising her arms and setting the field ablaze in a sudden rush of fire.
Haley flinched at the fire but held his ground. His expression grew taut as he raised his hand and brought death to the fire, winking it out of existence and turning the grass to ash.
"I do not want to hurt you," he answered. "But, that is for Stephanie's sake. She loves you, despite your betrayal, despite your selfish possession of her, all these thousands of centuries. But, you never loved her. You only wanted her power."
"She is my daughter! She is my other half, not you, oh King of the Dead!"
"No, your power comes from her. My power is my own, and I am the balance to her. Together, we are the rhythm and pattern of the universe."
Mom screamed and the soil itself violently heaved up, throwing Haley into the air and sending him crashing down to the ground.
"Haley!" I cried out, anguish fusing with my rage.
Mom turned to me at the sound of my voice, her face becoming a mask of surprise at the sight of me.
"What has he done to you?" she gasped. "You are... you are dangerous! You are undone! You must come with me. I will help you."
"No, Mother," I said coldly. "I will not go with you. Ever again. You are right. I am dangerous, but you are the one who is in the most danger from me. Look around you. Look at what you have done. All this destruction and suffering. And for what? Did you really think I would come back to you, content to be your blind and dumb little girl again?"
"You are a wretched, ungrateful child!" she cried out. "I summon the Furies to witness and to bear my vengeance upon you!"
I swung around, back to Zack, Morris, and Katie Jones. Nothing was happening to them, and the protective dome now sheltered Rob and Helen as well.
Suddenly, invisible hands punched three giant holes in the side of the gym. I looked over at Haley who was getting to his feet, relief rushing through me in a quick wave that he looked relatively unhurt.
But I didn't have time for that. I had to get into that gym and help the people trapped in there with the Furies.
I ran back towards the gym, only to stop hard in my tracks as three women emerged from the back
doors of the gym, walking in a grim synchronized step towards me. All the air rushed out of my lungs when I recognized them.
"Mom!" Morris cried out from beneath the dome. He tried to run to her, but Helen and Zack held him back.
Morris' mother didn't bat an eye at his voice. Nor did the other two women respond to the cries of Jordan and Kara, who were running after their mothers.
"Oh, shit," I whispered to no one in particular. "This is really taking the mother guilt thing too far."
"Have you no shame for disobeying me?" Mom yelled at me, closer now, halfway across the football field toward me.
"No!" I yelled, whirling around to face her. "I don't. I did what I needed to do, and I tried to be respectful about it. You're the one who couldn't act like an adult and be rational and reasonable."
Three ear-splitting shrieks filled the air, and my human eardrums throbbed with pain. The three women advanced on me, surrounding me. Haley stood to the side, ready to help me if it came down to the ultimate solution, but there was little he could do otherwise if we didn't want to kill these women.
"Ungrateful child!" Morris' mother screamed at me.
"Loser!" Jordan's mother screamed.
"Pathetic little fake rebel," Kara's mother snarled.
"This woman gave you this body, this life!"
"You are foolish, naive, and ignorant!"
"You'll never be cool, never be accepted, never be anything more than a stupid little girl."
"Your mistakes are going to be terrible without your mother to guide you!"
"You know nothing of the way the world works. It will eat you alive."
"You chose to be a slut for a boy instead of being your mother's true companion."
Their vindictive chants wormed their way past my defiance, hitting those secret buttons that still existed in my mortal heart. I had berated myself a hundred times with their words.
My head throbbed, and my control was slipping. I was growing hot, and I struggled to hold onto my belief in myself, in Haley's love for me, in my right to exist as I was. Tears sprang to my eyes, but I held my jaw firmly clamped shut.
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