All priestesses of Zeus. And none of the pantheon? I looked back into the house just as Narcissus stepped out of the French doors, a platter of fruits dipped in chocolate in his hand. “Narcissus. I thought you said there were some of the pantheon here?” I asked.
“There are,” came a soft voice from the cabana I’d spent some time in with Smithy. My face flushed with that memory, and I headed toward the voice, leaving Yaya where she was. I would deal with her later, and yes, I felt like it was going to be dealing with and not just talking to.
I stepped into the shadows of the tent and saw two women I’d met before, Panacea and Artemis.
I didn’t bow, but I did tip my head.
“Drakaina, it is good to see you.” Panacea smiled at me. “You have healed well.”
“Thanks to you.” After my fight with Theseus, I’d been covered in fennel oil, and it had been burning through me. Panacea had healed my wounds, allowing me to walk away from the fight on my own two legs. I took a deep breath. “You are a healer, Panacea. Can you tell me what’s going on with the Aegrus virus?”
“We do not know it as that, but I will tell you what I can,” she said.
“What do you mean you don’t know the virus as that?” I was confused as to just what else they might know it as.
She smiled. “It is not a virus but a curse, a curse that has been cast on the water now. A curse that will help a few of the pantheon gain control of the world once more.”
I didn’t like the sounds of that. “But you mean, then, that it was manufactured by like a lab or something?”
She frowned, not a single line marring her brow. “What I do know is that it is not found in nature; it is not something that the world, or the humans, have created. Someone from the pantheon has created this . . . curse.”
“Can you stop it?” I could hope, but I suspected I already knew the answer to my question.
She shook her head, her eyes sad. “No, only the one who created this sickness can call it off.”
I was willing to bet that there was one queen of the pantheon who had brought this about. Dang it all. Then again, maybe I was being hasty. Right.
“Who made it? Do you know?”
Again another headshake, her blue eyes downcast, her perfect blond ringlets falling over her bare shoulders. “No. Only one would know the answer to your question, and as you can see, he is not here.”
Artemis, who’d been completely silent up until then, snorted. “You have a . . . forgive the pun . . . monstrous task ahead of you, Drakaina. You must find Zeus. Not only will he know who has created this virus you speak of, but he must be the one to bring the pantheon back into order. If he would do that, the world would settle. There is no doubt in my mind that if he would take the reins like a true god, then all would be well once more.”
I rather doubted that last bit, but knowing that Zeus held the key to actually helping me find what I needed was a start. “Any idea where he might be?”
Panacea gave a slow nod. “He always goes north when he runs away. Always north; it is the direction that calls to him.”
North was the Wall. “How far north? Like in the mountains north?”
They both nodded. “Look for the snow; where the snow flies and the mountain kisses the sky, that is where he will hide. It will bring him closest to his power and strength that way, so be wary. He will not hold back if he feels threatened.”
Awesome, that was just what I needed. Zeus with a twitchy trigger finger. “Thank you, both of you.”
They smiled at me in tandem, but it was Artemis I found myself staring at. Like Smithy, she had scars on her body, scars that obviously she was not upset about showing if the amount of skin that was on view was any indication. Her eyes locked with mine. “Let me tell you something, Alena.”
I stared at her. She used my name instead of my designation, and that caught my attention. “Yes?”
The huntress stood and was as tall as me, so we were eye to eye. “You have it in you to bring Zeus back to his senses. Trust your instincts. Trust your heart. I believe that is what went wrong when they thought to turn you into a monster. They believed your heart was weak.” She placed her hand over my left breast, not in a sexual way at all. “Your heart is that of a god.”
I wasn’t so sure about having the heart of a god. Artemis laughed. “Your face says it all. I do not mean that you are a god, Alena. But in the old days, we had the hearts that people would follow into war. We fought for those we loved the best, and we laid our lives on the line. You are that person. And when Merlin turned you, I don’t believe that he knew just how strong you were.”
Being that Artemis was a goddess of courage and strength, I wanted to believe her that I was strong enough. Of course, the last bit about Merlin being wrong was no real surprise. That I could easily believe. So maybe the rest was true too. Yaya came up beside me.
“It’s because she comes from good stock,” Yaya said.
“And I’m a Super Duper,” I pointed out. Part of the mystery around my life was that we still hadn’t figured out just what kind of Super Duper my father was. No one had. Having one parent with supernatural lineage was the only way I’d have been susceptible to the Aegrus virus or curse or whatever you wanted to call it in the first place. And of course, good old Dad wasn’t saying a word. Acting like he was a plain old human. Ha.
“I guess we’ll head north, then. Thank you for your help.” I took a step back before turning away.
With Yaya at my side, we worked our way around the pool to where Tad still had his back to the water. Sandy was at the edge, crouched, chatting with one of the priestesses.
I put a hand on my grandmother. “Yaya. What are you up to anyway?”
She smiled up at me, the skin around her eyes far smoother than I’d seen in years. Years. “Alena, you need to keep at this. The world is changing, and it is because of you. So don’t stop what you’re doing. We are gaining back our power; people are believing again in the old gods. That is a good thing. It is weakening the Firstamentalists’ hold.”
I pulled away from her, my mouth suddenly dry. What she was saying wasn’t all that horrible, but it sounded an awful lot like the reasoning Hera had. The goddess wanted to make people believe in her again so she would get her power back to rule as she wanted. I had no idea it would be true for Yaya as well as all her priestesses. Maybe as the gods and goddesses they chose to follow rose in power, they too gained strength. As much as I wanted to be happy for Yaya, I just wasn’t sure how I felt. The whole thing was just too close to Hera’s version of things for my liking.
I let her go and gave her a quick peck on the cheek. She grasped my hand, though, holding me tight. “Don’t forget, you have your parents’ anniversary coming up. And you are supposed to be making the cake, as well as the small desserts.”
I groaned softly. “I know, Tad reminded me. Mom is coming tomorrow to taste test.”
Yaya’s eyebrows shot up. “She is?”
I nodded. “Yeah. But . . . I don’t know how that’s going to go over for her.” I wasn’t about to explain the mob of Firstamentalists that had been outside my bakery. Crazy like a bowl full of nuts, they had no idea what was going on in the world. And I wasn’t sure how Mom would handle seeing her daughter being picketed and mobbed by people she called her friends. Maybe she’d join them and add her voice to their shaming. I think that was what I was most afraid of. That once again we’d be back at the beginning of our relationship. That I would disappoint her yet again, and maybe worse, that I’d embarrass her.
I sighed. “Will you come for the taste testing? Just to have a bit of a buffer?”
“Nope.” Her denial shocked me, and she smiled to soften it. “You and your mother need to work this out. And you can, I know you can. She’s coming around. The fact that she’s coming to your bakery says a great deal about how she’s feeling. Don’t deny her. And don’t be late for the party either; you know I hate tardiness.”
I slumped and then n
odded. “I’ll try.”
I grabbed Tad as I walked by, and Sandy hurried to catch up to my side. “Where to now?”
“I think we all need to get some sleep, and then we’re on a hunt for Zeus,” I said. The night was coming to a close, and I was exhausted. I’d learned the hard way that taking care of myself amid the battles for my life was important if I wanted to be at my best.
“You know where he is?” Tad peeked at me, then relaxed as he realized there were no naked old ladies near to us. He mumbled something about grabby hands and sugar mamas not happening.
“Kind of.”
“That’s not what I want to hear.” He groaned and slid into the passenger side of the Charger. Narcissus smiled at us, waving as we left. Funny how I’d found him so attractive the first time I’d met him, blindingly so. And this time it was like he didn’t even register on my radar. Maybe the libido of a siren wasn’t all that bad.
You will be drawn to men of power, and Narcissus is anything but, the Drakaina said inside my head. He is nothing more than a pretty face. It’s what got him in trouble in the first place. Pretty. But dumb as a rock.
“Great,” I mumbled to myself.
I drove back into the city proper and to the old house that had belonged to my grandparents on my dad’s side before I’d inherited it. Tad and Sandy chatted back and forth, and I listened with only half an ear. My mind was too busy trying to make sense of things.
The side where we got our Super Duper blood from, by all accounts. “Tad, do you think Grandma and Gramps might have left some sort of hint in their house about their past? I mean, one of them was a Super Duper. Maybe both.”
Sandy took her bag and slung it over her shoulder as she stepped out of the car. “But you said that there didn’t actually have to be that much Super Duper blood involved for someone to be susceptible to infection. What was it, like a sixteenth?”
I nodded. She was right; that was what Ernie had said. Call it a gut instinct, but I had a funny feeling our family had done more than just dip their toes into the edges of the pool of Super Duper blood out there.
“Maybe we can look after a few hours of sleep?” Tad asked, almost begging. “I’m totally bagged.”
I yawned, my jaw cracking, it went so wide. “Yeah, okay.”
I let us into the two-story house. I’d had a renovation company come in and repair the hole in the stairs, change out the decor, and give the whole place a complete and deep cleaning. The last thing I wanted was to smell Barbie or Roger in my home.
Which was all I could smell the first time I’d come and checked on the building with the contractor the week before. I took a deep breath. Nothing but the heavy smell of sharp lemon cleaner and the odd wisp of a person from the renovation company. Good enough for me. Tad went straight for the back bedroom. That was where he’d always slept when we stayed overnight with our grandparents.
I beckoned to Sandy. “Come on, you can sleep upstairs with me in the master.”
She followed me up the stairs to the second-floor bedroom, where I’d put two queen beds.
“Why did you do that? Didn’t you think you would be here with Remo?” Sandy threw her stuff onto the bed against the far wall.
I blushed and turned away. “I don’t know. I . . . I think maybe I knew it wasn’t going to turn out the way I wanted.” Lies, lies. But I didn’t know what to say. I’d decided to put the two beds in on a whim when the contractor asked me. Maybe I had known something was going to happen underneath it all.
Sandy just nodded at my explanation before stripping down and climbing into bed. “You going to try and sleep?”
Though I’d been yawning only moments before, I knew there would be no sleep for me. I shook my head. The idea of finding something—maybe a clue to what kind of blood ran through my veins—in my grandparents’ house tugged at me, and I knew there was no point in trying to deny it. “In a bit, maybe. I’ll try to be quiet.”
She didn’t answer, and I cocked my head to one side. Her heart rate had already slowed into a flutter that barely moved. She was asleep, passed out in a matter of seconds. If only I could fall asleep so quickly and so soundly.
I shook my head and went back downstairs, thinking about the possibilities of where something might be hidden—a clue, a note, anything.
The kitchen was my favorite place—no surprise there—and we’d had it completely renovated when Roger and I had first moved in.
Of course there hadn’t been much question about that, as it had been old and totally outdated, but I’d left a few things that had reminded me of my grandparents—family pieces that had been around as long as the house had stood.
The kitchen had been the place my grandfather loved best too. He wasn’t a cook or a baker; he just said he’d liked the ambiance of the room, the way the light fell in through the window onto the table. I could almost see him sitting on his straight-backed chair, leaning over a cup of tea as he read one of his handwritten journals.
It made sense to me that the kitchen was as good a place as any to start searching for clues. During the renovation we’d not found anything in the walls or under the floors, but like I said, we hadn’t changed everything.
I ran my hands over countertops, the cool granite soothing me, showing me just how frazzled I was really feeling. The few things I’d left unrenovated were staples in the big old house. A dumbwaiter that we’d made to look like part of the kitchen cabinets, a cool pantry off to one side that still had the original walls, and one tall cupboard that wasn’t really attached to the wall. More like an old armoire than a kitchen cupboard, but I loved the way it looked.
I checked the dumbwaiter first and peered in, breathing deeply. The smell of aged wood and musky earthy things rolled up through my nose. I rubbed at it, trying to pinpoint the smells. There was nothing that I could discern, though. I pulled the dumbwaiter up and then lowered it back down a couple of times. Nothing different came about, and there was no way I was climbing in. Even if I could have fit.
Footsteps behind me, and then Tad was at my shoulder. “Couldn’t sleep either?”
“No. I think . . . I think that whatever Dad is, it’s important somehow, you know? Or maybe I just want it to be. Like we could understand things better if we knew,” I said.
“I got the same feeling. Why would he keep hiding? We know he’s a Supe, and Mom has to know he’s a Supe, even if she’s pretending otherwise. What’s he got going on?” Tad rubbed a hand on his forehead.
I nodded. “Sandy is asleep. Let’s pull this place apart.”
He grunted. “A bit extreme?”
“What if it’s life or death? We have no idea. Maybe something of Dad comes through with us? Maybe it could help us?” Or maybe I really just wanted to understand my family better, and this was one way to do it.
He sighed. “I think you’re letting your imagination get away with you, but at the same time, I have to agree. It could be important.”
We headed to the cool pantry. It would seem like the most obvious place with all the walls still intact. We knocked on the sides of the pantry, tapped on the floorboards. I smelled for all I was worth, hoping I would pick up the scent of something, anything. Nothing there, though, or at least, nothing that I could see or sense. Nothing that I could pick up on. We even pulled a few slats off the pantry walls and peered behind them. Empty except for dust and spiders.
“Snickerdoodles, this stinks.” I put my hands on my hips, irritated that we hadn’t found anything yet.
Without another word of complaint, we went to the tall detached cupboard next, pulling it open, knocking on the wood. I smacked the side of it. “There isn’t much left in the way of things from before the renovations, and the company we used showed us anything that they found.”
“What do you mean?” Tad frowned at me and leaned on the cupboard. Which shifted a little. I stared at it.
“Wait, it moved; I know it’s detached, but I thought it was too heavy . . .”
We grabbed the
sides of the cupboard and heaved it together, the wood scraping along the floorboards, screeching like a surprised blue jay as it went. I hoped it didn’t wake up Sandy, but even if it did, I knew we were onto something. A waft of smells rolled out from behind the cupboard as air touched it for the first time in years.
“What the hell is that?” Tad breathed out.
I drew in a big breath and held it, trying to decipher just what it was I was smelling. The first image was that of my Gramps, his smiling face, the twinkle in his eye, the shape of his nose . . . the shape of his . . . nose was just like . . . I could see the picture in front of me. The picture in a hallway that I’d walked down only three times, but still the resemblance was undeniable.
“Holy shit, you aren’t going to believe this.”
Yes, that came out of my mouth. The S word. But in this instance I felt that I was warranted a cuss word or two. Or three. Because . . . because I had to be wrong. I just had to be.
CHAPTER 7
Tad grabbed at me as I grabbed at the papers buried in the wall in a tiny alcove that was dusty with spiderwebs and age. “What is it? What did you smell?”
I tore at the papers, yanking them to my face, the man I’d known as Gramps blurring and making me question everything I’d ever known. Because it couldn’t be true. It just couldn’t. Tad shook me, and I snapped my eyes up to him. “I think . . . I have to think about this. I could be wrong.”
“Spit it the hell out, you’re scaring me.” His eyes were wide as they searched my face.
“His nose, his nose is just like that of every person I saw in pictures, on the wall, and I can’t believe it, but it makes a twisted sort of sense about how strong I am and why he would help me, and I can’t believe it.”
Tad hauled off and slapped me, hard enough to stop my rambling. “Spit it out.”
I blinked up at him as I held a hand to my cheek. “Merlin. The portraits in Merlin’s house. I think Merlin is Gramps.”
Tad reeled back. “No. Shit no. Hell no. That can’t be right. Gramps wouldn’t have treated us like this. And Merlin is way too young; he can’t be Gramps.” He paused.
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