Solstice

by P. J. Hoover

  It’s too late for that. Tanni’s soulless eyes look at me, but it’s like she didn’t hear me. “It’s your fault,” she says.

  Shayne pulls on my hand. “Let’s go.”

  I pull my hand away from his. I don’t need him telling me what to do now. “Chloe did not die,” I say. I want Tanni to hear me. I want everyone to hear me. I know I’m yelling, but I don’t care. Chloe is alive.

  Tanni’s eyes shift to Shayne. “You have no reason to be here.” And just like that, he vanishes.

  I stare at the spot where he was. “What did you do to him?” I demand.

  Tanni shakes her head, and her hair moves from side to side in a cascade. “It’s all your fault, Piper.”

  “What’s my fault? And where is Shayne?”

  Tanni steps forward and grabs my wrist, and her cold steel grip is like a vise. I’m not sure why I bother struggling, but I do, trying to break my wrist free until it hurts.

  “Randy Conner is dead,” she says.

  I nod, and with her grip and her words and the fog circling behind her empty eyes, she’s got me. I’m rooted in place.

  “And it’s your fault.”

  “What is?” But something’s starting to come together inside me. A nasty itching sensation in the back of my mind. I don’t want to face it.

  “You killed him.”

  I open my mouth, but nothing comes out.

  “You killed Randy Conner. It’s your fault.”

  “How?” It’s the only thing I can manage to say.

  “Someone had to die. It wasn’t his time. It’s your fault.”

  I stare at her now, and I can’t pull my eyes from her face. The truth slams into me like a freight train. I saved Chloe. But at what cost? Randy was one of two hundred and eighty-seven people to die. Would he really be alive right now if not for me?

  “It’s your fault.” Tanni says it a final time and then lets go of my wrist. She walks back and joins her friends at the Virgin Mary, and they fade until they’re gone.

  The bubble around the world slips away, and the church is reanimated. Mass has ended, and six of Randy’s friends carry out his casket. No one has heard anything. And Shayne is gone.

  My fault. I hear it in my head. Is Randy Conner’s death my fault?

  I wait for the church to empty, and then I head home.

  Chapter 22

  Reunion

  My mom is home. The second I walk through the door, a giant burden lifts from my shoulders. She’s not dead. I can voice this concern in my mind now that I know she’s okay. The cold feeling in my gut I’ve been carrying around since the day she was supposed to come back dissipates. I didn’t even realize it was there, weighing on me.

  She moves around in the Botanical Haven, cutting dead leaves off plants all over the place. And she’s taken the calla lilies Reese gave me and set them on a table at the front of the store. The glass vase shimmers from the sunlight coming through the windows. I’ll have to explain why I have illegal flowers. Maybe I can lie and say I cut them myself.

  “Hi, Mom.”

  She gives me a sideways glance and then looks away. Snip. Snip. More leaves fall. Some aren’t even dead.

  I walk in and decide to go ahead upstairs. Let my mom have her time and then come talk to me when she’s done. After all, if either of us should be angry about something, it’s me. My mom should have been home on Monday. She didn’t call. Didn’t give an explanation. Didn’t do anything except not show up. Yet, even with all that, my stomach is clenched in fists of guilt.

  “Did you miss me?” she says.

  I turn, halfway up the steps. She’s at the bottom looking up at me, scissors in hand.

  “You said you’d be back on Monday.”

  My mom sighs and pulls off her gardening gloves, tossing them onto the counter by the cash register. “Things got complicated.”

  My heart skips a beat. “With my father?”

  She nods, and I notice her eyes glance to my tattoo. I look down at it and focus on the bumps faded from redness into just the black of the ink.

  “Who is he?” I haven’t asked in years. A lifetime. Not since I got over the dream of living a normal life with a normal family.

  My mom turns away and walks to the door, locking it from the inside. It’s early. No one who went to Randy Conner’s funeral went back to school afterward, but if my mom knows about the funeral, she doesn’t say anything.

  “Who is he?” I repeat my question, wondering if I’ll ever know.

  “It doesn’t matter, Piper.”

  I throw my backpack to the ground, watching it tumble down the five steps I’ve already gone up. “Yes. It does. You spin me some story about how he’s some escaped terrorist and then you spend almost a week with him? And then you come back here and tell me it doesn’t even matter who he is. It doesn’t add up, Mom. If he’s so bad, why have you been gone so long? What’s complicated anyway? What complications could there possibly be?”

  My mom’s eyes meet my own, and it’s like she’s begging me to drop the subject. To stop asking my questions. I don’t want to stop. I’m sick of living a life filled with her mysteries. Or lies. They seem to blend together.

  I start up the steps again, leaving my backpack lying at the bottom.

  “It’s about custody, Piper.”

  Her words freeze my feet in place. “Custody?”

  “I can’t lose you, Piper. Not now. Not ever.”

  “He wants custody?” How could a father I’ve never known want custody of me? I’m eighteen now. Custody shouldn’t even be a concern. Not to mention an escaped criminal could never even take the case to court.

  “He wants to take you away from me.” My mom’s voice is coarse as sandpaper. “And I’ll never let that happen. I won’t share you.”

  Share me? It seems such an odd thing for her to say. Sharing her adult child with an estranged father. The father who’d left me a note in my room. The father who’d said we’d have all the time we need to get to know each other.

  “Why did he do it?” I ask. “Why did he leave?”

  My mom laughs. “He never wanted to be a part of your life from the very start. We were nothing to him. So he left and got himself in trouble and escaped from the burdens of a family.”

  My father never wanted me?

  “So why now?” I whisper the question, but she still hears it.

  “Why now indeed?” My mom walks toward the counter, shuffling through the dead leaves on the ground. More drop off around her as she walks. I glance at them in passing but then move past them in my mind. “Because we haven’t been careful enough.” She laughs. “I haven’t been careful enough.”

  “Careful? How much more careful could we have been?” I suppose if we completely removed ourselves from the grid that would have been more careful. But even my mom hasn’t been that extreme. At least not yet.

  “We’ll have to move again.” She pulls out some junk from a drawer and begins shuffling through it.

  “No.”

  She ignores me. “Yes, that’s the only answer.”

  “No, Mom.”

  My mom swivels her head and stares through me. “No what?”

  I look to her eyes, but she won’t meet mine. “No, I won’t move again.”

  She turns back to the stuff from the drawer and flips thought it like she’s looking for something. “Yes, you will.”

  I won’t. I tell myself this over and over in my head. I have a life here. I have Chloe. And now there’s Shayne. I don’t have to live with my mom forever.

  The bell rings. Someone’s trying to come in. The knob shifts, but it won’t open since my mom’s locked the door. I look through the glass to see who’s visiting.

  Reese.

  I look at my mom, and she’s staring right at him. He’s looking right back at her.

  “I wondered where the flowers came from.” My mom’s voice is so calm it sounds crazy. Each word drawn with perfect precision.

  “Open the door,” h
e says. It’s a command. And I know this is so very bad that my worlds are about to collide.

  My mom faces me again, and I am compelled to walk down the steps until I’m at the bottom, near the counter.

  “Think we should have a little fun?” She uses her crazy calm voice again. And more leaves drop from plants.

  I only want her to get rid of Reese, not kill him. “Mom, it’s no big deal.”

  She thrusts her finger out and points at the door. “He is a big deal. How dare you try to tell me he’s not?”

  Reese knocks again and twists the knob. I hear the metal crunching inside it.

  I throw up my hands. “He’s nothing. I swear it.” I tell this to my mom and myself at the same time. Reese is nothing. It’s Shayne my mom should worry about.

  Or am I lying to myself? Should my mom be concerned with Reese, also?

  “He gave you these.” And in a single move, she grabs the pink flowers from the vase and throws them down on the tile.

  When she turns back to the door, her mouth twists into a frown. Reese stands there in the door frame.

  “Look who it is.” My mom narrows her eyes at Reese, and I realize she knows him. They’ve met before. Maybe he came by when I wasn’t here or something. But she can’t possibly know he’s really Ares, the god of war.

  He takes a step toward her. “Did Piper tell you about the great time we had Friday night?”

  My eyes almost fall out of my head. I can’t believe he’s gone and said this.

  My mom turns to me, and I know she’d like to lock me away. Forever. Somewhere no one will ever come. “Piper has told me nothing of the sort.”

  “Do you want me to tell you all about it?” Reese takes another step, and his foot smashes the pink petals of the calla lilies.

  My mom picks up her shears, and if they were only bigger, I know she’d cut his head off. “I’d like you to leave,” she says.

  “How do you know each other?” I say, but neither of them looks at me. It’s like I haven’t even spoken.

  “You can’t stop it,” Reese says. “You know Piper and I are going to end up together.” And he looks at me, and all at once, our eyes lock, and his intoxicating smell pours into my nostrils. God, I could die in that smell and be happy. I totally remember his kiss.

  He can tell I remember it; it must be all over my face, and he smiles.

  I want to make the thought go away. To force Reese out of my mind. But his scent flows through me like the wine we also shared on Friday. It reaches into the parts deep inside me that tell me how much fun life can be and settles. I try to force myself to look away from him but find I don’t want to. So I take a step back to increase our distance and get the smell out of my nose.

  “I think you must have misunderstood.” My mom’s voice sounds certain. She has no idea what’s going on inside my head. I don’t either.

  Reese won’t take his eyes off me. Won’t free mine. “I didn’t misunderstand anything,” he says.

  My mom moves closer to me and settles her hand to my shoulder before answering him. “Piper is going to stay with me,” she says.

  I decide they’ve both gone nuts. I squeeze my eyes shut, breaking the contact. “Would you both just leave me alone?” And I run for the door before either Reese or my mom can react.

  Chapter 23

  Threat

  I run out of the Botanical Haven, past the greenhouses, and into the trees, pushing deeper and deeper until I can’t see anything but a forest of bark around me and branches high overhead. Even then, I keep running, trying to put as much distance as I can between myself and the craziness of my life. Chloe is totally freaking me out. My mom and Reese know each other. And Tanni claims I’m responsible for Randy Conner’s death.

  I stop when I see a Spanish Oak in front of me; one of its long branches twists so low to the ground I can rest against it. It’s only then that I catch my breath, letting the hot, clear air around me replace the smell of Reese. He’s like a drug. I want to run toward him even though I know I should run away. I let the heat of the world soak into me to erase him from my thoughts.

  “Shayne,” I whisper, praying that wherever Tanni sent him, he can hear. In seconds, he’s there next to me.

  “I was afraid Tanni killed you,” I say.

  “Fate can’t kill me that easily,” he says.

  We stand there staring at each other, neither of us moving. I feel like I’ve betrayed him. I feel like I’ve been with Reese. But I haven’t. I’d run away from the Botanical Haven before I got too close.

  I take a small step, and this is all it takes. Shayne pulls me to him, and I bury my head in his neck. I can feel him breathing in my hair.

  “Reese came to visit,” I say.

  Shayne stiffens. “When?”

  I shudder amid the warmth of the world around me. Reese and my mom. Have they started after me yet? Will they even follow? “It’s like they know each other,” I say. “How can that be?”

  Shayne rubs my back but doesn’t answer, and then he tenses up, and I know why. I smell Reese. He’s followed me from the Botanical Haven.

  “Look how precious.” Reese’s voice sizzles in the air. Taunting.

  Shayne lets go though I desperately want to cling to him. “Go away,” he says.

  Reese puts his hand to his chest is mock surprise. “You’re kidding, right?”

  “Go away now,” Shayne says. “I don’t want you anywhere near Piper.”

  Reese looks at me and catches my eyes, locking them in place. “Piper doesn’t seem to mind.”

  As soon as he says it, his smell amplifies. I fight, with every muscle I have, to stay rooted in place. I lean back on the Spanish Oak and pray it will grow limbs and hold me so I don’t go to him. But like it has some power over me, his scent draws me forward.

  Shayne turns to me, and I want to die when I see the hurt in his eyes. He’s watching the struggle inside me. I don’t want to be anywhere near Reese; I want to be with Shayne.

  I want to be with them both.

  Shayne opens his mouth, his beautiful lips pulled back in a snarl around his teeth. “Piper wants you to leave.”

  Reese laughs.

  “What’s so funny?” Shayne says.

  “Everything’s funny, Shayne.”

  I hear the bite when Reese says the name.

  “What?” Shayne takes a step away from me. A step closer to Reese. And his hands are tightened so hard into fists they’re white.

  Reese sneers. “I was just thinking how funny it’ll be when you’re trapped in your own tortures. A suitable end for the ex-Lord of Hell.”

  Shayne takes another step toward Reese, and I want to reach out and pull him back. The last thing I want is for the two of them to start fighting. I want to run to Reese, but I also want to grab hold of Shayne and leave this place now. The sooner the better.

  But Shayne’s such a freaking guy. He wants the fight. “Stay away from Piper. Go away now, or I won’t wait for permission from the assembly. I’ll set Prometheus free and give you his place. Let the birds eat your liver for a few millennia. We’ll see how you feel then.”

  Another wave of Reese’s aroma hits me. I turn my face away, trying to block it, but it’s not like I can stop breathing.

  “Such a delicious punishment. Piper might like that.” Reese’s teeth gleam under the smile which forms on his mouth. “Not that your threats matter.”

  “Watch and see,” Shayne says.

  “The assembly backs me.” Reese flexes his fingers and then relaxes them. “But of course you’d know that if you ever came to any assembly meetings.”

  “I have more important things to do,” Shayne says. “Like run the Underworld.”

  Reese laughs at this. “Maybe you’re not doing such a great job. I’m sure you’ve heard I’ve been to visit.”

  Shayne glares at him in reply.

  “It’s true,” Reese says. “But I can tell you want to deny it. I’ll tell you what.”

  “What?”r />
  Reese puts a hand to his chest. “I left you just a little sprinkle of proof. Look for it when you get home.”

  Shayne takes a step forward, and I’m pretty sure this is it. They’re going to kill each other. “You visit, and you die,” Shayne says.

  Reese just gives a wave with his hand and then turns to me. “Did you hear Randy Conner died in the ice storm, Piper?”

  Randy is dead because of me. I might as well have wrecked the shuttle. “I heard,” I manage to say.

  “Now let’s see, Shayne, where would you put someone like Randy Conner?” Reese puts his finger to his mouth as if he’s considering the question. “The Elysian Fields?” He shakes his head. “No, that’s not what my sources tell me.”

  But it has to be. I know in my heart Randy belongs in paradise.

  “Shut up, Reese,” Shayne says.

  Another wave of Reese’s scent comes to me. I desperately try to push it away and focus on the humidity in the air around me.

  “So Randy didn’t make it to paradise.” Reese snaps his fingers. “Asphodel then.”

  I glance at Shayne and can tell from his pursed lips that Reese is right. That somehow Shayne didn’t see the good in Randy that I saw. There’s been some oversight. I haven’t been to Asphodel, but I know it’s not paradise.

  “Shayne.” I find my voice and manage to get out his name, trying my best to breathe out of my mouth and ignore Reese.

  He turns to me, fists still balled. “What?”

  “I need to get out of here. Now.” He’s got to hear the struggle in my voice. If I don’t get away from the two of them, I’ll go crazy.

  Reese laughs. “I’ll see you soon, Piper, okay?”

  “Not okay,” Shayne says. He scowls at Reese, and before I realize what’s happening, he wraps his arms around me, and we start sinking, through the dirt and damp and rock and then into the river of liquid mercury which carries us until we’re there on the bank of the River Acheron. Charon’s just pulling the boat up to the dock when Shayne and I arrive. Charon’s face cracks into a leathery smile which pulls his white eyes almost shut.