by Lucy Roy
“So how do we find out what this was? How do we track down Nathaniel? He has to know something.”
“I don’t know. I was furious afterward; I wanted to kill him, and I mean that literally. I’ve never been so angry at someone in my life. I just don’t know, though. If I could’ve seen my own face, I think it probably would’ve looked a lot like his right then, if that makes sense. He was terrified.”
Mary frowned. “He didn’t give any inkling that he might know what this might mean?”
“No, none at all.” I shrugged. “Maybe he really doesn’t know anything. I mean, I get that he’s a Coercer and might have been able to fiddle around in my brain, but something that visceral seems far outside what his skillset would be.”
“Or he’s just a really good actor who gets his kicks scaring the newbies,” Mary said dryly. “I mean, what do you even know about him? For all we know, he could be one of the original Ischyra. A freaking demigod.”
“Eh, doubtful. A first gen wouldn’t be Zeus’ errand boy. No way.”
“Well, he could be! What do you even know about this guy? Are we even sure the Elders sent him? How do we know he isn’t working for one of the Sirens or something?”
I groaned. “Mary…”
The Sirens’ only business was at sea, not on land and certainly not involved with new recruits. It was incredibly rare to even see them anymore. They dealt solely with the gods. Mary knew that as well as the rest of us.
“What, Tess? I don’t understand why you’re so quick to assume all’s totally kosher here—"
“I didn’t say that—"
“—when it’s completely freaking obvious, to me at least, that this guy—a fucking Coercer—popped up out of nowhere, claimed to be on business for the Elders, screwed around in your brain, and sent you into a panic attack.” She threw her hands up. “How can you possibly defend him?”
“I’m not defending him! But I certainly don’t think the freaking Sirens suddenly decided it would be fun to mess around with some unsuspecting teenager!”
“Okay, fine. Then what do you think it was?”
I dropped my hands in my lap. “I don’t know, but I really don’t think Nathaniel put it there. Just because he’s a Coercer doesn’t mean he can plant visions in my head.”
“No, but he can sure as shit make you think you saw something that didn’t exist.”
“No, I don’t think he could.”
I pulled a piece of folded up notebook paper from my back pocket.
“Look, Mare, these are the notes I took when John and Analise were teaching me about the different Mentalist abilities. I went home and dug them up before coming over. They told me that Coercers can manipulate people into doing or saying something outside their control and they can communicate telepathically, but they didn’t say anything about creating visions like that. He used Coercion to keep me from running off; I felt that very clearly. I didn’t feel anything like that when that vision started.”
I flipped the paper over and pointed at a different set of notes. “It seemed more like the kind of thing an Illusionist would do. They’d absolutely be able to make me see something that wasn’t there.”
“Okay, fine, then how do we know he’s not an Illusionist?”
I shrugged. “We don’t. But like I said, his reaction seemed genuine when we were finally pulled from my head. I really don’t think it was him.”
Before Mary could interject with her opinion, I rushed ahead. “And listen, there’s something else. Last night, I had a visitor. In my dreams.”
“Like a dream walk?” Mary asked.
“Yep.”
She looked confused. “But the only ones powerful enough to do a dream walk are the original Ischyra or—” She gasped. “The gods. Shit, Tess. Who was it?”
“Hestia.”
There was a beat of silence before either of us spoke.
“Holy shit,” she said, letting out a shocked laugh. “I cannot believe we’re having this conversation. Elders don’t do dream walks with new recruits. This just—it doesn’t happen. Okay. Start at the beginning.”
I detailed my entire encounter with Hestia, from waking up in the ambrosia garden at Olympus to Hestia’s hand on my face as she sent me back to my own mind.
“She had to have been in on it,” Mary said flatly. “If it wasn’t Nathaniel, it had to have been her.”
“Yeah, that’s what he said, and it seems like it would make more sense. I don’t know what to freaking do here, Mare. We’re graduating in—" I glanced down at my phone “—three and a half hours, and tomorrow we’re supposed to show up at the portal field ready to travel to Olympia. Suddenly I’m feeling not so ready for this.”
“It’ll be fine. We’ll figure this out. Maybe once we’re in Olympia and training, we’ll find some answers. We can hit up the other newbies and see if anyone else has had encounters like this.”
“Do you really think that’s safe? We don’t know any of them yet.”
Mary frowned as she considered my point. “Fair enough. Okay. New plan. Corner that dung-eater Nathaniel and demand answers.”
I choked back a laugh.
“Are you insane? He answers directly to the Elders! Hestia sent him specifically to talk to me. If he had anything to do with that vision, who do you think sent him to do it?”
“Well, we can’t do nothing!”
I stood and stuffed my phone in my back pocket. “I know. We’ll figure this out, but I need to go. I promised John and Analise we’d do dinner before graduation. I’ll see you in a couple of hours.”
She squeezed my hand. “Okay.”
“Thanks.” I smiled but could tell it didn’t reach my eyes.
I’d come here hoping my friend could help me rationalize all this insanity, but I felt worse leaving than when I’d arrived.
I just couldn’t win today.
Two hours later, I stood in line with Mary and my ninety-two fellow graduates, all wearing identical navy caps and gowns, waiting for our ceremony to start. Students and families were still flooding through the wide double doors that opened into the corridor, packing the beige carpeted hall to the brim.
I leaned against the wall and listened as Mary made plans with Leila and the others to go to Josh’s after-party, still unsure of whether or not I wanted to make an appearance. After this morning’s events, I really just wanted to burrow in my bed and do one last mindless Supernatural binge.
“So are you gonna go to Josh’s?” Eric asked as he leaned against the wall next to me.
Trying to force away memories of the visions I’d seen, I smiled up at him. “I don’t think so. Tomorrow’s going to be so hectic, I don’t want to deal with it when I’m exhausted from being out all night, ya know?”
“Yeah. Rudolfo came by earlier for dinner,” he said, referring to an Ischyra who was a good family friend of his guardians. “He told me to take it easy tonight, get a good night’s sleep so I’m ‘well-rested’ when I get to Olympia.”
“And you’re going to listen to him, right?” I arched a brow. “Seeing as he’s freaking ancient and might know a thing or two?”
Eric laughed. “I don’t know. It’s our last night. You don’t want to hang out with everyone one more time?”
“No, I do. I’d just rather go to Olympus at full capacity, that’s all. Which you should, too,” I added, poking his side.
Eric clucked his tongue in disappointment. He draped an arm over my shoulder and laid a loud kiss to the side of my head. “You’re gonna be missing out, Tess.”
While he and the others continued to make plans for the night, the hall slowly began to empty as families and friends took their seats. A few bars of music wafted through the open double doors at the back of the auditorium, giving us our cue to line up. Principal Sharp came out to make sure we were all in order, then motioned for us to begin walking. Slowly, we marched to the stage, our final journey as students at Renville High.
“So,” Mary whispered once we were
situated on the risers. “What did John and Analise think about your encounter with Nathaniel?”
“I didn’t tell them anything,” I whispered back, avoiding her gaze.
“You really think that’s the best idea?”
I gave her a wide-eyed look of surprise. If there was anyone who would encourage keeping guardians in the dark about my vision, it would be Mary.
“It’s our last day together and I didn’t want to worry them with something they can’t control, you know?”
“Yeah, but even if they don’t have actual answers, they might have some advice.” Mary shrugged. “They may be human, but they’re still part of our world.”
I chewed my lip as I considered this, then shook my head. “No, it’s not worth it at this point. We’ll figure it out on our own.”
A moment later, Mrs. Sharp took the stage to begin the ceremony. She spoke for a few minutes about how our class did a wonderful job keeping up the traditions of the school and a whole bunch of other things she undoubtedly said at each year’s graduation. She spent a few moments thanking those of us who would be moving on to transition as Ischyra, something she only had to do once every four years. I couldn’t help a pang of jealousy as I thought about how excited my human classmates were as they prepared to go off to college next year. Maybe it was silly, considering I was going off to live on Mount Olympus, surrounded by gods and demigods, but sometimes I wished I’d had a little more time to be a human.
As Jessica Landis, our valedictorian, gave her speech, I ruminated on whether I was right to leave John and Analise out of this. I thought it would have caused unnecessary worry. After all, as of tomorrow, it would be rare that I would see them, if at all.
Yet another relationship casualty of our world.
“Motherfucker,” Mary whispered through clenched teeth, jolting me out of my bout of self-pity.
“Mary!” I hissed.
“Look!” She jerked her chin in the direction of the audience.
I quickly scanned the crowd, and when I saw what had drawn her attention, I sucked in a breath.
Nathaniel was standing at the back of the room, arms folded across his chest, leaning against the wall by the doors.
“For gods’ sake, what is he doing here?” Mary looked as though she was about to storm off the stage and confront him, so I put a hand on her arm to keep her in place.
“Relax,” I said, frowning at her as she glared at him. “Maybe he just feels bad about earlier or something.”
“Doubtful,” she scoffed.
Mrs. Sharp called for our row to stand. One by one, she called us forward to shake her hand and receive our diplomas. She cast Mary the stink eye as she handed her diploma over, clearly annoyed that she had ruined the alphabetical order of the ceremony by sitting next to me. Mary grinned sweetly, then headed back to her seat.
I kept my eye on Nathaniel as I walked, but I couldn’t tell where his eyes were focused.
“Mare?” I said when I returned to my seat. Her focus was back on Nathaniel. “What are you doing?”
“Giving that little shit a piece of my mind,” she whispered, her voice barely audible over the applause.
“Seriously?!” I jerked her arm, forcing her to focus on me. “Are you insane? He could report you!”
I hesitantly cast a look in his direction and saw he’d stepped a bit further into the light, resting his hands on the half-wall that ran along the back of the auditorium. Surprisingly, the side of his mouth was quirked in a slight smile.
“He’s not going to report me. See?” She pointed at him. “He’s smiling. He thinks this is a big joke.”
“Or he thinks it’s funny that you aren’t even going to get to Olympus before they kick you out!”
I was struggling to keep my voice low, so I took a few calming breaths before continuing.
“Mary, you need to stop.”
She shrugged. “Too late now, he’s gone.”
My gaze snapped toward the back of the room and, sure enough, Nathaniel had disappeared.
Well, that was weird.
‘Not really. I just wanted to make sure you were alright.’
I jumped as a voice spoke in my head.
“What the—” I said aloud. ‘Nathaniel?’
“Tess?” Mary touched my arm.
‘Your friend is giving me an earful, you should probably tell her to relax.’
“I…um…”
This was not normal.
‘I’m a Coercer and you’re about to gain super powers. This is perfectly normal.’ Amusement rang clear in his tone.
“Tessa, what is it?” Mary was staring at me, brow furrowed.
I cleared my throat. “Nathaniel is talking to me…in my head.”
“What?” She whisper-shrieked, getting a few curious looks from those around us. “He’s talking to you? Wait, what’s he saying?”
“He thinks you should relax,” I whispered.
She snorted. “Okay, tell him to stop screwing around in your brain and maybe I will.”
‘She wants you to stop screwing around in my brain.’
So weird. So, so weird.
‘It’s not that weird. And I’m not ‘screwing around’ in your brain. I’m just talking to you.’
‘It’s totally weird. And you should really warn people before poking into their minds, you know.’
‘I’m not reading your mind, I’m only hearing what you direct at me, and you tend to yell.’ He paused. ‘Are you alright?’
‘I think so.’ I glanced over and saw that the last row was getting called down to get their diplomas. ‘I don’t suppose you happened to figure out what the heck that vision was?’
‘No, I’m sorry. Tessa, I promise, I had nothing to do with—
‘I know. Or at least, I think I know. I paused, debating whether or not to tell him about the additional flashes I’d seen after I’d gotten inside school.
‘There were more?’ His thoughts took on a more serious, no nonsense tone.
‘Shit. You weren’t supposed to—ugh!’ I started reciting the alphabet, hoping it would keep him from seeing what I’d seen.
‘Nice try. I’m going to come by later so we can talk.’
‘No, you really don’t’—”
‘Goodbye, Tessa.’
I felt a soft push in my mind, then nothing but silence.
“Shit.”
“What is it?” Mary asked. “Is he still talking to you?”
“No, he’s gone,” I muttered. “Talking to him like that just gave me a headache, is all.”
She frowned at me. “Uh huh,” she said dubiously.
A few minutes later, Principal Sharp called for our class to stand. The music began to play, and she gave us the signal to toss up our hats for one final class picture.
Thoroughly weirded out by my first-ever mental conversation with someone, I was relieved when we finally descended the stage.
Hours later, after John and Analise had given me one last kiss goodnight and gone to bed, I made myself a cup of tea and went to sit out on the front porch. Our house sat just on the edge of the woods, so the only source of light was the half-moon that hung over the trees. Cicadas and crickets warred with each other for vocal dominance, a sound that, while annoying to some, was one I’d miss once I was living on Olympus.
I sat down on the porch swing and propped my feet up on the railing, then rested my head against the back and gazed up at the stars as the swing slowly rocked back and forth. Directly in front of our house, stretching from the tree line, was my favorite constellation; Taurus, the bull. Squinting, I could just make out the Pleiades on its outer edge—seven stars that were easy to find but nearly impossible to truly see.
“Stargazing?”
I jumped when a voice spoke beside me, causing me to splash tea onto my hands. I looked over and saw Nathaniel walking up the porch steps.
“Geez, you scared the shit out of me,” I complained, wiping my hands off on my t-shirt. “What are you doing h
ere?”
He smiled, then sat down on the swing next to me, propping his feet up on the railing, mirroring my pose. A gentle woodsy scent floated toward me as he adjusted his position.
“Sorry, I didn’t mean to startle you. I was worried earlier when you told me you’d seen more after you left this morning.” He shrugged and met my eyes. “Considering your initial reaction, I wanted to check in.”
“Oh.” I took a sip of my tea. “Well thank you. How did you know where I lived, anyway?”
He raised his eyebrows. “You think we don’t know where our recruits live before coming to Olympus?”
“Ah. For a minute there I thought you were turning stalker on me.” I smiled to let him know I was joking.
He laughed. “It’s nice to know you have a sense of humor after this morning.”
I took another slow sip of tea. “Honestly, I’m trying not to think about it.” I wrinkled my nose. “That’s the smart thing to do, right?”
“We can go with that if you’d like.” He eyed me speculatively for a moment. “Do you want to talk about it?”
I turned so I was facing him more directly, pulling one leg up on the swing and leaving the other to dangle over the edge. “I’m not really sure what to say. Aside from what you saw, the others were just flashes; hardly more than my dreams.”
He frowned. “Different than your dreams, though, right?”
I raised an eyebrow. “Don’t pretend like you haven’t already poked around my mind and seen them.”
He opened his mouth, then closed it and pursed his lips. “Ok, I won’t. You never saw or heard any of that in your previous dreams?”
“Nope, and I’d remember if I had. There were different emotions attached to them, if that makes sense. Just as strong, but different.”
“What do you mean?”
“It’s hard to describe. Obviously you know how panicked I was when I saw that vision with you. The others… I felt just this pure terror. It was almost painful.”
“I’m sorry,” he murmured after a few moments as he stared off into the trees.
“For what?”