by Lucy Roy
“We’ll start with electrokinesis, then.”
“Not with fire?” I couldn’t help the disappointment that crept into my voice.
Ares raised his brows. “That upsets you?”
I nodded. “Actually, I had really hoped I’d get a fire affinity.”
He shook his head and frowned. “I’ll never understand why you recruits always think fire is the most interesting affinity. Water and wind are far more destructive.”
“You don’t need to understand,” Athena said. “You just need to train her.”
She put her hands on her hips and drummed her fingers contemplatively as she stared at me.
“I’d say let’s just start with some sparks.” She wiggled her slender fingers. “Nice and small. See if you can muster some up.”
“Do you recall how you used the other powers?” Ares asked.
“I do, but it might take a minute.”
“Take your time,” he said.
I closed my eyes, thinking back to the morning of my bathing suit date with Nate when Yana had shocked Mary. She had still been sparking when I came out of the bathroom, so I focused on that. As soon as I set my attention on the memory, her power was clear as day. A pale green glow surrounded the electricity that was slowly receding back into her skin. Sure enough, just as I’d seen with Andrei’s wind power, a pale green speck, no bigger than my fingertip, floated toward me and found its home in my chest.
“Tessa?”
I opened my eyes and met Athena’s questioning gaze.
“Hmm?”
“Look at your hands.”
She looked down, and when I followed her gaze, I saw green electricity sparking all around my hands. It didn’t seem to have a purpose; it was just there, curving around my fingers and palms like gloves.
“Can you direct it?” Ares asked.
“I—I don’t know. Let me see.”
I focused my thoughts on what I wanted the electricity to do. After a few seconds, it slowly shrunk back until it was only visible on the tips of my fingers.
“Perfect,” Athena stated. “Now let’s try something else. On the day of your transformation, Charlise let you all try out your powers, yes? And your telekinesis worked well?”
“Yes, very well.”
She tapped her finger on her chin. “I would say, for today, let’s try teleportation. It’s more complex than telekinesis, but it’s the only other one that doesn’t require interaction with another person. We’ll work on some of the more intricate mental affinities when we bring in some of the mentors.”
“Okay, I’ll try.”
I closed my eyes and tried to think back to when Lara, the Teleporter, had demonstrated her powers on the first night. The spark was there—purple, this time—but I couldn’t quite figure out how to access it and make it work.
“I’m sorry,” I said after a few minutes with no success. “The power is definitely there, but I can’t really figure out how to get to it.”
“Hmm.” Athena tapped her fingers over her lips. “Did you have trouble when you use Coercion?”
“I’m not really sure,” I hedged, not wanting to get into how sentient my power felt. “Sort of, I guess.”
Ares arched a brow. “Sort of? How do you mean?”
I exhaled a large breath. “That wasn’t really…me. It was my power. It just reacted when Nate entered my mind that day at training. Kind of like a self-defense mechanism or something.”
“Was it just as he entered your mind or once he began sorting through your thoughts?”
“Almost immediately. It was fighting against us both. It didn’t want to let him in, and it didn’t want to let me let him in.”
“That could just be the Coercion resisting Coercion,” Ares guessed. “It’s inherently just as defensive as it is offensive, so if your mind felt as though it was under attack, it’s not unreasonable to think your power would react defensively.”
“That would make the most sense,” Athena agreed.
She clapped her hands together.
“Alright, then. We’ll file that away for future examination. Let’s try a different one. There’s a Psychometric in your group, right?”
“Yes, a girl named Sylvi.”
“Let’s go for that, then. It might be a bit simpler since there’s no real physical aspect.” Athena handed me a zipline hook that had been on a nearby bench. “See if you can tell me who the last person was to use this.”
I took the hook from her and turned it over in my hands. Remembering Sylvi’s power was nearly effortless; I immediately tapped into the memory and saw the bright yellow spark drift toward me. Within seconds, I had my answer.
“Chris, the Tempest. He’s a mentor this generation.”
“Can you tell us how he used it?” she asked.
I cocked my head to the side and frowned. “I’m sorry?”
Ares gestured toward the zipline towers with his hand. “Which tower did he use when he began?”
“Oh. Okay.” I closed my eyes and wrapped my fingers around the hook again. After a moment, I saw it.
I opened my eyes and pointed at the tower at the far end of the field.
“That one, down there. And he came out just over there,” I added, pointing toward the tower directly across from us.
Athena grinned, then took the hook back from me.
“So far you’ve manipulated at least three elements and have utilized three mentalist affinities. That’s quite impressive.”
She patted her brother on the back and grinned up at him. “It looks like our brothers were right, Ares. We’ve got a Mimic on our hands.”
39
Nathaniel
‘She’s doing fine, Nathaniel. You can stop using me as your spy now.’
Athena’s indignance rang clear in her tone.
‘I’m not spying, I’m just worried about her.’
‘Call it what you want, it’s all the same. I’m going to ignore you now.’
I felt the slight push from her mind that told me she had, in fact, blocked me out.
“Goddammit,” I muttered as I made my way toward the track behind the arena. The mentors had brought the recruits out for their morning laps, and it was taking all I had not to leave and go find Tessa and my siblings.
Chiron fell into step beside me.
“Talking to yourself?”
“Yes,” I bit out, sliding a glare at him.
“Ah.” He nodded his head knowingly. “I take it things didn’t go well last night?”
“You could say that.”
“Want to talk about it?”
“Go ask Apollo. I’m sure he’d love to give you a recap.”
“Nathaniel…”
I stopped and stared at him expectantly. “What? Would you like to tell me that I royally fucked things up here? That I should’ve told Tessa everything from day one? Save it. I already know.” I pushed past him and started walking toward the exit.
“Alright,” he said, hurrying to catch up. “Then what do you plan to do about it?”
“There’s nothing I can do. She made it very clear that she needs time and space. I’m going to give her that. I dropped a bomb on her, Chiron. Several, in fact. I can’t force her to be ok with who I am and what I kept from her.”
“The fact that you acknowledge that is a testament to your character. She knows you, Nathaniel. She won’t abandon you.”
“Why not? I’m sure that’s exactly what she thinks I did. I threw her to the goddamn wolves, bringing her there. I don’t know what I was thinking.”
“Alright, you need to stop.” He gripped my arm and stopped me in my tracks. “Look at me.”
I pulled my arm from his grasp and glared at him.
He gripped me by the shoulders and gave me a quick shake. “You’re letting all this get to your head. You need to take a step back and see that driving yourself mad and lashing out at those around you is not the way to keep her in your life.”
He took a step back and fo
lded his arms across his chest. “Now, tell me. What else has got you so worked up? This is more than just anger with yourself.”
I put my hands on my waist and stared down the length of the arena.
“It was Apollo,” I said after a moment. “If you could’ve seen his face. He was almost…gleeful. He wanted her to find out everything so badly, and I don’t understand why.”
I watched Chiron’s face as he pondered my words.
“I think,” he said after a moment, “that we may find there is more to Apollo’s actions than your feud. He is often misguided in the way he handles things, but he isn’t cruel. You know that as well as I.”
I rubbed a hand on the back on my neck and sighed. “I know.”
Chiron pressed his lips together and arched a brow, a sign he was trying to bite his tongue.
I raised my eyebrows.
“Just spit it out.”
He blew out a breath. “It’s been three thousand years, Nathaniel. You moved on from Karis long ago. Don’t you think—”
“Don’t start,” I groaned. “Please, not now.”
“He’s your brother,” he said evenly. “You’ve been able to avoid working closely with him for a long time, but if ever there was a time to reconcile, now would be it.”
I stared at him impassively.
When he realized I wasn’t going to respond, he ran a hand through his wild hair and sighed. “Fine. I’m assuming Athena’s already blocked you out?”
“What do you think?”
He laughed, then shook his head. “Would you like me to check in with her and Ares later to see how Tessa’s doing?”
“I would appreciate that greatly.”
He gave me a tight smile and patted me on the back. “Come, let’s get to training. Keep your focus on the recruits for now and let the rest sort itself out.”
I snorted. “If only it were that easy.”
I remained at the arena until all the recruits and mentors had trickled out. By the time I got home, it was nearly dusk.
I had just put my hand on the doorknob when I realized I wasn’t alone.
I let out a heavy sigh, then turned and faced my oldest brother, who’d taken up residence in one of the porch chairs, feet propped up on the railing.
“What are you doing here, Apollo?”
“I came to apologize,” he replied, keeping his gaze focused on the forest. “I didn’t handle things well last night.”
I folded my arms across my chest and stared down at him, willing him to look at me.
“Shouldn’t you be apologizing to Tessa?”
He arched a brow but still wouldn’t meet my eyes. “Shouldn’t you?”
“I already have,” I said through gritted teeth. “You made things far worse than they needed to be.”
He shifted in his seat to face me. “I acknowledge that, Nathaniel, which is why I’m here. I did not intend for things to turn so…ugly.”
“You were taunting her, Apollo. It was completely intentional.”
“Intending to aggravate the two of you and intending for you to hit me are two different things.”
“Why bother with either? You couldn’t get through to me, so now you’re going to make sure she knows just how bad I am for her?”
He rolled his eyes. “Will you sit down for gods’ sake? You’re too damn tall for me to keep looking up.”
“You could always stand.”
“Petulance. Lovely.”
“More like disdain, but let’s not split hairs. Now answer the question,” I demanded.
With a sigh, Apollo stood and straightened his jacket, then leaned back against the railing. “For what it’s worth, I don’t think you’re bad for her. Quite the opposite, actually. That said, there are things at play here that are bigger than you or I or that damn girl, things I’m not at liberty to disclose at this time. You need to trust that I am working in her and your best interest.”
He held up a hand to stop me from interrupting. “I understand you may not like that response, but it’s the best I can give you right now.”
My eyebrows shot up. “That’s it? You want me to trust you, yet you won’t give me any reason why? What part of that makes sense to you?”
His jaw twitched as he stared at me, a look of annoyance crossed his face. “Fine then, I guess we’re done here,” he said, standing. He was quiet for a moment, then he huffed out a breath. “I understand you may think I do things intentionally to hurt you, but I assure you, that isn’t the case.”
“You’ve got a funny way of showing it,” I muttered. “Goodnight, Apollo.”
“Goodnight, Nathaniel.”
Once he was gone, I dropped down into a chair and closed my eyes, letting the quiet sounds of the forest calm me.
I didn’t know how long I sat there before I heard the thud of hooves coming up the steps.
I gave Chiron a tight smile as he rested his shoulder against one of the porch posts.
“Did I miss something?” I asked. “I seem to be popular tonight.”
“Apollo muttered something about you sitting here wallowing in self-pity. I thought I’d come see for myself.”
“I’m not wallowing. He doesn’t know what he’s talking about, and I was fine until I got home and saw him sitting on my porch.”
Chiron’s tail twitched and a look of interest filled his features. “Interesting. What did he want?”
“To apologize for letting things get out of hand with Tessa last night.” I drummed my fingers on the wide arms of the chair. “And to tell me I need to trust that he’s working in our best interest, despite the fact that he won’t give me a single damn reason why I should.”
“I see. That’s a bit odd.”
“That’s one word for it.”
“Nathaniel!” Hermes’ voice boomed out over the front lawn. “We come bearing gifts!”
I looked at Chiron, eyebrows raised.
“Sorry, I needed backup,” he explained. “You’re absolutely wallowing.”
“Oh, come on,” I groaned.
A moment later, Hermes and Dionysus ran up the porch steps.
“Beer and pizza?” I raised my eyebrows. “What is this?”
Hermes was carrying three six-packs of beer, and Dionysus had two pizza boxes balanced on either hand.
Dionysus set the pizza down on the floor and handed me a beer. “Isn’t this what the humans do when they go through a break up? Eat bad food and get drunk?”
“Seeing as I’m not human, I really can’t answer that,” I said, setting the beer down on the floor next to my chair.
“I told him that was what human women do, but he didn’t want to hear it,” Hermes explained, dropping down in the chair next to me and opening his own bottle.
“And I told him that human women would drink wine and eat ice cream. This is far manlier,” Dionysus explained, twisting the cap off his beer. “Even if it won’t technically get you drunk.”
Chiron opened one of the pizza boxes and pulled out a slice. He took a bite, then grinned down at me. “Besides, Nico’s pizza is delicious, human or not. Even I know that.”
“Look, I appreciate this,” I offered, “but I’m really not in the mood for company right now.”
“Which is exactly why we’re here,” Hermes said. “When Apollo, of all people, is telling us you’re miserable and in need of company, we figured we should listen.”
“Apollo is—”
“A patronizing ass who is completely devoid of emotion?” Dionysus rolled his eyes and took a bite of pizza. “Clearly, only the first part is true, otherwise we wouldn’t be here.”
I arched a brow and smiled. “Or he knew I wanted to be alone and sent you all to annoy me.”
“Enough about Apollo,” Hermes said, opening my discarded beer and shoving it into my hands, setting the cap on the arm of my chair. “What do you plan to do about Tessa?”
“There’s nothing to do. She needs time to deal with what I’ve done. Maybe she’ll get past it, ma
ybe she won’t.”
I took a sip of beer to wash down the bad taste that sentence left in my mouth. As much as I didn’t want it to be true, I knew there was a real possibility she would never forgive me.
“You know her better than I do, but even I can see that she cares too much for you to write you off completely,” Chiron said.
“Have you told her that you love her?”
I looked down at Dionysus, who’d just spoken around a mouthful of pizza, and frowned.
“No,” I said after a moment. “It’s too soon.”
He shrugged. “Maybe for a human. We’re gods. It’s different for us.”
“She doesn’t understand that.”
Hermes pulled himself up onto the railing and raised his eyebrows. “So explain it to her.”
I laughed. “Hera already did. I don’t think—”
“Once again, you give her too little credit,” Chiron said. “We don’t apply arbitrary timelines to these things, and I can see by the way she looks at you that she doesn’t, either.”
“That may have been the case yesterday morning. Now, I’m not so sure.”
Dionysus groaned. “Gods, do I need to get Apollo back here to lighten the mood?”
I flicked my bottle cap at him, hitting him square in the forehead.
“I was being serious, Nathaniel. His snark might be preferable to your self-pity.” He rolled his eyes and took another bite of pizza. “We all know damn well that Tessa is going to find her way back to you. I’m sure even he would agree with that.”
“Apollo seems to be doing all he can to prevent that, actually.”
He leaned over and flicked my forehead. “Think, Nathaniel! Unless he’s suddenly found himself in love with this girl, I’m sure he’s got a damn good reason for being such a prick.”
“Since when does he need a reason to be a prick?” I shot back. “That’s been his M.O. his entire life.”
“That’s not true and you know it,” Hermes said. “You and he are two sides of the same coin, you just don’t want to admit it.”
“I don’t have to admit it. I know it isn’t true.”
“No? You mean you don’t make stupid decisions based on misguided attempts to protect those you love?”