Before I could punch his stupid face into a pulp, he grabbed my fists and smirked. "Do you really think I'd leave you alone to freeze and starve to death? This is training, Grace. I needed to see how well you’d cope in harsh climate conditions."
"Not well, you heinous fuck!"
"I don't know about that." He flipped me over and straddled my waist, effectively pinning my arms against my sides. No amount of bucking would dislodge him.
It didn't help that he had a few hundred pounds on me. I still thrashed and flailed my legs. After the realization kicked in that I was just expending energy, I stopped and stared mutinously at him.
"Are you done?" he asked calmly.
"Why would you do this to me? Why would you do this to anyone? Is this your idea of a sick joke?"
"What have you learned?"
"To never trust YOU again." I punctuated my remark with another attempt to thrust him off of me.
"That's it? Your brain is more dense than a black hole if that's it, Grace Murphy. If that truly is the case, I have nothing more to teach you. You can go back to Zeus and tell him that I refuse to train you further."
That stopped my bucking. I didn't want to disappoint Zeus. He believed in me and so far my ass had been kicked, drowned and nearly frozen.
"I see that you have Daddy issues to add to your list of neuroses. Why does it matter that you live up to his expectations?"
"It doesn't," I answered.
"Oh, I think it does. You spend way too much time thinking about whether others will like, respect and believe in you. You've had 2 hours out here to pull your shit together and learn how to become self-sufficient. You spent one of those hours blaming me, your ex, your mother and everyone else you could think of for being stuck here. It's time to put on your grown-up pants, Grace, and stop expecting everyone else to save you or make you feel worthy."
"You don't know anything about me. You have no right!"
"I know that you had more spirit when you were a kid than you do now. It's disappointing to see how you've grown up." He shrugged. "Are you ready to get up and go home?"
I looked away from him. I didn't want him to see me cry again. I was horrified that he'd heard all of my words and seen me in my weakness. I was dismayed because he was right. I was a whiny brat with a chip on my shoulder – expecting everyone to like me because I'd had it rough. That shamed me more than anything.
What kind of lesson was I teaching my kid?
"Go away," I said quietly. "I'm not done here yet."
He sat back, obviously surprised. "You mean for me to leave you here." It wasn't a question though he was shaking his head in confusion.
"Please, just go. Send Athena down for me in a few hours if I haven't figured out how to get back on my own."
"Grace, I'm not leaving you here. The sun is going down and you will freeze. But you won't die. Think about that."
My gaze was steady as I responded. "Then I'll freeze or I'll learn to survive. Now go. I don't want you here. I don't want to look at your face and I certainly don't want you lording your shitty training tactics over me."
"You're being ridiculous right now."
My reply was a scowl and a toss of my head.
"You're the most stubborn, idiotic woman I've ever met in my life!" He thundered with frustration and anger.
I simply shrugged.
He let go of me and stood up, frustrated. "What you're speechless now? I can't get you to shut the bloody hell up but now that we need to have a conversation, you're silent? Real mature, Grace!"
The urge to stick out my tongue was strong, but I didn't. Instead I wondered if I could materialize warm clothes the way I did my kukris. Closing my eyes, I thought hard about warm fur boots and a long cloak to cover my shivering body.
I turned around and bent over, placing my hands on my knees, resting for a moment while I considered what the fur would feel and look like. Polar Bear fur would be best. I'd felt it at Denver's Museum of Natural History once, it had been dense, waterproof and looked oh-so-warm.
The boots shaped themselves against my legs, rising to my knees. The soles were hard and curved to my feet. It wouldn't do me any good to have soggy boots from the inside so I raised my temperature and evaporated the remaining water.
Next came the cloak. It fell heavy against my shoulders and back but the warmth was delicious so I didn't mind the weight. I wrapped it around myself and shuddered with the delight of having my skin protected from the harsh freezing wind. It would take a gallon of lotion to reverse the damage this climate had done to it.
"Are you still here?" I called over my shoulder. I didn't expect an answer but admitted to being a little disappointed when none came. Arguing with Hephaestus was exhilarating. If nothing else, we had the same suppressed anger issues in common.
Okay, now to get down to business. I rubbed my hands together and cleared my mind. Well, I tried to clear my mind. There is always something whirling around in there. Like the snow blowing around me, it's a blustery storm, never ceasing to calm.
The one thing that had held me back during most of my training was that I kept thinking like a human. I can't teleport - because humans can't do that. Humans can't regulate their body temp. Humans can't spout fire from their fingertips.
"Yeah, guess what, Grace? You're not a human," I said out loud. Hearing it seemed to make it more real.
Whatever strands of human DNA Diana had implanted within me had been stripped away by Zeus. I wasn't everything that I should be, but I sure as hell wasn’t human anymore.
I sat down, spreading the cloak under me and closed my eyes. One by one I blocked out the outside distractions and concentrated on my inner self. I delved beneath the skin, the muscle and the bones - straight into my essence of self.
The visual that I got was a spider web of tangled emotions, strength and fear. Each strand glimmered perfectly in the light of my mind's eye. I plucked at the strand of strength and it resonated within my being. It was thick and bold with only a few discolored areas where fear had tangled around.
Gently, I unwrapped the fear and let it snap back into its place. The sticky strand wavered and settled. Thinking that Fear could be demolished by a wish and a pluck of a strand was unreasonable, so I stroked my mental fingers along the line and let it know that I'd come back to address it later.
Next was the tangle of emotions. I could see love, compassion, worry, anger, neediness, greed and sense-of-self clustered together like a brightly colored rubber band ball. It looked like the ball sitting on my desk at home, tightly compacted and complicated.
Of course it was complicated. So much was wrapped into that orb. All of my life experiences jutted out to wrap around and around. I probed it and it bounced back and forth at my touch but remained solid. This thing wasn't getting unraveled anytime soon, but knowing what exactly was in there was a help.
"Humanity," I said aloud. A bright blue strand glowed, luring me in. It would be at the center of the mess. You don't spend thirty some-odd years believing you're a cat, only to find out that you're a dog and - BOOM! - just believe you're a dog. It doesn't work that way.
Tasting that strand, I could see my human-self as clear as day. She was a jumble of wit, worry, selfishness and grace. She looked a little plumper than I remembered and I smiled a bit. This was the woman who shaped my existence, full of love and laughter, tears and incongruities that seemed to flow off forever into the distance.
Admitting it to the world was difficult, but privately I liked this human Grace. She was a good mother and a good friend. Smart, droll and intelligent as well. I smiled again and ran my fingers along the thread, tucking her safely back into the ball. She wasn't who I'd become, but she didn't get thrown away just yet. Just that knowledge made the strand of Fear dim a little and that made me proud. Nothing like a little self-therapy to make it a feel-good day.
If I could see the makeup of my emotions, I felt like the Powers should be visible too, so I went searching for them. They weren't t
oo far away, but they were disconnected from the rest of the web, holding on by a strand so thin that a breath would have destroyed it.
The web was made of seven different colored strands. Silver, Brown and Red made sense, but the remaining four were opaque and cloudy. They looked fragile but pulsed with something akin to hope as I inspected them.
Little fingers connected the powers. I assumed that they were the common side gifts that each Hunter shared - speed, strength, teleportation, immortality.
Okay, I rubbed my metaphorical hands together and got to work on the delicate strand connecting my powers to the rest of my makeup. I felt like Wendy out of Peter Pan. If you believed in it, anything could happen. So, I poured my will and belief into that strand, letting it know with each breath that I believed I could fly.
Was this enough to work? It seemed impossible that messing with metaphorical strands of power was enough to fix everything. Cynical Grace was not impressed. Hopeful Grace told her to shut the hell up.
A cold nudging against my face brought me out of my meditation. It prodded incessantly, demanding my attention. I turned my head and saw Scooter standing next to me, anxiety plastered over his doggie face. "Scooter! What in the world are you doing here?"
His face lit up like a Christmas tree and he leaned in for a happy lick. I screeched, "Noooooo! Don't Lick Me!" but it was too late. His metallic tongue laved halfway up my cheek…and then stuck. His confused whines as he jerked echoed through the drifts and dunes of ice.
"Stop! Stop jerking! You're going to rip my face off." I was hard pressed not to laugh. How in the hell did a metallic dog get slobber? "Stay still. I'll see if I can warm it up, you goofy dog."
I brought my hands to my face and thought 'heat.’ His tongue slipped from my cheek leaving a trail of quickly freezing drool behind. "Do you know how gross that is?" I admonished him gently. "I'm supposed to be meditating on my powers. What are you doing here?" I looked around for anyone else, but Scooter appeared to be alone.
"You know what would have been awesome? If Zeus had thought to stick a voice box in you. So what's up?"
It would have knocked me flat if he'd sat down and started speaking to me in an English Butler accented voice. He didn't, he just curled up against me and rubbed his nose into my neck.
"You're starting to act like a dog more and more every day. Okay, so you can't answer me but you're here for something. I'll start asking questions and you can yes or no me. Sound good?"
His head dipped in response. I rattled off a handful of inane questions in which he continued to shake his head no at me. "Is Dylan alright?" His head bobbed up and down and I breathed a sigh of relief. "Is he still with Drew?" He shook his head at me.
Dread pitted in my stomach. "Is Drew okay?" Again, his head shook back and forth. "Do you know where he is?" An affirmative was my response. "Will you take me to him?"
He didn't respond, just blinked us off the island of ice.
Chapter 17
I was surprised to find myself in my own front yard. Drew was at the border of the property, kneeling in front of Hope. An agonized grimace slashed across his face. She couldn't cross the wards yet – I hoped.
"The house isn't for sale," I called out.
Her attention diverted from Drew to me and his face relaxed a little. "What are you doing here?" she asked coldly.
"I uh, live here? What are you doing here?"
"None of your business." She threw a glance at Drew and scowled. "We're not done. Don't forget what I told you." She gasped in pain as she reached through the ward and drew her fingertips down Drew's bloodied face before staring me down. "The frontier look is dowdy on you, dear. You should see someone about your fashion sense." She threw a Rift and was gone before I could think of a smart-assed comeback.
"Bitch," I grumbled. Looking down at Scooter, I raised an eyebrow. "Where were you in all of this? I thought we had an agreement that you'd bite her ass the next time you saw her."
His lip curled at me and I could have sworn that he shrugged. "Yeah," I muttered, "You're a huge help here. I'm trading you in for a Basset Hound."
I took a deep breath and trudged over to Drew. "So…that looked like fun." I sat down next to him and spared a cautious glance to make sure he wasn't hurt too badly.
"If, by fun, you mean pretty horrible then yeah, it was a blast."
"It's good to stay friends with your exes. I mean, if nothing else - do it for the sake of the kids."
He choked on a laugh and wrapped an arm around my shoulders. "I’ve missed you."
"Yeah, I'm like a barrel of monkeys - only sassier."
He laughed, “That you are.”
“So, wanna tell me what happened here? Did she reject your efforts to kiss and make up? She’s really not much for family.”
“Yeah, I guess asking for my letterman jacket back wasn’t the best idea.”
I threw a dubious glare at him. “Seriously. When the dog braves Greenland to bring me to you, something big happened.”
“Greenland?”
“Heph thought it would be a good idea to give me hands on training,” I replied drolly.
"How did that work for you?"
"Not so great. I am pretty sure my spleen is frozen."
"You can’t have a frozen spleen, Grace."
"Yeah. So, now your turn. How did she get the drop on you?" I nudged him with my shoulder.
"I didn't want to hurt her. I held back. I guess I didn't expect her to attack me. How did I become such a mess? Things were just fine."
"Okay, Drew. Who are you? What have you done with the robot that I know and adore?"
He looked at me with misery etched in his eyes. "I just don't know."
"Could it be some kind of spell? Weird things are happening around here and everyone is a bit off kilter. Maybe it's just a spell." I rubbed his back to offer what comfort I could, and ran across a patch of sticky wetness. "Jesus Christ, Drew! She stabbed you?!"
He glanced over his should down his back and shrugged. "Yeah, that's not the only place. There's a reason I'm on the ground. I don't think I can stand up."
"Oh my God. I can't teleport yet! Can you teleport? We need to get you to a Healer." I was frantic and couldn't think. Why in the Hell couldn't I teleport yet?
"It will heal in a bit." He sighed and leaned into me, so I wrapped my arm around his shoulder.
"It’s going to be okay." I said it more for me than for him. "We just have to figure out what's going on. From everything I've read and heard, she shouldn't be this powerful. How did she get so strong? Do your abilities increase as you get older?"
"They do, but not to this extent. It's like someone's messed with her."
"Do you think that it's the person behind all of these disasters? I've been trying to wrap my mind around who it could be, but I'm coming up with nothing."
"Honestly? I have no idea. It could be. I've scanned everyone, though, and nobody back in Olympus is doing this."
"She can Rift in, do you think she brought something - or someone - back with her?"
"It's a possibility."
"I don't even know where to start looking. If it's an Interdimensional we won't have a clue. Our best bet is to capture Hope and get her to talk."
"Yes, we've had such good luck with that so far. Let's talk about something else. Tell me about Greenland."
"What's there to tell? I was there. I cried. I froze. I think I accessed my mojo."
"Your mojo?"
"Yeah, I went into this meditative state and saw these strands of color. Kinda looks like my rubber band ball."
His eyes widened as he tried not to smile. "That's a pretty colorful bag of mojo then."
I scowled in return. "I'm serious. The thing is, I have some power lines that haven't gotten bold yet."
"Well, that doesn't sound right. We both know you're a bold lady." An eyebrow cocked at me and I had to smile.
This was the Drew I remembered. The Before-I-Found-Out Drew. The Drew that I adored. I wa
nted to fix this, but I didn’t know where to start.
"You're so funny." I threw an exasperated smile at him. "Do you think you can ‘port?"
He shook his head at me and hunched over with a groan. "I've already watched you die once. It's not an experience that I'd like to repeat. I kinda missed you when you were gone."
"I missed you too."
"I meant when you were dead," I replied dryly. But inside a small little bubble escaped and settled in my chest. It wasn't logical to be so enamored with this man, but I was.
"Oh, right. Yes. I missed you when I was dead, too."
"Scooter!" He should be able to get us back to Olympus or at least get a Healer back here. "Can you ‘port us back home?"
He cocked a doggy eyebrow at me and I rolled my eyes in return. "Of course you can't. Bring Zeus back here. Someone, anyone that can heal Drew."
He scrunched his nose and disappeared. "Welp," I breathed. "We have a 50/50 chance of him bringing back someone worthwhile. How about we get you into the house? I'm sure the neighbors have seen enough action in our front yard lately to last a lifetime."
I reached under his arms, whispered that I was sorry and pulled him into standing position. He groaned but didn't pass out. I probably could have carried him in but it would've been awkward and I didn't want to exacerbate his injuries further.
We’d made it to the front steps when Scooter popped back in with Athena right behind him.
"I always knew I was the better fighter," she drawled.
"Not the time," I warned.
Drew perked up and scowled at her. "It’s only because my guard was down."
"Riiiiight." She replied. "So did you get the warp signature of the spaceship that just ran you over?"
"It was Hope," I said softly.
"Oh," was her short reply.
"Yeah."
"So does she look as bad, Brother?"
"Don't want to talk about it 'Thena," He growled.
"He let her kick his ass like some complete idiot." I interjected.
"Figures. He was always stupid for her. You're lucky she didn't kill you for good this time, you dumbass," she scolded. But it was too late. He'd passed out from blood loss and pain.
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