Rifts

by Nicole Hamlett

  "Really? You think that's a good idea? Aren't you afraid that she's going to try to talk you out of it?"

  "Out of what?" Drew's voice echoed through the small room and I flinched. Fuck.

  With purpose, I slowly turned to face him. "Out of killing her," I replied calmly. I expected him to blow up, try to talk me out of it - anything but the reaction that I got.

  The look of betrayal cut through me with a hot lance of pain. I had to catch my breath. "You are going to do it." His voice was dead of all emotion.

  "What would you have me do, Drew? She's attempted to murder both myself and our son on multiple occasions. She cannot be left alive if Dylan and I are to be safe. Would you put his life at such risk? For what? For the memory of a love that existed hundreds of years ago?"

  My voice had risen to a frantic pitch. I realized that this wasn't about me killing Hope. This was about him loving her – still - and not me. There might be feelings of fondness there but in the end, he wouldn't choose me.

  "Obviously you're too young to understand," he rebutted.

  "Yeah, that makes a ton of sense, Drew. Call to point my age. Guess what? My son's life is way the fuck more important than a ghost of a memory - that from what I understand wasn't even your reality. If you don't like my decision, you can take it up with your father."

  "Or, I could stop you." The words were spoken so quietly that I almost didn't hear them. Heph's breath left his body in a surprised burst of shock. It was clear to him that this discussion had skewed way too far to the left. Logic wasn't playing a part anymore.

  "Could you? Things have changed. You don't have any idea of what I'm capable of," I replied coldly.

  "So you could just kill me like that?" His voice was now filled with uncertainty. It killed me to make him feel this way. God knew that I hadn't wanted to get here. We just kept hurting each other and I couldn't figure out how to stop that.

  "To save my son's life, yes." I made sure to fill my voice with determination and purpose. I couldn't let him see my weakness. I couldn't let him know that living in a world without him would destroy me, but I'd do it to save Dylan's life. If I couldn't get rid of Hope without killing him first, well then…so fucking be it.

  "Parricide is never pretty," interrupted Heph, trying to ease the tension in the room. "But, in this case, Grace is correct. Hope's mind is so broken, there’s no hope for recovery. She'll stay at this level of madness for the rest of her existence. Adonis, you know as well as I do how long that’s going to last."

  "I made an oath to protect her for as long as she was my wife. The last time I checked, she was still my wife."

  Yeah, that hurt. He just negated anything between us. It felt in that moment that he'd spent this entire time lying to me. The kisses, the moments of laughter and joy…all of it was meaningless – a farce.

  "Then let's go." I closed my eyes and saw what would happen next. Felt the visceral pleasure of the speed and agility of my body while the kukris materialized in my hands. I would catch him by surprise, piercing his left pectoral muscle before he could react. I saw the steel slide through his skin and muscle - saw the blood flow. But at the last minute, I adjusted my grip to miss his heart. We stood pressed together for what seemed like an eternity; his blood covering my hands, his eyes staring into mine.

  A scream of rage and frustration at my own weakness left my lips as I opened my eyes.

  He was staring at me with open-mouthed shock. He'd never moved. Neither had I. But the look on his face broke my heart. He’d never in a million years expected me to attack him and he'd just received very visual proof that I would.

  I shook my head to clear my thoughts. "Of course the asshole can read your mind, Grace. Dur."

  His eyes met mine. "How could you do this," they said to me.

  Tears of regret spilled from my eyes. I didn't know how to take this back. This couldn't be taken back. I knew in that if I backed off, he'd never forgive me for this. I would never taste his lips. I would never see him smile at me. I'd gone too far. I let that knowledge fill my watery gaze. "I'm so sorry, but I will hurt you if you try to stop me." I whispered and immediately ‘ported away.

  ***

  I landed in my living room in Colorado Springs flopped down on my couch and started stroking the fabric. "Oh my God, Grace," I said aloud to the walls. "What did you just do?"

  I wasn't going to use the excuse that he'd forced me to this. That was a lie. I could have waited for him to leave in a huff and then killed her, anyway. But I don't do things in half measures. When I set out to burn down a forest, I carpet bomb not only it, but the surrounding countryside too. I forced the situation so that not only would he not love me, but he would hate me.

  I could claim that what I'd projected back there was an accident because my chemistry was still all messed up from the battle with Lyssa. But we all knew that it wasn't an accident. There were too many emotions surrounding my desire to kill Hope and somewhere along the line, self-preservation had become the least of them.

  Why did it have to be me? I jumped off the couch and started pacing and talking out loud to try to reason through all of this. "Because who else is going to do this horrible, horrible thing? Do you think I want to kill my own sister? Do you think that I want to do any of this? I just wanted to write my books, raise my kid and find a man who loved me to settle down with. Because, the Universe doesn't believe in happy endings for me. Instead I get this. I get to stand here in the midst of a mental breakdown, loving him and knowing that fate isn't going to let me ever have any fucking peace."

  My knees gave out and I collapsed to the floor where I simply stared at the ceiling, filled with an aching need to erase the last hour of my life.

  Chapter 27

  The sun had moved toward the mountains, casting my living room floor in shadows. I didn't even move when Heph sat down next to me. I couldn't bring myself to look at him; I was so wracked with shame.

  "You could always say that you were under Lyssa's influence." He thought he was being funny. It wasn't amusing, and I didn't respond. I simply rolled over so that my back was to him. Maybe he'd get the hint and go away.

  "I'm not going away," he responded. "So you may as well turn around and talk to me instead of being a gigantic baby about this."

  "Go away," I sighed.

  "And let you forget that you just broadcasted a fantasy in which you couldn't even bother to kill him? I think not."

  "I hate you, you know. And really? I don't know how I manage to cock up every single thing when it comes to him."

  "You do tend to become this irrational person when he's around. I think it's because you keep telling yourself - and everyone that will listen - that you don't love him and that you don't care if he loves you back. But in reality, you care a lot. It's distracting you when you need to be focused."

  "I don't-" I started.

  "Yes, I've heard this lie before, Grace. Just say it out loud. Own it. And then you can start dealing with the emotions of losing it."

  "I don't want to love him. It's too hard and it hurts too much because he doesn't love me back." There, I'd said it out loud. "Yeah, that didn't make me feel better. Thanks for that." So I wasn't being gracious, whatever.

  "Yeah that wasn't saying the words out loud. 'I don't want to love him' and 'I love him' are two entirely separate things."

  "They mean the same."

  "Maybe in your pigeon-headed mind they do. Just admit it and then you can push it out so we can go kick some ass."

  "Why are you here?" I asked, exasperated. "I just want to be left alone so I can shut these emotions down and take care of business as usual."

  "Because you're not going to take care of business, Grace. You're going to go out there and get yourself killed because you can't focus on the job at hand. You're so busy fooling yourself you can't see the forest through the trees."

  I rolled back over and peered into his face. "Do you know what would be awesome?"

  "What?"

 
"If you would leave. But first, what did he do when I left?"

  He fought a smile but failed. "Say the words and I'll tell you."

  I sighed. "Tell me and I'll say the words. Why are you pushing this?"

  "I'm pushing this because you need it. Frankly, at this point, I just want you to fucking admit it."

  "What I need is a bottle of Jack and a do-over on this year. Tell me what he said."

  "You don't like Jack. Say it."

  "I don't like Jack." I parroted in monotone. He sighed at me. "Don't be a dick. Just tell me," I continued.

  "Say it."

  "Fuck! Fine! I love him!" I yelled it. I probably could have just muttered it. It wouldn't have been as dramatic though and God knew that so far I'd been completely dramatic about this. Why stop now?

  "He stood there shocked for about five minutes. I didn't know he could do such a good fish face impression." Okay, that image made me giggle out loud. "There's my girl."

  "Then what," I asked. My stomach clenched with what I thought would come next.

  "He said, 'I can't believe she just fantasized about killing me' and kind of collapsed onto a chair."

  "I also can't believe that I broadcasted that. He just doesn't see reason, so I got ragey and wanted to force him to see it. She needs to die." I paused and really thought about what I wanted to say next. "Heph, I'd kill him if it was the only way to end that miserable bitch's life."

  "You got jealous and in a ragey fit, you fantasized about stabbing him." His tone was very no nonsense and it made me sigh.

  "I got jealous and ragey." I admitted.

  "And finally we have breakthrough!" His exclamation echoed through my empty house.

  "I can be completely logical," his snort interrupted my train of thought. I scowled and continued. "Okay, mostly logical, but when it comes to that man my brain just deflates and I act in a very illogical way. I think that I know where we stand…then it all blows to shit."

  "You're not an easy woman to love, Grace. You're impulsive, head strong, contrary and a general pain in the ass."

  My mouth made a small o of surprise. When it rained, it poured. "If you tell me that you love me, I'm going to stab you right in the dick. I swear to God I will," I grumbled.

  His hands unconsciously moved to cover that part of his anatomy. "Consider it not said," he replied cautiously.

  "Good. If I'm going to admit to the other thing then I certainly cannot fucking deal with you getting all moony over me."

  He chuckled at me and pushed my hair away from my eyes. "I promise not to get all moony over you."

  "Good. Because I'd hate to get all violent and junk on you." I took a deep breath and let it out slowly. "We've got some pretty heavy stuff to deal with. Maybe killing Hope can wait. She's secure in the Forge right?"

  He scrutinized my expression carefully before answering. "Yes. She's secure."

  "Okay then. Let's figure out how to stop the Gothy crew from raising Atlantis." I grabbed his hand and ported into the Lab.

  As soon as we landed, I was assaulted by a three hundred pound mercury golem. Scooter leapt up on my chest and knocked me over. I laughed and admonished him. "Hey, you don't weigh the same as a regular dog. You're going to kill me." I rubbed his skin and smiled up as his tongue swiped at my cheek.

  "You're not a damned dog!" Zeus thundered.

  Scooter's face fell and I rubbed behind his ear to counter the admonishment before whispering, "You're my favorite dog ever."

  "Don't encourage it," Zeus complained.

  "I will encourage," I said in a pseudo-baby talk voice as I rubbed Scooter's ears harder. "So we need to lay out a plan. It's time to shut these guys down so I can write my next book, make my agent happy and pay my mortgage."

  "Oh, you don't need to worry about that," he said off-handedly.

  "What does that mean?" I asked, confused.

  "I paid off your house last month," he replied casually.

  My jaw dropped. "Are you kidding me?"

  "Nope. It was a distraction that you didn't need so I took care of it. There's a trust set up to pay for the taxes in perpetuity. It's no longer a concern."

  "You do realize that was something you should have talked to me about first," I could feel my temper rising. I'd worked really hard to keep my independence and I felt like he'd just taken it away from me. Even though my voice was quiet, I could feel Hephaestus backing away from me slowly.

  "Don't be ridiculous. I'm practically your father," he waved my comment off like it was nothing. Prideful Grace would have gone off on that. But his words stopped my anger in its tracks.

  "Do you really think of yourself as my father?"

  He looked at me with a slightly confused expression. "Of course I do. Now, if you could extricate yourself from my golem, I want to show you this mapping program I created. It pinpoints the disturbances." He turned abruptly and walked to the wall of monitors on the far side of the room.

  I could only sit there and smile goofily at his back. He thought of me as his daughter. There were worse things than having Zeus as your dad.

  Heph patted me on the shoulder and helped me up off the floor. "Of course he adores you," he murmured. "You're quite adorable."

  That made me blush, but I ignored the comment and joined Zeus at the station. "Okay, what am I looking at?"

  "Atlantis," He said simply.

  My breath caught. This was the legend. Okay, so it wasn't the legend, it was a dot on a map. But the fact that something that stemmed from imagination was a reality was huge. I couldn't decide whether I wanted to see it for myself, or stay the Hell away.

  "Is it entirely submerged?" I looked at Zeus, waiting for an answer.

  "Most of it is, yes."

  Heph stepped into the conversation. "Over the years, we've put in systems that circulate air and pump out the water. It's fairly rudimentary, but we needed to be able to get down there if something like this happened."

  A really horrible thought occurred to me. "Would you say that the corridors are filled with blue glowy things?"

  Zeus shot me a startled look. "Yes." He frowned. "We created a lighting system based on bio-luminescence. Grace, why would you ask that? Have you had a premonition?"

  "Oh, fuck," I felt like I was going to start hyperventilating. "No. I've been there."

  He grabbed me arms and peered into my eyes. "Let me in so I can see."

  I opened my mind and let him see what I had seen when I followed Hope through the Rift. "How did you not see this when you probed Hope's mind?"

  "She was missing large chunks of memory. I just assumed that it was from when Lyssa was directly controlling her."

  "No," I ground out. "She's missing chunks of memory because they were removed. Damn it. They've been playing us. Is Nyx in a submerged area or in one of the airways?"

  Both of them exhaled sighs of relief at the same time. It would have been amusing if I weren't so wound up with fear. "She's submerged," Heph answered. "It was an extra precaution we took." He shrugged. "I like to plan for the ‘just in case’ moments."

  My legs carried me forward and I started pacing while I talked it out. "Okay if I were writing this out, I'd ask myself a few very pointed questions. First, that is a very random spot. Mythology buffs have always assumed that Atlantis was either on the Eastern Seaboard of the States near the Bermuda Triangle or near Greece. How did they find it?"

  "Well," began Zeus. "We can't assume that they don't have the same level of technology that we do."

  "Yes we can," I retorted. "From what I saw, they're flying on magic and intuition down there." I stopped and frowned. "Someone else knows. We have to find out who that is. Taking these kids has been too easy for them. They've been picking off the Hunters with an ease that makes me nervous. I've thought for a while that it was Persephone feeding them information, but she's been gone for months. She couldn't know what we've been doing here."

  "Well, she does have Sight, Grace. She could be foreseeing what is going to happen."r />
  I turned back to Hephaestus and raised an eyebrow. "Really, Heph? Unless she sees tactics down to a pinpoint second then, no. It's someone else."

  "Damn this situation!" When Zeus roared, he really roared. Scooter rubbed up against my leg, looking for comfort. I absent-mindedly began stroking the crown of his head.

  "Getting upset isn't going to get us anywhere. We need to sort through this." When had I become the voice of reason and logic? My thoughts were mirrored on Heph's face. "Shut up," I said irritably.

  "What? I never said anything," he replied with a grin.

  "You didn't have to. Okay. It's not going to be one of the original eight. They wouldn't put their own children in danger and they all knew Nyx, right?"

  "Yes." Zeus ran his fingers through his hair and sighed. "They were aware of the danger that she presented to our community. She was entirely too powerful. She compelled a level of fear in others that we haven't seen in thousands of years." He shook his head and looked nervous. "Honestly, it was a stroke of luck that we were able to trap her in the first place. I don't know if we'd be able to do it again."

  "If everyone was so afraid of her, why did you keep it a secret? I mean, why not ask for their help?"

  "Because," Heph replied. "We weren't sure who was supporting her. Things were a little tricky back then. As it turned out, there was a collective sigh of relief when she disappeared."

  "So maybe it's time to tell them? Because you can bet your ass if she's raised, they're going to be pissed that you kept this a secret." That was me, bringing brutal truth to the table. Sometimes it was hard to hear and equally hard to swallow, but it needed to be said.

  "Zachary, she's right. We need to tell the others."

  "I know she's right, damn it. I just don't like the timing of this. It feels like it's being forced," Zeus retorted.

  "Wait," I interrupted. "We need to find out who has been helping them first. Because if you go for the big reveal and we don't know who we can trust, we may as well just shoot ourselves in the foot."