by Claire Luana
Brandon comes back with two pieces of pizza and another mug of hot chocolate.
“Talk about breakfast of champions,” I comment.
He nods. “So this has been the hideout?” He takes it in. “Is your place?”
“No,” I say. “It belongs to my friend Zoe. You know her?”
Brandon nods. “Junior class president? Cute Asian chick?”
I file that away. So he thinks she’s cute, I think. That’ll keep Zoe going for years.
Brandon looks between us. “So who’s going to go first? I’m in the mood for a good story.”
I take a deep breath. I don’t know how to start. It’ll sound insane. I gather my courage, fortifying myself with a sip of hot chocolate. The marshmallows have mostly dissolved, leaving a layer sugary foam on the top. I open my mouth to begin speaking when Zoe bursts through the front door.
“Mer!” she yells before freezing in her tracks. She takes in Ryan and Brandon sitting on the couch—takes in me in the chair. Takes in the mugs of hot chocolate and the half-eaten piece of pizza in Brandon’s hand.
“What’d I miss?” she asks, offering a weak smile.
Chapter 16
Zoe is placated by a mug of hot chocolate made and delivered by Brandon Cook. The guys scoot over on the sofa to make room for her, and I can tell from the gleam in her eye that whatever madness I’ve put her through has now been deemed totally, completely worth it.
Ryan and I look at each other, both tongue-tied, each daring the other to start.
Brandon interrupts our standoff as the voice of reason. I see why Ryan likes this guy. “Meriah, as the party who was holding the deadly weapon, why don’t you explain first?”
I close my eyes, steeling myself. “It’s going to sound fantastical,” I say. “I need you to suspend disbelief for a while.”
I plunge forwards before I lose my nerve. “I’m the reincarnated version of an ancient Greek nymph-Titan. Ryan is the reincarnation of an Ancient Greek hunter who worked for Zeus. Zeus was really pissed at my sisters ’cause they tried to steal this ancient weapon, so he cursed my sisters by having Ryan murder them every lifetime.” Oh, god. Brandon’s going to think I need to be seriously medicated. I soldier on. “I’m a seer, and I see the future. I saw that Ryan was going to murder another one of my sisters, and so I decided to kill him to prevent it.” I close my eyes.
Brandon glances at Ryan.
“You’re a seer?” Ryan asks, as if that explains everything. “Is that why you were there the night of the accident?”
I nod grimly.
“What accident?” Brandon asks Ryan. “Are you saying you believe all that?”
He sighs. “The basics are right. Though I don’t like the insinuation that I murdered your sisters.” He emphasizes the word. “I never murdered anyone.”
I scoff. “Tell that to my sisters.”
“Murder implies intent. I never meant to kill anyone.”
“Bullshit,” I say, my face heating. How dare he deny what he’s done? Rationalize it away? “What about Istanbul?” I practically spit at him. “I saw you there that night in the alley. Carving her chest open. I saw her blood on your hands…you were a butcher!” A lump grows in my throat as the memory floods over me.
“Istanbul?” Ryan is incredulous. “I was a surgeon in that lifetime! I found her dying in that alley after being stabbed and attacked by someone else! I was trying to save her life!”
I recoil, searching my memory. Could that be true? Could I have misinterpreted what I saw that night?
“Yes, Merope and her sisters were cursed,” Ryan says. “But I was cursed more than all of you! Lifetime after lifetime, the Fates would take them, no matter how I tried to prevent their deaths. I was a surgeon, I was a soldier, I was the infected guy who didn’t realize it until everyone else was coughing and it was too late. The Fates are infinitely creative in finding ways to kill. Do you know what it’s like to accidentally kill someone? To have the weight of their death on your conscience?”
“It can’t be much worse than watching them die and not being able to stop it,” I say woodenly, unable to process what he’s telling me. That he doesn’t want to kill them.
“Who’s Merope?” Brandon asks.
Zoe laughs. “It’s her former life. Her first Greek identity. He’s Orion.”
“Like the constellation?”
Ryan nods.
Brandon blows out a breath. “I think this hot chocolate was past its sell-by date. Because you’re all taking crazy. You believe this, Zoe?”
“Yes,” Zoe says. “Mer and I have been friends a long time. I was there when she first started seeing the visions. Remembering her past lives. The stuff she told me… A twelve-year-old couldn’t make it up. She wouldn’t have. It was scary as hell.”
Brandon’s eyes go wide and he looks at Ryan. “The seizures?”
Ryan nods, taking a sip.
“You should have told me, man,” Brandon says gently. “You could have told me.”
“I didn’t want you to think I was crazy.” Ryan examines the dregs of his mug. “Your family…I didn’t want to lose you guys.”
“You wouldn’t have.”
Ryan’s Adam’s apple bobs as he nods his thanks.
“So you believe them?” Zoe asks Brandon.
“I guess. Better than the alternative.”
“Which is…?” Zoe asks.
“Thinking that my best friend, the girl who sits next to me in history, and the junior class president are all totally loco.”
We all let out a nervous chuckle at that. “Do you see the future too?” I ask Ryan. “In your visions? Or just the past?”
“Past only,” he says. I’m not sure why, but I’m relieved. I guess I’ve just gotten used to being the only one with the ability to see the future.
“So you two have never talked about this before?” Brandon points between me and Ryan. “Even in…past lifetimes?”
I shake my head. “We’ve always been enemies. I focused on trying to stop him from killing my sisters. But I’ve always failed. Zeus’s curse is too strong.”
Ryan’s lips curl down. Even with a frown etched across his features, he’s handsome as hell. Could it be possible, what he says? That he’s not the villain in all this? That he’s as much a victim as any of us? “I wouldn’t call it a curse.”
“I didn’t know we were debating semantics.” I bristle. “What would you call it when an all-powerful deity casts a spell requiring you to be reborn and die lifetime after lifetime?”
“Zeus doesn’t give two shits about you all. Or me, for that matter. He just wanted the scythe back. He didn’t cast any spell. It was an accident.”
I still. My limbs go cold. “What do you mean?”
“The scythe backfired…you really don’t remember?”
I shake my head.
“What scythe?” Zoe asks.
“What the hell is a scythe?” Brandon echoes.
I let out a little laugh. I haven’t told Zoe all the details of how the curse came to be. I’m not sure why I kept this piece from her. Maybe because I don’t like going back to that day. It’s too painful to relive our foolishness. Our folly in thinking we could pull one over on Zeus when even our dad, one of the most powerful Titans in the world, couldn’t defeat him.
“A scythe is like a sharp curved knife pole thingy that you use to cut grain. But this one wasn’t like that. It was a weapon owned by Chronos, the Titan who ruled the world before Zeus. He was god of time,” I explain.
“Naturally,” Brandon says. His cheeks are pink. I get the feeling that he’s about to head back into the kitchen for a bowl of popcorn.
“Merope…Meriah, and her sisters were trying to steal the scythe,” Ryan adds, his tone a little judgy for my taste. “Zeus didn’t want them to. I went with him to help him stop them.”
“Ryan shot me with an arrow,” I counter, “and I blacked out. So I don’t remember what happened next.”
“You s
hot her?” Brandon says. “Dick move, bro.”
I feel vindicated. That’s right—Orion did shoot me. That was no accident. So maybe all of this “it was all accidental, I’m not a murderer” business is a load of crap.
Ryan huffs. “It was a different time then. I was working for Zeus, and they were stealing his property! Anyway, it’s not important. I guess Mer did pass out. But her sisters wouldn’t give up the scythe without a fight.”
“Hold up. How many sisters?” Brandon asks.
“Six,” Zoe, Ryan, and I all reply. I try to ignore the fact that Ryan called me “Mer” and I kind of liked it.
“Nice,” Brandon says appreciatively, as if we’re talking about how many Playboy Bunnies were at the mansion. “Okay, continue.”
“Atlas’s daughters were not without skills. They fought me and Zeus—it was madness in close quarters. Maia, Mer’s oldest sister, had the scythe, and she swung it at Zeus’s head. He held up a hand to block it and caught it. In that moment, it was like time stopped. Zeus and Maia were both trying to wrench the scythe out of each other’s hands. I’m not exactly sure what happened, but I think Zeus sent a lightning bolt through the scythe to try to fry Maia and make her let go.”
“Douchebag,” I mutter.
“It backfired. Everything went white. I didn’t come to until my next life. That’s when I began to realize that something was wrong. That something had happened.”
My mind was reeling. After more than two thousand years, Ryan had just filled in a piece of the puzzle. But did I believe him? That Zeus hadn’t done it on purpose? That my sisters and Orion’s bodies splashed across the night sky, their souls reborn again and again…That it was all…a cosmic accident?
“Are you guys thinking what I’m thinking?” Brandon asks.
“That this would make a seriously good Netflix show?” Zoe offers.
“Obvi, yes,” Brandon agrees. “But not just that. If Zeus didn’t curse you guys on purpose, why don’t you just go ask him to undo it? To use this scythe thingy and erase it all?”
My mouth falls open as the force of Brandon’s suggestion bowls into me like a gale-force wind. The future opens up before me, a potential where I’m not beset by visions of the past or the future. Where I’m just a regular girl with a regular life. My eyes trace Ryan’s features of their own volition. With a regular boyfriend.
A new purpose flares within me, as bright and powerful as a firework. We’re going to break the curse.
Chapter 17
Ryan’s cold voice of reason smothers my excitement like a wet blanket. “It sounds great. But does anyone actually know how to find an ancient Greek god? It’s not like we can just traipse over to Greece and knock on the door of Mount Olympus. Does anyone even have a passport?”
Brandon, Zoe, and I nod.
Ryan scowls.
Brandon has the wherewithal to look apologetic. “You know we went to Cabo a few years back.”
“My parents like to ski in Whistler,” I offer.
Zoe chimes in. “Yeah, we went to Europe last summer.”
“Okay, so I’m the only asshole without a passport. Great.” Ryan throws up his hands.
“No, Ryan’s right,” I say, not sure why I’m trying to make him feel better. “I couldn’t exactly explain to my parents why I need to go over there.”
“Senior project?” Zoe offers with a weak grin, and Brandon laughs. Her ears turn a pretty shade of pink.
“And there’s the issue of money,” I continue. “Plane tickets are expensive.”
“I think we’re getting ahead of ourselves,” Brandon says. “Isn’t this the part in the movie where there’d be a research montage? Like all of us poring over old, dusty books in some ancient library? We need to figure out (a) where Zeus is now, (b) where the scythe thing is, and (c) how to get him to help us.”
“Us?” Ryan asks. “Brandon, I appreciate it, man, but this isn’t your fight.”
“If it’s yours, it’s mine. Plus, this is about ten times more interesting than anything else I’ve got going on.”
“Agreed,” Zoe says sweetly. “We’ll help you guys figure this out.”
I smile at Zoe, even though I know that she was totally behind me already, and she would literally be happy picking up dog poop at the park if it meant she got to hang with Brandon.
“So, research,” I say. “Our new mission, if we choose to accept it, is to figure out where Zeus and the scythe are now. We could head to the library?”
Brandon wrinkles his nose. “Ew. I was being figurative. Let’s just go to a coffee shop and all bring our laptops.”
“I hate to be the practical, studious one of our little Scooby gang, but shouldn’t we, you know, go to school?” Zoe pulls her phone out. “We can make third period if we leave now.”
Oh yeah. School. Crap.
Ryan groans. “God, I don’t want to know how much trouble I’m in with Gran. And my teachers. And I missed work…” He tips forwards and buries his face in his hand.
“Don’t worry about work,” Brandon says. “I’ll work it out with Dad. And your gran will understand.”
“Um…” I say, not sure how to break this to him.
“What?” He looks up at me, his blue eyes suspicious.
“There may have been a sheriff’s deputy at your house when I dropped off the medication for your grandma,” I say. “I’m assuming he was looking into your disappearance. He’s the same guy who’s investigating the hit-and-run.”
“The hit-and-run?” Brandon asks.
Ryan surges to his feet, storming across the room, his hands in his hair. Barely restrained energy crackles from him, and for a moment I shy away.
I close my eyes briefly and explain to Brandon the circumstances of Ryan’s and my first encounter. He swears.
Ryan turns and shoves through the screen door, headed outside.
I bounce to my feet, alarmed. “Where’s he going?”
We all run out after him and find him standing in the driveway, looking at the front of his truck.
The damage isn’t too bad, actually. The fender is dented and the right headlight is broken, but the truck is built like a tank. There’s no damage to the body at all.
“We can fix that,” Brandon says. “Before anyone sees.”
Ryan is shaking his head. “No. I need to turn myself in.”
Zoe, Brandon, and I all protest in tandem.
“And tell them what?” I ask.
“The truth.”
“That you were kidnapped by two teenage girls and held hostage to end an ancient curse?” I ask.
“Well, part of the truth,” he amends.
Zoe and I exchange a look of sheer panic. He cannot tell the authorities that we kidnapped him. Life: over. It’s one thing if I ruined my own life with this crazy scheme, but not Zoe’s. I won’t let that happen to her.
I move to stand in front of him, forcing him to look from the truck to me. “Please, Ryan, don’t do this. It’ll ruin all of our lives.”
“No less than we deserve,” he says morosely, refusing to meet my eyes. “Don’t you think it’s time we face the consequences for all this?”
“You and me, maybe, but not Zoe. I brought her into this. She’s totally innocent. Don’t make her an accessory to a kidnapping. Even if she avoids jail time, she’ll never get into college. Please. Don’t ruin my best friend’s life.”
Ryan glances at Zoe, his resolve wavering.
“And what about your life, man?” Brandon asks. “It was an accident. Coming forwards won’t do anything but ruin your future.”
“It’ll give the family closure,” Ryan protests. “I haven’t always owned up to what I’ve done…in past lives. I’m tired of being a coward.”
“Now is not the time to grow a conscience,” Brandon says.
“If you’re in jail, how will we break the curse? Find Zeus? More of my sisters will die,” I point out.
“Maybe if I’m in jail, they’ll be safe from me,” he shoot
s back.
“You know that’s not how it works,” I say softly.
“What if you wait?” Zoe offers quietly. “Break the curse. Then if you still want to turn yourself in, go ahead.”
“Zo, no—” I begin.
“It’s okay, Mer. Ryan’s right. It’s not fair to the family. We’ll just tell the police we were messing around. I don’t know. We’ll figure out something. We’re young. We’ll just have something extra interesting to write for our college entrance essays.”
A bark of laughter escapes me.
“Besides, Ryan wouldn’t press charges against us, would he?”
She turns to Ryan, and when I look back, I’m startled to find him looking at me with an intensity that makes me take a step back. He’s so hard to read. He has the right to be furious at us for what we did to him. And now, he’s free. If he’s spiteful, he could make our lives very, very unpleasant. But…I don’t think that’s who he is.
After a pause, he nods. “Okay. I won’t turn myself in until we break the curse. And no, I won’t press charges.”
I blow out a slow, shaky breath. Thank god.
“We’ll have to come up with a good cover story for where you’ve been,” Brandon says, chewing on his lip again. “We can pound out the fender tonight in the shop and I’ll pick up a new headlight on the way home.”
“Anyone got any bright ideas for a cover story?” Ryan lets out a harsh laugh.
“Ooh!” Brandon says. “You could say you two were shacked up here at Zoe’s cabin.” He waggles an eyebrow. “So wrapped up in each other that you lost track of time.”
“For two days?” Ryan scoffs as I shake my head.
“No. No, no.” I wave my hands. I can feel my face heating at the thought of being “shacked up” with Ryan for forty-eight hours. The butterflies in my stomach are trying to tell me that it’s not such a bad idea, but I squash them ruthlessly.