Something True (22 page)

“Come now, my brethren. I tire of this place,” Zeus said, crooking an arm. “Let us go home. Good luck to you, Eros.”

He took Hera’s hand and together, the king and queen whirled out along with Artemis and Apollo, who barely had time to screech his indignation before he was gone. My mother enveloped me in her perfumed arms, holding me tight to her chest.

“Thank you, Eros,” she said, her eyes shining as she looked me over. “The king is right. You’ve done us proud.”

“Thank you, Mother.”

She reached up and tucked my hair behind my ear. “I’ll see you soon?”

“Before you know it,” I replied.

With a smile, she touched her lips to my forehead, then stepped back and whirled away, kicking up a tornado of glitter and streamers as she went. When the debris finally floated to the floor again, Hephaestus was wheeling toward me with Harmonia at his side.

“Nice work, True,” he said with a mischievous glint in his eye. He extended one hand. “I’m going to miss being your sidekick.”

I clasped his fingers with my own. “Well, you could always stay. . . .”

He let me go and reached for my sister’s hand. “Not a chance.”

We laughed, and then they both blew me a kiss and were gone. Orion drew me into his arms.

“So what now?” he asked.

Suddenly the music started up again, and the people around us flinched to life. My eyes widened, and I quickly kicked my bow beneath the long tablecloth on the snack table next to us. Ms. Austin looked around, baffled, as if she couldn’t remember crossing the room, then shrugged and went back to her post by the door. Everyone else started to dance and eat and laugh and talk like nothing had happened. Clearly Zeus had altered their reality so that none of them recalled a thing.

“Okay, this is weird,” Orion said, taking my hand.

“When the king says he’s going to take care of something, he takes care of it,” I said.

Orion laughed. “It is
so
good to see you.”

“It is so good to be seen,” I replied.

Then I reached back and unclasped his arrow from around my neck. He bowed his head slightly so I could reclasp it around his. He closed his eyes and sighed, savoring the feeling of the cool silver against his chest.

“I’ve missed this. I’ve missed us,” he said, holding my hand. “It was like I knew there was a hole inside me, but I didn’t know why, and now it’s gone.”

“You’ll never have to miss me again, I promise.”

I leaned in to kiss him, and the moment our lips met, a hand came down on his shoulder. I darted back, ever on the defensive, but it was just Peter, with Claudia at his heels, their new crowns glinting under the strobe lights. Charlie and Katrina stood beside them along with Wallace and Darla, who were flushed with the early stages of romantic bliss. All of them looked so beautiful and shimmering and happy, holding hands, arms around each other, smiling and beaming with love. And I’d done that. I’d helped them find each other.

“Are you two gonna stand there the whole night looking serious, or are you going to get out here and dance?” Charlie asked.

Orion laughed and lifted his shoulders at me. “I’m gonna say . . . dance?”

“We’ve never done that before,” I remarked.

“Then let’s go already,” Darla said, rolling her eyes.

I held Orion’s hand as we moved to the center of the floor. Orion held me against him as we began to dance.

“So, True Olympia,” he said with a smirk. “You’ve completed your mission. How does it feel?”

“It feels good,” I answered.

Orion twirled me around, and even though I was surrounded by happy couples, my eyes fell on plenty of forlorn faces, lonely hearts, souls just longing to be appreciated. I looked up at my love and smiled.

“But there’s lots more work to be done.”

Photo credit Sona Viola

Kieran Scott is the author of the He's So/She's So Trilogy, including
She's So Dead to Us
,
He's So Not Worth It
, and
This Is So Not Happening
, as well as the True Love series, which includes
Only Everything
and
Complete Nothing
. She also wrote the
New York Times
bestselling Private series and the Shadowlands trilogy under the pen name Kate Brian for Alloy Entertainment. She lives in New Jersey with her husband and two sons. Follow Kieran on Twitter at
@kieranscott
.

Also by Kieran Scott

She’s So Dead to Us

He’s So Not Worth It

This Is So Not Happening

Only Everything: A True Love Novel

Complete Nothing: A True Love Novel

An imprint of Simon & Schuster Children’s Publishing Division

1230 Avenue of the Americas, New York, New York 10020

www.SimonandSchuster.com

This book is a work of fiction. Any references to historical events, real people, or real places are used fictitiously. Other names, characters, places, and events are products of the author’s imagination, and any resemblance to actual events or places or persons, living or dead, is entirely coincidental.

Text copyright © 2015 by Kieran Viola

Cover photograph copyright © 2015 by Michael Frost

Hand lettering and illustration by Bobby Haiqalsyah

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is a trademark of Simon & Schuster, Inc.

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Also available in a
paperback edition

Jacket design by Chloë Foglia

Interior design by Hilary Zarycky

The text for this book is set in Granjon.

First
hardcover edition February 2015

The Library of Congress has cataloged the paperback edition as follows:

Scott, Kieran, 1974–

Something True / Kieran Scott. — First paperback edition.

pages cm. —  (A true love novel ; [3])

Summary: Eros, the Goddess of Love, in her guise as True, a modern-day New Jersey high school student, tries to match a third couple, the last one required for her to be reunited with her own true love, Orion, and return to Olympus.

ISBN 978-1-4424-7724-7 (hardcover) — ISBN 978-1-4424-7723-0 (pbk.) —

ISBN 978-1-4424-7725-4 (eBook)

1.  Eros (Greek deity)—Juvenile fiction.

[1. Eros (Greek deity)—Fiction. 2. Goddesses, Greek—Fiction.

3. Mythology, Greek—Fiction. 4. Dating (Social customs)—Fiction. 5. Love—Fiction. 6. High schools—Fiction. 7. Schools—Fiction.]  I. Title.

PZ7.S42643Som 2015

[Fic]—dc23

2014012392