Volcanoes (3 page)

I flinched at the tone of his voice. I'd spent so much time acting antagonistic toward him that I
’
d forgotten that at my core, I just wanted him to like
–
no, love me.

He
sighed and let go. "You're an idiot, Grace. Get up; let's regroup with the others in Olympus."

I nodded and tried to push myself to my feet. My arms decided to take this time to pretend they were made of Jell-o. Frowning, I tried again with the same result
s. I couldn't get up. I could barely move.

Fear made me lie through my teeth. Don't ask what I was afraid of. I didn't know at the time. "I need a minute to breathe, and check to make sure the entire wall came down. I'll meet you there."

Heph eyed me suspiciously and then nodded. "Okay, meet us in Zeus' lab."

"You got it. And Heph? I'm really sorry." Did my voice sound pitiful? Crap, it did.

"Stop
telling
me you are sorry and start
acting
like you are," was all he said before disappearing.

I
’
m not a fan of self-reflection. When I get into this mode, it's because I've fucked something up and I
’
m left feeling like everything I see inside of me is bad. Nobody stops to think about how they can change their life when everything is
going good.

Okay,
I
didn't think about how to change my life when it was going good. Because why fix what isn't broken?

So, here I lay
–
broken. Feeling was starting to reincorporate itself into my limbs, and the pins and needles sensations were unwelcome
. That wasn't the biggest of my worries, though. When I'd told Heph that I was going to check to see if I'd taken the entire wall down, I wasn't being facetious. I literally could not feel my connection to the Earth.

The lack of frantic energy felt like I
’
d been dumped in a sensory deprivation tank and left there to rot. That buzzing had been with me for my entire life, even though I hadn't known what it was. Sure, it was only a slight buzz before last year. But when my power had burst from me like an ali
e
n in a cyborg, it had gotten stronger; continuing to become more focused with each day. Now, suddenly, it was just gone.

Zeus had told me that these buzzing sensations were caused by the nanites at work in my body, repairing cells and creating electrical
pulses that helped fuel my power. I had natural power on my own, but nanites enhanced what was there and - due to a little demi-god cocktail that he'd slipped me - I had a bit more than most.

Did the lack of sensation mean that the power was gone? I didn'
t know what to think, or how to feel about that.

Let's face it, I'd been whining for nearly a year about the changes in my and Dylan's life.  Too much, too soon
–
yada yada yada. The troubles just kept piling on and I
’
d have to believe I was a rock to sho
ulder the burden with dignity. I wasn't a rock.

Bollocks.

I wondered how long it would take for Hephaestus to come back and get me.

When the feeling returned to my legs, I crawled to the water's edge and splashed some on my face. I don
’
t consider it cryi
ng if I've splashed water on my cheeks to hide the tears. My eyes kept drifting toward the glass outline of my body. I couldn't stop wondering what kind of permanent damage I'd done to this region's ecosystem by blowing that volcano.  The heat output need
e
d to melt the sand into glass frightened me.

Rolling onto dry sand, I ignored my feelings of unease and swept my arms and legs up and down, creating wings and a gown. What do I do when faced with a catastrophic emergency that will most likely break me? Ma
ke sand angels, of course.

There's a reason that kids don't stress out like adults do. They do silly little things to help divert the tension.

How long would it take Heph to realize that I wasn't right behind him? Was he mad enough at me that he'd just g
ive up, or was he searching my usual hiding places right now - getting madder with each deserted location?

I doubt that it would have occurred to him to come back here and check right away.

An ugly thought popped into my head. What would I do now without
any powers? How would I keep my kid safe? Would I be shunned?

Actually, I
’
d worked myself up into such spiral of self-hate by the time Hephaestus showed up that I immediately went on the offensive.  Certain that they were going to wipe my memory and hate
me for the rest of my natural life - because of course I was mortal now - I threw the blackest scowl I could muster at him and yelled, "I don't care if you don't like me now!"

He'd barely materialized and the look of utter shock on his face would have bee
n priceless if I'd been a state of mind to be amused.

"Would you care to explain to me why I am not going to like you now?" His eyebrows rose to his hairline and he crossed his arms, standing somewhat defensively.

I guess I'd have been on the defensive too, thinking back.  "I don't have any stinking powers anymore. I can't even feel the hum of the Earth. So I'm useless now. You guys are probably going to wipe my mind and leave me on some rock to wait for the coming
apocalypse where Nyx wipes out the human race!"  I was babbling at this point, struggling not to cry during my rant.

His lips quivered before he bit the bottom one to contain his mirth.  "Sooooo, you're void of any powers and certain that we're going to n
ot only shun you, but wipe your memories too?  Grace Murphy, you are seriously one crazy bitch." He strode over to me, pulled me up out of the sand and wrapped his arms around my waist before smiling down at me. "Seriously
–
you
’
re crazy. Let's go home an
d
we'll get this figured out."

I wasn't sure whether I should be happy that I'd deflected his anger or pissed off that he'd called me a crazy bitch.  I decided upon happy and let him teleport me without any fuss.

We landed in the quiet solitude of Zeus' la
b and I felt the immediate unease of someone being stalked. "Where is everyone?" I asked quietly. I was afraid to speak in a normal volume. I couldn't see who was here, but the hair on the back of my neck prickled with alarm.

'Someone is here,'
I thought
to Heph.

He pulled back and frowned at me, shaking his head subtly. I appreciated that he was at least being discreet and not blatantly disagreeing with me.

My eyes widened and I nodded slightly to emphasize that there was someone in this room with us.

H
e frowned and before I could think at him further, he teleported us to his forge. The lingering presence that I felt was gone, which made my nerves settle but as usual, Heph's forge was sweltering and I no longer had the ability to control my core tempera
t
ure to match it.

"Jesus, it
’
s hot as Hell in here," I breathed.

"It
’
s an automatic place to go
–
sorry." He let go of me and stepped away. "Tell me what that was about."

Without his support, my legs gave out and I sank to the ground. He frowned down at m
e and pulled me up again.

"Pull it together, Brat."

"Do you ever get that feeling that you
’
re being watched? That hair rising on the back of your neck feeling that crawls down your spine and makes you shudder to let it go? I got that. I felt someone in th
e room with us even though I couldn
’
t see anything.  I don
’
t think I was wrong."

I frowned and shuffled over to one of his many workbenches to fiddle with a tool that I had no name for. "I know that I am not on the same level I was a few hours ago in terms
of my abilities, but I still have intuition. Maybe you should try trusting me."

There I was, getting defensive again. When in doubt go on the attack. It
’
s how I
’
ve always lived my life. It wasn
’
t the best way, but it was the only way I knew.

He stepped
back, confusion written all over his face. "I never said that I didn
’
t trust you, Grace. I asked what was going on. You need to stop projecting your fears onto me because it
’
s not getting us anywhere productive."

I opened my mouth to shoot back a tart repl
y and immediately closed it. He was right. I had to stop doing that. Hadn
’
t I
just
been doing the self-reflection bit? "You
’
re right. I
’
m sorry."

I thought his jaw was going to hit the floor, it dropped so far. Had I never apologized to him or bothered to
admit when I was wrong? Was I that much of a stubborn bitch?

"Yes," he replied.

I frowned and slammed down my mental shields. There was vulnerability enough to go around right now. He didn
’
t need to know every nuance of my thoughts.

"Okay. So the point w
as that I felt someone in that room with us. I don
’
t know who or how
–
but we weren
’
t alone. Does anyone have the ability to go invisible?"

He had to think about it a moment before shrugging and saying, "I think that all of us can do it. We just never do w
hen we
’
re here in Olympus. There is no need to hide ourselves."

"So it
’
s quite possible that someone was there and you just didn
’
t know it."

He nodded, "Yeah."

"Why would someone do that?" It was a stupid question. There are all sorts of reasons right now.
Namely, finding out the 411 on Atlantis rising. It
’
s easier to eavesdrop than finagle an answer out of Zeus.

He raised an eyebrow and gave me the
‘
really?
’
look. I rolled my eyes and nodded. "Yeah, I know. Stupid question."

At this point, my clothing
–
a
loose linen tunic and pants
–
was sticking uncomfortably to my skin in wet sweaty patches. "I can
’
t stay in here much longer, Heph. I
’
m going to have a heat stroke."

"Oh, right. Should I take you back to your apartments in the palace?"

Nodding, I said, "Yeah that
’
s a good idea. I need to get Dylan and then get packed up to go back home."

"Wait a second. Who said anything about you two leaving Olympus?"

"If I don
’
t have any powers, there isn
’
t a need to eliminate me, right? Therefore I ca
n go back home and resume my life, finish up this new book that Marisol wants and spend some quality time with my kid who has - to date - been beaten, nearly killed, and probably scarred beyond any normal rationale."

He had the grace to look uncomfortable.
If I
’
d just been pulling the petulant card, he could have admonished me and told me to suck it up because I was staying where they could protect me.  However, we both knew that up to this point, nobody had really been able to protect either myself or my
s
on.  We had been beaten, abused and kidnapped several times under their watch.

He inhaled deeply, paced back and forth a few times, muttering under his breath and finally nodded. "Yeah, okay. I
’
ll take you home. At this rate, what
’
s the worst thing that c
ould happen?"

I screwed up my face in an expression of disbelief. "Did you really just say that out loud? Cripes! Oh my God! Just- just take me home," I sputtered.

"You know, your mother is going to be pissed off at me for taking you away without letting h
er talk to you first."

"She can come for a visit. She knows where I live," I replied tartly.

"What about figuring out what
’
s happened to you? I can't take you home without knowing whether or not you're going to be okay."

He was stubborn. I'd give him that.

"Again, my Mother knows where I live. She can examine me there. Heph, I just want to go home and be in a familiar, safe place. The world just went upside down and I need an anchor. It's not here."

He paused and scrutinized me closely, not saying a word.
I stared back in what I hoped was a defiant manner. I knew that saying it wasn't safe here had scored a hit to his pride. This time I wasn't keeping score. I just wanted to go home.

"Okay. I'll do it."

"Thank you," I said quietly.