Fort Morgan (28 page)

“
I dare!” Athena
said.

“
You love war!” Zeus
said.

“
War without love is
butchery,” Athena said. “There is no wisdom or honor in
it.”

The entire court erupted.
Angry voices shouted at each other. The man Eurybia had called
“Orion” grinned at his lover. She and her identical twin
smiled
back at
him. They sat down in unison.

“
And you?” Zeus asked. He
pointed to the Titans.

“
We understand your
dilemma,” Cronus said.

“
But disagree with your
decision,” Crius, Jill’s grandfather, said.

Zeus howled with rage, and the court yelled
back. Jill felt a hand on her arm.

“
He won’t notice if
you. . .” Eurybia nodded toward where Hedone’s spirit
stood.

“
Go on, dear,” Crius
said.

“
This is your chance,
sister,” Hecate said.

“
Go with her,” Fin said to
Tanesha.

Tanesha nodded to Jill. Together, they went
up to where Hedone’s spirit stood. Jill stood in front of her
friend. Heather was nowhere to be found. Her spirit’s placid face
looked right through Jill and Tanesha. Jill touched Hedone’s
elbow.

And the Goddess Hedone gasped a breath.

Old and new

Hedone smiled at Jill. Her eyes glanced to
Tanesha.

“
Nice dress,” Hedone
said.

“
I could say the same to
you,” Tanesha said.

Hedone looked down at her golden dress and
scowled. Glancing at Tanesha, her eyes flicked to the courtroom
behind them. The court of Olympus was in disarray. The Titans were
shouting at Zeus, and the Olympian crowd was arguing with each
other. Tired of being challenged, Zeus randomly threw lightning
bolts. Hedone groaned and shook her head.

“
Ready to go home?” Hedone
asked. “To Denver, I mean. I know I am!”

“
Go?” Tanesha asked.
“They’re. . .”

“
They’re often like that,”
Hedone said. “What started it?”

“
Zeus wanted to keep you
here in Olympus,” Jill said.

“
That would do it,” Hedone
said with a smile and a nod. “How did I get here?”

“
You were shot,” Jill
said.

“
Shot? Me?” Hedone asked.
“Who would shoot me?”

“
The guy who financed the
websites that sold the rape videos,” Tanesha said. “You know, and
Sandy’s videos,too. He tried to steal my mom and make her his
slave, and he paid someone to shoot you and Tink — but don’t worry,
he didn’t get Tink — and. . .”

Hedone gave a solemn nod.

“
Shall we go now?” Hedone
asked.

“
You don’t care?” Jill
asked.

“
If we want to get out of
here, we’d do well to go now,” Hedone said. “Who started
it?”

“
My father’s parents,”
Jill said.

“
Crius and Eurybia?”
Hedone smiled. “They are good friends. I assume Artemis and Apollo
were the ones who pushed it over the edge.”

“
Those guys.” Tanesha
pointed to where the twins and their friend were laughing and
talking to each other. They seemed oblivious to the hysterics being
played out in front of them.

“
They remind me of
someone,” Jill said. “I just can’t place it.”

“
Seriously?” Hedone asked.
“Male-female identical twins and their handsome friend. You can’t
place them?”

“
Yeah,” Jill said.
“Familiar, but. . .”

Hedone laughed. She looked up into the crowd
and the twins waved.

“
We should get out of
here,” Hedone said.

“
But. . .”
Tanesha said.

“
Now,” Hedone
said.

She waved to the twins and the male twin,
Apollo, jumped down to the center of the court.

“
We demand that this
matter be brought before the entire court,” Apollo said.

“
I don’t have to do what
you ask. . .” Zeus railed at Apollo. He began to scream,
“You are not Zeus!”

Apollo glanced at Hedone.

“
Now,” Hedone
said.

She grabbed Jill’s left elbow and Tanesha’s
right elbow. The next thing they knew, they were standing at the
nursery at Saint Joseph’s Hospital in Denver.

“
Do you know which one is
mine?” Hedone asked.

Jill pointed to a baby near the back.

“
Tink took him to Seth’s,”
Jill said. “They’d just brought him back to the hospital when I got
here to help you.”

“
He’s very beautiful,”
Hedone smiled.

The Goddess leaned forward to get a better
look at her son.

“
Um, Heather?” Tanesha
asked.

She pointed to Hedone’s golden dress.

“
And your
skin. . .” Tanesha touched Hedone’s gold-tinted
arm.

“
Where is my husband?”
Hedone asked.

“
He’s. . .” Jill
started.

Hedone grabbed her and Tanesha’s elbows.
They were standing at the protective glass in Blane’s room. Blane
was pacing back and forth in his room. Seeing them, he came up to
the window.

“
Heather?” Blane
asked.

“
Hedone,” the Goddess
said.

“
Heather told me I might
meet you one day,” Blane said.

“
Did she give you a
message?” the Goddess asked.

“
She told me to tell you
that your soul and mine were mated in this lifetime,” Blane said.
“We are soul mated for all time.”

“
What about Psyche?”
Hedone asked. The Goddess sneered at the mention of her mother’s
name.

“
Your mother is off with
your father,” Blane said.

“
On whose authority?”
Hedone asked.

“
Perses,” Blane
said.

Hedone didn’t respond. She stared at
Blane.

“
Your soul. . .”
Hedone said. She touched her chest. “. . . and
me?”

“
We have two sons and a
teenage daughter,” Blane said. “I’m recovering
from. . .”

Hedone cut him off with a quick nod. She
held her hand up to the glass. Blane looked at her gold-tinged hand
for a moment before putting his up on the other side of the glass.
Hedone and Blane locked eyes. For a moment, it seemed like the
whole world stopped moving. Hedone smiled.

“
I love you,” Hedone said
with a wide grin. “Me! I actually
love
you!”

She spun in place with joy.

“
And you love me?” Hedone
asked.

“
I do,” Blane
said.

There was a mighty crack of light, and Zeus
appeared. Hedone groaned.

“
I will never allow this,”
Zeus said. He shook his fists at Hedone. “A human! A human! Hedone
— are you mad?”

Hedone looked at Tanesha and Jill.

“
You have to save me,”
Hedone said under her breath.

“
How?” Tanesha
asked.

“
You have defied me for
the last time!” Zeus said and stepped toward Hedone.

Jill touched his forearm as he passed.

“
Sir?” Jill
asked.

The ruler turned to look into her eyes. For
a moment, they stared at each other. The great Zeus took a full
breath. And then another. He was still staring at Jill when Apollo
and Artemis appeared. They looked from Zeus to Jill. Apollo clapped
Jill on the back.

“
Well done,” Artemis said
in a low tone to Jill. In a louder voice, she said, “Come on, Zeus.
Let’s get you home.”

“
Home?” Zeus looked up
from Jill to see Artemis for the first time. His face broke out
into a big smile, and he said, “Hera.”

He smiled at Jill. Artemis put her hand on
Zeus’s arm, and the three disappeared.

“
I knew you could do it,”
Hedone said. “Now, where is my human body?”

Tanesha and Jill guided Hedone to the
Recovery Room.

“
Oh I wondered where you’d
gone,” the Recovery nurse said.

Jill and Tanesha blocked the nurse’s view of
Heather.

“
My father needed some
help,” Jill said.

“
Nice dress,” the recovery
nurse said. She smiled at Tanesha. “You’re Miss T.”

“
Yes, ma’am,” Tanesha
said. “Heather is my best friend.”

The nurse moved past Tanesha to the bed.
When they turned, they noticed that Heather’s skin shone with a
slight golden light.

“
She’s waking up,” the
nurse said. She leaned over Heather, “Heather? Can you hear
us?”

Heather nodded.

“
Give me a minute,” the
nurse said. She pushed Jill and Tanesha away from the bed and
pulled the curtain closed.

“
What did you do?” Tanesha
asked in a low voice.

“
I made Zeus grow up,”
Jill said with a smile.

Tanesha clapped her hands together and
laughed. Jill nodded.

“
Ladies?” The Recovery
nurse pushed the curtain back. “Heather would love to see you.
Because of the surgery, she cannot speak.”

As they passed her, the nurse touched Jill’s
arm.

“
No drama,” the nurse
said. “She’s weak and has been through hell. She has a long way to
come back from all of this.”

“
We’ll be careful,” Jill
said.

“
We love her,” Tanesha
said.

The nurse nodded and let them pass.

“
Heather?” Tanesha
said.

Heather held up her right hand. Tanesha
grabbed her right hand. Jill went to Heather’s left side. Unable to
speak, Heather pointed to Tanesha’s dress.

“
We were in Olympia,”
Tanesha whispered.

Heather made her eyes go wide with surprise.
She gestured for them to tell her everything. So they did.

~~~~~~~~

Sunday morning — 8:25 a.m.

Phoenix, Arizona

“
What are you thinking?”
Mari asked Otis.

He was standing in front of the bedroom’s
full-length mirror, tightening his tie. He looked through the
mirror to her. She was standing by the edge of the bed. She had
changed back into the pink tutu uniform of the Fairy Corps. She was
so lovely that he smiled.

“
I was thinking about the
girl who drove me here,” Otis said. He turned his attention back to
his tie. “She loved me.”

He nodded to himself and turned around.

“
I’ll never lie to you,”
Otis said. “But I wonder, have I hurt you?”

“
No,” Mari smiled. Her
hands were up as she fixed her long hair into a bun. “I like that
you don’t lie.”

He smiled.

“
Would you like to know
where your driver is?” Mari asked.

“
It’s been two days?” Otis
asked.

“
Day and a half,” Mari
said.

“
I imagine she’s in
Silverton,” Otis said.

Mari grinned.

“
Did you do something to
her?” Otis asked.

“
I felt badly for the
girl,” Mari said. “I effectively stole her rich boyfriend from her.
That’s not a very nice thing to do to another girl. Us girls have
to stick together.”

Otis smiled and walked to her.

“
Why don’t you use magic
to hold up your hair?” Otis asked.

“
It either stays too
long,” Mari said. “Or falls down when you don’t want it to. One
time I was late, and Abi was mad, so I cast a hasty spell to put it
up. It was up in a bun for more than a hundred years. Abi laughed
every time she saw me.”

“
Not a long time for a
fairy, but too long for a bun,” Otis said with a nod.

He kissed the back of her neck.

“
Exactly,” Mari
said.

“
And my driver?” Otis
asked.

“
She met a guy on the
plane back to Denver,” Mari said. “He was taking a spontaneous trip
to Denver. It’s true love. They are driving from Denver to
Silverton as we speak.”

“
They’ll be happy
together?” Otis asked.

“
Very,” Mari smiled. “It
doesn’t hurt that she has the money you left for her. Well, and the
Silverton house is gorgeous.”

“
That’s very good,” Otis
said with a nod. “Thank you.”

“
Will you buy me a house?”
Mari asked.

“
Do you want a house?”
Otis smiled.

“
Maybe.”

“
Where would you have a
house?” Otis asked with a grin.

There was a noise from the main room of the
suite. Otis’s eyes shifted to the door of this bedroom.

“
I was planning on
slipping out of here,” Mari said. “But I realize that’s not the
best thing for you.”

“
I’ll be fine,” Otis
said.

Mari held her wand over her head. In a blink
of an eye, she was standing in a floor-length, rust-colored fox
jacket. Her practical fairy corps shoes had turned into five inch
stilettos. She pulled the jacket up around her face. With a wave of
her hand, she was wearing overstated make up. Otis scowled at
her.

“
Yes, I’m aware that I
look like a prostitute,” Mari grinned. “You’re my high-class
client.”