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“Found something better to do with your time?” I asked again, trying to get him to open up, to tell me what was going on.
“It’s not that.” Heracles swallowed loudly over the phone. “I love training with you. It’s just…empty.” His voice drifted off.
It hurt to hear him pull away, an ache settling in my gut. “Yeah, that’s not an insult at all.”
Heracles snickered. “I know you better than to think you bruise easily.” He took a deep breath and sighed. “It’s just not that easy to step down and let someone else be the hero. I’m tired of being behind the scenes. It kills me to see you fight for your life, but I can’t do anything more to help you.”
My gut tightened at hearing the pain in his voice, his longing to do more. “So, what? You decided not to be a hero anymore?”
“Not quite like that,” he said without hesitation.
I frowned. “Are you doing…hero work?”
Heracles’s laughter boomed through the phone. “We’re not in a movie, Elyse. But yes. Hero work, if that’s what you want to call it. I just want to feel like there’s more to my life again, and there is so much crime and ugliness in this world that could use a bit of divine intervention. I’ve been training you Lowes for centuries. It’s been great, but you’re all grown up now and kicking the kind of ass I’d battle if I could. And if I’m forbidden from aiding you, I can’t sit back and do nothing. A guy needs a hobby, you know?”
I smiled, understanding what he was saying. This was Heracles, the legendary hero who’d completed twelve labors. Hell, he’d defeated the Nemean Lion, captured the Erymanthian boar, and even killed the Lernean Hydra. He was the son of Zeus! So as much as it hurt to hear him following his own line of heroism, I couldn’t blame him.
“Don’t forget about me when you’re all big and famous,” I said. “And I want to meet up when you’re free.”
When he answered me, I heard the smile in his voice.
“I won’t be famous. You’ll always be my little prodigy, and you won’t get rid of me that easily.”
He laughed again, a deep rumble in his chest that I’d come to know and love. Heracles was like a second father to me. He’d taken over everything when I lost my family. Not just the mentoring, but he’d been the person I turned to for everything. It wasn’t that I didn’t need him anymore—Heracles would always be family to me. But I understood he needed more.
I could only imagine how much it exhausted him to do the same thing for centuries on end. Heracles was a better man—or god—than the rest of them put together.
After I ended the call, I pushed into a jog. But a longing danced through my chest, a feeling as if I’d somehow lost Heracles from my life. Which was ridiculous. He pulled away weeks ago, but to hear him say he was going sat on my shoulders like a boulder. I had no people in my life I considered close, and it terrified me to lose Heracles. But who was I to stop him from following his passion?
Remembering X and my mission, I decided, I’d order two blades: a katana and a scythe for good measure, once I arrived home.
I appreciated irony as much as the next person and going up to the Greek version of the Grim Reaper with a scythe sounded like pure poetry to my ears.
The weapons would be easy enough to order. With a credit card, you could do anything these days. World domination? Sure, are you paying by MasterCard or Visa? Getting these tools should have been harder, but the Lowe family had never struggled to buy them. Maybe it was a god thing. We had Zeus’s special attention. I supposed it helped to have friends in high places.
After running ten blocks, I stopped and caught my breath as I adjusted my backpack, which kept getting tangled with my dark braid. My hair reached my hips, since I never cut it. After all the blood I’d gotten in it during my last few fights, I considered cutting it to an easier length to maintain, but I didn’t want to get rid of the length. My mom used to have long hair, and in a way, it reminded me of her.
This was the first time I’d grown it so long, and when I braided the hair, it was out of the way for the most part.
I flashed on an image of Hades wrapping my braid around his hand, pulling my head back so he could kiss my neck while he fucked me in the training center.
It wasn’t because of him I wasn’t cutting it. But God, that had been hot as hell. Everything about him left me breathless.
Which was exactly why I had to stop thinking about him—he brought trouble in more ways than one. He was my weakness and something about him drew me to him. But he was also the downfall of this Earth, from what I could see.
I didn’t want to believe he was capable of something so horrific as X. But just because I didn’t want it to be that way wouldn’t magically make it so. I had to be realistic.
Which was why I’d stop thinking about him and get on with my day.
The streets were quiet as I passed more shopfronts. A young couple walked out of a bakery, holding hands, exchanging smiles. The man carried a bag of pastries. As much as I craved such a simple life, I refused to torture myself with what I couldn’t have. I accepted I’d never have a human future, not with the power coursing through me and four gods in my life. Letting myself ponder what my future could possibly be was foolish when I wasn’t even sure how I’d defeat X. And that was priority, not silly dreams of happy endings.
Soon enough, I was in a back alley, taking photos of gorgeous graffiti of an old man’s head with fish swimming out of his ears that a nameless street artist had spray painted on an old brick building. While I had no clue what it meant, as long as it made sense to the artist that was what mattered.
A sudden cloud of darkness surrounded me.
My heart raced. I stumbled and caught myself on the wall. This fog didn’t feel like X. The darkness seemed as if it were inside of me, resonating with something familiar, and I swallowed hard, trying to stay awake and on my feet. Heaviness sank through my body, the sensation growing denser inside me, almost dragging me under. I scanned the alley on either side of me. No sign of anyone else.
Energy hummed over my flesh, calling me, and fear bubbled in my chest. The kind that screamed tofight!
