(no subject)
I didn't mean to go so long without posting. My other sister had her baby! Pictures to come later.
The Damsel and the Distressed
Chapter Four
CHAPTER FOUR
My eyes were closed tightly as I waited for the sword to come down, my hands and shoulders up around my head as if they could keep the end from coming. I waited like that a beat in silence, expecting that any moment would be my last. After a few seconds of silence however, during which my head stayed firmly on my shoulders, I began to open my eyes. I couldn't believe what I was seeing.
In front of me, Asher stood perfectly still, the sword mere inches from the top of my head. The look on his face was fierce; his mouth was open and his eyes tightened down in determined slits. I stepped out of the swords way and made my way behind him, touching his shoulder first then finally poking him in the ribs to see if he would move. He stayed perfectly still, arms in the air, chest out. A perfect living statue.
I looked at Thalia to see if she had any part in this only to see her looking back at me, stock still and unblinking. She too was frozen. There went that theory.
Suddenly the world started up again and Asher's sword crashed to the ground, a slit cut in the dirt where I'd been standing only a moment before. Without even thinking, I reached up and smacked him in the back of the head as hard as I could.
“What the hell you do you think you're doing?” I screeched, and he turned to me in shock. “You could have killed me, you idiot!”
The sword clambered to the ground, forgotten by its owner as he stood there staring at me, his mouth a perfect 'oh' of amazement. Then, to my surprise, he smiled.
“You have them,” he said, as if he couldn't believe it. Behind him Thalia was smiling. “You have the old ways.”
I looked to Thalia in confusion.
“Magic. You have magic, Gracie,” she said.
My mouth opened as if to say something but no words came out. I shut it again, looking from one of them to the other in hopes that one of them would say something that would make sense for once. They didn't, so I did the logical thing.
I started to laugh.
When I'd calmed down enough, we made plans to leave the forest, with Asher explaining that there was a safe house nearby that we could escape to. There they would “decide what to do about me” (Asher's words), as if I was their child who had been caught doing either something spectacularly bad... or good. I wasn't completely sure which yet.
We left the cave slowly, with Asher taking the lead to ensure that we once again were alone. Once he'd signaled to us that was the case, we followed him out, stepping carefully to avoid the rocks that surrounded the caves entrance.
“You're going to have to do something about those,” I said to Thalia, watching her step over a rock in her five inch heels. She sighed sadly, looking at them.
“I suppose you're right. Trainers might be best, but not with this outfit.”
I blinked and she was wearing a pair of blue jeans and a bright pink t-shirt. Her tennis shoes were a pristine white, so bright that they seemed to glow in the early morning sun. I couldn't help it, I laughed again.
“What?” Thalia asked, but she was smiling faintly as if she understood more than she let on.
“I will never get used to that,” I said, shaking my head.
“Are you going to come on or not?” Asher's voice came from behind us. I rolled my eyes and turned back to him, my hands firmly on my hips..
“Now look you, I know that you're used to getting your way. I know that you've got a little lady back at home that jumps when you say how high. But I am not that lady, understand?” He stared at me a minute then, amazingly, he began to laugh. My hands left my hips to clench into fists at my side. Beside me, Thalia was watching us both as if we were the most amusing thing she'd ever seen.
“I am in charge, girl. No doubt about that.”
“And why's that exactly?” I asked. He laughed again as if the answer should have been obvious.
“Because I have a sword, and you don't.”
I smiled, aware of how smug I must have looked and not caring in the least. This guy was insufferable. If he wasn't careful, I just might club him over the head with a rock when he wasn't looking.
“Well I have magic, and you don't.” I said. It took everything in me to keep from adding, “So suck on that!”
His smile slipped off, his face becoming hard as stone, then he turned on his heels and began to walk away into the woods. Thalia and I scurried to keep up with him, hiding our laughter behind our hands as we went.
“Too much?” I whispered. Asher kept walking, ignoring us both.
We walked for ages through the woods, stepping over fallen tree limbs and making our way through patches of grass that came up to our knees. Thalia fared much better in her sneakers than she would have in her heels, but I got the feeling that she hated them nonetheless. Asher, meanwhile, spent the entire time seemingly pretending as if neither one of us existed.
After about thirty minutes of walking, the trees began to clear out a bit and the grass began to be shorter. There were less tree limbs for me to trip over as well, which made me happy for obvious reasons. Finally we came upon a little cottage in the woods. I knew from what he had said and the last part I'd been reading where we were straight away: Moira's home, one of a few safe houses for the rebels to stay and where Selene should be currently.
It wasn't exactly like what I had imagined reading the book, but it was close enough. Tall with a crooked roof and uneven eaves, it was more old shack than fairytale cottage. The roof was a faded, mute green that dipped in the middle as if it was ready to collapse at any moment but the front door was a hard, solid brown. It looked as sturdy and unforgiving as Asher's back which was currently right in front of me. I followed him up to the front door and waited with Thalia while he knocked.
“Who is it?” came a voice from the other side of the door. It sounded old and suspicious.
“Asher. The password is rebel one.”
I snorted.
“Very original. They'll never figure that one out,” I said and Asher gave me a look that told me to keep my mouth shut. Clearly, he didn't know me at all.
A hole in the door slid open and two sharp brown eyes peered out, looking from Asher first then to myself and Thalia.
“Who's with you?” she asked.
“Friends,” Asher replied. I had to fight the urge to snort again.
The old woman looked at us from the hole in the door a moment longer, as if she still wasn't convinced she should open it. Then the hole slid shut with a bang. It was several seconds before we could hear her fiddling with the door to open it.
“In quickly,” she hissed, looking around us in the woods to make sure we hadn't been followed. I scurried in after Asher with Thalia quick on my heels, then stood around awkwardly (my specialty, apparently) as I waited to find out why we were here.
The woman, Moira, shut the door and locked its three different locks. I didn't remember this woman very well from the books, except that I had found her funny and a bit eccentric. Now that I was right in front of her though, the words 'a bit' seemed to be an understatement.
She turned away from the door, her gray hair a tangled mess that jutted out from her head like the hair on an unkempt doll. Her eyes, brown and large, were pushed down in suspicious slits and her eyebrows, or eyebrow as it were, were thick and heavy and the same gray as her hair. She lifted one as she looked at Thalia, recognizing her straight away.
“The Muse!” she said, her voice cracking. “I thought your kind__”
“Wasn't supposed to get involved, Sheesh,” Thalia said before she smiled to take the sting out of her words. “I'm not really. I'm just here to make sure Gracie finds you safely.”
“Gracie?” Moira's keen eyes switched to me. “I'm guessing that's you then.”
She stepped up to me to examine me, her eyes taking in my unusual clothes and what must by now by my leaf infested hair. Finally her eyes swung up to my own and there they stopped, frozen. After a moment she backed up and when she spoke, her voice wavered at first as if scared.
“Her... her eyes,” she said flatly. “They're green.”
“Actually they're hazel,” I corrected but she only looked at me, horrified.
Asher stepped up to her and placed his hand on her shaking shoulders. She trembled beneath his hand but didn't take her eyes away from mine.
“She's not one of The Eyes,” he said, which I knew to be the name Aella's men went by. Aella often possessed people and the only telltale sign of it was that the eyes of the person possessed would change from brown to green (green eyes signified that the bearer was capable of magic). I could see why she would be a bit, well, put off by me.
“She's a Keeper?” she asked, still looking at me as if I was untrustworthy. “How? How is that possible?”
“She's not a Keeper either. Not quite.” He looked at Thalia as she might help him but she merely stood there smiling, her arms crossed over the front of pink shirt. She gestured him on and he turned away, looking irritated.
“Does she possess the old ways, though?” Moira asked, and now her voice was changing to hopeful. She shrugged his hand away and took a step closer to me, once again looking into my eyes.
“She does. I've seen it for myself,” Asher said. Moira suddenly smiled, revealing several missing teeth.
“Then she's it. She's the one!”
Asher nodded, but otherwise looked thoroughly unconvinced of my awesomeness.
“Ok, wait,” I said. Asher turned towards me with his arms crossed over his chest.
“Here we go again,” he said, rubbing his forehead in irritation. I ignored him. I was getting better at it.
“So I understand that people with green eyes have magic. And I understand that somehow, I have magic. But what I don't understand is this chosen crap. Who chose me? Why am I the one? And what does that even mean?”
It was Thalia who stepped in to answer, though it was pretty clear by the looks on their faces that they all knew something I didn't.
“To be honest with you, I don't know the answer to most of those questions. The only one I can even begin to answer is the last one. The one Moira speaks of is the forgotten one, the one piece of the puzzle that until now has been unaccounted for. The forgotten one is the only one who has the ability to stop Aella. That is you, Gracie.”
My head spun as it tried to process what she was saying; my brain seemed to be moving at a thousand miles an hour and still it couldn't keep up. I swayed where I was standing and the world grew darker as I began to see spots. So, this was what if felt like to have a complete mental breakdown. Nice to know.
Asher grabbed my shoulders (I must have been pretty out of it to let him) and steered me to a small wooden chair nearby. I collapsed into it, my bones feeling like they were made out of rubber and my legs to weak to hold me another second.
“Me?” I said, after I'd had a moment to think. It was a thought my brain seemed to be stuck on. Like an object in the middle of a dark room, my mind kept tripping over it.“Why me? I don't even like these books that much.” Not to mention the fact that I hadn't even completed college and currently spent the majority of my time selling sandwiches in a chicken suit. I wasn't exactly heroine material, at least not in the strictest sense.
“I don't know,” Thalia said, and for once I believed everything she was saying. There was no possible double meaning to her words, no ulterior motive hidden under her voice. If she was lying, she was a damn good actress, better than I could have even imagined. I believed her, but then again I wanted to. After all, she was the only person I had with me that I could remotely trust. Asher had already tried to kill me once and Moira still wasn't sure if I was her enemy or her savior.
Suddenly something occurred to me out of nowhere, just as things often did. (I have a very scattered mind that seems to cough up information at the most inopportune moments. I guess “standing around awkwardly” does have its upside.)
“Where's Selene?” I asked. Asher straightened a bit as if the thought hadn't occurred to him before. What a good boyfriend he was.
“Lying down, I assume?” he asked Moira. She just blinked at him, confused.
“Selene hasn't been here. Why would she be?”
Asher's face tightened as if he'd been struck.
“I sent her here a few hours ago. She should have been here by now.” He bolted for the door but Thalia stepped in front of him, blocking his way.
“She's been taken by Aella's men. We heard them talking in the woods before you came.” I looked at her behind Asher's back and when he glanced down to rub his head she gave me a look as if daring me to defy her. I knew enough to keep my mouth shut, at least until I found out why she was lying. Thalia continued, “She's on her way to the palace now.”
“Then I have to rescue her,” Asher said, and tried to side step Thalia. Again, she stepped in his way.
“That's very valiant and hero-y of you Asher but how exactly do you plan to take her away from Aella?”
Asher looked away a moment then back again. His back, which was most of what I could see of him, was as rigid as Thalia's was relaxed. I stood up from my chair and crossed the room to stand next to her, almost feeling bad for him despite the way he had treated me.
“She's my sister,” he said finally, as if he had trouble with the words. “I'll appeal to that part of her.”
“She killed your family, without hesitation or remorse. Do you honestly think that will work?”
Asher looked at her straight in the eyes, his own blazing with conviction I doubt he truly felt.
“It has to.”
“There is another option.”
Asher and I both looked at her, and by the look on his face it was clear he was as clueless as I was. Thalia let us both hang a moment before she went on.
“Take Gracie with you.”
We both reacted in similar ways, with him looking confused and me outright grimacing. Not to sound mean but I didn't know this Selene chick very well at all (and what I did know of her annoyed me greatly) so I couldn't see a reason why I should have to help rescue her. Nor did I feel like I should have to help with the whole Aella situation either. Besides getting my brother back, I had no business in this world and no connection to it. Or, as my father would have said, I didn't have a dog in that race.
Thalia saw our reactions and continued quickly, as if she was afraid we might storm out or stop listening to her. I can't say that I wasn't entertaining the idea.
“Think about it. Asher, she is the only one with magic and therefore the only person who can defeat Aella and save Selene. And Gracie, you need someone strong to protect you, someone who can escort you to the Narrator's palace and then to Aella to save Oliver.” She smiled at us both brightly and Asher and I exchanged unconvinced looks. “It's perfect!”
“That's not quite the word I would use,” Asher said sullenly.
“Wait a minute,” I said, confused all over again. “What's this about a Narrator? And I don't need an escort. I have you!”
Thalia shook her head.
“...I don't have you,” I said, growing all the more confused. Thalia patted me on the arm, but delicately as if didn't enjoy doing it.
“Well you do,” she said, smiling before correcting herself, “Or you will. Anyways, I can't help it. There's a bit of a situation and I'm needed elsewhere now but I'll be back with you soon and...”
But she didn't even have a chance to finish her sentence before I cut her off.
“You dragged me here and now you're just going to leave me?” the 'with him' was implied but apparently wasn't as subtle as I thought, as Asher took offense to it right away.
“The feeling is mutual, believe me,” he said.
“You were rude first,” I bit back at him. Thalia put her hand to her head and shook it, rubbing her face in irritation.
“All right that's enough.” We ignored her, continuing on with the sniping.
“Don't think you can talk to me anyway you please,” he said, stepping up to me.
“I'd like to see you try to stop me,” I said with a dangerous smile.
I heard Thalia take a deep breath beside me and thought she was going to try to reason with us again. I had no way of knowing that she was going to explode. Quite nearly literally.
Suddenly a large bang came from Thalia's direction. Fire flew from her hands, flames collecting at her fingertips and surrounding her like an aura. Her face was somehow even more beautiful in the intensity of the fire's glow. In that moment I could see her as what she really was: a terrifying goddess, capable of anything.
Asher and I stopped fighting mid sentence to stare at her.
“I said I've had enough. You need each other, whether you like it or not. Now both of you, put on your big girl knickers and do what you need to do to save the ones you love. Do I make myself clear?”
“Yes ma'am,” I said, my throat clicking as I swallowed. Asher nodded, a short jut of his head.
“Good,” she said and shook her hands to put them out. The glow around her ceased immediately as she faded back to her normal self, with not a hair out of place.“Don't make me do that again. I don't like it.”
It was quiet for a long minute as we considered the implications of what we had agreed to.
“So, how are we going to do this?” I asked, once enough time had gone by that I thought Thalia wouldn't set me on fire for asking. Moira walked over to me, moving slowly as if her legs hurt her and leaning on the left heavily. She put her hand down on my shoulder and smiled her nearly toothless grin at me.
“I've been thinking. I think I've got a plan.”
The Damsel and the Distressed
Chapter Four
CHAPTER FOUR
My eyes were closed tightly as I waited for the sword to come down, my hands and shoulders up around my head as if they could keep the end from coming. I waited like that a beat in silence, expecting that any moment would be my last. After a few seconds of silence however, during which my head stayed firmly on my shoulders, I began to open my eyes. I couldn't believe what I was seeing.
In front of me, Asher stood perfectly still, the sword mere inches from the top of my head. The look on his face was fierce; his mouth was open and his eyes tightened down in determined slits. I stepped out of the swords way and made my way behind him, touching his shoulder first then finally poking him in the ribs to see if he would move. He stayed perfectly still, arms in the air, chest out. A perfect living statue.
I looked at Thalia to see if she had any part in this only to see her looking back at me, stock still and unblinking. She too was frozen. There went that theory.
Suddenly the world started up again and Asher's sword crashed to the ground, a slit cut in the dirt where I'd been standing only a moment before. Without even thinking, I reached up and smacked him in the back of the head as hard as I could.
“What the hell you do you think you're doing?” I screeched, and he turned to me in shock. “You could have killed me, you idiot!”
The sword clambered to the ground, forgotten by its owner as he stood there staring at me, his mouth a perfect 'oh' of amazement. Then, to my surprise, he smiled.
“You have them,” he said, as if he couldn't believe it. Behind him Thalia was smiling. “You have the old ways.”
I looked to Thalia in confusion.
“Magic. You have magic, Gracie,” she said.
My mouth opened as if to say something but no words came out. I shut it again, looking from one of them to the other in hopes that one of them would say something that would make sense for once. They didn't, so I did the logical thing.
I started to laugh.
When I'd calmed down enough, we made plans to leave the forest, with Asher explaining that there was a safe house nearby that we could escape to. There they would “decide what to do about me” (Asher's words), as if I was their child who had been caught doing either something spectacularly bad... or good. I wasn't completely sure which yet.
We left the cave slowly, with Asher taking the lead to ensure that we once again were alone. Once he'd signaled to us that was the case, we followed him out, stepping carefully to avoid the rocks that surrounded the caves entrance.
“You're going to have to do something about those,” I said to Thalia, watching her step over a rock in her five inch heels. She sighed sadly, looking at them.
“I suppose you're right. Trainers might be best, but not with this outfit.”
I blinked and she was wearing a pair of blue jeans and a bright pink t-shirt. Her tennis shoes were a pristine white, so bright that they seemed to glow in the early morning sun. I couldn't help it, I laughed again.
“What?” Thalia asked, but she was smiling faintly as if she understood more than she let on.
“I will never get used to that,” I said, shaking my head.
“Are you going to come on or not?” Asher's voice came from behind us. I rolled my eyes and turned back to him, my hands firmly on my hips..
“Now look you, I know that you're used to getting your way. I know that you've got a little lady back at home that jumps when you say how high. But I am not that lady, understand?” He stared at me a minute then, amazingly, he began to laugh. My hands left my hips to clench into fists at my side. Beside me, Thalia was watching us both as if we were the most amusing thing she'd ever seen.
“I am in charge, girl. No doubt about that.”
“And why's that exactly?” I asked. He laughed again as if the answer should have been obvious.
“Because I have a sword, and you don't.”
I smiled, aware of how smug I must have looked and not caring in the least. This guy was insufferable. If he wasn't careful, I just might club him over the head with a rock when he wasn't looking.
“Well I have magic, and you don't.” I said. It took everything in me to keep from adding, “So suck on that!”
His smile slipped off, his face becoming hard as stone, then he turned on his heels and began to walk away into the woods. Thalia and I scurried to keep up with him, hiding our laughter behind our hands as we went.
“Too much?” I whispered. Asher kept walking, ignoring us both.
We walked for ages through the woods, stepping over fallen tree limbs and making our way through patches of grass that came up to our knees. Thalia fared much better in her sneakers than she would have in her heels, but I got the feeling that she hated them nonetheless. Asher, meanwhile, spent the entire time seemingly pretending as if neither one of us existed.
After about thirty minutes of walking, the trees began to clear out a bit and the grass began to be shorter. There were less tree limbs for me to trip over as well, which made me happy for obvious reasons. Finally we came upon a little cottage in the woods. I knew from what he had said and the last part I'd been reading where we were straight away: Moira's home, one of a few safe houses for the rebels to stay and where Selene should be currently.
It wasn't exactly like what I had imagined reading the book, but it was close enough. Tall with a crooked roof and uneven eaves, it was more old shack than fairytale cottage. The roof was a faded, mute green that dipped in the middle as if it was ready to collapse at any moment but the front door was a hard, solid brown. It looked as sturdy and unforgiving as Asher's back which was currently right in front of me. I followed him up to the front door and waited with Thalia while he knocked.
“Who is it?” came a voice from the other side of the door. It sounded old and suspicious.
“Asher. The password is rebel one.”
I snorted.
“Very original. They'll never figure that one out,” I said and Asher gave me a look that told me to keep my mouth shut. Clearly, he didn't know me at all.
A hole in the door slid open and two sharp brown eyes peered out, looking from Asher first then to myself and Thalia.
“Who's with you?” she asked.
“Friends,” Asher replied. I had to fight the urge to snort again.
The old woman looked at us from the hole in the door a moment longer, as if she still wasn't convinced she should open it. Then the hole slid shut with a bang. It was several seconds before we could hear her fiddling with the door to open it.
“In quickly,” she hissed, looking around us in the woods to make sure we hadn't been followed. I scurried in after Asher with Thalia quick on my heels, then stood around awkwardly (my specialty, apparently) as I waited to find out why we were here.
The woman, Moira, shut the door and locked its three different locks. I didn't remember this woman very well from the books, except that I had found her funny and a bit eccentric. Now that I was right in front of her though, the words 'a bit' seemed to be an understatement.
She turned away from the door, her gray hair a tangled mess that jutted out from her head like the hair on an unkempt doll. Her eyes, brown and large, were pushed down in suspicious slits and her eyebrows, or eyebrow as it were, were thick and heavy and the same gray as her hair. She lifted one as she looked at Thalia, recognizing her straight away.
“The Muse!” she said, her voice cracking. “I thought your kind__”
“Wasn't supposed to get involved, Sheesh,” Thalia said before she smiled to take the sting out of her words. “I'm not really. I'm just here to make sure Gracie finds you safely.”
“Gracie?” Moira's keen eyes switched to me. “I'm guessing that's you then.”
She stepped up to me to examine me, her eyes taking in my unusual clothes and what must by now by my leaf infested hair. Finally her eyes swung up to my own and there they stopped, frozen. After a moment she backed up and when she spoke, her voice wavered at first as if scared.
“Her... her eyes,” she said flatly. “They're green.”
“Actually they're hazel,” I corrected but she only looked at me, horrified.
Asher stepped up to her and placed his hand on her shaking shoulders. She trembled beneath his hand but didn't take her eyes away from mine.
“She's not one of The Eyes,” he said, which I knew to be the name Aella's men went by. Aella often possessed people and the only telltale sign of it was that the eyes of the person possessed would change from brown to green (green eyes signified that the bearer was capable of magic). I could see why she would be a bit, well, put off by me.
“She's a Keeper?” she asked, still looking at me as if I was untrustworthy. “How? How is that possible?”
“She's not a Keeper either. Not quite.” He looked at Thalia as she might help him but she merely stood there smiling, her arms crossed over the front of pink shirt. She gestured him on and he turned away, looking irritated.
“Does she possess the old ways, though?” Moira asked, and now her voice was changing to hopeful. She shrugged his hand away and took a step closer to me, once again looking into my eyes.
“She does. I've seen it for myself,” Asher said. Moira suddenly smiled, revealing several missing teeth.
“Then she's it. She's the one!”
Asher nodded, but otherwise looked thoroughly unconvinced of my awesomeness.
“Ok, wait,” I said. Asher turned towards me with his arms crossed over his chest.
“Here we go again,” he said, rubbing his forehead in irritation. I ignored him. I was getting better at it.
“So I understand that people with green eyes have magic. And I understand that somehow, I have magic. But what I don't understand is this chosen crap. Who chose me? Why am I the one? And what does that even mean?”
It was Thalia who stepped in to answer, though it was pretty clear by the looks on their faces that they all knew something I didn't.
“To be honest with you, I don't know the answer to most of those questions. The only one I can even begin to answer is the last one. The one Moira speaks of is the forgotten one, the one piece of the puzzle that until now has been unaccounted for. The forgotten one is the only one who has the ability to stop Aella. That is you, Gracie.”
My head spun as it tried to process what she was saying; my brain seemed to be moving at a thousand miles an hour and still it couldn't keep up. I swayed where I was standing and the world grew darker as I began to see spots. So, this was what if felt like to have a complete mental breakdown. Nice to know.
Asher grabbed my shoulders (I must have been pretty out of it to let him) and steered me to a small wooden chair nearby. I collapsed into it, my bones feeling like they were made out of rubber and my legs to weak to hold me another second.
“Me?” I said, after I'd had a moment to think. It was a thought my brain seemed to be stuck on. Like an object in the middle of a dark room, my mind kept tripping over it.“Why me? I don't even like these books that much.” Not to mention the fact that I hadn't even completed college and currently spent the majority of my time selling sandwiches in a chicken suit. I wasn't exactly heroine material, at least not in the strictest sense.
“I don't know,” Thalia said, and for once I believed everything she was saying. There was no possible double meaning to her words, no ulterior motive hidden under her voice. If she was lying, she was a damn good actress, better than I could have even imagined. I believed her, but then again I wanted to. After all, she was the only person I had with me that I could remotely trust. Asher had already tried to kill me once and Moira still wasn't sure if I was her enemy or her savior.
Suddenly something occurred to me out of nowhere, just as things often did. (I have a very scattered mind that seems to cough up information at the most inopportune moments. I guess “standing around awkwardly” does have its upside.)
“Where's Selene?” I asked. Asher straightened a bit as if the thought hadn't occurred to him before. What a good boyfriend he was.
“Lying down, I assume?” he asked Moira. She just blinked at him, confused.
“Selene hasn't been here. Why would she be?”
Asher's face tightened as if he'd been struck.
“I sent her here a few hours ago. She should have been here by now.” He bolted for the door but Thalia stepped in front of him, blocking his way.
“She's been taken by Aella's men. We heard them talking in the woods before you came.” I looked at her behind Asher's back and when he glanced down to rub his head she gave me a look as if daring me to defy her. I knew enough to keep my mouth shut, at least until I found out why she was lying. Thalia continued, “She's on her way to the palace now.”
“Then I have to rescue her,” Asher said, and tried to side step Thalia. Again, she stepped in his way.
“That's very valiant and hero-y of you Asher but how exactly do you plan to take her away from Aella?”
Asher looked away a moment then back again. His back, which was most of what I could see of him, was as rigid as Thalia's was relaxed. I stood up from my chair and crossed the room to stand next to her, almost feeling bad for him despite the way he had treated me.
“She's my sister,” he said finally, as if he had trouble with the words. “I'll appeal to that part of her.”
“She killed your family, without hesitation or remorse. Do you honestly think that will work?”
Asher looked at her straight in the eyes, his own blazing with conviction I doubt he truly felt.
“It has to.”
“There is another option.”
Asher and I both looked at her, and by the look on his face it was clear he was as clueless as I was. Thalia let us both hang a moment before she went on.
“Take Gracie with you.”
We both reacted in similar ways, with him looking confused and me outright grimacing. Not to sound mean but I didn't know this Selene chick very well at all (and what I did know of her annoyed me greatly) so I couldn't see a reason why I should have to help rescue her. Nor did I feel like I should have to help with the whole Aella situation either. Besides getting my brother back, I had no business in this world and no connection to it. Or, as my father would have said, I didn't have a dog in that race.
Thalia saw our reactions and continued quickly, as if she was afraid we might storm out or stop listening to her. I can't say that I wasn't entertaining the idea.
“Think about it. Asher, she is the only one with magic and therefore the only person who can defeat Aella and save Selene. And Gracie, you need someone strong to protect you, someone who can escort you to the Narrator's palace and then to Aella to save Oliver.” She smiled at us both brightly and Asher and I exchanged unconvinced looks. “It's perfect!”
“That's not quite the word I would use,” Asher said sullenly.
“Wait a minute,” I said, confused all over again. “What's this about a Narrator? And I don't need an escort. I have you!”
Thalia shook her head.
“...I don't have you,” I said, growing all the more confused. Thalia patted me on the arm, but delicately as if didn't enjoy doing it.
“Well you do,” she said, smiling before correcting herself, “Or you will. Anyways, I can't help it. There's a bit of a situation and I'm needed elsewhere now but I'll be back with you soon and...”
But she didn't even have a chance to finish her sentence before I cut her off.
“You dragged me here and now you're just going to leave me?” the 'with him' was implied but apparently wasn't as subtle as I thought, as Asher took offense to it right away.
“The feeling is mutual, believe me,” he said.
“You were rude first,” I bit back at him. Thalia put her hand to her head and shook it, rubbing her face in irritation.
“All right that's enough.” We ignored her, continuing on with the sniping.
“Don't think you can talk to me anyway you please,” he said, stepping up to me.
“I'd like to see you try to stop me,” I said with a dangerous smile.
I heard Thalia take a deep breath beside me and thought she was going to try to reason with us again. I had no way of knowing that she was going to explode. Quite nearly literally.
Suddenly a large bang came from Thalia's direction. Fire flew from her hands, flames collecting at her fingertips and surrounding her like an aura. Her face was somehow even more beautiful in the intensity of the fire's glow. In that moment I could see her as what she really was: a terrifying goddess, capable of anything.
Asher and I stopped fighting mid sentence to stare at her.
“I said I've had enough. You need each other, whether you like it or not. Now both of you, put on your big girl knickers and do what you need to do to save the ones you love. Do I make myself clear?”
“Yes ma'am,” I said, my throat clicking as I swallowed. Asher nodded, a short jut of his head.
“Good,” she said and shook her hands to put them out. The glow around her ceased immediately as she faded back to her normal self, with not a hair out of place.“Don't make me do that again. I don't like it.”
It was quiet for a long minute as we considered the implications of what we had agreed to.
“So, how are we going to do this?” I asked, once enough time had gone by that I thought Thalia wouldn't set me on fire for asking. Moira walked over to me, moving slowly as if her legs hurt her and leaning on the left heavily. She put her hand down on my shoulder and smiled her nearly toothless grin at me.
“I've been thinking. I think I've got a plan.”