Iridescence

Chapter Fifty (Faith)

CHAPTER FIFTY

FAITH

I was starting to get desperate. Genie had promised she had a cure for Artemis, but so far, she'd only stabilized her with magic. Artemis was still unconscious. She was hanging on, but barely.

"You've barely spoken to me, Genie," I said. "Don't villains usually love to monologue? Isn't that what you live for?"

"I'm not a villain, Faith," Genie replied. "Do you understand what brought us to this moment?"

"Not really," I admitted, "except that your dad sucks."

"My father is an amazing man!" She snapped. She said it so sharply I wondered if she was trying to convince me or herself.

"He's a sociopathic traitor who murders his friends for fun. I wouldn't call that amazing," I baited her. If I got Genie talking, maybe I could figure out a way to get Artemis out of this situation. No matter what happened, I wasn't letting her die.

"He's misunderstood," Genie insisted. "He was always kind to the other deities. He cared about them. He wanted what was best for them. The Gods in charge of the different pantheons were all terrible leaders. My father wants to unite them beneath him."

"By killing anyone who doesn't go along with his plans? That's called a dictatorship. Emphasis on dick."

Genie slapped me across the face. I have to admit, I didn't expect that from her. "Are we fighting like mean girls? I thought this was a street fight," I taunted her as I punched her in the gut. "I mean, you're a foster kid, Genie! Have some self respect!"

She doubled over in pain and took a moment to recover. I was half terrified she'd take her anger out on Artemis, but she didn't. Instead, Genie sat down and looked me in the eyes as she caught her breath.

"You don't know him, Faith," she finally said. "You just believe what the Gods told you. There's so much more to the story."

I considered this. Maybe making Genie mad was the wrong plan. She might be a sociopath just like her father, but first and foremost, Genie was a teenager who was all alone in the world. I didn't know how much of the history she'd told me was true, but if any of it was, maybe I could appeal to her human side.

"So tell it to me, Genie," I said. "What really happened to you? Did you actually live with your grandmother? Did she really die? Or was all of that a lie? Did you even have a grandma?"

"My Ya-Ya was real," Genie told me. The sadness in her eyes was convincing, but remembering who her father was, I didn't take her at her word. "I'm a reincarnation of a Goddess, although I was never destroyed... I chose to live amongst mortals after my father died, and I just kept reincarnating until we found each other again. As Eugenia Stefanopoulos, I was born in Athens, Greece. My parents were killed when I was a baby, just like I said. What I didn't tell you was that lightning struck my house. The whole thing exploded."

"How did you survive?" I asked, partially to keep her talking and partially out of genuine curiosity.

"My Ya-Ya found me. She wasn't related to me by blood. She was my neighbor, but she saw the house explode and, knowing my parents had an infant, she rushed over to help. Everything around me was destroyed, but I was untouched. That was the day Ya-Ya realized I had magic. Ya-Ya had magic, too. She had no family left, so she took me home with her and raised me. We moved to New York when I was five and lived in Astoria. It's a really Greek area, so we fit in, and it was easier for us to get by until I picked up English. It took Ya-Ya longer, but I helped her learn the language, too. We didn't have much, but we were happy, Faith. Material things didn't matter as long as we had each other. She was the only person in this world who I thought loved me..." Genie paused, looking haunted.