Love Lines

Chapter Ten 

Of all the movies I’ve seen where the hero storms the castle…this turned out to be a bit of an interesting twist on that. For one, I didn’t need to be rescued and Cecil didn’t seem to understand that. For two, I couldn’t really yell out his name in pleasant surprise because I knew if I did, my head would explode, literally.

We all knew he was coming but I at least thought someone would address the fact that I was under orders from Janus and this was strictly going against that. I tried to keep my panicked eye glances to a minimum but the God who was standing next to me noticed but attributed my sudden uneasiness to the fact I was still recovering from seeing the future. To be quite frank, as the seconds ticked by, what I’d seen became fuzzier and fuzzier until it disintegrated into a complete blur until the past memory of the day of my mother’s funeral. That came in sparkly and clear.

The doors finally opened behind us and Cecil came running in, not even pausing to see what exactly the situation was he was coming in to. He could be frolicking into danger for all he knew and he didn’t seem to care.

“Tally…” He pulled me into a hug, one I wasn’t exactly flinching away from. Which I found a bit weird. “Are you ok?”

My eyes flicked between all the Gods for a moment before Cecil pulled away and looked me in the eyes. “I’m fine.” I frowned at my own words but then broke into a smile when the pain from talking to him didn’t come and the urge to flee didn’t kick in. And…and…and I was just happy and still slightly nauseous. It was the weirdest damn thing. “Hi.” I was pretty much giddy about being able to talk to him and forgot he was here for other reasons. So I popped him on the arm like I used to and then hugged him. He was completely soaked making it pretty obvious he skipped the towel part of the trip but I didn’t much mind.

“Well then,” Neptune boomed. “I think it’s obvious we were expecting you and as you can see, she’s perfectly fine. She’s safe in our hands.”

Cecil treated me like a hula loop, moving me around so I was facing his back with my arms still wrapped around him. It was odd and completely unneeded but whatever.

 “My lords.” He inclined his head slightly. “I’ll apologize for my frankness but…why was I summoned and why is she here?”

Unlike he had with me, Neptune didn’t look amused but Hades…well…he looked tickled pink. The god who’d just been standing with us moved up to be with the other two, considering myself and Cecil quite closely. For the first time I was able to looked him over and I wasn’t surprised that he was following in the same fashion in the looks department as the other two. His complexion was a dark olive tone and his hair was coal black. He looked younger than the other two but since they were Gods, the way they portrayed themselves wasn’t all that accurate.

“She’s here, my dear boy, because my brother thought it was pertinent that I apologize.”

“Milord?”

“You see,” Hades started walking over to us at a leisurely pace. “I had a…run in with your friend this morning. No need to worry, we’ve worked it out.”

I scoffed. “Yeah if you call a cut to the arm and a crazy series of visions worked out then yeah, I’d say we fixed everything. There’s even a pretty pink bow.”

“See?” Hades grinned. “Even she agrees with me.”

Cecil frowned at him. “That was sarcasm. She doesn’t agree with you, in fact, if you really did cut her, spill her blood, then you should apologize.” Cecil quipped in irritation and turned back to me.

“And the pet bites his master,” Neptune joked. “You should be careful, brother. You wouldn’t want both oracles working against you. All your plots and plans will be ruined.”

“Cyrus is not an oracle,” the still unnamed god said. “He sees the past and not very well I might add. The boy is clueless as to how far his powers can take him.”

“And that’s how I like them,” Hades said pointedly, even looking at me. “What I said during our little conversation is still true, my dear, but since my brother would like me to explain, then I will. Cyrus,” he looked at my best friend, “show us what happened after you died.”

“I don’t think…”

“Do it,” Hades snapped.