Hunter: Crossroads

Chapter 30

"Yes, and they dance." I can't tell if she's tricking me or not. "Clio, her mother, was the Muse of History. She was named after her father, Astraeus and if not for a feud between Clio and Aphrodite she would be quite powerful."

"I'll see what Disney has on that later. Would you say it was more a Cinderella situation or Princess and the Frog?"

"I'd go with Bambi."

"Bambi? That's not, oh." I stopped when I worked out what she meant. "I thought Medusa was bad enough."

"Don't think about it too much. It's another one of those, the way things are here things." Kara kept going and reluctantly I followed. "She's lovely. I've only met her once before, but I have heard stories when with the Valkyrie. Her talents with astrology are legendary. She knows how to read the stars and see who you are, and your path perhaps greater than even a Seer"

"Penny would love her then, so why are we here? Did you need your weekly horoscope Queenie? I could probably summarise this week for you without even needing to check the stars. I see complicated affairs of the heart with a side chance of a nervous breakdown. Your best friend has your back, so don't make her walk up an infinite amount of stairs otherwise she might not next time. The End."

"Oh, that is good." Though I heard her mumble, bitch, under her breath which only made me laugh. "So glad you gave me the heads up on that one."

"Anytime."

Kara knocks on the door and we don't need to wait for very long at all as it soon opens. The little girl who greets it is literally a little girl, maybe five or six, and the poor thing looks like she's about to die of shock at seeing us standing there. Kara smiles but she may as well have slapped her, as bright brown eyes nearly pop out of her head, and her face pales.

"Phoebe?" An older voice calls, which has her eyes glazing over with tears as her bottom lip trembles. All of her is trembling. "Where did you go?"

I lean down slightly and smile too, hoping I'm not as terrifying as Kara right now.

"Hi Phoebe, is it? I'm Elise. This is my friend Kara. Is Astr-" Shit. What is her name?

"Astrea" Kara whispers, taking a step back.

"Astrea here?" I get the faintest little nod from her. "Can you go get her for us, please?"

The door is slammed shut and she's gone.

"This is going well?" I look at Kara.

"Ares scared her. There was a whole thing after I was crowned. It was supposed to be fun, and a chance for us all to officially meet. Hermes typically acts as a liaison between us, do I don't really have much to do with them."

"Right, but why did Ares scare her?"

"It's complicated. From what I was told, Cain had a few of them govern the council he formed with the Others and they were left to themselves. If anything needed attention, Hermes would advise him. It was disbanded towards the end, and I had considered restarting it but those originally involved were not interested in going through it all again. Most of them anyway. Some, well, they weren't prepared to fall back in line and to the shadows again. Ares and a few of the guards gladly flexed their power and long story short, it didn't end well." Kara sighed. "I stopped them as soon as I realised what was going on, but she must still remember me from that."

"Give it some time, and I'm sure she'll forget all about it." Or at least I hoped so.

We both froze as the door reopened and the woman, who I'm guessing was Astrea, took the place of Phoebe. I heard her gasp as she quickly bowed, dipping her head low and avoiding looking at either of us. From behind her skirt, Phoebe bravely peered out yet I could feel her fear as if it was my own.