ANEW ||

Echo

"Yeah?" Hellion asked confused at her alarmed tone. "Why?"

Rayne shook her head. "Olympian's don't have twins," she shrugged trying to play it off. "It's hard enough to have children in the first place. My sister and I are closer in age than anyone else on the island and that was pure dumb luck." 

"Why? I mean why is it so difficult for your kind to have children?" he asked. 

Rayne studied him. "How much do you really know about the island?" 

"I thought I knew everything," Hellion said looking up at the sky. "But the more I talk to you the more I realize how much I don't know." 

"And what about society on the island? How much do you know about day to day life?" 

Hellion made a noise in his mouth she didn't understand. "I guess not much. Only the stories." 

"What about the mate bond? Know anything about that?" Rayne asked with a smirk on her face.

"What the fuck is that?" Hellion laughed. 

Rayne laughed. "Well, in order for Olympians to - procreate- there are a few rules to conception. Children are only conceived between a mated pair and during a females heat cycle." 

Rayne wanted to burst out laughing at the look on his face all over again. "What is a mated pair though? Like this is way off course for me. We know nothing of this." 

Rayne's face fell as she thought of a way to explain. Her mind went Mari and Elijah, to Lexi and that day on the battlefield, to Katon. "It's like the one person you're destined to be with. The other half to your soul." 

Hellion looked for a long time at Rayne's face. "You sound like you know the feeling." 

"No," she said quietly, "I have only seen it up close." She was hyper-aware of Hellion's gaze on her, the haunted expression in his eyes. "Have you see that here? Between these people?" 

Hellion thought about it. "I'm not sure. I suppose it's possible. It's probably different here than it is on the island." 

"So many things are different," Rayne said softly. 

"Tell me about your sister then," Hellion asked changing the subject. 

Rayne was pretty sure the intention of his question was relatively innocent but she couldn't be too careful around him. If he found out, he might not look at her the same way - with the weird spark in his partially blue eye. Rayne smiled anyways, her sisters scared face lighting up her mood. "She's beautiful," Rayne said. "She's the bravest person I have ever met. To other people, she can be a bit confusing but I love her all the same. We have a brother too, a decade or so older. We don't talk much." 

"Why?" he asked genuinely curious. 

Rayne laughed. "Family drama I suppose. He was always the favourite." 

"Sounds like my sister," Hellion sighed. "She was the golden girl." 

"Do you remember your parents?" Rayne asked swinging her legs over the edge of the building. 

"My mother more than my father. My father spent most of his time with my sister. He was the Olympian in the equation. No matter, I understood his fascination with her. She is something else." 

"What do you mean?" Rayne asked, her face impassive. 

Hellion shrugged. "I suppose you have seen some impressive things being on the island, but down here in the real world, the things my sister can do - well its impressive. It's hard to explain." 

Rayne felt a chill run up her spine. Impressive. That couldn't be good, not one bit. 

She wondered if she was making a mistake not telling Mari yet about what she could smell on this male's skin. About the truth written all over his face, the vague familiarity. Maybe things would be different this time. 

She hated to say it but he didn't seem all that different. Well, not in the ways she remembered.  Rayne was sure that the others, mainly the late Amara and the rest of the older citizens of the island had very different opinions on the war bringer. The Merge. 

But Rayne could only see what she had seen over a century ago. Of perfect white teeth and crystal clear blue eyes. Of never-ending laughter and long nights spent together as a family. Of her mother's black hair blowing in the wind as her husband chased Mari down the beach of the lake house. Of him kissing her forehead as he tucked her in. Of him, the man, the imposter who had raised her. Hades. 

And this male before her was just as beautiful as his father was way back then. They had the same jaw, the same scowl, that same look in his eyes. The mischief, the smile. And yet, even as he scooted closer, his dark gaze impossibly close to her own, she couldn't hear anything but the wind. 

His hand was on her arm, his fingers pressing into her pale skin. 

"Rayne?"

She blinked. Had he been talking this whole time? She felt funny - like she was watching them both from a place other than her body. Like she couldn't quite feel his fingers on her arm. The way he said her name sounded around her like an echo, and all she could focus on was the bright piece of blue in his eye. Of the shape his lips made as he said her name again. 

"Rayne." 

And just like that, she was back in her own mind. Back and still watching his face, his mouth, with such intensity she felt her cheeks heat. 

"I'm sorry," she said pulling away and shaking her head to rid it of the fog. His hand dropped away from her arm, the absence leaving a chill on her skin. And yet, the wind still blew. 

He looked away dropping his gaze to his hand that has just left her arm bare. "What are you thinking about?" he asked quietly. 

What was she thinking about? Him? Her childhood? The mess she would create if she brought her hand up to his cheek. 

She knew what she was thinking. What was wrong with her? She couldn't be looking at him like this. They were too close. She never wanted this, all these years she wanted to be separate, solo, alone.

Rayne opened her mouth, closed it. "I have to go," she said before standing and rushing off the roof and down the hatch. His eyes watched her go, their caramel shade watching her leave. She knew that blue piece would be glowing in the light.