Chapter Twenty-Seven
I had seen many movies, and read countless books where the hero or heroine finally kissed the 'love interest', and the whole scene had all but exploded off the screen or the page; with fireworks going off around them, and romantic music humming softly in the background, and feelings of indisputable ecstasy fluttering around in the air around the couple like little butterflies.
But not one of those books or movies, not a single one, prepared me for the feelings that exploded inside me when Eric kissed me.
At first I just stand there, so completely shellshocked by the fact that Eric's actually kissing me that my body completely freezes up in surprise and time just collapses. I fully expected for the kiss to last a few mere seconds, just long enough for the guard to walk up to us and disregard us as unimportant, and for me to stand there like an awkward statue the entire time. But I don't. For the first time ever, I don't even acknowledge the reasonable part of my brain, and act completely without thinking.
And I kiss him back.
The moment I kiss him back, it feels like time jumpstarts, and everything explodes into life. Eric makes a small noise in the back of his throat and steps closer to me, sliding his hands into my hair and kissing me even harder. After that, I don't even need to acknowledge that I'm not acknowledging the reasonable part of my brain, because all coherent thoughts just stop. Not only that, all the neurons firing in my brain just simultaneously implode and my entire body turns into jelly. Electricity sparks through my veins, and suddenly it feels like every single cell in my body is on fire. Sensory overload.
At first, the kiss starts off rough, like a small boat trying to survive on an unchartered and a wind-roughed sea, but then the sun comes out in all its blazing glory, and the choppy sea softens out into something of beautiful serenity. I step closer to Eric and wind my arms around his neck, pressing my body flush up against his and completely eradicating any existing space between us, and the response I get from Eric sends me rocketing up through the sky and straight up to cloud nine.
After he kisses me for what feels like forever and a day, during which my heart goes into cardiac arrest so many times I quickly lose count, Eric finally pulls away, his breathing just as erratic as mine.
"Well." Eric states, his eyes rapidly darkening with an emotion that I'm far too scared to decipher. "I've been wanting to do that for a very long time."
Then he turns on his heel and walks away like nothing ever happened, leaving me standing gobsmacked in his wake.
"Eric!" When I finally manage to come back to my senses I scramble after him, just about face-planting in the sand in my haste. "Where are you going? The guard! He'll see you!"
"I know." Eric shrugs dismissively, rounding the corner and promptly suckerpunching the guard in the face the moment he turns around. The guard crumples, dropping like a sack of potatoes to the ground. Eric turns back to face me and shoots me a rakish grin. "Luckily for him, my ruggedly handsome face will be the last thing he'll be seeing for quite some time."
I stare wide-eyed at him. "If you were just going to punch him, why didn't you do that before, instead of—?" I flail my arms around in the air, unable to make myself say the word.
"Kissing you?" He finishes for me, cocking an eyebrow. I nod, folding my arms tightly over my chest and hastily trying to slap on a mask of indifference. "Because he probably would've raised an alarm, Bambi. If we were going to take him out, we needed to take him by surprise, not stand right in front of him and wave our fists around in the air."
"Well that... makes sense." I reply reluctantly. I'm still unable to ignore the indignation still rattling through me, though. "But did you still have to—?"
"Kiss you?" Eric walks over to me, a small smirk playing on his lips. I gulp, glancing down to the ground, then back up to him again, and take a step back. That only seems to amuse him more. "Why Bambi, have I flustered you?"
"No!" I snap, a little too quickly. His eyebrows shoot up even higher, and I clear my throat several times. "I just fail to deduct why you felt kissing me was the best elucidation to the situation when there were an aggregate of more logical solutions that were preferential, particularly given my incontestably stated perversion to your plan."
"Shit, I really have flustered you, haven't I?" He says, and I frown at him in perplexity. He grins. "Bambi, you literally just made zero sense; there were words in that sentence that even I don't know."
I purse my lips and glare at him, hissing, "Why did you kiss me when I specifically told you not to, Eric?!"
"Because it was the best plan I could come up with in the two seconds we had, and, like I said, I've been wanting to do that for an incredibly long time." He shrugs slightly, his eyes twinkling wickedly. "And I suspect I wasn't the only one."
I falter for a second, before my glare grows in intensity. "Neither of those are good enough reasons, let alone truthful!"
"Bambi, you and I both know that you're lying through your teeth."
I throw my hands down on my hips. "And what makes you think that?"
He smirks, and leans forward to whisper in my ear, "Because you kissed me back."
My jaw just about hits the floor. Immediately, I start spluttering in disbelief. "No, that is not even close to—"
A loud groan interrupts me before I can complete my protestation, tearing Eric and I out of our little reverie and drawing our attention to the nymph Eric knocked out. He stirs slightly, his hand coming up to touch his face, and Eric swiftly knocks him out with another kick to the head. I give him a look.
"Was that really necessary?"
"Did you want him to wake up and tell all the Ellie-haters through there that the focus of their hatred is less than ten meters away?" He asks, raising an eyebrow, and I falter. He smirks, grabbing my hand and dragging me after him. "That's what I thought. So let's go Bambi, we haven't got all night. Barnacle Boy isn't going to stay knocked out forever, you know."
I wrinkle up my nose in consternation. "I so loathe you."
"No you don't." He replies smugly, lowering his voice to a loud whisper. "You kissed me."
I glare at his back, resisting the childish urge to kick the backs of his knees. I mutter under my breath. "Maybe I should let my mother castrate you. Maybe then you'll stop being a cocky imbecile."
"This is no time to make jokes, Bambi. Shame on you." He whispers back, and this time I really do kick him. "Yes, that's a superb idea Bambi. Kick your only friend."
"You are not my friend!" I hiss at him. "At this moment in time, you are far from my friend!"
"Oh, sure." He nods. "And I assume you kiss all your mortal enemies like that, too? Maybe that's why all these nymphs are so eager to start a civil war against you."
"Eric!"
"Shh." Eric holds his hand up, his entire body suddenly stilling.
"Don't you shush me!"
"No Bambi, I'm serious. Shut it." He hisses, covering my mouth with his hand. "I can hear voices. I think we're close."
I freeze, immediately alert. He glances back at me, all remnants of joking wiped from his face. "Okay, you know the drill?"
"I stick to the shadows, and stay out of sight until we glean enough evidence to prove my innocence." I whisper back, and he nods. "I am not an imbecile, you know Eric. Just because I no longer have my powers does not magically mean I no longer have to ability to retain information. I do remember things."
"Oh, I know. You have made that crystal clear." He replies, winking at me. "The sarcasm is a little dry, though."
I roll my eyes. "Let's just get this over and done with so we can leave, already?"
"Ay ay, cap'n." He mock salutes me, and I scowl at him. He grins, and motions me forward. "After you, princess."
The moment I sneak around the corner, my senses are immediately overloaded and leave me reeling; but this way, its in the worst way possible. I struggle to keep my jaw from dropping. If Eric and I hadn't literally just been standing at the waterfront, I would hardly be able to tell that we're even near a beach; we're standing at the edge of what looks like a small, naturally built stone arena, with thousands upon thousands of nymphs all congregating in a small, bowl-shaped area that looks like someone's carved the rock out with a spoon. On the other end of the area, opposite the small gap Eric and I have ducked in, there's a naturally designed dais raised above the pit the nymphs are all standing in, and from the way they're all speaking in muted tones whilst casting surreptitious looks towards the dais, I can tell they're all waiting for someone to come and speak.
I gulp, pulling my black hoodie up over my hair and ducking my head as I press myself further back into the shadows of the wall.
There are a lot more people here than I even imagined.
I wonder how many of them are here because of me?
Behind me, I hear Eric curse quietly as he takes in the scene before us. "There are a lot of pissed off nymphs here." He mutters, echoing my thoughts.
"Why are they all here?" I whisper, and he shrugs slightly.
"Like I told you earlier, they're all here to hate on you." He replies, and I narrow my eyes at him. "Okay fine, you and your parents. And by extension, any of us gods who actually have our heads screwed on straight; because, y'know, we all know that starting a supernatural civil war in this day and age is only going to end with a lot of freaked out humans discovering that tree-people do exist!"
I give him a look. "Your sarcasm is a little dry and entirely unnecessary."
"Trust me, it's necessary." Eric shoots back. "This whole civil war is a joke. What the hell do they think they can achieve out of this? They all know going against you means going against Hades, which will just end in a whole bunch of them being smited. Smited?" He pauses, his forehead furrowing. "Is that even the correct plural for 'smite'? Or is it smoten?"
"Eric." I chide, nudging him. "This is not a joke. It is very real, and it is happening right now."
"I know its happening right now; I ain't blind. That still doesn't explain why this whole damn war started in the first place." Eric mutters. "I know the Fates gave you a prophecy stating you were going to start this whole circus in the first place, but did they mention how? Or why?"
"No. That is why we are here; to get answers." I whisper fervidly. A hush falls across the masses in front of us, and the area suddenly grows so still that a penny dropping would've sounded cacophonous. I lock gazes with Eric, and he nods at me, bringing his finger up to his lips.
"Stay silent." He mouthes, and I nod, pulling my hood further over my head and sinking even lower down just to make sure. Eric follows suit, drawing further back into the shadows next to me so that our shoulders are soon touching.
I try to ignore the way my heart jumps a little at that.
With Eric and I hidden from view we return our attention back to the dais, just in time to see someone jumping up onto it. They slowly turn to face the crowd, so deliberately that it feels like we're standing right in a cliche movie where the villain of the story is finally revealed to the audience.
Only this time, when the 'villain' of the story finally faces the camera, my heart just about shatters in my chest.
"No." I whisper, icy betrayal stabbing me with a thousand tiny needles.
It's Alex.
"Son of a bitch." Eric hisses, and when I glance over at him, he looks just as aghast as I do. "I let that asshole into my house!"
"Maybe... maybe its not how it appears." I desperately try to reason, shaking my head. "Maybe he's a double agent, like Ria."
"He sure as hell isn't my double agent Ellie." Eric mutters, meeting my gaze readily with a hardened expression.
I look back at Alex in horror as he surveys the crowd, a small smirk turning up the corners of his lips as he takes in all the people standing in front of him.
"Well, I certainly didn't expect to see this number of people." Alex starts off with a jovial smile, and laughter actually ripples through the crowd. I swallow, feeling sick to my stomach. How can he possibly be joking about this? "I know a lot of you already know who I am, so you know what I stand for; what we stand for. I'm not going to go through the whole 'why are we all here' speech, partly because those cheesy speeches always pissed me off, but mainly because we all already know why we're here. We're here for equality."
Equality? What the hell does he mean by that?
Murmured agreement wavers through the nymphs assembled in front of him, several of them nodding along, and some even yelling out in agreement. I glance over at Eric, silent questions in my gaze, but he seems just as lost as I feel.
"For too long we have let the gods waltz around and act like they're better than all of us; for too long we've let them think they run the place. But we're just as immortal as they are, and we all have our own powers and roles within the inner-workings of the universe, just like they do." Alex continues on, his expression hardening as his voice increases in volume. "But now they've gone too far. Now they've let a demon loose, and she killed one of our own in cold blood. And what did they do? They turned the other cheek, and they gave her a second chance like she had done absolutely nothing wrong, just because she was the daughter of Hades. And they expect us to be okay with that!"
Furious roars pierce the cold night's air, sending literal chills down my spine. Eric grabs my hand and squeezes, silently showing his support.
"But we're not. We're not living in the Dark Ages anymore; we're not going to blindly follow every damn thing they say!" Alex cries, and the nymphs all cheer in agreement. "They need to learn that they can't boss us around anymore; they need to learn that they aren't the ones in control anymore! And they need to learn that they can't just lock someone up when that person's only fault is trying to rid the world of their tyranny!"
I freeze, every single cell in my body going numb. He can't be.
Surely he's not talking about Poseidon.
"This just went from cute to worrying real quick." Eric mutters, and I gulp, nodding with wide eyes.
"So that's why we're all here. I guess I couldn't help making that cheesy speech after all, right?" Alex grins, and the feral look in his eye scares me. It's like he's a completely different person to the Alex I knew. "We're here because we want to make a difference. And if you stick around, if you pledge your unwavering loyalty to the person leading this cause as I have, if you follow her into battle, then you will make that difference. Once the spark is lit, it spreads like wildfire, and the flames will be impossible to put out. And the gods up on their big ass, high-and-mighty thrones, well, they're not going to be able to turn the other cheek if the entire world is in flames, are they?"
The arena erupts in cheers.
"Are you all with me?" Alex yells, and the cheers become deafening. His grin turns into a wicked smirk. "Then pack your bags ladies and gentlemen, because tomorrow we march! Tomorrow, we follow her on her quest for justice! Tomorrow, we kill that murdering demon and we prove to the gods once and for all that we are not to be trifled with! Tomorrow, we drown the gods and their reign of terror in our wave of justice!"
Alex throws his arms up in the air and looks me dead in the eye. I clench my fingers at my side, keeping my features arranged in a carefully constructed emotionless mask as I steadily hold his gaze. He smiles, and stares straight at me at he utters one last sentence that sends an electric bolt of familiarity right through me.
"There is something so awful and beautiful about destruction, don't you think?"
No.
His words have their exact desired affect on me, and I stumble back with a gasp, pain ricocheting through me like a well-aimed bullet. I break eye contact with him, my vision blurring as I'm rendered completely useless by horror for several seconds.
It was him. It was him all along.
He's my blackmailer. He started this all.
He killed Otti.
"Ellie?" Eric's face suddenly appears in front of me, the worry on his face becoming crystal clear when my vision clears. "What's wrong? Are you okay?"
I open my mouth to reply, but before I can get any words out, an infuriated yell tears through the clearing.
"It's her!"
"It's the demon! Murderer!"
"Kill her! The bitch started it all!"
I swallow hard, and I look up at Alex one more time, only to see him smirking at me with a viciously smug expression on his face. So I grab Eric and transport us away from it all, my ears ringing with that one sentence.
There is something so awful and beautiful about destruction, don't you think?
— — —
The moment our surroundings morph into the familiar halls of The Orphanage I set off to find my mother and Spencer, not even giving myself a chance to think about what I just found out; mainly because I know that, given a chance to stop and breathe, my emotions will catch up and break through the thick barrier I constructed around them, and I'm too terrified of what will happen if I allow that to happen.
"Bambi, wait." Eric grabs my arm, pulling me to a stop. "Are you okay?"
"I am fine." I reply flatly. "Are you?"
"I'm pissed as hell and have increasing homicidal tendencies towards a particular water nymph, but that's not important right now." He replies. I don't respond, glancing down at the ground. He watches me closely, concern lighting up his green eyes. "Ellie, c'mon. You are not fine; I can tell by the look in your eye. Talk to me."
"Well—" I throw my hands up in the air, letting out a long breath. "What am I supposed to say, Eric? That I am shocked? Horrified? Of course I am shocked; the only other person I allowed to grow close to me apart from you turned out to be the one person who was making it their personal mission to make my life a living hell. But I cannot allow myself to dwell on my hurt feelings. I have to go and find the others so we can figure out how to stop my destiny from coming true."
"It's not your destiny, Ellie." He replies emphatically. I immediately open my mouth to fire off a retort and he holds his hand up, stopping me. "No, it's not. You have to stop thinking that. It is a bunch of words that the Fates spun up when you were born, but they don't define you. This person that you think the prophecy is detailing, this supposed harbinger of evil is not who you are. You know who you are."
"It may be a bunch of words spun together, but they have still come true, Eric." I reply. "I cannot ignore that. I have to do something about it."
"I agree. We should do something about it. But pretending to be this scary emotionless freakazoid isn't the way to go about it." Eric tells me, gently placing his finger under my chin and lifting my gaze up. "Its okay to show emotion Ellie. Its okay to be afraid."
"I cannot be afraid anymore. Fear makes us do a lot of things. My fear is the reason all of this has happened in the first place." I say softly. "I cannot let it be the reason that I allow this civil war to actually take place."
"Ellie come on, your fear won't be the reason this civil war takes place. The reason this civil war will take place will be because those idiots that we just saw actually listen to the super idiot we both want to kill." Eric replies, raising his eyebrows a little. "Their decision to indulge in idiocy has nothing to do with you. You are the exact opposite of idiocy."
I sigh, shaking my head as I glance up at him."Why are you doing this, Eric?"
He frowns. "What do you mean?"
"Exactly what I said. Why are you doing this?" I repeat. "I told you it will not be that easy to earn my forgiveness, so why are you going out of your way to be nice?"
"Ellie, I don't give a shit about your forgiveness right now. You are hurt, and you are confused, and I care about you too much to just ignore that. I'm not going to pretend that everything is fine when its clearly not." He tells me, his tone sharp. "Have you not realised by now that I'm too stubborn to just let you go? I'm going to keep fighting by your side until this thing is over."
"Why?" I ask, my voice barely above a whisper.
"You know exactly why." Eric replies, his tone softening a little as he looks at me. "Everything I like about me is you, Ellie; you're the calm to my storm. I may not hold love in the highest regard, but I'd be a damned fool if I didn't fight for that."
I swallow and lick my suddenly very-dry lips, my heart beating so hard it just about smashes its way out of my chest. "Eric—"
"Ellie! You're back!" My mother suddenly skids around the corner, her gaze narrowing when she takes in how close Eric and I are standing. "Oh, I'm sorry; am I interrupting a moment?"
"No." I answer quickly, just as Eric says, somewhat rudely, at the same time, "Yes."
"Good." My mother smirks, grabbing my wrist and snatching me away, leaving Eric to awkwardly scramble after us. "Excluding the fact that he totally doesn't deserve a moment with you, we're kind of on a tight schedule here. You can keep trying to make kissy faces at each other when we've won the war, capiche?"
"But—" I start to protest, but she slaps her hand over my mouth, silencing me.
"No buts. The only words that are allowed to come out of your mouth are ones that inform us of what you found. Got it?" She retorts, eyeballing me as she pulls me into a room. Spencer looks up from the table he's hunched over, grinning slightly when he takes in the way my mother's practically dragging me after her.
"'Sup Ellie." He greets me with a nod. "Where's your boytoy?"
"I'm not her boytoy." Eric grunts, appearing in the doorway behind us. "So, shut up."
"Ooh, burn." Spencer jests, snickering at the withering look Eric shoots him. "So. What world-saving information did you two lovebirds find on your infiltration endeavours?"
I roll my eyes and rip my mother's hand away from my mouth. "We are not lovebirds."
"Oh hey, I wouldn't deny—" Eric starts to speak up with a smirk, and I elbow him as hard as I can.
"We found out who my blackmailer is." I say, butting in before he can get another word out. My mother and Spencer both stiffen, instantly alert. "It's Alex."
"That prat!" My mother gasps, slapping her hand down on the table. "Who is he?"
"I knew there was something fishy about that dude. And not just in the literal sense." Spencer mutters. "I always felt like he was putting on an act. Guess now we know why."
"Ouch Spencer, that hurts me, it really does." A voice suddenly speaks up from behind us, and we all whirl around to see Alex standing by the open window. He lays a hand on his chest, slapping on an expression of mock hurt. "I worked really hard on pretending that I give a damn about any of you. Especially you Ellie; I mean, damn, girl, I've met a lot of damaged people over the years, and none of them had walls as high as yours." This he directs at me, and it takes all the strength I have within me to keep my expression impassive. "Seriously, did all that time you spent locked away in the Underworld perpetually scare you away from social contact or something? No, honestly, I really want to know."
Eric's expression darkens rapidly, and I grab his wrist before he can storm over to the smirking water nymph.
"What are you doing here?" He growls.
"Having a delightful conversation with Ellie here. What are you doing here?" Alex shoots back, and the look that crosses Eric's face is downright murderous. Alex turns to my mother, bowing mockingly. "Your majesty."
"You!" My mother gasps, staring at Alex like she's seen a ghost.
I falter, my gaze flickering between the two of them. "Do you two know each other?"
"In a manner of speaking." Alex replies, never taking his eyes off my mother. "Well, actually, no, that's not quite accurate. I spoke with your father. I tried not to be strangled by your mother."
"What?" My eyes bug out, and I stare at my mother in shock. She breaks eye contact with Alex and glances over at me, shame smattering her expression for a brief second.
"In Naples." Is all she needs to say to clarify it for me, and my eyes widen in realisation. I turn to Alex.
"You're the nymph from Naples?"
He actually looks surprised for a moment that I know. "You know?"
"Of course she knows. She knows everything." My mother snaps.
"Well. Hey. Small world after all, right?" Alex recovers, shooting us a bright smile. "Ain't it funny the people you run into when you try to destroy the world more than once?"
"What are you doing here Alex?" Spencer speaks up, and when I glance over at him, he's watching Alex very closely as he casually leans on his thyrsus staff. I blink, doing a double take. I hadn't even noticed him leaving the room to fetch it. "And just keep in mind while you answer that you are literally surrounded by a group of deities all itching to kill you. I've been in that kind of situation before, and I can guarantee you from personal experience that being a smart-ass the second time round will end with you as a bloody smear on the floor."
"Not that I love the exchange of thinly veiled threats, because I really do, but I'm not here to start a fight. I'm just here to talk to Ellie." Alex replies, crossing his arms over his chest and leaning against the window-frame. "So seriously. Chill. The thick hatred in the air is kind of putting a damper on an otherwise really good day."
"Talk about what, Alex?" I ask calmly, and he looks over at me with a smirk.
"I'm here to offer you a deal. A get-out-of-the-civil-war-free card, if you will." He says, shrugging nonchalantly. "Courtesy of my boss, of course."
"And who is your boss exactly?" My mother pipes up sharply. "Who is this so-called leader of the rebellion?"
"Seriously? You don't know by now?" Alex asks, raising an eyebrow in disbelief. He looks at all of us and snorts. "You know, for a group of supposedly all-powerful, all-knowing deities, you're not very smart. The signs are literally all right in front of your big noses. All it would take is putting two and two together. I mean really, it's no wonder we're all rebelling against you; you're a bunch of idiots, ruling us all as tyrants and procreating like rabbits to produce mini, equally as thick tyrant children."
My mother's eyes narrow into slits. "Now listen here, bucko—"
"It's Amphitrite." Eric speaks up quietly, cutting my mother off. She freezes, her entire body stiffening like she'd been shot.
"Poseidon's wife?" Realisation dawns on my mother's face, and if its possible, her eyes narrow even more. "I knew she was holding a grudge!"
Eric nods, regarding Alex with an ice-cold expression. "She's the only one a water nymph like him would dedicate his undying loyalty to."
"Ding ding ding, we have a winner." Alex points at Eric, clicking his fingers. "Maybe you're not as daft as I thought you were. Kudos to you, Cupid."
Eric's scowl darkens. "She's also just as crazy as Poseidon; it would make sense that she would try to follow in his megalomaniac footsteps."
The smile abruptly drops off Alex's face. "I take my kudos back."
"What is Amphitrite's deal then, Alex?" I ask, my short tones silencing everyone in the room.
"Oh, it's simple, really." Alex replies with a sunny smile, clapping his hands together. "You see, the situation we're in, you've got two options."
"'The situation we're in'?" Spencer repeats, raising an incredulous eyebrow. "You mean this civil war you're intent on waging?"
"No. I mean the civil war she started by killing dear Otti." Alex points at me, walking forward, and the temperature in the room drops to almost freezing. "How did you kill her, by the way? I've just, I've heard so many different versions that have been twisted into some seriously gory stories that I'm just dying to know which one is true." He stops right in front of me, plastering an expectant look on his face. "Well?"
I don't reply, clenching my jaw and readily holding his gaze. Alex stares at me for a few moments longer before bursting into laughter.
"Nah, I'm just kidding, Ellie. Of course you don't know how you killed her. Because you didn't kill her, did you? I did." He grins, leaning forward to dramatically whisper, "But you already figured that out, didn't you? My little speech at the beach helped clear that little existential crisis right up for you."
This time, it's Eric who holds me back.
"But I'm deviating from the point. So let's just cut to the chase." Alex claps his hands, all the humour abruptly dropping off his expression like someone's swiped an eraser over it. "You've left us with two options Ellie: fight the civil war, or don't fight. Because let's all be honest here; Amphitrite has an entire army pretty much eating out of her hand, and they're all gunning for you. Because for all they know, you're the first goddess to kill a nymph in cold blood, ever."
"That's bullshit." Spencer snaps, and Alex nods.
"I know. But they don't." Alex says, a wicked twinkle in his eye. "So Amphitrite sent me here to offer you a deal. She doesn't want to fight this war as much as you do, but at the same time, her thirst for justice must be, what's the word? Satiated. So she won't fight this civil war against you, but at a cost."
"What cost?" I ask, and the look that crosses his face scares me a little.
"She'll only stop if you offer yourself up. As a martyr, as a sacrifice, call it what you will." Alex shrugs slightly, the picture of nonchalance. "You die, she stops. You live, she wages war. That's her offer. And quite honestly, your only option."
My mother goes as white as a sheet. I suddenly remember what she told me all those months ago, when I first convinced her to let me stay up on the surface.
The Fates said that the only way for you, or for any of us to prevent the civil war from destroying the supernatural world as we know it, is if you died.
"No." She whispers, dread twisting up her face.
Eric practically explodes next to me. "Oh, hell no! Are you insane? What the hell kind of offer is that? It's bullshit!"
"It's a compromise." Alex replies smoothly, folding his arms over his chest. "One life, for millions of others."
"Buddy, I really don't think you have a proper grasp on the politics of war." Spencer retorts, his reaction calmer than Eric's or my mother's, but apparently just as disgusted. "And if you looked up 'bullshit' in the dictionary, I think you'll find that 'compromise' is the very first example they give you."
"Interesting." Alex drawls, looking straight at me. "What I find even more interesting though, is that little miss war-starter here is the only one who hasn't uttered a single word, even though she's the only one I actually addressed. So. What's your response to my offer?"
The others all look at me. Eric steps closer when I don't say a single word, imploring me with his gaze.
"Ellie, no." He whispers. "Please don't tell me you're actually considering this. It is not your only option."
But it is my destiny.
I ignore Eric, pushing past him and keeping my gaze locked on Alex. The water nymph watches me silently, not uttering a single word. "My response is that I don't have one."
He blinks several times, leaning forward. "Come again."
"If you are who you say you are, then you know me. You know how I think, how my mind works, how I make my decisions." I say, and he nods slowly, like he doesn't know where I'm going with this. "Then you will also know that I do not make a decision without considering all the possibilities, all the consequences, and all the alternative options first. This decision is not any different."
"So you're asking for more time?" Alex clarifies, and I nod.
"Yes." I reply coolly. "I need time to consider Amphitrite's offer. This is not a decision that can be made in a second."
He stares at me for a few more seconds, before a lazy grin breaks out on his lips. "She said you'd say that. So okay, fine; we'll give you time. Specifically, until morning. If we don't have your answer by then, we're not going to wait around. All our nymphs are just itching to have a little fun."
"Fine." I reply tightly.
"When you've made up your mind, we'll be waiting at the beach. Amphitrite's one for nostalgia, you know?" He holds his hands up in the air, backing away from us all. "You've got until 10am tomorrow morning Ellie, otherwise we're going to have a little fun." Then he winks at my mother. "Try not to strangle anyone else while I'm gone, okay your majesty? I'd feel a little hurt if we lost that valuable connection of ours."
Then he throws himself out the window, transforming into a sea-shag midair and flying out into the night.
My mother, Spencer and Eric all turn to me, speaking up at the exact same time.
"Ellie, don't you dare listen to him, he's—"
"—literally never heard anyone speak that fluently in bullshit my entire life, and I—"
"We'll find another way to stop this war Bambi, don't you dare for a second consider—"
But I tune them all out, staring numbly out the window that Alex had just flown out of.
It's my destiny.
WHO GUESSED