DAY SIX
"Olivia! Olivia!" shouted Aunt Kat in worry.
"What?" I asked, scurrying behind her, "What's wrong?!"
"It's Neva. She's missing," Aunt Kat replied.
"She was missing for ten years, Aunt Kat," I replied, "I'm sure she'll survive."
"That's not the only thing, sweetie," she said, her face ashen, "Akantha is gone from the prison hold, too."
"A traitor?" I asked, a warm rush of anger consuming me, "Your daughter?"
"I'm afraid so, love," she said, her eyebrows furrowed.
"That's not the only thing, is it?" Atlas asked, intuitive as always.
"For them to power up the 'Invincible Destroyer,' the worst magical creation ever," she said, "They need a snowflake from the House of Juniper."
"And Neva just gave it to them on a silver platter," I muttered, just as Aunt Kat left the room to attend to something.
I didn't think it was possible, but the opinion I was forming of my cousin just got ten times worse. Honestly, I would have preferred for her to be dead rather than be such a filthy double-crosser.
Atlas felt the same, although to his family, he was the double-crosser.
"Atlas," I said, closing my eyes, "I have very bad memories with your sister, you know?"
"Tell me," he said, squeezing my hand but refusing to look in my eyes, "I want to find out her motivations."
"She told you not to be my friend, because I was from the House of Juniper, and to rebel, you proposed to me. Then, she must have threatened you with something, so you came to break the engagement. And I threw the ring on your face," I replied, wincing.
"I think..." he said, hesitating, "I think she threatened me with you. And now, she will try to fulfill the promise."
"Atlas," I said, smiling, "We need to figure out how the, 'Invincible Destroyer,' works. And then, Akantha better watch out."
"My feelings ditto," he replied, giving me his dimpled smile.
***
"Aunt Kat, tell us how the, 'Invincible Destroyer,' works," I said, squeezing her hand and making a pitiful face.
"Leave it, Via," Atlas mouthed, and pulled me out of Aunt Kat's study.
"What happened?" I asked, but he merely pointed to Aunt Kat.
"Look at her. What is she doing?"
"She's looking out the window at a fifty degree angle to it, her arms are crossed, and occasionally she's massaging her temples. She's not smili..." my statement was left mid-word, "Oh. She's grieving her daughter in a totally different way."
"And what do you do to people who are grieving?" he asked, his grey eyes looking as stormy as ever.
"You leave them alone," I muttered, wondering whether Atlas was grieving the loss of his sister and vice-versa.
"Madame," somebody said from behind me, and I turned to see a green haired woman with eyes as dark as night and pale skin like everyone else living here.
"Yes?" I asked.
"You are supposed to come with me," she said, unsmiling.
"Come on, Via," Atlas said, "Let's go."
"Nope. Just her," she said, pointing at me, "You stay."
"It's okay, Att," I said, following the woman out of the room.
"How dare you try to take a member of the royal lineage away from us?!" a red and white clad doorman asked, and immediately, ten similarly dressed people were on the woman.
"Chill, guys," she said, "It's me, Persephone."
"Prove it," they said, almost as if they'd rehearsed this moment, and she began shooting Marigolds on their face.
"Okay," one of them said, spitting petals from their mouths, "We believe you."
"Good," she said.
Persephone took me to an empty room and shut the door. The room was completely bare. No furniture, no carpets, rugs, nothing that made the room feel more homey.
"Hey, Via," she said, "I'm Persephone, as you may already know. My human form is Atlas's Aunt Petunia."
"What did you want to tell me?" I asked.
"Straight to business, huh? I always admired that about you. I came to tell you that the, 'Invincible Destroyer,' has a weakness," she said, laughing.
"What is it?" I asked, growing impatient.
"Water," she replied, "The solution is water."
"And where will we get that from?" I asked.
"Atlas is a very smart man," was all she said before leaving the room.
"Are you threatening me with him?" I asked, following her out of the room.
"He was my nephew for sixteen years, Olivia. I would never do that," she replied, walking faster and faster so I had to run to keep up, "But he really is a smart man."
"So, are you just going to give me a cryptic code and leave?" I asked, annoyed.
"I thought you prided yourself on your intelligence, love," she replied, and disappeared into thin air.
I sat on the floor in that very corridor and began to think. What did Atlas have that I did not?
He had emotional intelligence, for one. But that wouldn't count because my powers heightened my feeling senses. He had a megalomaniacal sister. Coming to think about it, so did I. I mean, Neva betrayed her only family, didn't she? He had powers. So did I! But, he had fire powers and I had ice powers, and so...
Oh.
If I shot an icicle at the, 'Invincible Destroyer,' and he melted the ice with his fire, then the, 'Invincible Destroyer,' would be destroyed.
The question was, would it be once and for all? Or would the, 'Invincible Destroyer,' be like a goddess, springing back when it had fallen?
And would the destruction of the, 'Invincible Destroyer,' make any difference? Or would we be as doomed without it as we were with it?
That remained to be found out. And, part of me wondered whether I wanted to find out or not.