5

laurel

On our way back, we hardly talk to each other. I guess we’re both absorbed in our own thoughts and like zombies, we just stare out the window. I keep repeating the same lines over and over again: where did my peaceful life cease to exist, where did all the misery begin, and how much worse have I made it today?

I wince when I think about the danger I have exposed myself to by going to this music festival. What will Bastian do with that information? Will he betray me?

“Did Bastian recognize you?” I ask Rory. “Does he know who you are without ever having met you?”

Rory takes her eyes of the water. “I sure recognized him without ever meeting him. I felt him staring all the time, so yeah, he knows something is going on.”

I moan in misery. “What can we do?”

“There’s nothing we can do, Laurel. Only hope that the boys can control Bastian. But with that guy you never know, if he starts drinking…who knows what he will blurt out.”

“My God... How could I have been so naïve as to think that we could do this without paying the price for it?”

“You’re not to blame, Laurel. I am. I’m supposed to protect you.”

“Sam hates me.”

“No, he doesn’t sweetie. The guy you just saw isn’t the same one you left behind in Sooke.”

“Yeah, I keep telling myself that, but his heartless expression is haunting me.” My head falls against the seat. “If Renee wouldn’t have found us, we might have been able to sneak off.”

“No, we wouldn’t have. They already saw us from the stage.”

“Did you have a chance to talk to Andreas about the situation?”

Rory shakes her long hair. “Not with Bastian around, too risky. The fact that he has found out you live with Titans is terrible, but if he knew a few Olympians are behind it… Heads would roll.”

I look at her in horror.

“Figuratively speaking,” she adds quickly.

“I really think we should tell Sander, don’t you think so?”

“I’m still thinking about that. He’s already keeping you on a short leash. If he hears about this you will be grounded for life.”

I clutch my head. “My life is over. I sense it. I might just as well jump overboard and get it over with.”

“No, you’re not. I’m wearing a new dress and I’m so drained by this whole situation that I’m not sure I’d have the energy to drag you out of the water.”

“So jumping would be a waste of time anyway?”

“Yeah, so do us both a favor and stay in your seat.” Rory sighs. “Do you have any idea how careless my life was before you entered it?”

“I believe Sam said something similar. I’m sorry.”

“It’s not like you have anything to do with it. Sorry, it was a bad joke.”

“So we just go on as usual, as if this never happened?”

“I’ll figure it out, Laurel. I need some time. I’ll talk to Andreas first chance I get. We have to know how they’ll handle it first before we make a stupid mistake ourselves, like telling Sander. Maybe this will blow over in a few days.”

My gut tells me it won’t.

I am standing in the kitchen peeling and mashing avocados. Tonight is movie night in the house of the demigods and I’m making some snacks for everyone. More friends have dropped by, and by now I have met all twelve descendants of the Titans. And yes, they’re noisy. It’s hard to believe that underneath my feet twelve demigods and demigoddesses are walking around, so I’ve stopped trying to believe it. It’s just the way it is.

It’s been a week since the festival disaster, and so far, nothing strange has happened. Not on this side of the island, at least, and it feels like I can breathe again. Maybe Rory was right and it has blown over. I’ve decided to come clean with Sander, but I still haven’t gotten up my courage and Rory isn’t on my side in this. She’s a firm believer of the term ‘ignorance is bliss’.

I look up when someone enters the kitchen, and I feel myself blushing when Sander catches my glance.

“Laurel,” he says in a businesslike manner, “can I have a quick word with you?”

“Yeah, of course.”

Sander’s hair is damp and he smells of luxury soap. I can’t deny that he’s very attractive. I glance at his jeans and bare feet. Why do I have this weird attraction for bare feet in jeans? It’s all Sam’s fault, I decide. He started it. I shake my head when I think of Sam and at what must have been our only happy night together. And even that hadn’t lasted all night. I put on the food processor to disrupt my own thoughts. Thinking of Sam is so useless.

“I was just making some guacamole. I’m almost finished here.”

“Need a hand?”

I point with my chin toward the bags of tortilla chips. “If you want, you can throw those into the bowls.”

Sander strolls toward the kitchen island. He seems a little cranky. While he obediently divides the tortilla chips into the bowls, I add some cilantro and lime juice to the avocados.

“You want to know whom I saw today?” he asks in such a quiet way that it lets me wonder if this is some sort of trick question.

“Yeah, sure.”

“Olivia.”

My heart skips a few beats. “O-Olivia?” I stutter. “You’ve been to Sooke?”

“We met at a secure location. Neutral territory.”

I stop the processor and take out the bowl. When I turn around, Sander is leaning against the countertop, arms folded in front of his chest. “How is she? I would have loved to come with you.”

Sander puckers his lips. “I bet you would have, but to be honest, Olivia isn’t too thrilled about your behavior lately.”

“She isn’t?”

“Let’s get to the point, Laurel, shall we? We’re wasting both of our time here.”

“Oh, well, I…”

“I know about your little trip to the mainland.”

The spatula clatters onto the kitchen floor. I can feel the blood draining from my face as I lean down to pick it up. I walk over to the sink to wash it. Sander closes in on me and pulls the spatula out of my shaking hands. “At least you’re not denying it, that’s good. I already received a thorough report from Olivia, but maybe you would like to add something?”

I stare at my fingers and think of what I could possibly add to talk myself out of this mess.

“Laurel?”

I look up. Sander’s eyes are like calm seas, and the muscles in his face aren’t tight. He’s much more relaxed than Sam, who would have already cornered me and asked me which part of his command I didn’t understand. I think that between the two of them, Sander is the sympathetic one – less dominant. But I mustn’t be fooled, Sander is a demigod all right, and for that reason can be dominant if he wishes to be.

“Why did you lie to me?”

“Give it to me. Tell me I’m irresponsible, then we can go and watch a movie.”

“I don’t want to give it to you and fuck that movie. All I ask of you is that you’re honest with me. Is that really that difficult?”

“I feel locked up, Sander. It suffocates me that I’m not allowed to make my own decisions. You would have never let me go. We didn’t know Chaos was playing, I swear.”

“I might have let you go if I knew you wanted to see your stepsister.”

That surprises me. “You won’t let me go to neutral territory. I have to stay between the borders.”

“I would have done my homework – as Rory should have – and then I would have either let you go or forbid you to go. I blame Rory. I’ll talk to her.”

“I asked her to come with me, Sander. You can’t just blame her.”

“I blame you both, but it’s Rory’s job to keep you safe from Olympians. She’s too busy doing other things. I don’t know what’s going on with her lately, but she’s absentminded and that’s a potential risk when she’s going out with you.”

I know exactly what’s going on with Rory and I can only hope Sander can’t tell by looking at my face. I try to distract him from Rory. “Did Olivia say anything? Are we all in trouble?”

“Even for an alcoholic like Bastian it wasn’t hard to figure out that Rory is a Titaness. He knows you’re with us now.”

“Oh, my God.”

“They’ll do everything within their power to stop him from telling the Keepers. But it won’t be easy without revealing their own part.”

“I’m so sorry, Sander. This never should have happened. I only wanted to see Renee. We knew Adrian would be on Olympus.”

Sander pierces my eyes. “How would you know?”

My cheeks get hot. This is going all wrong. “Rory did some homework.”

“Hmhm,” Sander mutters while rubbing his chin. I pray in silence he leaves it at this.

I hide my face in my hands. “I’ve put everyone in danger.”

Sander touches my hair. “We’ll fix this. No one can harm you here, even if the whole damn Olympus knows where you are.”

But my concern is for my Olympian friends, not for myself. “So, you’re not mad at me?”

“I think we need to sit down and go through everything you already know again. I’m not really crazy about having to deal with a seething Olivia.” Sander runs his hand through his hair. “Fucking hell, does she hate men?”

I smile a little. “Only the ones that descend from Titans. Sorry, Sander, it won’t happen again. I promise.”

“I know all I need to know about you and your promises. I hope you don’t mind I don’t trust those blue eyes of yours, do you?”

“I’m sorry for making things hard for you. I don’t want you to think bad of me. I really appreciate what you do for me,” I say a bit sheepishly.

Sander smiles and rinses the spatula. “I don’t think bad of you.” He hands me the spatula. “Are you going to finish that guacamole? We’d better get downstairs. They’re gossiping about us.”

I walk over to the kitchen island and divide the green pulp into some bowls. “What are they saying?”

Sander grins and takes the bowls in his hands. “I’d better not repeat it.”

The violent movie doesn’t hold my interest from the get-go. I find it much more interesting to secretly study the audience. I glance at two cousins of Cosmo and Sander and try to find similarities. Their fathers are brothers. Four brothers.

I bend over toward Sander. “Who’s your father?” Not that I am familiar with any Titan whatsoever, but at least I can show some interest as a gesture of goodwill after my enormous misstep.

Sander chokes on a Dorito. “We’re watching a movie and you are asking about my father?”

“Yes, I am.”

He tilts his head, narrows his eyes. “And then what? You’re going to look him up online, find out what there is to know about him and then use it against me?”

“That thought never crossed my mind, but as always you’re one step ahead of me. Thanks for the suggestion. Well?”

“Well what?”

“Who is he?”

“That’s for you to find out, isn’t it? I’m not helping you in my own downfall if that’s what you think.”

“You think I’m too stupid to find out?”

“That’s not what I’m implying. I’m just saying I’m not offering you the answer on a golden plate.”

I smile. “You’re not the only one with a hidden talent.”

Sander lowers his brows. “What’s yours?”

“I’m a natural talent with search engines. I bet you that within five minutes I’ll know your dad’s name.”

“You’re daring me?”

“Absolutely.”

“Fine. What’s the bet?”

“If you lose, you respect the choices I make, the car I drive, and the work that I do.”

“Deal. If I win, you buy a new car. My choice.”

“Never mind. I’m not that interested in your dad.”

“Oh, no. You wanted to bet, so that’s what we’re going to do. Hold on.” Sander is thinking. “Okay, listen up. If I win this, you take the next weekend off and you’ll come with me. No questions asked. You surrender yourself to me for one day.”

I take some time to consider his proposal. Maybe it’s not such a bad idea to spend an entire day with Sander. Maybe we will be friends after all. It certainly wouldn’t hurt. “I’ll get my phone. I need Internet access.” I want to get up from the couch but Sander stops me. His eyes twinkle.

“Brave girl. Let me get your phone, I’m faster.”

Hardly visible to the human eye, Sander flies up the stairs and only seconds later sits down again. He throws the phone into my lap. He glances at his watch. “As soon as you hit the first letter, I start the timer.”

“Can’t the two of you go upstairs and pick a room. There are lots of them,” Celine whispers from the seat next to us.

I chuckle. Sander just ignores her remark.

“Ready?” he asks impatiently.

I hit the T and Sander presses the timer on his watch. Then he grabs some Doritos and sinks into his seat. I know he thinks he has this in the bag already, arrogant bastard.

Using my thumbs, I type Titan in the search word field. I spend a full minute on Wikipedia to find out that the Titans are giant deities of incredible strength. It doesn’t help me one bit.

“Got it yet?” Sander asks and dips another tortilla into the guacamole. He looks at his watch. “Don’t sweat it, you’ve got some time left. I like the guacamole, by the way.”

I glance over the edge of my cell. “Stop distracting me.”

With a grin he dives into the bowl of tortilla chips again. If I don’t hurry, not only will I lose this bet, but there won’t be any tortilla chips left. I suddenly get some inspiration. Four cousins, four brothers. I search for the male Titans and search for the one that has four children, four sons. I check the first name. Oceanus had three thousand daughters. My goodness… I check the next one. When I reach the fifth name I finally stumble on something. Iapetus had four sons. Bingo! Iapetus is Sander’s grandfather. Now we’re getting somewhere.

Quickly, I go over the brothers and their characters. Atlas was powerful and patient, but excessively daring. That could be Sander. Taking me in his house seems excessively daring to me. Menoetius has an arrogant and violent personality. I swallow and shift my weight. I can hear Sander chuckling. A son of this God is sitting right here in the room, watching a movie. I glance at Sander. Does he have a violent nature? No, I’m sure Menoetius isn’t his father. Next! Prometheus was clever, cunning, and a thief. He stole the fire from Mount Olympus. Sander a thief? No way, although he is pretty clever. The last one is Epimetheus. He’s known for being a fool and is responsible for all misery in the world. My God…where did I end up? Maybe the Olympians were right after all, and the Titans are nothing less than a bunch of wild barbarians that must be eliminated from this planet.

“Twenty seconds.”

Sander’s voice startles me and makes me feel ashamed of my own thoughts. I glare at him. Is Sander a cunning thief or a risk-taker? A fool or a brute? Suddenly, I remember his tattoo. Flames… Fire…

Sander presses a button and at that exact moment my phone rings.

“Who the fuck didn’t turn off his phone?” an angry voice hollers through the basement. I shrink when I think that this could very well be the son of Menoetius.

Quickly, I walk up the stairs to answer my phone. By the time I hang up again, Sander is standing in front of me.

“Everything okay?”

“Just some sick people at work. Dominic asked if I could substitute for tonight.”

“Is that what you want?”

“Yeah, I want to go.”

“Get your stuff, I’ll take you.”

When I have gathered my things and walk back into the living room, Sander is putting on his sneakers. “You don’t have to bring me, Sander. I don’t want to interrupt your night off.

I promise to come straight back home after work.”

Sander picks up his keys from the bar top. “I’m not taking you because I don’t trust you. I’m taking you because you forgot to get gas.”

It’s way after midnight when I find Sander already waiting for me. “Hi.”

“Hey. How did it go?” He turns on the ignition and drives away.

“Perfect. Dominic let me cook real food.”

“Ah, you liked that, didn’t you?”

I smile. Something’s changed about Sander. He is good-humored and has said more to me in one day then he has in the last couple of months.

I stick out my thumb with the blue Band-Aid. “Just a little accident with the mandoline slicer. I forgot to use the finger guard. That won’t happen again.”

Sander suddenly brakes and curses the whole pantheon. He makes a U-turn in the middle of the road.

“What’s wrong with you?” I shout. “You scared me. What are you doing?”

“I’m bringing you to the emergency room.”

“You’re what? Why?”

“To get you stiches and this is not the time to argue with me. You know what can happen with an open wound, right? I hope I don’t have to explain that to you?”

“I didn’t cut my finger, Sander. I just sliced off a piece of skin. It wasn’t too bad. If it had been worse, Dominic would have taken me to the hospital himself. So unless you want me to have plastic surgery, because there’s nothing to stich, turn the car around and drive home.”

“Are you hurt?”

“Not anymore. Dominic gave me first aid. Everything’s fine now.”

Sander pulls over the car, takes off the Band-Aid, and carefully examines the lesion. “Can I trust you to take care of this wound until it’s completely healed? Even if it’s not bleeding anymore, we don’t want you to get an infection.”

“You can trust me.”

Sander wraps the bandage around my finger. “Okay then. You know the risks involved. We can’t be nonchalant about this.”

For a while we drive in silence. “Your dad is Prometheus. He stole fire from Mount Olympus.” I glance sideways. “He’s a thief, right?”

Sander glances back and smiles. “Just a spiritual fire – to help mankind. Zeus doesn’t like mankind to get smarter.”

“You do?”

“Sure we do. It’s progression.”

“You can never criticize my car again.”

“It took you more than five minutes.”

I shake my head. “No, it didn’t. I knew it the minute my phone rang.”

“Yeah? What gave it away?”

“Your ehm… tattoo. The one on your chest. Those are flames, right?”

Sander smiles. “I’ll give you the benefit of the doubt. I won’t criticize your car anymore, but I still want you to come with me on Sunday. We leave at five.”

I blink. “In the morning?”

“And you’d better be on time. Late-comers are not appreciated.”

“If you’re trying to intimidate me, I can tell you it isn’t working. There’s no way I’m getting up at five on a Sunday morning.”