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Riley texted and let me know he was on his way to Ishy’s right as I was slapping the door open and stepping outta Belinda’s store onto the street. A wide-eyed tourist couple skirted me like I was oozing toxic waste. I was so aggravated, I coulda just about spit some, if I’d had any to spit.
The nerve of that woman, making me promise to send business her way after ever thing she done to me and mine!
I bit back the mad as best I could, not least because my temper was shorter’n normal of late. Seemed like ever little thing set me off nowadays. Truth be told, I was getting tired of being on the wrong end of my moods.
Ten minutes later, me and my feller was seated in a booth near the front of Ishy’s, overlooking the street passing between the restaurant and Stekoa Creek, him with his back to the entrance. We was regulars, just like at the Sunday Diner next door, and the waitress chatted with us for a few minutes before heading off with our orders.
Soon as she left the table, Riley reached across its width and took my hand, stretching our arms across the dark surface. “I heard you had another run-in with Belinda.”
I narrowed my eyes on him. “I know gossip travels fast, but that’s gotta be a record, even for Clayton.”
That set him to grinning. “I happened to call her right after you left her office.”
“So you’re still seeing her, is that it?”
He let go of my hand and sat back, his smile gone. “Do we have to go through this every single time her name comes up?”
“If you’d quit seeing her, her name wouldn’t come up.”
“I’m not seeing her and you know it.” He inhaled sharply and let all the air out slow and easy. “Christ, Sunny. When do I have time for another woman? You take up all my time.”
An echo of Trey’s words rattled around in my noggin, and hurt rose up in my heart. Was I really reeling folks in like my cousin said, reeling ‘em in, using ‘em up, and what? Spitting ‘em back out again?
Almost immediately, that something hidden deep inside me roused and uttered a firm no inside my mind. And I remembered how me and Riley got back together again, after years spent apart. He come to me, not t’other way around. Sure, he come because of a monster, but I give him plenty of chances to walk right back out again.
Or was that explanation my way of justifying the way he reentered my life?
The doubts swirled around so hard in my head, my mouth dried out and my tongue got all tangled up. What could I say anyhow? As much as Riley reassured me that he weren’t nothing more’n friends with Belinda, a teeniny part of me couldn’t quite move past that old high school rivalry. Didn’t help how she goaded me from time to time. Maybe we woulda let that rivalry go if me and her had something in common besides Riley and where we growed up.
Riley put his hand on the table next to mine. “Sunny. Baby.”
And that’s when Eros walked through the door behind Riley, a tall, athletic woman in tow.
For a second, I was caught between dismay over his arrival and laughter. Was his timing perfect or just my bad luck? Either way, I couldn’t let an opportunity to talk to him pass me by.
I scooted outta the booth, leaned down, and kissed Riley on the temple. “I gotta talk to somebody real quick.”
His hand come up, quick as a flash, and he caught my hand to his chest. “Are you sure you’re not trying to avoid talking about this?”
“I’m positive, Riley. You can dress me down later for not believing you ain’t courting her.”
“That’s not—” He sighed again and said, “Sunny.”
I slipped my hand outta his before he could say nothing else, whirled around, and bounded down the stairs onto the floor proper, then headed for the table where Eros and his mystery woman was being seated.
Don’t mean I didn’t catch the choice curse word or two Riley muttered under his breath, just loud enough for me to hear, ‘cause I did. Hang it all! A body could only take so much conflict and navel gazing for one day, and I’d about had my fill of it already.
I strode across the painted concrete floor, weaving between the tables slowly filling up with the midday lunch crowd. Once at Eros’s table, a four-seater set back against the divider between the bar and the main dining area, I pulled out a chair across from him with the woman on my left and plopped down.
“Howdy there, Chef Eros,” I said, aiming for a perky I didn’t rightly feel. “You been cooking up any more of that special food you was serving at the Sweetheart Ball?”
His handsome face kinda froze up soon as my butt hit the seat of the chair, then his mouth puckered into a disgruntled frown. His blond hair was glossy and stylish above perfectly arched eyebrows and high cheekbones, and I figured underneath his jeans and t-shirt, he had the body of a god.
‘Course, seeing as how he was a literal god, and the god of love to boot, I figured my guess was spot on. Eros was about the handsomest guy I ever seen, and that included mine own true love. I’d never breathe a hint of that to Riley, though, not after ragging him about Belinda.
“Ms. Walkingstick,” Eros said, sour as a lemon. “What a pleasure.”
“Likewise. What’re you still doing in town?”
“Haven’t you heard? Clayton has quite the food scene.”
“Yeah? Is’at all you’re doing here?”
Eros’s expression went from sour displeasure to affronted in a blink, and he drew himself up like I dealt him a wounding blow. “This is the second time you’ve questioned my motives, mortal. Tread carefully, lest I treat you as such.”
I snorted out a laugh. Like he wouldn’ta done that already if he coulda.
His companion was watching us, one perfectly arched black eyebrow lifted, and it didn’t take me long to figure out she was probably a goddess, too. Perfect ivory complexion? Check. Perfect athletic figure? Check. Staring down her nose at the lowly mortals? Yup, that’un, too, only she was less emotional, more calculating, like she was sizing me up for battle. Coupled with the wide multi-metaled bracelet she sported on her right wrist, the one depicting the image of an owl, I didn’t need two guesses to figure out which goddess.
I turned to her and tried real hard to rein in my sass, honest I did. “You must be Athena. I been hearing a lot about you lately.”
Eros inhaled a strangled gasp, but the woman just popped another eyebrow up.
“Someone invoked my name,” she said. “If it was you, mortal, you may well pay for your cheek.”
Well. It didn’t take a genius to figure out a fumble when it smacked you upside the head. And I was trying so hard for polite, too. Dadjim. I bet she knowed exactly where that dadblamed Gorgoneion was. The way she was looking at me right now, like the only thing keeping her from smiting me on the spot was table manners, hurling a bunch of questions at her probably weren’t such a hot idea.
A sigh slipped out. Nothing for it then. I’d track her down again and bring Nora along for the ride. She’d get a kick out of it, and I’d get my questions answered without risking the wrath of somebody I knowed better’n to tangle with.
“Begging your pardon,” I said, formal as could be. “It was nice meeting you, but my sweetheart is waiting for me in one of the high booths.”
“Mustn’t keep him waiting,” Athena replied with only a touch of dryness in her melodic voice.
I stood and was about to leave when it occurred to me that Eros never did answer my question. I looked him straight in the eye, intending to set him straight on the question of whose town this was to protect, and near about got lost in the beauty of his gaze.
Probably woulda if the waitress hadn’t come up right then and said hello, first to them, then to me. I shook off Eros’s spell, a spell I was dead certain he sent out without giving it a second thought, and strode off while the getting was good. I’d catch up with him later. Right now, I had a boyfriend to mollify. Between the two men, he was the one what deserved my attention, even if the spell he cast was one of the heart and not one of immortal, perfect beauty. I’d take Riley’s heart any day, thank you kindly, even if he was at that very moment shooting daggers my way with them hazel eyes of his.
––––––––
Riley was tactful enough to keep our lunch-time conversation to stuff nobody else could overhear and gossip about, but it was pretty dang clear he was gonna lay into me later on.
That was just fine by me. All that mad I been storing up needed an outlet, and with Riley, I knowed I could say my piece without running him off.
Couldn’t I?
I shook that tiny doubt off. The important thing was that after him and me had words, we could kiss and make up. That was always my favorite part.
I spent the rest of the afternoon hitting the pawn shops, antique stores, and auction houses along Highway 441 going north from Clayton toward the North Carolina line. By the time I got home late that afternoon, I was beat inside and out. Nora still hadn’t checked in, and in spite of promising Riley I’d spend the night at his house, it didn’t sit right with me to just go off without making sure she got home ok.
I texted Riley and told him what the deal was, then I took that old book she was studying and plopped down on the living room couch with it. The tapestry cover was a rough blue and gold weave under my hand. I opened it up and stared down at the ink drawing of Medusa with her eyes closed. The language hadn’t changed a bit. I still couldn’t read it. Shoot, I didn’t even know what language I was staring at, but since Nora seemed to have no trouble with it, I reckoned it was somewhere in the classical realm. Greek or Latin, or something close to one of them.
I flipped the page, being real careful not to tear or damage it, and studied the way the words scrolled across the parchment and anything else what caught my eye. Illustrations, the material binding the pages together, the way the ink darkened and lightened, like something had faded it over time.
My eyes growed heavy and my thoughts began to wander, though my hands kept turning the pages. There was an illustration of Perseus holding up Medusa’s head. Had it really been absorbed into Athena’s shield, or had it been stored like Nora speculated, based on what she’d read in this very book?
Why not both? a little voice whispered inside me.
I nodded sleepily. Yeah, why not both? Had Athena really needed all of Medusa’s essence to create the Gorgoneion? Medusa’s blood seemed potent enough anyhow, if that was where them double-headed snakes come from.
Another page turned under hands what seemed to move under their own steam, and there was another illustration. A row of statues, each carefully sketched in hair-thin lines, was spread across the top of the page. I zoomed in on the faces, on the builds, and no, it weren’t my imagination. They was all different, and all men, now no more than statuary.
My mind flashed to Euryale and something she said that morning. Men are such treacherous creatures. I find them to be tedious distractions more suited to decoration.
Statuary. Decorations.
There will be more, that voice said, a hair louder, and I grimaced and turned away from it. No, there couldn’t be no more. Surely I’d find a way to keep that from happening.
The page turned, and a different illustration appeared, only it was moving like that music video a-ha did back in the eighties. Line-drawn sketches, so natural they coulda been real. A man running away from me, a man so familiar I woulda knowed him anywhere. He slowed as he neared a giant rock jutting out over thin air and turned to me, his figure shimmering as the lines outlining his form wavered.
Riley, I gasped and held my hand out, my heart pattering so hard and fast, I thought it’d gallop right outta my chest. Don’t do it.
His expression was agonizing to see. Blank, not a hint of recognition. He turned and held his arms out, staring down into the great abyss spread out below him, and leaned slowly forward...
A rough hand shook me, hard, and Nora said, “Sunny!”
I bolted upright so fast, the book slid off my lap onto the couch. My heart was a-hammering away under the residue of that dream, and it was all I could do to swallow Riley’s name, to tamp down the fear and take in where and when I was. Still on the couch in my roost, still on the same day as before I picked that book up.
I heaved out a shuddering sigh. Safe. That was just a dream and Riley was safe.
Finally, I put a hand over Nora’s where she held my shoulder. “Guess I drifted off.”
My voice was so rough, it nearly didn’t make it outta my throat.
“You were dreaming,” Nora said, and ever so slow, she sat down beside me and slid her hand out from under mine. “A nightmare. You were screaming Riley’s name.”
Well, that was probably why I was so hoarse. “I thought he was gonna jump, and before that, there was all these men turned to stone and I—” I shook my head. Dreams never did make no sense to me, so it weren’t no use trying to explain that’un. “How’d your trip to the Nature Camp go?”
“It was...” She sucked in a breath and held it, and tears shimmered in her brown eyes. “Oh, Sunny. There were dozens of children buried there, hundreds maybe, going back decades at least.”
Decades. A faint memory of sifting through newspaper articles and death records come to mind, and though I was appalled, I weren’t surprised.
Still. I hated seeing her upset. “I’m so sorry, Nora.”
“It’s not your fault. Not my fault either. Thank Hecate we stopped her this time.”
I studied her for a minute while my heartbeat slowly eased back to normal. “There’s something else, ain’t there?”
Her eyelids slid shut, and a tear escaped and rolled down her cheek, leaving a wet trail along her skin. “The brothers are back, and they know I’m still in the area.”
A curse word popped into my mouth, and I let it out. What the hell. The church needed all the help it could get. “You saw ‘em?”
“I saw their servants. Ravens.” She leaned her face against the back of the sofa and pulled her knees up to her chest with her feet hanging off the side of the couch. “It’s time for me to go.”
Without thinking, my hand shot out and I grasped one of her knees. “Not yet, surely. We still ain’t found you a safe place yet, and besides. You ain’t been here long enough to wear out your welcome.”
My sorry attempt at humor fell flat, but at least it got her eyes open again. “They’ll find me if I stay here much longer, and when they do, they’ll take down everyone who had the temerity to shield me from them.”
“I can take care of myself.”
“But can Missy? Can Fame and the boys? What about Mary Alice? Riley and BobbiJean and all the rest? They’re all vulnerable.”
I clamped my mouth shut, not ‘cause she was reciting the truth. My family could take care of themselves, all but Gentry. Him the rest of us could take care of, and as for the Treadwells and my other friends, I was positive we could protect them, too. But her words did hit a mite too close to home.
Literally.
“It’s time, Sunny,” Nora said. “Time for me to leave and deal with the fallout from Brenyn’s death on my own, the way I should have in the first place.”
“Nora, you ain’t gotta deal with nothing on your own, not now, not ever.”
She sniffed out a sob, then her face crumpled and she started bawling, gentle at first, easy. But soon enough, she was crying so hard, my heart couldn’t take no more. I held out my arms and pulled her close, and tried not to let my own tears fall on the worry stretching between us.
