Complete Nothing (True Love #2)(81)

Someone screamed. My eyes flew open and my heart stopped beating. The walls of the announcer’s booth were, in fact, trembling. Startled birds took flight from trees as somewhere nearby a car alarm began to blare. People gripped guardrails, lay prostrate on the ground, clung to one another in terror. That was when I realized that the ground was, in fact, shaking. That I had made it shake. My anger had caused an earthquake.

This was very not good. I had to make it stop. I took a deep breath. With every fiber of my being, I concentrated on my center. I closed my eyes and calmed my heart. And then, finally, the world grew still.

So. Maybe not so human after all.

“What the hell was that?” Josh Moskowitz shouted.

“An earthquake. That was an earthquake,” Charlie told him.

Everyone started chattering and making calls, checking to see if loved ones were okay. I had a feeling they were going to find out that this particular earthquake was very localized, that no one else they knew had felt a thing. Fear coursed through my veins. What I had just done was unacceptable. It was too big, too dangerous, too noticeable. Zeus must have seen it, and if he had, I was soon to be in a huge amount of trouble.

Orion raced out of the booth and grabbed Darla, who sobbed and clung to him like she would never let him go. I turned my back on them and got out of there as quickly as possible, before I could cause any more damage. Before I could unwittingly bring them even closer together.





CHAPTER FIFTY-EIGHT


True


I walked into my house on shaky legs, surprised that I had not yet been summoned back to Mount Olympus. That I had not yet been punished, or at the very least, chastised, by Zeus or Hera or Ares. Perhaps no one had noticed after all. Perhaps I was still safe. I took a deep breath of the oak-and-dust-scented air, trying not to think of the very public display of affection that had caused my momentary lapse of reason.

I couldn’t believe I had let something so petty almost ruin everything. I should have been celebrating. My mission was more than halfway complete. Tomorrow I would start searching for another set of soul mates, just in case Wallace and Mia proved to be too easy to be true, and before long Orion wouldn’t even recall having uttered the name “Darla Shayne,” let alone kissing her.

“Everything’s going to be fine,” I whispered to myself. “If you can just hold on to your head, everything is going to be fine.”

I closed the door behind me and froze. Hephaestus was waiting at the bottom of the stairs. The little hairs on my arms and along the back of my neck stood on end. I readied myself for a confrontation.

“Waiting for me?” I asked him.

He looked me in the eye. I’d never seen him appear so vulnerable. My defenses instantly died away. “I’ve decided to tell you the truth,” he said. “I do have an ulterior motive for being here.”

“You do,” I said resignedly. I so hated it when my father was right. “Is it because of my parents? Are you using me to get back at them somehow?”

“No. It’s not that,” he said, raising one palm. “And I wouldn’t say I’m using you. My being here is mutually beneficial.”

“So how does it benefit you, exactly?” I asked.

He blew out a sigh. “I want to get back to Harmonia.”

That brought me up short. I stepped into the doorway between the foyer and the parlor, leaning back against the cool, carved wood that framed it. “Explain.”

Hephaestus rubbed his brow for a moment. He adjusted his wheels and edged over until we were directly facing each other. Out on the street, a car whizzed by, its horn honking, a pack of girls screaming happily out the windows, celebrating Lake Carmody’s latest win.

“Do you have any idea what it’s like to be torn away from your true love?” Hephaestus asked passionately.

“Yes, actually, I do,” I replied, trying not to think about my own personal earthquake.

He blinked. “Right. Of course. Sorry. Well, try living that way for over two thousand years.”

“So the two of you really were in love,” I said quietly, mournfully. I shook my head, staring down at the frayed fringe along the edge of the parlor’s largest rug. “How could she have kept this from me?”

“You know how private she is,” Hephaestus said. “How cautious. She didn’t want to tell anyone until she was absolutely certain my love for her was pure. But before I had a chance to find a way to prove it to her, I was flung from Mount Olympus for the last time. I thought I would never see her again—that I would never be able to show her how much I cared for her.”

“But you found a way,” I said, looking into his aching eyes.

“I did.” He nodded and touched the back of his hand to his nose. “One morning many years ago I awoke to find a twisted ball of metal next to my bed. I could tell in an instant that this material held divine properties. To this day I have no idea which god or goddess gifted me with it, but I somehow knew exactly what I had to do. I forged that mirror, and Harmonia’s face appeared in the glass. When I saw her that day I thought I would truly die from longing, but instead it gave me a newfound hope. Now my only hope is that I live long enough to hold her again.”

“How long have the two of you been communicating?”

He lifted his shoulders. “A few centuries now.”