Without thought, I threw myself into the stream – my psyche surfing a river of fire while my body lay unconscious on the shore. The heat of it filled me like a luscious caress and I never wanted it to stop.

  I directed the flow of lava as it propelled toward the rising island but resistance came in the form of icy cold water cooling the stream before it could work as an anchor - binding the sunken city to the ocean floor. In my frustration, I poured more power into the task - my very existence broke apart and barreled through the now boiling water. Nothing could cool me down and I distantly realized that I'd burst into flame within my living body.

  Somewhere in the back of my mind, human Grace was jumping up and down – waving her arms around in a panic that my present thoughts were choosing to ignore. The focus became a singular pinpoint of desire.

  Atlantis needed to stay on the floor. Nyx needed to stay buried.

  I wasn't ready for her yet, because I wasn't ready to be the Hero of everyone's expectations.

  I could do this though. I could wall this city up, keeping it from moving any higher. Nothing could stop me, not even my own sense of self-preservation.

  The sheer output of power was staggering in retrospect, but the idiotic tactic worked. Atlantis' ascent slowed as chains of mud and lava wrapped around the city. Typically lava rock is a porous material that isn't much stronger than a pumice stone. However, the mixture of saltwater, sand, lava, and eau de Grace created an unbreakable wall that brought Hypnos' efforts to a complete standstill.

  I'm sure Poseidon had something to do with it as well, but I'm taking credit. Who stopped the raising of Atlantis? That's right, this kid did.

  When I came to, I was panting and lying like a limp ragdoll, limbs akimbo. "Poseidon, can you tell?" There was no energy for words, or even for complete thoughts. Drained was a road sign that I'd passed ten miles ago.

  He waded into the water and stood still, concentrating intently on the flow of the ocean. Finally, he nodded. "It won't be going anywhere soon. Girl, I don't know how you got that much power, but you've done it. Atlantis has stopped its ascent. I'm going to head back to Olympus to give a report. I will see you there."

  "Oh good," I breathed a sigh of relief stared at the cerulean sky, digging my head further into… glass? I rolled enough to see that the sand beneath me had burned so hot that it'd created a glass outline of my body. I let myself relax with a shocked exhale. Whoa. "Give me a few minutes and we can get the hell out of here."

  The sun was blotted out by a mountain, casting me in shadow. Hephaestus kneeled next to me and took my face in his massive paw, turning my head side to side.

  "Do you know what you just did? Do you realize that you have completely wrecked the balance of nature in this area with your stupid stunt?"

  I opened my mouth to reply but his fingers gripped my jaw, preventing words. "No, you don't talk. You listen."

  His face held a fury that I'd never seen before. If there'd been any energy left in me, my fight or flight instinct would have teleported me the hell out of there.

  As it was, I shrank into myself and nodded as much as I could with his grip limiting my movement.

  "I feel like I'm talking to a brick wall with all that you listen to me," he ground out between clenched teeth. "I cannot recall how many times I've asked you to stop and think about the effects of your power. All I get back are hissy fits, sullen snits or pandering nods. That is going to stop now or you are getting magically neutered. We're here to protect this planet, Grace – not destroy it."

  My first instinct was to nod and promise that I would do whatever he wanted as long as he stopped being mad at me. I stopped myself at the last minute because that was what he was talking about. I either fought him or agreed with him so he wouldn't be mad. I'd never stopped to think about what he was telling me without my ego getting in the way. I was always in defensive mode around Heph.

  A large part of me wanted to justify my actions because of what he'd done to train me. Who threw their apprentice in a forge so hot it could create nuclear fallout that made Chernobyl look like a day at the beach? Nobody, that's who! My need to deflect created a division between the two of us that was now causing real problems.

  I didn't want to listen to him because I was too proud – and spiteful - and he was tired of me acting like a goddamned brat. Once that realization hit, the shame came with it – which, unfortunately, led to more defensiveness. It was a brutal emotional cycle that needed to stop now, or he was right – I could destroy this planet.

  He sensed my surrender and loosened his grip enough so that I could speak. "You're right. I'm sorry. Tell me how I can fix this."

  "You can't fix it. Now you have to just leave it be. Let the fallout settle so you can help pick up the pieces."

  I flinched at the tone of his voice. I'd spent so much time acting antagonistic toward him that I’d forgotten that at my core, I just wanted him to like – no, love me.

  He sighed and let go. "You're an idiot, Grace. Get up; let's regroup with the others in Olympus."

  I nodded and tried to push myself to my feet. My arms decided to take this time to pretend they were made of Jell-o. Frowning, I tried again with the same results. I couldn't get up. I could barely move.

  Fear made me lie through my teeth. Don't ask what I was afraid of. I didn't know at the time. "I need a minute to breathe, and check to make sure the entire wall came down. I'll meet you there."

  Heph eyed me suspiciously and then nodded. "Okay, meet us in Zeus' lab."

  "You got it. And Heph? I'm really sorry." Did my voice sound pitiful? Crap, it did.

  "Stop telling me you are sorry and start acting like you are," was all he said before disappearing.

  Chapter 2

  I’m not a fan of self-reflection. When I get into this mode, it's because I've fucked something up and I’m left feeling like everything I see inside of me is bad. Nobody stops to think about how they can change their life when everything is going good.

  Okay, I didn't think about how to change my life when it was going good. Because why fix what isn't broken?

  So, here I lay – broken. Feeling was starting to reincorporate itself into my limbs, and the pins and needles sensations were unwelcome. That wasn't the biggest of my worries, though. When I'd told Heph that I was going to check to see if I'd taken the entire wall down, I wasn't being facetious. I literally could not feel my connection to the Earth.

  The lack of frantic energy felt like I’d been dumped in a sensory deprivation tank and left there to rot. That buzzing had been with me for my entire life, even though I hadn't known what it was. Sure, it was only a slight buzz before last year. But when my power had burst from me like an alien in a cyborg, it had gotten stronger; continuing to become more focused with each day. Now, suddenly, it was just gone.

  Zeus had told me that these buzzing sensations were caused by the nanites at work in my body, repairing cells and creating electrical pulses that helped fuel my power. I had natural power on my own, but nanites enhanced what was there and - due to a little demi-god cocktail that he'd slipped me - I had a bit more than most.

  Did the lack of sensation mean that the power was gone? I didn't know what to think, or how to feel about that.

  Let's face it, I'd been whining for nearly a year about the changes in my and Dylan's life. Too much, too soon – yada yada yada. The troubles just kept piling on and I’d have to believe I was a rock to shoulder the burden with dignity. I wasn't a rock.

  Bollocks.

  I wondered how long it would take for Hephaestus to come back and get me.

  When the feeling returned to my legs, I crawled to the water's edge and splashed some on my face. I don’t consider it crying if I've splashed water on my cheeks to hide the tears. My eyes kept drifting toward the glass outline of my body. I couldn't stop wondering what kind of permanent damage I'd done to this region's ecosystem by blowing that volcano. The heat output needed to melt the sand into glass frightened me.

  Rolling onto dry sand, I ignored my feelings of unease and swept my arms and legs up and down, creating wings and a gown. What do I do when faced with a catastrophic emergency that will most likely break me? Make sand angels, of course.

  There's a reason that kids don't stress out like adults do. They do silly little things to help divert the tension.

  How long would it take Heph to realize that I wasn't right behind him? Was he mad enough at me that he'd just give up, or was he searching my usual hiding places right now - getting madder with each deserted location?

  I doubt that it would have occurred to him to come back here and check right away.

  An ugly thought popped into my head. What would I do now without any powers? How would I keep my kid safe? Would I be shunned?

  Actually, I’d worked myself up into such spiral of self-hate by the time Hephaestus showed up that I immediately went on the offensive. Certain that they were going to wipe my memory and hate me for the rest of my natural life - because of course I was mortal now - I threw the blackest scowl I could muster at him and yelled, "I don't care if you don't like me now!"

  He'd barely materialized and the look of utter shock on his face would have been priceless if I'd been a state of mind to be amused.

  "Would you care to explain to me why I am not going to like you now?" His eyebrows rose to his hairline and he crossed his arms, standing somewhat defensively.

  I guess I'd have been on the defensive too, thinking back. "I don't have any stinking powers anymore. I can't even feel the hum of the Earth. So I'm useless now. You guys are probably going to wipe my mind and leave me on some rock to wait for the coming apocalypse where Nyx wipes out the human race!" I was babbling at this point, struggling not to cry during my rant.

  His lips quivered before he bit the bottom one to contain his mirth. "Sooooo, you're void of any powers and certain that we're going to not only shun you, but wipe your memories too? Grace Murphy, you are seriously one crazy bitch." He strode over to me, pulled me up out of the sand and wrapped his arms around my waist before smiling down at me. "Seriously – you’re crazy. Let's go home and we'll get this figured out."

  I wasn't sure whether I should be happy that I'd deflected his anger or pissed off that he'd called me a crazy bitch. I decided upon happy and let him teleport me without any fuss.

  We landed in the quiet solitude of Zeus' lab and I felt the immediate unease of someone being stalked. "Where is everyone?" I asked quietly. I was afraid to speak in a normal volume. I couldn't see who was here, but the hair on the back of my neck prickled with alarm.

  'Someone is here,' I thought to Heph.

  He pulled back and frowned at me, shaking his head subtly. I appreciated that he was at least being discreet and not blatantly disagreeing with me.

  My eyes widened and I nodded slightly to emphasize that there was someone in this room with us.

  He frowned and before I could think at him further, he teleported us to his forge. The lingering presence that I felt was gone, which made my nerves settle but as usual, Heph's forge was sweltering and I no longer had the ability to control my core temperature to match it.

  "Jesus, it’s hot as Hell in here," I breathed.

  "It’s an automatic place to go – sorry." He let go of me and stepped away. "Tell me what that was about."

  Without his support, my legs gave out and I sank to the ground. He frowned down at me and pulled me up again.

  "Pull it together, Brat."

  "Do you ever get that feeling that you’re being watched? That hair rising on the back of your neck feeling that crawls down your spine and makes you shudder to let it go? I got that. I felt someone in the room with us even though I couldn’t see anything. I don’t think I was wrong."

  I frowned and shuffled over to one of his many workbenches to fiddle with a tool that I had no name for. "I know that I am not on the same level I was a few hours ago in terms of my abilities, but I still have intuition. Maybe you should try trusting me."

  There I was, getting defensive again. When in doubt go on the attack. It’s how I’ve always lived my life. It wasn’t the best way, but it was the only way I knew.

  He stepped back, confusion written all over his face. "I never said that I didn’t trust you, Grace. I asked what was going on. You need to stop projecting your fears onto me because it’s not getting us anywhere productive."

  I opened my mouth to shoot back a tart reply and immediately closed it. He was right. I had to stop doing that. Hadn’t I just been doing the self-reflection bit? "You’re right. I’m sorry."

  I thought his jaw was going to hit the floor, it dropped so far. Had I never apologized to him or bothered to admit when I was wrong? Was I that much of a stubborn bitch?

  "Yes," he replied.

  I frowned and slammed down my mental shields. There was vulnerability enough to go around right now. He didn’t need to know every nuance of my thoughts.

  "Okay. So the point was that I felt someone in that room with us. I don’t know who or how – but we weren’t alone. Does anyone have the ability to go invisible?"

  He had to think about it a moment before shrugging and saying, "I think that all of us can do it. We just never do when we’re here in Olympus. There is no need to hide ourselves."

  "So it’s quite possible that someone was there and you just didn’t know it."

  He nodded, "Yeah."

  "Why would someone do that?" It was a stupid question. There are all sorts of reasons right now. Namely, finding out the 411 on Atlantis rising. It’s easier to eavesdrop than finagle an answer out of Zeus.

  He raised an eyebrow and gave me the ‘really?’ look. I rolled my eyes and nodded. "Yeah, I know. Stupid question."

  At this point, my clothing – a loose linen tunic and pants – was sticking uncomfortably to my skin in wet sweaty patches. "I can’t stay in here much longer, Heph. I’m going to have a heat stroke."

  "Oh, right. Should I take you back to your apartments in the palace?"

  Nodding, I said, "Yeah that’s a good idea. I need to get Dylan and then get packed up to go back home."

  "Wait a second. Who said anything about you two leaving Olympus?"

  "If I don’t have any powers, there isn’t a need to eliminate me, right? Therefore I can go back home and resume my life, finish up this new book that Marisol wants and spend some quality time with my kid who has - to date - been beaten, nearly killed, and probably scarred beyond any normal rationale."

  He had the grace to look uncomfortable. If I’d just been pulling the petulant card, he could have admonished me and told me to suck it up because I was staying where they could protect me. However, we both knew that up to this point, nobody had really been able to protect either myself or my son. We had been beaten, abused and kidnapped several times under their watch.

  He inhaled deeply, paced back and forth a few times, muttering under his breath and finally nodded. "Yeah, okay. I’ll take you home. At this rate, what’s the worst thing that could happen?"

  I screwed up my face in an expression of disbelief. "Did you really just say that out loud? Cripes! Oh my God! Just- just take me home," I sputtered.

  "You know, your mother is going to be pissed off at me for taking you away without letting her talk to you first."

  "She can come for a visit. She knows where I live," I replied tartly.

  "What about figuring out what’s happened to you? I can't take you home without knowing whether or not you're going to be okay."

  He was stubborn. I'd give him that.

  "Again, my Mother knows where I live. She can examine me there. Heph, I just want to go home and be in a familiar, safe place. The world just went upside down and I need an anchor. It's not here."

  He paused and scrutinized me closely, not saying a word. I stared back in what I hoped was a defiant manner. I knew that saying it wasn't safe here had scored a hit to his pride. This time I wasn't keeping score. I just wanted to go home.

  "Okay. I'll do it."

  "Thank you," I said quietly.

  Chapter 3

  Thankfully, Dylan had been in our suite of apartments when Heph teleported me in. I was able to check him for any debilitating physical damage before declaring that we were going home. The look of gratitude on his face nearly broke me. It just nailed it home that I’d been making the wrong decisions for us and that, more than anyone, he had suffered unspeakable, lasting damage.

  It took us exactly twenty-five minutes to pack everything we wanted to take home and get the hell out of Dodge.

  This meant that I’d had a twenty-five minute reprieve before Diana came into the room demanding an explanation of where we were going. I looked at her with all of the anger and resentment that I’d been holding in. We were here in this moment because she couldn’t leave well enough alone. If she’d just left me be in the first place, none of this would have ever happened. Sure, I’d probably still have been overweight, wishing for something more in my life – and alone - but we’d have been safe.

  Did I want to have an understanding, loving mother and love her back? Yes. Did I want to rip her face off because she’d put my family through this hell? Absolutely.

  She stepped back, her face a mask of pain and confusion so profound that I had to force myself to keep my mouth shut and not apologize. She deserved my anger, didn't she?

  After hesitating, uncertain of what I should do next, I nodded to Heph, grabbed a hold of my son and said, "You know where we will be if you need to speak to me. Please give me some time to get situated first. I need the downtime."

  She nodded and we teleported without another word.

  The smell of an abandoned house hits you in phases. First, you get the dried musty smell of dust and mildew spores. Then any lingering scents from left-over dinner or the last occupants hits the senses. I scrunched up my face, trying not to exclaim that Dylan and Drew hadn’t lived up to their promise of cleaning up after themselves on their last Xbox foray. This wasn’t the time.

 

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