7. Sam
7
SAM
“ T hey said that your magic had never flowered.” Syke, Eros’ mate, asked from the chair where he had been staring at me. I had never felt more on display, and I was a red carpet reporter. I was used to the cameras, but this, being kept safe, felt like I was under lock and key.
“I was a sick kid. I got a bad fever when I was about five, and I almost died. Whatever caused my sickness also seemed to tamper my abilities to connect with the plant world. My mom and dad can wink at a tree to get it to grow. I’m lucky to open a leaf these days. I barely even try to connect anymore. My house plants hate me.” I groaned. How could I miss that which I never really had? I tried sometimes, but even my houseplants, which I talked to regularly, ignored me.
It had been worse – much worse than what I admitted. But I didn’t feel the need to share with Syke. He was nice enough and was trying to make me feel comfortable. But how could I feel anything but trapped when I was under guard the entire time?
I knew it was for my protection, but it still felt forced. It still made me uneasy.
When I was five, I developed allergies to the natural world – something that a grower, a plant elemental, should not have. But I did, and it almost killed me. I had been in and out of the hospital for weeks as they tried to break my fever and stop me from going into shock. In Oklahoma, doctors who understood the magical community were few and far between. Eventually, a shaman helped, and the connection that I had to fauna was severed magically. I still had the innate ability, but whatever the shaman did saved my life. The severance of my abilities had been a small price to pay for living and not dying.
“Do you feel like you lost something because of it?” Syke asked sadly.
“No. I barely remember being five or having that connection.”
“God, I barely remember five either, I guess. The brain is weird.”
“This is weird.” I snipped. “Sorry. I'm on edge.”
“I’m sure.”
“I know I should believe everything, but… It feels like it’s happening to someone else, I guess. Like I'm watching a movie instead of this being my real life,” I answered slowly.
“Trust me, I get it. I was just stealing a watch when Eros and I… I mean, it's more complicated than that, but as soon as I saw him, everything else stopped. My mate is older than the world; how do you even wrap your head around that? I try not to if I’m being honest.”
“Tim told me what happened. That is… I mean, you had your kid burst out of your heart, and Eros turned you into a god to save you. How does that even happen? Is Tim a god?”
“No. He’s just a person. Immortality is not something that most gods can give anymore. But Eros, in his grief, accomplished it with a small sliver of his own soul. I still don’t even know what that means, you know? One day, all of my friends will grow old. Will I age? How long will I have? Living forever was not something I ever had on my bingo card, and honestly, I'm not even sure I want to. Will our child be immortal, too? There’s so many things that we don’t know, yet.”
“You were stealing a watch?”
“Yeah. That’s what I used to do. Kitty, Tryke, and myself. We were really good at it. I miss it sometimes. I know I shouldn’t, and we did it because we had no other choice, really. But every now and then, I miss when life was simpler before I knew about gods and prophecies and the end of the world.”
“Amen.”
“It’s taking Kitty longer than I’d like. I hope she’s ok. I hate whenever she goes to that fucking campsite. We barely escaped the last time. But… No one ever suspects a cat. She’s almost invisible unless she wants to be.”
“Of course, I am.” Kitty walked through the door. She was quite beautiful, either as a cat or a girl. “Sam, Eros is waiting for you in his office.”
“Alone,” I gulped.
“No, he has a friend. Come on, I’ll walk you down.” Kitty grinned.
“Are you coming?” I turned to Syke, and he frowned.
“I need to go break the nanny and have a little playtime. You’ll be fine.”
“He scares the shit out of me.” I couldn’t stop my honesty if I had tried.
“He’s a big puppy,” Kitty laughed. “Besides, I think you’re gonna like Hermes. He’s very cool.”
“Alright,” I stood up and followed Kitty out of the room.
“Do you know anything about prophecies?” I asked as we walked out of my third-floor room and towards the grand staircase.
“Besides, their being bad? Not really.” She chuckled. “It’s always gloom and doom, apparently. I mean, my friends and I survived the last one.”
“He had a child ripped out of his heart…” I murmured.
“True. But we still all survived,” she giggled. “Just knock on the door. Good luck.”
I took a deep breath, walked to the large door, and raised my hand. What the fuck was I doing? I should be running out of here and hiding somewhere they’d never find me – whoever they were. I mean, I’d be safe back home in Oklahoma, wouldn’t I? Whatever they want from me, they’d never find me there.
Still, I knocked. What else was I supposed to do?
The door opened, and Eros frowned at me. Surely, that was a bad sign. Maybe he just didn’t like me? Maybe he had found out that the world really was ending, and there was nothing we could do.
“Come in, Sam. I think there’s someone you need to meet since you’re both named in the prophecy.” I walked in and stared at the ground as if I could will meeting another of the gods away. I wasn’t like them. I was just a person who could badly talk to plants. I was a mortal whose innate abilities were grinning for the camera and every now and then asking a question that got a surprising answer. What was I doing here? Why me?
“You must be Sam,” the deep voice was so soft that I couldn’t stop myself from looking if I had wanted to. There was something so soothing and caring about it that it instantly captured me.
“I…” The ground beneath my feet fell away, and I tumbled into the abyss. My head swam, and my heart pounded. “Hermes?”
The look on his face told me that he was feeling the same thing too. He reached out and steadied himself on the desk as I fell through nothingness and everything all at once. What was happening?
“Ah… Well, that explains part of the prophecy,” Eros sighed. “To find each other and to be split apart so fast will be hard. But it must be done.”
“I can’t… Is this what…” Hermes choked. “After all these years…”
“Yes, nephew, you are no longer alone. Two lost souls have found each other again. Strange…” Eros walked over and stared at the window.
I couldn’t pry my eyes away from Hermes if I tried. He was tall and muscular with blond wavy hair and the deepest brown eyes. His skin was tanned in the sun and his face looked as beautiful as you would expect for a Greek god. Long eyelashes and full lips that slowly smiled as he stared back at me.
He blinked and took a step forward.
“I’m… Hi Sam. I’m Hermes, and are you feeling what I am feeling?”
I nodded and gulped back a sob.
“Me too. It’s dizzying.”
“I hate to break apart something so profound and beautiful, but time is of the essence. Hermes, you have to go back and quickly. I'm scared that it’s already too late. But first, you need to share with Sam what you told me.”
I stood there, and Hermes approached me slowly as if I might strike him. He reached out, and I placed my hand in his. The electricity that buzzed across my skin was palpable. “I wish we had more time, Sam. But Eros is right. I have to get back and find a way to stop this. I heard the prophecy. We are bound in more ways than one.”
“And that’s the interesting part of the story, isn’t it? Loki orchestrated Apollo and Horus’ love match, but it was still a part of uncovering The Truth. Then Syke and myself so deeply involved in a prophecy where The Truth was involved. Now you? That has to mean something bigger than the parts, doesn’t it? There’s something we haven’t discovered yet. What are the odds of all four of us finding our soulmates after all these years?”
“Uncle, I can barely think right now.” Hermes smiled at me, and my heart beat so fast that I was afraid it might burst.
“Tell me what I need to know. I think hearing it from you would be… easier. Are we going to die?”
“If we do, it will be together.”
I had been wrong. Hearing about the end of the world wasn’t any easier when it came from the fated mate you had just met. There were no wine and roses. No sweet words of comfort. There were only words that made me want to run away, screaming for help.
“Are you alright?” Hermes asked gently as he took my face in his palm.
“No.” I pressed my cheek into his warm hand. “Are you?”
“I don’t think so. I don’t want to lie to you. I’m scared.”
“I’m about to pass out with fear.”
“Then I will carry you. I know we can do this. I know we can. Fate wouldn’t have brought us together if we were just going to die. I know that. I have to believe that.”
“Behind the curtain – the last trick played, upon the trickster to the grave. His mate will call to no avail. The world has fallen, so ends the tale. Unless the mate can save the trick, only then will the veil stay thick.” Eros’ words were like a slap to the face.
“Unless the mate can save the trick?” I asked quietly. Letting the meaning sink into me.
“I am a trickster god. So, I guess that is me. It could also be Loki, but… I am the mole who’s behind the curtain, I guess. I trust you, Sam. I know that’s… insane since we just met each other, but I have never trusted anyone more in my life. I know you.”
“I know you.”
“Can I kiss you now?”
“Of for fuck’s sake. Kiss him and then get back to the camp, Hermes. I do wish you both had more time, but this is it for now.” Eros shook his head and walked out of the room.
“One kiss to send me on my way…” Hermes caressed my bottom lip with his thumb. “God, I have never been so scared.”
I wrapped my arms around his neck, and his lips gently met mine. My mind exploded as he breathed into me. It was only a kiss – but it was also the beginning of everything. Our tongues touched. Our breath became one as I gave myself over to him. I was his, and he was mine, and the world was magical and…
I pulled myself back and stared into his deep brown eyes. “You have to get back. When will I see you again?”
“I will find a way to sneak out tomorrow. I’ll come to your room.”
“Be safe. You have my heart.”
I cried myself to sleep. I missed him so.