15. Gather Photographs I Wish to Never Forget
Chapter fifteen
Gather Photographs I Wish to Never Forget
Nicodemus
Our day to choose our second-in-command was growing closer, and I was nowhere ready for this responsibility.
My Elementals were all good in their own ways and picking them like chickens in a butcher shop window made me feel queasy.
I still hadn’t picked my final two and felt utterly useless in my ability to do so.
Our semester was dwindling, and after our next eight months, we would be eligible to fight the Gods in our final fight.
That idea was yet another thing added to my list of worries, as if I didn’t have enough going on.
My usual go-to for advice, Dad, was preoccupied by his own crap at the moment, and was doing everything in his power to avoid me.
He even stopped showing up to practice with my Elementals, which was incredibly suspicious, but I didn’t want to press him.
Whatever he had going on was important enough, and he was balancing enough, taking care of his God responsibilities as well as training his future murderer.
No matter how many times I tried to convince myself otherwise, I couldn’t shake the idea that this was our soon reality.
Everyone acted as if this possibility was so far-fetched, but they didn’t control all the elements and not know the bounds of their own powers.
Beyond that, there was also the possibility that our fight could trigger the Four Horsemen, and that made me even more paranoid.
All this paranoia was doing me no good, and with Odysseus in a self-induced coma due to his own swirling depression, I went to my next main confidant: the Great Sebby.
He invited me to lunch with his mom and sister Saturday afternoon, and with my parents and fiancé unwilling to do much, I gladly accepted the offer.
I hadn’t spent much time with the Montgomery’s recently and was ecstatic over the opportunity to do so once again.
I had so many people pining for my attention as of late that balancing my time between them became a new impossible task.
I knew Sebby was mad at me for neglecting him and hoped this lunch would ease some of the tension.
I entered the diner in Valyce’s Realm that Sebastian and his family went to every Sunday, as part of their weekly catch up.
Griffin and Soren usually joined their romantic partners, now that this had become their family as well, but today, Soren, Griffin, and Deveraux were preoccupied.
Zephryine’s stunning black hair was braided and twisted into a high bun on her head with Sebastian’s hand-grown flowers decorating it, so it was easy to spot her amongst the crowd.
I weaved in and out of bodies until I found the table, where Sebastian had saved me a seat.
“Look what the cat dragged in!” he chirped, patting the seat excitedly so I would sit beside him.
“Sorry, I got lost in the plaza. I found some adorable earrings!” I showed the hanging moon earrings I was now sporting, and this made the group light up.
“They certainly compliment you. They match your eyes perfectly!” Zephryine complimented in her sweet voice.
“Thanks. Did you guys order yet?”
“Nope! If you want recommendations,” Praxis pointed to the tuna salad club, “this is one of my favorites.”
“I’m not a big tuna person,” I said with a twisted grimace.
“Live a little!”
“I think I’ll live in the realm of egg salad club, thanks.” I set my menu down and nudged Sebastian’s leg. “Let’s see that ring sparkle in the light, cowboy.”
“What ring? Oh, you mean…” he jutted his hand out, “this ring?”
“My, if that ain’t the prettiest thing this side of the tracks,” I mocked his country accent, making he and his family snort laughter.
He slapped the back of my head for the mocking. “I take it things have been going well for you and your little lover?”
“Barely,” I scoffed as I stabbed at a lemon in my drink. “He’s been super bummed out all weekend. He’s in the self-deprecation stage of becoming a God and has effectively holed himself up in our room for the time being.”
“Every God goes through it,” Zephryine assured me as she sipped her drink. “Trust and believe, all of us certainly did. Deveraux nearly skipped his final exams because he was so worried.”
“Of what?” I questioned.
“He looked up to Jackson a lot. He feared Jackson would not think he was adequate as a God because of his flighty tendencies, and was ready to give up the position,” she explained.
I snickered wildly. “Look up to Jackson? King of the flighters? Yeah, right!”
She shrugged lightly. “Hey, he may seem like that to you, but Jackson was once a well-respected God.”
“I forget that the second set of Gods are your Shadows sometimes,” Praxis said as she drew hearts on her placement with a broken crayon. “What’s it like having such important people around you all the time?”
“They don’t act so high and mighty. They barely bring it up. If anything, they suck in the mentor department,” I joked with a lop-sided smile.
“That sounds about right,” Zephryine quipped before setting her hands down to play with her silverware. “How are you all hanging in? The pressure on your shoulders is immense, I know, but I don’t want you to fall into yourselves.”
“We’re… hanging in.” Praxis tried to reassure her mother but failed to do so.
Zephryine turned to Sebastian, but he was just as distant, his eyes fixed to his engagement ring. “I’m terrified that… you won’t be at my wedding, because of the final fight.”
“Oh, guys…” Zephryine squeezed his pinky to cheer him up. “My darling, don’t think like that. We all know things will work themselves out.”
“Every God of the past has died fighting their next in line; how are we supposed to believe you won’t do the same?” he frailly whispered.
Zephryine gave him a weak smile. “Seraphine survived, didn’t she?”
“That’s because Atlas is a weak-ass moron,” I joked to break the tension, and luckily, it worked. We all shared a good laugh before I took over the conversation. “Zephryine, while I have you, I have a question.”
“I’m all ears,” she confirmed.
“How did you choose your second-in-command?” I smacked my head to the table and yanked on my hair. “I’ve been running in circles trying to figure out my top two! I don’t know how I could ever replace Magnus and Geneva.”
“You’re over complicating things.” She ruffled my hair gently.
“Your second-in-command will stand out to you in ways you never expected. It may be in simple gestures, like how they treat a soul, or how they speak to their comrades. Maybe it’s how they hunt demons, or how well they treat reaped souls.
It’s not all about power, you know. They are just as young as you are, and with time, their powers will catch on.
Don’t base your decisions on how powerful they are, but how you get along as a group. ”
“It sucks that I have to pick one from each side. I like Calvin and Elektra, but they’re both Reapers, and I need at least one Demon Hunter. None of the Demon Hunters have really stood out to me the way those two have,” I admitted as I poked at the plate the waitress delivered.
Praxis took a mouthful of fries as she spoke, “I already have my top two picked. I love Ptolemy. He’s so adorable! He’s a bit shy, yeah, but he’s exactly like Odysseus in a lot of ways and look how far Squeakers has come. I know with some prodding he’ll do great!”
“I’m stuck between two girls,” Sebastian interjected as he cut his chicken strips up, an odd habit of his, but who was I to complain.
“I wanted a boy and a girl to keep things even, but I don’t know what girl to choose.
I have two in mind, Vanessa and Elodie, but they’re pretty evenly matched in my eyes. ”
“I chose a girl, too. Desdemona is my girlie pop for sure. I know I’m a little biased because they’re Xenobia’s friends and I spend a lot of time with them, but they’re a Gehenna of a team.
Desdemona is very composed, very certain in herself.
She helps boost Ptolemy’s confidence, and I love her gentle nature.
My job was easy!” Praxis giggled in delight.
“Way to rub it in,” I snorted with a frown.
“You don’t have any Demon Hunters you like?” Zephryine worriedly asked.
My shoulders rose and fell. “There’s one: Emmeline.
She has similar energy to Geneva. A lot of Demon Hunters are standoffish, admittedly, but she’s amazing to watch.
She’s very precise, very calculated, but I can’t seem to break through her barrier.
She doesn’t talk much, in the sense that she likes to keep to herself, and I can’t really have someone so reserved delegating a huge branch of my Elementals, ya know? ”
“Sounds to me that you need to find a way to connect with her. If you’re serious about picking her…” Sebastian traded a wedge of my sandwich for a chicken strip, “then you need to get some time alone with her.”
“Maybe you can take her to Gehenna? See how she does in a Realm she’ll be spending ample amounts of time in,” Praxis offered through a mayonnaise covered grin. Zephryine tsked and wiped the substance off her daughter’s lips with a chuckle.
“I was planning on taking them to Gehenna Monday morning. Geneva is going to join me and give them a grand tour. It’s also my time to check on my new hires. I swear, I spend more time in Gehenna then I do our Realm lately,” I murmured with a heavy groan.
“That’s the gig you got dealt, kiddo. Comes with the territory. You’ll be amazed how little time you have for outside activities when you become a God,” Zephryine admitted sheepishly.
“How do you juggle all of this? I mean, surely you’re backed up on godly duties while you’re trying to get us trained?” Praxis asked her mother.