Chapter 7
Chapter Seven
Reid
I feel antsy. The second Izzy left, I wanted to go after her, but I couldn’t. If we were going to have a relationship with her, we needed to show her that we trusted her enough to handle things on her own, even if I’d always want to be at her side.
“Can you stop?”
My gaze jerks to my brother, who gives me his asshole look.
“What?” I ask.
“Tapping your fingers. You’re driving me crazy.”
I almost shoot back at him, but I suddenly feel Hel deep inside of me.
It’s strange to have her so quiet, almost gone now, most of the time.
But sometimes I feel a wave of her emotions, and I know what she’s thinking.
When the gods cast her down to Hell for being “ugly,” she’d never really learned how to talk to people.
She either creeped them out or offended them. She doesn’t want me to do the same.
“I’m going for a walk,” I say, trying not to sigh as I stand.
Wilder stops drumming his guitar. “Want some company?”
I shake my head. “It’s okay. I won’t go far.”
I’m barely ten steps out the door when I almost run into a godslayer.
Jessica’s blonde hair is tied back but looks a little messy, and she has deep circles under her eyes.
I’m surprised. They’ve mostly stuck to themselves since the attack, but I have a feeling it all has more to do with mourning the loss of the godslayers who betrayed them. But maybe it was something else?
“Are you okay?” I ask.
She wraps her arms around her chest in a vulnerable way. “We heard about Oliver.”
I nod. News certainly travels fast.
“You can’t trust him,” she says. “I can feel it deep inside me.”
“You weren’t sure about us either, at first.”
She says nothing to that.
“Look,” I begin slowly, “we found out the other gods are in Scotland. Tomorrow we’re going to investigate things and decide what to do about them.”
“Scotland?” Her eyes widen and she drops her arms.
I nod, feeling uncertain.
“Scotland,” she repeats, almost to herself, then looks back at me. “Scotland is where it all started. Where the original ceremony to unlock the gods was.”
I frown. “What does that mean?”
“It means that the gods’ followers are probably there. It means that maybe that’s where we can find out how to…how to get rid of the gods.”
Get rid of the gods? “And here I thought we were becoming friends.”
She pulls a face. “Not like that, Reid. I’m talking about separating the gods and sending them off into...another plane. So none of you have to carry them.”
“Is that even possible?”
“I’m not sure, but it’s something, Reid.
It’s a link. We thought being around you guys was the best way to find the gods, their followers, and the details of the ceremony and spell…
but I think we were wrong. I think the gods they intended to awaken are there.
I don’t know why that marking ceremony worked on you guys too, but this changes everything. ”
I realize my mouth is hanging open and close it. I’d believed the only way to get rid of the gods was to lock us all away. But what if there was another option? What if things could go back to normal?
Jessica beams at me. “I have to go.”
“And do what?” I ask, head still reeling.
“Tell the guys. And then make some travel plans. Because, apparently, the answers to everything are in Scotland.”
My heart races. “You’ll call us and let us know what you find out?”
She nods and leans forward to give me a loose hug. “Everything’s going to be okay. Alright, Reid? You guys focus on finding out everything you can, and we’ll finally be able to accomplish the whole reason we became godslayers.”
She turns and bounds away, and I watch her for a long minute, feeling uncertain.
Before my powers, I was nothing. Just Aiden’s brother.
I didn’t have Izzy. I was just some nerd who wanted so many things he didn’t have.
But then, being a god had brought so much danger and uncertainty into my life. So what did I want?
“Boo!”
I jump a little and turn around.
Mercy stands behind me, and there’s a mischievous sparkle to her eyes I’ve never seen before. Her dark hair is swept up behind her, like usual, but her clothes look a little…less kick-ass and a little more normal student.
“What’s up?” I ask.
Her mouth curls into a slight smile. “Today I have a meeting.”
“And you’re happy about this…meeting?”
She rolls her eyes. “Reid, it’s my meeting.
The one where my teachers and parents will get together to decide if I can leave the school.
If I’ve served my time, been reformed, whatever the hell was supposed to happen with me here.
And if I play my cards right, by the end of the week I’ll finally be free… I’ll finally get to…”
“Get to what?”
A hardness comes over her features. “I can’t talk about it. Those are the rules.”
Okay… “But you’re happy about this?”
“Unbelievably so!”
I smile. “Then, I’m happy for you too, even if I’ll miss you.”
“I’ll miss you too,” she says, softly. “So far you’re my only friend not to completely betray me.”
“How did they betray you?” I’m genuinely curious. Mercy’s never been this talkative, not in all my classes or in our training sessions.
That familiar guarded look comes over her face, and she lets out a ragged breath. “Those assholes are the reason I ended up here.”
“I’m so sorry,” I say, but don’t push any further.
Her eyes are hard. “Don’t worry, they’ll get what’s coming to them.”
In all the time I’ve known Mercy, she’s never scared me.
I knew all the students were sent here as punishment, and it made sense with blood-thirsty vampires and shifters with tempers, but it never made sense with Mercy.
She could fight like a beast, but it was always controlled.
And it was hard to imagine someone that controlled doing something to lead them here, but for the first time, I hear it in her voice.
Mercy’s capable and willing to hurt someone.
I give a nervous laugh.
The hardness fades away, and her gaze gentles. “You’re such a nerd.”
The knot in my stomach eases. “Can I walk you to your meeting?”
She nods and we start across campus. She fidgets with the bottom of her t-shirt.
“Nice clothes,” I say, teasingly.
She bumps me with her shoulder. “I ‘borrowed’ them from someone else. I figured the new rags might sell that whole ‘I’ve really changed’ thing.”
“They're nice,” I say with a shrug. “But I like your old ‘I could kill you with one finger’ look.”
She bumps me again.
Suddenly, in the center of campus, two men start fighting. One roars. The other growls, and then the shifters are sparring. The students around them step far back, but then start to jeer, encouraging the fight.
Mercy rolls her eyes again. “Should I go split them up?”
I smile. “Let me handle this one.”
Stretching my hand out, I point. Suddenly, the ground begins to shake.
It breaks where they stand, and the men leap back from each other.
Fear permeates the air, and even the students who were watching the fight quiet down.
All eyes go to me, and I lift a brow then snap my fingers.
The shaking stops and the earth flattens once more.
“Enough,” I say, then start walking again.
Mercy jerks and falls into step beside me. “You’ve really changed, haven’t you?”
I think about the man I walked into this place as. “Yeah. Yeah, I think I have. And it’s not a bad thing. Sometimes I think we need to change to grow.”
She’s quiet for a long minute, and the main building looms ahead. “I don’t know if I can ever change. I’m just so angry. I’m just so tired of everything. I’ve been here for years. And I’m pretty sure I’m the exact same person I walked in here as.”
I smile, strangely proud to be the one she’s vulnerable with. “I think you need to give yourself more credit. You’re a good person.”
“No, I’m not.”
“You are. And--”
She whirls toward me. “The reason I’m here…it’s because I tried to kill someone. And the truth is, the second I get out of here, I might just try it again.”
I don’t know what to say to that.
Up ahead, a car pulls down the driveway and stops before the main building. A hulking man, easily eight feet tall, exits one car door. He wears a finely tailored suit that strains over huge shoulders and muscled arms. The handle on the door looks like a toy in his grip as he opens the door.
A pale hand reaches out of the open door, and the hulking man takes it.
From out of the car, a woman emerges. She has long, silky hair that falls down past her waist, and a pink dress that looks soft.
She wears matching pink heels, and she’s tiny compared to the man.
So small that from behind she might be briefly confused for a child.
Mercy’s steps slow, and I mirror her movements.
“Any idea who they are?”
“My parents,” she says softly.
I stiffen. I can see nothing of Mercy in the hulking man and the tiny, feminine woman. They have this glow about them that is at such odds with the gloom that seems to haunt Mercy. Something about it bothers me to my very soul.
Suddenly, the man looks our way and stops.
We keep walking until we reach them.
The woman follows his gaze, and they’re both looking at their daughter. I expect them to hug. I expect the mom to cry and the man to hold Mercy tightly. That’s what my parents would’ve done. Me being gone would’ve been hell for them.
But instead, they turn away and start up the small set of stairs that leads to the building as if they hadn’t seen their daughter at all. Mercy doesn’t speak until they’re in the building, gone from view.
“Two years wasn’t long enough for them. They’ll fight to have me stay here.”
“What?”
She stands taller. “They have a son to be proud of now. They don’t need me.”
Her back is straight and her eyes are cold as she climbs the steps, but I sense underneath that facade a deep sense of hurt that echoes through my own soul.
“I want you to get out,” I say. “And I think when you do, you’ll see how different you are. You’ll see that you don’t have to make the same mistakes as before.”
Her hand grasps the door handle, and she looks back at me.
“That’s why I like you, Reid. You believe in fairytales.
Unfortunately for you, I’ve lived in those fairytales, and they’re dark and twisted in ways you’d never imagine.
I just hope your story is different. I hope you have all the magic and happy endings you deserve. ”
And then she disappears into the building. I find myself rooted in place for far too long. The Reid who walked into this place would go back to his room now and lie in bed, wishing he could make the world better. Wishing he could be the hero that Mercy needs.
But I’m not that Reid anymore.
I start up the steps. Maybe right now in that room Mercy doesn’t have any allies.
But she will once I get there. She’ll have someone who can tell those teachers and parents that she deserves her freedom.
She’ll have someone who can describe how patient she was with me, and how much her gentle teaching helped this new god.
And then, maybe, if she hears it, Mercy will believe it too.
When I’m done, I’m going to call my mom, because she damn well deserves to hear from her son. Hell, she deserves more than that. And my dad too. Because I’ve realized more and more that anyone can have kids, but it takes someone special to be a good parent.