Chapter 25
Chapter Twenty-Five
Izzy
“Thea got hurt protecting me,” I tell the guys.
They don’t look like they believe me. Aiden and Van exchange that look. Wilder’s mouth draws into a thin line, and no one rushes to help her as she settles on the couch, her wounds looking painful.
“Heal her,” I plead.
A minute later, Reid comes down the stairs. Something is off with him, I can tell by the paleness in his face and the tightness in his jaw. I make a mental note to ask him about it later, but I hold his gaze as he comes to stand next to the guys.
“Thea got hurt protecting me from one of Viggo’s creatures. Tell them we should heal her. We can trust her. We don’t need to hide our powers anymore.”
Reid releases a slow breath. “This doesn’t mean we can trust her…”
“She got hurt for me!” I say. Don’t they understand that? If she wanted me hurt, she could’ve just let that creature attack. Hell, she could’ve sided with it against me. “It attacked both of us. That has to prove that Viggo sees her as an enemy now.”
Reid and Aiden exchange a twin-look, which is annoying as hell. The two of them can have entire conversations with their eyebrows.
“If you want to say something, say it,” I snap.
Aiden doesn’t hesitate. “We can heal her, but this doesn’t mean we trust her.”
“Fine.” I glare at him. “But I do.”
Thea lifts a brow. “I don’t care what you guys do. I’ve had worse than this and not needed to be healed.”
Wilder sighs and goes to sit on the couch next to her. “Give me your hand.”
She looks surprised. “You’re Odin? Where’s your spear?”
“I can call it to me when I need it. Now, your hand.”
She holds it out stiffly, and he takes it.
His eyes close, and he bows his head over her.
A blue light pours from his hands, and as irritated as I am at the guys for not listening to me, for not trusting me about Thea, it’s amazing to see how quickly he works now.
Her wounds slowly knit back together. The blood stops, and the pained look on her face vanishes.
When he draws his hands back, he looks every bit the powerful god.
I go to him and plant a kiss on his lips. “Thank you.”
And he pulls me gently into his lap. “You know I’d do anything for you.”
Thea scoffs beside us. “This whole white knights and damsel in distress thing is getting old, you know that right? You guys fawning over her, being all gentle like she’s something fragile, it makes me sick.
I know damn well if it isn’t an act for me, then it’s an act for Izzy. Guys aren’t like this.”
“Like what?” Izzy asks with a frown.
“Well, Barret loves me, but he doesn’t just do as I ask, or touch me like I’m something fragile. He’s a man. He takes what he wants and no one stops him.”
“He sounds like an asshole,” Van says, frowning. “Taking what you want isn’t a guy thing, it’s the mark of a guy who thinks women are objects to use or throw away.”
“Oh, and you see the princess so different,” she throws at him.
Van steps forward and points a finger at her.
“Don’t talk about Izzy like that. I know it makes it easier for you, more black and white, to see her as having lived this awesome life, and you as the one with the hard life.
But guess what? Life isn’t black and white.
Sometimes you have a shitty situation, and so do other people, so you can’t justify acting like an ass because you had it so much harder. Get over yourself.”
“Van!” I’m so angry I can feel tears choking my throat.
Reid stands between him and Thea in an instant, his hands up, gesturing for Van to calm down. “She’s clearly been through some stuff. If Izzy can deal with her biting words, we can handle it for a little while too.”
“No one should treat Izzy like that, especially not family!” Van is practically roaring.
I spring to my feet. “Stop it! Stop it right now!”
Everyone freezes and all eyes are on me.
“Thea is my sister. And no, I’m not going to let her keep talking to me like that, but I will handle her the way I handle everything else.
When I have a problem with her, we’ll talk, privately, and sort it out.
Because just like you are all my family, she is too, and we don’t just throw family away because everything isn’t perfect.
We love them, thorns and all, and Thea proved to me today that, whether she knows it or not, she sees me as family too.
So you guys need to get on board with this. Please.”
They’re all silent for a moment, and then the anger drains from Van’s face.
“We’ll try. For you, we’ll try anything.”
Thea finally speaks. “Uh, sorry for starting a fight. I know I’m not…
easy to be around. But compared to where I come from, I thought I was being nice.
I’ll work on it, okay. Because, like Izzy said, we’re family.
And even though I don’t trust all of you yet, I need you to trust me.
Things are going to go down soon, and I want to be on Izzy’s side. The winning side.”
Outside we hear a strange bird’s call, like it’s sitting in the window in the dining room.
I smile at Thea. “It’s okay. It’ll take time.”
We hear the front door open, and we all turn to look. Mr. Time comes in carrying a package. “I got it,” he says, darting a strange look toward Thea. “We need to talk.”
I know what he has, and I draw myself up taller. “Thea saved me today from Viggo’s minion. She didn’t have to, but she did. I think we can trust them. We should involve them in our plan.”
Mr. Time hesitates, then lets out a slow breath. “Okay, if you think this is the right thing to do.”
“I do,” I say, without hesitation.
Anyone who can fight at my side like that, anyone who has been through what she has, they wouldn’t betray the person who was kind to them and side with the people who hurt her. It just isn’t possible. I have to have faith that Thea can be good, because the alternative is too hard for me to imagine.
“Call Oliver,” Mr. Time says.
Aiden goes up the stairs, and a little while later he comes down. We all sit around the living room, and Mr. Time unfolds a map of a castle, but a different one than ours.
“This is the castle where Viggo and the other gods are staying.” He looks to Oliver and Thea. “I need the box they used to trap the gods. Where is it?”
Thea doesn’t hesitate, but Oliver does. She points to a room in the basement. “We have it hidden right here. It isn’t even locked up. Viggo leaves it on a little pedestal. He has absolute confidence that no one would be dumb enough to steal from him.”
Mr. Time takes out a pen and circles the room. “What would be the safest way to get there?”
She points to a back set of stairs. “If you guys can teleport us to the backyard, there’s a set of stairs for servants in the back of the kitchen.
The door is usually unlocked. We open it, then the basement door, go down the stairs, and through the main room through a doorway.
Inside is a bunch of weapons and precious items, including the box. ”
“That seems too easy,” Mr. Time says, each word slow as if carefully chosen.
Thea smirks. “Do you honestly think they expect you to go for the Taka cage? They don’t.
They think you’ll all stay in your safe little house, and they’ll attack at night, or when they have an unfair advantage, and kill you all.
They would never see you as the aggressors--Viggo thinks you’re all weak and pathetic. ”
I look at Oliver.
He hesitates, then says, “That is where they keep it. And she’s right about Viggo not exactly having high security. He’s arrogant, that’s for sure.”
Then, I look at the guys. “What do you think?”
Van crosses his arms over his chest. “I say we go in, but we’re careful. Really careful. We keep these two in the middle of us, so we can keep an eye on them.”
I nod.
Reid touches the room on the map. “If anything goes wrong, I can open up the earth and swallow them all. I can even keep them in Hell until we know what to do with them.”
Thea inhales sharply beside me. “You’re Hel?” She sounds shocked.
“Yeah, he’s Hel. I’m Loki. Van is Tyr. Aiden is Thor. And you already know Aiden is Odin.”
Thea’s mouth drops open, then closes. “Those are all the most powerful gods on land. The others really don’t stand a chance against you.”
“Who are they?” Van asks.
Thea looks down at her hands.
“We showed you ours…” Aiden says, and there’s an angry note to his words.
“I’m Rán, goddess of the sea. My boyfriend Barret is Aegir, husband of Ran, and shifter god of the sea. Oliver is Gullveig, goddess of wealth. And Connor is Idun, goddess of youth and immortality.”
I frown at her. “What can they do?”
She shrugs. “Not much. Barret can shift into animals from the ocean, like sharks and dolphins, but he usually takes on the shape of a merman. If you go into the sea, he can send all of the animals after you. But out of the water, his powers don’t matter much, like my own.
Oliver can attract wealth, and Connor can make people look older or younger, but it’s just temporary. ”
“And--” Oliver begins, then freezes as Thea stares at him.
“I was getting to that,” Thea says coldly. “We’re all just as strong and fast as you are. Barret, Connor, and I can teleport. And we’re all superior to you with weapons, that I can guarantee, after all our training.”
Mr. Time leans back. “I guess we know what to expect now. Why don’t you guys go get ready?”
“We’re going right now?” Wilder asks, sounding shocked.
But I know what Mr. Time is thinking. If we don’t go now, Thea and Oliver might have time to warn the others about our plans. He might say he trusts my faith in Thea, but deep down he doesn’t.
I just hope I’m right. I hope stealing the box is the one thing that finally convinces all of them that even though Thea and Oliver have some edges, they’re meant to be with us. And when all of this is over, if we can truly get rid of all our powers, we’ll have made friends.
And I’ll have my sister back.