Chapter 32
Chapter Thirty-Two
Izzy
Early the next morning, I find that I can’t sleep.
I can’t stop thinking about Thea and Oliver.
Is Oliver okay? He barely participated in fighting against us; I can’t imagine Viggo and the others appreciated that.
Viggo might have lost his powers, but he might still be able to command Connor and Barret.
And my father…the man who killed my mother. I keep seeing his face again, and it makes me sick to think about him.
And I hate thinking of Thea still trapped with him, still his tool.
Dawn hasn’t even broken yet, but I finally climb over the guys and go downstairs, so my tossing and turning won’t ruin their sleep.
I find Mr. Time in the kitchen, tinkering with the coffee maker. I glance out the dark windows at the night outside, then turn to him with a frown. “Are you all right? Shouldn’t you be resting?”
“I’m fine,” he promises. “It was almost intriguing to age, once I realized it wasn’t going to kill me. Thanks to your quick thinking.”
“What are you, anyway?” I ask.
“Complicated,” he says. “Just like you.”
He hands me a cup of coffee fixed just the way I like it, and I take a long sip.
“What are you doing up?” I ask.
He grins and holds up the box--now with a second piece attached to it, one that reminds of a funnel. It looks as if it's made of gold and etched with runes.
“Are you sure it’ll work?”
“Yes,” he says. “Now we can separate the gods from you. Trap them inside.”
Loki’s whispers crawl up the back of my throat; he hates the idea of being locked away.
“What will happen then?”
“These things are indestructible, so we’ll hide them and hope someone like Viggo doesn’t ever find them again.”
“I mean…what happens to us?”
“Are you having second thoughts?” Mr. Time frowns. “I need you--the whole world needs you--to keep your gods until you’ve stopped Barret and Connor and Thea. But then, it would be safest if you gave your gods up too… You’ve come so far in managing them, but if one of you ever slips...”
“No,” I say, shaking my head. “No second thoughts. Loki, despite his best intentions, has taught me so much…helped me find who I really am…but I’m ready to live my life without him.”
“You were always amazing, Izzy,” my grandfather assures me. “Now you just know yourself better.”
The two of us trade a look full of love.
And then it seems like the wall that overlooks the sea explodes in. The noise is so loud that it leaves my ears ringing and the ground shakes under my feet.
Mr. Time staggers sideways, both of us trying to catch our balance from the blast. He pushes me ahead of him out of the kitchen, shielding me with his body.
A second blast rattles the house, but this time, the wall cracks open behind us. The kitchen is torn open as water slams into the house like a typhoon.
“Take the box,” Mr. Time says, pressing it into my hands. “You can stop them.”
I nod, intent on doing just that.
The guys are suddenly downstairs too, half-dressed. “What’s going on?” Van demands.
“We’re under attack,” Mr. Time says, and Van’s sword is suddenly in his hand.
“Good,” he says. “Let’s end this.”
The five of us move out to face the other gods, leaving the watery wreckage of the castle behind us.
When we run outside, Connor is waiting right by the door. He grabs Wilder because he’s the first one out, immediately trying to drain him. Van slams his sword into Connor, who staggers back, and the two of them begin to fight instead.
I open up my box with the funnel attached and turn it on Connor. The golden glow that swirls out captures them both, and my heart is instantly in my chest, afraid that I’m going to hurt Van too. The two of them battle furiously and then suddenly--the golden glow fades.
Van’s sword is gone. Connor faces him with a confused look on his face.
Connor dives at him, manages to get a hand on his throat--and it does absolutely nothing.
Van just looks annoyed. The two of them fight in earnest. Thea was right about all their training.
Connor is a good fighter--but no one compares to pissed-off Van.
“Over here!” Reid shouts as he faces off with Barret, who has transformed into some kind of sea monster, although he seems to be struggling on land. I toss the box to him, and Reid catches it smoothly. He turns the box on Barret and a golden glow suffuses him.
“Izzy.” It’s Viggo’s low, smooth voice. My father, back again.
I turn to find him with a knife to my sister’s throat.
“You’ve already tried this trick once before,” I remind him. My gaze locks on hers. Does she look genuinely scared, with her wide eyes? Or is she tricking me again?
Maybe I should be smarter than this by now, but the look on her face still tears at my heart.
“It’s not a trick this time,” he warns me. “I never really loved her, as much as she wanted me to. But Izzy, maybe I could love you.”
“If you’d ever been capable of loving anyone, you would have loved her,” I tell him.
He suddenly throws her away from him, and he strides toward me.
I’ve never killed anyone except when I was fighting for my very life, and I find myself hesitating when he stops a few feet away.
“Izzy,” he says, his voice suddenly almost gentle. “I didn’t want to kill your mother. I just missed you and Thea so much. I was searching for you because I wanted to raise you. Can't you understand that? My own daughters. How was it right for her to take you away?”
“She was trying to protect us,” I say quietly. “And now I understand that, because I’d do whatever it takes to protect Thea.”
Suddenly my knife is in my hand, and I cross the ground between us in a few quick steps and bury it in his gut.
His eyes widen with surprise. As blood slips from his mouth, he rasps, “She would never do the same for you.”
“Maybe,” I say. “But I wish things had been different. This is the closest I can come to ever making things different.”
I turn around to see Thea call across the yard, “Reid! I need it!'' She sounds just like me, and suddenly I realize she’s dressed in jeans and a tee, like me, wearing her hair differently. My sister should have been Loki; she’s taken my trick that I played on Oliver and turned it back on us.
And before I can do anything, Reid tosses the box to her, just as smoothly as we’d tossed it between us a moment before when we working as a team.
I scream to Reid, but it’s too late. Thea grips the box. “How do I turn things back?” she demands.
Barret is at her side, and he starts to snarl at her, “You better figure out how to fix this--”
He rips the box out of her hands, tearing off the funnel. “You did this,” he snarls at me. “You can be trapped forever with your asshole gods.”
He aims the box at me and I feel myself start to zap away into nothingness.
Thea slaps the box out of his hands. Even she looks shocked at herself, but that’s nothing compared to the look on Barret’s face. Even before he goes for the box, he hits her.
And that’s his mistake.
Aiden and Reid dive at him in tandem. Reid goes low, gets the box and the funnel, and rolls away with it. Aiden, on the other hand, just takes Barret down. The two of them tumble over and over each other, getting in punches, trying to pin the other.
Thea watches in shock.
I still don’t know what to make of my sister, but I know what I want to believe.
But still, none of us need these powers.
When Reid tosses the box to me, his gaze says, do whatever you think is best. I trust you. And that’s what makes the choice easy for me. His faith in me.
I slam the funnel onto the box and turn to my sister. “I’m sorry,” I tell her, right before the golden glow washes over her.