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Artemis scoffed, rolled her eyes, then waved a hand, as if to show Florian that it wasn’t a big deal. “No such thing as man-dryads. I knew from the start. Everyone knew.”
“What?” My head whipped between the two of them, and I frowned. “I sure as hell didn’t. What are you, then?”
Florian’s gaze dropped to the ground, and his voice fell to an embarrassed murmur. “I’m an alraune.”
Artemis nodded. “Well, now that makes more sense.”
I glanced between them again, confused. What the hell was an alraune? What was I missing? But I knew in that moment that Florian didn’t need much more than my acceptance. He’d been a great friend throughout, and it didn’t matter whether he was a dryad or an – whatever that other thing was. I clapped him on the shoulder, squeezing hard.
“Hey, doesn’t matter what you are. You’re my buddy, and a great roommate. Okay?”
That was more than enough. Florian’s eyes glinted as he looked at Artemis, then at me, brimming over with gratitude. He turned right back around and headed to the next barren parcel of land, coconut in hand, ready to fill the empty dirt with the beauty of verdant wonder.
As soon as he was out of earshot, I turned to Artemis, the creases in my forehead enough of a question. “What was that all about?” I whispered.
Artemis sighed. “I’m going to take it that you don’t know about alraunes.”
“What, and you do?”
“Hey. Goddess of the hunt. I know quite a bit about animals, and I’m pretty familiar with mythical and magical creatures, too.” She held out her palm and a book appeared in her hand, flipping on its own to show an illustration of something that seemed to be half human and half plant. It looked nothing like Florian. In fact, the picture was of a young woman emerging from the petals of an enormous flower. Think the Venus de Milo, but with a rose instead of a seashell.
“Wait. Where did you get that book?”
“Shush,” she said. “Shut up, shut up. Look, see for yourself.”
Artemis handed me the tome, and as I read the entry I slowly began to understand. Alraunes were nothing like dryads, which were ancient Grecian nature spirits. An alraune was a creature that originated from Germany. An alraune, the book said, was created when the blood or the semen of a criminal who died by hanging spills on the earth.
“Oh, wow,” I muttered, handing back the book. “This is hardcore. Also, this really explains why he doesn’t know jack shit about Greek mythology.”
Artemis shut the pages with one hand, the tome disappearing with a comical pop. “It also explains why he’s so embarrassed about what he is. You know who your father was. He didn’t. All he knows is that the man was a dead criminal.” She cupped her chin, a finger poking at her bottom lip. “Yet it’s interesting, isn’t it? How the two of you ended up crossing paths. You’re both the consequences of the actions of your fathers.”
“Of their sins.”
“Essentially, yes.” Artemis’s lips broke into a warm smile. “Though no one is truly, completely sinful, are they? No one is beyond redemption.”
I laughed uncertainly. “I’m not sure what you’re talking about right now.”
“What I’m saying, I guess, is that I’m grateful.” She cocked her head over her shoulder. “Thanks for saving me back there. You know, that whole deal with the Prince of Greed.”
I shrugged. “No worries. It was the right thing to do.”
“It was,” she said. “And, you know, technically it was your fault a demon prince nearly sucked me up like a Mai Tai.”
“R-right.”
“And I’m sure it wasn’t a coincidence that Mammon picked the Rodriguez witches specifically to pull off their shenanigans.”
I cocked an eyebrow at her. “How do you mean?”
The corner of her mouth curled into a wry smile. “Put the first syllables of their names together. Maria and Monica.”
“Mammon.” My mouth fell open. “That’s – that’s so annoying, and dumb, and petty.”
“Sounds exactly like a demon to me.” Artemis shrugged. “It’s like you’ve never had to deal with them before.”
I sighed. “I’ve had to deal with them tons. And I’m still going to, unless I can magically pull ten thousand bucks out of my butt.”
She patted me on the back. “Hey. Mason. Just so you know, if I had ten grand sitting around?”
