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Interesting.
Instead of heading out the double doors where I assumed the rest of the rooms were, I went back through the kitchen and out the front door to the driveway so I could sit on the steps and enjoy a moment of quiet with the early morning sun on my face. I had no idea how people would respond to me as Grace’s fourth soul bond, but I doubted there’d be a lot of moments of peace and solitude in my life going forward.
I did a double take, recognizing the slightly rusted white van sitting in the driveway.Holy shit, Jack was still here?
He was. Fast asleep in the front seat, head tipped back and mouth all the way open, shoulder-length dark hair sticking out in weird directions. I rapped my knuckles softly on the driver’s side window, and he woke with a start, swearing up a storm as he scrambled toward the passenger side before realizing it was me.
“Fuck’s sake,” he panted, unlocking the door so I could open it. “You scared the goddamn life outta me, mate. What are you doing, creeping up on me like that? I’ve already been interrogated once.”
“Right, well I do apologize for… walking up to the vehicle you have parked in the middle of the driveway in broad daylight. It was very sneaky of me.”
I wasn’t entirely sure he picked up on the sarcasm, given the seemingly quite genuine nod he gave me in return. “You alright? I wasn’t sure if they were going to sacrifice you or something, but you actually look better than you did yesterday. Like way better. How’d you manage that?”
“No sacrifices yet,” I replied drily. “I was healed by an agathos. By one oftheagathos—as in one of the original spirits created by Gaia. She sort of came out of hibernation to help me? I don’t really know how it works.”
Jack blinked at me. “Rule one of magic: Don’t fuck with things you don’t understand. Come on, Dare, everyone knows that. That’s like… finding a 2000-year-old holy artifact in a priestess’ tomb andtouchingit. There are some things you just don’t do.”
“I wasn’t exactly in the right state of mind to analyze it,” I pointed out drily. I wasn’t entirely sure I’d be alive if Hygeia hadn’t intervened. “Anyway, it all worked out fine. I’m fine. You can come inside, you know. From what I hear, there are plenty of other daimons staying here. You’ve met Vasileios, right?”
Jack made a grumbling noise of assent. If there was one thing I’d learned from staying with him, it was that he did a lot of drugs, spent too much time on the internet, and was incredibly paranoid about everything. Then again, the world was so fucked-up right now that he was probably feeling pretty justified in that paranoia these days.
“Your mates came out here yesterday. Billy Big Bollocks and his even bigger, silent bodyguard. Wanted to know who I was and where I’d come from, what my plans were. I don’t go ‘round just sharing my plans with every Tom, Dick, and Harry who asks, you know.”
“Sure,” I agreed, nodding along like I knew what he was talking about. “How about I get you some food and you can just come in when you’re ready?”
Surely, at some point he’d need to use the bathroom and leave the safety of the van. It wasn’t even his—from memory, he’d “borrowed” it from his neighbor.
“I found some crisps in the glove box. Not risking anything that might be contaminated. Oh, hold on a minute, I spotted something for you in the back when I was looking for water.”
He rooted around in the packed van behind him, and I leaned in, trying to see what he was doing. I’d been too out of it when I’d gotten into the vehicle to realize he’d apparently hijacked a hoarder mobile.
“Here we are,” Jack said, yanking out a heavy-looking silver case. Was that…? “My neighbor had actually mentioned this to me, a sort of traveling business idea thing they had, but now the world is going to shit so you might as well have it.” He shoved the case out the door into my chest. If it was something weird, I could always dispose of it later and not hurt his feelings, I decided. “You sure you want to stay here? With the girl who grows people?”
“You mean Grace? My soul bond? Yes, I’m sure,” I laughed. Whatever hesitations I had about our relationship and how much of it wasusversusthe bond, I didn’t want to leave. “The growing people thing was a one-off.”
“That’s what they want you to think,” Jack replied darkly. “She might be lulling you into a false sense of security before she sacrifices you and grows herself a new soul bond.”
I blinked at him. “I’m going to go inside now.”
“Suit yourself,” Jack sighed, looking at me as though I was a lost cause. “If I’m not here when you next look, I’m out getting supplies. I really feel like I could use some explosives or something, you know? Always a good idea to be prepared. I should probably return the van too—bit shit of me to steal his means of transport in the middle of the apocalypse.” He paused for a moment, looking thoughtful. “I’ll try to find you some weapons too—something discreet, just in case your agathos turns on you. I’m sure I can swing by and drop ‘em off before I go back to my place.”
“I don’t think that will be necessary, but, uh, thanks. I guess.” I shook my head, slightly bewildered as I made my way back to the villa with the heavy case, ditching it inside the door to examine later. Intellectually, I knew that Jack had probably taken too much acid in his life to be considered a reliable source of critical thought, but on the other hand…
Was this really how people saw Grace? I thought she’d come across pretty well in that explainer video, but maybe we needed to do some social media PR work or something. I almost snorted at the idea.Hey guys, welcome to A Day in the Life of the Prophêtis. Rise and grind, let’s pour some coffee and start talking to deities you thought didn’t exist!
Grace didn’t need PR, she needed miracles. Not in the figurative sense either. She needed literal miracles, enough to convince people that it wasn’t a fluke or fancy visual effects. That she was real, and what she was saying was true. So far, out of agathos, daimons, and humans, the daimons were the only ones who overwhelmingly believed her. And yet Jack was a daimon, and he was still suspicious.
What a headache.
By the time I made it back inside, the place had woken up and honestly, the weird little commune-style setup that Grace and her bonded had going on in this villa was… bizarre, to say the least.
Efficient, but bizarre.
Humans, agathos, and daimons all mingled, preparing and eating meals side-by-side. Not to mention the Spartoi, who I had no idea how to classify. Human? Human-ish? I couldn’t exactly ask them, since they only spoke Ancient Greek. Apparently, Bullet and a few of the Greek natives had a rudimentary understanding of it, but not enough to get into the philosophical question of what humans born from soil as fully grown men actually were.
“Welcome, Dare!” one of the humans said, approaching me with a beaming smile and a weirdly deferential pose, almost like they were bowing to me. “We’re so honored to have the Prophêtis’ fourth and final soul bond here with us.”
Weird.
