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I rest my elbows on both the chair’s armrests before raising my hands. “Her circus to run, her horses to tame. And definitely not the issue that drove Persephone to seek us out.”
She moves her head again, if only for a confirming cock to the side. “Now that you’ve saved me the trouble of actually asking…”
I close my fingers in, forming a pair of statement fists. “The tension in Olympus… It’s more far-reaching than we originally thought. According to Persephone, Hecate’s ax is the biggest blade headed for the largest grindstone, but it’s not the only one ready for a fight. The friction is pervasive at every level of their realm. Plus—”
“It’s not the only realm with the problem.”
She doesn’t look pleased about being so right. At least her troubled pause supplies a valid excuse for deciding how to best break this all down for her.
“Persephone thinks…our wedding might be an answer to the whole dilemma.”
Kell softly scoffs. “Okay,dilemmais what you say when you want to wear your dirty jeans or when there’s more than three party invites for the same night. What you’re talking about here…concurrent, cataclysmic destruction of every realm we know…”
“Thanks for the elucidation,” I mutter.
She raises her eyebrows and then slams them back down, echoing my final word with the same mix of approval and sarcasm that Kara would. The effect is a grin I can’t hide—up to the moment she responds again.
“So, what did Persephone say after that? About your wedding being the magical fix-it-all for the insanity?”
She listens as I recount the rest of the spring goddess’s presentation. The belief that our nuptials will be the must-attend celebration for every entity with an invitation. The plan to transform the event into a giant peace summit. Persephone’s belief, so adamant, that it’ll work. That ishasto work.
“And you? And Kara?” she poses after those assertions. “What do you two think? And believe?”
The query makes me gain my feet, as well. I park my elbows on the rail and rub my palms together. An ambulance speeds by below, turning its wake into conspicuous stillness.
“I think…that right now, we don’t have a lot of options,” I say. “And that if there’s a solution for making the future work, we have to seize it.” My sights land on the bright glow of the downtown interchange. In this moment, it symbolizes a light I need to be reaching for…believing in. “Because right now, the future isn’t just about us.”
There’s another long silence, which I accept as a good sign. Kell’s considering her words. If she disapproved of my assessment, they’d have come faster and harsher.
At last she murmurs, “And Kara? She agrees with you?”
“We’ve been too tired to hash it out in full. But I hope so.” I cant my head, giving her a determined look. “Maybe it’ll give her a reason to actually look forward to the wedding.”
She kicks up one corner of her mouth. “Instead of holding out hope for something like a rom-com finale?”
I chuff. “Ah. You know that story too?”
“Buddy, I lived that story.”
“Well, thereisthat…”
I join her in a fresh round of light laughter but frown as she sobers again. It’s not that I didn’t expect the change, but her switch-up seems much too fast.
“I’m a little surprised that Kara told you that story,” she admits. “Okay, maybe more than a little.”
“Eh?” I turn so only one elbow leans on the rail. “Why?”
She lifts her head, now the one to gaze over the streets. “It’s not a memory she likes to bring up. I think, in a lot of ways, she thinks it’s admitting to some kind of weakness.”
“Weakness?” I let my incredulous tone write the essay of words on the tip of my tongue.Weakisn’t the first ortwentiethword I’d use for either one of the Valari sisters. “You’re not serious.”
“On every pair of Ferragamos in my closet.” She lifts two fingers of an upstretched hand. “Even the ones I don’t yet have room for.”
“Thanks, but I still don’t get it.”
“Because your upbringing was a one-eighty from ours.” She nods toward my deeper scowl. “You were taught that your otherworldly side was bad and destructive. That your strength was everything that was going to expose you, destroy you. In Veronica Valari’s world, we were told that our demon side set us above everyone else. That humans were enamored by us. Though it was always stressed as a secret, it was because humans had to beprotectedfrom us, not the other way around. It was like our glamorous superpower.”
“Glamorous.” I turn the word over while jogging my head back to take in the stars. They’re dim because of the noise pollution, but they’re still there. Like the truth I’m digging at here. “Seems like a valid plan.”
