Page 21 of Take Two (Valleywood: Season Three)
Chapter 21
Phobos
I might not have taken any high school physics classes—or attended what humans considered school in any way, shape, or form—but Father had hired us a tutor when Deimos and I were young. I’d also been around a while, and experience had to count for something. I knew that deep water was my best chance of minimizing the destruction, since flying into the atmosphere was now out of the question. But I would have to somehow get deep enough into Lake Erie and time it just right. Would I die without oxygen? Even gods needed to breathe.
I stood on the rocky shore and watched the sun begin to rise, transitioning slowly from black to navy blue and eventually shades of purple and pink. It reminded me of the way Declan’s skin grew rosy when he blushed. I sighed, feeling heavier than I ever had in my very long life. Even if I spent the rest of eternity floating on the River Styx, I would hold my mate’s love in my heart and know that I’d been so lucky to have met him. He had made it all worth it.
The searing pain seemed to crest, and I groaned at the agony, clenching my teeth and balling my hands into tight fists. I felt like I was coming apart at the seams.
It was time…
Peeling off my clothes, I folded them neatly and stacked them on a bench, thinking of how my tidy mate would be so proud of me for the effort. Maybe someone could use them after I was gone.
Stepping lightly over the rocky shore, I waded into the lake. The water hissed and spit around my ankles, coming to a rolling boil as I moved farther in, lapping at my thighs. The water provided temporary relief, and I sighed, eyes closed, as I pushed forward.
“Hey!” I heard someone shouting distantly. I put it out of my mind, though, because they likely weren’t talking to me. The voice got louder, though, accompanied by a splash. “Hey, you! What the hell are you doing?”
Frowning, I peeled my eyes open and saw a man swimming toward me—not from the shore but the middle of the lake, and he was making good speed. As I watched, he dipped underwater, and I swore I saw the flash of a fin behind him, before he re-emerged just a dozen yards away.
I blinked hard. Was I seeing things? Had I already died? The pain pulsing behind my eyes told me I had not.
When the man—or… fishman? Whatever he was—was closer, he emerged from the water, glaring at me. “I said, what do you think you’re doing?” He had reddish hair, brown eyes, and a broad torso of chiseled muscles. And then there was the tail, of course, blue-green scales merging with flesh around his waist.
“I—” My jaw clamped shut with a click of my teeth. I wasn’t entirely sure what to say. If he was just some guy out for a leisurely morning swim, he at least deserved to be warned. Would he believe me if I said I was an ex-god timebomb? “Are you a mermaid?”
“Siren, actually. Name’s Lucas.”
“Phobos,” I said. I almost offered him my hand, but I was just as likely to sear the skin off his palm. “Um… so, it’s actually not a great day for a swim, Lucas. You should just skedaddle on back home. I’m, uh… gonna blow up?”
“Not here you’re not,” he scolded, though he didn’t seem to question the exploding part. Either I looked worse than I thought or he could sense it, but either way, I was glad to skip the lengthy explanation.
“Well, no, not here exactly. I was planning on swimming down to the bottom of the lake and—”
“No, I mean the lake is out of the question. There’s a whole city down there, full of innocents. You’ll have to take your explosion elsewhere.”
I blinked a few times. “I’m sorry, did you say there’s a city at the bottom of Lake Erie?” He nodded. Why hadn’t I heard of it?
Well, shit, that kind of ruined those plans.
Maybe if I rented a helicopter, I thought, scrambling to pull my pants back on, but the fabric clung to my wet skin. Luckily, I was hot enough that it evaporated fairly quickly. By the time I was running back toward the city, I had come up with half a dozen backup plans and ruled them out just as quickly. Rocketship? That seemed like something that required extensive planning. Driving to the least populated area I could find? There would still be farmers and their crops or livestock, maybe some tourists. Private jet over the ocean and leaping out the door? That one had some potential, but time was running out.
In the end, I decided there was only one possible solution. I ran, jogged, stumbled, and finally crawled all the way to the alleyway where I’d first found Apate.
Deimos had explained that when I stepped through this door, I was actually entering a pocket dimension—and an illegal one at that. He’d threatened Apate with tattling to Loki about her little hideaway if she didn’t help Cameron with a problem, so maybe that would work for me too.
“Apate?” I called as I closed the alley door tight behind me. My voice echoed through the cave. I couldn’t know for sure, but I had a feeling that an explosion here in a different dimension might save Valleywood from destruction. I hoped it wouldn’t come to that, though.
I halfway tumbled down the path of slick rock, and when I finally came to a stop, I found myself at the foot of her throne. Instead of knitting, this time she seemed to be in the middle of high tea. “Phobos,” she said simply, and even from behind her veil, I could feel her beady gaze on me.
“Apate, you must undo this curse,” I demanded, pushing myself up using a stalagmite for balance, chest heaving as I tried to catch my breath. My vision had begun to tunnel, the edges turning a fiery red that eclipsed all else.
She let out this little wheezy squeak, what passed as a chuckle. “ Must I?” she asked, cheekily.
Through the pain-infused haze, I reminded myself that this crone was immeasurably older than I was. She’d stood not just against time but also the likes of Odin and Ra. She would not bend because I demanded it.
“Please?” I tried, wincing at how it sounded.
It had her cackling much louder this time, slapping a hand on her knee as she bent over in her throne.
“So glad I could amuse you while on my deathbed,” I mumbled, slumping against the stone pillar as my legs threatened to give out. “Tell me what I can do. What if we struck a new deal?”
She leaned back, arms crossed over her chest. “You have nothing I want.”
“Well then,” I said, tipping my chin up defiantly. I swore the cave walls were reflecting light back at me, my body emitting a bright orange glow. “If I’m going to explode, you can be damn sure I’ll be doing it right here next to you. I wonder, can you die? Or maybe you’ll just be exploded into a million tiny sentient pieces. I wonder what Loki will say when he puts all your pieces back together in the wrong order…”
For a second, she actually seemed to consider the possibility of death, and it almost felt like she might welcome it. A god’s life was unending, and sometimes, even we craved death.
I held my breath, my lungs burning as I waited for her to decide. Steam rose from the cave floor, leaving the stone bone-dry. I closed my eyes tight, starburst patterns painted on the inside of my eyelids. I’m sorry, Declan. I tried. I love you.
“Well?” she snapped. “Are you dying or are you tattling to Loki, you can’t have both.”
“M-Maybe we don’t have to d-do either,” I suggested through gritted teeth, from my spot kneeling on the floor. I wrapped my arms around my middle, trying to hold myself together.
Finally, when I thought for sure we were both about to be vaporized, she leaned forward. “You will name your first child after me.”
“Done!” I burst out, and just like that, a new deal was struck.
Again, she peeled off one of her black lace gloves and reached out, poking me sharply in the center of my forehead. It was the equivalent of sticking a pin in an overinflated balloon.
I screamed with the release of the pressure, back bowing, head tipped back to the vaulted ceiling as I howled. Even with the floodgates wide open, it was too much. Too… much… The walls shook, rock fell with a noisy clatter, but when I found myself at last lying on the floor in a trembling heap, panting to catch my breath, it seemed we had both survived.
I couldn’t ask for anything else.
Apate gave a tsk as she surveyed the damage. “And I’d just redecorated.”
Pushing up shakily to my feet and trudging my way out, I was eager to get home to my mate, though I wasn’t looking forward to explaining to him that we would have to name our firstborn after this trickster goddess.
Who knows, maybe we would never even have children…