“Uh, I’ve already met with Taliyah. For all of three seconds. Then everyone froze in time or something.” Ugh. She’d dreamed that too, hadn’t she? She hadn’t woken up, sweated out her hangover, and smacked into Halo. “Never mind.”
Too bad his furnace-like heat wasn’t real. She’d kind of enjoyed him. Or it. Only it. Before he’d chained her up, earning her eternal hatred, of course.
Vivi pouted for a moment. “Why can’t people do cool things in my drunken reveries?”
She rubbed the spot she’d been stabbed. Maybe the dream was a warning. “I should probably skip the meeting.”
“No way.” The harpire hauled Ophelia to her feet, jostling her brain against her skull. “You’re attending, and that’s that.”
“Then I guess I gotta sober up,” she grumbled, stumbling into the bathroom.
“Look at that. My baby is wearing her big girl panties today! She knows when she’ll be out-stubborned and it’s best to give up.”
“Oh, my gosh, shut it,” Ophelia mumbled, earning a snort. As she washed and dressed, a sense of déjà vu plagued her with increasing fervency. A sense that followed her to the gym, where the same harpies occupied the same machines. How in the world had a drunken dream predicted her day so accurately?
Just as she remembered doing before, Ophelia threw elbows and exchanged insults to claim the perfect treadmill.
She plugged in her earbuds and ran for an hour, but she failed to focus her thoughts. Again and again, her brain returned to the subject of Halo. Just how precisely had her dreams portrayed him?
Why not ask others about him and find out? Assuage her curiosity and shutdown this line of inquiry.
As she jogged at a slight incline, she muted her music to ask, “What do you know about the, um, nice Astra?”
“Halo?” Vivi asked with a frown.
“You guys talking about the Machine?” The girl on Vivi’s other side inserted herself into the conversation. “He’s the one who gives good hello, right? Sometimes smiles, and never raises his voice?”
“If he’s so great, why does everyone call him the Anaconda?” another said. “Those things are mean, yo. Unless he’s the proud owner of a wild trouser snake, and it’s time for a good old-fashioned hunting expedition. I’ll report my findings tomorrow.”
Comments rang throughout the gym.
“I bet he drills his females until he hits liquid gold.”
“Have you seen those arctic blast eyes? The only thing he’s drilling into is permafrost.”
“Do you think he knows my legs make amazing earmuffs or should I tell him again?”
The tiniest glimmer of irritation, well, irritated Ophelia. They were treating Halo like a piece of meat being carved up and served on toothpicks...and she should totally do the same. So why wasn’t she?
“If you plan to make a move on the Ringed One, you’ll have to get in line,” a girl named Reshma called from the other side of the room, chugging away on an elliptical machine. She was a patrol mate and someone Ophelia greatly admired. If Reshma got in your face with a beef, you might as well disembowel yourself to save time. “There’s already a list. First come, first served. Next up is three hundred and sixty-eight.”
“Dibs on three hundred and sixty-nine,” someone called.
Ophelia’s treadmill shook as she slammed her feet down.
“Why the sudden interest in an Astra?” Vivi asked, jogging at a sedate pace. “I know you’re not going to bag and tag him. Wait. You’re not going to bag and tag him, are you?”
“No fair,” another cried. “You can’t put the Flunk Out on the list. Once they go nymph, others make them limp.”
Kill me now.
“Have you seen Halo’s concubine?” asked the harpy next to Reshma. “She’s a genuine Amazon.”
“Do you think she’d, like, sign my chest or something?”
Ugh. The Astra had a paid for perma-lover. Meaning, he was completely off-limits. Not that he’d ever been on limits for Ophelia. Nope. There would be zero lovers for Lady O No.
Another hour passed, music cranking. This time, she stayed in a zone...until a new round of thoughts and worries surged. If her real life followed her dream—or whatever—she would smack into Halo on her way to see General Taliyah.
How should she handle it? Forget what the imaginary Erebus had claimed? The Astra wasn’t going to kill her. That, she knew. One, never trust the prick who brutally slayed you. Two, Taliyah. Three, why would real-life Halo ever notice Ophelia?
Great! She’d started slamming her feet into the treadmill again.
Movement at her side drew her attention to a showered Vivi, who pulled the plug on the machine. Dang it! This part was a repeat, too?
Ophelia freed the earbuds and glanced at the clock. Argh!
“You’ve been running for five and a half hours,” her friend began.
“I know, I know. I now have half an hour to prepare for my meeting without overthinking.” She darted from the treadmill, shooting out of the gym.