“I was hoping to.”
“Well you can’t hide tonight, the Gods are throwing a ball and you’re expected to be there with us.” Kier pulls me closer to him, practically hugging me to his side. “If you’re not in attendance tonight, Zeus is going to lock you in a cell beneath the castle. I don’t know what you’ve done to piss him off, but you can’t keep doing it. He’s furious right now. Even threatened to have Tanner fired if we didn’t locate you.”
“What?” I pull away from Kier, moving back a few steps and to the side so I can see the four of them without having to turn my head. “He can’t do that.”
“Considering the way he’s been acting, we’ve all come to the conclusion that he’s the one that put that block on you. What we don’t understand is why.” Seth looks at me pointedly, as though he expects me to answer. I’m not even game enough to try, not after I tried writing the truth down and ended up puking my guts up for half the night.
“Tanner came up with a little game for us to play. We’ll call it Secrets.” Kier singsongs. “I want you to pick a flower every time we say something that’s the truth and pick a leaf when we’re off the mark. Don’t think about the answers, don’t try to say them, just pick the pretty flowers and leaves. Got it?”
I grab the nearest flower, which happens to be a bright red one and pluck it from the bush, dropping the bud to the ground.
The guys turn to face each other and Ty says, “Zeus is making her spy on us.”
Again I pluck a flower from the bush, but I hold it in my hands. No pain or nausea so I smile at them to let them know it’s working.
“Okay, that’s a half truth. Zeus and Someone else is using her to spy on us.” Seth’s voice sounds deeper than usual, showing his anger over the situation, but I can’t do anything other than hold the flower. “Zeus, Ares and Poseidon.” He corrects without hesitating.
I drop the flower on the floor.
“Do you know why… I mean, are they spying on us because they think we’re trouble makers?” Ty glances at me, but doesn’t face me completely.
I grab a leaf and pull it to pieces before letting the remains fall to the ground.
“Not even close.” He mutters.
“They want to control us for something.” Kier tries, but again I pluck a leaf and shred it.
“They only want something from one of us.” Tanner hedges.
The leaf I pick is bigger than the last two and the four of them sigh. “This might take a while.”
There has to be another way to tell them without telling them.
“There was once a group of boys who were predicted to be more powerful than the rest.” I pause to see if my stomach is going to revolt, but nothing happens. “They were being watched over by a group of bad men who were afraid they would grow too powerful.” My stomach heaves but I just shake my head, swallowing roughly.
“The evil monsters tried to make the…” I lean over the window sill and throw up all down the side of the tower. Surprisingly Ty is there in an instant, gathering my hair and holding it out of my face. Tanner hands me a cloth to wipe my mouth with. Then he makes a bottle of water appear out of nowhere and hands it to me along with a packet of minty gum. “Thanks.” I mutter.
“Okay, so that didn’t work.” I joke.
“I think I got it, the three of them are making you spy on us and want you to tell them if we do something, or say something, that would make them think we’re planning to overthrow them when we come into our powers.” Kier says, surprising me. I’m completely frozen again, the gum halfway to my mouth. “And I’ll take that as confirmation. Just fucking great. Even if we could get her transferred to someone else, those assholes aren’t going to let it happen because they think they have a perfect spy. I guess they didn’t account for the fact that this spy doesn’t want to be a spy.”
“Would you like to meet the dragon, Ryxa?” I’m so shocked that Seth would suggest such a thing that I swing my arm out, trying to punch him. “Sorry,” He laughs, skipping back out of my reach. “I figured shock would be a trigger to cancel out the spell.” He says sheepishly, catching my fist as I try again. He pulls me closer and for a moment I get lost in his eyes before I remember that I’m supposed to be mad at them all. I pop the gum into my mouth and chew it angrily as I try to figure out if they could actually help me with this situation.
Seth tilts my chin, staring right into my eyes, which only makes my anger disappear. “Quit that.” I snarl, moving away from him and his seductive eyes. “If I’m going to be trapped in this… friendship, then we’re going to have to set some ground rules. Starting with no more manhandling.”
“Fine, but you’ll have to compromise a bit. Starting with returning to your normal classes and going to the ball with us tonight.” Kier’s the one who speaks, but I don’t look at him as I reply, “So long as it’s a jeans and tank top kind of ball, I’ll be there.”
“There’s no such thing. Besides, we already had Tanner buy you the dress.” Kier argues.
“Don’t throw logic at me. I’m angry at you.” I say, still refusing to look at him.
“Are you now?” His voice is far too close for comfort. I can feel his warm breath on the back of my neck as he adds, “Give us a chance, we’re not bad people.”
“You said yourselves, the moment it suits you, you’ll make me forget and move on with your lives.” I hiss back at him, refusing to budge.
“We could never forget you.” The words are barely a whisper, spoken against my ear. I shudder as he wraps his arms around my waist, dragging my body against his. “Nothing in this realm or the next would ever make us forget you.”
“Oh my God, you are such a dick.” I screech, spinning to face him. “You forgettingmeisn’t the problem. Your stupid powers coming out and making me forget you is what I have a problem with.”