“Nix. I have to. If he found out I’ve seen you and didn’t tell him, he would take my head.”
“But I’m getting Sloane back! I’m not lying! Thalia, listen to me. I will get her back. Iwill!”
She nodded as if she accepted my argument. “I know you will. That’s why I’m telling you. That’s why I’m giving you a head start.”
“You’re crazy!” I shouted at her as I picked up my pace.
As I raced through the neighborhood, desperate to get away from her, I could have sworn I heard her say, “I know.”
Chapter Five
I called another cab. I didn’t know where else to go.
I needed to see if Smith was home, but I didn’t think I should go tonight. I had tried calling him again while I waited for the cab, but he still hadn’t picked up. I was getting more and more nervous.
Hermes was on the tip of my tongue, but I felt like there was more to find out in Omaha first. I wanted to know as much about this impending war as I could.
I also wanted to know as much about both factions as I could.
Hermes seemed like the lesser evil when compared with Nix, but that didn’t mean he wasn’t still evil.
I nearly had the cab drop me off at my old apartment. I didn’t know what Ava had done with it, but I realized that even if she still owned it, I didn’t have keys.
When I gave the driver directions, I surprised myself.
Light filtered out of Phoenix’s house, spilling onto the darkened flower beds. I could see his family moving around inside. The blinds hadn’t been closed yet and Phoenix’s parents and siblings were sprawled out on the couches watching something on TV.
It wasn’t until I was walking up to the front door that I realized Phoenix might not have made it home from the Slowdown yet. And what if he hated me as much as Ryder?
Would he turn me away?
I knocked on the doorway feeling more anxiety. I wouldn’t have been surprised if this day had turned my hair gray. The last few hours had been one horrible thing after another.
If Phoenix was mean to me that might be the final straw on my sanity.
I rang the doorbell and then heard a stampede of feet as his younger siblings raced for the door. I knew he had twin sisters, but it wasn’t until they wrenched the door open and stared at me that I realized how twin-ish they were.
Clones of each other basically.
They had rich brown hair like Phoenix, only it fell to their middle back and looked like there were random dreads here and there. It was a very cool look, but surprising on girls as young as them. Then I remembered his hippie parents and maybe it wasn’t so surprising.
“Is, uh, Phoenix here?” I asked them.
They shared a conspiratorial look with each other, turned to face the staircase and shouted, “Phoenix!” at the same time. When he didn’t answer immediately, they shouted his name again.
“Girls!” Their mother laughed from the couch. “Go get him! He probably has his music on.”
She pulled herself up from the couch and ambled over to me. Her long hair matched her daughters, only it was completely dreaded and woven with long ribbons and beads. Her face was completely bare of makeup, but she looked younger that way.
“Hey, honey,” she grinned at me. “You’re a friend of Phoenix?”
“I am,” I smiled at her. “We went to school together.”
“Come on in, he just got home.” She opened the screen door and I stepped inside. Phoenix’s dad waved at me from the couch. A little boy, that could only be Buzzard, was tucked into his side.
Before I could introduce myself further, Phoenix bounded down the stairs as loudly as humanly possible. He stopped halfway, put his hands on either side of the banister and jumped down the rest of the steps.
I braced myself just in time for him to crash into me. He threw his arms around me and picked me up in a tight bear hug.
