An Honest Discussion
“Pappa!” Maya’s tiny hand stretched out towards him as a group of men grabbed her father and dragged him away. A well-dressed man strode forward.
“He’s a bad, bad man, little one. So the king has ordered that he must be punished. Something fitting for his crimes.”
“My pappa is a good man!”
“Oh, someday you will learn differently, little birdie. Someday you will learn that monsters can look like ordinary people.”
“Pappa!” She started trying to run after the men dragging her father away. Then she heard screams behind her. Turning, she saw her eldest sibling, Robert, being pulled in the opposite direction. Her other siblings stood around watching, as if they were in a trance. As she drew close to Robert, he disappeared. Men dragged away her siblings, one by one, in the order they were born. And each time she chased them until her sibling vanished. When they grabbed Randel, the second youngest, but still a decade older than her, she threw up her hand and created a portal so that she stepped out next to him. But before she was fully through the portal, Randel disappeared, leaving her stunned and her head hurting.
“Clever, Robin. But that’s not quite how this will go,” the fashionable man said. “You will be all that is left of your family since you are innocent. However, youwillbe the last one of your line.”
A sharp pain cut from her hip to her rib cage, and blood sprayed in a sharp arch across the grass and toys.
Maya sat bolt upright, a bead of sweat rolling down the side of her face. The smell of cinnamon and bacon acted as a way of grounding her, reminding her that what she had just seen wasjust a tarnished reflection of something that had happened when she was small.
A voice called out, “Are you awake in there?”
Wiping the sweat from her brow, Maya remembered the events leading up to her current situation. Pulling up her blouse, she saw the scar, red and irritated, but not nearly as raw as it usually was. Not as big as it was in her dream, but still sizable.
As she pushed her blouse down, Apollo appeared in the doorway, a gentle expression on his face and a pan in his hand. Her eyes took in the apron with a heart on the chest, and she blinked as she tried to understand what she was seeing. He spoke softly to her, “I wasn’t sure what you like to eat, so I made a wide range of breakfasts.”
“Why breakfast?”
He looked at the pan and pushed its contents around with a spatula. “It’s my daughter’s favorite meal, so I guess I just default to it when I want to have a serious discussion. There’s a bathroom right over there.” He motioned with the spatula toward the other side of the room. “When you are ready, wash up, then come and eat.”
“What makes you think I want to eat?”
“Because of the amount of magic your body absorbed when I started trying to heal it. Apparently, fighting anyone trying to help you is literally in your bones. Almost like a defense mechanism.” He gave her a half smile. “That will have consumed a lot of calories.”
Maya wanted to ask him if he had ever considered he could be wrong but decided against it. There didn’t seem any reason to be combative with him now. Besides, once he pointed it out, she realized she was actually quite hungry. Nodding, she swung her legs over the side of the bed and padded on bare feet toward the bathroom. It was quaint, except for the large hot tub. Maya snorted and turned her back on it as she washed her hands. Theywere cleaner than she thought they should be, making her think that Apollo had made an attempt to clean her up before putting her to bed. Looking back down at her clothes, she realized that the stains from earlier were faded, almost as if they had been washed a few times instead of being recently sullied.
Heading through the bedroom and into a short hallway, Maya took in her surroundings. For the first time in a very long time, she didn’t feel the need to be on guard. Whether that was because she was ontheisland or because of Apollo’s abilities, she wasn’t sure. What she knew was that, for now, she was safe.
When she stepped into a small kitchen, Apollo placed the pan down and hurried to pull a chair out from under a small, round table with two chairs. A small vase of colorful flowers decorated the center. Maya sat down, her eyes on the flowers. “Did you find this place?”
“Yes. I had to fly low so that I didn’t hit the barrier, but this was tucked away, clearly set up for a couple’s getaway. Sorry, but I had my hands full with you for a while. Otherwise, I would have removed all of this stuff, knowing that it makes you uncomfortable.” He moved over to the stove and plated the food. As he placed the meal in front of her, Apollo asked, “What would you like to drink?”
“Just a mug, please.”
“Does that mean you would like water?”
“No. Just a mug. According to Cosmo, we should have the ability to make things that we want appear. Although, now that I say it aloud, I realize that there’s a high probability that I’ve been duped.”
Apollo opened a cabinet, almost as if he knew his way around the place, and pulled out a mug. He placed it in front of her. Maya tilted it, but there was nothing in it. She set it back down and closed her eyes. Thinking about a minty hot chocolate, she half expected to find the warm beverage in the mug when sheopened her eyes. When she tilted it to look again, she muttered, “Should have realized he was lying about that too.”
Apollo took the mug. “What would you like?”
“I was thinking of a nice minty hot chocolate.”
“With or without whipped cream?”
“With, please.”
Apollo walked away and moved around for a few seconds. Then he returned, a steaming hot mug with whipped cream on top in his hand. Drawn into the top was a heart of drizzled chocolate syrup. Maya looked at it, then up at him with a flat expression. “Really?”
He held up his hands. “I didn’t make that. I just wished for what you asked for, and it appeared when I distracted myself.” Turning, he started untying his apron, but one of his hands seemed to be having issues gripping the end.
