Eh…“Actually, it’s New York City. The Big Apple is just a nickname. And it’s only a tiny part of the continent.”
He stopped, his brow knitting. “This continent must be huge.”
“North America?” She shrugged and tugged him along. Her car wasn’t far now. “It’s pretty big. And there are six more continents around the world.”
“Seven whole continents?” He shook his head in apparent wonder. “And nothing is God Touched?”
“God Touched? What does that mean?”
“Beyond the known continent—where you can’t go. No one goes there.”
“Why not?”
Piers looked at her as thoughshewere the crazy one saying crazy things every two seconds. “Because you don’t come back.”
She frowned in confusion. “Like…the Bermuda Triangle?”
“Likeeverywherebeyond the established borders.”
It was Sophie’s turn to stop and stare. Was he saying he came from a finite place hemmed in on all sides by some sort of deity or power? It sounded more like Asgard by the second—or at least how she imagined it after watchingThorfor the she-wasn’t-sure-how-manyth time. A woman had to entertain herself on weekend nights at home.
She took a steadying breath, trying to understand what Piers was saying. Acceptance had been growing all morning, but now, she started truly believing he really wasn’t from here. Here, as in, Earth. He looked human enough, but what if the hot guy she’d apparently picked up between bouts of running for her life was an alien? What if this gorgeous façade was some kind of glamour, and he was actually slimy and covered in scales?
No. She refused to believe that. Or she didn’t want to, which was different, but at this point, she didn’t care. Besides, if Piers was an alien, he probably needed her help right now just as much as she needed his. “Okay. So, if you’re not from Earth, whereareyou from? Where’s this Sinta?”
“Thalyria,” he answered.
Zero hesitation. Zero thought. Not that Sophie was an expert lie detector, but he seemed like he was telling the truth.
“I’ve never heard of it.” She doubted anyone had.
He shrugged. “I’d never heard of Apple, either. Or…New York City.” The words sounded foreign on his tongue.
Sophie slowly nodded, trying to hide the tremor in her hands as she readjusted her reality. Wasn’t her reality already off-kilter enough these days?
But Piers wasn’t making this up. She knew it somehow, just as she knew the ice shard’s cold, hard power pulsing too close to her skin for comfort was no joke. None of this was.
“Yeah, you’re definitely not from Earth.Everyoneknows New York. It’s just…one of those facts of life.” She started walking again, deciding to embrace the weirdness rather than try to fight it. She needed to conserve her energy for the next time Novalight’s goons came knocking, because she had no doubt they would. At least she and Piers fit in better now that his Caesar outfit was out of sight.
She almost missed the belted robe. Piers pulled that look off like a champ. He’d kept his sword, stuffing it and the whole harness contraption under his jacket. The hilt poked up over his shoulder now. That was still a bit conspicuous, but hey, this was New York. Tons of weird stuff happened here.
The knot in Sophie’s stomach unraveled for the first time in days. Peace settled over her. Maybe it was wrong of her—she always figured she’d be more theI-am-woman-hear-me-roartype—but she was just happy not to be alone anymore. Piers seemed willing to help and didn’t appear to have anything else to do. She’d called in sick for the last week of school and run away from Pinebury to try to keep her family out of danger, but Sophie wasn’t used to being on her own, and she didn’t like it. Sure, she lived by herself, but that wasn’t the same as beingalone. Especially at Christmas. It was almost as if Piers had been sent by the Powers That Be just when she needed him most.
The Greek gods are REAL.
Sophie shivered, a chill racing down her neck and spine. Suddenly, Aaron didn’t seem so crazy with his wholeyou’re-Heracleidae, contact-Athenamessage, and Piers might be the only thing that made sense. She had the glowing, ice-cold, apparentlymagicalShard of Olympus in her pocket. And by her side, she had a man who looked and acted as if he’d just popped straight out of antiquity, protecting her. What were the chances of that?
Don’t let Novalight get the Shard of Olympus. Too much power. Unstoppable.
Worry shuddered through her again. In Greek mythology, the gods were always watching, manipulating, and interfering. They were violent, remorseless, jealous, horrible, and hella-messed-up for the most part, but sometimes, they did surprisingly good things. Like Prometheus. He defied the gods, stealing fire from Olympus and giving it to humans so that they could cook and keep warm with it. Sure, that brought down Pandora and her Box on humanity and got poor Prometheus chained to a rock in Tartarus, but his intentions were good.
Supposedly, Sophie’s ancestor Heracles freed Prometheus from his punishment, but she had a hard time believing it—and everything else. She thought the Titan was still there—ifheandthereeven existed—chained up and getting his immortal liver pecked out by a giant eagle every day.
And if he could take that, then she could take this.
Sophie pulled her shoulders back, finding courage from the myth her father used to tell her at bedtime. She’d take her current weirdness over Prometheus’s fate any day, along with a bowl of soup, a hotel room that didn’t have cockroaches, and a plan. Assuming she didn’t need to check herself into a psychiatric unit, she had to figure out how to contact Athena, and she was pretty sureGoogledidn’t have a workable answer to:How do you call a Greek god.
~3~
