So Aric continues, practically reading my mind. “You made a deal with Apollo.” Aric’s eyes go squinty, as do mine, as we both work out the next piece of the puzzle. “What is she worth to you, Quaid? Hm? A one-way ticket into Olympus? A get-out-of-slavery-free card? What did Apollo promise you if you brought him Star?”
Quaid maintains his very detached, cool demeanor. “Well, I guess it doesn’t matter anymore. The glasses are broken. They don’t work. So I hope you have a way out of your teenage-wet-dream room, because I sure don’t.”
I think I want to wake up now.
I want to participate in this exchange because there’s something happening here that needs to be worked out. But when I step over to my body on the ground, I don’t go back in.
It’s not ready for me. That monster must be very powerful if it affected me this way. And I guess it would have to be, if Ares’s goal was to turn his son into a warrior. The monster should be formidable and hard to kill. Ares would want the consequences to be severe enough to shape Aric, should he ever fail.
I guess that’s why he’s such a dick.
I can’t die, not easily. Decapitation would do it. But even then, under extenuating circumstances, I could technically be put back together. My messenger stage—this ghost form that I’m in now—is supposed to be transient. A blip of time—or, more accurately, no-time—in which I move through space. That’s how I get places so fast.
I’m not the messenger of the gods, that’s my father, Hermes. But the gift of travel was inherited, nonetheless. And now, it seems, I am stuck in this state. Already out of the game and I didn’t even know I was playing.
Aric has been staring at Quaid this whole time I was thinking, and now he lets out a breath. “I’m gonna let this go,” he says, “but it’s not over. I will figure out what you’re up to, Quaid. But right now, I’d rather focus all my attention on getting the hell out of here without having to run this maze ten-thousand times before we kill the monster. Because that’s the only way out that I know of. And Declan here isn’t gonna be any help until he heals himself, obviously. So instead of standing there looking like a surly asshole, why don’t you come up with some ideas.”
Before Quaid can answer, Star steps out from behind Aric. “No.” She looks manic. “I’m not listening to his ideas and even if he came up with one, I’m not going anywhere with him!”
She starts this sentence angry, but she ends it absolutely furious. So furious, she gives off a powerful energy and three things happen at once.
First, the room brightens, then goes completely dark.
Second, Quaid’s sunglasses also go bright, but then they go black and start to glow a bright teal-green color.
And third, the walls all come to life. All those little symbols that Aric and I saw carved into the walls are now glowing with white light. Some of the symbols I recognize from the academy I went to as a kid. We had to learn all kinds of ancient languages. But some of them are very strange and I have no idea what they mean.
It doesn’t matter, though, because the point is, they’re sayingsomething.
Except, I don’t think anyone else can see this but me, because the lights are back on now, and both Aric and Quaid are discussing what just happened to his stupid sunglasses and aren’t saying anything at all about the walls.
Aric points to Star. This is when I start paying attention again. “It’s you,” he says.
She points to herself. “What’s me?”
“You’re the one making his glasses glitch like that.”
“So?” She’s very defensive.
“It’s not exactly her,” Quaid says. “I’ve already figured this out.”
“Then why didn’t you say anything?” Aric asks.
He sneers at Star. “Because she’s not gonna like what I have to say.”
A moment of silence hangs after these words come out, and in this same moment my body must have repaired itself enough to pull me back in, because the next thing I know, I’m on the ground, sitting up.
It’s me who puts the last piece of the puzzle together. “She’s can power them.” Everyone looks down at me.
Star smiles. “You’re OK!”
“I’m OK.”
Aric offers me his hand. I take it, and he pulls me to my feet. “What were you saying now?”
I point at Star. “Her hidden magic. I think you unlocked it.”
“Unlocked it how?” Quaid asks. “Aric didn’t do anything but bring us to this ridiculous room filled with holographic strippers. I’m the one who put the collar on her.”
