Griffin: Hello? Earth to Squeakers?
Praxis: They’re probably fucking. Per usual.
Sebastian: Well, someone go check their damn room, then!
Soren: I already did, but no one was in there.
Praxis: This is a total eclipse!
Griffin: Ash said she hasn’t heard from them all night. She can’t make the moon move, either.
Soren: Greattttt. Gods damnit. Nicodemus, Odysseus! Can someone answer us here?
Praxis: HELLLLLOOOOOO!!!!!!!!!!!!!
I slapped a hand over my mouth. “Oh fuck…”
“What?” he popped worriedly.
I pointed to the sky. “Er, babe? I think we might have caused this.”
“What? No way!”
“Last night? When we were, ya know? I noticed our eyes were in their Elemental form. Do you think that potion of yours, like, triggered our powers or something?”
Odysseus turned three shades of red. He changed so quickly that he teetered from the adrenaline and rush of heat that consumed him. “Crap. We need to go fix this!”
“Let’s go find the others!”
Odysseus and I scrambled to shower and dress before we went back to Odrikius, which was pitch black in the middle of the day. Most of the Gods were standing out in the main courtyard trying to come up with an explanation for the phenomenon, but they were drawing blanks. Blaine perked up when he heard our portal materialize and threw his hands up when we stepped through. “About damn time! Where the Gehenna have you two been?”
“Busy,” we replied in unison.
He gave us the ‘Dad’ look. “I’m sure. Well, anyone want to explain this massive solar eclipse that’s freaking out Humans and Elementals alike?”
Odysseus was too embarrassed to speak, so I conjured a lie I thought would suffice for now. “We tested a serum Odysseus was working on last night and it had some, odd, side effects. We think we did this in our sleep.”
“In your sleep?” Sebastian scoffed, crossing his arms with a sassy eyebrow raise. “What exactly was this ‘serum’ used for?” Mom smacked a hand over her mouth and wheezed into it loudly, which made us both turn so red that tomatoes were dull in comparison. Sebastian turned from us to her. “So, you know, do you? Spill the beans!”
“Oh, Gehenna no. Nick is all I have right now, and I amnotpissing him off like that.”
“She has chosen wisely,” I confirmed.
Sebastian rolled his eyes heavily. “Whatever. Can you fix this, please, so the world doesn’t implode?”
“Yeah, yeah.” I flashed black eyes and brought my hand up, summoned every ounce of my energy possible, then used my index finger to begin carefully maneuvering the moon. The Gods watched in awe as the planet rumbled hard before it began to inch away from the sun, which splintered through the dark and brought the courtyard back to life. Odysseus bit the inside of his collar in shame while I worked, and once I got the moon back to where it should be, I wiped sweat off my forehead and huffed loudly. “Man, she was stubborn today!”
“You two need to be more careful!” Praxis scolded, coming over to slap the back of our heads simultaneously. “You are literally the reason that there is balance in the world. Your fuck ups impact the entire balance of nature, not for nothing!”
“We know, Praxis…” we whined in unison.
“Ok, well, now that that’s over…” Mom wrapped an arm around my shoulders. “We should go find Seraphine. She had some news to share with you, and she wanted to discuss your final picks for your second-in-command.”
“A God’s work is never finished,” I repeated the famous saying before letting Mom turn me towards McBride manor. Before she did, I leaned into Odysseus and whispered, “Might want to dull the effects of that serum a bit.”
“I concur,” he peeped before hightailing it back to the Life Realm, which made me snort a huge laugh and shake my head.
Mom dragged us through the manor to the third floor, where most of the Original Gods were residing. Each door was marked with a gold plate with their names etched into it and at the end of the hall was one for Seraphine and Erasmus. Erasmus was pacing back and forth in front of the door, his hands over his face as he did this. I tapped his arm twice, which scared the shit out of us both when he jumped nearly into the air. “Geez, Nicodemus!”
