Another look at Connolly. He nods, and I ease forward. An electric charge fills the air. It takes Zeus a moment to recognize it. When he does, he spins, and his elbow catches me in the shoulder. I stagger into him and then fall back.
“Really?” he says, glaring from me to Connolly. “I might hurt myself if I harm you two children, but if you annoy me enough, I’ll take that chance.”
I scamper back, out of his reach, but not before I raise the phone Connolly’s luck burst helped me pick from Zeus’s pocket. I lift it to catch his face, and the phone unlocks. He swipes at me, but Connolly’s between us, taking the blow. Connolly staggers, and Zeus falls, thudding to the deck.
Zeus leaps up, snarling, only to find himself facing off with Athene.
“I have his phone!” I call to Mercy. “It’s unlocked.”
“You think that’ll help you find her girlfriend?” Zeus says.
“Uh, it already did,” I say, flipping through the messages. “You texted the location to one of your guards earlier, telling them to move Rosa there.” I raise my voice. “I know where she is, Mercy.”
I call out the address, and Zeus lunges at me, but Athene blocks him.
“What does it matter?” Zeus says, throwing up his hands. “If you take this girl from me, I’ll only find another one.”
“And we’ll be there to stop you,” Mercy says, rising from behind a wave runner, Theodora standing with her. “You keep trying, and we’ll keep stopping you. If you want to marry so badly, find someone who wants to marry you back. A woman who genuinely jumps at the chance to marry the all-mighty Zeus. Should be easy enough. But where’s the fun in that, right?”
Zeus stalks over to where they stand. He stops in front of them and looks at Theodora.
“You can feel it,” Mercy says. “She’s lost her immortality. Which means you don’t want her anymore.”
His hand flashes out, a sidelong smack for Mercy, almost casual. She ducks it, and he snorts and keeps walking.
“Don’t think you got away with this,” he calls back, without turning. “I’ll have my revenge.”
“We have no doubt of that,” Athene calls after him.
“Or no doubt you’ll try,” Mercy murmurs. “Which will keep you out of trouble for a little while.”
Athene turns to her sister, giving her an affectionate smile, and Mercy hugs her, and they stay there, holding each other as their father walks away.
* * *
Rosa is alive. Zeus makes no effort to stop Mercy from getting to her. As Athene says, he won’t embarrass himself further. He’s gone to lick his wounds and then he’ll bounce back as if nothing happened, as if he decided he didn’t really want to get married after all. Not yet, at least. Maybe someday. To the right woman. Yep, he’s just going to sit on that for a bit.
Theodora frees Leon, who was being held by her parents as “insurance” against her backing out the marriage. After nearly being thrown in the ocean by their son-in-law-to-be, they’ve decided they’d like Theodora to find herself a new groom. Is Aiden Connolly still available?
Yes, so it seems poor Connolly wasn’t the O’Tooles’ first choice. Oh, I’m sure he had been, until the all-mighty Zeus threw his hat in the ring. Then with Athene and Mercy dogging Zeus’s heels, Zeus had to cook up a diversion. The O’Tooles’ former groom-of-choice is sneaking around with Mercy’s new protege? That gives him an idea.
As we suspected, there’d been two sets of the paintings. The woman who commissioned them knew Athene would eventually chase down and destroy the one set. Then, if Athene heard stories of them after that, she’d dismiss them as mere rumors. After all, she’d destroyed them herself.
It seems that Zeus knew there were duplicates, and he knew who had them. When he needed a distraction for Mercy and Athene—and he knew Mercy had Dionysus paint Crying Girl for my test—the answer became obvious. Get that duplicate set and use them to keep Athene and Mercy busy while he sealed the deal for Theodora’s hand in marriage.
Was it all just a bit too over-the-top? Unnecessarily complicated and elaborate? Absolutely, because Zeus wasn’t just distracting his daughters while buying a bride. He was having fun. Unleashing deadly paintings on morals? Kidnapping his daughter’s girlfriend? Using a corpse to make his daughter think her girlfriend was dead? So much fun. Or it is if you’re a narcissistic monster, the kind of parent who torments his own children and then insists he was just kidding around.
Mercy has three of the four paintings. We aren’t too worried about the first one—I uncursed it, and wherever it is, it’s harmless. She’ll destroy the others. Afterward, she’ll spend some quality time with Rosa, and then she’ll get in touch and my training will begin. At least one good thing came of this whole mess—I’ve proven my worth, and there will be no more tests, just lessons and mentorship.
Connolly and I are back in Unstable. Temporarily. The hotel is booked for tonight, and he’s promised a five-course meal in bed. I’m not quite sure what constitutes a five-course meal—multiple desserts, I’m hoping—but I’m not going to argue.
First, though, I want to explain everything to my sisters in person. I also need to check on my shop. I’d closed early for a “personal emergency” yesterday, and Hope hadn’t been able to open until this afternoon, having work of her own in the morning. I feel terrible having the shop closed that long. Connolly understands that I need to touch base—with my sisters and my shop—before I can truly relax, and if that involves a round-trip to Unstable, so be it. I kinda love him for that.
I kinda love him for a lot of things, and I’m pretty sure there’s no “kinda” about it. I’ll put a pin in that. My curse means we’ll never rush things, and that’s good. We have time to do this right, and I’m going to do that.
I manage to get to the shop just before closing. As much as I wanted to go home, I left the yacht soaking wet and wearing yesterday’s clothes. Connolly’s place was on the way, so we stopped in and set my clothes on a quick wash cycle. We may also have found other things to do while we were waiting, because even a “quick wash cycle” takes a while, and Connolly is nothing if not efficient in his use of time.
It’s Thursday night, and the shop closes at seven, earlier than it will on the weekend. We walk in at 6:45 with a special delivery for Hope—her favorite Boston sushi. Yes, Boston is not exactly known for its sushi, but compared to what you can get in Unstable, it’s phenomenal.
I’m walking in when I see the mirror. It’s uncursed now, but for a split second, I freeze, terrified of not seeing my reflection. Earlier, I thought that meant I was afraid of fading from the lives of others. Now I realize it’s that, but more, too. I struggle to see myself clearly. I’m constantly comparing myself to others—Ani, Hope, Connolly, Theodora—and feeling small and invisible. Feeling “not enough.” That was my biggest flaw, reflected back at me. Feeling invisible compared to others. I need to work on that, and I will.
I push that aside and continue in before Connolly notices my pause. Then I stop again and stare . . . as a half-dozen pairs of eyes stare back at me. Seven, if you count the black cat poised, gargoyle-like, among the dolls.