Fortunately, my twin would never allow me to have any spotlight for more than a few seconds at most. No sooner have I given way to complete paranoia than Lucy comes spinning past, her hand held by a blond adonis of a god who looks at her with great hunger. Her tinkling laugh sounds to my sensitive ears like a drawer of cutlery being dropped. It grates, as does she.
I cannot believe what just happened to me. What I did. What I allowed to be done to me. What is happening? Is this what gods do to goddesses? Will I ever see him again?
I flee the party, grab a handful of shrimp from the buffet, and head back up to the balcony where Helios remains, casting his glow over the gathering.
“Hello, sweetheart,” he says. “Enjoying the party?”
He asks the question quite genuinely, and I breathe a sigh of relief. I don’t think he has the faintest idea what I’ve been up to. If he had, he wouldn’t have that easy, relaxed smile on his face. Helios is always happy, always above everything. He has ignored an arguably bigger scandal this evening already. He’s not going to acknowledge that Lucy just flashed the entire gathering, that her naked body is going to be the talk of all Okeanus more or less forever.
“It’s amazing,” I say, knowing that’s what he wants to hear. “There are a lot of gods here.”
“Oh, yes. A great many.”
“Some of them don’t seem very respectful.”
“Well,” he says. “You tell me which ones and I will deal with them.”
I shrug and take another bite of shrimp. I don’t really want another scene. I definitely don’t want him to find out what happened to me. I just want the party to be over. I want to retreat to the quiet of my bed and I want to dream of a god with dark eyes and a hard hand.
“Where is Lucy?”
The question, following so many previous mentions of her name, doesn’t register at first. I have been nursing a drink for hours, sitting on a window seat at the top of the palace, out of the fray. But the question is repeated, with more urgency over and over until even I find myself sort of caring.
The center of attention has disappeared, and nobody knows what to do about it.
Over a period of an hour or so, the question turns from one of mild curiosity to one of near panic. The party is brought to an end. The music stops. The gods are questioned, each offering a different theory.
“I thought I saw her with a minotaur.”
“I thought I saw her with an angel.”
“I thought I saw her running through the fields to the water, the moonlight playing off her nude body…”
“Enough,” Ragnar snarls. “She was dancing before our eyes. A moment later, she was gone. I think she was taken.”
“Taken!?” our mother gasps.
“She has not been taken,” Helios says. “This is a safe place. Nobody would dare to take a princess from her father’s castle.”
“In every story I’ve ever read, that’s almost exactly what the antagonist does. Taking her from your castle really ramps up the drama,” I offer helpfully.
“We don’t need your commentary, Raine,” Helios says. “Sass won’t help find Lucy.”
Nothing will help find Lucy, as it turns out. She’s gone. Very, very gone. And so is somebody else.
Looking over the crowd, I notice that the god who spanked me is notably absent from the questioning. He seems like the sort of creature to stand out, even among this crowd of misfits and uber powerful beings. His absence is like a bell which tolled and suddenly stopped.
“Where’s Tanuk?”
Helios turns his gaze on me, his eyes lit with sudden fire. “Did you say Tanuk?”
“I think that was his name?”
“Tanuk was not invited.”
“What’s the problem with Tanuk?” Ragnar asks. My mother chimes in with another version of the same question. Unlike Helios, they seem not to have any problem with him. I am sure that would change if I told them what had happened between us, but I don't intend on doing that.
“Nothing,” Helios says a little too quickly. “Raine, we don’t have a moment to spare. We need to start the search for Lucy. Come with me and help harness the horses.”
I have never helped harness the horses in my life, but it is obvious that Helios can’t drag me out of there fast enough. My feet literally don’t touch the floor as Helios yanks me out of time and space.
In the moments before we disappear, I see my mother go to Ragnar. "What's happening?" she sobs the question against my father’s chest.
“We will find her,” he vows.
I love both of them, but sometimes they are dense. I know it’s a cliche to think that one's parents are stupid. My mother has told me that many times, when I told her while I was growing up that she was stupid, but still, they’re being very stupid right now. If she stopped panicking about the no-doubt temporary loss of her literal golden child and thought about it for a moment, it would be obvious what I've just implied. Tanuk has taken Lucy. He’s probably thrashing her somewhere in a forest this very moment.
The idea makes me simultaneously smug, and jealous, which is a strange combination of things to feel. The more I think about it though, the less I can imagine Lucy earning his discipline. She’s not the contrary type. She is sweet and she likes to please. Everybody loves Lucy, and Lucy loves everybody.
If he has taken her, she probably hasn’t even worked out she’s been taken as a captive. Tanuk strikes me as the sort of god capable of charming Lucy out of her mind. She has never been the suspicious kind. And he was handsome. He had a dark mystery about him, an intensity which would have swept her off her feet once he amped up the charm.
Jealousy is sweeping through me again. Did Lucy steal the first man to ever touch me? Or did he steal her?
“So, what is the deal with Tanuk?” I ask the question when we reappear in front of the stables. The horses are sleeping, wings folded tightly against their sides, one standing up while the other horse is lying down.
“Let’s not say that name again,” Helios says, all hush hush. Helios is not good at being subtle. He's more a light-up-the-sky sort of guy. I’m more of a sneak-around-in-the-dark-barely-noticed-by-anyone-even-when-I-want-to-be sort of girl.
“What’s going on?” I ask the question again anyway. “Who is he?”
“He is…” Helios hesitates. “He is a very bad god, Raine.”
“Tanuk has taken Lucy, hasn’t he.”
Helios lets out a sigh. “You are too smart for your own good, Raine. I don’t know where you got that from. Your father basically stands in front of a tree for a living.”
“My mother isn’t stupid.”
“True.” He grabs the golden harness and fiddles with the reins pointlessly.
“Tell me who Tanuk is.”
“He is a liar, and a trickster. He is everything that is wrong with gods. There is not a trace of honor anywhere in his body….” I can see the tension in Helios’ face, and hear it in his voice.
I did not see Tanuk as a villain. He seemed arrogant and dominant, and far too familiar with me, but he didn’t seem evil.
“Tanuk’s island is not that far from here. It has been crafted in the shape of a leaf. I will fly there, retrieve your sister, and you will keep this a secret, won’t you, Raine.”