Chapter Ten
After several nights of no dreams, her dreams about weather returned. Most of the elements were the same. She was still being chased by a tornado from one side and snakes from the other. This time, she actually found a storm cellar for her to take cover in, but as she ran down the steps, she saw the little girl already inside.
“What took you so long?” she asked with narrowed eyes. She seemed to be disgruntled.
“I didn’t know what I was looking for,” she said, talking about the shelter, but feeling happy she was already safe inside.
She walked over to her. “It’s been right in front of you the whole time,” she said as she reached out with her index finger extended and touched the middle of her forehead.
For an instant, she felt as if she knew the answers to everything like she did the last time she’d touched her forehead. She gasped in her dream and then woke up with a gasp, sitting straight up in her bed, clutching her blanket at her chest. But she couldn’t remember the revelation at the end.
As she sat in wonder, she considered the fact that if her mom was communicating with her through her dreams, then maybe this girl could give her the answers. She wondered if she could subconsciously make herself ask the girl questions the next time she dreamed about her.
Thunder crashed outside, jerking her out of her thoughts. She looked over at her window and saw the dark clouds hovering in the sky. She got up and walked over to the window. Water was everywhere. It must have rained all night. She guessed her theory about River’s mom manipulating the weather was true. She was on the schedule to work today. After all, there were no coincidences.
She got dressed and headed to work. During the ride in, she hydroplaned in several places. She was so tense when she finally got there that she stayed in her car, taking deep breaths. The weather itself never bothered her, but she hated feeling like she was going to skid off the road.
She wrenched her hands out of the death grip she had on her steering wheel and made a run for the front door. Yale was inside mopping up water, and River was up on a ladder taking down waterlogged ceiling tiles. Apparently, the roof had leaked from all the rain. She felt a little smug that Ms. Gorgos’s store suffered from the consequences of her actions.
She went to the supply closet and retrieved another mop to help Yale.
“How bad is the damage?” she asked River with her head down, focused on the floor.
“We’re not sure. I’m not going to put in new tiles until the leak is fixed, though. Mom left right after she got here. She’s going to get the handyman. Since it’s Sunday, he’s not in his office.”
“I take it she’s not in the best of moods,” she commented as she glanced up at him.
River stared down at her with a wistful expression. She could see that he wanted to apologize, but he couldn’t. Not with Yale around. Besides, he seemed to be a stickler about the no-talking-at-work-about-Greek-stuff rule, so maybe he wouldn’t voice anything anyway.
He straightened his face before he spoke. “No. She’s not.”
She nodded and went back to watching the floor as she mopped.
“Legacy?” River asked as he stepped down the ladder.
She looked at him. “Yes?”
“Will you come with me to the basement? I need to see if it’s flooded or if there is any water damage.” Then he turned to Yale. “Yale, stay up here and get ready for the store to open. Turn on the sign in five minutes.”
Legacy took Yale’s mop from her and put both of them back in the closet. Then she followed River down into the basement.
He turned to look at her.
“We’re not checking on flood damage, are we?” she asked.
“No. I already checked down here before Yale arrived,” he said quickly.
“Then what are we doing?”
“I need to talk to you.”
“You said we couldn’t talk about things here anymore.”
“I don’t have a choice.” He paused. “Are you okay?”
“Yeah, why?”
“Because I know you’re aware of the weather connection to my mom. I’m just really sorry,” he said, stepping closer to her.
She stepped back, shrugging, and realized she was now up against a wall. He took another causal step in her direction. They were now uncomfortably close—though, she was the only one who was uncomfortable.
“It’s not your fault,” she said, looking away from him.
“It is partly my fault,” he said, looking over at her and forcing her to meet his gaze. “I know my mom has some vendetta against your mom and, more recently, her negative feelings against you have intensified. I know I’m the reason for that,” he whispered.
“Don’t worry about it.”
He sighed and almost smiled. “I don’t have a choice. I have to worry about it because I worry about you.”
“River,” she breathed, and shook her head. She didn’t know what to say. She didn’t want to hurt his feelings, but she didn’t want to give him the wrong impression either.
“Don’t,” he started, and raised his hand as if he were going to touch her lips to keep her from talking. Then he stopped himself and put his hand back down. “I understand how you feel. I don’t want to put you in a position where you can’t stand to be around me. Even if we’re not meant to be together now.”
“Stop,” she whispered. “I don’t want to think about that.” She stepped to the side so she could walk away from the wall. He turned to watch her. “I really do appreciate your honesty, but I’m with Adin.” She looked into River’s eyes. “I want to be with Adin.”
“I know,” he whispered, and looked down.
Ugh. Why was this happening? “Look,” she said softly, walking back toward River, “I do like you…as a friend. My life changed a few weeks ago, and I feel like you’re someone I can really talk to about…about things that I can’t talk to about with other people.”
He smiled, but it looked pained.
“I don’t want you to be sad about how things are with you and me. I like our friendship, but if you can’t handle keeping our relationship as it is, then maybe we shouldn’t—”
“No!” River said panicked. “Don’t say that. I…um…you’re right. We can keep things strictly on a friendly level. Just don’t say you don’t want to be friends with me. I get that you want to be with Adin, but I couldn’t bear the thought of you not being in my life at all. Friends, I can do.”
“Friends,” she emphasized.
“Friends,” he agreed.
She waited a moment to let that sink in. She wanted to be sure he was clear on how she felt about him before they went on. “Can I ask you something?” she asked after several seconds had passed. She’d been wanting to pick his brain since the other night, but hadn’t had a moment alone to call him.
“Anything,” he whispered. And she was absolutely sure he meant that.
“I had another dream last night about weather. Since Lissa said my mom would be contacting me—but she didn’t know when or how—I think that maybe these dreams are my mom’s doing. What do you think?”
“Hmmm…I’m not entirely sure the dreams are coming from your mom.”
“Why not?”
“I think it’s more likely that it’s your own subconscious trying to work things out.” That wasn’t the first time she’d considered this alternative.
“But I’ve received some signs in the dreams that I couldn’t have given to myself.”
“Are you sure about that?” He was actually curious, but that made her think of the reasons she’d considered when she tried to explain to herself why those images—Adin’s house, the store’s street address—came to her. She’d thought that maybe she’d seen them before but never really noticed.
“I’m not sure about anything,” she confessed.
“Well, I guess it’s good you’re trying to consider all the possibilities.”
She gasped. “Do you think it could be your mom’s doing??
?? She hadn’t even thought about that until now!
“No,” he said calmly. “She can’t get into your dreams. We’re not descended from Hypnos’s line.”
“Who’s Hypnos?”
“The god of sleep. He had four sons with Pasithea: Ikelos, Morpheus, Phobetor, and Phantasos. Their sons were known as the Oneiroi. But Morpheus is the Greek god of dreams. If one of the gods is involved in manipulating your dreams, I would think that either Morpheus himself or one of his descendents who retained some power over dreams would be the one behind that. We’re not part of that lineage, so I know my mom can’t do that.”
He spoke so freely about his Greek mythology knowledge. She immediately found herself wanting to get more out of him while they had the opportunity.
She stepped quickly over to him and grabbed his arm. “You have to tell me more.”
River was startled, but willing. “Um, what do you want to know? There’s so much.”
“Who did you descend from? Did you ever live here before? Do you know why it’s been prophesied that we’ll be together?” She tried not to squirm when she asked the last question.
“I came from the line that started with Phorcys and Ceto. They were sea gods who were both created from Gaia, a goddess of nature. They had some monster offspring that paired themselves with more noble mates to produce a better line. But since the monster genes are in my family’s gene pool, sometimes new gods can be more monster than noble.” He paused and looked down. “Even those of us who are not monsters tend to have evil tendencies.”
“What does that mean?”
“Well, let’s just say my mother’s behavior comes naturally.”
“What about the rest? Have you ever lived here before?” She didn’t want to repeat the other question.
“Yes. Well, not in this town. We lived about ten miles out of town when I was a baby.”
“So your family is why my mom left?” She tried not to shriek, but she wasn’t successful.
She still had her hand wrapped firmly around River’s arm. He took a deep breath and exhaled slowly. “I don’t know for sure, but yes, I think my family was partly to blame. It’s not like my mom gives me a play-by-play of her actions, and I could never ask her about what happened back then. Especially not now.”
She dropped his arm and folded hers over her chest. “And the prophecy?”
“I don’t know anything else about that. Like I said before, I just found out about it a few weeks ago. I already told you everything I know about that,” he whispered.
“What else?”
“What?” he asked puzzled.
“What else don’t I know that you know that I should know?” She wondered if her convoluted question made sense to him, but it was obvious that it did.
“Umm,” he started, shrugging his shoulders. “I’m sure you’re most curious about your family, but I’m not sure about anything on that. After I found out about the prophecy, I tried to do some research. I haven’t really come up with anything yet.” But it was obvious he wasn’t being completely forthcoming.
“You know something?” she accused.
“I only know pieces. I haven’t connected all the pieces yet, so I can’t really say what I do know. Believe me, if I did, I would tell you. You know I can’t deny you anything.”
“Please just tell me,” she said as she touched his shoulder. She knew it wasn’t fair to persuade him this way, but at this point, she didn’t care. “What about my name?”
He stared at her cautiously. She apparently hit a topic he’d already considered.
“Lissa told me Kore is another name for Persephone. And Persephone is Demeter and Zeus’s daughter. I also know that Dora is descended from Demeter, either directly of her likeness or generational. But there is no continuation of the line that I can find. Persephone only had one daughter and the line ended. At least in my online research.”
“Why are you concerned with the gods’ children?”
“Um, because I’m trying to find exactly who I am.”
“You’re Legacy. Dora’s daughter. That’s who you are.”
“But why am I like this?”
He smiled. “Ahh, now you’re thinking the way you should.”
“What do you mean?”
“You know gods can create a likeness from themselves with other gods. Demeter could have created Dora directly from herself, and then Dora could’ve created you. The question is why do this? Why create gods in the likeness of others? That’s what I’ve been digging into. You see, Dora could have created you with Zeus and it not be a sexual creation. They could have tried to recreate a god that was created before.”
“Why would they want to create a specific god when they already have that exact one?”
“To allow for a different destiny.”
“So if Demeter created Dora and Dora created me, then does that mean I’m an exact replica of Persephone?”
“That’s one theory. Another theory is that Dora is actually Demeter and you’re actually Persephone, or her likeness created by the original Demeter.”
“What?” she yelled. “I can’t actually be Persephone, I’m only seventeen!”
“You’re in your human form now, and gods don’t age the way you’re accustomed to. But looking at it from that perspective, you could be much older. I could be much older.”
“This doesn’t make any sense.” She shook her head. “If they were already gods, why start over? If every new god must go through changes starting in their seventeenth year of rebirth, why agree to lose that power in the first place, much less run the risk of never attaining it again?”
“To create a new destiny.” River said that once, but she was on information overload. “Whether your mom is actually Demeter or created from her and whether you were created from the original Demeter or from her creation, it really doesn’t matter. It matters why you’re here now, and me, for that matter. The only thing we need to really focus on is making it to our eighteenth birthdays. If we are original gods or new creations, that doesn’t matter now. We’ll be powerful if we make it through.”
“What are your thoughts on why I was created? I know you have to have some theories.” She couldn’t process anything to come to a conclusion herself.
“I think you were created in the likeness of Persephone, or are her. Either way, your life is like Persephone. I think you were created—”
“To stop the abduction,” she interrupted. Legacy felt the blood fall from her face.
“Yes. Demeter was devastated when Persephone was abducted and that abduction changed the course of her life. She was forced to be with Hades and live part of her life in the underworld. I’m sure she made peace with her course, but Demeter wanted better for her. I think you’re the attempt at the better life. The better destiny.”
“Where do you fit in with all this?” she asked softly.
River shook his head and looked down. “I’m not really sure. I think I was created in the likeness of one of the many gods that originally pursued Persephone before she was abducted,” he whispered.
“Because that god wanted a second chance with Persephone?”
He looked up at her with soft eyes. “Because he wanted a real chance with Persephone. What Hades did to her…that threw us all off course. I’m not saying what’s going to happen now is what the right course was to begin with. Maybe what happened to Persephone with Hades would have always happened. Maybe that was the right destiny then. But since gods can create offspring in their likeness, I can only assume one destiny isn’t always enough for them—for us.”
“But the new gods created aren’t always just like the original gods.” She remembered from what he’d told her before.
“Right, most gods do not know if a new god will have the pure abilities of the original god or if the new god will have a combination of muted powers. It helps to level out the playing field in one respect because it’s proof that the new god isn’t going to be a clone and repeat the same life as t
he original god. They may be created in their likeness, but they are their own entities. They don’t have to make the same mistakes they did. But that leaves us to make new ones.”
“So if my mother left me with Lissa because she was worried about me being abducted like Persephone, then she could have done that to keep me safe from Hades.”
River’s eyes turned cold. “Yes,” he said through gritted teeth. He’d obviously considered this possibility. “Speaking of Lissa, I have one more thing to tell you. Because of Demeter’s association with Zeus, she had ladies-in-waiting, priestesses, if you will. They were responsible for taking care of Demeter’s needs. Whatever she needed, no matter what, they always took care of her. ‘Melissae’ was the title given to these women. Since your guardian goes by Lissa, I think it’s safe to say she works for your mother.”
She shook her head and felt tears glistening in her eyes. Lissa was never really her mother’s friend?
River put his arms around her and hugged her gently. “I’m sorry this is so hard for you,” he whispered.
She stepped away, but was still dazed.
“Legacy, please…please don’t tell anyone this information came from me.”
“Why?” she asked, staring past him to the opposite wall.
“Because of my lineage. People who know about us don’t trust my family. If they know you found out through me, they’ll try to discredit the information.”
She nodded and dabbed the tears from eyes before they could spill over. Then she looked at River. “Thank you for telling me all this. It really does mean a lot to me.”
“Whatever you need, whenever you need it, I will always be here for you.”
“So, now, do we go back to not talking about this here?”
River scrubbed his face with his palms and looked at her again. “I’d prefer that, but your needs are too important to me. At this point, I don’t really care what my mother thinks about us, but I do care what she thinks about you. Your safety is my main concern. If she knows we’re talking about this, she’d freak out. But if you need to talk to me,” he said, shaking his head, “then I’m going to talk to you. If you need me, then I’m going to be here for you, no matter what. I may not have all the answers, but I’ll give you whatever I have…always,” he whispered.
She nodded. She appreciated River for helping her and was beginning to feel like he was a true friend, though she didn’t like to think of the bond he mentioned. As long as they stayed just friends, then she could live with that. As she thought about that, she realized his friendship could be something great. He worried for her safety, answered her questions, and wanted to be here for her. As long as he didn’t expect anything romantic, then she was all for his friendship, knowing he had the potential to be very special to her.
“So what do we do now?”
He looked down and reached for her hand. “We live our lives the way we want to.”
And she knew as he said those words that she could definitely do that.