Emily finally started to relax and looked over to Cupid. He had been silent since they landed and was standing away from the group. She left the fire and approached him. She saw the deep scratches all over his body.
Cupid was looking at the tatters of his tunic and shaking his head. ‘I do not understand,’ he said in a hushed whisper. ‘Women used to worship me. They were shy and needed coaxing. But tonight those girls were mad. They were ripping at me. They pulled out my hair, my feathers and tore my tunic. It was as though they were all trying to steal a piece of me.’
‘Welcome to the new world,’ Emily said quietly. ‘We told you this isn’t the same place you used to visit. We’ve changed. You were like a rock star up there. Those girls wanted you.’
‘They wanted to kill me.’
Emily shook her head. ‘No, not kill you. Just to touch you and perhaps have something to remember you by.’
Cupid opened his wings and showed Emily the heavy damage done by the hysterical girls. She could see large holes where flight feathers used to be. ‘I can barely fly,’ he commented. ‘It will take ages for all these to grow back.’
‘Maybe not,’ Emily said. She reached out and stroked his colourful wings, enjoying the softness of the feathers. Wherever she touched missing feathers, shafts sprouted and started to grow. Before long, the shafts split open and new feathers emerged.
From his wings, Emily moved to his back. She lightly traced her fingers along the deep gouges and watched them start to heal. As she worked, she looked in fascination at where Cupid’s powerful wings joined his back. They seemed to be part of his shoulder blades, but were able to move independent of his arms. Heavy muscles surrounded the area and gave him strength in flight. She wondered how he was able to sleep with the large, bulky wings or if he could even lie on his back. But she was too shy to ask and figured he must only sleep on his side.
Finally Emily moved to his front and healed the deep scratches on his face and chest. When she finished, she felt her own face flush. In the flickering firelight, Cupid was more painfully beautiful than she could ever imagine.
Cupid inspected his newly healed wings. He stroked the new feathers in wonder. ‘I had heard that you could heal Olympians,’ he said in awe, ‘but I did not believe it. Thank you, Flame.’
‘How many times must I tell you, her name is Emily,’ Paelen protested loudly as he charged over. He looked angrily at Emily. ‘You should have left him as he was. It might have given him some humility!’
‘But he was hurt,’ Emily said.
‘He brought it on himself,’ Paelen challenged. He poked furiously at Cupid. ‘I know what you did in the tent. You exposed too much of yourself and put Emily in danger. Do you realize what might have happened if there were more CRU people there? She would be in their facility right now being tortured!’
Cupid dropped his head in shame. ‘I am sorry, Emily. I was not thinking.’
‘No you were not,’ Paelen continued. ‘Now the CRU know we are here.’
‘All right,’ Joel said quickly, ‘that’s enough. We don’t need any fights in here. We’ve got enough problems already. What was Agent O doing there anyway? Did you see Agent J?’
Emily shook her head. ‘He told me Agent J was dead. You should have seen him, he was so angry. He blamed Pegasus and me for ruining his life and said he was transferred up here because of us. But now that we’re back, when he catches us, he’s going to be promoted and move back to New York.’
‘It seems too convenient for me,’ Joel argued, ‘that he should be there the very same night we arrive.’
‘Perhaps they have been waiting for us,’ Paelen offered. ‘Perhaps they have been using Emily’s father as bait in a trap, knowing that she would eventually come for him. Perhaps there are agents posted everywhere around here.’
‘Then what do we do?’ Emily asked. She started to pace the area. ‘We are so close. We just can’t leave him here.’
‘We fight,’ Paelen said simply. ‘We are much stronger than these humans. Emily, you have your own powers. No one can stand against you.’
Emily shook her head. ‘No way! I don’t have any control. You didn’t see what I did to Agent O. I might have killed him.’
‘I wish you had,’ Joel said darkly, ‘After what they did to us on Governors.’
‘What did they do to you?’ Emily asked. ‘Why don’t you ever talk about it?’
‘I just can’t,’ Joel said angrily. He turned away and dropped his head. ‘I still see them in my nightmares. I hear myself screaming and begging them to stop. I remember the pain …’
Emily wrapped her arms around Joel and held him tight. She could feel him trembling. Emily had suffered under Agent J at Governors. But she knew that both Joel and Paelen had been through much worse. They had both been tortured for information. ‘I’m so sorry, Joel.’
Joel sniffed and looked down into Emily’s face. ‘Em, face the facts. Whether you want to or not, you are going to have to use your powers to free your father.’
‘I know,’ she answered in a hushed whisper. ‘But I’m so scared. What if it gets out of control again? What if I hurt you or even kill my dad? I couldn’t live with myself if that happened.’
Pegasus came closer and rested his head on her shoulder. Paelen and Cupid also moved forward. ‘We will not let it happen,’ Paelen said. ‘Emily, we will all be right with you. You are not alone. We will work together. And together, we will free your father.’
6
Emily had a restless night. Her sleep was disturbed by terrible, haunted nightmares. There were the terrors of losing control of her powers and setting the whole world on fire. In one dream, she witnessed her father and Joel bursting into flame as she stood back unable to stop the fire. In another, she was locked away in an underground laboratory as Agent O and his doctors poked, prodded and experimented on her, trying to find the source of her powers.
Many times she awoke, gasping for air and filled with terror that she would never learn to control the fire beast that had been awakened within. That eventually, it would consume everyone she cared for, leaving her alone in her misery.
The next morning, Emily awoke beside Pegasus. The stallion was lying on the floor next to her with his wing draped over her to keep her warm. She had slept, but not rested. She felt tired and on the verge of tears.
‘Morning, Pegasus.’ She patted the stallion’s wing.
Pegasus reached forward and licked her cheek. She could see concern in his eyes.
‘I’m fine, really,’ she said. ‘I just had a bad night.’
‘You sure did,’ Joel agreed. He handed down a plastic cup filled with orange juice. ‘You were crying and moaning. Those were some pretty bad nightmares. Do you want to talk about them?’
Emily shook her head. ‘Not really.’
‘Then drink your juice. That should wake you up.’
Emily sat up and looked around in confusion. The fire on the stove was stoked and burning brightly. There were bags of shopping on the floor. But the biggest shock was seeing Paelen and Cupid sharing a box of glazed doughnuts and dressed like normal teenagers. Paelen was in jeans and a checked lumberjack shirt, while Cupid was wearing an oversized college sweatshirt. The lower parts of his wings were tucked into his baggy, loose-fit jeans, while the upper parts were covered by his top. From the front, he looked like an ordinary seventeen-year-old. But when he turned, Emily saw the large, thick lump on his back. He looked a bit like a hunchback. But unless you knew the truth, no one would ever suspect the lump was actually wings.
She stood up and walked over to the bags of shopping. ‘What’s been going on?’
‘You weren’t the only one having a bad night,’ Joel answered, ‘so Paelen and I left before dawn to go check out the CRU facility. On the way back, we found a twenty-four-hour superstore on the other side of town and used the prize money to do some shopping. We got you some clothes as well.’
Paelen handed her a shopping bag. ‘I hope the sizes
are correct.’ He looked down at his own outfit and grinned. ‘So what do you think? Do I look like a human?’
Emily was almost too stunned to speak. She smiled gently at Paelen’s eagerness to blend in. ‘Paelen, you look wonderful.’ Her eyes trailed over to Cupid again, ‘You both do.’
Cupid fidgeted uncomfortably. ‘I understand why I must wear this disguise, but it is not comfortable for me. I can not sit down properly without hurting my wings.’
‘If you do not like it, you could always fly back to Olympus,’ Paelen offered. ‘No one asked you to come here.’
Cupid shook his head. ‘I said I wanted to help and I will.’
‘No, what you wanted was to get away from the Nirads,’ Paelen accused. ‘You followed us here to escape them in Olympus, not because you wanted to help us free Emily’s father.’
‘All right,’ Emily said, stopping the fight before it got started. ‘That’s enough.’ She looked at Joel. ‘Why did you go to the CRU facility without me?’
‘Please don’t be angry,’ he explained. ‘But it was still dark when we left. We couldn’t risk going in daylight, especially now that the CRU know you and Pegasus are back. They don’t know about Paelen and me. We figured they’d be expecting you both to show up, not us.’
Emily sighed, realizing he was right. ‘What did you see there?’
‘Not a lot,’ Joel answered. ‘It’s deep in the forest, surrounded by dense trees. It’s probably like Governors Island. Most of the facility is underground. There’s only one small building above ground. The rest is a large parking area and guardhouse. There’s a single road going in and a tall electric fence surrounding the whole property. We saw cameras everywhere. Some were pointing down, but most were patrolling the sky. So it looks like they are expecting us to fly in.’
Paelen took over speaking. ‘I asked the sandals to take me to your father, but they could not find a hidden way in. I believe the CRU may have discovered what I can do. They have sealed all the small entrances. There is only one entrance and it is heavily guarded.’
‘With soldiers carrying big guns,’ Joel added. He dropped his voice. ‘Em, I’m so sorry. I don’t think we can get to your dad. Not without help.’
‘But Jupiter won’t help us,’ Emily said desperately, ‘especially now that the Nirads are back. He doesn’t care about my dad or the CRU. It’s got to be us who frees him.’
‘How?’ Joel asked. ‘Em, they’ve got guns! None of us are bulletproof, even if you are the Flame of Olympus.’
‘We’ve got to think,’ Emily said softly as she started to pace. ‘We can’t go charging in there. They’ll stop us before we get anywhere. What we need is a plan.’
They ate breakfast as they bounced different ideas around. It was finally Pegasus who offered the best possible solution in suggesting they capture a couple of CRU agents and force information out of them to help in the rescue.
‘How?’ Emily asked. ‘We can’t just go to the facility and grab a couple of agents. We’ll get captured!’
‘What else is there?’ Paelen asked.
Joel grinned. ‘I know. We go back to the festival. I bet there are still CRU agents pouring through the place looking for traces of us. What if we go see, and if they’re still there, we’ll grab a couple of their guys? We bring them back here and make them tell us where they’re keeping your dad. Then we take their ID badges and clothing and drive right into the facility like we belong there.’
Emily shook her head. ‘One problem. We can’t drive.’
‘Joel can,’ Paelen offered. ‘He was driving this morning when we stole a car and bought all this food.’
Emily frowned at Joel. ‘You did what this morning?’
‘We stole a car,’ Joel said guiltily. ‘But we had to. The sun was coming up and we couldn’t risk being seen flying. Besides, we had all this food to carry.’
‘How could you know what to do?’
‘Em,’ Joel said finally, ‘before we met, I was living in this awful foster home. I used to get very angry and frustrated. So I’d go out at night and steal a car and go driving around the city for a few hours until I wasn’t angry any more. That’s how I got my criminal record.’
‘So you’re a car thief?’ Emily said in shock.
‘Not really,’ Joel said. ‘I wouldn’t steal them to sell or strip for parts. I’d just drive them for a while and then return them when I was done.’
Emily was almost too stunned to speak. ‘Joel, are you telling me that right now, right here, outside of where we are hiding from the CRU, you’ve got a stolen car?’
Joel nodded. ‘We don’t have a lot of time before Jupiter and the others come looking for us. We need to get your father out of there. We can’t wait until night to go out. How else are we going to get around in daylight? We certainly can’t fly. We need a car. Besides, we got it from a used car lot, so it’s not like we’re hurting anyone.’
Emily looked from face to face and realized Joel was right. There was no other way for them to travel around the area. But with a car, how were they supposed to travel with Pegasus? They needed a horse caravan. When she voiced her concerns, Pegasus reached over and gave her a gentle nudge.
‘Pegasus can’t go out in daylight,’ Paelen said, ‘it is too dangerous for all of us if he is seen. He has asked you to stay here with him while Joel, Cupid and I take the car and capture the CRU men.’
‘I can’t stay here while you guys risk your lives,’ Emily protested. ‘Besides, I can help.’
Paelen rested his hands on her shoulders. ‘Emily, Pegasus will go wherever you go. If you insist on coming with us, he will not stay here. He will follow you.’
Emily looked into the stallion’s big brown eyes. Paelen was right. Pegasus would follow if she tried to go without him, and to do that, he would endanger himself. She stroked his soft muzzle. ‘All right, Pegs,’ she said softly. ‘We’ll both stay.’
‘And I shall stay with you,’ Cupid volunteered.
‘Oh no, you will not,’ Paelen said angrily. ‘I do not trust you. You claim you are not a coward and followed us here to help. But you only want to stay with Emily so she can protect you from the Nirads.’
‘You are wrong,’ Cupid protested. ‘I will protect her should anyone come here. Besides, even dressed as I am, I do not look human. I will be a burden.’
‘Pegasus is here for Emily,’ Joel said. ‘And you won’t be a burden. Cupid, we need your help. I may be much bigger than you are but you’re so much stronger than I am. If you really want to help, this is how you can do it.’
‘Pegasus and I are safe here,’ Emily added. ‘Joel and Paelen need you more than I.’
Emily saw fear rising in Cupid’s eyes. He had heard about the CRU and what they had done to Pegasus, Diana and Paelen. She realized Paelen was right: deep down, Cupid was frightened.
‘But there may be more screaming girls.’
‘They’ll be long gone,’ Joel said. ‘We’ll just go back to the festival, grab a couple of CRU agents and come right back here. You’ll see, it will be easy.’
7
After breakfast, Paelen, Joel and Cupid left Emily and Pegasus at the Red Apple.
Joel drove their stolen car out of the parking lot. Paelen sat in the front seat beside him while Cupid was stretched out in the back seat complaining constantly about having to lie on his wings and all the damage he was doing to the feathers. His fidgeting was starting to drive Paelen crazy.
‘If you do not be quiet,’ Paelen warned as he turned to the back, ‘I will pluck out all your feathers myself. Then you will not have anything to complain about!’
‘I do not see why you are so angry,’ Cupid said. ‘You are not the one with your wings stuffed down your trousers. You are still wearing Mercury’s sandals and can fly anytime you wish, whereas I am burdened with this uncomfortable clothing.’
‘And I’m burdened with the two of you,’ Joel shot. ‘Gees, you’re like two spoiled children! Shut up so I can concentrate o
n driving and not getting us caught in this stolen car. Cupid, lie on your stomach and keep quiet.’
‘Of all the indignities …’ Cupid complained as he turned and settled on his stomach.
‘How far is it to the festival by ground?’ Paelen asked, looking forward again. They were entering a town with a main street and buildings and homes on either side. As it was still early in the morning, people were out and rushing to get to work.
‘A few kilometres,’ Joel said. ‘When my dad brought me up here, we stayed in a hotel. We’d eat at the Red Apple and then go to the festival. So it’s all in this area called Tuxedo.’
Paelen fell silent and stared out of the front window. He was astounded at how different this world was to Olympus. Here the people travelled around in cars and always seemed to be in a hurry.
Above them the sky was grey and heavy as the first snow flurries of the season started to fall. ‘What is this?’ Paelen asked in wonder as he opened the window and felt snow landing on his hand. ‘What is falling from the sky?’
Joel looked at him. ‘Haven’t you ever seen snow before?’
Paelen shook his head. ‘It does not do this in Olympus. Until I came to your world, I had never left there before.’
‘Child!’ Cupid shot from the back seat. ‘I have been here many times and seen snow all over this world.’
‘I am not a child,’ Paelen argued.
‘You are much younger than me,’ Cupid responded, ‘younger than most Olympians. That makes you a child.’
‘How old are you?’ Joel asked.
Paelen shrugged. ‘I do not know. You have lived in Olympus, have you ever seen us measure time?’
‘I never noticed,’ Joel admitted. ‘But I guess not.’
‘We do not,’ Cupid continued. ‘There is no need. We do not race around like you humans, trying to fill every moment of your short lives with one kind of action or another. We live, love and enjoy ourselves.’
‘Until the Nirads attacked,’ Joel added. ‘I saw a lot of running around then.’
Paelen heard Cupid’s breath catch and knew he was terrified of even the mention of Nirads. ‘That is the exception,’ Cupid said. ‘Though I am certain there is not a human in this world who would not flee the Nirads.’