Page 35 of Goddess of Storms

I hear the heavy sigh from the front seat, “You’re right. But I have breakfast. We are in the clear, you can sit up.”

Pushing up from Phoenix’s lap, I sit up in my seat as Nile hands me a pink box of deliciousness. As I open the lid, the sweet of the sugar hits me in the face.Did I just die and go to Olympus?Pulling out a cinnamon roll as big as my head, I hand the box over to Phoenix.

“Are you going to eat all of that?” he asks, eyeing my cinnamon roll.

“Yes, and I will zap your ass if you try and take a bite,” I warn him.

Stone breaks his silence for the first time since we picked up Nile, with a laugh. “You’ll learn in time to never get in the way of Harper and her food. Especially anything sweet.”

“Damn straight,” I offer up. “Now that we have that figured out, we need to discuss what we are going to do about this cult.”

That statement shuts them all up.

“I will not spend my life running. We are going to have to stand and fight. Tell them that I will not be their caged animal to control, I am not a weapon to be used for their every whim.”

Stone pipes up, “I will fight at your side until my last breath. If you don’t want to run, we will make a stand. What are you thinking?”

Ever the dramatic and heartfelt Stone.

“Let’s take the fight to them, they have been in my home and my place of work. It’s time I got a little up in their business,” I reply.

“Do we even know where they are?” Nile asks.

“No, but I bet that they are still sitting on my house. We could tail one of them back to their compound or whatever it is. Doesn’t that sound like a plan?” I counter.

“One small problem. We don’t have a car to trail them in. Your Jeep is at the bakery and they saw Stone’s car. What are we going to use?” Nile questions.

“How’d you and Phoenix get here? Fly? You have to have a car somewhere in the park. Why did the Gods curse me with your stupidity. I swear you’re an idiot sometimes.” I sigh.

I notice Phoenix palm his forehead. “Nile, it’s your fucking car and you forgot you brought it?”

“Now, I remember. We parked near the park’s entrance. It’s a big Dodge pickup, black. You can’t miss it, Stone,” Nile says.

“Always trying to compensate huh?” Stone pokes at him.

Nile doesn’t reply. He just sulks in silence.

Phoenix leans over to me, “Do these two ever stop?”

I shake my head, “Nope, when it becomes too much, I just zap them and they cool off a bit.”

This gets a laugh from Phoenix. Raising an eyebrow he asks. “What other powers do you have?”

“Lightning is my favorite, total control over wind, from a breeze to a tornado. I can’t make rain, but I can stop it or make it heavier. Just depends on my mood. Do you have any powers demi-god?”

“If fighting is a power then yes, I have never lost a fight. I credit it to my father but no more than that,” he replies.

“Fights? What kind of fights?” I ask.

“Just scraps with friends and sometimes bullies. I was a tall and skinny kid growing up, that was a “kick me” sign for all the jocks that were thicker and more muscular. What they didn’t count on was I had been trained to fight since I was four. My bastard of a father saw to that, but that was about all,” he spits.

He was not angry with me, but Ares. That asshole. He was known for having a lot of kids and if they were male they were ordered to learn to fight. If they were girls, he acted as if they didn’t exist.

“My father is distant, too. My brother and sisters think he favors me because I have powers much like his, but he really doesn’t. In times of trouble, my mother will plead for him to intervene. If not for her, I doubt he’d give a rat’s ass.” I shrug.

Phoenix thumbs the charm I wear, “This looks like a token from a caring father.”

“Nah, he just did it before my mother would nag his ass to help me. I mean I know he loves me, but I’m definitely not his favorite.”

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