Gods of Chaos (Red Magic) (17 page)

Izzy’s eyes grew wide. “I completely forgot about Hades!” She shivered.

Persephone chuckled. “Don’t worry, child. My husband is on friendly terms with your friend. He finds her amusing.”

She faded, her laughter still ringing in the cold air, and I shivered. True, I liked Hades, but did I really want a god like that to find me “amusing”? I sat down, drained. Izzy knelt on the cold ground beside me and sighed.

I didn’t look at her. “I’m sorry about using you.”

“Did you mean what you said?”

“About what?”

“About actually liking me, stupid.”

Cautiously, I met her eye and nodded. “I think you’re cool, and it’s been fun hanging out with you. But I understand if you never want to see me again after all this.”

Her eyes flashed. “First, we have to get Marcus back. You aren’t getting off that easy.”

I dropped my head, ashamed. “You’re right.”

After a pause, she put her hand on my shoulder. “I’m just kidding. What you did sucks, but I sort of understand. And I think you’re cool, too.”

I smiled at her awkwardly. “So you don’t think I’m a monster?”

Izzy laughed. “I don’t think you’re any worse than my brother.”

That thought sent chills down my spine, but I knew Izzy hadn’t meant to sound threatening. I bumped her shoulder with mine and stood up. “We better figure this all out, and fast.”

Izzy nodded. “Can you drive a manual?”

Her question surprised me. “What are you talking about?”

She gestured out of the cairn. “The car. It’s manual. Can you drive it?”

I shrugged. “Maybe. My mom’s car is a stick. I can try.”

“Good.” She fished in the pocket of her hoodie for a minute and then handed me a key ring.

I raised my eyebrow. “I thought I saw Marcus put these in his pocket.”

Her shrug was eloquent. “Maybe you did. But I never said I didn’t like to pinch things. Guess it’s a good thing, this time.”

I eyed her cautiously. What else didn’t I know about Izzy? A slow smile spread across my face. “Glad you did.”

She grinned in response. “But now you know, so you better check your pockets.”

My hands went involuntarily to my backpack, and Izzy laughed.

“You don’t trust me?”

Her tone was suddenly serious, and I studied her face. “Actually, I think I do.”

“That’s good. Darlena?”

“Yeah?”

“I think I trust you, too.”

I gave her a quick hug. “Thanks.” It had been a long time since I felt like I had a friend.

Her eyes flashed impishly. “Just don’t screw it up.”

I rolled my eyes. “Are you ready to leave now?”

“Give me ten minutes to try to contact Isis.”

“Can I stay?” I was really interested in Izzy’s patron, especially since I remembered that Izzy had said Isis was similar to Persephone.

Izzy hesitated, but then she shook her head. “I want to talk to her alone. No offense,” she hurried to add, “it’s just that today has been so much. I need her advice.”

I nodded. “I understand. I forgot you said she was like another mother.”

“Yeah.” Izzy looked down at her feet. “So I’ll meet you at the car?”

“Make sure you don’t disappear, too.” I tried to joke, but her face crumpled when I spoke, and I felt like an ass. “I’m sorry, Izzy. We’ll find him.”

She nodded, tears streaming down her face. “I’ll be done in a few.”

I walked back toward the car, watching the frozen patterns my breath made in the air. Today hadn’t been anything like I’d imagined. While it had been sort of a relief to see Persephone, her news horrified me. True, I wasn’t surprised to know that Hecate wanted to destroy the world—she’d never struck me as the nurturing type. What did surprise me was something Persephone had said about the other Red gods. If Hecate wasn’t acting alone, would binding her do any good?

Opening the car door, I slid into the tattered driver’s seat. Who had Marcus borrowed the car from? If Izzy didn’t know, I wasn’t sure how we would get it back to its owner. As the thought flitted through my mind, I started to giggle. I had just found out the world might be coming to an end, and I was worried about getting a trashed car back to its owner? My laughter grew until I was doubled over, clutching the immobile steering wheel for support. By the time Izzy came back to the car, my fit of hysterics had passed, but I was still hiccupping from time to time.

She shot me a look but didn’t say anything, and I turned the key in the ignition, forcing myself to calm down. “Any good news from Isis?”

Out of the corner of my eye, I saw Izzy shake her head. “Nothing that helps us.”

I fumbled with the clutch and the car lurched into motion. “That sucks.”

“Yeah.” She hesitated.

“What?”

Izzy’s voice was small. “Isis warned me about something. She thinks I may be in danger.”

I risked a glance at her as the car ground down the road. “From what?”

“She wasn’t sure.” Izzy paused and then met my eye. “But she thinks it has something to do with Red magic.”

The drive back to Edinburgh was tense. I didn’t really know how to drive a stick, so between the grinding and thumping sounds coming from the car and Izzy’s warning from Isis, we were both on edge when we finally made it back to the city that night.

“Drop me near the school, okay?” Izzy didn’t look at me, and I wondered what she’d been thinking.

“Okay. I don’t mind taking you home, though.”

“It’s fine. The school is good enough.”

I shrugged. So much for trusting each other; she didn’t even want me to know where she lived. I pulled up to the curb outside the looming gates, and the car jerked to a halt. “Do you know who Marcus borrowed the car from?”

Izzy shook her head. “No, but I can do a spell to find out.”

“Okay.” I turned the car off and handed her the keys. “I’ll leave it here with you, then.”

I got out of the car and headed off in the direction of my hotel. Izzy cleared her throat. “What’s our next step?”

I turned and looked at her, surprised. “After what your goddess said, I figured you didn’t want to help me.”

“We need to get my brother back.” Her voice shook, but I couldn’t read her expression in the faint glow from the streetlamp. “And,” she added dryly, “I don’t fancy the end of the world.”

“Me, neither.” I took a deep breath and crossed my fingers. “Should I meet you back here?”

She nodded. “We have to figure out how to bind a god.”

“I have a few ideas.” The words slipped out, and instantly, I wished I could take them back. I wasn’t ready to tell Izzy about Loki yet, but luckily, she didn’t ask.

“So do I.”

Her words surprised me, and I smiled. “I’ll see you in the morning, then?”

“Sounds good.”

We stood there awkwardly for a minute, and finally I turned around first. I was glad she still wanted to help me, but the fact that she didn’t want me to follow her home grated on me. What did she think I’d do to her?

I was in a pretty awful mood by the time I got back to my hotel, and I ignored the blinking message light on the room phone. Even if Mom or Justin had called, I was too drained to talk to them right now. Instead, I fell into the bed with my clothes on and passed out before I realized that I should at least brush my teeth.

***

The next day, I met Izzy in front of Lady on the Lake. She was already there, sitting on the ground with two cups of coffee.

“How’d you get here so early?”

She smirked. “Wouldn’t you like to know?”

I accepted the second cup she passed up to me, but I stayed standing. “No, seriously?”

She shrugged. “I thought you’d figured it out by now; this is a boarding school.”

I almost choked on the steaming coffee. “You’re kidding. So you’re, what, a snobby boarding school brat?” I laughed at the words.

She didn’t. “Sure. Something like that.” Izzy stood quickly and headed for the building.

“I’m sorry.” I rushed to keep up with her. “You just have to understand: I’ve never met anyone who goes to a boarding school. Trinity was exclusive, but we still went home at night.”

Izzy remained silent, but her pace slowed considerably. I walked beside her in silence until we were inside the foyer, standing on the polished marble floor. Then I stopped and put a hand on her shoulder.

“I’m sorry. Really. Can I see your room?”

A slow smile spread across her face. “I thought you’d never ask!”

She trotted up the stairs, chugging coffee as she went. I followed quickly, feeling awful for the way I’d teased her. I’d never had a sister, so I hadn’t really realized what a big difference there was between fourteen and sixteen. I had to stop treating her like a girl my own age. Rochelle would have laughed at my snarky comment. That thought stopped me cold. What was I doing, comparing Marcus’s sweet kid sister to someone as warped as Rochelle? I shook my head and took another swig of coffee.

“Here it is.” Izzy stood proudly beside a thick wooden door.

I hesitated for a moment. “Do you have a roommate?”

She shook her head. “Nope. The school believes that magical practice is best done with relative privacy.”

I glanced up and down the massive hall. “How many students go here?”

She shrugged. “It depends. But there are always enough rooms, even if they aren’t all the same size. I’ve been here awhile, so my room isn’t too bad.”

That was an understatement. When she opened the door, I thought I’d just entered a ritzy hotel suite. “Not too bad? Are you kidding? This is huge!”

She blushed and perched on the edge of her bed. The bedspread was a brilliant blue batik pattern, with gold swirls and stars scattered across it.

“That’s really cool.” I pointed to her bed, and she blushed again.

“Thanks. I designed it.”

I stared at the bedspread. “Did you Witch it?”

She laughed. “Nope, it’s not magic. I found the fabric in town at a market, and I got the girl in the next room over to do the sewing. Totally mundane.”

“But it’s really gorgeous. Izzy, you have a great eye for color!”

She shrugged. “Just for blue.”

I nodded, and sat on the rag rug in the center of the room. “What else did she say yesterday?”

Izzy fiddled with her coffee cup. “Who?”

“Isis! Who do you think?”

She took a long sip from her coffee cup. “She said she’d heard about you.”

I bristled. “I hate it when the gods think they know me just because they’ve heard about me.” I wanted to ask Izzy if Isis had told her to be afraid of me, but I sort of didn’t want to know the answer.

“It wasn’t like that! She’d spoken with your old patron.”

“Aphrodite?” I was surprised. “What are she and Isis doing palling around?”

Izzy leaned forward eagerly. “When Isis’s followers spread, lots of people compared her to Aphrodite.”