Painted Blind (15 page)

The stairwell narrowed and the steps grew steeper. My sandal slipped on the stone, and I instinctively reached out to catch myself. My wounded hand hit the stone, and the sharp pain nearly made me sick.

My companion offered a hand to steady me, but I didn’t take it. “Keep it above your heart,” he murmured.

Of course, I knew that, but I wasn’t doing it. I discreetly tucked my hand through the haltered neck of my dress. The bandage felt hot and sticky on my collarbone, but in a few minutes the pain lessened to a dull throb. I wanted to cry, but I wouldn’t allow myself the luxury of tears until I was alone. “Will you be punished for taking me into the palace?”

“Most likely.” He slowed his pace to match mine. He carried my duffle bag on his shoulder.

“I’m sorry for getting you in trouble.” I realized how costly that mistake might be. What would Theron do to him?

“Less trouble than you.” He motioned to the contract in my hand.

We were close to the water now. Its gentle lap echoed in the stairwell, and the air smelled of fish and rotting seaweed. “They expect me to fail,” I replied.

“Of course they expect you to fail. No mortal has ever succeeded at Aphrodite’s tasks.” He shoved a hand into his pocket angrily. “I can’t believe Eros betrothed himself to one of your kind.”

I suppose I should have been offended, but I appreciated his honesty.

“Don’t do it. Forget Eros. Walk away from here and pretend you never met Aphrodite.”

He made it sound so simple, but there was no way I could forget Eros. I would rather roam the country collecting a million magazines than forget those violet eyes. “I can’t.”

He caught my arm and stopped me. “He dusted you, didn’t he?”

I jerked my arm from his fingers. “No, he didn’t.” I could tell he didn’t believe me, but I didn’t care. It was none of his business. He was Aphrodite’s servant. Anything I told him would be repeated upstairs once I was on the mainland. But wait, maybe that was a good thing. “He didn’t have to,” I confessed. “I loved him without seeing his face.” Tell that to your mistress, I thought. Make sure she knows I will complete these tasks.

The stairs ended inside a huge cave with a semi-circle walkway around a small bay. A speedboat bobbed softly in the water. “Get aboard,” my companion said.

On the other side of the bay a giant wheel was attached to thick chain and some kind of pulley system. As soon as I was seated in the boat, he doused the light. I heard the wheel churn into motion. The stone slab separating us from the sea rose and revealed a narrow passageway to open water.

He drove us out of the caves and headed a quarter mile toward the open sea before looping back to Naples. I wondered what hazards lay beneath the water that made him take this route, but it didn’t matter.

If I ever returned to that island, Theron would kill me for sure.

Chapter 15

I was camped out in a plastic chair for the two-hour layover in Chicago when I finally gathered the courage to power on my cell phone. The flight home went from Naples to Chicago before connecting to Bozeman. Since I was only a few hours from facing my dad, I wanted to know what to expect when I got there.

The inbox of my voicemail was full, and every message was from Dad. The first few were worried, then angry, desperate, and finally, remorseful. “Psyche, I’m sorry,” he said. “Whatever I did that drove you away, I’m sorry. Please, just come home.”

I hoped that meant he wouldn’t ground me forever.

The downstairs lights were off when I pulled up to the curb. I’d hardly eaten all day. After dropping my duffle bag on the dining room table, I ransacked the fridge for left-overs. I found chicken pot pie and a can of root beer.

There was a rumble of feet down the stairs. “Psyche?”

Hands full of food, I turned and held my breath.

Dad crossed the kitchen and pulled me to his chest. “Where have you been?”

I hugged him back briefly, then I waited for him to let me go. “It’s probably better if you didn’t know.”

He stepped back and said, “You’re gonna tell me anyway.”

“I’m hungry.” I put the food in the microwave and opened the root beer.

Dad waited unmoved.

I was a terrible liar, but I did my best. “There was someone I needed to see.”

“Who?”

Yeah, right. I couldn’t tell him that. “You don’t know her.” As an afterthought I added, “A client.” It was sort of true. I was doing her bidding now.

“You’re modeling again?”

I shrugged as the microwave beeped. I pulled the container out and blew steam off each bite, but I still burned my tongue.

“Psyche, where
were
you?” Dad demanded. He eyed my bandaged hand. I’d put fresh gauze on it, but it soaked through again.

“Naples.”

“Florida?”

“Italy.” Four bites, and I was no longer hungry. I set the food on the counter. “I charged some stuff on the credit card…”

“And you’ll pay back every dime of it,” he snapped.

“I wouldn’t have it any other way.” I stepped past him, grabbed my duffle bag and started upstairs. I’d been up for twenty hours. If he wanted to punish me, I was too exhausted to argue.

I’d missed about a week of classes. I couldn’t even remember what day of the week it was, much less the date. Time had shifted and stalled for me since Eros threw me out.

Fallen flower pedals littered the floor in front of my locker, remnants of a shrine left to Savannah, which had been cleared by the custodian. The front of her locker remained wallpapered with post-its and photographs that students left in her memory. “We miss you!” one said. Another said, “You were always nice to me. I’ll miss your smile.” Near the bottom was an index card taped on three sides. I pulled it off and read the back. “I never told you I loved you.” It was signed by a junior boy I barely knew. I carefully set it back in its place.

“Why’d she do it?” Travis’s voice startled me.

Later I learned it was his first day back at school, too. I faced him, not knowing what to say.

He usually avoided my eyes, but now he looked at me like he was trying to find absolution somewhere in my face. “I loved her.”

I thought of her tears after he broke up with her and how she said she meant nothing to him. “She knew that.” I would never tell him how Savannah betrayed me.

“She left her sweatshirt in my car,” he said absently then wandered away. I wondered if I should have tried harder to help him, but I was too consumed with my own heartache.

When I reached first period, I found out it was Tuesday. Tonight was the new moon. I had exactly sixty days to complete the first task.

While the class copied notes in chemistry, I nudged Rory’s shoulder. “What are you doing for lunch?”

He turned his head sideways and muttered into his shoulder, “Same as every other day. PBJ and Robert Jordan in the caf.”

“Who’s Robert? Is he a senior?”

Rory dropped a paperback novel onto my desk. “Fantasy.”

I scribbled intently while Mr. Darling passed our row. When he crossed the room, I whispered, “If I buy, will you ditch Jordan and have lunch with me?”

Rory slowly turned in his chair with suspicious eyes. “Serious?”

I copied the last of the notes and looked up. “Yeah. I need a genius. Thought you’d be the guy to ask.”

“I’m flattered.” He looked around and added quietly, “You sure you want to be seen with me?”

“As long as you don’t mind being seen— possibly photographed—with me.” I wasn’t kidding about the paparazzi. The crowd and the news crews had moved on, but a few photographers remained to torment me.

One was sitting at the edge of the high school parking lot with a zoom lens when Rory and I crossed the street to a Mom & Pop burger joint.

I ordered my usual out of habit—a mushroom-Swiss burger and vanilla milkshake—but when we took our seats at a window booth, I could only force down a single bite. Like the toast I ate this morning, the burger tasted like cardboard in my mouth and threatened to come up after I swallowed. I pushed the food aside and thumbed through Rory’s novel. “Do you believe in this stuff?”

Rory took a bite of his double cheeseburger and answered with his mouth full. “It’s obviously called fantasy for a reason.”

“Yeah, but I mean the fundamentals. Good always triumphs. The knight saves the lady in distress.”

“Damsel,” he corrected.

“What?”

Rory licked ketchup off his finger. “Damsel in distress.”

“Whatever.” I turned the book over and studied the cover. Words were harder to come by than I expected.

He sat back and thought while sipping his Coke. “I believe you can overcome insurmountable odds with fortitude and a little luck.”

I tossed the book to him. “You’re definitely the guy I need.”

“For what?” Rory paused with a fry poised in front of his mouth. His gaze was somewhere across the restaurant. He looked over his shoulder and across the room in the other direction.

I slid lower in the booth. That little knot of anxiety churned in my chest.

Rory swallowed his last few fries and reached for mine, which where untouched. “People are staring at us,” he whispered.

“We should go.” I started to pull up the hood of my sweatshirt, but Rory stopped me. I wanted to kick his shin under the table when I realized he enjoyed people staring at us.

“You didn’t answer my question.”

“I need to collect one point four million copies of the Venus ad.”

“Why?”

I told my dad a fraction of the truth, and he had the hospital test me for hallucinogens. “I can’t tell you.”

“Why not?” When I didn’t answer, Rory grew irritated. “But you want my help.” He tossed wrappers and used napkins onto the tray. “Sorry, but if you can’t trust me, I can’t help you. We’re late for class.” He dumped the trash and walked out the door.

I should have known Rory wouldn’t help without knowing all the details. The clock was ticking, and it looked like I was going to lose.

That night I slept in fits. My mind wouldn’t let me rest. Every time I drifted off, I dreamed of Eros’s voice, his palace and his fury at my betrayal. I slept half an hour here, an hour there, but my dreams shook me awake, more exhausted than when I lay down. By three-thirty I was restlessly dozing. In my dream I was trapped in the meadow surrounded by dogs, all barking and nipping at me. I opened my eyes and realized one of the dogs was real. He was in the neighbor’s yard outside and barking relentlessly. I was about to get out of bed and shout out the window at him, but I realized I wasn’t alone.

I lay motionless and watched the top dresser drawer slide open on its own. The veiled intruder searched beneath the clothes. He found the amethyst belt and bracelet but pushed them aside and kept searching.

“Eros,” I whispered.

The hidden person stopped moving.

“I know you’re there. Don’t hide from me.”

“I’m sorry, Psyche.” It was not the voice I hoped for.

I sat up. “Aeas?”

He appeared in front of the dresser still holding a pair of my socks.

“What are you doing here?” I demanded.

“He sent me for the pendant,” he answered softly. “May I have it, please?”

“No.” My voice was cold and flat, sort of like my heart lately.

“I’ve never seen him like this.” Aeas slid the drawer closed. “He abandoned the kingdom for days and when he returned, he demanded I get that pendant.”

I glared at the shadow in front of me. “Tell him if he wants it back, he can come get it himself.”

“Psyche,” Aeas pleaded. “He’ll be furious if I return without it.”

“Even if you search this whole room, you won’t find that pendant, and I won’t give it to you. Now get out!”

There was a pause in my dad’s snoring down the hallway. We fell silent and waited for his door to open, but he started snoring again.

Aeas disappeared before my eyes. “I didn’t want to come.”

Saturday morning was deceptively bright. Sunshine streaked through tufts of clouds and gave the illusion of a warm day, but the moment I stepped outside, cold nipped at my fingers and nose. I pulled gloves out of the pocket of my coat and carefully slipped one over my bandaged hand, then used my teeth to secure the other one before heading down the driveway to my car. A van was parked across the street, and a telephoto lens reflected sunlight as I climbed into my Subaru and locked the doors.

The photographer followed me to Rory’s house, taking more pictures while I knocked on the door, and he answered. “Can we talk inside?” I stepped through the doorway. “Sorry. We’re being watched.”

“We are?” Rory stuck his head out the door, spotted the van and waved. “Have a nice day,” he shouted.

I was irritated, but I tried to keep my voice friendly. I really did need his help. “I came to apologize. You’ll think I’m crazy, but…”

Rory interrupted, “Uh, why don’t we go somewhere more private before…”

“Rory,” a woman’s voice called from the kitchen. “Was someone at the door?” She came around the corner drying her hands on a dish towel and blinked at the sight of me. “Oh, hello.”

“Mom, you remember Psyche Middleton?”

Her gaze went from Rory to me and back again.

Rory cleared his throat. “She needs help with homework.” He jerked his head toward the hallway and strode off.

“It’s nice to see you again, Mrs. Keene.” I followed him down the hall.

“I’m baking cookies,” she called after us.

Rory opened a door and motioned me inside.

I crossed the threshold into a castle. The gray walls had been lined to give the illusion of stone. Dark carpet, velvet drapes and a mahogany poster bed made the room look like a small royal chamber. A sculpted dragon stood on the dresser, and a green stuffed version stood waist high on the floor next to the bed. One entire wall was filled with floor-to-ceiling bookshelves, and in the corner sat a computer desk equipped with two large monitors. Here was a guy that spent a lot of time reading and a lot of time gaming.

After a nervous glance down the hallway, Rory shut the door. “Let me just say two things. One, most of this,” he gestured around the room, “was my mom’s doing, and two, I’ve never had a girl in here, so it never mattered before.”

“I like it.” I fingered a velvet curtain. “It’s cool.”

His shoulders relaxed. “Thanks… I like it, too.”

Rory dropped into the computer chair, and I sat on the bed. We used to play together in his room all the time when we were little, but this was beyond weird. Rory looked out the window; I looked at the carpet.

Finally I broke the awkward silence. “So, you probably heard how they found me in the mountains?”

“You almost froze to death,” he replied. In a town like this, it’s pretty hard to keep a secret, especially when you end up in the ER.

“I was seeing this guy, and he threw me out.” I wasn’t sure which part of that surprised him more, but there was obvious confusion in his eyes. I went on undaunted. “I want to talk to him again, but I can’t. So, I made a deal with his…uh, mom.” I reached into my messenger bag and drew out the rolled parchment tied with ribbon. “Aphrodite.” I offered the contract to him. “See for yourself.”

He snatched the document from my hand, but the ancient characters she’d written stopped him dead. His eyes widened on me, and he quickly scanned the English text. “So you’re trying to…”

“Win back Eros, the god of love.”

Rory fingered the signature. “Aphrodite. She exists. You’ve seen her?”

I nodded. “She looks younger than our parents.”

“Incredible.” He rolled the document closed and offered it to me. “Collecting one point four million ads is the first task. What are the others?”

“I don’t know. I have to complete one to get the next. She probably figures I’ll fail at this, and she won’t have to bother with the rest.” And she was probably right. Even with Rory’s help, the task was impossible given a year. With only two months, we were grasping at straws. I explained the details of the task then said, “I called my agent yesterday. The ad debuted in
Cosmopolitan
and will run in Vogue this month. She said sales were up. Cosmo’s circulation spiked to three and a quarter million.” I rolled the contract carefully and returned it to my bag. “I wondered if we could get a lawyer to order a recall. It totally violated my contract.”