Painted Blind (16 page)

Rory sat back and folded his arms. “How so?”

“It was right there in the paperwork I signed: no nudity.”

“If your contract said ‘no nudity,’ why’d you pose for it?” Rory’s tone was cutting.

My temper flared. “I wasn’t nude, and I have the original to prove it!” I pulled it from my portfolio this morning. Now I handed it to Rory. The original was completely different from the billboard. The background was a swirl of blue, and I was standing in an open clam shell, but all the other features of the painting had been added later. In the photo it was obvious I wore something under the wig. The strings of the bikini showed at my neck, across my chest and on my hips. They’d posed my hand to cover most of the bikini bottom, but the flesh-colored fabric stood out behind my fingers.

Rory studied the photo, and when he handed it back, he didn’t meet my eyes. “I’m sorry I thought…”

“It’s what everyone thinks,” I answered.

“I don’t think they will issue a recall. They edited the strings off, but it’s not like they put your head on someone else’s nude body. It
is
you, and you’re basically covered. Legally, I don’t think you have a case. Plus, the courts are slow. You’d miss your deadline.”

I stuffed the photo into my bag and felt myself crumbling from the inside. There had to be a way, somehow.

“I think we should have a contest,” Rory said. His hand swept across the air like a headline. “Win a date with Venus. The entry fee is one copy of the ad. Enter as many times as you like.”

No one had ever asked me on a date. What made him think guys would buy magazines to go out with me? I’d probably have more luck going door to door.

“We could offer, like a hundred entries for every billboard,” Rory said. His eyes shimmered as the ideas hatched in his mind. “We could make a video and upload it to YouTube, so people know it’s legit.” He turned to his computer and typed furiously. “And, I’ll post it on Dragonslayers Anonymous.”

“Dragonslayers?” I muttered.

“It’s a website for fantasy junkies like me. A million members, well over half are in the U.S.”

That knot from yesterday threatened to explode. “No way.” I hated that Venus ad. I didn’t want to attract more attention to it. This was exactly the sort of thing that would bring on a panic attack. “I can’t.” Plus, the press might show up at my doorstep again.

Rory’s voice softened. “When we were kids, I told my mom how you were afraid of stuff.”

“Stuff?” I said sarcastically. If he wanted to parade my paranoia across the room, he might as well be accurate. I wasn’t afraid of small spaces, the dark, fast cars or wild horses. I’d ridden every roller coaster at Seven Flags when Dad took me there. I was afraid of heights and…

“People. It told her how you were afraid of strangers and crowds.” He had large, light-flecked eyes and a nice chin. They were small things I’d never noticed before. If it weren’t for the terrible acne, he’d be more handsome than Travis McDowell. “She said it was probably because your mom left you. She told me you’d grow out of it.”

“Guess what?” I grabbed my bag and headed for the door, angry and disappointed. “I didn’t.”

My dad was in the kitchen when I got home. As long as I lived I would always picture him with his sleeves rolled up standing at the stove. He didn’t look one bit like those pompous chefs on cooking shows, but my dad was a genius in the kitchen.

“What’s on the menu tonight?” I asked as I dropped my bag on a bar stool.

“Wild mushroom ravioli with pesto.” He looked up, and his shoulders relaxed. “I bought a new cookbook.” When he smiled, the little lines around his eyes crinkled, but that was about the extent my dad had aged. He was still lean and broad shouldered. “Where’ve you been?” he asked lightly, but his eyes betrayed him. He was worried.

“Rory Keene’s house.”

Dad set the lid on a pot and wiped his hands on a towel. “The boy that lived across the street?”

“He’s in my chemistry class.” I guess I learned the art of evasion from Eros.

“Homework is a good distraction.”

“Yeah.” I wished homework was the extent of my worries. In fact, I totally forgot about the mountain of make-up work that wasn’t getting done.

The food smelled good, but when we sat down to eat, I lost my appetite. I ate a small serving to satisfy my dad and prayed it wouldn’t come back up. I’d never been like this before, jittery and restless, unable to eat or sleep. Something in me was off, and I couldn’t fix it.

I spent that night and most of the next day trying to catch up on school work. I struggled to concentrate and had to redo one assignment twice. Sunday night brought another bout of restless sleep so I woke Monday morning more exhausted than the night before.

I felt miserable. My belly swam with depression-induced nausea, a constant murmur I was getting used to. I was groggy when I dragged myself to the shower hoping to kick-start my system. There I realized something was different. Gone was the oversized bandage on my hand, and in its place was a gauze wrapping, which was now soaked from the shower. I pulled at the end and started unwinding, tossing the long strand over the shower curtain as it unraveled. When I pulled the last of the gauze away, there was no gash—not healed into a scar, but
gone
. I opened and closed my fist, then checked the other hand just to be sure. It was as if Theron never cut me. My awe sprang into panicked hope. Someone had done this, and it wasn’t a mortal.

I switched off the water and threw on clothes, barely pausing to dry. Did Eros come himself after all? I paused at my bedroom door and listened for even the slightest movement. I sniffed the air. Did I imagine that hint of cinnamon? I crossed the room and pitched forward over an invisible foot. The body groaned as I landed with a thud on top of it. I jumped to my feet, and Aeas appeared clutching his abdomen.

“Good morning to you, too,” he muttered.

“I told you to get out.”

“And I left,” he answered, “but I’m back.”

“You’re not welcome here.”

He was sleeping under a wool cloak with only a sash over his chest.

“Why are you wearing your native clothes?”

“Eros didn’t give me time to change before he threw me out.” Aeas sat up. “I can’t step foot in the kingdom without the pendant.” His skin prickled with goose bumps, and he rubbed his arms to warm them. Fall in Montana was no time to be wandering around shirtless.

I dug jeans and a sweatshirt out of my dresser and tossed them to Aeas. “I don’t have the pendant anymore.” I showed him Aphrodite’s contract. “She kept it as collateral.”

He started to read then sat on the end of the bed. His eyes went over the words several times before he leveled his gaze at me. “How did you find her?”

“The fortune teller. She used to be…”

“You’ve seen Alia?” he interrupted.

“She goes by Gina now.”

Aeas drew his brow together and studied the contract again. “She had no right to send you to Aphrodite.”

“Look, I know you’re his friend and all, but she did me a favor. He moved the portal, so I couldn’t come back.” I slouched onto the opposite side of the bed feeling defeated. “Anyway, you can take him the contract and tell him his mother has the pendant. That should get you back into the kingdom. Or you can fly to Naples and ask her for it yourself.”

Aeas threw off his sash. “She wouldn’t give it to me. I doubt she’d give it to Eros until your bargain was over.” He held the jeans up in front of him. “Are these women’s clothes?”

“The sweatshirt is unisex. The jeans are men’s actually.”

He and the jeans disappeared. “Why do you wear men’s pants?”

“They’re less flattering.”

“Always hiding, just like him.” He reappeared wearing my clothes. “How do I look?”

“Like a freshman.” He gave me a puzzled look, but I didn’t explain. “So what are you gonna do?”

“There is only one thing I can do—stay and help you complete the tasks.”

“Stay where? Here? My dad will skin you alive if he finds you here. Eros will understand once you show him the contract. He’ll let you back into the kingdom.”

Hands on his hips, Aeas replied flatly, “No. He won’t.”

The alarm on my phone buzzed. “We’ll have to talk about this later. I am going to be late for school.”

“Then let’s go.”

“Oh, no. You’re not coming with me.” Been there, done that with Eros. He caused enough trouble.

“Well, I’m not going to stay here and let your dad skin me.” Aeas pulled his leather shoes onto his feet. “You won’t even know I’m there.”

I lost track of Aeas the moment we got out of the car, but he’d promised to stay with me all day and not cause trouble. The morning passed in a blur. I was too restless to hear anything my teachers said. I kept my head down and bided the time until third period when I would see Rory.

“I’ve been looking for you all morning,” Rory said when I slid into the seat behind him. “Thought you might have skipped.”

I considered it, but I was too far behind in my classes already.

Rory set his arms on my desk and murmured. “I surfed around the Internet last night. That picture of you has gone viral. Did you know you already have fan sites?”

He might as well have punched me in the stomach. My mouth watered like it does right before I puke.

Rory saw the look on my face. “That’s not a bad thing, Psyche. It makes your task easier.”

I looked around, not knowing where Aeas was. “The seat next to me was Savannah’s,” I said quietly. “No one sits there anymore.”

Rory wrinkled his eyebrows in confusion. He thought I was talking to him.

“
Beauty
and the
Beast
,” a girl sang as she passed Rory and I hunched over my desk.

“Hailey,” I snapped, “why don’t you pick on someone with an IQ as low as yours?”

“Hot off the presses.” She tossed a magazine onto my desk. There smeared across the cover was that same headline, “Beauty and the Beast,” with a close-up photo of Rory and I leaving the burger joint last week.

My eyes burned at the cruelty. “Rory, I’m sorry.”

He forced a smile. “I can’t help it if I’m beautiful.” He turned to Hailey. “You can keep your gossip rag. Psyche and I know where we were this weekend.” He winked at me.

“Fame is dangerous,” I warned, trying to match his playful tone, but I was amazed he could shrug this off. “It’s going to your head already.”

“You need a new lab partner,” he replied, “since we already established that the seat next to you is empty. My partner’s gone. Wanna pair up?”

“Yes,” I replied. Chemistry just got a lot easier.

Rory skated through our lab like it was remedial freshman science. I stood back and watched as he filled the beakers, mixed, measured and made careful notes.

“Do you really think I can get over a million magazines with a contest?” I asked.

Rory stirred a substance on the burner. “Most definitely.”

“You realize this is a total nightmare for me. What if he’s some nasty truck driver with no teeth?”

“Is that what you’re worried about?” Rory dropped his pen onto the lab notebook. “We’ll rig it,” he whispered. “We hold the contest, then you can pick whoever you want in the drawing.”

“But I would have to pick someone,” I muttered. Rigging the drawing had never crossed my mind. My dad raised me to be fair, but it was the only safe option, even if it was dishonest. I felt a twinge of guilt but even more relief. “Okay,” I relented. “Win a date with Venus. I know I am going to regret this.”

Chapter 16

I drove through at the nearest taco place and ordered the ten-taco combo. I held a handful of tacos up between the seats. “Aeas, meet Rory. Rory, meet Aeas.”

Rory looked at me like I was crazy until a hand appeared and took the tacos from me. Then he spun around and looked at the boy in the back seat. “Where did he come from?”

“He’s been with me all day. Veiled.”

“Veiled.” Rory repeated. Quietly he added, “He looks kinda young.”

“Don’t let that fool you. Aeas, what are you? Fifteen?”

He chewed and swallowed before speaking. “I’m thirteen annum shy of sixteen.”

“Which means he’s by far the oldest person in this car. For every year of his age, he’s lived a hundred of ours. He’s thirteen years shy of sixteen
hundred
. He probably speaks five languages.”

“Eight,” Aeas corrected. “Wish you guys would settle on one and use it forever like we do.”

“Phenomenal,” Rory whispered as he started munching a taco. “So, have you spent much time in our world?”

“Not as much as Eros, but a fair amount. He sends to me to deliver messages and sign all his legal documents. I go places he can’t be seen.”

“Eros is always invisible?” Rory wadded up a wrapper and started on another taco.

Aeas shook his head with a laugh. “He prefers not to be seen. Pretty much every woman who sees him wants to have his child.”

Rory turned to me. “Have you seen him?”

“Once, without his permission, which is why I’m in this mess.” I saw a flash of curiosity in Rory’s eyes, and it made me defensive. “I didn’t offer to have his child,” I said emphatically. “I didn’t offer him anything.”

In the mirror I saw Aeas’s expression sadden. “That’s why he loved you.”

After school I took Aeas shopping so he wouldn’t have to keep wearing my clothes. My hands gripped the steering wheel tighter as I pulled into the mall parking lot. Another crowd. Another chance for people to gawk at Venus. “No dallying,” I warned. “We grab, pay and dash. Got it?”

“Got it,” Aeas replied.

“Don’t you dare disappear on me.” I took a deep breath and marched into the store. I headed to the men’s section where I pulled cargos and jeans from the racks and dumped them into Aeas’s arms. My clothes fit him, so I bought the same sizes.

When a sales guy headed our way, I crouched toward the bottom row of shirts and kept my face turned away. “Can I help you find something?” the employee asked.

“We’re good, thanks,” Aeas replied without hesitation.

“Nicely done,” I murmured, as the guy walked away.

“I’m an expert at running off unwanted attention. It’s what I’ve been doing for him all our lives.” He pulled a shirt from a rack. “I like this one.”

“Good taste, too. Grab a few more and we’re out of here.”

“I’ll pay you back,” he said as we went to the car.

“Don’t worry about it. Consider it a thank you for my hand.”

“It was the least I could do since I came into your home uninvited twice. I hope you understand. I have access to Eros’s accounts, but I could never steal from him.”

I hadn’t known him very long, but I knew Aeas was loyal and honest. Eros trusted him completely. “Just stay out of sight when my dad is home.”

“If you don’t mind me asking, what is this Venus ad you were talking about?”

I decided to show him rather than explain. We hit a red light a block from the billboard, and Aeas’s mouth actually dropped open at the sight of it. “The birth of Venus,” he whispered. “You saw her face to face?” He turned to me in disbelief. “And she didn’t harm you?”

“I had the pendant.”

“Still…” His voice trailed off. “You know that story mortals tell about Aphrodite blinding a man because he saw her bathing?”

“Yeah.”

“It’s true. Theron did it for her.”

“Now, that I believe. I also believe if we succeed at this task, the others will be harder.”

“And more dangerous,” he added. “Are you sure we need Rory’s help?”

“With this task we most certainly do.”

“I don’t like the way he looks at you.”

I stomped on the gas when the light turned green. “That isn’t your concern. He’s helping me out of kindness. You’re
only helping me because you want to go home.” That shut him up. Facing Aphrodite’s tasks, I had no room for testosterone bickering.

Rory pulled into the driveway just as we climbed out of the car. “I borrowed a friend’s camera. It’s better quality than mine,” he said. “And I typed up a press release during fifth period.” Rory turned to me. “But, there is one magazine I thought you would collect yourself.”

“Why would I …” Then I saw it in my mind—Savannah opening the magazine in Chemistry to show me the ad. “Yeah, I’ll talk to her mom.”

Rory opened the front door, stood a moment and inhaled. “My mom’s been baking.”

“I never say no to brownies,” I answered as I crossed the doorstep, but my thought was lost as the scent hit me—cinnamon and oranges.

“Smells like home,” Aeas added. “Psyche!”

I heard his voice but couldn’t answer. My knees buckled; the living room blurred and went dark.

“She’s got a knot on her forehead from the door jamb.” It was Rory’s voice. A moment later something cold covered a throbbing spot on my forehead.

“That doesn’t look like ice,” Aeas replied.

“Frozen peas,” Rory said. “Is she coming around?”

I tried to open my eyes—I’m fine; stop fussing—but my eyes stayed shut. Murky shadows played with little sparks of color behind my eyelids. Must have whacked my head pretty good.

“It’s possible this is a side effect of the dust,” Aeas said.

“Dust did this to her?”

Irritation slid into Aeas’s voice. “What do you mortals call it? Cupid’s arrows?”

Rory scoffed. “Whatever.”

“This isn’t a joke.” Aeas lowered his voice to a whisper. “A mortal could die from this.”

I managed to push myself up on my elbows, though my eyes were still a little blurry when I opened them. “I’m not going to die. How long was I out?” I was lying on the bed in Rory’s room with one boy on each side. The two of them scowled at each other over my now-conscious body.

“Just a few minutes,” Rory answered. “You okay?”

“No, I’m not okay. I just swooned like some helpless maiden. I’m mortified.” I fingered the goose egg on my forehead. “Bet that’s pretty.”

“Flawless is boring, right?” Rory offered me the bag of peas. “What happened?”

Aeas answered, “It was the smell. There’s an orange grove outside the palace, and we dry cinnamon in the kitchen. But, I don’t understand why.” He frowned at the bump on my head. “The dust usually doesn’t work like that.”

Rory crossed the room to his computer chair. “You mean to tell me that Eros put some kind of love spell on her then threw her out. The guy sounds like a complete jerk if you ask me.”

Aeas jumped to his feet. “No one asked you, and you will watch what you say.”

“I can say whatever I like in
my
house.” He leveled his gaze on me. “Is he worth the trouble of collecting these ads? Give me one reason why we should bother. The guy messed with your head then tossed you aside. He doesn’t care one bit about you, or he wouldn’t have put that dust on you.”

“He didn’t,” I admitted. “I spilled it while he was sleeping.”

Aeas’s eyes widened. “How much did you spill?”

I shrugged as I shook the last stars from my peripheral vision. “I don’t know, like, half the jar.”

Aeas made a choking sound and spun around to face Rory. “There’s your reason. A heavy pinch of dust is enough to make her love him all her life. No mortal has ever been exposed to a handful of it. She’ll waste away, unable to sleep or eat, fainting like this at any reminder of him.”

Rory looked at me. “There has to be a cure.”

“Only one,” Aeas said quietly, “and even if he forgave her, he can’t come to her. He’s bound by the contract as much as she is. It specifically says that she will never see his face or hear his voice until the tasks are completed. That contract is legal and binding to my kind in our world or yours. She cannot see him unless she succeeds at all three tasks.”

“All right, you guys,” I interrupted. “Enough. Nothing’s changed. We complete the tasks as planned. I’m not going to pine away and die. So, let’s get to work.”

“I need to rent a storage unit,” I said as Rory loaded the video footage onto his computer.

His eyes didn’t leave the screen. “No, you don’t.”

“All that mail isn’t going to fit in my
bedroom
.”

“Not by a long shot.” He saved the file onto two different drives, then turned to me. “I figured this out during school. If each magazine is half an inch thick, then it takes up 46.75 cubic inches, times one point four million is like thirty-eight thousand cubic feet.”

“My dad’s a cement contractor, Rory. Give it to me in yards.”

“Fourteen hundred three cubic yards. You need a warehouse.”

“Holy crap! We could
build
a warehouse with that!” And once we had a place to store it all, how would I deliver it to Aphrodite? “Any idea where we can find an empty warehouse?”

He grabbed his coat and keys. “Way ahead of you. C’mon.” When Aeas stood beside me, Rory muttered, “I suppose he can come, too.”

We drove past the fair grounds to a run-down building near the railroad tracks. It was made of cinderblock and used to be white. Now the sides of the building were covered in graffiti. The place had been empty for years. It was probably condemned. “I drove by at lunch and got the address,” Rory said. “Then I called the county recorder to see who owns it.” He led us to the office door, which had a broken doorknob. A padlock had been added at eye level. “I told the owner we needed it for a school project. He said to just come by and get the key.” Rory unlocked the door. “It’s ours rent free for sixty days.”

The offices still contained old file cabinets and metal desks. An ancient phone hung on the wall. On the warehouse floor, there were odd tires, broken machines and an inch of dirt, but it was certainly large enough for the magazines. Most importantly, it had a mailbox on the loading dock, so we could have the magazines sent directly to the warehouse.

Around midnight, Rory sent me a YouTube link. Aeas was asleep and invisible in front of my closet. I pulled on headphones so I wouldn’t wake him and clicked the link.

When my face appeared on the screen, I could barely see the knot on my forehead. We had covered it with make-up and hair. “My name is Psyche Middleton,” I said, “and I’m Venus.” The video cut to the Venus advertisement, but my voice continued. I said how flattered I was that the ad was so well received, and that I knew of six operating fan sites. “I want to give something back to my fans, so I’ve decided to take one fan to dinner.” Then I explained how to enter the contest: send in a copy of the Venus ad with an index card containing your name, address, phone number and email address.

The next scene showed me standing on Main Street. I pointed at the Venus billboard and offered one hundred entries into the drawing for anyone who sent me a billboard. “But hurry,” I said, “I will pick a winner six weeks from today.”

Text appeared against a blue background. It said, “SEND ENTRIES TO” followed by the address for a graffiti-covered warehouse down by the railroad tracks. The next screen gave the deadline date. The screen went black, and I rubbed my sweaty palms together.

Rory sent this link to a dozen sites, including Dragonslayers Anonymous. He said not to worry. It would work.

All I could do was wait and see if he was right.

By five o’ clock the next morning, my cell phone was ringing. I’d dozed off a mere two hours before and had to focus hard on the buttons to answer. “This better be important,” I figured it was Rory.

“You are brilliant!” Blair shrieked in my ear. “I just heard about the contest. Cosmo’s fashion editor called me personally. When are you coming back to work?”

“I’m in school, Blair.” I yawned. “And, it’s five a.m.” I hung up and tossed the phone on the floor. Dad was clanking around in the kitchen, so I dragged myself downstairs.

“Came to see me off?” Dad joked as I slid onto a barstool. He went to the stove, poured water, measured, mixed and came back with a steaming cup, which he put in front of me.

The herbal concoction was fragrant and sweet. I sipped, grateful for the warmth. “What’s in this?”

“Ginger. It settles the stomach.” He split the eggs he’d made for himself, and dropped more bread into the toaster.

“You’re too observant.”

“Eat what you can. Grief does crazy things to a body.”

I could not tell him that it was Eros, not Savannah, who was the root of my grief. Having someone you love die might be easier than having them throw you away. There were so many times as a child when I daydreamed that the mother who left me wasn’t my mother at all. My real mother died of a tragic illness. My real mother would never have forgotten my birthday or abandoned me in Europe.