Goddess Legacy: Goddess Series Book 1 (18 page)

Legacy didn’t know what to say, feeling her heart pound harder by the second. “Bye,” was all she managed to get out, and it sounded strangled.

His jaw clenched and nodded slowly. “Bye.”

He stood there several more seconds before letting her go and walking away.

Chapter Ten

After several nights of no dreams, her dreams about weather returned. Most of the elements were the same. She was still being chased by a tornado from one side and snakes from the other. This time, she actually found a storm cellar for her to take cover in, but as she ran down the steps, she saw the little girl already inside.

“What took you so long?” she asked with narrowed eyes. She seemed to be disgruntled.

“I didn’t know what I was looking for,” she said, talking about the shelter, but feeling happy she was already safe inside.

She walked over to her. “It’s been right in front of you the whole time,” she said as she reached out with her index finger extended and touched the middle of her forehead.

For an instant, she felt as if she knew the answers to everything like she did the last time she’d touched her forehead. She gasped in her dream and then woke up with a gasp, sitting straight up in her bed, clutching her blanket at her chest. But she couldn’t remember the revelation at the end.

As she sat in wonder, she considered the fact that if her mom was communicating with her through her dreams, then maybe this girl could give her the answers. She wondered if she could subconsciously make herself ask the girl questions the next time she dreamed about her.

Thunder crashed outside, jerking her out of her thoughts. She looked over at her window and saw the dark clouds hovering in the sky. She got up and walked over to the window. Water was everywhere. It must have rained all night. She guessed her theory about River’s mom manipulating the weather was true. She was on the schedule to work today. After all, there were no coincidences.

She got dressed and headed to work. During the ride in, she hydroplaned in several places. She was so tense when she finally got there that she stayed in her car, taking deep breaths. The weather itself never bothered her, but she hated feeling like she was going to skid off the road.

She wrenched her hands out of the death grip she had on her steering wheel and made a run for the front door. Yale was inside mopping up water, and River was up on a ladder taking down waterlogged ceiling tiles. Apparently, the roof had leaked from all the rain. She felt a little smug that Ms. Gorgos’s store suffered from the consequences of her actions.

She went to the supply closet and retrieved another mop to help Yale.

“How bad is the damage?” she asked River with her head down, focused on the floor.

“We’re not sure. I’m not going to put in new tiles until the leak is fixed, though. Mom left right after she got here. She’s going to get the handyman. Since it’s Sunday, he’s not in his office.”

“I take it she’s not in the best of moods,” she commented as she glanced up at him.

River stared down at her with a wistful expression. She could see that he wanted to apologize, but he couldn’t. Not with Yale around. Besides, he seemed to be a stickler about the no-talking-at-work-about-Greek-stuff rule, so maybe he wouldn’t voice anything anyway.

He straightened his face before he spoke. “No. She’s not.”

She nodded and went back to watching the floor as she mopped.

“Legacy?” River asked as he stepped down the ladder.

She looked at him. “Yes?”

“Will you come with me to the basement? I need to see if it’s flooded or if there is any water damage.” Then he turned to Yale. “Yale, stay up here and get ready for the store to open. Turn on the sign in five minutes.”

Legacy took Yale’s mop from her and put both of them back in the closet. Then she followed River down into the basement.

He turned to look at her.

“We’re not checking on flood damage, are we?” she asked.

“No. I already checked down here before Yale arrived,” he said quickly.

“Then what are we doing?”

“I need to talk to you.”

“You said we couldn’t talk about
things
here anymore.”

“I don’t have a choice.” He paused. “Are you okay?”

“Yeah, why?”

“Because I know you’re aware of the weather connection to my mom. I’m just really sorry,” he said, stepping closer to her.

She stepped back, shrugging, and realized she was now up against a wall. He took another causal step in her direction. They were now uncomfortably close—though, she was the only one who was uncomfortable.

“It’s not your fault,” she said, looking away from him.

“It is partly my fault,” he said, looking over at her and forcing her to meet his gaze. “I know my mom has some vendetta against your mom and, more recently, her negative feelings against you have intensified. I know I’m the reason for that,” he whispered.

“Don’t worry about it.”

He sighed and almost smiled. “I don’t have a choice. I have to worry about it because I worry about you.”

“River,” she breathed, and shook her head. She didn’t know what to say. She didn’t want to hurt his feelings, but she didn’t want to give him the wrong impression either.

“Don’t,” he started, and raised his hand as if he were going to touch her lips to keep her from talking. Then he stopped himself and put his hand back down. “I understand how you feel. I don’t want to put you in a position where you can’t stand to be around me. Even if we’re not meant to be together
now
.”

“Stop,” she whispered. “I don’t want to think about that.” She stepped to the side so she could walk away from the wall. He turned to watch her. “I really do appreciate your honesty, but I’m with Adin.” She looked into River’s eyes. “I want to be with Adin.”

“I know,” he whispered, and looked down.

Ugh. Why was this happening? “Look,” she said softly, walking back toward River, “I do like you…as a friend. My life changed a few weeks ago, and I feel like you’re someone I can really talk to about…about
things
that I can’t talk to about with other people.”

He smiled, but it looked pained.

“I don’t want you to be sad about how things are with you and me. I like our friendship, but if you can’t handle keeping our relationship as it is, then maybe we shouldn’t—”

“No!” River said panicked. “Don’t say that. I…um…you’re right. We can keep things strictly on a friendly level. Just don’t say you don’t want to be friends with me. I get that you want to be with Adin, but I couldn’t bear the thought of you not being in my life at all. Friends, I can do.”

“
Friends
,” she emphasized.

“Friends,” he agreed.

She waited a moment to let that sink in. She wanted to be sure he was clear on how she felt about him before they went on. “Can I ask you something?” she asked after several seconds had passed. She’d been wanting to pick his brain since the other night, but hadn’t had a moment alone to call him.

“Anything,” he whispered. And she was absolutely sure he meant that.

“I had another dream last night about weather. Since Lissa said my mom would be contacting me—but she didn’t know when or how—I think that maybe these dreams are my mom’s doing. What do you think?”

“Hmmm…I’m not entirely sure the dreams are coming from your mom.”

“Why not?”

“I think it’s more likely that it’s your own subconscious trying to work things out.” That wasn’t the first time she’d considered this alternative.

“But I’ve received some signs in the dreams that I couldn’t have given to myself.”

“Are you sure about that?” He was actually curious, but that made her think of the reasons she’d considered when she tried to explain to herself why those images—Adin’s house, the store’s street address—came to her. She’d thought that maybe she’d seen them before but never really noticed.

“I’m not sure about anything,” she confessed.

“Well, I guess it’s good you’re trying to consider all the possibilities.”

She gasped. “Do you think it could be your mom’s doing?” She hadn’t even thought about that until now!

“No,” he said calmly. “She can’t get into your dreams. We’re not descended from Hypnos’s line.”

“Who’s Hypnos?”

“The god of sleep. He had four sons with Pasithea: Ikelos, Morpheus, Phobetor, and Phantasos. Their sons were known as the Oneiroi. But Morpheus is the Greek god of dreams. If one of the gods is involved in manipulating your dreams, I would think that either Morpheus himself or one of his descendents who retained some power over dreams would be the one behind that. We’re not part of that lineage, so I know my mom can’t do that.”

He spoke so freely about his Greek mythology knowledge. She immediately found herself wanting to get more out of him while they had the opportunity.

She stepped quickly over to him and grabbed his arm. “You have to tell me more.”

River was startled, but willing. “Um, what do you want to know? There’s so much.”

“Who did you descend from? Did you ever live here before? Do you know why it’s been prophesied that we’ll be together?” She tried not to squirm when she asked the last question.

“I came from the line that started with Phorcys and Ceto. They were sea gods who were both created from Gaia, a goddess of nature. They had some monster offspring that paired themselves with more noble mates to produce a better line. But since the monster genes are in my family’s gene pool, sometimes new gods can be more monster than noble.” He paused and looked down. “Even those of us who are not monsters tend to have
evil
tendencies.”

“What does that mean?”

“Well, let’s just say my mother’s behavior comes naturally.”

“What about the rest? Have you ever lived here before?” She didn’t want to repeat the
other
question.

“Yes. Well, not in this town. We lived about ten miles out of town when I was a baby.”

“So
your
family is why my mom left?” She tried not to shriek, but she wasn’t successful.

She still had her hand wrapped firmly around River’s arm. He took a deep breath and exhaled slowly. “I don’t know for sure, but yes, I think my family was partly to blame. It’s not like my mom gives me a play-by-play of her actions, and I could never ask her about what happened back then. Especially not now.”

She dropped his arm and folded hers over her chest. “And the prophecy?”

“I don’t know anything else about that. Like I said before, I just found out about it a few weeks ago. I already told you everything I know about that,” he whispered.

“What else?”

“What?” he asked puzzled.

“What else don’t I know that you know that I should know?” She wondered if her convoluted question made sense to him, but it was obvious that it did.

“Umm,” he started, shrugging his shoulders. “I’m sure you’re most curious about your family, but I’m not sure about anything on that. After I found out about the prophecy, I tried to do some research. I haven’t really come up with anything yet.” But it was obvious he wasn’t being completely forthcoming.

“You know something?” she accused.

“I only know pieces. I haven’t connected all the pieces yet, so I can’t really say what I do know. Believe me, if I did, I would tell you. You know I can’t deny you anything.”

“Please just tell me,” she said as she touched his shoulder. She knew it wasn’t fair to persuade him this way, but at this point, she didn’t care. “What about my name?”

He stared at her cautiously. She apparently hit a topic he’d already considered.

“Lissa told me Kore is another name for Persephone. And Persephone is Demeter and Zeus’s daughter. I also know that Dora is descended from Demeter, either directly of her likeness or generational. But there is no continuation of the line that I can find. Persephone only had one daughter and the line ended. At least in my online research.”

“Why are you concerned with the gods’ children?”

“Um, because I’m trying to find exactly who I am.”

“You’re Legacy. Dora’s daughter.
That’s
who you are.”

“But why am I like this?”

He smiled. “Ahh, now you’re thinking the way you should.”

“What do you mean?”

“You know gods can create a likeness from themselves with other gods. Demeter could have created Dora directly from herself, and then Dora could’ve created you. The question is why do this? Why create gods in the likeness of others? That’s what I’ve been digging into. You see, Dora could have created you with Zeus and it not be a sexual creation. They could have tried to recreate a god that was created before.”

“Why would they want to create a specific god when they already have that exact one?”

“To allow for a different destiny.”

“So if Demeter created Dora and Dora created me, then does that mean I’m an exact replica of Persephone?”

“That’s one theory. Another theory is that Dora is actually Demeter and you’re actually Persephone, or her likeness created by the original Demeter.”

“What?” she yelled. “I can’t actually be Persephone, I’m only seventeen!”

“You’re in your human form now, and gods don’t age the way you’re accustomed to. But looking at it from that perspective,
you
could be much older. I could be much older.”

“This doesn’t make any sense.” She shook her head. “If they were already gods, why start over? If every new god must go through changes starting in their seventeenth year of rebirth, why agree to lose that power in the first place, much less run the risk of never attaining it again?”

“To create a new destiny.” River said that once, but she was on information overload. “Whether your mom is actually Demeter or created from her and whether you were created from the original Demeter or from her creation, it really doesn’t matter. It matters why you’re here now, and me, for that matter. The only thing we need to really focus on is making it to our eighteenth birthdays. If we are original gods or new creations, that doesn’t matter now. We’ll be powerful
if
we make it through.”