Prophecy of the Most Beautiful (9 page)

L.A. was way more gorgeous than the poster on her bedroom wall, for sure. His coal black hair fell into long, attractive dreadlocks, tied back with a strip of leather. He was shirtless, revealing a powerful, ripped torso that was covered in tattoos all the way up to his chin. He had the smoothest skin, close to perfection lips and the fiercest blue eyes plus brow piercing she had ever seen. This was
L.A.
, the hottest rockstar alive.

Ace was wrong. She
had
died and gone right to heaven.

"Get up, Chloe!" Ace shouted, pulling at her arm. He was already on his feet. "He wants to see you!"

What
? L.A. wanted to see
her
?

She let Ace pull her to her feet, but she leaned on him for support, her knees too shaky to trust. It was weird, as soon as she stood, L.A.'s crystal blue eyes landed right on her. He stared at her for a long moment, looked her up then down, and smiled like she was something nice to look at.

"He likes you," Ace shouted with a smile of his own. Chloe couldn't respond. Talking would have required too much effort and with the way L.A. had just smiled at her, her brain had become too mushy to handle such a task.

L.A. just continued to play and stare, making her more nervous by the second. Then, to her utter astonishment, he winked at her––at
her
, Chloe Clever
––
right before he begin to sing.

For the next hour, she stood like a statue, watching as L.A. commanded the stage and the attention of every person in the arena as he ripped through one amazing song after another. His voice was unbelievable. Every song was a hit. The crowd knew every word and L.A. egged them on to sing along.

The Daughters of Inspiration rocked. The drummer's apparent somber disposition turned her into a magician on the drums, and the lead guitarist and bassist added just the right amount of extra guitar rifts to compliment L.A.'s. The Daughter on the keyboards was laughing the entire time as her expert fingers flew over the keys and the disc jockey knew how to incorporate musical effects like no other.

She spent the concert being the sole object of L.A’s attentions. It was like there wasn’t even twenty thousand other people there, just her, but she didn’t care. This was
L.A.
, the rockstar extraordinaire of her wildest dreams. She wasn’t going to waste time contemplating why he couldn’t seem to take his eyes off of her. And as was the inevitable, the music took her and before the show was over, she had thrown her arm around Ace's shoulder and was screaming the words at the top of her lungs.

It all ended way too soon and she hated Ace for making her leave. She wanted to live in it for just a little while longer and not have to go back to worrying about what was going on. Nevertheless, she followed Ace back through the barricades, down the long backstage hallways, and back to an arena exit that announced its existence with a bright red "EXIT" sign.

Ace paused before pushing the lever to go out.

"Don't be scared, Chloe. Everythin's cool."

She crossed her arms. "Usually when someone says that it means you should actually be terrified."

"I was jus' tryna warn you, tha's all."

"Warn me about
what
?" She was growing more impatient by the millisecond.

Ace sighed. "He wants to meet you," He said, "Right now."

*****

VII. Chloe

A Divinity's Stimuli's tour buses were in the back lot of the arena, and already, swarms of screaming fans were surrounding them. Security created a path for the two of them and they made their way towards the head bus. Chloe could barely breathe.

This cannot be happening
, she thought.

But it was. The doors opened for them as soon as they approached and they climbed aboard.

A Divinity's Stimuli's bus could hardly be considered a tour bus at all. It looked more like a temple of some kind, ancient and rich. It had gold tables, chairs, ottomans and fancy chaise lounges covered in lush fabrics of indigo and violet. The rich-colored tapestries edged with golden leaves of woven silk were draped grecian style across the walls. There were statues of people holding potted plants and a fountain with a woman bursting out of the torrent of water swirling at the base of her, making her look like she was half of a woman and half made of water. Four huge marble pillars seemed to be holding up the ceiling that was painted with a mosaic of the sun. The sun glowed and gave the room its lighting. But this all puzzled her. The room appeared to be
way
too big for the compartment of a bus. It was more the size of a chamber of some ancient temple or a room in a royal household. She chose to pretend she didn't notice. It was too mind boggling to handle.

L.A. was reclined across one of the lounges with his guitar in front of him. She was kind of disappointed that he had put on a shirt, even though it was a white graphic tee that still displayed all of his beautiful muscles. He had let his dreads fall loose, but had swept the ones in the front back out of his face.

"Next time, Euterpe," He was saying to his fellow guitarist who sat on the floor beside him, "I'll hit
F#
at that point in the song, and you hit
A
." Simultaneously, they struck the notes on their guitars and they came out in perfect harmony.

Euterpe smiled. "That sounds real good, brother."

They were related, another unexpected surprise for Chloe. She had never read that in any of the magazines.

The cute keyboardist sat on the floor next to Euterpe with her head on L.A.'s knee and put down the bowl of grapes she was holding to clap at their playing.

"You look like you're thinking hard about something over there, Chloe," Euterpe said with a smile.

"She looks kind of clueless to me," said the drummer with the blue mohawk in a gruff tone. She was comfortable on a lounge, her bare feet propped up on a cushion.

"Watch it, Mel," L.A. said, narrowing his eyes. Mel looked at him, dropped her eyes and gave a respectful nod. L.A. smiled at Chloe, then moved on to Ace, dropping the smile and giving him a stoney gaze. The boy stiffened.

"My lord," Ace said, sounding important and leaning over into a small bow. When he looked at her, she mimicked his gesture, not understanding at all why she should.

"Ace," L.A. greeted him with an insignificant nod of his head. He looked at Chloe again. "Enjoy the show?" The smile returned.

"Uh…uh, yeah," She managed, coming out of her bow, "It was unbelievable." She couldn't even begin to describe how she really felt.
Awed. Excited. Scared. Confused. Exhilarated.

"Awesome. It would majorly suck if you hadn't." He gave her a golden smile that in a less stunned state of mind would have made her blush her socks off. But for now, all she could do was stare. "You can sit down, you know." He gestured at a couple of grecian ottomans covered in an expensive-looking mauve cloth and edged with gold braiding. After a little prompting from Ace, she flopped down on the one at the foot of L.A.'s lounge.

"My name's Thaleia," said the blonde keyboardist. Her voice was soft and high-pitched. "Cute jeans, by the way."

"Uh, thank you," Chloe replied. Thaleia nodded and smiled.

"Euterpe's right," L.A. said, "You do look like you're thinking very hard about something. Care to share your thoughts?"

She hesitated, then shook her head. It would be impossible for her to put her harried thoughts into words right then.

With an eyebrow raised, he asked, "Are you afraid?"

She shook her head again. "No…not really anyway…"

He grinned. "There's no reason to be scared. I'd never hurt you. I only just found you. I just hope you prove to be of worth, Oracle."

There goes that name again
. She frowned. "What do you mean?"

L.A. plucked a grape out of the bowl Thaleia held up for him. "What do you know about Greek myth, Chloe?" He gave her a beautiful reassuring smile.

"Um, Greek myth, as in mythology?" It was an odd question. "I don't know much about it really. I had a Hercules pop-up book as a kid. I know there's a god named Zeus or something like that…"

L.A. rolled his eyes. "Sure you do. Mortals always seem to have heard of Zeus before any other god," He said with an exasperated sigh. "It's like no one else even exists." Chloe stared at him and waited for him to say he was just joking or to flash her a playful smile to show he was kidding, but he did neither.

"You're telling me Zeus is real?" She asked after a minute. Chloe tried to think back to any stories she might have remembered being told about Zeus or Greek mythology. All she came up with was Hercules.
You're so lame for bringing up the pop-up book
,
Clever.

L.A. shrugged. "Zeus is real. It's all real."

She shook her head. "I don't get it."

He sighed. "I'm sure." He began to explain after eating more grapes. "There are two worlds, Chloe. Your world and my world. They exist together but at the same time, they are separate. Your world is earthly; mine is heavenly." The rockstar paused, then laughed. She knew she must have looked very confused and disbelieving. "Sorry, Chloe. I know this is a lot to take in all at once. Maybe you would understand better if I showed you."

"Everythin's cool," Ace said to her as he bit into a large apple he'd just picked up. Euterpe and Thaleia smiled and waved. Mel laughed and made the peace sign.

L.A. plucked a string on his guitar, and everything, including Ace and the three Daughters, disappeared from around them, leaving them in the center of a cyclone of colors.

It was the strangest thing she had ever experienced and she tried not to get sick. She felt like her world had just turned upside down. She held her breath as the room swirled around them at lightning speed. L.A. remained in her clear line of vision and she wondered how that could be when everything else was such a blur. She felt around in the chaos for something, anything that might help balance her senses again but found nothing. It felt like being on a merry-go-round going one hundred miles per hour or a roller coaster that had lost its grip on the track and was now hurdling all of its riders through the air, untamed. She blinked, hoping it was just her unstable mind playing tricks on her, but several blinks later, the world still swirled around her. But then, after what seemed like an eternity, she heard the pluck of a guitar string, and the world came to an abrupt, dizzying stop in front of them.

"And...we're here," L.A. said, as Chloe stumbled out of the madness to stand beside him. As she gathered herself and tried to make her legs stop shaking, she looked up and around her in absolute, jaw-dropping wonder.

They were now in a hexagon-shaped throne room of some kind. There were twelve––she had counted––towering gold statues that stood about fifty feet tall circling the entire room. Each statue was of a man or a woman: seven men and five women to be exact, and they all had beautiful thrones carved out of the outstretched hands of each statue. The walls of the throne room were marbled in red and shards of gold and the roof was domed and painted with a beautiful mural of people in elegant togas laid about in a garden filled with flowers and fruit. Around the base of each of the twelve statues was a ring of smokeless fire, and each inferno seemed to be burning in its own way––different colors, different intensities––as if each flame were special somehow.

"What is this place?" Chloe asked, awed by the grandiosity of the beautiful room. She had never in her life even
imagined
anything like it. She twirled around in a small, slow circle to take it all in.

"This is the Shrine of
Olympus
," L.A. explained, as he came to stand beside her, "It's a very sacred place, only the gods are allowed here. So get a good look at it, Chloe, and hope that you never see it again."

"What do you mean?" She looked at him.

L.A. smirked. "We're in Olympus, the royal province in the heavens of
Myth
and the home of the gods, though many no longer reside here." He gestured upwards. "This is the throne room of the
Olympians
, the twelve most powerful Greek deities. This is where important issues are debated and decided. This is where Zeus, the lord of the sky and the King of the gods, grants pardons for wrongdoings…and gives punishments for the same. Mostly punishments, unfortunately, and mostly to stupid, overambitious mortals who have forgotten their place of inferiority." He neither looked nor sounded very sympathetic, making Chloe wonder what part he played in all of this. She committed to memory right then that the Shrine of Olympus was not a place that she ever wanted to see again. Not that she was staying around long enough for it to matter.

L.A. let Chloe explore the throne room (nothing could have stopped her) while he stood back and watched, his arms crossed, his guitar slung over his back. The first statue Chloe approached was of a regal woman dressed in long robes, with a crown of leaves adorning her head and an owl perched on her shoulder. The woman was encircled with a ring of soft green fire that was giving off a calm floral scent. She was drawn to the flame and inhaled its aroma. Then something else caught her eye.

"Hey," She said, "There are actual
words
in the fire." Words were floating around in it, like "humility", "dignity", and "kindness".

"Words of wisdom," Apollo said. "You're looking at Athena, goddess of Wisdom, Combat, and Victory. She's wise beyond comprehension and strategies of war are her game. She is the deciding factor between victory or defeat, so kings and queens and emperors alike always strived in the old days to stay on her good side. Because if she blessed you at war, you won, hands down." He shrugged like that was somehow unimpressive, even though he was gazing up at her with a soft adoration in his eyes.

The statue next to Athena was of a hard faced man with a broad stature that was outfitted with heavy armor. He held a spear in the hand not made of the throne. When Chloe approached the bloody red fire surrounding it, she heard battle cries and the sound of swords clanging together and heavy artillery being fired off. It was like a war was being fought within the blaze.