Marker of Hope (10 page)

“I see a pair of headlights pulling up.”

“They’re here?” I shrank into the chair.

“They’re here.”

CHAPTER 12

The front door opened. My heart pounded. Nyx
was the first one in, carrying a large shoulder bag. She was
halfway to the stairs when she noticed David and me standing at the
entrance to the study. She stopped dead in her tracks.

“Hello, Isis,” she said, glaring at David.
“This will escalate quickly.”

Alezzander stepped in the door next, carrying
two small suitcases and looking at his cell phone. He stopped at
Nyx’s side and looked up. His jaw tensed. A deep tone of red
flourished from his neck and up to his face. He dropped the
suitcases at his sides.

“Hello.” I cleared my throat.
“Alezzander.”

Alezzander didn’t respond. Instead, he turned
to David, and said, “You couldn’t have told me this over the
phone?”

“I thought it would be better to tell you in
person,” David said.

I heard the click of footsteps and turned my
attention to the door. A platinum blonde with wide copper eyes
raised her brow at me. The short skintight dress she had on left
nothing for the imagination to wonder.

“You,” she said.

“You,” I said.

“Olympia…” Nyx said. “This is—”

“I know who she is. I met her in Bucharest.”
Olympia blinked at David. “What I don’t know is what she’s doing
here, Dahveed.”

“Why are
you
here?” I asked.

“I’m paying a surprise visit to David,” she
said with one hand on her hip. “My fiancée.”

“Her?” I looked at David. “You got engaged to
her
?”

“No. I mean, well, yes, technically, but…”
David turned to Olympia. “I’m calling off the engagement.”

“
What?”
Olympia shrieked.

“The hell you are,” Alezzander said to David.
“You have a commitment to Olympia. You gave her your word.”

“Alezzander, dear,” Nyx put her hand on her
husband’s arm, “perhaps we should discuss this matter more calmly
and in private.”

“Yes, we should,” Olympia said.

“I meant Alezzander, Dahveed, and me,” Nyx
clarified. Olympia scoffed. “Son, close the door behind you,” Nyx
said, and then walked into the study. Alezzander followed her.

“I’ll be back,” David told me. “I’ll take
care of this.”

The door to the study closed. Olympia made a
disgruntled noise and crossed her arms. She glowered at me. I
mocked her glare.

Olympia raised her index finger at me. “If
you think, even for one second, Dahveed is—”

“Do we have to do this—the catfight thing?
Because I’ve always thought that sort of thing was petty and
childish.”

Angry screams came from the study, and
Olympia turned away from me. She walked to the door and placed her
ear against it.

“I don’t care!” I heard David’s voice.

Olympia opened the door to the study.

“I have a right to know what’s happening,”
Olympia said to them.

“What are you still doing here?” David said,
his tone cross.

“I need to speak to you, and I’m not leaving
until I do,” Olympia said.

“Olympia,” Alezzander said, “I believe it’d
be better if you left. David will be in touch.”

“No, I won’t.” David walked out of the study,
past Olympia. “I told you the engagement is off. I was mistaken to
think I could marry you, Olympia. And I’m sorry. But I can’t go
through with this farce.”

“David, you’re confused.” Olympia reached for
his face, but David stepped back. “
David
…”

“Please leave,” David said to her. “There’s
nothing more to discuss.”

“So…this is goodbye, then?” Olympia sounded
doubtful. She took a step closer to him. “You’re choosing her—” she
jerked her head in my direction “—over me? Don’t I mean anything to
you?”

David shrugged a shoulder. “In all truth, you
never did.”

Olympia’s eyes raged. Her open hand impacted
the side of David’s face with a loud smack that ricocheted off the
empty house walls.

Oh no, she didn’t!

I wound up my arm.

“Isis, no!” Nyx screamed, but her warning
came too late.

My fist hit Olympia’s face. Her body hit the
floor. I pressed my foot deep into her neck. She clawed at my leg,
gasping. I buried the tip of my shoe harder into her skin. Her face
turned a brilliant shade of red, and tears rolled down the side of
her cheek. I could hear the beating of her alarmed pulse, smell the
warmth of her skin as her temperature rose. If I pressed a little
harder, dug my foot in a little deeper, her neck would snap under
the pressure. The thought was awfully becoming.

David grabbed my arms and pulled me back,
making me lose my balance, along with my purchase on Olympia’s
neck. I toppled into his chest.

“Why did you do that?” David said,
panicked.

“I don’t like her,” I said.

He examined my hand.

“
Oh
…” Realization washed over me.

I understood the reason behind David’s
question. In my moment of anger, I’d forgotten about the rule where
I couldn’t hit a deity or I’d be eaten alive from the inside out by
worms as punishment. It happened once before; the experience wasn’t
one I wanted to relive. I stared at my hand, waiting for the decay
to begin, but…

“It’s not happening,” I said.

I looked at Olympia, coughing and gasping for
air on the floor. There was no way she could’ve forgiven me so
fast. Or at all. When I’d met her in Bucharest, her hatred for me
was instantaneous the moment she’d found out David and I were in a
relationship.

Olympia’s chest rose high as she took a
tattered breath and sat up. She rubbed her cheekbone. Nyx tried to
help her stand, but she swatted her away.

“You cheating bastard!” Olympia growled at
David. “Your word holds no honor.” She wobbled on her high heels as
she stood up, pulling down the hem of her red spandex dress. “And
you…” she looked at me “…you’re a sorry little bitch.”

“Excuse me,” I waved my finger at her, “but
I’m not the one dressed like a two-cent hooker.”

“Why don’t you come closer and repeat that?”
she seethed.

I took a step forward, and Alezzander
intercepted me. David grabbed me by the arm and held on tight.

“Stop it,” David said.

“She started it,” I argued.

“Me?” Olympia gasped. “You broke up my
engagement, you filthy whore.”

“Wait, wait,” I said. “Haven’t we established
who’s the one doing all the whoring around here? Hint:
you
!”

“Aahh!” Olympia came raging at me.

“That’s enough!” Alezzander said, holding
Olympia back. “Both of you! Enough.”

“I apologize for what’s transpired tonight,”
Nyx said to Olympia. “But I’m going to have to ask you to leave.
And although not honorable, David has made his choice.”

“But I was his first choice,” Olympia
whimpered. “
Me
!”

“Olympia, please… Listen to yourself.” Nyx
touched her shoulder. “Where’s your dignity? Walk away with what
pride you have left and be done with this spectacle.”

Olympia stilled, her eyes sparkling with
moisture.

“Fine,” Olympia said. “Fine.” She twisted her
arm out from under Alezzander’s hold. Her nostrils flared as she
looked around the room at all of us. “But I won’t forget this.”

Alezzander handed her one of the suitcases
he’d walked in with. Olympia held David’s stare as she transformed
into a cloud of golden glitter and vanished.

“At last,” Nyx sighed. “Thank the heavens
she’s gone.”

“A fine mess you’ve made of things,”
Alezzander said to David. “Why didn’t you tell me Isis would be
here? I wouldn’t have brought Olympia.”

“How was I supposed to know she was coming?”
David said. “Besides, I told you I had to speak to you, and I told
you it was important, didn’t I?”

“And this was it? You called us here to tell
us you were calling off the engagement because you’ve reconciled
with Isis?” Alezzander asked. “You could’ve saved me the trip by
telling me over the damned phone.”

“It’s not all I have to tell you. We…” David
paused. “Father, Mother,” he took my hand, “as per the Laws of
Caelum, I present to you my wife.”

Alezzander blinked at us.

“Don’t stop there. Go on,” Nyx pressed. “Tell
him the rest.”

“There’s more?” Alezzander asked, and David
nodded.

“
Meum fructum gerit
,” David said in
Latin.

“What did you just say?” Alezzander asked,
knitting his brow.

“She carries my fruit.” David squeezed my
hand. “Isis is pregnant, Father.”

CHAPTER 13

I expected Alezzander to throw a fit. I
expected him to break things. Whatever reaction was about to rise
out, I expected it all—earth-shattering fury, sharp words that
would cut deep into my skin. He raised his arms, and I winced,
readying myself for the eruption of screams.

Nothing
?

Alezzander rubbed his face with both hands.
He walked to the staircase and clasped the banister like he needed
its support to continue standing. He stood there. No reaction.

David and I exchanged confused glances.

“Could it be?” Alexander said. “Could it
really be possible? There’ve been rumors floating amongst the
members of the Council, lately, but…” Alezzander looked at his
hands on the rail. “The signs were there. I didn’t want to believe
it.” His brow tightened. “But it’s a children’s story.” He turned
to look at David and me. “A fairy tale passed down through
generations. Unless…”

“Unless it’s what we were made to
believe—that it was a mere story,” Nyx said. “And it could very
well be the reason the goddess Starr protected us all.”

“Clue me in. What are they talking about?” I
asked David.

“I’m not sure,” David said.

“Do you remember when you were a child, the
story I would tell you every night?” Nyx asked David.

“Yes.
The Story of Carbō
Spei and the Unknown Prince.
”

“What if I told you it wasn’t a story?” Nyx
said. “What if I told you it was the future? Your future.”

“Impossible.” David’s face wrinkled. “That
would make me the Unknown Prince and Isis—”

“Carbō Spei,
” Nyx
said.

“What’
s a Carbō
Spei
?” I asked. “Is it a Creatura?”

“No. It means the Marker of Hope,” David
said.

I shivered. It was the third time I’d heard
those exact words used to describe me. Deus had told me the answers
would be given to me in time, and the time was now. What was my
purpose for being like this?

“What happens in the story?” I asked. “What’s
the Marker of Hope supposed to do?”

“The story goes like this…” Nyx took a seat
on the steps of the staircase.

“In this world created countless years ago,
mankind derailed from the path of brotherhood. So much was man’s
segregation from one another that wars scattered in different
corners of the Earth. Man was no more the gentle creature who
valued the soil of his world, the blood of his kin, or the faith of
his gods. The widespread growth of this new thinking brought
suffering, famine, and illness. But man was ignorant of the fact it
was the greed for power and the hatred greed brought with it that
was to blame for the poor state of the world. This thinking and the
actions of man needed to be corrected; or else mankind would one
day cease to exist.”

Nyx smiled at the floor. “This is the part
where David would say, ‘I’m scared, Mother,’ and then I would wrap
him up in my arms and tell him there was nothing to fear.”

“And you told me the same lie every time.”
David crossed his arms.

“You’re both making me nervous,” I said.

“Keep going,” Alezzander told Nyx. “Finish
the story.”

“Stop interrupting,” Nyx told David.
“Continuing… In a humble village off the coast of the Sea of
Atlas,” Nyx continued, “a young mother gave birth to an unlikely
hero—the one who would come to be known as the Marker of Hope.

“This child—a girl—didn’t know she had the
power to save the world. She didn’t even know she was
extraordinary. But once she came of age and met her true love, her
truth was revealed.”

“The Unknown Prince?” I asked, and Nyx
nodded. “What was her truth?”

Nyx resumed the story. “The Marker of Hope
and the Unknown Prince would marry and bear a child who would be
the first born of a generation of leaders and peacemakers to change
the world for the better. These changes included the end to all
wars and the spiritual, intellectual, and physical evolution of
man—the new humankind would be, as the word suggests, kind to one
other. But before the Marker of Hope and her love could find peace
in each other’s arms, they would have to battle the forces of
darkness that threatened to rip their child from her womb. If this
were to happen, it would prevent the prophecy from unfolding and
humanity’s inevitable extinction.”

“No.” I touched my stomach. “It has to be a
coincidence. You don’t even have a name for the girl.”

“Her name was Eva,” David said.

“That’s my grandmother’s name, not mine,” I
told them. “You’re wrong. It’s not me.”

“There’s more,” David said, taking my hands.
“In the story, Eva’s mother’s name is Clarana.”

“And?”

“What’s your mother’s full name?”

“Claire Ann Mar… Oh.” I breathed. “Okay, so
it sounds similar. But it doesn’t mean anything.”

“Can’t you see?” David gave my hands a
squeeze. “There are too many parallels in Eva’s story and your
life.”

“This is ridiculous.” I pulled away from
David’s grasp. “I am
not
her.”

“Has your name always been ‘Isis’?” Nyx
asked.

“What kind of question is that? Of course.
Since I was born.”

“Let’s find out.” Nyx pulled her cell phone
out of her purse and tapped the screen. She placed the phone on her
ear. “How are you, Claire? Yes, she’s still here,” Nyx said,
glancing at me. “Oh, yes, we
were
upset and very surprised,
but these things happen, and all we can do is try to be good and
understanding parents.” A pause. “Oh, I know. I know.” Another
pause. “Well, we’ll have to get together soon to talk about it, but
in the meantime, I was calling because I have a question for you.
You see, we were discussing baby names and…” Nyx laughed. She sure
was good at faking it. “Yes, I know it’s too soon for it, and I
know it’s a strange question to ask. But I was telling Isis that I
changed my mind about David’s name about a hundred times before I
chose one, and I assured her it’s very common. So we were wondering
what other names, if any, you’d chosen for Isis before she was
born. You know, just out of curiosity and for the sake of
conversation.” She knit her brow. “Really? Uh… Just a second.” She
touched the phone’s screen. “Could you repeat that?”