Prophecy of the Most Beautiful (44 page)

They were
definitely
female. Every last one of them.

He heard one of them curse as she tripped over a tree branch. The one who had gagged him.

He now had a voice. He would remember the sound of it so that later he wouldn't make a mistake and off the wrong girl.

He was being dragged away now.

He saw a movement out of the corner of his eye. In a window of the Clever house.

Someone was there, watching everything. He knew who it was.

He tried to turn but one of them pulled his hair. He tried to kick her and she punched him.

Varney's tab grew. She owed him a kiss with lots of tongue for that.

But to his benefit, they had stopped dragging him by his feet, and now had his arms hooked between two of them.

He had a full view of the house now.

He found the window.

To his complete and utter astonishment, they were still there, standing, watching.

Not Benjy, but Beth, Chloe's mother.

*****

XXXIII. Chloe

"Yup. She’s blitzed."

Chloe heard Strafford let out a low curse.

She opened her eyes, a facial function that had
not
been under her control, and found Dio sitting on the other side of her. How had he moved so fast? She wanted to run away, but her legs weren't having it. Her arms were like lead at her side. She wasn't going anywhere.

"Now, Pythia," Dio began, "Tell me the truth. What are you and Strafford really doing here?"

"We came to see Tom," was her automatic answer. She heard Tom groan and wished she could take it back. But her mouth felt like a separate feature from her face and even her own speech was out of her control right now.
Had he made her drink some kind of truth serum?

No, he’d lowered her
inhibitions
.

Crap.

"What did you ask Tom to do for you?"

"Help us with a prophecy."

"I am so dead," Tom groaned.

"Dude, shut up and drink," Dio snapped, filling up his son's glass with a wave of his hand. "Now, Pythia, what prophecy are you talking about?"

The answer spilled out of her mouth. "The one we needed solved to discover the Most Beautiful."

The god of Wine and Merriment raised an eyebrow. "The Most Beautiful, huh?"

"Yes. The prophecy of the Most Beautiful. I named it that myself." Strafford exhaled. It sounded like relief.

Dio chuckled. "Is that all? Why didn't you just say that to begin with? Pretty cool name, too." He kissed her cheek and she felt herself regain control of her senses. It was like the puppeteer cutting her puppet strings. Her muscles flopped loose and she sobered right up.

"What did you just do to me?!" She exclaimed, trying to shake off the weird sensation that her bones were made of rubber.

He stood, completely ignoring her. "Get up and come with me." Strafford helped her to her feet, looking at her like he had no idea who she was. "Dude, not you," Dio snapped at Tom, who had jumped up at his father's command. "You stay right here. Ajax, make sure he doesn't leave."

Tom gulped and sank back into the couch. After throwing Chloe a lethal glance, he buried his face in his hands, while Ajax laughed and made a slicing motion across his neck.

Dio led them down the winding staircase and the music stayed muted around them. The flashy emos of the second level gave them wide berth as Dio directed her over to the banister to look out over the unruly crowd below.

"Stand by me, Pythia," He said, wrapping an arm around her shoulder and pulling her to him. Strafford stood next to them, looking like he wanted to snap off Dio’s arm. Dio feigned ignorance and pointed to the far back corner of the club. "Do you see that pathetic boy over there sitting at the bar?"

She followed the direction of his finger until her eyes landed on a solemn-looking young man planted on a bar stool. He had a drink in front of him, but it was still full, and he kept looking around him like he was waiting on somebody to join him. Chloe got the feeling that he had been waiting a long time.

"Who is he?"

"A
very
regular patron of the
Verdict
, the maenads tell me." Dio sipped his wine. "Every night, he sits at the bar, orders a nymph water that he doesn't drink, and waits."

"What is he waiting for?"

Dio grinned. "I believe he's been waiting on you."

"
What
?" Who in the world would be waiting for her in a Los Atlas nightclub?
Why
would they be waiting for her in a Los Atlas nightclub? How did they even know that she would come here?

How did
Dio
know? That was the real question.

"Go to him," He said, "You'll figure out what to do."

"I'm comin' with you, Red," Strafford said.

"She doesn't need a babysitter, Law," said Dio. "Stay with me and chick watch. There's a lot of hot ladies in here tonight."

Chloe pretended she didn't hear that. "I'll be fine, Strafford. But keep a look out for me anyway? Just in case I'm wrong?" She saw Dio roll his eyes but she ignored him.

"You know I will, Red," Strafford replied. The corners of his mouth turned up for her, making her smile in return. With that, she made her way down to the main level.

The
iceys
made a path for her. With the eyes of Dio watching them, who would dare stand in her way? She got a few ugly looks, mostly from maenads, but even those didn't carry the harshness they could have had he not been watching.

She approached the boy with caution. He was dressed quite normal for where he was, in a navy polo and jeans. No neon-colored jacket or ridiculous print tie like she had seen on some of the guys here. His soft blonde curls were cut close to his head and complemented his almost infantile face. He didn't look to be much older than she was, however, she couldn't figure out his exact age. But age didn't really matter where the
iceys
were concerned anyway. He could be eighty-years-old for all she knew.

He spotted her before she'd even made her way out of the crowd. "Are you the one I've been waiting for?" He asked before she had even said one word.

She stopped just short of him. "I…I don't know..."

"The old Oracle told me that one day the "one who sees the future" would come for me here, in Los Atlas, and that I should wait for you. They said you would need me to fulfill another prophecy and that I should trust you. Are you the one? Do you need me? I've been waiting such a long time." He just looked so hopeful.

She smiled. His anxiety had somehow put her at ease. "What's your name?"

He stood, proud and tall, and actually saluted her. "Roman Nester, ma’m."

Ma’m?
She stepped forward and gave him her hand to shake. "Nice to meet you, Roman. I'm Chloe, and yes, I'm the Oracle."

His blue eyes glittered with excitement. "And you need my help?"

"I think I do, Roman, but I have to say I don't know how."

He had a nice smile. "Well, I'm at your service, Oracle. I've been waiting many years for this moment. Whatever you need, I'm willing to do. Just name it."

Something clicked in her mind. Something so apparent and clear, it startled her. She stared long and hard at him, thinking it could not be this easy.

"You're the heart," She said, more to herself than to him.
The most willing of hearts you seek, is in the god's sight
, she thought.
Dionysus,
not
Aphrodite.
Tom was right. There was just one.

"What?"

"You're the sacrifice the prophecies talk about!"

"Um…
sacrifice
?" His voice wavered a bit.

"You're
him!
"

"What…"

"Will you come with me?"

"Of course. But you're not
really
going to sacrifice me, are you?"

"Come on!" She grabbed his hand and dragged him back to the second floor landing, not stopping to apologize to any of the
iceys
whose feet she stepped on. Strafford met her at the top of the stairs.

"Wha's going on, Red? Who is this fella?"

"We have to get back to the others, Strafford." She cut Roman off before he could salute and introduce himself. There was no time to explain. "I know what to do now."

"As I said you would," Dio commented, walking up. He had his arm around a maenad who kept nibbling on his pierced ear every two seconds and throwing her dirty looks.

"How did you know?" She asked.

"It doesn't matter," He replied, "You got what you wanted, didn't you?" He gestured at Roman.

"Did
you
get what you wanted?" She snapped.

"Your mouth, wan, is gonna get us killed one day," Strafford said as though that was some new revelation, but he was smiling.

Dio simply shrugged. "I apologize for blitzing you, Pythia. I thought you were here to get Tom to help you decipher the Great Unknown and I needed to know what you knew. However, I'm glad to see I was wrong." He stared at her over the rim of his glass as he drank.

"I don't even know the GUP," She said.

"Uh-huh." It was clear he didn't believe her, but she didn't care. It was the truth. "Peace out, Pythia. Hit me up when you're tired of living the life of a disgraced
hero
, Law." He turned away, took a few steps, then turned back.

"Oh and Pythia?"

She didn't like the way he was smiling at her. Not one bit. "Yes?"

"The time is now, or not at all."

Hermes had said it, now Dio. What did that even mean? The time for
what
was now?

Without waiting for a response, Dio winked at her, saluted Strafford, then turned, tossed his maenad over his shoulder, and disappeared up the stairs.

*****

XXXIV. Chloe

"We were jus' startin' to worry," Ace said as they burst through the door of Swindle's Los Atlas refuge. He was smiling but when he saw Roman, it evaporated. "Who are
you
?" He asked.

"His name is Roman," She said, as he flushed red and got ready to salute, "and I think he's the Most Beautiful."

That got everyone's attention.

"I had to be sure first," Chloe said, pacing, "I had to be sure that what I saw was right. I mean, I'm pretty sure I'm right, but I had to work out all of the clues and piece it all together."

"Wha' are you haverin' away abou', Red?" Strafford said, untucking his shirt, "You wouldn' tell me anythin' on the way over here, and now, you're going on and on without makin' any sense."

"I know, I know." She paused to take a breath and gather her thoughts. She had been putting it all together in her head. "My prophecy," She began, "says
'Beautiful, Beautiful this one must be saved, from a love that is dark,
and a heart that's enslaved
." She looked around at them, "That is Persephone, the Black Queen." She gave her friends a minute to catch on, then continued, "
There will be no faint of heart on the road to be braved, for the faint of heart will surely see an early grave'.
Those two lines I'm unsure about, but I believe they have something to do with us and our mission.

“Then it says, '
Beautiful, Beautiful, whose heart must be freed, from a battle of centuries and copious measures of greed, the most beautiful heart will sacrifice for one to succeed, for undone, it is written, the two will never concede
'." She smiled, feeling good about this. "There is only one heart that has been caught up in the centuries-old battle between two goddesses––Persephone and Aphrodite. He cannot rest, he will never find any peace, and they will never stop fighting until one of them wins. And one of them must win him."

"Him?" Swindle questioned and the others leaned forward with anticipation, Dropper, the most anxious.

"Yes. Him," She said, "
Adonis
is the Most Beautiful.” Excited, she gestured at Roman. The boy blanched and his mouth flapped open a few times, but no words came out.

A silence followed. A very long one. Strafford was staring at Roman, like he couldn't believe that two goddesses were actually fighting over
this guy
, the supposed
Most Beautiful
.

"Adonis is the Most Beautiful." Swindle smacked his forehead. "Of
course
he is! I'm a complete
jukka
for not thinking of it earlier."

"You sure are," Strafford said, thumping Swindle on the head with the back of his hand. Swindle gave him a dirty look as he rubbed his skull through his curls.

"Wait…" said Ace, looking completely put out by the information, "Let me get this straight. All of this is over a man?"

She nodded. "Adonis…"

"
A man?
" He glared at Roman, who surprisingly didn’t recoil.

"Yes. Adonis was killed by the Ares Boar. He's the reason the tusk was broken. Aphrodite's love for Adonis was so strong it was able to shatter the tusk, because Aphrodite is Ares' one weakness." Clearly that little bit of knowledge had been left out of the history books, and she was glad. Made her spotlight brighter.

"We're out here riskin' our lives…over a man?!" Ace couldn't seem to move past it. "Bloody females…"

"Hey!" She exclaimed.

"Ah, dry up, Ace," Strafford said. "You've had a helluva good time and you know it." Ace could not deny it, and a second later he was grinning and nodding, admitting that he wouldn't rather have been anywhere else.

Swindle was still trying to make sense of everything. "Everyone knows that Lord Ares and Lady Aphrodite are notorious lovers, and that it was the Ares Boar that killed Adonis. Ares was, and will always be, the most jealous of gods. My thing is, if Lady Aphrodite is looking for Adonis, it means Lord Hades must have kept him from his true death. He saved him." He looked at Roman. "Adonis is an
icey
."