Chapter Eight:

"You four are horrible drivers."

She did not expect that to come from the person standing over her. "Where is the person who ran us off the road?" she asked, softly, feebly, faintly.

"Long gone now," sneered the person, his arms crossed. "Once he knew I was here, he left."

Mara felt resentment and fury build in her stomach. "Lord Ares, quit helping me on my quest!" she said snappishly.

"It was Lady Aphrodite's idea to save you," Ares snarled. "I couldn't care less about what happens to you."

"Well you tell my mother to stop interfering in my life! They aren't supposed to do that! And furthermore, she never cared before, so why does she care now?" Mara could have ranted and shouted at Lord Ares all day.

She felt hands grip around her arms, and she saw Arielle and Erik on either sides, trying to calm her down. She dug her elbows in to the ground and tried to lift herself up. Her head pounded. Justin was still unconscious. Arielle was bleeding badly from a cut on her elbow. Erik had a large cut on his forehead.

"Stop helping? I wasn't interfering, child," came a cold, beautiful voice.

"Yes you were!" cried Mara. "You betrayed me and now you expect me to...to accept you! Dad and I...we needed you."

"Mara Anne, I would never betray you," Aphrodite said with conviction. "You have to believe me."

Mara shouted, "You're just like Katherine and Helen! Vain and shallow and...and..." Tears. "You were supposed to be like me. You were supposed to love and be loved, be beautiful inside and out like you told me I am."

"You are. I am," corrected Aphrodite.

"No you aren't, and I hate you! Stay out of my life!"

Aphrodite turned and walked away. Mara could have sworn she'd seen a trace of a tear. She drew a figure in the air, and then disappeared.

Ares put a hand on Mara's shoulder, frowning at her. "You be nice to your mother, Mara Anne Taylor."

"Maybe you should be nice to your son, and I'd consider it." Her voice was soft now. "Good bye, Lord Ares. Please don't interfere again until we've found your sword."

"Don't die then," he sneered. "And I'll consider what you said. Quit upsetting your mother, Mara Anne."

Mara turned away, crawling over to Justin. He was awake now, blinking weakly at them. "We should leave," he croaked. "The human police will be here soon."

"It would be safer if we flew," said Arielle sensibly. "Monsters are found on the ground and underground. We would be going through Zeus's domain yet again."

"As far as we know, Zeus doesn't have anything against us," Erik said.

Arielle said coolly, "But Ares and Aphrodite might."

"Gods aren't supposed to help so much when heroes are on quests!" snapped Mara. "Especially parents!"

Erik murmured softly, "Did you ever consider that your mother might actually love you?"

Mara turned away angrily, tears stinging her eyes. Justin gave her a reassuring smile. They stood up, helping each other, and limped away. It didn't take too long to call a taxi and get a ride to the airport.

When they were walking silently around the Portland, Oregon airport, Erik brought up a strange remark. "Mara Anne."

Mara turned to him.

"It's what your mother and my...um, Lord Ares called you. Mara Anne?" Erik asked.

"Yes," Mara replied, softly. "That's my real name."

"Mara Anne Rae Taylor," Justin informed them.

"So you know? Does Arielle know? Am I the only one who never knows things around here?" growled Erik, clearly in a bad mood.

Mara snapped at him angrily, "Stop it, Erik! Only Justin knows! I've told you so much and I trusted you and now you've betrayed me too! I'm so tired of of being betrayed, and the last person I expected to be betrayed by is you." Tears started to spring to her eyes. She wasn't normally so emotional.

Erik had the decency to look ashamed. He looked away. "Mara, I wouldn't betray you."

"Come on," Justin said, walking to the front desk. He, being the oldest at 18, bought the four tickets to L.A. It took about an hour, eating a lunch, shopping at a gift store, and preparing themselves for the plane ride, and waiting for the plane.

"All people boarding at Gate N 2, please board now," came the woman's voice over the P.A. system.

They boarded silently. Surprisingly, their seats were relatively close. Justin and Arielle purposely made Mara and Erik sit with each other. Mara didn't comment to him at all, pulling out a book.

The flight attendant asked if they would like drinks. He was a young man, Asian by the looks of him. "Can I get you a drink?" he asked Mara.

She shrugged, smiling at him. "Yes, thank you. Pepsi."

He stared at her pretty smile in a hypnotic stare. When he went to pour the Pepsi, he nearly missed the cup. He handed it to her with shaking hands.

When the attendant continued down the aisle, Erik said quietly, "I didn't know your power was so...intense. So changing..."

"Yeah. I didn't know charm speaking could be this way either," said Mara.

"Can I call you Mara Anne?" he asked, his voice soft.

Mara nodded, choking up too much with emotion to talk. She pulled out her book again and got in to it.

"Mara Anne?" he said, a couple minutes later. When she looked up at him, he said, "That's a very pretty name." There was another silence, and then he said in a voice barely above a whisper, "I'm sorry."

She looked up at him, her eyes filling with tears. He tenderly and timidly kissed her forehead, causing her tears to spill and a small smile to dance across her face. "I know. I am too."

She felt his hand close around hers, but she couldn't see anything because her eyes were blurry. She squeezed his hand, and he squeezed it back gently, to let her know he was still there.

"I love you, Mara Anne."

"I love you too, Erik. I'm sorry for the way I treated you."

"No, I'm sorry. I was horrible to you."

Mara shook her head. "Don't worry about it, Erik. You're just stressed over Ares and I...I was insensitive."

They smiled at each other. Maybe everything would be okay.