Dear those of you who read Children of the Obelisk. How do you feel about pain and suffering? Those of you who don't be glad. Be very, very glad.
Chapter 6
House of Revelations
Colton beat me down at breakfast (but only because he had prior knowledge of how to tie a tie, swear.) And the little grin in the corner of his mouth when he noticed me made me wonder if maybe my dream really was weird. Before I could even open my mouth to ask our code question he spoke, "Mrs. Rutter… ah Nina. Is there any way I could get some vodka with two lemons to go with those pancakes?
Nina looked ready to have a heart attack. The rest of our housemates tried to determine if he was serious. And I laughed, before slapping him.
"He's kidding," I told my biological mother quickly with a faint smile. "It's kind of an inside joke."
"You've know each other for like 12 hours and in that time Eve's hid for most of it," Dean noted a confused look ingrained in his chiseled face. "How on earth could you have an inside joke already?"
"When you meet your dream girl," Colton responded a playful smile on his face. "You'll understand. It's like the whole universe is working to pull you together."
Unable to breath I was laughing so hard, I quickly grabbed a muffin before leaving to escape the highly confused (and in Nina's case, anxious) faces of my housemates. Colton came dashing after me, his cameo backpack loosely slung across one shoulder.
"You're horrible," I informed him with a laugh. "Now they really think we're American freaks."
"Ahh who cares," he answered nonchalantly. "Actually, I do hope they think that because we are Americans and if the fact that we're sharing dreams means anything then we are freaks."
My laughing stopped, "Egyptian freaks from what I've been told."
Colton nodded, "What have you been told because you wouldn't believe me if I told you what happened to me last night."
"I found both our long lost parents, met my biological mom's first husband, the god Anubis, before being greeted by your patron, the death god Osiris. Try me." If Colton could come up with something at this point that knocked me off my feet well props to him. No, I firmly believed there were cement blocks holding me solid on the ground. In a matter of 12 hours, I'd been desensitized to insanity and nothing could surprise me now.
"I met Anubis too, though not Osiris. He explained to me the whole Osirian-Chosen One thing, which did I mention was awesome, and then was all like 'you must be close to Eve your destinies demand it.' To be honest, I thought he meant I was the Chosen One and you the Osirian but he didn't clarify so if you say otherwise…"
"Yeah. My mom, who did I mention was Nina like our housemother Nina, was the last Chosen One which makes me the new Chosen One and your dad…."
"Wait my dad?" Now it seemed to be Colton whose feet had been cemented to the ground. (Apparently he hadn't picked up on my pronoun use before when I said our, not mine. ) "I don't have a dad it's always just been me and my mom, Helen."
So the gods would tell him about magic, but it was up to me to break the sad truth about life. "Look Colton… your parents or your biological ones at least, are old friends of Nina and Fabian. Actually, they all went to this school together about 20 years ago. They were the last Chosen One and Osirian. Your dad, Eddie, angered this goddess Raet along with my mom. In return, she came to this school at their 5 year reunion minutes after our birth and kidnapped us. She then left us in a dumpster to die but I guess her plan didn't exactly work out…" If it had, we'd be dead. "We were found and then adopted and now something- destiny, chance, whatever you want to call it- brought us back to this school for something."
"I can help us there," Colton, who seemed to be a 'put pain on back burner and deal with later' kind of guy, told me quickly. "Part of my dream was Anubis giving me info, but there was also this women. She had flaming red hair and a beautiful smile… she called herself Luce, but I think that's a nickname. Anyway, she told me about this mosaic that was put in the Frobisher Library about 10 years ago when it was turned into a full time museum. She said that there is a god, her love, trapped in the mosaic by a spell cast by that Raet you were talking about… she needs us to free him."
"How on earth are we supposed to do that? And what makes you think that we can trust this Luce?"
"Well she is a goddess, right," Colton said with a shrug as if that was a perfectly good answer. Seeing my face, he sighed and explained. "I mean she's a goddess and isn't our destiny to do what the gods ask of us because only we can? And if what you say about our parents angering a goddess and getting us kidnapped is true then we can't exactly not do as she says. Plus SHE'S A GODDESS! I don't know about you but disobeying her doesn't seem like a smart idea."
Colton had a point; we really did need to do as Luce said. Still, I knew in my gut that this was dangerous and if we trusted Luce Colton would end up dead. I knew it. "Look, Colton…" I began weakly before changing my mind. "No. My destiny is to do what these ridiculous gods ask and your destiny is to protect me. I have to serve these people then I get to choose my master."
"Eve!" Colton called running to catch up with me. "Look. You're right my job, as the Osirian is to protect you, and apparently my superpower is to know how to keep you from harm. So if I say it's safe, doesn't that mean it's true?"
"We don't know that's how it works," I bit back despite him not deserving my anger because we both knew from our dreams that yeah, that actually was how it worked. "Let me make a deal with you. After classes, we go and meet your parents. Then we ask your dad if you'd know whether or not something is safe for me. If he says that yes you'd know and you still believe it to be safe then tonight we sneak through the tunnels and find that mosaic. Maybe just looking at it will give us a clue what to do."
"Deal," Colton told me with a beaming grin completely unfazed by the prospect of meeting his biological parents. "Classes, parents, magic all by the side of a beautiful girl. What more could a boy want?"