Olympus Drive Book 3: According to Plan

Chapter 16

Detective Stamos

"Why are you the way that you chose to be?"

"It wasn't open so I put cash on the register, happy?" Rhea asks, visibly putting cash by the register of the store he broke into. It's the early hours of the morning but he hasn't been to bed any more than I have, still wearing black sweatpants and a black Under Armor hoodie I'm pretty sure once belonged to Thyme, and black running shoes. His hair is pulled back now in a pony tail, it's gotten quite long and he has yet to cut it like a normal person, instead tying it up or putting it in a bun. He's been clean shaven for years now, which is a step. Someday he may stop walking around with crusted blood under his fingernails and stop viewing sweatpants as a daily garment and we'll actually be able to pass him off as member of society.

"No, not at all, what the fuck are you doing?" I ask, tiredly.

"Getting clothes for the kid," He says, shoving them in a bag, "We're not stealing Isa's and the---Helen, she's not about to let me touch Thyme's old shit. Also, he wouldn't like that stuff."

"How---wait how would you know what he likes?" I ask, suspiciously.

"Divination shit, remember?" He asks, pointing to his head, and walking past me out of the store. You know what? He did leave money, that is a win.

"Did you steal the money you left?"

"I mean I took it from somebody else, but you know they wanted me to have it—,"

"Did they want you to have it after you threatened them or robbed them of something else?"

"They wanted me to have it and gave it freely, yeah."

"So that's a yes---okay, so if you knew this kid would show up where is he?" I ask, following him, "Who is he?"

"Basil's son, and I don't know---it doesn't work like that. I knew he'd show up—,"

"And you know what sort of clothes he wears?"

"I just know all right?"

"Come again?" I ask, following him as we walk down the street. I don't know where he thinks he's going but we'll probably find one of the kids we're looking for.

"I know from before---I know all of them—from before—from the last time this happened and the times before that—" he says, sighing and stopping.

"Wait---yes you said this—sort of thing—happened before. You didn't fucking say—it's them? Like not just people with the same weird powers it's---literally them?" I realize, "This is them reincarnated?"

"Something like that," he says, rubbing his face.

"Do they look the same?" I ask.

He nods, "Basically yeah. a little different---a little more like their birth families but yeah. They act different though because—,"

"Because you kidnapped them?" I finish.

"Yeah—because I'm an idiot, because I screw everything up---yes Detective, because of what I did---but it's different every time—they're a little different. But they're still them. You didn't wonder why I'm the only one who could ever get Luna to sleep when she were little---or how I always could talk Thyme out of his bloodlust?"

"Why you weren't afraid to touch Basil even when he pulls his lightening?" I say, quietly.

"Pretty sure that's just stupidity, but yeah," he keeps walking.

"Then who is the kid?" I ask, moving to keep up.

"He's the messenger--," he says a word in Hebrew, "—he can move quickly, travel to the Underworld at will like Hector, and he really loves bright shiny objects."