Olympus Drive Book 5: Situation Normal

Chapter 15

Ev

Well, well, little tiny Lee, all grown up now. I haven't seen him in a couple of years, not since his dad left London under duress. He and my uncle Axel pretend not to like each other often enough to be attracted to the other. It was upsetting for both of them since they hate each other and are married to different people and Lee's dad doesn't know he's gay. Anyway.

Lee's fourteen now, he's six years younger than me. And he looks much sadder than the last time I saw him. He's not very big, he takes after his mother. He's got soft skin that looks like buttered bronze, with thick, almost curly black-brown hair. He's lithe, and muscled, I suppose from swimming. He used to love the ocean I think. But the really striking thing about him is his eyes. They are, no joke, a really deep lilac. It's some sort of medical condition technically, to do with blue eyes that have missing pigment, and he's got to wear dark glasses outside, but it amounts to him having these really gorgeous soft purple eyes. 

That's a gift to the world apparently, as he's asexual last I heard. Well. Last I did random internet searches to keep up with family members and read his social media. Anyway, overall the boy is like a very sad seal pup, and though he's less pudgy now than he was, the metaphor still stands. He looks like this huggable squishable thing you want to keep as a pet, yet he's deadly especially under water. He can breathe underwater and swim better than most fish.

But something is off. He looks beaten almost? Completely low, and his eyes are swollen like he'd been crying. I hope everything is okay. Maybe I'll talk to him later. If he'll talk to me. I'm sure his dad has nothing good to say about us Nemans (people don't generally have good things to say about us Nemans, that's our fault but it's our option to be pathetic about it). Penny won't have noticed plus she doesn't know him to tell the difference that something is wrong. But there's a heaviness to his steps as he hurries up the stairs.

"He's quiet," Bronte says, removing a spider from her head to let it crawl up her arm. It's one of her big black spiders. I am not a fan of spiders. I don't think anyone but her is, really.

"Yeah, he can be like that," I admit, "I'll talk to him later."

"Anyway, you two want to do something fun?" Bronte asks.

"Depends," Penny says, putting down her book.

"Yeah, what's your fun quest?" I ask.

"So, my nephew Zag has been bored lately, and lonely, as he can't leave the Underworld because he's too violent to be around mortals," Bronte says, clapping her hands together. She has red nail polish that fades to black. I need to ask her where she got it. I like that color.

"Right," I say.

"So, I was thinking, as you two are basically invulnerable—"

"We've been reminded that's a very important 'basically'," I say

"---that you could go and play with him. Just do rounds of combat, around the Underworld, if he beats you then he gets to go on and fight some night-creatures, and visa versa, would give him something to do as he really can't actually kill you," Bronte says, pleased with her idea, "Being an Argonaut with you and the others was the last time I even saw him really enjoy himself."

"How many people did he kill?" I ask Penny.

"Eighty-eight," she says, spinning her baubles in one hand.

"Which is why he's confined to the Underworld for now—but that doesn't mean he isn't lonely and it's nearly impossible to even hurt you two," Bronte sighs.

"Yeah of course we're in---right Pen?" I ask, looking at her.

"My dad says I'm not supposed to go back to the Underworld," Penny says.

"What my brother doesn't know won't hurt him," Bronte says.

"He said 'if any of my bitch-ass siblings try to convince you to go to the Underworld I'm going to kill them with the Empire State Building tell them I said that they know I'll do it I'm crazy'," Penny says, doing air quotes to indicate her dad's ultimatum.

"Damn him," Bronte sighs.

"Why can't Zag come up here? I know plenty of people he can go Rambo on and he can spar with us as much as he likes," I say, shrugging.

"His dad won't let him—after the fleece incident he's confined to the deeper reaches of the Underworld, and he tries to sneak out all the time to—murder people," Bronte winces.

"Why does he attack people all the time?" Penny asks, frowning, "What's his power or whatever?"

"Unpredictability," Bronte says.

"What?" I ask, shaking my head, "That doesn't—"

"He's a mystery, even to himself. Not even he knows what he's capable of, or what he can do. Someone has to exist to torture the souls in Tatarus---that's him," she says, shrugging, "For the most part, he's tame to those he likes, like us---he just doesn't at all care about anybody else. I told my sister I'd try to enlist you guys to come and spend time with him since he's lonely." Remember, Bronte is all of our Aunt, she's sisters with my dad, Penny's dad, and Jasmine who is Zag's mom. She's only a full sibling to Penny's dad, though, the rest are half. Don't look at me like that. This entire explanation is our shared grandfather's fault.

"You can go," Penny says, to me.

"No, I'm staying with you," she's out of classes I'd rather spend time with her. "Why not ask Jason? He's not capable of making good decisions and last time I talked to him he was bored out of his mind pretending to be a law abiding citizen." My brother has problems---and that's on the scale of this family. He's even more of a kleptomaniac than the rest of us (the rest of us being all of my half siblings). Jason has also never made a valid decision in his life and sees no reason to start now.

"That's why I'm not asking him—besides you two have the blessing of Styx so you're rather durable for—advanced sword and lava play," Bronte says, shrugging, "Never mind then. If Isa will blow a gasket if you go the Underworld to fight a few measly hell-hounds then we won't."

"He's assured me he will," Penny says, nodding. She tries to be good and listen to her parents, a sentiment Bronte and I are not necessarily familiar with. Bronte is a later in life child and her parents basically figured she'd wind up okay so long as they fed her often. My mom does want me to survive but she has a low bar for my behavior, especially since I died those, ah, four times. No, I try not to worry my mom. But if she doesn't know I did the thing then she doesn't worry. You see how that works? I realize it's a mom's prerogative to worry. And I do try, generally, in general.