Navigating Hermes (Book Two)

Chapter Twenty-Five

Hi! I hope you had a great last week. I'm excited, but also very sad to say that this is the second last chapter before the Epilogue of Navigating Hermes. However, I do NaNoWriMo each year and always write a book, so the third (and potentially last) book of the Immortal Love series will be written during that month and I hope to start posting it near the start of the New Year :) Between that, I'll work on editing this book and having a polished published version available for those of you who want to support me (while still keeping this free version on Wattpad) just like I did with Apollo's Prophecy. I'll make a physical version as well since it was requested last time! Check out the link in my account if you're interested in keeping up with my published works, but in the meantime, I hope you enjoy this chapter and stick around for the next two weeks to complete this story! Technically this was the last chapter, but it was too long so it's broken up in two, but hopefully that's ok because it'll give you an extra week before the Epilogue is out! - Amy

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     Julie spent the next few days buried in work, wanting to make up for her personal day as well as get everything done before her last-minute vacation day. Her evenings were spent staying on top of her emails and booking interviews and events far ahead of time. Julie knew it was overkill, but she didn't want to spend her alone time at night getting lost in her thoughts. 

     Julie's plan of working overtime was a success and she realized that she'd barely thought about Hypnos or even Hermes for that matter. She was surprised at how good she felt considering she'd recently found out the man she'd been seeing for months, and that she was going to introduce to her parents soon, turned out to be a god seeking revenge on someone else. I must've not liked him as much as I thought I did, she thought, shrugging before returning her attention to the screen.

     Instead of worrying, Julie focused any free time she had on Marcus, who was back on the path to recovery. Melinoë's plan had worked well and while Marcus was still sad—and would be for a while—he finally had the answers he never thought he'd receive and the closure he didn't realize he'd longed for. Julie was grateful he had the goddess as a friend. She was even surprised when Marcus announced that he'd be returning to work full time in the New Year.

     As for Hermes, Julie kept her promise to Danika and texted the god letting him know that she would be taking the Friday off so he could talk. At first her message wouldn't go through, leading her to believe that he had blocked her, but she quickly realized that she was the one who had blocked Hermes and had typed in his phone number from memory. In an attempt to be cordial and at Danika's request, Julie even told Hermes that she would give him the chance to say everything he needed to before deciding if she would explode on him or not.

     When her phone notification sounded, Julie expected it to be a response from the god, but instead it was a reminder email about her family's holiday party. "I really need to differentiate my notification sounds," she mumbled before reading through. Julie hadn't told anyone aside from Marcus that she would no longer be bringing a guest to dinner. She had until the end of the weekend to let her mother know so she could update her food order accordingly, but Julie knew she'd be pushing it off until the very last minute in order to avoid the inevitable interrogation.

     When her alarm woke her up on Friday morning at its usual time, Julie cursed herself for not remembering to disable it for her vacation day. Not being able to fall asleep after nearly twenty-minutes of trying, she decided to get ready for the day. Hermes was always unpredictable as to when he would show up, despite Julie giving him an exact time, so it was always best to be prepared.

     As if she had psychic abilities, Julie found Hermes' bottom half poking out from her pantry when she walked downstairs, an entire two-hours early. Thankful that she'd gotten ready prior to eating, she approached him with her arms crossed and a frown. "Why am I not surprised?"