Umbra

Chapter 19

Emilia was never taught to flirt.

In hindsight, she should've asked Piper for tips. But how could she have known she had to do that? There was no way she would have foreseen this situation arising. The actual need to flirt with someone made no sense to her.

She wasn't even fully sure what Pollux was seeing with Hylla– okay, maybe Emilia had thought about kissing her, but surely that was normal when a pretty girl was that close?

She sat on her bed that night, trying to imagine every possible scenario that could be carried out. It should've been tiring enough to lull her to sleep, but instead she remained awake and alert. Pollux snored on the other side of the room, exhausted and probably already dreaming about his little tour with Krista.

Emilia wanted that security. Pollux was confident in everything– the way he looked, the way he talked, the way he could make people feel. Emilia supposed she felt more beautiful these days, she felt more satisfied with how she came off to people (really, her heart was still leaping thinking of Hylla having said she looked 'sweet'), but she couldn't say she liked how she made people feel.

Had she comforted people in the past? Yes. Jason, Piper, and Leo came to her for advice regularly when she was at camp, they trusted her with their problems and felt comforted with her words. Pollux seemed to be in that same group.

But none of those feelings were romantic. Emilia had never had to 'woo' anyone, she'd never had to make someone feel like they were loved in that sense. If she were to speak to Hylla, how could she convey that she found Hylla attractive, that she admired her power and her sense of humor? How could she make Hylla feel that she was being complimented in such a precise way?

She wasn't sure at what point she finally nodded off. All she noticed was that in the blink of an eye, she wasn't in the hotel room anymore. She stood inside a dark room, shapes of planets over her head. The lights came on, a starry galaxy depicted on the left wall, where light-up information panels described everything she was seeing. As she walked further down the hall, still glancing up past the glittering models of the solar system, she came across a large dome with an elaborate painting.

She knew where she was once the entrance hall sign flickered in the light– the Griffith Observatory. As she glanced up at the ceiling again, she could make out Jupiter with his thunderbolts, Venus and the four seasons, Atlas holding the zodiac signs, the Pleiades, Mercury chasing Argos, and even Saturn– Kronos.

"Magnificent, isn't it?"

The woman across from her was dressed in a dark pantsuit, long black hair flowing nearly to her hips. Then, with a closer look, she realized it wasn't a pantsuit at all and it wasn't fully a mane of black hair. Where her feet should've been were coils of shadows barely carrying her over the surface, gliding across the floor. Her hair was ever-changing, flowing all around her— the only part that was really hair stopped just above her shoulders. The shadows didn't just curl around her like they did with Emilia— they were part of her, she was darkness.

It was the first time Emilia had ever understood why people said she had a serial killer smile. This woman grinned as if she knew everything, controlled everything. Her skin was as pale as Emilia's would get when she called upon the shadows for too long. Her eyes were dark as night, glaring into her soul as her thin lips continued to curl sinisterly.

"Mother," she realized. (A/N: Picture Michelle Monaghan and/or Lena Headey, couldn't decide between them.)

Eris leaned over the other side of the display that dipped down under the painting– a pendulum in constant motion. "A wondrous place, Los Angeles," said Eris, voice both as smooth as satin and as sharp as a razor blade. It reminded her of how Kronos used to speak, before he entered Luke's body. "Filled with chaos. Beautiful, beautiful chaos."