Divine

Chapter 6: Old Flames

Pierce

As I walked the girl, Percy, back to her room. I didn't attempt a conversation. I knew I had told her too much about my past. But the truth of it was that I hadn't actually thought about it in years. In the first year or so, I'd tried desperately not to think about it, but in the months, or I guess years afterwards, it had hit me like a pile of bricks. And the roller coaster that had crashed after that tumble of emotions had left me emotionless, in a way that had made me think I hadn't had any more to give.

But when she had asked, I hadn't even hesitated in telling her the story about how my normal life had ended. Although, I did stop myself before I told her too much, but I had told her a lot more than I had ever told anybody else. She just seemed so open to everything and understanding. I got the feeling that if I had told her all the awful things I'd done, she wouldn't have judged me on it. I could tell she would accept me and it made me much more open with her.

However, it was a good thing I'd held my tongue about the gift. The one that had gotten me here in the first place. But that was more luck than determination, she had not asked the question that would have made me tell her about it and I was very thankful for that.

The truth of it was that Hades was the only one who knew. I had only found out the day before he came that I had my gift/curse/mutation, and I'm assuming that the way I had found out had given me away to him. I'd had absolutely no idea about it and blowing up the house had not been planned at all. It wasn't that big of a deal, it had just spontaneously caught on fire in my parent's eyes. But in mine, seeing our house shoot up in flames was my fault because I had lost control of my temper over something silly that I couldn't even remember now.

The flames had been so vivid and, well, sort of captivating. Not that I was a pyromaniac or something, I just looked at them and immediately knew that they had resulted from my rage, and the angry, violent flames seemed so fitting to my mood that I just sat there staring at them before I saw my mother's face screaming and crying at the same time. And then I heard my little sister and brothers cries because my mother was crying and realized just how terrible it was for them, and me, too. That burning mass had been our home.

Yeah, I had burned my house down because of a temper tantrum, but in my defense, I hadn't even known that I could. And to make it worse, the very next morning, Hades had ridden up and offered me that deal. That stupid deal that would destroy my life either way. I had walked outside when I heard the sound of horses and immediately saw those giant, black stallions when I stepped out. There were only two, but they were the most regal creatures I had ever seen. Another inconsequential detail, was that they weren't just black, they were as black as a night sky on a stormy day, so dark that the hair didn't look real. But that was probably just another of Hades' tricks that made him feel more powerful than his infinitely more powerful brothers.

Although, he did have power over me, my family and my life. So he had used both of those two aspects in his trade, take them from me or leave them was his deal. I had picked the more noble choice, I thought, the one choice that saved my family and only ruined my life in the process.

But I hated that there had been a way for me to use my curse on him, but I hadn't understood how it worked back then. I remember trying to be just as furious with him as I had before but it hadn't worked. Then I had closed my eyes and imagined that his whole carriage had caught fire, but when I had opened them again, all I saw was Hades hand coming down on the tiniest spark I had made. Then he had just laughed at me and said that if I didn't make a decision soon he would just take my family now.

I had wanted to cry and shed tears to make him soften up and maybe leave all of us alone, but one good, critical look at him had shown that he wouldn't have cared if I had cried a river at his feet. I had looked up into his dark eyes and whispered words that I still haven't regretted, "I'll go with you instead."

Those words had come with a lot of work, and a lot more pain than I could ever have imagined. But it was worth it to know that my brothers have normal lives, and my sister got to grow up, and my mom and dad have lived peacefully instead of being down here. They deserved something normal after me.

However, the point of this is that I had never told anyone about this until now, when I told this girl about this. And I understood why I had felt comfortable with telling Percy, I just didn't understand why I actually had.

I shook it off, hoping to bury the thoughts in the back of my mind, as we came up to the door of her room. But as she reached for the doorknob, she stopped and looked back at me before leaning back against the door.

"So, Pierce, what do you usually do all day?" she asked me with a smile, clearing trying to avoid her room at all costs. Which I couldn't really blame her for exactly.

I decided to go ahead and humor her, leaning back against the hallway directly across from her. "I guess I probably deal with the fates most of the day," I say, thinking about what else I do. Then I remember Charon. "I also keep a slight watch of the ferry but that's mostly Charon's job. And I have to watch really all the rivers, and Thanatos, but he's just . . . well I guess just doesn't really work to describe him." I pause, looking up to see she's actually listening and I shrug before I continue, "That's all I can think of right this second."

She wanted to say something, it was so obvious but she stopped herself and smiled. "Thanks, Pierce, for taking me out into sunlight." She laughed and it sounded like music, but it was also nervous. "Never thought I'd be saying that," she added quietly before turning back to her door and finally twisting the knob.

I stared at it for a few minutes, puzzled by her. But then again I hadn't been around mildly regular people in a while so I guess it made sense. I did feel bad though as I slid the deadbolt into place on the outside of her door.