Icon of the Indecisive #3 of 3 (COMPLETE)

Chapter 26

Sol was not there at the party. Nor was Robbie.

But everyone else was, when we got there just before four in the afternoon. Nearly everyone I knew from Ford River was there, and yet it seemed like the party only started when Vida arrived. She stepped out of her car and I heard cheers from the front porch, the open windows on the first floor, and the balcony on the second floor of the lavish beach home. The cheers were heard over the loud music, and the buzz of conversation and laughter. Beer or what I hoped was beer splashed down from above, and then drenching, and more laughing.

Outside there was a grill, and a table where people were getting drinks, and a small fence that led to a catwalk that stretched out over the sea. I saw Johnny Alba (a fellow student employee) in yellow board shorts at the end of that catwalk. He jumped—and then he disappeared. The house had its own cliff dive spot.

The people on the balcony cheered. "Go, Johnny!"

I was distracted by that for a second, and then remembered that I had to find Vida. She was already inside the house, surrounded by her usual admirers, probably a dozen half-clothed people just wanting to be near her.

"Vida, I'm not done with you," I yelled. Yeah, I yelled at her. Right in front of everyone.

She shot me a look. It wasn't new, because I often saw her like this, but it was like nobody noticed. Her fans were oblivious, smiling and continuing to chatter as my arm began to glow, and the bright band around my wrist became visible again.

Vida lifted a finger and my arm went up with it. She tilted her head slightly, and I was dragged by the wrist past the adoring fans, to a spot right in front of her.

They didn't seem to care.

"This," I said, pointing to the chain. "You take this off. I told you, I'm done."

She pulled at me until I was pressed against her, and sneered. "You know what annoys me most of all, Hannah? The indecisive. And that's what you are."

"I told you I'm not ready for this. You win. Stop competing with me already! What do you want from me."

Did the sky go dark for everyone else?

Because I saw with my own eyes a four p.m. sunny tropical sky plunge into darkness.

No one else noticed. They didn't think it was weird either that they were being pushed aside by an unseen force so that they created a wide circle around me and Vida.

Vida stepped into the circle, one impossibly perfect leg at a time, hands on her hips. "This isn't competing with you yet, Hannah, in case you were deluding yourself. This is only a test, and you haven't even gone up against me on it. This is all you, little girl."

"Fine, I'm not even worth fighting. Why test me then?" Because you're just that arrogant?

"Because this is a power I want." Vida's words actually felt cold.

"Then ask Denise for it! She's begging for someone to take it."

"She doesn't want me to have it. And Quin doesn't want me to have it either. And you know how it goes with my family. If older brother doesn't want me to have it, I can't have it."

"Is that what this is about?"

"It's about more power than I expect you to understand, Hannah. But none of us can do anything about it until you decide to accept it or give it up."

Throughout this experience I had learned a little about power. I learned that power was divided among the gods and goddesses, and those who wanted more had to fight for it. Quin and Vida fought for the sky before, and it ended in a truce—and a decision to share—before the war could destroy them both.

"You want me to be Goddess of Love," I realized.

She smiled. "You think so?"

"Because you think I'll be easier to defeat. And this power will be yours to take."

The smile turned into a smirk and pushed me back into the wall of people with a flick of her wrist. "I am who I am, and that will never change. I can tell you that the chain will disappear once you make your choice. If you give this up, I have no need to even acknowledge your existence."

"And if I accept?"

"You don't have it in you. Simultaneously feeling the pain of your subjects isn't even the worst of my tests. If it's too much for you..."

But I wasn't feeling it simultaneously. I was feeling it before they did. Long enough to intervene, if it was ever needed, but I didn't know it until the third time it happened. In Marlee's case it might have helped keep her safe.

I wondered if Vida misspoke, if I misunderstood her, but just thinking it made her expression change the slightest bit.

"It's not simultaneous, is it?" she demanded.

Did she hear that thought? Did it matter?

The afternoon sun came back on like a light, and I stumbled a little from the sudden brightness. The glowing band felt heavy against my wrist, heavier than it had ever been. I started to back away from her.

Vida laughed and put her arm around an oblivious devotee. "Yes, take your time, little girl."

She said something else but I was already heading back outside.