Fire & Flood (Mythverse #1)

Book 2 Chapter 24

24

I gape at her. Too shocked to be upset. “She would never.”

“Oh, Edie, you don’t know what she was like after Levi killed Dad…”

“Levi, the monster,” I stress. How can she be so blind?

“It’s not that simple. Look, losing Dad was bad enough, but when my contacts in the resistance told us you were dead, Mom lost her s**t. She could barely function. I didn’t know someone could cry so much. But the worst part was when she stopped crying. It was so bad, Edie. It was almost like she was a different person. Like something had permanently broken inside of her. She was scared all the time, certain they were going to kill us too.” A tear slides down Mavis’ face.

Tucking away her tissue, Mavis continues, “I thought she’d get past it. Go back to being Mom. But she only got worse. She started drinking. She said it made her feel light again. It let her forget.” Mavis sighs. “Mom begged me to help her find someone to cast the memory spell. I said to her, ‘Mom, you’ll forget me too’ and she said… ‘Look at me. What sort of mother am I to you anymore? I’m holding you back.’ I told her it wasn’t true. I told her…I don’t even know. Anything I could think of to make her feel better. But it wasn’t enough. The next day she slipped away when my back was turned. A few days later the cockatrice returned her. She had no idea who I was.”

Mavis is crying softly and I want to tell her that it’s okay. That Mom doing this wasn’t her fault. But I’m too twisted up inside. I have no idea what was anybody’s fault.

I reach for Mavis and hug her as tight as I can.

In the year we’ve been apart, I’ve gotten taller and stronger. Size-wise, she’s now the littler sister.

We don’t say much more after that. I think we both feel too heavy to get anymore words out. Technically, she’s my enemy now. But she was my sister first.

We pass out on her sleeping bag. I sleep dreamlessly and wake to Mavis making tea. We sip our hot drinks in silence.

“C’mon,” Mavis says at last, holding a hand out to me. “Let’s go for a walk.”

I take it and she leads me out of the cave, onto the beach where the sun is rising.

The waves lick our toes. Despite my heartache I try to admire the beauty of Mom’s new home.

Matter-of-factly, Mavis begins to tell me the story of her spy days.

“Working for the monsters started off as small things. Giving Ocypete a head’s up about missions, so she could get that info out to her contacts. Trying to mitigate the death toll and yes, even sabotage.”

I can’t hold back a groan. Sabotage for gods’ sake! It’s even worse than I thought.

“But then I was tasked with recruitment,” Mavis continues. “Getting more Academy students on our side. Opening their eyes to the unfairness and hypocrisy of the gods. Jenn LaMont was easy to turn. She hated the rigidness of vampire society. And there was a bat shifter, and a witch…”

“Fern,” I say quietly.

Mavis looks at me, surprised. “You know them?”

“I do attend the Academy now. Fern is my friend.”

“And the others?” she asks. “I picked them because they weren’t popular or flashy. They didn’t stick out.”

“The rest are dead.”

She looks like she’s been struck.

“Ocypete killed them…” I say, realizing that it makes no sense. Why would Pity kill them if they were working for her?

Why haven’t I thought this out before?

The answer is obvious—because I didn’t want to.

“She would never,” Mavis says. “Pity would die for any of her informants.”

I don’t say anything. How long has Mavis been in this cave? Does she even know that Ocypete is dead?

Looking agitated, Mavis continues, “I used to go on a lot of missions with Nico. We were good together. He really liked me. I liked him too, when he wasn’t being a bossy dickhead. But I was also falling for Derrick, another werewolf. I knew that I would never be able to recruit Nico to the cause, but Derrick, he was different. He even had a vampire roommate; the guy was a typical vampire jerk, but he and Derrick were friends. It was weird and sweet. Like one of those bromance buddy movies.”

“It sounds crazy, but I kinda loved both of them,” she tells me. “But I couldn’t let Nico know. He hated Derrick; I guess maybe he could tell I had a thing for him. It’s hard to hide, sometimes.” She smiles, sadly.

“I meant to break things off with Nico, tell him we couldn’t be partners anymore. It was too dangerous; I knew he’d go berserk if he ever guessed I was a monster informant. I just needed to get through one more mission with him. After that I planned on asking to be reassigned with Derrick. Nico and I were on that last mission together when I got news about your pneumonia. I asked him to cover for me and came home to see you. Once I was back, I was so sick of all the spying and the lies… I just wanted to be normal again.”

Her eyes are on the sunrise as she continues. “I was tired, and confused, and sick of constantly being in danger. I came home and told Dad I’d made my choice. I wanted the real world. I wanted to get a job in Greece, and to get away from the Academy altogether. But Nico caught up to me.”

“And?” I ask, as Mavis pauses.

“Nico did more than cover for me. He followed me home. He’s one of the Academy’s best spies—it was easy for him to eavesdrop on my conversations with Dad. He knew everything. My feelings for the monsters, Derrick, and even him. When he showed up on the airplane, I was terrified. I knew he’d never let me go without a fight. I messaged Dad, told him that Nico had tracked me down. But he didn’t have his phone on, so I could only hope he could get an ally to the airport in time when we landed. Someone who could help me…”

Mavis looks scared, just remembering. “I couldn’t get hold of Dad, and the flight attendants were telling everyone to turn off their phones. So, I sent you a selfie of me with him, right before takeoff.”

“Wait, that was…Nico?”

“I figured if the worst happened. If… if he killed me, then at least when you turned eighteen and Dad told you everything…if you chose to go to the Academy. Maybe you would recognize him. Maybe you would figure out this was your sister’s murderer.”

I think of that selfie, two beautiful people smiling for the camera. Two people intent on killing one another in order to survive.

“You severely disfigured him,” I remind her. The boy I found wandering, n***d and beaten in the desert, looked nothing like the suave guy in that picture.

“There wasn’t any help for it,” Mavis says. “I didn’t want to hurt him, but… oh, Edie.” She shivers. “He was so angry.”

I can’t help but shudder, too. I’ve seen Nico when he’s mad. I wouldn’t want that directed at me.

“And so?”

“So I hurt him. Badly.”

“I’d say,” I snort. “He’s missing an eye.”

She laughs in that new dry way she has. “Yes, there. But also…emotionally. The way he was raised, he’s so stunted. I think my rejection of him hurt worse than the knife in his eye.

“Anyway, I went back to the Academy. I couldn’t stand the idea of recovery missions being sent out to find Nico, putting my classmates in danger. I thought I’d killed him, so I pinned that on a monster. Told them our mission had failed and Nico was lost.”

“Going back to the Academy that first day, walking through the swamp to the gate, I was so afraid. I didn’t know if Nico had blown my cover but I had to get Derrick out. We’d talked about leaving for good, escaping together, just letting the gods and monsters fight it out without us. And for a while, it worked! I returned a hero.”

“Then what happened?” I ask. “Why didn’t you just leave?”

“We were going to. But first I had to warn my recruits. Which took some time, because I didn’t want to draw attention to them or their relationship with me.” She pauses and look at me. “If they’re all dead, I must’ve screwed that up.” Mavis shakes her head. “I did everything wrong and somewhere along the way a healer who spies for Themis caught me and Derrick in our secret rendezvous spot. We tried to play it off like we were in the midst of some hot and heavy petting. But she didn’t buy it. I barely escaped with my life. Derrick was not so lucky. That’s when I decided to devote my whole life to the cause. I’m lucky they were still willing to take me after I’d messed up so many times.”

Gods. It’s suddenly clear that guilt is eating Mavis alive. She’s taken responsibility for every bad thing that’s happened in the last year. It’s so typical Mavis. Annoying how she believes her actions affect everyone and everything. But also amazing that she cares so much and never ever gives up.

“It’s going to be alright,” I tell her, suddenly the big sister in the situation.

“It is,” she nods, lifting her chin up. “But we need you, Edie. You’re in the perfect position to take over my work at the Academy.”

“No. I’m not.”

“But I can’t do it. I’m burned. Why do you think I’m living on this island, out of the way? I can’t spy anymore. I’m on the gods’ most wanted list. There’s a spell on this island that keeps me—and Mom—out of the gods’ line of sight.”

“I’m not switching sides,” I tell her. I think of Fern, how she was with the monsters for a while. How persuasive Ocypete was. I see how Mavis got caught up with them.

“But…” She looks desperate now. How did Mavis allow herself to be taken advantage of like this?

I want to help her, she’s so obviously lost. But at the same time she has to know—I will never join her against the Academy.

“Do you know that Ocypete brought the monsters to the Academy and killed people?” I ask, the fire in my gut returning. “That your mentor killed my friends?”

Mavis’ eyes widen. “That’s not… Ocypete doesn’t want students harmed. Only the gods.”

“You don’t know, do you? Ocypete is dead.”

She shakes her head. “No…”

“Do you want to know how she died?”

Mavis—the sister that I wanted to see for so long—looks at me with horror in her eyes as I reveal the person I have become.

“I killed her.”