Killing Olympia

When Europa put her hand on my shoulder, the world felt like it had just stopped spinning. Everyone else was already on their way to the SUV, but she'd stopped me with just enough force when her hand landed near my neck to make my knees buckle. I froze. I had to. My heartbeat spiked and my throat dried the moment I glanced at her. It really didn't matter which state I was in, because beating a fully grown planet-destroyer was gonna happen one out of one-thousand times. And I could almost feel it, the heat rolling off her skin, the quiet crackle of energy threading through her hair and the scent of ozone clinging to her pores. She was stunning. Stunning and violently dangerous.

They all were. They always were, because you didn't live long enough to be an adult if you hadn't soaked your hands in blood for the Empire. These guys were swords that didn't dull and guns that never ever jammed.

The universe had put our people through a meat grinder, and we'd come out better for it.

"There's a creature in your shadow," she said quietly, tilting her head. Her eyes squinted. I tried to see what she was staring at, but all of a sudden, the chattering voice inside my head stilled. Europa stepped a little closer and draped her arm over my shoulders, and look, I'm a fighter, born and bred—but I couldn't move to save myself, no matter how much I willed my lungs to keep breathing. Europa smiled and leaned in close, her face so near to mine it really was all I could see. "But it doesn't seem to want to be anywhere near me." She held my chin in her fingertips and angled my chin upward. I swallowed bile, but I should have vomited on her out of fear, because maybe that'll get her off me. "You, on the other hand, aren't like most people, Rylee. You smell so much different. Your blood sings and your body feels just so…wonderful." She stopped smiling, then dug a hand inside her jacket pocket.

Europa pulled out a tiny orange, and gestured for me to take it.

I plucked it off her palm, because I don't think I had a choice. I glanced at it, rolling it between my fingers. It felt normal, and even smelt like the tea Cleopatra loved forcing me to drink every other evening. "What is it?"

"From a very, very far away planet from a people that stopped existing decades ago." She waved her hand through the air, then pulled away from me, meaning I could at least breathe a little more easily. "We had a name for it, but I don't think we should bother with our mother tongue. I suppose the closest thing to it here is an orange, but it's more of a root. Children in the Royal Bloodline are fed it daily to ensure their strength." She tapped my nose with her index finger and grinned. "But I think we're all a little deserving of some sweets once in a while, don't you think? Go on, eat it. The skin is the most delicious part, and it's better if you close your eyes and let it all melt—"

I cupped a hand around my mouth and yelled, "Kayana!" She stopped walking and looked over her shoulder. I waved her over, and didn't speak until she was standing close enough to mean Europa would keep her hands to herself. I showed her the orange, then said, "She's telling me to eat this thing. What the hell is it, actually?"

Kayana took it, tilted it, and said, "It's nothing more than the root I use to make Nectar." She handed it back to me, but not before she looked at Europa. "I thought you told me you didn't have much to spare anymore."

She shrugged. "I was keeping one safe just for Rylee if I ever got the opportunity to meet her."

Huh. "So…why is one version tea, and I can just eat the thing as it is?"

"Excellent question!" Europa said. "That's because Cleopatra is quite old."

If the Olympian was insulted, she didn't show it. At least, not on her face, but her eyes told a different story. She sighed and put one hand on her hip. "I've always said that I'm not the person I used to be," she said to me. "Age comes for us all, and in superhumans, once your body isn't healthy enough to sustain the virus on its own, it starts to…weaken. The root you're holding is almost like am Ambrosia, but a lot healthier, and a lot more beneficial. I'm not meant to be taking Nectar this late into my life, and when I was younger I thought I would either be dead by this age, or I would have retired and vanished from the public eye. But the root means I can remain as I am, as I once was, at least for a little bit longer." She smiled, making her eyes soften. "It means I can keep up with you, Rylee."

"Hold on," I said quietly. "But didn't you practically just ask Europa for more of these?"

"They don't grow all that well here on Earth," Europa said with a shrug.

"I manage with what I have. All these years away from all this noise has meant I've learnt how to sustain them long enough to reproduce. Slowly, but reproducing nonetheless." Cleopatra put her hand on my shoulder. "And I know the look on your face and the worry on your brow—eat it. A human wouldn't be able to sustain it raw."

I glanced at the root-orange thing, then said, "What happens if you do?"

"Death, probably," Europa said. "But death in the sense of a…firework."

"What does that even mean?" I asked.

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"That doesn't matter," she replied, waving her hand again. "Well, eat it. It's a peace offering."

I looked at Kayana for reassurance, because I wasn't going to take an Arkathian's word about any 'peace offerings,' not on my dead body…which might just be the case if I chew into this thing and keel over. Bianca and I are meant to get ice cream tonight, I thought, sniffing the root. It was sweet, sickly sweet—almost disgusting. And you did make a promise that dying right now would be pretty lame, so fuck it, what's the worst that could happen?

I came out of a trance a few seconds later, licking my fingers and wiping bitterly-sweet juice off my lips. I paused and looked at my hands and felt the stickiness between my fingertips. I looked up at Europa and Kayana, and Jesus, could a girl get some privacy over here? It wasn't my fault that heaven wasn't a place but instead a tiny fruit that had me trying to drink my own saliva just so the taste could linger on my tongue a little bit longer. Then I breathed in, breathed out, and cleared my throat. I opened my mouth to speak, then shut it and dropped my voice.

"Hey, so…" I said, scratching the back of my head—my body was starting to feel warm, almost like my muscles were loosening and my joints had stopped swelling. The sun prickled against my skin, feeling like it was trickling into every single pore on my face to my arms and all the way down my legs. I paused for a moment and breathed in, and could damn nearly smell the Earth buried deep underneath the asphalt below my sneakers. A bird was flying miles away toward its chicks, worms in its mouth squirming and squelching and panicking. A guy was broken down on the side of the road, his girlfriend's heel tapping against the tarmac impatiently. A pen clicked across the city, an echo that opened the floodgates of noise inside my head. Then Europa snapped her fingers in front of my face, making me blink. I stepped back, then cleared my throat. "Do you, uh, have any more of those?"

"Possibly," Europa mused, smiling even wider. "Would you be willing to come to Europe for them?"

Bianca would love Europe.

"Well, I mean—"

"She has obligations here," Kayana said, speaking over me.

"Ah, you're no fun," Europa said, rolling her eyes. "You've been this way for years. When will you finally let those rigid shoulders of yours drop just enough to live a little, Cleopatra? This world is so stunning, and yet—"

"No, Evangeline, means no." Cleopatra looked at me. "That's unless you want to leave."

I put my hands up and said, "You're right. I've got plenty to do here, but…Gods. I feel amazing! Like, I haven't felt this great since I woke up on Hank's farm." I breathed in so deeply my throat hurt. Then I paused and turned my back to them as the breeze drifted from the city miles and miles away. I took a couple of steps forward and stared into the distance, the sun warm, the world slow, and… I smiled a little and shook my head. I guess it was subconscious, maybe it was a quiet sense of security, but being able to smell her perfume was always a way of knowing she was here. It was weird, I know, and I'd probably never say it to her face, but she just smelt so sweet. Not sickly sweet, like the root, or like sugar or cinnamon or honey—just…kinda like herself, and that was just fine.

I flexed my hand, the one that was still faintly red, and watched in real-time as the blisters vanished.

"Is there a problem in New Olympus?" Kayana asked.

"I don't think so," Europa muttered. "There's something faint in the air, something…" She frowned, her brows screwing together as her nose shrivelled. She swore in a language I didn't recognize, maybe Latin, maybe something a lot older. Then she shook her head and smiled again, albeit a little flatter. "I have a proposal for you."

"Yo!" Simon yelled from across the airfield. "What's with all the waiting, man, I'm starving!"

Freya slapped him upside the head, making him shut up.

Europa put a hand on Cleopatra's shoulder. "Do you mind if I borrow Rylee for a few hours?"

She gestured toward me. "Ask her for permission, not me."

Europa turned and said, "Well?"

"That depends," I said, folding my arms. "Where are we going?"

"The bay area, the river, the old steel mills and the shopping centers…everywhere and anywhere we can see before the end of the day," she said. "The last time I was in New Olympus, Zeus was still alive, and that was…" She shrugged again. "I suppose it doesn't really matter now. How about a tour, something small? An exhibition like no other! I'd simply just like to follow you through the clouds, see New Olympus, and bed myself with it all."

"It kinda sounds like you want a tour because you're staring here for a while," I said.

"Well, that's the plan." She put her fists on her hips, feet shoulder width apart and grinning, and she just about looked like a statue as her hair buffeted in the wind. "But we don't have megacities like this from where I operate, and there's no harm in a little flying, is there? From what I've been told, you haven't been able to recently."

I'll admit, I did miss being in the sky. There was a freedom up there that wasn't really matched by sitting on the couch all day resting. I glanced toward the clouds and shaded my eyes, watching as they crawled across the sleepy blue canvas above me. The only problem right now was the tiny voice in the back of my mind, and that voice belonged to someone I sometimes owed my life to, or sometimes wanted to put away for a very long time, preferably in a welded shut soda can. We're cut from the same cloth, and you know that better than I do. It's barely been a week since I left Adam on those stairs, broken and bloody, but…a week was enough of a holiday, right?

And besides, this was a stretch, a warm up, something to make sure my body still worked.

Normal people went on jogs—I hurtle through the clouds faster than the sound barrier.

Not like I'm fighting crime right away again, I thought. I kept facing Bianca's scent, my nose catching it and holding onto it, because the city hadn't smelt like her for months. And it's just one flight, one little adventure.

I'd be back for dinner, and if Europa kept on my tail, didn't hassle me, and kept her hands to herself without breaching my trust (which, I'll admit, was a fickle thing by now), then I'd be able to actually sit down with her and start fixing my biggest problem right now. A fully grown Arkathian on my side would make my life a lot easier…or mean I have someone who doesn't like the way I did things over here and wanted me to make room for her method. I guessed this was just one of those times, those quiet days that changed the world without anyone ever really knowing about it, not until a superhero either died, the world was torn apart, or the sky vomited golden light.

Guess we'll just have to see.

"Sure, you can tag along," I said, glancing over my shoulder. "But only if you can keep up."