Page 64 of The Chosen Two

I stand and face her. “The fuck they don’t.Yourweakness, you demented narcissist, is that you underestimate the importance of a father. You underestimate the love a father has for his children, and theirs for him. I guess that shows what kind of father Zeus has been to you, and for that I feel sorry for you. Jake is the best father in the entire world. His children are his oxygen, and he is theirs. Even a goddess can’t sever that bond. So, and I mean this with all the respect I would give to a wad of gum that is not scraping off the bottom of my shoe fast enough, Go. Fuck. Yourself.”

A rough hand takes mine. “Let’s go home, Miranda.” I turn and see my husband smiling down at me. He cradles my cheek in his hand. I close my eyes and let my tears starts to fall.

A gravelly complaint rises from Callie’s throat, from those smooth vocal cords which until now had only emitted honey sweet tones. “No! You can’t go. We need you to believe in us!” She collapses onto the edge of bed, next to her sisters.

He looks over my shoulder and glares at Callie, his eyes void of the warmth they showered on me. “You know what? I think I’m going to give atheism a shot.”

A scream sounds throughout the room. Four voices, formerly as light and haunting as sunrays, fade into the hefty groans of haggard crones. They are all kneeling on the bed, frozen in their screams, translucent, but still in this world. They wrap their now withered gray arms around each other, afraid of what will become of themselves if they let go.

Jake and I smile at each other. He chose me. He chose us. How could I have ever thought Lu was Jake? Lu’s eyes never had that twinkle I’ve known since that first night at the coffeehouse. The same twinkle Jake has now as he looks at me, even though I’m covered in demon blood.

“Oh shit, baby. You need some clothes!” I grab the giant sheet from the bed, out of the wrinkled hands of those crones, formerly so glorious. I fold it a few ways and tie it around him in something resembling a toga, but with some extra coverage to hopefully keep his most sensitive areas protected for our descent from the mountain. “That’ll have to do for now.” But he raises his eyebrows and looks across the room toward the floor, jutting his chin out to point me to follow his gaze. “Oh. Right.”

Lu…

I pick up Lu’s discarded pants, shake them out, and hand them to Jake. Sure, there’s a little incubus blood on the waistband, but he has lots of other bodily fluids on him already. What’s one more? Jake slips them on over the piece of the sheet tied like a loin cloth, under the more dress like part. Then we walk to the side I climbed up, willfully ignoring the pathetic cries behind us, and look down.

“Um, Miranda, how the fuck did you get up here this way?” All I can do is shake my head slowly, not even knowing anymore. After I assess the situation and look around us, I nudge him with my elbow and point at the stretch SUV. “Yes! Now that’s what I’m talking about!” He holds up his hand for a high five, and I laugh at the goofiness of it all, so happy he’s still my Jake. But my laughter soon shifts into tears.

Now that we’re back together, the dam has broken. He grabs my face in his hands and kisses me. That’s the kiss I’ve been needing. “Miranda, we can fall apart in each other’s arms soon. Right now, we have to get down a fucking mountain and away from four psychotic goddesses. Yeah?” I nod and we turn and walk, hand in hand, to the SUV.

Chapter 27

Miranda

Georgeisgougingagroove into the earth with his pacing by the time we reach the bottom of the mountain. And the Jinn is sitting on the roof of the mustang? What the hell? George freezes when he sees the SUV, a deer in headlights, because he doesn’t know it’s us in the limo. I roll down my window and stick my head out the passenger side.

“George! It’s okay!” But we’re still too far away for him to hear me. I sit back down, and Jake looks at me questioningly. “It’s a long story. I’ll explain later. For now, just know he’s on our side. At least the human is. Not sure what the Jinn’s story is.” I pull my phone out of my pocket, but it’s dead. Oh well, we’ll both just have to squirm for a little while, I guess. Although it feels like hours, a few minutes later we pull up next to the rental car.

Jake rolls down his window. “Howdy partner. You having some car trouble?”

I lean forward and smile at my docent. “We won, George! We won! You can relax now. You should have seen me though. I killed the incubus!”

His concerned look split into a grin. “Of course, you killed the incubus!” He turns to his new green glowing friend. “I told you she’d kill Lu.” Then to me, he adds, “It had to be easier than the minotaur, and you killed that thing super-fast.”

“Why do you know who Lu is already? And why are you buddies with the Jinn?”

George looks a couple times from me to the Jinn and back. “Well,thisis Frank. Yeah, don’t look at me like that. Just trust me that you can’t pronounce his full name. He has been doing everything he could to avoid distracting or fluster you like the Muses had planned.”

“Hello.” Frank gives a wave. “Callie ordered the imps to summon me and find you. But imps are so stupid; that’s all they commanded me to do. And I did find you, that day in the pharmacy. They weren’t happy I followed their directions so exactly. Luckily, I came across George here on the mountain. I had heard about him and H.A.A.M. from my nephew.”

George’s cheeks blush slightly.

I furrow my brow. “What about ham?”

George cuts off my questions. “I’ll explain later. The main thing is that Frank doesn’t want to be used against you. Can you find his vessel in the limo?”

I disappear into the back and dig around while Frank’s description floats through my window. “It’s green and made of glass and…”

“Um, is it this?” I hold up to the window what I thought was a bong.

“Yes! That’s it! You need to destroy it.” Frank says while looking at it like it’s a bomb.

“I need to what? How?” I ask as I climb back into the front seat. The whole time Jake watches us this with a look of utter confusion.

“Well,” George interjects, “correct me if I’m wrong here, Frank, but I believe it needs to be destroyed with another magical object?”

Frank nods. “That is correct. Luckily, Miranda counts.”

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