Gemini

Chapter 21* Everything I am

Chapter 21* Everything I am

I cannot get rid of the sneaking suspicion that Zoey had framed me.

Maybe I had been suspecting it for a very long time, of course, not the fact that she had framed me but the fact that she would do something soon, and this was just confirming it. For Sam’s sake, I am trying to be fair, turning over all the different possibilities inside my head and trying not to blame her. Yet there is something inside of me that can’t help thinking- what if Jeremy were here? He’d be on my side without question.

But this isn’t about the three of us. It isn’t about Sam or Zoey or me. We’ve got a world to save.

Right now she’s mashing up her toxic tonic. It was what I had started calling it since this morning- the words just popped into my mind. She’s warned us not to breathe the fumes and I’ve taken her advice, staying far, far away in a reclusive corner of the caves. A great reason to be away from her- and Sam.

Despite his words and his trust in me, he hasn’t been the same. I can see the doubt in his eyes. He doesn’t let me touch his food. It hurts, it hurts so much to know that he feels like this, that perhaps he said those words only because he didn’t want me to feel bad. I think he believes I sleep-walked.

I’d spent so much time with him that I’d forgotten what it felt like to be so irrevocably alone. Always hunting or being hunted. Always running or being chased. Never having someone to talk to, when everything you saw was either inanimate or dead. I’d forgotten what it felt like to be that way. But now, sitting with two humans, I could feel myself slowly back-sliding. My fingers grapple for something, someone, to hold onto. But is there someone? I’m not so sure anymore. I’m not so sure about anything anymore.

“It’s done!” Zoey calls, her voice muffled by the cloth she has tied around her face. “It’ll be ready in two hours. In the meantime, we can devise a plan.”

Standing up, I make my way over. I seat myself on a flat boulder and look at her, allowing no trace of emotion to settle on my face. I must keep it blank.

“I’m guessing Gemini stays in that cave. It’s like his home. So it would make sense that he sleeps there, right?”

“I don’t know,” Sam says. “This place is huge. The mountains are all interconnected. He could have any and all of the caves. Maybe that was his kitchen.”

“I don’t think so,” I say. “I might have seen something like a chamber leading off into another room. Gemini doesn’t seem like the type to wander. Whatever the case, it’s our best chance. He could have animals spying for him, and we can’t wait any longer anyway.”

“You’re right,” Sam replies, giving me a half-smile. “How are we going to get in?”

“We’re small. We sneak in,” Zoey says like it was obvious. “We just have to dunk it in his pot and hide. When he’s incapacitated…”

“We could tie him up,” I offer.

“Chains aren’t going to hold against a god. What we need is a spell. Something offered by a god. Only magic from a god can hold against another god. And,” her smile turns sly, “that is exactly what I have.” She pulls out a vial from her breast pocket. The liquid inside is clear red and syrupy. If I stare long enough and concentrate, then things start to flicker inside, horrible, mindless things that speak of death and decay. A promise of worse to come.

“Are you sure?” Sam says doubtfully. He must have seen the same thing I had. “That stuff… That stuff is evil.”

“It won’t kill a god,” she replies confidently. “But it will make him tell us what we want to know. It’s a truth potion.”