MADE

Boom

            I woke in my room with a pounding headache and the sound of snoring bouncing off the walls. Alaric was asleep in the chair in the corner of my room, head dropped over and emitting the loudest snoring I had ever heard.

Hypocrite.

His face turned up to mine and the memory of last night came rushing back like a tidal wave. I could see it playing over and over again in his silver eyes.

Alaric told me I was the Dividend: the proclaimed savior Amelia, the woman who had defeated Hades the first time, had declared would come.

Except I wasn't the Dividend. There had to be a mistake.

I would be a joke. I was hardly even an Olympian, let alone an islander. They would be insane to put their faith in a girl with barely two weeks of training.

I made Alaric promise to keep it between us. At least for now. I couldn't handle all of this.

The only problem was that Alaric was never going to let me out of his sight after last night. And even if I could manage to slip away out from under his nose, the moment Amara heard about my disappearance was the moment every guard in Olympus would be hunting to track me down.

Which would have me captured and found out within a matter of hours if the rest of Olympus was anything like Elijah and Alaric.

I also didn't trust myself anymore. The feeling of the fire at my fingertips was... tasty. I almost killed Jake, and it had felt so delicious. The desire to do that again was terrifying, even if in some way I had felt more like myself.

"You all right?" he asked sitting on the corner, his gray eyes downcast.

I nodded. "I guess so."

"You need control before you do something like that again," he said with his mouth pressed into a thin line.

I nodded again.

"And.... you will need to open the seal on the other two sectors as well."

I groaned but pushed my feet out of the covers and onto the floor. Alaric's eyes burned into my back as he watched me go into the bathroom and slam the door behind me.

I had met him downstairs in a t-shirt and jeans only for Alaric to scoff. He tossed a navy piece of fabric at me and ordered me to change.

It was the most skin-tight thing I had ever worn. It stuck to my skin like little tiny suction cups, and it the feeling was unsettling.

"You would have been naked in seconds if we stared in your human clothes," he said tying the laces of his running shoes. "Not that I am objecting."

I rolled my eyes and whacked him on the head.

"What," he chastised, "you were almost naked last night anyway."

The flames on my skin had turned most of my clothes into charcoal and judging by Alaric's face he had seen more of me than I would have liked. I scowled as he stood and stared down at me.

"Fire is one of the hardest for people to master. It has a mind of its own, and that's why your father's identity on the island is so renowned."

"Why?" I asked looking up at the sky.

"Remember how the elements on the island are in pairs? Fire to earth and water to wind? Well unlike the water, where your skeletal structure changes to accommodate the sea, fire changes the outer portions of your body. People like your father can heat their bodies so much that they can move at incredible speeds. Your father is the only person who has surpassed the supersonic barrier."