Dark Hour

Part 7

I fell to the ground and pounded it in frustration.

I couldn't get it right, I'd mastered all the simple light tricks but the simple shadow trick I'd been assigned; I couldn't do it.

"Try pushing your energy out further. Picture the place you want to visit really clearly." Apollo looked at his watch. "Well, I have to go, but keep working on it, okay?"

I nodded, pretending that I had everything under control, when, in reality I was visibly sweating and nearly drained of energy completely. I sighed and flopped onto the ground. My mind racing as I wondered how Apollo managed such a hard thing to do as Ghost jump, but then again, he was stronger in shadow working than light. I, on the other hand, was part Marked, part skin shifter. I could transform into anything I wanted to be! I felt even more insecure, what if this wasn't my body, that it was someone who died in the eighteen hundreds and I had seen them in a picture book when I was three? Who could know who I really was?

I opened my eyes to a sharp tapping on my shoulder. Staring down at me was a pale faced girl, around my age. She had eyes that were a strange shade of blue, almost a purple colour, but it was so minor that I decided to forget about it.

"Hi." I said, implying that she was not wanted in this area.

"Hi to you too." She replied simply.

I sat up and we stared each other down until I finally sighed and stood up, brushing the small stones from my loose jeans. I eyed her still, even as she smiled at me.

"What do you want?" I asked finally.

"Apollo wanted me to give you this." The pretty girl answered with a smile, showing me a set of pure white teeth.

I nodded and took the piece of paper in her fingers and unfolded it.

This is my close advisor, Tiffany. She helps me around the place. You can trust her, she's a friend of Hera's and mine.

I looked up the neatly folded piece of paper to the smug face of the, apparent, Tiffany. She had white blonde hair that fell down to her mid back and her face held no life of any sort, no faint flush, she kind of reminded me of Apollo two nights ago when I had realised he had no pulse. I still hadn't asked him about it, even when the perfect moment presented itself that night, when he said good night and told me that he was so glad I was here. That seemed like the perfect moment to bring it up, right? Well no! I had a sudden lightbulb when I realised that saying he had no pulse might've brought on another mood completely.

"Well, are you going to let me help you train or not?" Tiffany asked.

I shook my head and replied. "I'm fine on my own, thank you."

She looked at me and I saw a faint trace of a scowl. "Can I at least keep you company? Master Apollo would at least want us to get on." She stated her case, knowing that I was trapped. I didn't want to hurt Apollo's feelings, if I said no, I would be doing just that.

"Fine." I huffed, annoyed with everything today.

"Whatcha working on?" She asked casually.

I looked down at my hands and replied. "This thing that Apollo assigned me to do."

Tiffany laughed lightly. "You're not giving me much to work with here."

I looked up sharply. "Hasn't Apollo told you what I'm working on in here?" I asked, gesturing to the green room around me. I looked back at Tiffany pointedly. "Maybe you got the wrong person."

She smirked. "Apollo doesn't make mistakes." She said in a specific way that got my heart racing, but I couldn't pin point it. I walked over to the drink fountain and leaned down. Once I'd finished satisfying my thirst, I walked over to the centre of the room and got into a comfortable standing position, like Apollo said, 'you have to be comfortable to get it correct.' I leaned my weight to a different leg and tried to think of the hospital that Lucky was staying at; long, white corridors, numbered rooms, people dressed in blue and white. Lucky, reading a magazine about ruined weddings. Sitting alone in a white room with a hand sanitiser next to the bed. A television hooked up to the wall and placed on a shelf over looking the bed. The tennis channel was muted as it displayed two men running across a blue court. . .

"Hey! Do you want to do something fun?" Tiffany broke my concentration and I lost my grip on the picture. I spun around and saw red as I whirled to face Tiffany, she looked panicked.

My anger disappeared in a flash.

"What's wrong?" I asked, brushing strands of hair out of my sweaty face.

Tiffany's glazed eyes snapped back to reality and focused on my face. "What? Oh, I'm fine, it's nothing really."

I nodded my head and smiled, going back to what I was doing but I couldn't picture Lucky. Every time, it was always Tiffany's dazed expression.

"So what do you know about Apollo?" Tiffany asked, changing the subject after blabbing on about a rare species of hybrid kitten. I looked up from my jumper and eyed Tiffany from afar.

"I know a little bit, why?"

Tiffany waved her hand dismissively. "Oh, I was just wondering, seeing if you two were friends yet."

I frowned, upset. "We are friends."

"Okay, how much do you know about him?" Tiffany challenged.

I looked away from her intense gaze, I didn't want to talk about Apollo in such a way. But then again I wanted to know more about him, he was so mysterious and far away. I met her gaze.

"I know that he is one of three, his brother didn't make it and that's why his is more powerful with shadow work. . ." I thought back to the night at the beach. "He loves to take photos. He also enjoys travelling around Europe a lot of the time. He is fascinated with the stars." I pushed my memory back a week, the specific words he said were hard to recollect. "He was going to travel with a girl but then she broke his heart." I murmured, remembering the pained look on his face when I'd asked him if he'd ever had anyone special in his life. Then, as if it had been painted there, a part of the conversation popped into my head, I closed my eyes, reliving the moment. "He was about to say something after he told me about the heart break but," I opened my eyes. "He looked away and suggested that we should go back."

I remembered that bit now! I still wondered about what he was going to say.

Tiffany laughed. "You don't know him at all, do you?"

I scowled. "Well what do you know then?"

Tiffany leaned forward, resting her elbows on her knees. "I know that before now, before Apollo became tame. He used to hunt skin shifters and faeries as well." I pulled back, shocked. He used to kill skin shifters? But I was part skin shifter!

"He used to love a Faery called Safina, she was the most beautiful in all of Edranne." I frowned, what's Edranne? "She was the daughter of a humble fisherman who was killed at sea." I looked away, not quite believing what I was hearing.

"They never shared the bed even though it was like, true love!" Tiffany continued. "Then, Safina confronted Apollo, telling him that he killed her father." I closed my eyes, not wanting to hear the rest. "He demanded to know what she was talking about, but she didn't listen, eventually he was cornered and felt an anger rise, he told her that he wouldn't do something like that but she continued to yell until he was matching her pitch, then she hit him and kissed him with a hard force that sent him into a state of shock."

My lashes fluttered as the scene I'd imagined in my head sent tears dribbling down my cheek and splashing on my hands.

Poor Apollo.

He definitely had a good reason for not wanting to love anyone. But now I had a reason not to love him as well. I sighed, even though I might have feelings for Apollo, he couldn't possibly have feelings for me. He used to hunt my kind, well I'm a hybrid, I thought, not a full skin shifter.

"Hey! Let's go and get some lunch, sound good?" Tiffany suggested.

I nodded vacantly and took her outstretched hand.