“No, we should be fine with the three of us, but thank you.”
Alan nodded and ran off to find Kirill.
“Can we go now?” Morpheus asked impatiently. “I'm worried about Nem; she never misses a meeting, and she's always on time. She thinks to do otherwise is disrespectful.”
“Then something or someone has prevented her from showing you respect,” Odin said. “Let's find out what it is.”
Chapter Thirty-One
“Wow,” I said.
“Huh,” Odin added.
“What the fuck is this?” Re asked.
We stood before an English cottage. It had a traditional thatched roof, white plaster walls (Is it plaster? Spackle? Bone-dust? I don't freaking know.) with a wood framework, and casement windows. A wild patchwork of blooming flowers in all sizes grew exuberantly to both sides of a cobbled path that led to the front door.
“Aunty Nem likes things soft and feminine,” Morpheus explained as he led us to the cottage.
“It just goes to show that magic may influence a god's appearance but it doesn't change who they are underneath,” I said.
“I don't know,” Odin murmured. “Nemesis seems to be pretty tough inside and out.”
“Can you guys get over the fact that she likes flowers and lace and help me look around?” Morpheus asked with irritation.
“Sorry,” we all mumbled.
It may have been a cottage but it was a large cottage. Dainty rooms of cozy furniture, tea paraphernalia, and doilies filled both of the two floors. Not a single one of those rooms held a hint as to where Nemesis had gone. I wandered into her bedroom and shook my head at the patchwork quilt neatly covering her bed. Motion caught my attention out of the corner of my eye, and I jerked in its direction but it was only my reflection in a full-length mirror; one of those oval ones on a stand.
I laughed a little at myself for my jumpiness but the mirror gave me an odd feeling, and I ended up scurrying from the room with an itch between my shoulder blades. I tried to track Nemesis using my dragon senses but her scent was everywhere. If a newer trail existed, it had blended with the older ones and became nearly impossible to distinguish. Either that or Nemesis hadn't come home in awhile. Frankly, I was leaning toward that theory. My dragon was simply too powerful to not pick up the nuances of a newer trail.
“I got nothing,” I said as our group reconvened in the living room. “I don't think Nemesis has been here lately.”
“We didn't find anything unusual either,” Odin answered for both him and Re.
“What am I going to do?” Morpheus whined.
“You said that Narcissus' father gave him a part of his territory,” I mused.
“That's right,” Morph agreed.
“Torrent can get us through any ward; we just need to know what direction to point him in,” I said. “I don't know where Narcissus' territory is, but if we can get into his father's territory, it would border Narcissus' and then Torrent should be able to get us through the wards.”
“Brilliant!” Morpheus declared.
“What if Nemesis isn't there?” Re asked. “We'll be invading Narcissus' territory for nothing.”
“I think we have valid suspicions,” I said. “If she's not there, I'll apologize, and we'll leave. But Narcissus needs to be questioned if nothing else.”
“Fair enough,” Re agreed.
“I need to head to Artie's place to grab Torrent, and then we can go see Narcissus' father,” I said.
We had all been to Artemis' territory before so it wasn't a problem to trace there. We went immediately, passing through the Aether to step out of her tracing room and into the foyer of her home. Artemis lived in a grand palace in the center of a forest on one of the Greek islands in Oceanus. Her home surged up three stories in gleaming, polished, stone splendor, and its interior overflowed with priceless antiques, artwork, heavy furniture, and dogs. Artie loved her puppies. A huge pack of them came running toward us, barking merrily. There were two black and white dogs, three with mahogany coats, one spotted—that one I'd met before, his name was Fletch—and seven that looked like larger versions of Great Danes. They flowed around us in a furry tide until the sea was parted by their mistress.
“All right, you curs, get back!” Artemis huffed affectionately as she pushed her pups away. “Hey, Guys, what's going on?”
“Hey, Artie, I'm looking for Torrent. Is he here?” I asked.
“I'm in here!” Torrent called from another room.
“Come on in,” Artemis waved us forward with one sleekly-muscled arm.
Artie was in jeans like me but hers hung loosely on her trim hips. She had an athletic physique and Greek features that made us look even more different despite our similar coloring. Her hair was nearly the same shade of brown as mine, her skin just as fair, and her eyes just as dark. But her stare was more puppy dog than almond and her hair, although wavy, hung straighter than mine. She led us into a cozy living room where Torrent snuggled on a couch near a crackling fire.
Torr looked up and grinned as we entered. He was a bit fairer than Artemis; his skin porcelain-pale with a soft blush in all the right places. It used to be poreless—too perfect to be real—but Torrent had eased into a more natural look. His shockingly green eyes gleamed with child-like earnestness but didn't have the same impossible lime glow that they used to. In short, he had allowed himself to become a real person.
“Hey, V!” Torrent sat up. “You need me?”
“We're trying to find Nemesis, and we think she may be in Narcissus' territory,” I said.
“Narcissus has a territory already?” Artemis asked in surprise.
“His father gave him a piece of his,” Morpheus explained. “Vervain thinks that if we get into Cephissus' territory maybe Torrent could find a way through Narcissus' wards.”
“Family get-togethers must be annoying,” I muttered. “What with all the names ending in 'ssus.'”
“Greeks.” Re shook his head.
“Wait.” Artemis looked at Morph. “Nem is missing?
