CHAPTER ONE HUNDRED FIFTY-THREE

Heart to Hearth, Part 2

“I never blamed you,” Marie insisted. “I just…”

“Couldn’t get over your grief to love me like you should have,” Sam deduced.

Marie flinched, but she said nothing to refute his words. Sam didn’t mean to hurt her though. He just wanted to finally speak his truth out loud.

“I’m not mad…” Sam’s voice had gotten so low that Marie must have strained to hear him. “I miss them too…”

He felt Marie squeeze his hand, which he realized must have been her version of a tight hug—and that was enough for him. Marie responded to his confession by lowering her emotional wall just enough that Sam could sense her pain too. Most people might have seen this as too small a step, but Sam knew better. He knew today’s car ride was a huge leap toward reconciliation between them, and he was suddenly glad that his fear of reporters had pushed him into Marie’s car. Only, he realized something else too. Reconciliation would never be complete without Serena.

As they sat there in silence and comfort, he wondered if he should tell Marie what became of her granddaughter. Will Serena’s situation ruin what we’ve just gone through now?

Sam decided that he couldn’t leave Marie’s car without telling her the truth. It wasn’t just because his grandmother deserved to know that her granddaughter was still alive, but because Serena’s life—her very soul—hung in the balance, and Marie’s little birds might help get Sam the clue he desperately needed to find where Serena had disappeared to.

“Um, there’s something I have to tell you,” Sam began.

It took a very long pause before Marie finally said, “Whatever it is, you can tell me, Samuel?”

“Serena…”

Sam felt Marie stiffen at his side at the mention of Serena’s name.

“I often think about her—what sort of woman your little sister might have grown to be if the fickle gods had just given her a chance…”

When Marie’s fingers tightened on Sam’s this time, he didn’t sense the warm emotion of a hug, but the frustration of one who could not protect her family from the worst tragedies. He knew that feeling well enough to recognize it instantly.

“That’s the thing,” Sam sighed. “You kind of don’t have to imagine it anymore…”

Marie’s eyebrow twitched upward. “Explain.”

Thus began Sam’s tale about how Serena had survived the machinations of the goddess Hera and her temple. He left nothing out and told Marie everything. Even the part about him jumping into Serena’s mind and seeing all the tortures Hera’s priestesses pushed onto his sister so that she might transform into the doll they needed her to become to house the Spirit of Hope within her.

Throughout his story, Sam saw a range of emotions flit across Marie’s face. First came sadness, then fear, then anger and hatred, and longing came last of all.

Marie let go of Sam’s hand. “Why didn’t you mention this sooner?”

“You weren’t taking my calls,” he reminded her.

“Serena’s alive,” Marie repeated in a dreamy voice.

“She’s also a villain now,” Sam sighed.

“Pandora the 8th,” Marie confirmed, to which Sam replied, “At least until I get her mind back.”

“Which will require you to siphon more of Hope’s essence from her?” Marie asked.

“Sounds a lot easier than it is,” Sam chuckled.

Marie went silent for a long moment before asking, “What do you need me to do?”

Sam thought about it some more before saying, “Well, last I heard from Farsight, Pandora the 8th and Medea were coming here to New York. Think your connections can help us find them?”

“If they’re somewhere in the city then you can consider them found.”

“And if they’re not?”

“Then I’ll at least discover their whereabouts from their compatriots.” Marie’s eyes narrowed into slits. “I haven’t tangled with the city’s criminal underworld in a long while, but Chimera will be rooted out if I have to spend every favor owed me by every godsdamn person in this city.”

An expression of surprise flashed on Sam’s face as he watched his grandmother nodding to herself.

“You’re kind of cool,” Sam whispered.

“You only noticed this now?” Marie almost smiled. She didn’t though. She could be sad or angry but never happy it seemed. “As for the temple of Hera and my old friend Malta…”

“What about them?” Sam asked.

“I should have known they would come after Adele. After all, they’ve come after her family many times before… I should have protected her more,” Guilt flashed on Marie’s face although it was quickly replaced by the knotting of brows and a narrowing of eyes. “Malta and her brood will rue the day they betrayed the Shepards.”

Sam gulped. “You sure you want to pick a fight with a god’s temple?”

“I would go to war with the world to keep you and your sister safe,” Marie insisted.

Sam didn’t realize until that moment that these were the kind of words that he hoped to hear from Marie many years ago, and now that he had, Sam couldn’t help but get emotional.

That’s when Sam did something he hadn’t done since he began living with her. He reached over to Marie and gave her a hug which Sam found wasn’t a hard thing to do anymore. She stiffened at his touch at first but eventually softened in his embrace.

They stayed that way until the car pulled to a stop by the curb, and Sam saw the front of Mr. Moonday’s shop beyond the window.

I’ll make sure you get to hug Serena like this too, he thought. I’ll save her first and then make our family whole again.

“Aren’t you getting out?” Marie asked.

“Just checking, but,” Sam decided to push his luck, “you’re not going to stop the Herald from staying negative with me, are you?”

“Would it benefit Herculean to soften our stance on you now?” she asked knowingly.

Sam pulled away with a sigh. “You’re going to quote ‘Walt Disney’ to me again, aren’t you?”

Once again, Marie resisted the urge to smile. It would have been the first genuine smile she’d given Sam in eight years too. “The flower that blooms in adversity is the rarest and most beautiful of all,” she recited.

“That quote would work better if I was a teenage girl, grams.” Sam was already halfway out the door when he glanced over his shoulder and added, “You can tell that to Serena when you meet her again.”

He didn’t even notice he’d called her ‘grams’ when he stepped out of her car. Marie did though. The last glimpse Sam caught of his grandmother as he shut the door on her was a glimpse of the surprised expression frozen on her face.

Sam watched the back of Marie’s Rolls Royce feeling better than he’d felt since he began his walk up the steps of the Wardens’ Abbey.

“That was strangely cathartic,” he said.

“Is that why you look so dopey?” asked a voice from behind him.

Sam glanced over his shoulder and found the most beautiful sight waiting for him outside Mr. Moonday’s shop. “Hey, didn’t see you there.”

“You’re probably the only one who didn’t,” Thunder sighed.

Despite the grunge hoodie she wore over her Yankees baseball cap and the shades that hid her electric blue eyes, Thunder was instantly recognizable to the crowd gathering on the street opposite where they were standing.

Cries of “Thunder!” were beginning while more and more smartphones were being pulled out and pointed at her and the guy in the bronze mask standing next to her.

“Okay, is that your idea of going incognito?” Sam asked.

“Why?” she glanced down at her pale blue crop top, fit jeans, and white sneaks. “This is how I always look when I’m not fighting crime.”

Thunder may not have been wearing her famous suit but even her civilian clothes made her stand out. She just oozed cool.

“I can see your belly button,” Sam teased. Although what he wanted to say was, ‘Damn, those are some tight abs.’

To his surprise, Thunder didn’t punch him like she usually did, and he could have sworn that her cheeks got rosier before she turned her head away from him.

“C-come on,” she said quickly. “Mr. Moonday’s waiting for us.”