“No.” Gemma shook her head emphatically. “He seemed genuinely upset about it, and when I’ve talked to him about Penn, he’s never expressed anything but disgust for her. Sleeping with her would have been as terrible for him as it would have been for you.”
After Gemma left, Harper climbed under the covers and curled up in her bed. She was still wearing Daniel’s shirt, and it smelled sweetly of him. As she cried softly into her pillow, Harper had no idea if she’d done the right thing with Daniel. The one thing she did know was that she still loved him desperately.
TWENTY-NINE
Divergence
It was still dark out when the doorbell rang. Gemma trudged down the stairs, cursing under her breath as she went to answer the door.
“Who’s here?” Brian asked as he stumbled out of his bedroom, still half-asleep.
“Not sure. I’m getting it now,” Gemma called up to him.
Whoever it was had stopped ringing the bell and resorted to pounding incessantly on the front door. Gemma opened the door midpound and found Marcy in a weird, owl pajama jumper and acid-wash jean jacket combo.
“Marcy. What the he—”
“Lydia found her,” Marcy said, sounding more excited than Gemma had ever heard her sound before. “She’s found Diana.”
“Marcy’s here?” Brian asked. “Is everything okay?”
“Yeah, everything’s fine,” Gemma shouted, and somehow managed to keep from jumping up and down in excitement.
“Hasn’t she ever heard of a phone?” her dad muttered, and she heard the upstairs bathroom door squeak shut as he went inside.
“So Lydia really found the Diana?” Gemma asked Marcy.
“Diana?” Harper echoed from the top of the stairs, and she raced down the stairs to join Gemma in the open doorway.
“When? How?” Gemma asked.
“Just now. Lydia’s been crawling through Audra’s notes and Thalia’s diary, and she knew she was close, so she was staying up all night, and she finally did it.” Marcy broke out in an uncharacteristically broad smile.
“Where is Diana?” Harper asked, sounding out of breath. “She’s alive, right? When can we see her?”
“Yes, she’s alive,” Marcy said, and Harper let out a sigh of relief. “She lives just outside Charleston, West Virginia, and we can see her as soon as we get ready and go.”
“West Virginia?” Gemma wrinkled her nose. “That seems like a strange place for a goddess in hiding to live.”
“Yeah, well it’s strange that jellyfish don’t have eyes, girls have to pee sitting down, and that you’re a mythical creature,” Marcy said. “So let’s not start splitting hairs now about what’s strange.”
“What’s going on?” Brian asked. He came down the stairs and flicked on the overhead light. “You found somebody?”
Gemma turned back to see her dad walking down the stairs. A five o’clock shadow colored his face, and he ran a hand through his sandy hair. He was only wearing a T-shirt and boxers, but he seemed too sleepy to really care that company was seeing him that way.
“Yeah, you remember Diana?” Gemma asked him. “She’s the goddess that helped Thalia out of the muse thing.”
His blue eyes widened as he became more alert. “And she’ll be able to help you?”
Gemma nodded. “We hope so.”
“How far away is Charleston?” Harper asked, then she turned around, scanning the room. “Where’s my laptop?” Then she stopped. “Shit. I think I left it in my car last night.”
As she brushed past Marcy and dashed out into the chilly night, Brian stared after her in confusion.
The jagged scar on Harper’s thigh from the car accident extended long past the hem of Daniel’s shirt, but she didn’t seem to notice even though she was normally very self-conscious about anyone’s seeing it, even Gemma or their dad. But she ran outside to grab her laptop from her car without a second thought.
Harper’s eyes were red and puffy, like she’d been crying all night, and her makeup-smeared raccoon eyes only added to that effect. But what had happened with Daniel last night seemed to be replaced by her new focus on getting to Diana as quickly as possible.
“Wait a second,” Brian said. “Harper’s supposed to be at college. What is she doing here?”
“She came in to see Daniel last night for his birthday, and she’s going back to school in the morning,” Gemma said, since she wasn’t sure how much—if anything—her sister wanted their dad to know about the big fight with Daniel last night. “Well, she was. I’m not sure if she will now.”
Brian scowled, deep lines marring his tanned face. “I told her that she shouldn’t come to town for that. She’s already missing so much school already.”
“Are you talking about me?” Harper asked as she came back inside. “I’ll get my homework. I’ll e-mail teachers, it’ll be fine. But this is too important.”
Harper sat down in the living room chair and opened her computer on her lap. Brian might have lectured her about the importance of actually going to school, but by the intense expression in her eyes, he must’ve known she wasn’t listening right now.