The flight did feel long, like Marcy had said, but landing didn’t make things much better. In fact, being on solid ground only seemed to make the headache intensify. Gemma bought overpriced aspirin and a bottle of water at the airport and guzzled it down before they even went to the car rental.
Since Harper and Gemma were under twenty-five, Marcy rented the car in her name, and that meant they had to put it on her credit card.
“Thank you,” Gemma told Marcy for the twentieth time as they walked out to pick up their rented sedan.
“As long as I get to see some kind of all-knowing, all-powerful, magical being on this trip, then we’ll call it even,” Marcy said.
“This trip is really racking up,” Gemma said, and she felt guilty just thinking about it. “As soon as this is all over, I’m gonna spend the rest of my life paying people back and trying to make up for the hell that everyone is going through.”
“Getting back is the only repayment we need,” Harper assured her.
Marcy drove, while Harper navigated in the passenger seat using the GPS and the directions that Lydia had conjured up from Audra’s notes. Gemma was in too much pain to be as much help as she’d like, and she rested her forehead against the cool glass of the window and closed her eyes.
“So when we get there, I think you should let me do the talking first,” Lydia said, as they got closer.
“How will we know it’s Diana?” Harper glanced back in the backseat at Lydia. “Do you know what she looks like?”
Lydia shook her head. “No, Audra was careful not to have pictures or to describe her. But I usually just know.”
“How? Do you have like a divining rod for supernatural elements or something?” Harper asked.
“No. Audra and my gramma were really great about being able to sense things, but with me, it comes from experience.” Lydia shrugged. “When you’re around something enough, you eventually pick it up.”
“Do you know what kind of goddess she is? Is she gonna hurt us or be violent?” Marcy asked.
“She helped Audra and Thalia,” Lydia said. “But I can’t make any guarantees on how she’ll react.”
“She might kill us,” Marcy said.
Lydia sighed. “She probably won’t.”
“But she might,” Marcy persisted, but strangely, she didn’t sound that upset about the prospect.
“How are you holding up, Gemma?” Harper turned around fully so she could really get a look at her.
“Okay. But those aspirin I took are doing nothing for my headache,” she admitted.
“Because it’s not real pain. It’s supernatural,” Lydia explained. “Pills won’t do anything for it.”
“Then hopefully this won’t take too long,” Gemma said.
“And … here we are,” Marcy said, and Gemma looked out at the window.
Marcy had pulled up in front of a sage green building that would’ve looked like a warehouse if it weren’t for all the plants. A large faded sign across the front read Floral Essence, written in a lovely scroll. Skylights on the pitched roof gave it more of a greenhouse feel, and nearly every inch of surrounding land was covered in flowers or bushes.
“This is a flower shop,” Harper said as she gazed up at it.
“Yeah. That’s how Audra found her.” Lydia pointed to it. “At this flower shop.”
Harper turned back to Lydia, and so far, nobody had made any move to get out of the car. “But she doesn’t live here.”
“She might.” Marcy leaned forward, trying to get a better look at it. “It looks like a big place. There could be an apartment in the back.”
“So, according to Audra, Diana worked at this place fifty years ago. Fifty.” Harper was sounding increasingly irritated. “She can’t possibly still work here, not if she’s trying to be incognito and not set off alarms as some weird, ageless lady living in a store.”
“She’s a god,” Lydia reminded her patiently. “She can change her appearance. If she wants to age, she can. If she wants to be a tall, blond, twenty-year-old woman or a short, elderly, black man or a goat, she can be.”
“She can be a goat?” Marcy was intrigued.
“Yeah. Didn’t you ever read mythology?” Lydia asked. “Gods were always turning into animals. Zeus was pretending to be a bull or something when he impregnated Hercules’ mom.”
“Why did he pretend to be a bull?” Marcy asked. “How does being a bull make it easier for him to get laid instead of being a friggin’ god?”
Harper turned away from them and stared back out at the flower shop. “So you’re sure this is the place?”
“Yeah,” Lydia said decisively. “If Diana is still alive, then this is where we’ll find her.”
“Harper. Look at that bush,” Gemma said, and got out of the car to inspect it.
It was a huge bush growing up alongside the building and nearly as tall. Each of the blossoms were bright, vibrant purple, and they had to be twice the size of Gemma’s fist. As soon as she stepped out of the car, she’d been able to smell it—the strong fragrance overpowering the other plants and the city around them.
“This is just like the one behind Bernie’s house,” Gemma said when she heard Harper come up behind her. “Thalia planted it in the yard.”