"I should have known this was a waste of time," Kate thought to herself, "She barely had anything when I found her in Hekate's realm other than the things I gave her."
"She had to have had something of her own," the Maiden said sounding just as frustrated as Kate.
"Like what though? I don't remember her having anything, no necklaces, bracelets, books, rings, nothing that I saw anyway."
"Where did she sleep?" the Crone asked.
"Umm...on the couch but when I woke up her things were folded and put up."
"Go look in the closet, the pillow she slept on may have a strand of her hair on it."
Kate sighed and headed to the hallway, "Hey Amanda, would you look on the couch there might be a strand of her hair on it we could use," she shouted over her shoulder.
"Sure," Amanda said closing the cupboards and heading to the living room.
Kate opened the closet and pulled out Cassandra's pillow, to her surprise she found a strand of her hair shining brightly. She carefully pulled the strand from the pillowcase and headed to the living room holding it tightly between her thumb and pointer finger.
Amanda was replacing the couch cushions when she walked in, "We found it on her pillowcase," she said. Amanda smiled at her, "Okay what do we do with it?" she asked putting her hands on her waist.
"That's a good question," Kate said, "What's the next step?" she asked Hekate.
"Give Amanda the hair so it doesn't get lost," the Mother said, "Then go to your books and find one with a map on it."
Kate handed Amanda the strand, "Be super careful with that, it was the only strand I found." Amanda nodded taking it carefully from Kate. Once she was sure Amanda wasn't going to lose it she turned and headed to her room, she knelt and started going through her pile of books.
"What exactly am I looking for?"
"Aphrodite and Hera could have taken her anywhere," Kate could feel the Maiden's frustration, she didn't blame her. Since the night Deimos had shown up, it felt like they hadn't been able to catch a break.
"It will all work out Kate, I promise this isn't the first time things have blown up and we were always able to handle it," the Mother said calmly.
"I know you have, but other than fighting an occasional demon this is the biggest problem I have faced since I became your vessel," she flipped a few pages in a book a little more violently than she meant to.
"Look in one of the Atlas', those have large maps of the world Kate," the Crone piped in her voice a little cringy at the sound of paper rustling. Kate dug around until she found the Atlas and opened it to a large page of the world, jumping to her feet she took it out to Amanda. They knelt at the coffee table and Kate laid the book out on it, she took the strand of hair and waited for Hekate to tell her what to do next.
"This is going to be something we have never asked you to do," the Maiden said cautiously, "Take off your pendant and wrap the strand of hair around it."
Kate lifted an eyebrow, "I'm sorry but the last time I tried to take it off you all freaked out and gave me a migraine."
"This is true," the Mother said soothingly, "We normally would never let you do this but for our magick to work in this we have to channel it through the pendant and you will let it circle the map until it lands somewhere and hopefully the place it lands will be where Cassandra is."
"You won't be able to hear us while you are doing this, but you will still be able to feel us through the pendant," the Crone piped in.
Kate bit her lip, she hadn't taken the pendant off since the day she had put it on, but she trusted Hekate. Reaching up she lifted the chain from her neck, the quiet in her head was disconcerting, she always thought she missed the quiet in her mind but honestly, she missed them, then she felt a pulse from the pendant and she knew they were still with her. She entwined the strand of hair around the pendant and began letting it circle the map.
Amanda furrowed her brow as she watched her do this, "So....is this the magick part you were talking about?"
Kate nodded, "In a way, magick is sometimes really boring like just circling this map and waiting for something to happen, other times it's intense similar to what you saw at the cafe." The pendant continued to circle the map, she moved it across both entire pages but nothing happened.
"So how long does this take?"
Kate shrugged, "I honestly don't know, this is the first time I have lost someone." They both sat there letting the pendant spin, but after a while, Kate sighed and sat back on her heels.
"This isn't working."
Amanda shook her head, "Do you think we forgot to do something?"
Kate placed the chain back on her neck, "Okay what did we do wrong?"
"Nothing if it's not working then they took her to one of their realms," the Maiden was annoyed, "We just got back to this realm and we still haven't fully recovered from our battle with the demon twins."
Kate slammed the book closed, stood, and started pacing.
"Hey, it's gonna be okay," Amanda said watching her pace.
"How do you know Amanda? You only met the goddess of love, she is a joke compared to the twins."
"I know I'm still new to all of this but remember Ollie is going to find that phone number and then we will be able to find your friend." The words had barely left her lips when a knock came at the door. Without hesitation Amanda headed for it, Kate reached out and snagged her elbow. She stopped and looked at her confused.
"With everything going on we can't just open the door, we need to be more cautious." She inched her way to the door and looked out the peephole. Ollie was standing there his hands in his pockets waiting patiently.
She let out a relieved sigh and opened the door, Ollie smiled at her shyly.
"Hey Kate, look I'm sorry about how I reacted at the cafe, this is a lot to take in but you are like a sister to me anything I can do to help I will."
Kate pulled him into a tight hug, "You are like a brother to me Ollie I hated thinking this might have ruined our friendship!"
They shut the door and made their way to the living room. Amanda, who was flipping through the atlas, looked up and smiled at Ollie, "I knew you would come around," she grabbed him and pulled him down next to her.
"Were you able to find that phone number?" Kate asked hopefully.
Ollie smiled triumphantly and dug in his front pocket pulling a notecard out and handing it to Kate, "It's not much but there's a phone number and a name on it, but it's not Venus or Aphrodite," he said looking a little confused.
Kate took the card and scanned it, he was right neither of those names was on it, but the name Juno was there.
"Ugggh, what is with those two using their Roman names," the Maiden said exasperated, "I mean do they think they are being sneaky?"
"I don't know, I don't think everyone knows the Roman names of many of the gods."
"This is true," the Crone said agreeing.
"Is that going to work?" Ollie asked nervously, "That was all she left."
Kate nodded, "This should work, thanks, Ollie." She looked from him to Amanda, they were her best friends and she had already put them in danger once today. Smiling sadly she took a breath to thank both of them and rush them out of the apartment but Amanda shook her head vigorously.
"No Kate, you are not pushing us away, I am not leaving you with all of this again, you have been alone with this for years, I am not leaving you alone now."
"What?" Ollie looked between them, realization dawned, his brows scrunched together and his lips pursed, "I took a punch from a literal god for you today, you are not pushing us out now."
"Neither of you understands what you are saying, today was just a little example of what gods are capable of, I won't be the reason either of you get hurt."
"Since when have you known me to give up even when things are tough? Who dropped out of school and opened a cafe and book exchange with you?" Amanda crossed her arms and raised her eyebrows.
"And I have never done anything I don't want to do," Ollie piped in, "When everyone pressured me into picking a partner I just rolled my eyes and opened a successful bakery, I do what I want and there is no way I am letting anyone else hurt you."
Kate's eyes teared up, she had known her friends cared about her but they were risking their lives to help her find Cassandra, a girl they didn't even know.
"As sweet as this is they can't be involved," the Maiden said.
"I know but they are pretty stubborn."
"They may be stubborn but they will also be dead if they face off against Eros and Psyche again they will die."
She didn't know what to do, her friends were bound and determined to help her.
"We could give them something simple to do," the Mother suggested.
"Like what?" No one spoke up, because there wasn't anything they could do safely, heck she couldn't even send them to the cafe without worrying that Aphrodite's son and his wife come back looking for her again.
"They need to stay here," the Mother said, "This is the safest place for them right now."
"Okay, so what do I say to them?" she asked feeling like they were going around in circles. Her frustration grew when no one spoke up.
"Look I know you have a goddess living in your head but could you let us in on the conversation?" Amanda asked annoyed.
Kate nodded, "I know I'm sorry Amanda, it's just hard to remember that you know now. They think the safest thing to do is stay here."
"And do what?" Ollie asked. Kate stayed silent, she still didn't have an answer.
"We are getting ahead of ourselves Kate," the Crone said, "Shouldn't we use the phone number and then make our plan, we don't even know if that is Hera's actual number."
She had a good point, "Hekate suggests we wait to plan our next move until we call this number," she shook the card and stood up looking for her phone.
"They....she....you know this is super confusing," Amanda said rubbing her head, "You said it's just one goddess with three faces, what does that mean?"
"It is one goddess, Hekate, but she has three faces, Maiden, Mother, and Crone, and each of them has their special skill," Kate said rummaging through her bag her hand wrapped around the phone and pulled it out.
"Okay...." Amanda still seemed confused but Kate couldn't explain it any better than that.
"I'm just glad you aren't hearing voices that aren't there, sometimes I wondered about you. There would be times you would go quiet and I wasn't sure what exactly was going on," Ollie said going to the fridge and grabbing beers for everyone.
Kate laughed nervously, she sat down on the couch, thanked Ollie for the beer, popped the top, and chugged down half the bottle. Both of them stared at her, "What?"
"Nothing, it's good to know you will still always be you," Ollie said slouching down next to her.
She rolled her eyes, "You have voices in your head, goddess or not and you would drink a lot more." She looked at the phone number again, the card was shaking slightly but she wasn't letting Cassandra be stuck between them. She should have just left her in Hekate's realm at least there she had been safe. She was kicking herself, the poor girl was in the hands of the angriest Olympian she knew about there was no telling what they would be doing to her.
"Kate," Amanda's voice broke through her thoughts, "We're here for you, no matter what." Her hand was warm on her knee and her smile reassured her. She felt less alone than she had since the day Hekate had made her vessel.
She smiled confidently, dialed the number on the card, and put the phone to her ear. It rang a few times before a rich, smooth female voice answered.
"Hello, Kate."