The Tyrant's Tomb

“Oh…my…gods,” she wheezed. She managed to restrain her mirth long
enough to blink at me through the tears, as if to make sure I was really there
and she’d heard me correctly. “You. Me? HA-HA-HA-HA-HA-HA-HA.”
Aurum and Argentum seemed just as confused as I was. They glanced at
each other, then at me, as if to say, What have you done to our mom? If you
broke her, we will kill you.
Reyna’s laughter rolled across the hillside.
Once I got over my initial shock, my ears began to burn. Over the last
few months, I had experienced quite a few humiliations. But being laughed
at…to my face…when I wasn’t trying to be funny…that was a new low.
“I don’t see why—”
“HA-HA-HA-HA-HA-HA!”
“I wasn’t saying that—”
“HA-HA-HA-HA-HA-HA! Stop, please. You’re killing me.”
“She doesn’t mean that literally!” I yelped for the dogs’ benefit.
“And you thought…” Reyna didn’t seem to know where to point—at me,
herself, the sky. “Seriously? Wait. My dogs would have attacked if you were
lying. Oh. Wow. HA-HA-HA-HA-HA-HA-HA!”
“So that’s a no, then,” I huffed. “Fine. I get it. You can stop—”
Her laughter turned to asthmatic squeaking as she wiped her eyes.
“Apollo. When you were a god…” She struggled for breath. “Like, with
your powers and good looks and whatever—”
“Say no more. Naturally, you would have—”
“That would have been a solid, absolute, hard-pass NO.”
I gaped. “I am astonished!”
“And as Lester…I mean, you’re sweet and kind of adorkable at times.”
“Adorkable? At times?”
“But wow. Still a big-time NO. Ha-ha-ha-ha-ha-ha!”
A lesser mortal would have crumbled to dust on the spot, their selfesteem
imploding.
In that moment, as she rejected me utterly, Reyna had never seemed
more beautiful and desirable. Funny how that works.
Meg emerged from the hackberry bushes. “Guys, there’s nobody up
there, but—” She froze, taking in the scene, then glanced at the greyhounds
for explanation.
Don’t ask us, their metal faces seemed to say. Mom is never like this.