Echoes: The Helicon Muses, #5

By Val St. Crowe

Owen Asher is back in Helicon, and Sawyer Snow doesn't like it.

Sawyer doesn't believe Nora Sparrow when she says that Owen deserves another chance. Owen's not a good person. He's manipulative and cruel, and there's no way he can be rehabilitated.

When Sawyer sees Nora kissing Owen, he's convinced beyond the shadow of a doubt that Owen has done something horrible to Nora to make her behave this way. Sawyer doesn't know what's happened, but he knows it can't be good.

With help of his friends, Sawyer will do whatever it takes to save Nora—to save all of Helicon—from whatever scheme Owen has planned.

 

The Helicon series is a soapy, irreverent portal fantasy wherein the drama of teen relationships tends to overshadow whatever magical threat they're trying to fight. Lots of drinking, swearing, inappropriate sexual decisions, grappling with sexual orientation and gender, and random appearances by mythological figures thrown in for good measure. It's genre-bending, impossible to categorize, and for everyone out there who equally loves Gossip Girl, Rocky Horror, and Narnia.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Punk Rawk Books
• Release date: Oct 13, 2021
• ISBN: 9798201352929

Book preview

CHAPTER ONE

Sawyer Snow couldn’t sleep. He wasn’t sure what time it was, but it was very late. Or very early, depending on one’s perspective. The night was dark. Dark and cold. It was the wee hours of the morning before dawn.

The wind breathed through the air, chilling Sawyer’s nose. It was much colder than he was used to.

In Helicon, it was perpetual summer. The seasons themselves only appeared for brief periods of time, at the will of the muses themselves. Because, of course, that’s what Helicon was. It was the home of the muses.

And that night was the night before the snow would come.

Sawyer sat in the opening of his tent, wrapped in a blanket. Behind him, he could hear the faint sound of snoring coming from the hammock that he shared with Lute Thundercloud. They didn’t live together in the strictest sense. Lute had his own tent, which was pitched right next to Sawyer’s. But for all intents and purposes, they were with each other all the time.

Sawyer shot a glance over his shoulder. He envied Lute, who was sawing away. He wished that he could sleep.

It wasn’t the snoring that was keeping him awake. He was used to the snoring. For that matter, Lute would claim that Sawyer snored too. It was a toss up as to which one of them snored the worst. Usually, Sawyer didn’t even hear Lute.

No, it had been hard to sleep in general these days. Sawyer tossed and turned, worries and anxiety keeping him up at night. Sometimes, he lay awake for hours after Lute had already gone to sleep. Sometimes, he even got up and took a walk in the middle of the night.

Tonight had been the worst, though. Maybe it was because of the impending snow. He couldn’t go on a walk. It was too cold. He had to sit here, huddled in the blanket, peering into the darkness. Maybe if he could’ve gotten moving, he could have driven his anxiety from his brain.

But honestly that wasn’t likely. He’d had these concerns for quite some time. Ever since they had come back from the mundane world with Owen Asher.

Sawyer wasn’t fond of Owen. It may have had something to do with the fact that a few years ago, Owen had used his mind control abilities to convince Sawyer to cut off his own finger. That hadn’t been pretty. Sawyer looked down at his hand, wriggling his fingers. The stump seemed to taunt him.

Owen was not a good person. Owen did not deserve a second chance. If Sawyer heard one more person spout that kind of nonsense at him, he thought he might go insane. A person like Owen did not suddenly change.

Sure, Owen had done what he’d done under the influence of a spell. The spell had made him obsessed with Nora, and he’d been desperate to get her back.

But Sawyer didn’t buy the argument that Owen had only done all the horrible things that he had done because of the spell. There was something wrong with Owen. There was something cruel about him. He was through-and-through evil.

Sawyer swore underneath his breath.

He didn’t know why he let himself start thinking about this again. There was nothing that could be done about it. He had to accept that things were the way they were. Phoebe Rain, head of the council, had decreed that Owen deserved a second chance. And if Phoebe thought so, well Sawyer’s own thoughts on the matter weren’t important.

Owen was back in Helicon. That was the way of things.

He wasn’t sure why he couldn’t accept that. It was only that it seemed… wrong to him.

So wrong that it kept him up.

Sawyer was convinced that Owen had done something to both Phoebe and Nora. It wasn’t as if Owen didn’t have a history of it. The first year that Sawyer had met Owen, Owen had channeled the power of Dionysus and used that power to control the minds of half of the muses in Helicon. He had nearly forced Sawyer’s friend Maddie to kill herself. He was not a nice person. His ability for mind control was well known. So, it only stood to reason to think that Owen was controlling the minds of Phoebe and Nora and possibly anybody else who had the power to obstruct him.

Sawyer wasn’t sure how far it went. Maybe half of Helicon was under Owen’s thrall now.

Nora could swear all she wanted that she now had the power of Nimue and could tell that Owen wasn’t doing any such thing. Sawyer didn’t believe her.

He needed to save her. She wasn’t herself.

He cared about Nora. They had a history. They’d been friends for a long time. And they had been lovers as well. She had been his girlfriend for two years. Even though he had realized that he wasn’t attracted to women, and that he really was about as gay as they come, that didn’t mean he didn’t still love Nora. That didn’t mean that the way he felt for her wasn’t something special and important. He wanted to protect her, but he didn’t know what he was going to do.

The sound of voices cut through the air.

Sawyer looked up. He could barely make anything out in the gathering darkness, but he thought he saw two figures approaching in the haze. Sure enough, as they got closer, he recognized them.

Well, speak of the devil and the devil appeared. It was Nora and Owen.

He guess that technically, he hadn’t spoken aloud. But his thoughts had been consumed with them. And now here they were.

He retreated further into his tent so that he wasn’t visible anymore. However, he could still hear their voices.

… don’t think it’s going to happen after all, said Nora’s voice.

You’re only saying that because you’re tired, said Owen’s voice. You don’t want to stay up any later.

Well, the later we stay up, the later we’ll sleep in. We’ll miss the early morning, when the snow is pristine and perfect.

No, we won’t. The whole point of staying up this late is to see the snow when it comes down.

I’m not even sure that’s how it works, said Nora. For all I know the council snaps their fingers and suddenly two feet of snow appears.

No, it’s snowing in the morning when we wake up, said Owen. At least, I’m fairly sure that it usually is.

I guess you’re right, said Nora. But the little bit of snow drifting down in the morning could just be for effect. Really, it’s practically dawn. If it was going to snow, it would have started by now.

I’m staying up until the snow comes down. If you want to go to sleep, that’s your decision.

Sawyer grimaced. Owen sounded happy, teasing. He was so casual with Nora. Sawyer didn’t like that. Nora shouldn’t be that way with Owen, not after everything he had done to her.

Nora was yawning. I’ll try and stay awake.

Do you remember when we were kids? said Owen. Any time that snow was forecast, I would wake you up, and we would go watch it through the window.

If we were still in the same foster home, said Nora. You were always getting yourself kicked out of them.

Sawyer didn’t like the fact that there was mirth in Nora’s voice as well. How could that be? He knew that Nora and Owen shared history. They had grown up together in the mundane world. All of that was only because Owen had stolen Nora away from Helicon as a small child. Now, supposedly, Owen had done that because his evil mother Nimue had forced him with the aforementioned spell. But that was beside the point. Owen wasn’t some innocent.

It was quiet.

Sawyer pressed forward, parting the folds of his tent.

He could see that Owen and Nora were standing together. Owen had jammed his hands into his pockets. That does seem to be my talent, doesn’t it? I get myself kicked out of places.

I’m sorry, Nora said. She reached out and snagged Owen’s hand. I didn’t mean… Anyway, you’re here now.

Owen looked up at her.

They gazed into each other’s eyes for a second, and then Owen suddenly closed the distance between them and pressed his lips against Nora’s.

Sawyer was horrified. He knew that Nora and Owen had kissed before, of course. They used to be a couple, a long time ago. But that had all started because of Owen controlling Nora’s brain, and to see them doing it again—

Sawyer wanted to run for them, screaming. He wanted to tear Nora out of Owen’s arms and punch Owen in the face.

He didn’t do anything, though. He only watched.

Nora pulled away, smiling dreamily at Owen. She started forward, tugging on his hand. Come on. We’re staying up until the snow comes down.

Sawyer watched them disappear into the darkness. He swallowed. He wasn’t going to get any sleep tonight at all.

* * *

Maddie Salt turned over in bed. She was having a dream about an enormous brownie sundae simply drenched in chocolate sauce. That wasn’t the sort of thing that she could really eat anymore. It was too fattening. In her dream, though, she was the kind of person who could eat anything that she wanted and still stay thin. She was practically salivating.

Someone was shaking her.

She opened her eyes, still thinking about that brownie sundae.

There was her friend Sawyer. She wrinkled her brow. Sawyer? Why are you in my tent?

Beside her, her boyfriend Agler moaned in his sleep.

Sawyer’s voice was a frantic whisper. I need to tell you something.

She grunted. Can’t it wait until morning? She really wanted to get back to that dream. These days, she was supposedly cured of her eating problems, but she didn’t want everyone else to know how difficult it actually was. For years, she had practically starved herself. Before that, she’d been a somewhat overweight and pudgy girl. Sick of looking that way, she’d put herself on a diet. The thing about her diet was that, somewhere along the way, she had lost all ability to tell whether or not she was fat. Whenever she looked at herself, all she could see was fat. So, she’d starved herself.

Anyway, these days, she was cured, and she made sure to eat. Now, according to everyone else, she looked good. Maddie still thought she looked fat. She didn’t know, so she did her best to trust everyone else. She was deathly afraid of becoming fat again. Afraid of becoming really fat, that is. She could tell now that she wasn’t really fat. She simply wasn’t as thin as she would like.

She had to accept that. On a moment-by-moment basis, she had to accept the fact that she wasn’t the way she would like to be.

But that didn’t mean that she indulged in every food fantasy that she ever had either. She still controlled her eating a bit, and no one noticed. She was good at hiding it. Everyone else thought she was cured. She wanted it to stay that way. She was terrified that if they knew things were still difficult for her that they would sit her down and force her to eat all kinds of fattening food. That had been her therapy in the nymph world. Maddie never wanted to go back and have to do something like that again.

I can’t sleep, said Sawyer, still whispering. Just come out of the tent with me.

Sighing, Maddie shoved aside the covers. She shivered. It was freezing out here. When they had gone to sleep, it had been summer. There hadn’t been any reason to put on the little solar heaters that they had picked up from the clothing and fabric enclave the night before. In preparation for the snow, she and Agler had gone to pick up the heaters and their snow clothes.

She would’ve liked to grab those snow clothes now, put them on. They were amazing. They always made her feel toasty and warm all over.

But it was dark, and she didn’t know where they were. Instead, she grabbed an extra blanket which was lying on the ground. She wrapped herself up in it and followed Sawyer out of her tent.

Outside, dawn was starting to split the sky. In the east, the sky was brightening. But there was no color to the sunrise. It was white, pure white, because the snow was coming. The air smelled like it too. It was crisp and the teeniest bit wet.

Maddie couldn’t help it. Her stomach turned over in excitement. She loved the snow.

You’ll never believe what I just saw, Sawyer said.

What was it? Maddie was only half listening, because she was staring at the lightening sky.

It was Nora and Owen. Kissing.

Maddie’s head snapped back. What?

Sawyer nodded.

Maddie shook her head. But…

He has to be doing something to her, said Sawyer. She wouldn’t kiss him. Not on her own.

Maddie shook her head, trying to deal with the enormity of what she’d just heard.

She hates Owen, Sawyer said.

Something must have happened to her when we were in the mundane world, Maddie said. I think we both know that.

We have to do something, Sawyer said.

Maddie bit her lip. Then she nodded. Yes, okay. We’ll do something.

Suddenly, it was as if the sky erupted. All around them, huge flakes of snow began pouring down everywhere. They were caught up in a whirlwind of glittering whiteness.

Maddie felt her spirits lift, almost against her will. It was snowing! She couldn’t help but smile. We’ll do something, Sawyer. We will.

Sawyer lifted his face to the snowflakes. He put his arms around her.

She leaned her head on his shoulder, and the two stood there, close to each other, gazing up into the snowy sky.

* * *

Come on, Nora, you know I’m not creative. Owen Asher peered out over the meadow, which was snow covered. It was early afternoon. He and Nora had just woken up after staying awake to see the snow come down. She had dragged him out here, where the other muses were making snow sculptures. Owen could see the meadow was dotted with the other people, some in groups, all working with the snow.

You might not be as creative as a muse, said Nora, but that doesn’t mean you have no creativity at all. It’ll be fun.

Why don’t you make one, and I’ll watch? he said. He know that Nora was pretty keen on this sculpture thing. She made one every year, and apparently she was good at it. Most years, her sculptures got picked to be displayed at the Winter Ball at the end of the week. She’d told him all about it. But Owen really couldn’t care less about snow sculptures. Nora wanted to do it, have at it. Better yet, he spied Nora’s friends across the way. He pointed. Or, hey, why don’t you go and work with Sawyer and Maddie? Don’t you usually make a sculpture with them anyway?

Nora sighed. You know what it’s like with them lately. Besides, I don’t want to leave you alone.

Owen wasn’t sure what to make of that. Nora never wanted to leave him alone. He knew that her friendship with the others was strained because of him. If it had been five years ago, when they first arrived in Helicon, he wouldn’t have thought anything of her cheerful disposition. Back then, he had been assured of Nora’s devotion to him. After all, he’d had years of nothing but her devotion. The two of them had grown up together in the mundane world. He had protected her, taken care of her, and done his best to get them back here to Helicon.

Back then, Nora thought the sun rose and set in him. Admittedly, that was partly because he sort of… gave her little mental nudges now and then. But he did that for her own good. If he hadn’t, she would have been utterly miserable. The mundane world was no place for a muse.

And besides, it wasn’t as if he turned her into a drone. She had free will. She wouldn’t have been able to pull that little stunt that one time when she was in middle school if she hadn’t. She had drawn a picture and showed it to people and almost gotten eaten by the Influence for her trouble. Owen had saved her then. He had protected her. He had loved her.

Now… well, now everything was different. And as much as he wanted to believe that Nora still cared about him, he found himself a little bit wary, a little on edge.

I can handle being alone. You should know that. I’ll be fine. He gave her a smile.

She smiled back. No, you won’t. You say you will, and it’s very sweet of you, but I know that you’d be by yourself, moping around. She linked hands with him. Now, I’m not taking no for an answer. We’re making a snow sculpture. Come on.

Owen let her drag him down the hill into the meadow. He guessed he was making a snow sculpture.

But really, he was going to have to figure something out. He couldn’t be around Nora all the time. She needed to give him a break now and then. He had things that he wanted to get done now that he was back in Helicon.

Getting here been his goal, ever since he could remember. This place was Nora’s home, and he’d always said that he wanted to get her here. But the truth was, this was his home as well. It was the only place he ever felt remotely comfortable. It was a good place. He wanted to protect it, in much the same way that he had always wanted to protect Nora. Helicon needed his help. It was vulnerable. He couldn’t allow anything bad to happen to it.

Owen knew that he wasn’t exactly like everyone else in the world. Partly, that was because he was half-god. But there was also something different about the way that he thought. He was… well, he wouldn’t use the word superior if he was explaining it to anyone else, because they would take it wrong.

But the truth was, he really was superior. Other people were weak. They allowed things to get in the way of seeing things rationally. They would be swayed by their fear, or their pain, or their attachment to other people. Owen didn’t have these kinds of problems. It wasn’t that he didn’t care about anyone at all. When it served his purpose, he could be quite kind to other people. It was simply that when he had a goal, he was ruthless in making sure that he got what he wanted.

It was this perspective that allowed him to see how vulnerable Helicon really was. If someone like him managed to attempt to take over the land, they would be able to do it with absolutely no effort. There was simply nothing in place to stop them. Helicon had no defenses.

That was really all he wanted to do. Strengthen the place.

He knew the muses, though. They didn’t like change. They argued a lot. It took them far too much time to get anything done. That was one of their weaknesses. So he couldn’t tell everyone his plans. He had to be a little careful about it.

That was the only reason he was keeping it secret from Nora. Because she wouldn’t understand.

She turned to him, her eyes bright. So, I’ve been thinking that we should sculpt a snowman.

He raised both eyebrows. A snowman?

She nodded vigorously. Yes. Because they never have anything like that here. Everyone makes things that are elaborate and intense. I want something simple, something charming. All those years we spent in the mundane world, watching other children make snowmen, and you would never let me, because it was creativity. I couldn’t be creative there.

When she put it that way… Fine. I’ll help.

She grinned. Great. I want it to be made completely of snow, though. No coal for eyes or carrots for a nose or anything like that. We’ll sculpt all of his features from the snow, even his top hat.

Okay. Owen shrugged. Whatever she wanted.

This is going to be great.

* * *

If you guys had seen them, you would be just as upset as I am, Sawyer said. He was standing to the side as Maddie, Agler, and Lute were all working together on the sculpture they were making. It was a fir tree. None of them had been feeling particularly creative. If it were up to Sawyer, honestly, he wouldn’t have had them make a sculpture at all. But he didn’t want to disappoint Maddie. It was tradition that they all make a sculpture together. This was Maddie’s favorite time of year. Just because things were going wrong with Nora and Owen didn’t mean that everything should be ruined.

Agler was packing snow into what would become the trunk of the tree. It’s not that we aren’t upset. Trust me, we’re upset. Every time I see that sneaky little bastard walking around in Helicon, it drives me insane. He doesn’t deserve to be here. Agler didn’t like Owen at all. He remembered him from when they were children together. Additionally, Agler and Nora had dated several years ago. During that time, Agler’d had a bit of an altercation with Owen.

So, we’ve got to do something, Sawyer said. He’s controlling her brain, and he’s making her kiss him. Gods know what else he’ll be making her do. When I think about it, I… He clenched his fists.

Lute looked up at him, eyebrows raised. He was kneeling on the ground and filling a bucket full of snow. They needed the extra snow to get height on their sculpture. You know, maybe if you calm down about all of this. You’re going to give yourself an ulcer.

Maddie shook her head at Lute. You don’t understand. If you’d had to deal with him like we had…

Well, I haven’t, Lute said. You two ran off without us at the Harvest Ball. Maybe if Agler and I had been there, we could have done something.

He’s got a point, said Agler.

Sawyer exchanged a glance with Maddie. They both sighed.

We’re very sorry that we left you guys behind, said Sawyer. We’ll never do it again.

No, never, said Maddie. Their voices had the ring of something that had been said over and over again. Because it had been.

Sawyer and Maddie had been scraping and apologizing ever since they got back. Sawyer could try to explain that it was sisters before misters as many times as he wanted, it didn’t really go over very well with Lute. Lute didn’t have friends like Sawyer did. The people that he had been close to before dating Sawyer were mostly confused by his new behavior. After all, Lute hadn’t dated men before he dated Sawyer.

Some people weren’t very kind about it. Sawyer himself had been the object of quite a bit of ridicule. He was a boy, but he liked to dress in skirts. Everyone thought this was a little strange. Sawyer did it, not because he wanted to be a girl, but because he didn’t really identify with either gender, and so he appropriated bits of each that appealed to his sensibilities. He was an individual. Part of his individuality included a somewhat fluid sexuality.

At least he had thought it was fluid. It had turned out that the only girl that he’d ever been really attracted to was Nora. And that his physical attraction for Nora had been much less than his emotional attraction.

Still to the surrounding muses, it appeared that Sawyer had been gay, then straight, then gay. And now it seemed that he was passing on his confusion to Lute, because Lute was now switching teams. It made everybody nervous.

What I’m saying is that we have to make a plan, Sawyer said.

Well, right now, we’re making a snow sculpture, said Maddie. I agree that it’s important to make a plan. But I think that we need to concentrate on one thing at a time.

So when are we going to concentrate on this? Sawyer said.

Lute handed over a bucket of snow. Maybe we could call meetings.

Meetings? Like council meetings? Agler said.

Lute nodded slowly. Yeah. I mean, this business with Owen is serious stuff. Maybe we need something serious, like a council meeting.

Sawyer rolled his eyes. Yeah, because so much gets accomplished at council meetings.

Well, that’s because everyone on the council is a moron, Maddie said. Meetings aren’t a bad idea.

Sawyer sighed again.

Why aren’t we taking this to the council, anyway? Lute said.

Don’t you remember? Agler said. Phoebe made a moratorium on anyone bringing up anything about Owen at the council meeting. It was like a month ago.

Lute shrugged. I must’ve missed that one. Sometimes I skip council meetings and play music instead.

Anyway, said Maddie, we don’t go to the council because all they ever do is create a committee. And then the committee sits and talks about it for months and months on end, and nothing ever gets fixed.

What we need to do is appoint ourselves the committee, Agler said. We’ll be the people who are working to stop Owen from whatever it is he’s doing.

Well that’s all well and good, said Sawyer. But when are we going to have this committee meeting?

Maddie considered. What about—?

She was interrupted by the sound of voices, which were escalating in pitch.

What’s that? Agler stood up, peering over the beginnings of their fir tree sculpture.

Sawyer looked in the direction of the noise. Across the way, he could see that Owen and Daryl, Maddie’s ex-boyfriend, were facing each other off. Neither of them looked particularly happy. The muscles in both of their necks were tense. Daryl had his hands clenched into fists.

I don’t know what your problem is, Owen was saying, his voice a sneer.

Daryl laughed harshly. Don’t you? You know what you did to me. The only thing that you should be wondering about is why it’s taken me so long to speak up.

Seriously, what? Owen folded his arms over his chest. Are you angry because I cut the line at breakfast yesterday or something?

Daryl shook his head at him in disgust. You really don’t know, do you? You left me in a dead world. You left me trapped.

That was right. Sawyer remembered that. Daryl had made his way back to Helicon, but he had been trapped in Xibalba, the Mayan underworld. Time moved differently there, so Daryl was locked up for decades, even though only a year had passed for everyone else.

Owen squinted, as if he was having trouble remembering. Then he nodded. Oh, yeah. That. Look, I’m sorry.

He didn’t sound very sorry.

Daryl hauled off and drove his fist into Owen’s jaw.

Owen stumbled backward, clutching his jaw. He righted himself, nostrils flaring. Then he lifted his palm. A bright flash of purple light started to emit from