Chapter 12

Nora sat on the floor of the office on the verge of tears.

Granted she was naturally a very messy person. But she knew exactly where everything was in her mess. Just like she knew she had left her watch on her desk right before Clare and Hayden took her to Florida to fight killer mutant on sinking ships.

But the spot where she had left her watch right beside her half eaten almond bar was empty. As soon as her eyes had landed on that spot, her heart did a dangerous flip off the tallest building she could think of in the heat of the moment. Rushing forward, Nora had pulled open all the drawers and searched through the papers and random objects. However, there was no sign of her watch.

Her frustration began to turn into anger and then to sorrow. She couldn't lose that watch. It was the last thing she had left of her mother. God only knew her father sold everything else to pay off his debts.

"Why didn't you pack it away in your bag, you idiot?" Nora asked herself as she laid back on the floor and stared up at the ceiling. "You dumb piece of shit!"

Slowly, as if to mock her, tears started to roll down Nora's eyes. She felt them escape through the corners of her eyes and slid down her face and then into her ears. She groaned and let out a childish sob before going back to contemplating why her life was such a mess. Just then, the door to the office opened and Hayden walked in. He paused immediately with his hand still on the doorknob and stared at Nora laying on the floor. Tilting his head slightly, Hayden raised a brow, not knowing what he had walked into.

"I'm not dead," Nora said, her voice defeated and heavy.

"Good to know," Hayden took a step into the room. "Imagine the paperwork I would have to fill out with HR."

"You really are the worst."

"What can I say?" Hayden shrugged. "I have to live up to being a dickwad."

Nora suddenly lifted her head and stared at Hayden for a second before bursting into uncontrollable laughter.

"What?" Hayden asked, finding himself chuckling along with her.

"Dickwad?" Nora couldn't stop her laughter. "I haven't heard that word in years."

"Pia used to say it, right?" Hayden watched as Nora slowly sat up and crossed her legs. She wiped the tears in her eyes as her laugh slowly came to a smooth stop.

"You remember Pia?" She asked, rubbing her eyes a little too hard.

Hayden wanted to walk over to her and pin her wrist down. She would be seeing stars and colors if she kept rubbing her eyes like that.

"Yeah," he nodded instead from where he stood. "Short Indian girl with black hair."

"Yep," Nora said. "That's Pia."

"How is she?"

"She's fine," Nora shrugged. "She'll be thrilled to know you remember her, let alone know her name."

"She did have a crush on me, right?"

"Everyone had a crush on you," Nora rolled her eyes.

"Did you?"

Nora snorted, "You wish, wonder boy."

"That's fine," the corner of Hayden's mouth turned up. "You're not my type anyways, right?"

"As if you're my type," Nora shook her head.

"What is your type?"

"Nice," Nora said, looking up and putting her hands on her lap. "My type is nice."

"I'm nice."

"In what universe?" Nora raised a brow. "You are not nice. Your dad is nice, your sister is nice. I'm pretty sure your mom is nice. But you ar-"

"My dad?" Hayden raised a brow. "You think my dad is nice?"

"Yeah," Nora laughed. "He's so sweet. He calls me peanut."

"He's making fun of you," Hayden rolled his eyes. "He calls Queen Ella peanut because she's allergic to peanuts. In his head he probably thinks you too are allergic to peanuts."

"Oh," Nora frowned. "I'm not."

"Seriously? My dad?" Hayden shook his head. "You think my dad is nice? Have you met the man?"

"Well, he's nicer than you!"

"I'm nice!"

"Why are you shouting at me?" Nora folded her arms over her chest. "Nice people don't shout, Hayden."

"I'm not shouting, Nora" Hayden narrowed his eyes. "I'm explaining to you why you're wrong."

"It's my opinion."

"Your opinion is wrong."

"Okay, okay, gee," Nora climbed to her feet. "You're nice. You're soooo nice. You're so sweet, practically dripping with honey. They should make you the next Dalai Lama."

"It's not good to judge a book by it's cover, Nora."

"And actions speak louder than words, Hayden," Nora said, walking to her desk. "You can shout at me all you want and scream I am nice. But how you treat people matters."

Hayden paused. He pushed his hands into his pocket and touched the watch as he leaned back against the wall.

"I haven't been the nicest person to work with, have I?" he asked, watching the girl search her desk for something.

"Do I need to answer that or was that a rhetorical question?"

"I'm sorry about that."

"It's whatever," Nora shrugged. "I'm leaving in two weeks anyways."

"Have you found another job at the palace already?"

"Nope, but I'm pretty sure I will."

"Wouldn't it be smarter to secure a new job before quitting this one?"

"Would you look at that? I'm not so smart after all."

"I don't mind you extending your stay until you get another job."

"That's nice of you," soon as Nora said the words, her eyes snapped and she caught the smile on Hayden's.

"See," he said. "I'm nice."

"I wanna take that back."

"You can't," Hayden turned to leave. "You said the words. It's out in the universe now."

"You tricked me."

"How?" Hayden laughed.

"With your conniving jinn manipulation."

"I'm not really good at that stuff," Hayden paused at the door. "But my baba? Oof, he's a pro."

Nora turned away and groaned as the half jinn walked out of the office. She slammed her drawers shut with frustration and laid her head down as her worries for her watch returned. She tried to re-trace her steps and wondered if maybe she had taken it with her when she was on the ship. If that was the case, then she lost her mother forever.

As Nora sat still thinking about her mother's watch, the door to the office opened once more. She was surprised by the wave of irritation that hit her at the thought of having to deal with Hayden again.

"What?" Nora snapped. "What do you want?"

Kiara stilled and raised a brow.

"Oh my god," Nora jumped up. "I'm so sorry. I thought it was Hayden coming to bother me again."

"I think he just left with Clare and Ares," Kiara looked over her shoulder.

"That's a relief," Nora laughed. "Hi, how are you? How are you feeling?"

"I'm fine," Kiara smiled. "Are you busy?"

"Ah.." Nora looked at her messy desk. "No, not really."

"I was wondering if you could help me with something," Kiara walked into the room and closed the door behind her.

"Of course!" Nora smiled. "What can I do for you?"

"I have this hard drive from my old computer," Kiara held up the small black box she was holding. "I was hoping you would be able to transfer the stored files into my laptop."

"Oh that's easy!" Nora held out her hand. "Here, I can do that in five minutes."

"Perfect," Kiara said sweetly as she handed Nora her laptop and the hard drive. "I'll just wait in here then."

"Sure," Nora nodded. "Make yourself comfortable. Oh! By the way, congratulations on the baby."

Kiara's smile widened as she touched her belly, "Thank you."

"Have you thought of names?" Nora asked as she walked around her desk and pulled out the usb to plug in the hard drive.

"Lila," Kiara cleared her throat and looked around the spacious office. "Her name is Lila."

"That's a beautiful name," Nora opened the laptop and plugged in the hard drive.

"For my beautiful girl," Kiara's eyes landed on Hayden's desk. "How is Hayden?"

"A pain," Nora muttered before she laughed nervously. "I mean...he's....difficult to work with. Sometimes."

"He likes his privacy a lot," Kiara took slow steps towards the boy's desk. "Even when we were kids."

"He's like a vult sometimes."

"Maybe he doesn't want you to get involved with what he does," Kiara pulled back Hayden's chair and took a seat.

"Lucky for him, I have no idea what he does," Nora said as her eyes scanned the laptop screen. "There are a lot of files here. This might take a bit longer to transfer."

"I have time," Kiara peeked into one of Hayden's files.

From the corner of her eyes, Nora watched the girl carelessly flip through things on Hayden's desk. She wanted to turn and see what Kiara was reading, but the amount of files that were being transferred from the hard drive was demanding her attention. She quickly pulled up the setting to make sure Kiara's laptop had enough storage for everything. But in doing so, a new file popped up at the exact moment that Nora tapped her finger on the track pad.

Nora's fingers froze over the trackpad as the file opened on a new window. Her gaze fell on the picture of a woman with curly brown hair and a tight lip smile. She was standing outside of a fancy glass building with her arms folded over her chest as if she was posing for Forbes magazine.

Livia Murd.

"How much longer?" Kiara's voice started Nora. She quickly closed the file and checked the storage.

"I say about....ten more minutes," Nora estimated.

Kiara sighed and leaned back against the hair. Her thick hair was pulled up into a tight bun that made her look like a graceful ballerina. Her neck was so long and elegant, her cheek bones were high and the tip of her nose was absolutely perfect. Nora stared at her as the sunlight from the skylight bounced off the high point of the girl's face.

She could never look so ethereal, Nora thought to herself. Who was she kidding? She was not a demigoddess. Or a jinn like Birdie or even a mix like Macy. She was just the generic brand.

For a few seconds, it was hard for Nora to imagine that the girl sitting before her was the same person who had tried to choke her to death. Kiara looked so harmless in the chair. Toying with her bun, her bottom lip pouting slightly as if she was unhappy. It felt like a different lifetime where Nora had looked into those brown eyes and thought she would never see daylight again.

As Nora stared, Kiara's eyes suddenly snapped up. She looked at Nora through her thick lashes and the corner of her lips curved up into a half smile.

"Yes...Nora?" Kiara asked.

"The sunlight," Nora said quickly. "It looks pretty on you. You're glowing."

"I hate the sun," Kiara scrunched up her tiny nose.

Nora suddenly laughed, her brain popping up ideas, "Ig you had a rock band, you could have named it The princess of darkness."

"Hmm," Kiara smirked. "That's so funny."

"Yeah," Nora said awkwardly as she turned back to the computer screen. For the first time she began to notice the names on the files.

Sophia Lubrim.

Anthony Hyde.

Sanjay Patni.

Elizabeth Mount.

"How much longer?" Kiara asked impatiently once more.

"Ten seconds," Nora said. "Annnnnnnd we....are.....done."

Kiara sighed as Nora unplugged the hard drive and closed the laptop.

"Here you go," Nora gathered everything. "All good."

"You've been a big help."

"Would you like to take the cord?" Nora asked. "In case you ever want to get a new laptop. You can always make copies of the files and move them over. It's easy."

"Sure," Kiara took the cord. "You're such a doll."

"Happy to help," Nora said cheerfully as Kiara took her things and headed for the door.

She waited until the door shut before letting out the breath she didn't realize she was holding. Her shoulders felt tense and her chest slightly ached. Nora shook her head before going back to looking for her watch.

____________________________

"Who gave you the tip on her?" Hayden asked Ares as he sipped his coffee, his eyes locked on the woman across the street talking to someone on the phone.

"Ben did," Ares sighed. "Adeline started to dig through all of Ben's files."

"She should have done that years ago, don't you think?"

"Adeline thought she had gotten rid of the problem when they originally took out the obvious bases for project skyfall," Ares said. "But this shit is like a disease. You have to cut it out root and stem."

"How many more names did he give you?"

"Just this one so far," Ares motioned towards the woman. "Make it clean. No blood, no witnesses."

"I know the drill," Hayden said. "I'll have Nora pull up Ms. Murd's itinerary."

"Does Nora know....about..."

"No," Hayden shook his head. "I had her doing other things the past few months."

"Clare says she's strong enough to handle the truth," Ares observed Hayden. "She says Nora will see the bigger picture."

"I couldn't care less," Hayden shrugged. "She's leaving. There's no reason to have this on her conscience."

Ares slowly nodded. He turned his attention back to the woman as she disappeared into the building, clicking away on her phone.

"Your dad said you used the samsara spell the other day," Ares turned back to Hayden.

"I did," Hayden nodded.

"How was that?"

"Nothing special," Ares shrugged.

"What did you see?"

What the hell is your problem, you dickwad?

"Just....high school memories."

"Was it fun?" Ares laughed. "Seeing yourself from the outside."

"It was horrifying," Hayden rolled his eyes. "Did I always look like that in school? Like I was ready to blow the place up?"

"You still look like that," Ares laughed once more. "That's just your face."

"Oh, joy."

"Don't take it to heart," Ares patted the boy's shoulder. "The right people will seek to find what's in your heart and not what's on your face."

"If you say so," Hayden took in a deep breath.

His hand in his pocket played with the watch as he took one last sip of his coffee. He was becoming addicted to the way the silver warmed in his hands. The glass over the face of the watch was so smooth. His thumb glided over it as if he was touching butter. He knew in about two weeks he had to give the watch back to Nora before she left. But until then, he wanted to hold on to it.

Hayden couldn't explain to anyone why he wanted to do such a thing, not even to himself. All he knew was that in two week Nora would leave with the watch and he had to hold on to it for as long as he could.

______________________

Having Aunt Lidia stay in Nora's small apartment was a nightmare. The woman must have been a mermaid in her past life because she loved taking baths. And she had no concept of what a proper bath time was.

As Nora stood outside the bathroom door squeezing her thighs together to hold in her pee, she knocked on the door furiously to get the crazy woman out.

"Aunt Lidia," Nora hissed. "I have to pee. I have work in thirty minutes!"

"I told you not to drink all that tea in the morning."

"Oh for the love of god, Woman!" Nora banged on the door.

Suddenly, the sound of water splashing came from inside as Lidia groaned. Nora said a silent prayer of the bakery downstairs just in case her bathroom floor was flooding.

The door flew open and Lidia emerged, wrapped in a pink towel. Her brown hair was tossed up into a lopsided bun, the apples of her chubby cheeks were slightly rosy. She patted out into the hall as Nora pushed past her and locked the door.

"When are you going home?" she asked her aunt.

"I came to take care of you," Lidia said. "When your sexy boss called to tell me you were in the hospital, I almost died myself."

"Hayden called you?"

"Well, yeah," Lidia said. "He couldn't have his assistant call."

"What did he say? Was he at least polite?"

"He was very polite," Lidia said. "He even came to my door steps to portal me here."

"What?" Nora yanked the door open as she buttoned her jeans. "You didn't tell me this."

"You hardly ever want to talk about him."

"That's because I deal with him enough at work," Nora turned on the tap and scrubbed her hands with soap. "So he went to get you from your house?"

"Yep," Lidia nodded. "Wouldn't even let me pack my bag properly. The way he was acting had me thinking you were already dead."

"He probably thought I was," Nora laughed.

"He's a nice boy, Nora."

"He's not nice!" Nora snapped.

"What's your issue with him? Is it because he won't give you any real work to do? Because honey, if that's the case then you are one big fat moron."

"It's not just that," Nora said. She dried her hands and walked towards the living room. "He's also very cold and unconsidered of people. He's so entitled and self centered. You should see the way people act towards him. Like they would do anything for him. They look at him as if he's some kind of a miracle. He could get away with murder."

"Maybe he is special," Lidia shrugged. 

"Can't be god."

"You don't believe in god."

"I believe in being a good person."

"Why don't you believe in god? You work with one!"

"Hayden is not a god."

"I was talking about Ares," Lidia grinned. "That man is so fine. Man, if he wasn't married....the things I would do to him."

"Oh thank you so much for the mental trauma," Nora shivered. "I'm going to go throw up in my car now."

"He's a god, Nora," Lidia laughed. "I have to worship him."

"His wife would end you with her pinky toe."

"Damn it! I was born as the wrong kind. I want a refund."

"I'll see if I can set up a time with Zeus for you."

"Now, that guys," Lidia held up a hand. "I've heard stuff about him."

"I'm going to go before I actually throw up here," Nora grabbed her bag and rushed out of the door.

As soon as she jumped into her car, she turned on the radio and checked all her mirrors. Carefully pulling out of her parking space, she hit the gas and headed towards the campus. The roads were empty like always. Most of the people in town used portals to get around. Only the ones who couldn't use cars.

Nora passed sleepy homes and fields before the town disappeared in her mirror and she drove into the light fog that always covered Rhea in the morning. She rolled down her window to let the lavender breeze fill her car as she drove by the fields before entering the campus and parking in her spot beside Hayden's car. She always wondered why he even had a car on campus. It's not like he ever used it. But damn, the black Mercedes Benz sure was nice to look at.

It suited Hayden, Nora thought as she walked past it. It wasn't flashy or tricked out. It was very classy and dark. If cars could have a personality, Nora would say Hayden and his car were the same. Moody.

With one last look at the glossy black paint job, Nora turned away and headed up to the top floor of the dome. The kids in the hall lingered and chatted away as she used her pass to call the elevator and take it all the way up to the top floor. With her coffee in one hand, Nora balanced the mail she had picked up from downstairs and pushed the office door open.

"Ah, here she is," Heyder rose from the edge of the table where he had been sitting. "Good morning, Peanut!"

Nora stopped at the door and looked at the tattoo covered jinn, "Good morning, Mr. Heyder."

"Enzo, this is Nora," Heyder looked at the boy with curly brown hair and dark framed glasses. "And Peanut, this is Enzo. Hayden's new assistant."

"Hey," Enzo gave Nora a awkward wave and a tight smile. His eyes fell on all the stuff she carried and he jumped forward as if his mind just clicked into place. "Let me help you with that."

"Thank you," Nora said, passing him the box and letters.

"Okay," Heyder clapped his hand. "I think my work here is done. Peanut, please train Enzo. Get him ready to take over as soon as you leave. Hopefully, it'll be a smooth transition."

"Okay," Nora nodded, feeling a bit overwhelmed and....upset.

"Any questions?" Heyder asked.

"No questions," Nora and Enzo said together.

"Great," Heyder smiled. "Get to work, kids."

Nora stepped aside as the jinn walked out of the room. She stared at Enzo as he stood staring at her with the box and mails.

"Where...." Enzo looked around. "Where should I put this?"

"By the mailbox," Nora pointed to the corner of the room where they stored all the mail.

"Thank you."

Nora nodded. She was having trouble understanding what she was meant to do. How can she train someone for a job she didn't even know? And why didn't Hayden tell her about his new assistant? Did he say she could stay until she transferred to the palace.

Suddenly, the door to the office opened once more. Nora jumped at the sound and whirled around, her eyes wide as the moon.

"Morning," Hayden said, wondering why she was standing by the door. His eyes fell on Enzo and he raised a brow. "Morning?"

"Good morning, sir," Enzo said politely.

"Sir?" Hayden walked in and closed the door.

He was slightly concerned for Nora. she hadn't moved an inch or said a word. As the door closed behind him, Hayden found himself standing so close to the girl he could feel the heat coming off her body.

"My name is Enzo," the boy introduced himself. "I'm your new assistant."

"How did...." Hayden raised a brow. "Did my dad bring you here?"

"Yes," Enzo nodded.

The muscle in Hayden's jaw jumped. His hand balled into fist as he looked down at the bewildered look on Nora's face.

"There must be some miscommunication," he said. "I already have an assistant. A perfectly good assistant."

"I was told Nora is one of the best," Enzo smiled. "I have a lot to learn from her and really big shoes to fill."

"Flattery is not going to work," Hayden's tone was sharp. It cut the smile right off Enzo's face.

"Hayden," Nora's hand moved before she could think. She grabbed the hem of his shirt and tugged. "Be nice."

"I am!" Hayden said defensively as he looked down at the girl.

"We really need to sit down and define the word nice," Nora shook her head. "You are the farthest thing from nice on this planet."  

Do you think Nora will create a wedge between Hayden and Heyder?