“Meli,” Theron said gently, putting his body between her and the fire. “Don’t look.”
“No.” She gripped his forearms. Tears streamed down her face. The anguish he saw in her eyes nearly broke him. “It can’t be Dana. It just can’t. She was talking about leaving town. She was at the store. With me. Just before you showed up. Just before those things…” She closed her eyes tight and curled her hands into fists against his shirt. “You don’t think they found her”—her eyes popped open—“because of me, do you? Theron. You don’t think—?”
He gathered her close against his chest, cutting off her question. She struggled, but he held her tight. How could he tell her that was exactly what had happened? His sense of smell was strong, and even amidst the flames, he hadn’t detected the scent of her heart. Which meant the daemons had cut it out of the Misos in payment to Hades before they’d killed her, as was their pattern. No way he could tell Acacia any of that. Or where he suspected her friend’s soul was right now.
Voice thick with emotions he’d never felt before, all because of the woman in his arms, he said, “Come on. There’s nothing we can do here.”
Her anguish was palpable, but she turned and walked with him toward the trees. “I don’t understand this world you live in,” she mumbled as she swiped at her eyes.
No. Of course, she wouldn’t. Sometimes he didn’t either. He drew her closer to his side.
“I’m so tired, Theron,” she whispered.
He lifted her into his arms. When she didn’t protest, he knew she was more fatigued than she was letting on.
His heart pinched. She was fading quickly. And the events of the last two days weren’t helping.
They made it ten yards into the trees when he sensed the air change. Acacia sensed it too, because she stiffened in his arms. “I have a bad feeling,” she whispered against his neck.
So did he. He set her slowly to her feet.
The first scream erupted at their backs before either of them turned.
CHAPTER TWENTY-ONE
One thing Isadora could say about Orpheus. The ándras knew things no one else did. Like where the gods hung out and how to breach their inner sanctum.
“I can’t go in with you,” Orpheus said as he pulled the hood of his black cape over his head to hide his face. “The cloak only works for one, and no way in hell I’m getting trapped on Olympus. Zeus has called one of his blitheringly boring summit meetings, so the gods will all be congregated in his temple, no doubt falling over themselves in an attempt to impress the pompous POS. You know the difference between a brownnoser and a shit-head, right, Isa?”
Isadora frowned.
“Depth perception.” Orpheus chuckled at his own joke.
“What about Persephone?” Isadora asked, trying to refocus him.
His cocky grin faded. “She’ll be where I told you.”
“How can you know for certain? Maybe she—”
“Trust me. She’ll be there. Any time she can get away from her mother, she heads for the trees. There’s more to destroy there.”
Trusting Orpheus went against everything in Isadora’s gut. But she didn’t have another choice. She was out of options, and if this didn’t work…
She ignored the sickness brewing in her belly and lifted her chin. “Where will you be?”
“Hiding out here, like the lower life-form I am.” He glared at her from beneath the hood. “You screw this up, Isa, and we’re both fucked.”
She nodded once. “I won’t.”
On one more deep breath, which didn’t do a thing for her tummy, she pulled the hood over her head and turned for the gates that granted access to Mount Olympus. For the love of all things holy, she was about to walk on hallowed ground.
Okay, correction. For her sake, she sure hoped good ol’ Zeus didn’t catch wind she was here. The god was not known for understanding, and his temper was worse than all seven of the Argonauts put together, on a bad day.
She held her breath as she walked cautiously up to the gates. When neither sentry looked in her direction, she realized they couldn’t see her. Orpheus’s invisibility cloak was working. Confidence growing, she slipped past the guards without even a glance and paused at the base of the winding road toward the temples.
Please let Orpheus be telling the truth…
She turned left instead of heading up the road and followed a low stone fence past wheat fields and olive orchards, until she came to the forest. Large trees she didn’t know how to name towered above, blocking out the sunlight. Low brush and trailing vines littered the ground.