“Cassandra, what’s going on?”
“Odysseus and Hermes,” she muttered.
“What? What about them?”
She took a breath, spat blood onto the floor, and saw only saliva.
“I think they’re dead.”
*
Athena knew something was wrong the moment she heard the growl of Henry’s engine and the squeal of his tires. But Cassandra, Andie, and Henry were all safe when they pushed past her into the entryway: no blood, no scrapes, no broken bones. Good.
She closed the door against the wind and it ruffled their coats like soft sails.
“What happened?”
The three looked at each other. Pale, frightened mortals. For the hundredth time she thought what strange soldiers they made.
“I saw Odysseus and Hermes covered in blood,” Cassandra said.
Athena went still. “How much blood?”
“Buckets. Like they’d been dipped in it.”
“Buckets of blood.” Athena wandered past them, into the living room. “What could that mean?”
Cassandra and Andie exchanged a look. “I think it means they’re dead,” said Cassandra after a moment.
“No. That can’t be what it means.” The Fates couldn’t expect her to win a war without her brother and her hero.
“It might not have been their blood,” Andie suggested. “Maybe they were in a fight. Or hunting.”
“Hunting what?” Henry asked.
“Athena,” said Cassandra. “Maybe you should sit down.”
“Why would I need to—?” Athena shook her head. “I don’t need to sit. I need to figure out what it means. And I think better when I pace.” But she stopped, as a small compromise. Odysseus and Hermes were in danger. But not true danger. The Fates wouldn’t let them die. Not now. Not yet.
What if I’m wrong?
She closed her eyes. She wasn’t wrong. But what, then, did the vision mean? Why had her prophetess seen what she’d seen?
“I told you what it means,” Cassandra said. And a minute later, “Hey! Are you listening?”
“Cassandra.” Andie grabbed her arm.
“She’s not even upset. Why? Did you send them out there as bait? Did you know this was going to happen?”
“You and your conspiracy theories,” Athena muttered. “I wasn’t the one who sent them. They wanted to go.” And now she had to go after them. Why else would the Moirae have sent Cassandra that vision? She slid past Andie and Henry and flew upstairs to her bedroom. She’d pack fast, fast as Hermes, and light. “They’ll be fine,” she whispered to no one. “You’ll be fine, both of you. Just hold on. I’m coming.”
She ransacked drawers, paying no mind to what she threw into her bag. It hardly seemed to matter. She wouldn’t take a bag at all if not for TSA snoops getting suspicious at the airport. Questions flicked through her mind as she zipped up: how long did she have? Were they injured? Had their mission cost them a soldier? Had they lost Artemis?
You’ll be all right. My brother and my Odysseus. You have to be.
She snatched up the bag and flew downstairs.
“Go home. Pack a bag,” she said as she passed them en route to the kitchen. Cans of food and cereal bars went in on top of her clothes.
“What?” Henry asked. “You can’t take her with you. You said there were things in that rain forest.”
“Nothing I can’t protect her from.”
“This is ridiculous. She’s not going. Cassie. You’re not going.”
“Well, I’m going,” Athena said. She closed the fastenings on her bag. “And I’m not leaving her here unguarded, to be snapped up or killed by who knows what god. Besides—” She looked at Cassandra’s hands. “She might come in handy.”
“Cassandra,” Henry said, and took her arm.
“I’ll be okay, Henry,” said Cassandra. She turned to Athena. “I have a bag packed in Henry’s trunk. We all do. Just in case.”
“Your passport in there?”