“Yeah.”
“Clever girl. Let’s go.” She ushered Cassandra out the door and waited as she ran to Henry’s Mustang for her bag. He squawked the whole time, trying to get Cassandra to stay. He was going to be a tough nut to crack. But when the time came, he would fight. He would, because Hector had. Reason carried him pretty far, but if someone pushed, he pushed back. For now though, the big brother/mother hen routine was getting on Athena’s last nerve. She stuffed Cassandra quickly into the cold Dodge before Henry could really work up a guilt trip.
“What am I supposed to tell Mom and Dad?” he shouted.
“Lie,” Athena shouted back. “You ought to be getting pretty good at it by now.”
*
“I’m sick of the jungle. And I could really use another serving of monkey.” Odysseus kicked through an enormous leaf and was rewarded with a long streak of wet across his shin.
“Don’t tell Cassandra that,” Hermes said. “She’ll never speak to you again.”
They’d walked all day since leaving the peace of the village at dawn. Now the sun dipped low, and Odysseus had passed tired about three days and a dozen or so miles ago.
“She heard the ravening beasts,” he said loudly, referring to the tribal elder. He raised his brows. “But maybe they weren’t our ravening beasts. There’s got to be more than one beast that ravens in a jungle this size, eh?”
“She knew what she was talking about.”
“Did she? But your ears are ten thousand times the ears that she’s got, and you didn’t hear anything.” He ducked a vine that Hermes intentionally flapped back into his face.
“Maybe I would if you’d stop yammering. Besides, she didn’t hear them with her ears.” Hermes slowed and took a breath. “I’m sorry. I keep trying to remember you’re only human, but we’re so close. And I don’t know how I know that, before you ask.
“You’re not the only one who’s tired. Or sick of all this wet.” He looked back. “I want to go home, too.”
“Home,” Odysseus said. “Is that what Kincade is now? Home?”
Hermes smiled. “I guess it is. I didn’t think I’d ever have one of those again. And certainly not Kincade, New York, a piddly town with no decent shopping mall and not a single museum to speak of.”
“But it’s where we all are,” said Odysseus.
“Yes. Where we all are.” Hermes turned back in the direction they’d been heading all day. “But we can’t leave until we find my other sister. So get a move on. I miss my pot stickers.”
8
STRANGER FORESTS
Lux ran back and forth between Henry’s and Cassandra’s rooms, searching for someone to play ball with. In the end he wound up playing by himself, letting the ball drop and bounce and chasing it down with stomping paws. The sound of dog toenails skittering across the bathroom tile was so loud it broke through the music in Henry’s headphones.
He leaned back from his desk and called the dog. Lux was restless. So was he. Cassandra had been gone for three days already, and the house felt empty. Especially since no one else knew she was gone. He’d told their parents she was at Athena’s, keeping her company until Hermes got back from having treatments in Arizona. They kept asking how Athena was, and how she was doing. Their mom talked about the whole thing like a girly sleepover.
Lux put his head on Henry’s leg and chewed his soggy tennis ball, hoping to have it thrown. It was so much better when people did it.
“This is nasty,” Henry said. “Where’s your tug rope?”
Lux whined and rolled the ball into Henry’s lap. Despite the plea in the dog’s brown eyes, he had no time to play. A half-finished history paper glowed on his laptop, due fourth period. His phone buzzed on the desk, and Lux snatched his ball back and whined.
It was Andie.
“Hey,” he said. “What’s up?”
“Nothing, I guess, from the tone of your voice.”