He touched her shoulder lightly. Just a fast touch from cold fingers. If he’d lingered any longer, she might have walked into his arms.
“I’m not going anywhere,” he said. “But I won’t go back to Athena’s. I’d wake up in the middle of the night to find her staring down at me with a hatchet. I’ll find someplace else to stay.”
“There’s not much to choose from. There’s a Motel 6 off the highway that seems pretty popular with gods.”
Thanatos chuckled and pulled a face. “Or maybe I’ll rent a house.”
He pulled out of the lot just as Cassandra’s dad pulled in. They honked at each other and did the guy salute.
Throughout dinner her dad did a good job pretending that she hadn’t been gone at all, and pretending that meeting at Applebee’s for smothered chicken and potato skins was something they did often instead of never before. Sometimes he went overboard with cheerfulness and she had to force her cheeks to go along with it. But it made her sad that he tried so hard to keep her happy, as though keeping her happy would keep her home. He blamed himself, and he’d do it again the next time she ran away to fight in one god’s struggle or another.
“Do you want dessert?” he asked. “Or would you rather get something at the movie?”
“I’m stuffed. Maybe some Sour Patch Kids at the movie. Or some Cookie Dough Bites.”
“And probably some popcorn,” he added. “Medium soda.”
“Dad?” she said. “Thanks for not locking me in a basket.”
She could tell the word choice confused him, but he smiled anyway.
“Sure, kiddo. But do it again, and I make no promises.”
*
When they pulled into the driveway, Andie’s Saturn was parked on the street. As she went up the stairs Cassandra thought of ways to dodge uncomfortable questions, but when she reached the second floor hallway, Henry’s door was pulled firmly shut. A lucky break.
She could hear them inside, and was briefly grossed out before she realized they were arguing.
I should find out about what, she thought, but instead turned and went through her bedroom door.
In her room, she twisted the knob tight and leaned against her door, grimacing even at the soft whuft the wood made sliding into place. But no one came. Andie didn’t burst from Henry’s room like a Valkyrie demanding answers. Lux didn’t even bark.
She started to take off her cardigan when an insect crawled up her nose.
“Ungh!” She swatted and exhaled as hard as she could, trying to stop the million legs from scrambling up her nostril. Any moment and the bug would turn, take the down chute, and head for her throat. She’d be able to hack it up onto her tongue and spit it out. The thought filled her with adrenaline and disgust. All those legs in her mouth, clinging to her lips.
Cassandra stumbled to her vanity dresser and stared into the mirror, expecting to see the back third of a red-brown centipede hanging from her face.
There was nothing there. And the bug had settled down inside, too.
She tilted her face up, more scared than she could remember being in a while, bracing herself for bug legs nestled firmly up her nose.
Nothing.
“I really am going crazy.”
(No. Not crazy. Just unused to having us inside your head.)
Cassandra lurched back from the mirror. That voice. She recognized the way it boomed from the center of her brain.
“The Moirae.”
(Not all of us. Only Clotho. And now Lachesis.)
“Now?” Cassandra asked, and felt another bug start to fight its way in, this time through her ear. That was worse than through her nose, though she hadn’t been able to imagine worse moments before. It drilled and squiggled and scratched its way right past her eardrum, and she couldn’t tell how many legs it had but it felt like a lot. By the time Lachesis finished working her way in, Cassandra lay curled up and sweating on the carpet.
She took a breath and her stomach clenched in a hard dry heave. Clotho and Lachesis waited for it to subside. Cassandra could feel them sitting behind her eyes, their presence as heavy as two fat, furred spiders bouncing on a web.