“Well, can it pretend to be a dog?” Henry asked, and the wolf whispered an answer. “Talking isn’t a good start,” Henry said to it. “I’ll take him. Ares, you have to stay here. The vet will take one look at your gut and send you to the ER.” He heaved the wolf up in his arms and made a face when the creature rose onto two feet to help. Oblivion nosed closer, mostly on all fours.
“Stay.” Henry pointed at it, and it lowered its head.
“What does he mean? What’s wrong with your gut?” Athena asked. “Are you all right?”
“I took a stab. Nothing to write home about.” Ares stood straighter while Athena lifted his shirt. The wound was deep and bad. It pulsed blood and opened like a mouth every time he breathed.
“What were you doing here?” Athena asked.
“He saved us,” Cassandra’s mother answered for him. “Him and his dogs. They jumped through the windows and stopped him. That boy—that boy was going to kill your father.”
“I’m okay, Maureen.” Cassandra’s dad went to her and hugged her tight. “We have to call the police. That kid, whoever he was, can’t have gotten far.”
“Oh, you can bet he’ll be miles away,” Ares said.
“No,” said Cassandra’s mother. “He couldn’t be. I saw you cut through his stomach. He was holding his … his…”
“Yeah, well. He’ll have stuffed all those back in by now. Just a little nick for him. Won’t even leave a scar.”
Cassandra watched her parents. They were surrounded by familiar faces, but each became more foreign and confusing with every passing moment. She knew how they felt. It had been the same for her, when Aidan had suddenly become something different.
“We’re going to have to get you all to hospitals,” Odysseus said. “Andie, come let me look at your arm.”
“Henry should go, too. He was hit on the head. He might have a concussion,” Andie said while Odysseus and Athena studied the deep gash on her shoulder. It looked as though someone had taken a hatchet to her.
Cassandra felt like vomiting. Achilles had come into her home and defiled it. Everywhere she looked there was blood. Splashed across her family’s den. Sinking into the carpet. The people she loved stood afraid inside their own walls. Achilles was forever an invader. A sacker of cities. He snuck in quietly and brought red death with him. Only this time her family hadn’t died.
Ares and his wolves had saved them all.
Cassandra chanced a look at Ares, half-expecting the same old hate to flare into her hands. It didn’t.
“We can stitch Ares up,” Odysseus said. “But Andie and Tom should go to the clinic.”
Athena turned to Cassandra’s mother.
“Maureen,” she asked. “Are you okay?”
Cassandra watched her mom sputter.
“And it feels strange to say this in such a crowd,” Odysseus said, “but I think we’re shorthanded. Cassandra, do you know how to get in touch with Thanatos?”
“Um, no, I—” She didn’t know where he was. And had no phone number to contact him. They should have thought of that, it seemed. But every time she’d needed him, he’d just been there.
“Never mind,” Athena said. “He’s right behind you.”
Cassandra looked over her shoulder and, true enough, Thanatos walked in through the broken doorway.
“The Moirae?” he asked.
“Gone,” Athena replied.
“I’ll take Andie to the hospital,” Odysseus said. “She’s got to go now.”
“What are we going to say?” Andie asked.
“I don’t know. That you fell on something sharp. I’m a great liar. Don’t sweat it.” He took the keys to her Saturn and nodded to Athena before they ducked out the door.
“What is going on here?” Cassandra’s dad asked after they went. “Why do they have to make up a story? And why isn’t anyone calling the police?”
Athena looked at Cassandra. This wasn’t something to cover up. They’d seen too much.
But could she use her god’s tricks and lie it away? Would that be easier? Could we go back to before? The family we were before.
“We’ve got butterfly bandages in the first-aid kit,” Cassandra said. “I’ll go. You start talking. And don’t leave anything out.”
*