She hadn’t heard a peep from Thanatos. She assumed he’d listened and left. Good. But now and then, when Odysseus stopped snoring and everything seemed too quiet, she’d imagine him in the basement, motionless as a wax figure, waiting for her to calm down.
“I’m going to change the ice.” Ares stood and stretched, dislodging Panic, who yawned. “And then I’m going to take the wolves out to run. They don’t do well kept in one place for too long. Start taking bites out of each other.”
He switched melted ice for fresh and subbed in a few frozen gel packs they’d accumulated for the mortals’ post-training-session swelling. He did it so well and so carefully that Hermes didn’t even mumble in his sleep.
“Come on.” He clapped his hand to his thigh softly for the wolves to come.
“Don’t go far,” Athena said.
She’d told him about the dream she and Hermes had shared about Demeter, murdered in the desert, but wasn’t sure whether Ares believed it was true. He’d said that the desert was days away anyhow. On a map, it was days away. Yet the Moirae had been in Buffalo yesterday, and slicing into Demeter by nightfall.
“I’ll go to the woods,” said Ares. “And I won’t kill anything that anyone will notice. You don’t need to watch me every minute.” He shrugged into a jacket and headed for the back door.
“Ares,” she called softly, and his shoulders slumped, ready for a lecture. “Be careful.”
He looked back. Sometimes Ares seemed so much like one of his wolves. But just then he seemed more like a kicked dog, surprised by an offered Milk-Bone.
“I will be.”
*
Cassandra and her mother met with the principal for an hour and a half. For forty minutes of that time, the district superintendent sat in as well, for no other reason than to convey the gravity of the situation. Or at least that’s how it seemed. She said nothing of note, just sat in a charcoal suit and drank a cup of coffee. But they let Cassandra back in for the rest of the term. Summer school was on the docket, too, as her father had predicted. Consequences.
Cassandra and her mother timed their arrival and departure to avoid crowds in the halls. Her mom’s idea, and a great one. The few kids they did see weren’t ones she knew, and didn’t seem to recognize her. When she officially returned to classes, it would be a hassle. She’d have to give the same explanation over and over, for friends and for people who suddenly considered themselves friends because they wanted to know the gossip. She could’ve hugged her mom till she was blue for sparing her one more day of it.
Of course Andie and Henry would spread the news as much as they could. But it wouldn’t be the same as hearing fantastic runaway stories straight from the runaway’s mouth.
“Do you think you’ll be okay, to catch up?”
“What?” Cassandra asked. “Yeah, Mom. I’ll have to study a lot, but what else is new.”
Her mom shook her head. “For a few minutes there, I thought we might have to switch schools. The way Superintendent Russell was looking at you. Like she’d just caught you outside the walls with an open can of spray paint.”
“She was just trying to see if I was trouble.”
“Just trying to be a jackass, more like.”
“Mom!”
“Well. It’s not as though you’ve been in any trouble before. A detention here and there, sure. But you’ve always been an excellent student. And we participate in the damn bake sales just like everyone else.”
Cassandra laughed. They walked through the front doors and out to the visitor’s lot. Thanatos stood beside their car.
“Zack,” her mom said, and it took Cassandra a few seconds to connect the name to his face.
“Hi, Mrs. Weaver. Hey, Cassandra. How’d it go?”
“She’s back in. Starts back tomorrow.”
“That’s great!” Thanatos smiled. Cassandra wondered if her mom noticed the way his smile never touched his eyes. It didn’t seem like she did. “Can I treat you guys to lunch?”