I returned her weak smile. “I’d hug you, but …”
Rolling her eyes, she pulled me into a quick hug. “What’s a little wyvern blood and guts between friends?”
I gave a weak snicker. “I can’t believe …” I trailed off as other voices began to fall quiet.
“Here come the Sovereigns,” whispered Khalida as they stormed over to Talon and Ajax, demanding every detail of the battle. Like last time, they did a lot of blustering and pacing and expressing their displeasure.
I leaned into Khalida. “Daedalus’ territory is home to orks, right?”
“Yes,” she confirmed.
“And the wyverns live in the caves where Medea rules a small city?”
She nodded. “They do.”
I scratched at the dried blood sticking to my face. “And the hounds live near Theseus … so it would seem that all three of those half-bloods played a part in what happened here tonight.”
“Yes, it would.”
“Just as Theseus had the aid of Scylla last time.” Frowning, I turned to her. “What in the hell is going on?” Because none of this made sense.
Her face sober, she gave a short shake of the head. “I have no clue, Anara. Not a single one.”
CHAPTER TWELVE
Iwinced as a small bumpy rock prodded the sole of my foot through my boot.Ow.Who didn’t love climbing steep, craggy cliffs?
Me. That was who.
But eight days later, that was exactly what I found myself doing, my every step scraping the rocky dirt path. Fog shrouded the moss-covered trees, scraggly shrubs, and steep slopes. The grassy areas here were sparse and weedy, so I could see plenty of cracks in the rock face as I clambered upwards—not comforting.
At this point in time, I was used to such climbs. Talon and the Marshalls brought us back to the Pines again and again, going longer distances each time. But the treks never became easy. Or fun. Or anything I even remotely looked forward to.
And now I was trudging up angled slopes while tired, hungry, andbeyondthirsty.
I was also hyper-alert in a way that was plain unnatural, not to mention exhausted because said hyper-alertness made it hard to relax or sleep—all thanks to the good oleichor, apparently.
Courtesy of that, the past few days had been … weird. I’d constantly felt all twitchy and jumpy.People typically felt this way in the days leading up to their power surfacing. All the candidates were presently experiencing it, some to a worseextent than others. I’d caught a few of them sobbing—likely from frustration.
If my problem ended at ‘twitchy and jumpy,’ it wouldn’t be so bad. But it was more than that. Tension would sometimes flood my body, making me feel stiff. My sensitivity to touch occasionally felt so heightened I’d flinch at the merest touch. That weird ‘call’ within me felt more intense. Godsawful headaches would come and go. My heart might randomly start to speed up. And I could get rushes of emotions that were out of place.
More, I could go from relaxed to panicky in a heartbeat. Or happy to sad. Or sad to amused.
Two nights in a row I’d woken with a start, energy abuzz in my veins. I’d paced around the tack room over and over, unable to walk it off. That same energy could sporadically strike me at random times during the day, too. Little muscles in my body would then jump or tick. I’d fidget. Hum. Ramble. Even standing still could be a trial.
At such times, it was like you had this overabundance of energy that quite simplyspilledout of you, whether you liked it or not.
Supposedly, the more agitated and jittery you were, the more there was a chance that your system wasn’t going to be able to handle the power inside you; that the surfacing of it might actually kill you.
Or even drive you insane.
Both were lovely prospects. And they filled me with sheer dread. Because a human really wasn’t built to handle Sayer abilities. It was possible that I was nothing more than what the Sovereigns considered me to be: an experiment of the gods gone wrong.
I hadn’t disclosed just how edgy I felt. I didn’t want anyone to know. Mostly, I didn’t wantTalonto know. Becausethen the Sovereigns would also know—Minos had cautioned him to do better at keeping them updated. I’d rather they weren’t made aware that I was exhibiting signs that the surfacing of my power might kill me. They could decide to stick me in a glass-walled room so they could watch the show.
As such, I was being careful to hide it as best I could. Which was not easy when you were dealing with an eagle-eyed being like Talon.
I stilled as pebbles bounced down the winding path, dislodged by a boot up ahead. This was why I’d been sure to grab a spot near the front of the line. I’d learned from past experience that, due to how often climbers slipped, you were better off placing as few people between you and Talon—who never stumbled—as possible. The further down in the line you were, the more you had to deal with falling stones and pine needles coming your way.
