“Then eat this fucking plant until the day you come to thank me for it! Any man worth his nuts will want to be with you, and if he doesn’t, he clearly hasn’t got any brains at all!” She glared at me and nodded at the bag again. “Eat it!”
“Alright, alright,” I agreed hastily. She couldn’t be dissuaded. And maybe she had a point, too. If I was honest withmyself, most of my fear didn’t come from shirking the rules. It came from the part of me that hesitated to be vulnerable, the part that was terrified of giving myself over to a feeling so powerful. But allowing such a fear to control me was no way to live.
As if reading my thoughts, Alex put an arm around my shoulder and gave me a squeeze. “At least give yourself a chance. We’ve all had to find ways to care for ourselves, and now it’s clearly your turn to figure out how you want to handle our…predicament. Soph and Zoe might not understand, butIget it. Really, I do.”
Her sympathy did raise my spirits. I gave her an appreciative smile and hugged her back. “Thanks, Alex. Come on. I’ll put this away, and then let’s go dancing.”
So that’s what we did. I went upstairs and tucked the pouch away under my mattress, and then we spent our remaining hours laughing and swaying together to the music. Tomorrow would be a day of rest, so neither we nor the other celebrators had any qualms about dancing the night away. All night I thought of nothing but wine and merrymaking and how adorably funny a drunk Zoe could be. I was simply consumed with love for my sisters and for my community.
The party only began to disperse when we were forced inside by a storm which swept through in the early hours of the morning. When the rain began to fall, my sisters and I turned in along with the rest of the scattering revelers, running into the temple to avoid the sudden downpour. Never sparing the storm a second thought, I curled up to sleep with drunken satisfaction, knowing we had played our part in the festival well. Hopefully the land would be blessed by the favor of the gods who had heard our prayers.
5
Of course, I shouldn’t have been so quick to conclude that everything would be fine. A ritual so involved as the solstice festival could never be expected to proceed flawlessly, and I knew well enough where the blame could end up landing. There was always something, wasn’t there? And so it happened that when we woke in the late morning and shook off our drowsiness, trouble was there to greet us.
A loud knock sounded at our door. The person outside waited only marginally long enough to avoid rudeness before swinging it wide and barging their way inside. Unease washed over me when I saw who was there.
Keeper was a tall man with thinning hair, rough olive skin, and an ugly scowl that carved deep lines into his face. He maintained a haughty posture beneath worn but expensive robes. In conversations with his betters, he would often wave his left hand about in emphasis, for the underlying purpose of flashing around a heavy ring which had been gifted to him years ago by some important nobleman.
Keeper did not consider us his betters. So long as he was careful, we were instead his easiest prey...and today he appeared before us with an expression that sent a chill through my bones.
“Good morning, ladies. What a splendid celebration we’ve had. So nearly perfect.” As he spoke, he examined each of us in turn, until his gaze landed on Sophie and stayed there. He strodeup to her with firm footsteps, his eyes narrowing. “It was such a shame about the rain,” he chided.
My heart sank when I realized where he was going with this. “Could you not have bothered to warn us on one of the most important days of the year?” he sneered, confirming my fear. “Is this what you contribute to the city with your gift of prophecy?”
Sophie shrank back against the end of her bed. “I saw nothing in advance. I would have spoken of it.”
“No, no, no.” Keeper raised a finger and wagged it at her, the sharp motions punctuating his speech. “You either withheld your visions, or you should be ashamed of your uselessness. What an absolute disgrace.”
With each word he crept closer to her, invading her space. My anger surged. Digging my nails into my palms, I stepped instinctively forward to move myself between them. “You cannot expect her to know every whim of Zeus!” I snapped.
Keeper whirled to face me, nostrils flaring. “You!” he hissed. “How dare you speak?You are the most useless of all!” He spun on his heels, limbs arcing through the air, and a sudden flash of white split my vision. In the next instant, I was sprawled inexplicably on the floor. A searing pain blossomed across my cheekbone.
“Clumsy priestess,” sounded words floating down from above me. “You should be more careful in your revelry.”
“Get out!” Zoe’s shrieking pierced my daze. “Get outnow!” I looked up to see her try to push Keeper away, but he sidestepped her easily as he paced toward our chamber’s exit.
“My prayers will be with you,” he said icily on his retreat. Our door clicked shut behind him.
When he didn’t reenter, Sophie darted over to me, grasped my hands, and pulled me to my feet. “I’m so sorry!” she cried.
“Why the fuck wouldyoube sorry?” I fumed, shaking off my disorientation. “He’s the one who did it.” I reached a hand upto judge the tenderness of my face. Ouch. “Ugh, that stupid ring really hurt.”
“I’m so sorry! If I had only seen it—”
“Stop being sorry!” I said sternly. “Just stop it, Soph. It’s not your fault, and you know it. Besides, it was someone else’s turn to get slapped, don’t you think?”
My sad attempt at humor did nothing to lighten the mood. Sophie just swore under her breath and retreated to her bed, where she would no doubt be bashing herself all day. That was letting Keeper win, in my opinion. I wished I could make her stop, but as she drew her curtains closed I knew there was no use in trying.
Our afternoon passed in silence, the only sounds coming from the occasional rustle of the scroll Zoe had busied herself reading. Alex brought us food so we wouldn’t have to leave the room, and I ate thankfully. It would be embarrassing to walk out like this, and I was glad to put it off until the last possible moment.
But the moment still came. I did have a date to keep, after all. So I reluctantly tried to powder over my face, twisting into just the right lighting so that my mirrored reflection looked uninjured. Once satisfied, I made my way out to the kitchens, where I dodged prying eyes in order to pack a basket full of the festivities’ leftovers. It was an idea I’d come to during the celebration last night: surely my immortal companion would at least crack a smile at the prospect of partaking in our sacrificial offering.
With the food in hand and my makeup in place, I steeled myself for my journey out to our meeting place. Pretending that nothing had happened this morning bolstered my fragile confidence. All I wanted was to forget about the incident so that I could enjoy my night with Death incarnate.
But I could never be so lucky. On arriving, I hardly had a chance to set the basket and lantern onto the table before he blinked into our little space—and of course my stupid face was the first thing he noticed. Thanatos stalked across the room, frowning as he reached me.
“What happened to you?” he demanded. Without waiting for an answer, he gently tipped my chin to angle my face into the light. His eyes narrowed on examination of my injury, and his expression twisted into cold fury. “Who touched you?”
