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“He’s gone to Athens, of course.”
“He would not have left me behind,” she said. “Not by choice.”
“No, he wouldn’t have. But I gave him no choice.”
Lia shivered. Though his words were threatening, his tone was light. He spoke like a host at a symposium, regaling his guests with his best and brashest stories that he told first before they were deep enough in their cups to find everything funny. She stopped squirming in his arms when she realized she would not escape him. Instead she studied her new surroundings.
Lia had never seen such a place as this island of Naxos. The trees they passed to their left looked hazy, like a watercolor forest. And the silver brook they followed on their right glinted as if the shallow bottom were diamonds instead of river stones.
“What do you want with me?” she asked the wild god.
“You, of course,” he said, and laughed. Such a laugh to set birds to wing.
“Me? Why me?”
He shook his head, laughed again, softer this time.
“I watched you with that foolish boy. Ah, I was insulted seeing that short prince touch you. What you see in him is beyond me.” He set her on her feet at last.
“He’s the son of Poseidon,” she said. “And he is not short!”
“Never marry the son of Poseidon. Your children will smell of fish.”
Lia punched him in the arm.
He made an exaggerated face of pain and looked at her.
“You struck me!”
“He doesn’t smell like fish. You smell like wine.”
“I’m the god of wine, for my sake!”
“You’re the god of pissing me off,” Lia said. She slapped a hand over her mouth.
Then she laughed.
“Ariadne?” Dionysus said, eyeing her with narrow eyes. “Have you gone mad? Already?”
She lifted her hand and whispered, “So sorry,” before putting her mouth behind her palm again.
“Lia,” Dionysus said.
She raised her hand over her lips again.
“I think I broke character,” she said.
“You did.”
“I don’t know how.”
“I know how,” he said. “Not that you’d believe me.”
“Let me guess, this has something to do with magic.”
“Look at me, Lia. Are you really going to stand here in this world and tell me this is nothing but a hallucination?”
“It’s a very silly hallucination.” Then she gazed around at the strange isle. “But a pretty one.” She met his eyes. “Sorry I ruined it, August.”
