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Before he can finish, I wave him into silence with a harshly swept hand. The action helps to propel me past him, toward the lagoon. More specifically, the waterfall that tumbles into it.
Because in the sparkling sheets of water, I see her.
Kara.
Spinning from side to side like a kick-ass action heroine, even with her small form buried under my coat—until I catch the alarmed ignition in her eyes. The tense pressure across her forehead. The frantic words that she repeats with her lush lips.
No. Just one word.
Maximus.
“Shit.”
I almost tromp into the waves of the lagoon, needing to get to her. Flashing back, too quickly and clearly, to those passages in the underworld when I saw her just like this and worse. When she was begging me to come to her and I couldn’t. I struggled and fought and cursed, but hell—and its ruler—were against me. Against us.
“Maximus.Son. Answer me, damn it. Is Kara—”
“We have to get out of here,” I snarl. “You have to get me back to her.Now.”
CHAPTER TWELVE
KARA
Before I can process that Maximus and Z are back from—well, wherever Zeus phased them out to—my demigod is by my side and hauling me in like I’m about to fall over a cliff.
I nearly fall into him instead, inhaling his musky vanilla and soaking up his protective concern. The moment isn’t productive, with just a few seconds left to give him my rasped warning, but I greedily take it anyway. And just as quickly compel myself to give it up.
But not for long. I push away by barely a step before he’s tugging on me again, his face as urgent as his hold.
“What is it?”
I shake my head, hoping he comprehends my look of feigned confusion. “I’m not sure—”
“Kara.I saw you calling for me. What’s wrong?”
He doesn’t get it yet. I grit out a smile, making it clear that the expression is nowhere near my eyes. “Everything that we can’t let on, okay?”
I want to sob with relief when he finally comprehends, intuiting that the flirty toss of my head is more a directional cue. His scrutiny, following the invisible arrow I’ve supplied, flies across the concourse. The second the corners of his eyes constrict, I disguise fresh instructions behind a horribly fake laugh.
“Don’tlet her know you see her.”
Herbeing the shopkeeper at a little store that looks like every designer brand signed a licensing deal with Iremia.
Standing there, opposite of her usual boho flow style, is Hecate.
I’m relieved to see Maximus recognize her as fast as I did. At once, he sees past her magenta skirt suit, trendy eyeglasses, and braided-back hair. From the spot where those two braids meet at her nape, her hair is loose but flattened, dropping to her waist like a dark-blond blade. Fitting metaphor, since I’m wondering if shock can sever a person.
Shock…and incredulity.
Is that store even real? Or has the goddess manifested it to spy on us? If the latter, did she really think the CEO regalia would fool us for long? And what happened to her agreement about giving us some breathing room?
“Okay. Lady Macbeth’s back before her cue. But why?”
As usual, Maximus distills the point better than me. Also as usual, he pivots with grace that tempts my imagination to redraw him as a mighty knight in the faraway court he’s just invoked. But there’s no time for those fantasies. Not a single extra second.
“The twiglet and I have been stressing over the same point.” As soon as I stealthily flip one side of his jacket, exposing how my belly now aspires to be a brake light during rush hour, his gaze bulges. He steps in, working with me to ensure the glow is completely hidden.
“Did anyone notice?” He whips his gaze around, like I was a minute ago. “My mom—”
