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“Milos,” Eirene said calmly.
“Let’s go!” Grace yelled, half falling off the bed and rushing away from the house through the dead garden. I shoved away from the table, scrambling to follow, leaving Eirene behind.
Grace fumbled with the lock, and I gently grabbed her shoulders, moving her out of the way to get the gate open, finding Milos standing there alone.
Where the fuck were Riot and Wild?
Milos ran to us, nudging Grace’s arm before darting back to the path, pausing and looking back at us.
“She wants us to follow,” Grace said quietly, worry written all over her face. Shit. Grace hadn’t even eaten yet, and I was pretty sure she was dehydrated from crying, not to mention we both needed to bathe.
But there was no way she was going to wait around to wash and have a decent meal if she thought for even a second that the others were in trouble.
“Then let’s go.”
Grace and I ran after Milos, stumbling to a stop a few feet in front of what had been the parking lot when it became clear what we were looking at. A merry band of agathos, daimons and humans had set up camp nearby, lounging around with bottles of wine in hand, laughing and sunbathing.
“You’re here!” Vasileios called, spotting us. “Everyone—Grace is here!”
Grace was frozen, staring at the cheering crowd like a deer in headlights. They were so happy to see her, so relieved that the sun was shining. This was a moment of joy for them, and they wanted her to share in it, not realizing that she was falling apart inside.
Further around the pit were the agathos we’d seen earlier, some of them watching Vasileios’ group warily, others… praying? They looked as though they wereworshippingthe pit, which… Yeah, that tracked, actually. They’d been desperate and scared, and the pit had appeared at the same time the darkness had lifted.
Vasileios gave a stunned Grace a one-armed hug before clapping me on the shoulder while Milos hovered at Grace’s side. Where were Wild and Riot? Why hadn’t she stayed with them?
She’s a dog,I reminded myself.She can’t exactly understand complex instructions.
“How did you guys get here?” I asked. Grace trembled slightly and I shifted behind her, wrapping my arms around her shoulders, hoping she knew that I was here for her no matter what. “Where are, uh, the Spartoi?”
A hundred soldiers clad in bronze armor were pretty hard to miss.
“About that…” Vasileios rubbed the back of his neck, giving Grace an apologetic look. “Turns out the Spartoi didn’t really want to listen to me? Once we worked out where you were, Theras gave the order and they just marched off. I assume they’re walking here.” He shrugged.
Walkinghere? I had no real concept of how far away things were, but the boat trip had been hours.
I scanned the group again, realizing it was a little smaller than I remembered. “Did everyone come along for the trip?”
“All the daimons. We ran out of kykeon, and even though the Kakodaimonistai know about us now after Grace announced us to the world, they were… I don’t know how to say it. Unsettled, maybe? Without the kykeon, they couldn’t see our true eyes, and our gifts affected them more. Most of the agathos stayed with them, feeling drawn to care for them. It is good, I think. If they managed to keep the villa safe over the past few days, then we have a base not far from Athens.”
After the carnage we’d seen in the smaller city where we’d gotten off the boat, I wasn’t optimistic about that.
“How did you work out where we were?” I asked. “Not that we’re not happy to see you, but we thought you were going back to Leonidio.”
“Ah, Marek heard Hygeia’s offer while she was healing you, and the agathos worked out pretty quickly you were probably coming here. We stole a couple of boats and decided we didn’t want to be apart from the Prophêtis. Especially now you’ve fixed the agathos; they are all horny for everyone now. It’s amazing,” he added with a laugh, throwing Grace an easy wink before frowning at the somber look on her face. “That’s good, isn’t it?”
Foster and Estrella approached hand-in-hand, watching Grace with matching expressions of concern.
“Are you okay, Grace? Where are the others?” Foster asked carefully, looking between Grace and me. Grace trembled in my grip, and I tightened my arms around her.
“Riot and Wild are here… somewhere. Wild got hit with bloodlust, they’re fighting it out. That was yesterday,” I admitted uneasily, glancing at the ruins in the distance. “After we met with the goddesses.”
Estrella blinked at me. “What goddesses?”
“I’ll ask some of our group to go look for them,” Vasileios said at the same time. “We even practiced ASL on the boat ride over here so we can all communicate with Wild better.”
That act of kindness was enough to tip Grace over the edge again. She turned in my arms, burying her face against my chest to hide her tears.
“We met with Gaia and Nyx,” I explained as Vasileios waved over a couple of semi-drunk daimons, relaying the instruction to head into the ruins and look for Wild and Riot. “Nyx lifted the darkness in return for Gaia opening a path for one person to travel to Tartarus.”
