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Much like he wouldn’t let me leave the underworld until I’d fought him, he wouldn’t let me get back to Grace until I’d completed whatever quest he’d sent me on. Unlike when I’d fought him, this time I was confident I’d come out on top because nothing in this world or any other could keep me away from Grace.
I’d already lost one of my loves, I wasn’t about to lose the other.
“What a grim sight,” Thanatos observed, startling me with his sudden appearance. He was doing it on purpose, the wanker. “Don’t you worry, earth dweller.” He clapped me hard enough on the shoulder that I stumbled forward a step. “Demeter will fix this right up. She’s got a real green thumb, that one. Anyway, I think it’s time for you to get to work.”
Fucking. Finally.
“Ihavebeen busy—running errands, as you’ve seen—but I was also doing you a favor. Waiting until your company was at a more reasonable distance for you to walk. I hear it’s quite tiring for mortals to walk for days.”
There was no chance to absorb that information, I was already blinking through time and space to wherever Thanatos wanted to take me, completely at his mercy.Please don’t deposit me on the other side of the world.I needed to get back to Grace, it had been too long already.
“Here we are.” I stumbled out of Thanatos’ grip, finding myself standing on one side of the longest suspension bridge I’d ever seen—I couldn’t even see to the other side of it. There was a body of water below it, the surface calm, and the landscape was just as dry and dead as everywhere else I’d seen. I didn’t recognize it at all.
“This is the Çanakkale Bridge,” Thanatos explained, already heading for the dead body of a young man slumped against the side of the bridge. “Oh, look. This nice young fellow has a bag full of supplies you can raid while you wait, very polite of him.”
I snatched the bag out of the air as Thanatos carelessly threw it toward me before focusing on disentangling the man’s soul from his body.
“Just wait here. You’ll know what you’re meant to do when you see it.”
That’s it?Those were the laziest instructions ever. Did Thanatos not have underlings he had to manage in his role as God of Death? I hoped not. He had no management skills. I was a far more effective manager of the many daimons I’d employed in Milton, and I couldn’t even speak to them. Fucking lazy deities.
He vanished a moment later, soul in tow, leaving me alone on the bridge. Well, not quite alone. There was still the corpse I was standing next to, and I said a silent apology to the young man as I stole the large shawl he had wrapped around his shoulders. Was this what it had come to? Robbing the dead? Things were truly dire.
Not wanting to sit too close to the decaying corpse, I wandered further along the bridge before sitting up on the metal barrier where I could survey my surroundings. As much as I missed modern technology—and I missed it a lot—there was definitely a peacefulness that came with the absence of cars. While the bridge was quiet, it wasn’t entirely unpopulated. Small groups and occasional stragglers walked the length of it, carefully giving each other a wide berth, hugging whatever supplies they had close to their chest.
No matter how hard I looked, I couldn’t tell where exactly I was from my surroundings. There was a landmass at the end of the bridge, but no identifying markers to indicate what it was. The best clue I had to go on was the body of water beneath me.
The coastline had been pitch black when we’d first approached on Arsène’s boat, but we’d definitely disembarked on a beach before walking to Ephesus, and it had seemed like a prettier residential area, if not a tourist spot. In contrast, the area directly below the bridge looked to be concrete and industrial, though most of the structures were burned-out husks now. The bridge itself crossed some kind of inlet, and I couldn’t see past the two land masses on either side of the sea.
For fuck’s sake, I could be anywhere. All I knew was that I was near the coast, and provided Grace hadn’t gone anywhere, then she was near the coast too. If I had toswimback to her, I would. Whatever it took. I’d find a way.
For a moment, I let my eyes fall closed. I shouldn’t—I wasn’t even a little bit safe here—but I hadn’t slept in days, and I was barely holding it together. I’d never been so fucking tired in my life. Tired and lonely and wracked with grief.
Was I allowed to grieve someone who hadn’t officially died? I couldn’t even think his name or I’d be overcome by bloodlust all over again, and I didn’t have Riot here to handle my shit for me this time. Not that I planned on finding myself in that situation again if—when—I saw Riot. I was going to keep perfect fucking control over my temper and not endanger the people I cared about.
There was a rumbling noise coming along the bridge that had me breaking out of my melancholy mood and paying closer attention to the road.
I noticed the feathers first. A red plume rose into the air, atop a shining bronze helmet. Followed by a hundred more.
The Spartoi were on the march.
My bones creaked as I stood, shrugging on the satchel and walking slowly into the middle of the road. Theras held up a hand the moment he spotted me, and the men behind him came to a perfectly well-timed stop, staring directly ahead. The ultimate soldiers. I knew we needed them—Queen Persephone wouldn’t have given them to us if we didn’t, but I didn’t know how or why exactly.
“Strategós,” Theras said respectfully, inclining his head when I came to a stop a foot in front of him. “Hello. Wild.”
I raised my eyebrows in surprise, though I shouldn’t have been shocked really. English had been the most commonly spoken language when we were staying at the villa, and it made sense that they’d picked up some.
‘Where are you going?’I signed, hoping he remembered the sign language I’d taught him. Without one of the others here to translate, suddenly the task ahead of me felt impossible. Theras looked at me for a moment before gesturing for one of the others to step forward—Ariston, from memory.
‘You.’ Ariston signed.‘Look for you.’
‘You found me. We need to get back to Grace.’
He nodded, translating the instruction to Theras and the others. I fell easily into the front ranks, and they didn’t hesitate for a moment to accommodate me.
The industrial area directly around the bridge slowly changed into farmland as we moved further inland. As much as I tried to hide how exhausted I was, Theras made the call to set up camp at an abandoned barn we found not too far from the road.
The Spartoi were used to roughing it, and they didn’t hesitate to split into halves—one resting, one standing guard. And it was strange to realize that I felt safe enough to rest too. To lie down in the dirt, close my eyes for a moment, and to actually find myself falling into a much-needed sleep.
