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For one brief, beautiful moment, I’dseenhim. He was alive. He was safe, and reunited with the Spartoi. I had no idea how he’d gotten here—I wasn’t even entirely sure whereherewas, but I’d been watching the ground, trying desperately to remember the route we’d taken so I could find my way back again, and T had covered alotof ground. More than Wild could have realistically covered on foot, which meant there was some kind of divine force at work here.
The wind had stolen my voice every time I’d tried to scream for him, and as much as I pleaded with T to land, to turn around, he wouldn’t.
I had to admit, all things considered, T was quite gentle. It wasn’t as though he couldn’t crush me—he was entirely capable of it. That he was choosing to gently cradle me in his terrifying large hands meant that he very intentionally didn’t want to hurt me.
I was clinging to that sliver of hope with everything I had.
“Please don’t fly us over the ocean,” I whispered as the bright blue Mediterranean Sea crashed against the shore below us. I wasn’t sure I’d ever get back again if he flew me to a different country.
Fortunately, T banked left suddenly, landing with surprising gentleness on what appeared to be a castle. It was definitely an old structure made of stone, and it had an incredible view over a small seaside town and a quiet harbor.
“What is this place?”
I don’t know why I insisted on speaking to him when he never replied. Maybe it was just for my own peace of mind.
T shuffled around, serpent legs slithering over the stone. The rest of the castle, the rest of thetownwas coated in a fine layer of dust from the dry earth that spread over everything every time the wind changed. Not this spot, though. And T wasn’t looking around as though this was unfamiliar territory.
He’d been here before.
I wouldn’t say he seemedat home, per se, but he certainly seemed more comfortable here than I’d seen him anywhere else. I glanced down, trying to see the town below, to deduce if there was a single person around, and seeing no one. Maybe that was why he was comfortable here.
“T,” I said gently, trembling like a leaf, still surveying the town. “Why are we here?”
I waited for his huff of annoyance, but he surprised me by pinching the top of my skull with enormous fingers and lifting my head, forcing me to look out at the gold-streaked horizon.
“You want me to watch the sunset?” I hedged, the words sounding entirely ridiculous as I voiced them. I glanced up in time to see T nod, this time accompanied by an affirmative grunt. “Oh. Well, okay then. We can watch the sunset.”
I had some very real, urgent issues that needed addressing, but they could wait until the sun had gone down.
The sky slowly turned golden orange, reflecting off the surface of the water and bathing the houses below us in warm light. With only the sound of the waves gently lapping at the shore, I could admit that it was surprisingly peaceful, and my nerves settled enough that I at least stopped trembling.
After so long in darkness, there was nothing more startlingly beautiful than the light. Suddenly I wondered if T and I had that in common.
“You were in Tartarus,” I stated quietly.Grunt. “And it’s dark there?”Grunt again.
Maybe the most straightforward answer was the right one.
“It is beautiful,” I murmured, not entirely sure if he wanted me to speak or not. “We had no sun here for just a few days—Nyx cast a veil of darkness across the earth. I didn’t appreciate the sun enough until it was gone. We should all take some time to watch the sunset.”
T grunted again but was otherwise silent, and I didn’t say anything else until the golden light had disappeared completely beyond the horizon, the darkness closing in.
Now what?
“Where are all the people?” I asked, climbing out of T’s relaxed grip to stand at the edge of the balcony, staring out over the silent houses. He came to stand next to me, legs slithering over the stone, and I could have sworn he looked slightly sheepish. “Did they run away?”
He nodded.
“Did you breathe fire? It’s quite intimidating when you do that, you know.”
T puffed an irritable cloud of smoke out, refusing to look at me.
I rubbed my ring finger with my thumb, the spot where I usually wore my agathos opal feeling strangely empty. I hoped Wild had found it. That he’d known I’d seen him and that I wanted to go to him but hadn’t been able to. I worried about all of my soul bonds but perhaps Wild the most. He internalized his guilt, carrying the heavy burden of it around with him wherever he went, and I knew he’d struggle with the fact that he’d lost control and succumbed to bloodlust the last time I’d seen him. That he’dhurtRiot, even after Riot had volunteered to fight him.
It hadn’t escaped my notice that Riot wasn’t with Wild, and it was only the fact that there were clearly some immortal forces at play that eased my mind. Wild was a soldier at heart, and the Spartoi were his people. It made sense that whatever god or goddess had intervened had taken him there, but it wouldn’t have made sense for Riot.
He had to be somewhere else. I refused to believe any other outcome was possible. Riot had been given a task of his own, and that was the only thing keeping him away from me. He was safe, and he was busy, and he would be back the very first moment that he possibly could be.
“You can’t keep me here, you know,” I pointed out after the silence had extended. Not that T could talk, but he made plenty of noise when he wanted to—huffing and grunting mostly. “I can’t stay. I have an important job to do. I have to go to Tartarus.”
