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Her voice broke on a sob, and my limbs shook with relief and love and gratitude that Grace was here and she was safe—against all odds—and that she hadn’t forgotten about me. I couldn’t even process the rundown she’d given me of the battle. All of that had been going on while I’d been holed up for who knew how long on Poveglia?
I pressed a hard kiss to her temple, followed by three more. “I missed you more than you can believe, Gracie. Fucking hell, I’ve been so worried. Wild is here too?”
She nodded against my chest. “Dare is okay, but not here. Sophia said he’s on his way.”
She didn’t volunteer any information about Bullet, and I didn’t ask. Not yet.
“You need to sit, you’re shaking,” Grace said, sniffling. “Here, by the fire. The Spartoi are going to fuss at me being away from the shields, but if you collapse in the formation, you’ll get trampled. Besides, T won’t let the dragon get close.”
“Who is T?” I asked, letting Grace lead me to the fire and dropping on the ground while she threw some branches on to keep it burning. After a minute, she appeared with a bottle of water and a handful of almonds in hand, looking apologetic.
“I’m sorry. There was scorpion meat, but I guess they ate the last of it overnight. It probably wouldn’t store well. Though I’m guessing you’d prefer the almonds?”
“Almonds are good,” I assured her, taking a swig of water before belatedly realizing I should probably sip it, given how dehydrated I was. “Honestly, I’d eat the scorpions whole—bulletproof casing and everything—at this point, I’m starving.”
“Slowly,” Grace cautioned, sinking down to the ground on her knees next to me and looking worried. Maybe it made me a total bastard, but there was a part of me that liked when Grace directed her worried-face at me. Maybe because I hadn’t been on the receiving end of a lot of genuine concern in my life. “Where have you been? Sophia said that Arete had some kind of mission for you.”
I snorted in spite of the dire circumstances. “I guess it was a mission, though it felt more like being kidnapped by a statue because I happened to be bleeding out at her feet and that’s her version of a superfood.”
Grace looked horrified and I hurried to explain despite how much I wanted to stuff my face full of almonds. “After my, er, altercation with Wild, I was bleeding a bit and Arete’s statue sucked up all the blood the way Sophia’s did for yours. And then she decided I was the one to go and visit the Fates and figure out the whole soul bond issue—”
“What?”Grace asked, eyes wide. There was a crash overhead, the two beasts flying into one another before bursting apart in a swirl of fire. I couldn’t decide which one had caused it—both of them seemed impervious to flames. “Come on, T,” Grace muttered, glaring daggers at the dragon.
“You never told me who T is,” I murmured, shoving an almond in my mouth and setting the water down so I could wrap an arm around her waist. “And why you think we’re even remotely safe sitting out in the open like this.”
“Oh, T is Typhoeus. He’s Gaia’s son, but he’s on our side.” She pointed him out, the humanoid-type one with snake legs and black wings.
Who was apparently on our side.
“He’s just lonely,” Grace added, as though that was an entirely logical explanation. “The dragon flew out of the volcano that sprouted out of nowhere.” She tipped her chin toward the towering, black volcano on the horizon and my head spun slightly. “T is fierce though. He can conjure storms and breathe fire. I have full confidence in him.”
I panic ate some almonds and held Grace a little closer. I hadn’t evenkissedher yet, but I felt filthy and disgusting, and we were sitting courtside on a battlefield with a couple of not-so-mythical beasts fighting above us. It wasn’t exactly the romantic reunion I’d envisioned.
But it didn’t matter. Grace was here and healthy, and there’d be time to kiss her breathless later.
“Are they brothers, do you think?” I asked, wincing as the dragon flew at T, clawed feet first, catching him in the chest. T let out a roar, accompanied by a stream of fire, but managed to shake the dragon off, flying at him with his fist cocked.
“Brothers?” Grace repeated, frowning.
“Presumably Gaia sent the dragon, right? And you said T was Gaia’s son, and he’s, you know… Kind of beastly looking. No offense. And so is the dragon, so…”
“How did I not realize that?” Grace’s hand clamped down on my thigh, I grimaced slightly, realizing how disgusting my clothes were.
One of the Spartoi stumbled toward us, breaking through the formation, face bleeding.
“Shoot.” Grace jumped up, digging through the ragtag bundle of supplies they had and pulling out some water and a rag. “What happened?”
The Spartoi sheepishly mimed a rock flying from the plateau and hitting him in the face. He stumbled slightly, eyes moving in and out of focus, obviously hurting more than he wanted to let on.
“Sit,” Grace ordered, fussing over the soldier while she cleaned up his face, gesturing at him to take off his helmet.
I finished my water and almonds, climbing heavily to my feet and stretching. Already the lines of soldiers were looking kind of messy, and I didn’t know shit about fighting rank and file, but I was pretty sure maintaining numbers was an important element.
“Hey, give me your weapons,” I told the Spartoi. “I’m gonna sub in.”
Grace gave me a look that was somewhat akin to horrified, and I did my best not to be offended about it.
“Riot, you’re exhausted—”
