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Especially last night, in Split. What had meant to be a small gathering at a fledgling temple dedicated to Artemis—a place formed specifically for women who’d been displaced during the time of change—had been hijacked by Dionysus and many gallons of wine. Artemis had followed, outraged and slightly amused, to keep an eye on him, and it had all devolved into revelry from there.
Who knew what we’d find tonight in Hvar. Or after that in Korcula. Or the night after that in Dubrovnik.Where were we supposed to go after that?Sophia had given us a suggested itinerary. Oh yes, Poveglia, to pay our respects—Riot had been quietly terrified about that suggestion—then north on land. Salzburg, perhaps?
It wasn’t as though it wasbadwork. The advantage of being able to call upon gods when necessary was that it helped vastly in the work of rebuilding, and we’d already allayed tensions in plenty of places that had suffered and struggled by requesting divine intervention. Things were getting better. It was ablessingthat we could provide that to people.
And yet…
“What are you thinking?” Dare asked, his curiosity prodding at my psyche through the bond as I stared out at the water.
“Do you ever miss home?”
Dare blinked in surprise, and I had to admit that I felt a little traitorous even asking the question, considering how fortunate we’d been.
“Not necessarily,” Dare replied slowly. “I have everything I need right here—you, Quinbee, Riot, Wild, Bullet… There’s nothingforme in Milton anymore. But I do get curious about how things are going back there. I wouldn’t mind visiting. If you want to go home, Grace, we’ll make it happen. Didn’t people sail from London to New York all the time back in ye olden days? How hard can it be?”
“How hard can what be?” Riot asked, shoving his messy hair out of his eyes as he walked across the deck in bare feet, looking deliciously rumpled and sun-kissed after a mid-morning nap outside. Of all my daimon bonded, he was probably the most attached to the nocturnal schedule. It wasn’t uncommon for him to fall asleep a few hours after us and catch up on sleep in the morning. It didn’t matter so much now, but when Quinn had been a regular night-waker, having Riot still up to tend to her had been a life-saver.
“Sailing across the Atlantic,” Dare replied as Riot came to stand behind me, wrapping his arms around my waist and resting his chin on my shoulder. “Back stateside.”
I felt a flicker of surprise through the bond. “Yeah? I kind of hoped we were going back to Victoria Falls once we finished this trip, but I guess going home could be interesting. Unless we’re visiting your mom, in which case, hard pass.”
I shook my head instantly, horrified at the suggestion. I didn’t even know where my mother and Valor had gone after their confrontation with Chance and Creed where Thanatos had snatched her voice—tying it somehow to Wild’s curse. Thanatos had shared that much with us in his gloating on an impromptu visit, but he was too bad-tempered to elaborate on the specifics despite me asking very nicely. Apparently, he only gave us information onhisterms.
Chance, Creed, and Mercy had all reached out to me in turn in the months after The Twelve had returned. They’d sent letters through various original agathos—tentative at first, though my relationship with my dads had improved dramatically in the past year or so. They’d been fighting their own battles while I was growing up, and while I didn’t necessarilyexcuseall that they’d let me be subjected to, I understood that the issue wasn’t quite as clear-cut as I’d thought it was.
My relationship with Mercy wasn’t quite as straightforward, but part of it was just life getting in the way. We both had so much going on that we were just keeping our heads above water a lot of the time.
“Definitely no visits to my mother in my future,” I assured Riot. “I’d like to see Chance, Creed, my brothers, and Mercy if we can get up to Maine. Earnest is still somewhere in the south, last I heard. In that agathos temple.”
He’d apparently devoted his life to helping humans and daimons impacted by the negative actions of the agathos, though I still found the concept a little difficult to believe. Hermes had taken great relish in telling us all about it.
“Do you want to visit your dad?” I asked Riot hesitantly.
“Um, hell yeah,” he replied instantly, taking me by surprise.
“Because you’ve missed him?”
“No,” he snorted. “Because I’m a big fucking deal these days and I want to rub it in his face for all the times he told me I’d never amount to anything.”
“Oh.”
Dare laughed. “I guarantee your old man is a local hero by now, telling everyone how important his boy is and how he always knew you had greatness in you.”
“Probably,” Riot huffed. “Maybe I don’t want to visit him after all. I don’t want to give him the satisfaction.” He paused for a moment. “I’ll decide when we get there. I’m sure Onyx can fill us in, give us the lay of the land.”
I hummed in agreement. I’d love to see Onyx again, and all of the daimons Wild had once looked after at Underworld. I wanted to see Dice, to assure him that Quinn was safe and loved beyond measure with us, and so she could spend time with her uncle, if he was even in Milton these days. I even wanted to catch up with some of my old agathos friends, to see if they’d changed or if we could find common ground these days.
“Then let’s get through this trip, and go home,” Dare said, as though it were that simple. “Arsène’s sailboat won’t be up for the journey, but I’m sure we can track down a vessel and a crew. I’m not above throwing your name around to get results, Grace. If you want to go home, we’ll go home.”
“Good girl,” Onyx said with a cocky smile that softened into something far sweeter than I was used to seeing on her face. She pulled me into a tight hug, careful not to jostle Quinn who was balanced on my hip. “What the fuck are you doing here?”
She glanced at Quinn as she pulled away, frowning. “Am I allowed to swear in front of the baby?”
“Technically no, but Riot does it all the time,” Dare replied drily.
Onyx looked at him, a catlike grin on her face. “You owe me a tattoo.”
Dare let out a surprised burst of laughter. “So I do. But I’m a little out of practice, and electricity is hard to come by. Though we could always test out the old ways, pushing the ink under your skin with a needle, one drop at a time—”
