Adrastia (The God Chronicles Book 4) (13 page)

I couldn’t help it. I laughed, louder and harder than I had in a long time. It felt so good, to chuckle until my eyes watered.

“I have been a brute, haven’t I?” I asked, wiping my eyes. “I apologize for that, too.”

She continued to stare at me, mouth hanging open and confusion in her eyes.

“What’s going on?” she inquired slowly.

“You saved us from the harpies,” I prompted her.

“Yes, I remember that. But then . . .”

“You passed out,” I filled in for her. “We grabbed what could be saved and escaped into the woods before they could return with reinforcements.”

“Where are we?”

She looked around us, taking in the dark, starry sky, and the smoking fire next to us.

“Belarus,” I answered smoothly. “We crossed the border about an hour before the attack.”

“How did they even know where we were?”

“I imagine they had someone at the boundary, looking for us. They know we’re trying to get away. I wouldn’t be surprised if there’s a few different groups, searching different areas for us. Now they know we’ve left Russia. I’m sure they’ll know we’re on our way to Sicily.”

“Where you’ll throw me into a vat of boiling lava after Typhon. Yeah, Arsenio told me already.”

The stiffness in her voice poked at me, the mean gleam in her eye showing me she was still angry. Why wouldn’t she be?

“Thank you for saving us,” I almost whispered, choosing to move from the subject of my future plans. “Arsenio would have died. You could have as well. Your human half that is.”

“And you wouldn’t have?”

Her eyebrows raised skeptically, disbelief on her face.

“No,” I stated. “But only because I can’t be killed in the same way others can,” I rushed to finish, seeing she was mistaking my answer for cockiness. “Gods can only be killed by being stabbed in the heart with a weapon that’s been dipped in the water of the River Styx. It would have hurt when I crashed into the ground, and I probably would have had some serious injuries that needed to heal, but I would have survived.”

“So all those times you accused me of trying to escape and kill you in your sleep, you knew I couldn’t actually do it?”

Her temper was growing. Somehow, I’d imagined this conversation going differently. She was supposed to stay the trusting, passed out girl I’d carried through the forest for hours, not turn into the biting, hate filled person I’d brought out of her.

“I’m sorry,” I mumbled again, thinking of how ashamed my mother would be if she knew I’d treated a human being in the same manner as Avalon. I was a lousy example of a man.

“I feel like I’ve woken up in an alternate universe,” she said, mostly to herself, wide eyes staring at me curiously, angrily. “Do you really think an apology is going to make up for dragging me around and almost killing me? Because it’s not.”

“I know,” I answered quietly. “That doesn’t mean I can’t feel sorry, though.”

“I don’t know if I can believe you,” she confessed. “Where’s Arsenio?”

As if he’d been waiting for us to finish, footsteps suddenly reached our ears and Arsenio appeared through the trees, three dead rabbits tied and slung over his shoulder.

“Who wants to help me make a spit?” he asked cheerfully.

Chapter Thirteen

Avalon

It really did feel like I’d woken up in a different life. Here I was, sitting by the fire, being fed, handcuff free, and Cristos had actually apologized to me. More than once. Maybe his head had gotten banged around more than I realized during the attack?

Thinking back, I tried to remember the little I’d forgotten before passing out. There were images of me beating off the bird people, but that wasn’t really me, was it? It had been the Titan, protecting the both of us. All I’d done was giver her permission to do it. Or rather, she’d broken through whatever kept holding her back and I had no choice but to go along for the ride. Saving Arsenio had been logical to her; the car had the supplies in it and he’d been kind to us. He didn’t deserve to end up a splattered mess on the road.

But then I’d seen Cristos falling, and it was like
I
was breaking through
her
. It didn’t make any sense, saving the man who’d hurt me and treated me so cruelly, but I couldn’t help it in that moment. Something in me told me I needed to help, so I did. Of course, now I knew he would have been just fine without me and I felt stupid for it.

There was nothing after that. I’d caught him and pulled him up closer to me, no doubt with his help, and after that everything went fuzzy. The medical side of me said I was in shock. The new Titan half of me agreed.

The wings had hurt so badly. Even now, I was afraid to let anything touch me. Just my shirt was enough to make me want to cry whenever it brushed over my skin. It felt like I’d been repeatedly stabbed with a hot poker, had my insides torn out, and then shoved back inside with the same hot metal. If I had any more hidden powers, I almost didn’t want to discover them for fear of how badly they would hurt me.

It was apparent now that I was two people in one. Was that how Arsenio felt? Half god, half mortal, did he feel the two sides warring against each other, pulling to be the one in charge? Maybe I would ask him someday.

I chewed on my rabbit thoughtfully, pleasantly surprised by how tasty it was for being cooked over an open fire with minimal herbs and spices at our disposal. Across from me, Cristos was eating his own food silently as well, Arsenio turning his rabbit over the fire to my left.

It appeared we’d lost a lot in the attack. There was no tent, only blankets for each of us to lie on and one to cover up with, and the bags the men carried with them seemed to have only their weapons in them this time. There were other odds and ends, some rope, a bottle of water, and a sharpening tool, which I assumed was for the arrows and sword.

Eyeing the rope with caution, I swallowed my food, ready to talk with the both of them again.

“I saved both of you today,” I started confidently, smiling as they both looked at me quickly. “Cristos one more time before. And if you count before I knew anything about all of this, I was helping Arsenio out, too. I think it’s only fair I don’t have to be tied to a tree again tonight.”

They both stared at me, as if waiting for me to go on, so I did.

“I’ve never tried to run away, I’ve never tried to hurt you, and for heaven’s sake, you both need some medical care after what we went through today. I haven’t even been able to look at Arsenio’s gunshot wound since we left Moscow.”

They looked at each other then, an invisible shrug passing between them as they took in each other’s wounds.  By now, they had mostly scabbed over, but there was blood all over Cristos and Arsenio looked like he’d taken a good hit to the head.

“I feel fine,” Arsenio said, grinning as he pulled his dinner out of the flames. “The bullet hole healed shut days ago.”

“You could have a concussion,” I argued.

“If anyone needs medical attention, it’s you,” Cristos said, nodding in my direction.

I stared at him, surprised into silence again. What had happened to the brute who wanted nothing but to watch me die?

“Your wrists,” he continued. “You burned right through the bandages. I can look at them if you’d like. Believe it or not, we’re pretty versed in field medicine ourselves.”

I looked down at my wrists, noting I had indeed burned through the bandages. The heat had also sealed the raw skin, leaving a scar on each of them, but nothing too serious.

“I’m fine,” I replied, resisting the urge to wince as the tattered fabric of my shirt rustled in a slight breeze. The air was cold, though, and somewhat soothing all the same.

“You won’t be tied to a tree tonight,” Cristos added. “Why would I have cleared a spot for you in the snow if I intended on making you stay out of camp again?”

“What is going on?” I demanded again, feeling more fearful of the nice side of him. “Why are you suddenly looking out for me?”

Arsenio choked on his food, trying to stifle a smile and earning himself a glare from Cristos.

“You saved our lives,” he growled, still looking at Arsenio. “It’s the least we could do.”

He turned to look at me, his expression much softer than what he’d shown me the entire time I’d known him before.

“How do I know you won’t kill me in my sleep?” I asked skeptically, still not buying the sudden change of character.

A flicker of anger crossed his features and I smiled, finally seeing the man I expected and was prepared for.

“You’re welcome to freeze out in the snow, if you’d like,” he said stiffly. “All I need is to get you to Mount Etna before the frostbite takes you.”

He tossed the bones from his dinner into the fire and shoved to his feet, muttering to himself as he walked away, shooting me a dirty look over his shoulder.

“Is he serious?” I asked Arsenio. “I’m really not getting tied to a tree tonight?”

“I believe so,” he said after swallowing.

“What changed?”

“A lot more than either of us are aware of, I’m sure,” he chuckled. 

The next morning, I found myself walking between them, no rope tied to me to drag me along, or any type of restraint at all actually. The change of order was making me nervous. I’d never realized I was settling into a system of expecting to be treated like dirt.

Everything was quiet except for the sound of our footsteps and the birds in the trees. As far as I knew, we weren’t close to any towns or people in general and it seemed odd that we were all so quiet.

Feeling brave, I decided to start up some conversation, for the sake of my own sanity. If I had to keep wondering why I was suddenly being treated like part of the group instead of their prisoner, I was going to go insane.

“So,” I said as casually as I could. “Sons of Zeus and Poseidon, huh? What’s that like?”

My question was greeted with chuckles and smiles, the air falling silent again before Arsenio answered.

“Actually, I’d say Zeus was more like a father to me than Poseidon. Not that I hold it against him. He didn’t realize I existed until after he’d married his new wife, Audrey. I’m sure I could have gone to be with them if I wanted, but I felt like I should be training to fight in the war, like Cristos.”

“Poseidon has a new wife?” I asked curiously.

“Old myths don’t account for new events in our world,” Cristos said, smiling a very small, awkward smile at me. “My father has remarried as well.”

“So . . .” I searched my mind, trying to remember the stories. “Hera isn’t your mother then?”

“No,” he answered sharply.

“Well, that’s not surprising,” I mused. “Zeus isn’t the type of guy who believes in fidelity, from what I gather.”

“He is since he met Karly,” Arsenio offered. “That’s Cristos’s mom.”

“It’s a long story,” Cristos sighed. “But to put it simply, Karly came to Olympus not long ago and Hera was in Tartarus.”

“Oh wow,” I said, surprised. “What happened?”

“There was a battle,” Arsenio said with a shrug. “She picked the wrong side.”

Thinking over their words, I suddenly caught onto something I’d missed.

“Wait, you said she
was
in Tartarus?”

“That’s right. She escaped during The Undoing,” Cristos said grimly.

“The Undoing?”

My head was starting to spin, aided by the fact that all of the walking was irritating my back.

“We’ll talk about it more later,” Cristos said, seeming to catch on that I was having a hard time. “If we talk about it at all.”

He held a hand out to me, helping me over a large rock, before letting go quickly and nodding me ahead of him.

This certainly was strange. My questions were being answered, I was walking freely, help was being offered, and I felt so unnerved by all of it. Arsenio, who had always seemed the one to talk before, remained silent unless spoken to, like he was waiting for me to bring something up. Cristos seemed to be undecided on whether he should ignore me, bully me, or befriend me.

After some time, I got up the courage to talk again.

“Are we walking all the way to Sicily now?”

Cristos sighed, scrubbing his face with a hand as he came up beside me.

“Yes. I thought we’d be able to manage a car well enough and we were sitting ducks. If there’d been anyone else on the road with us, they would have been caught in that. The safest thing for us to do is keep off the roads, only go into town when we need to, and keep our heads down. If we’re lucky, we won’t run into any more ambushes. The Titans will meet us at Mount Etna, I’m sure of it.”

“Am I really that important?” I asked softly, afraid of the answer.

Cristos remained silent, turning from me.

“We won’t know until the full extent of your Titan side is realized,” Arsenio said reassuringly. “But that also means everyone will fight for you, for the chance to get a weapon the other side doesn’t have.”

“I don’t feel like a weapon,” I confessed.

“It’s hard to deal with,” he agreed. “I remember when I discovered my own powers and I was only five. It’s something that stays with you forever.”

“What happened?” I asked, curiosity getting the better of me.

“I was playing on the dock with my mother on holiday in Greece when I managed to start a miniature water twister,” he laughed, eyes sparkling. “It couldn’t have been more than three feet tall, but my mother knew immediately what it meant. She was always very conscious of stuff like that.”

“So she sent you to live on Olympus?”

“No,” he answered, the sparkle leaving his eyes. “She left me there and never came back.”

“We should get going,” Cristos butted in. “There’s a small town a few days from here. If we avoid any others and keep up our pace, we should be able to reach it before sundown two days from now and stock up on some supplies.”

Surprised, I smiled at him, thankful he’d saved Arsenio from having to explain anything else. Guilt washed over me as I thought of how I’d been the one to make him bring it up. Then, I thought of something else.