Chapter Twenty-One
Thalia
Ash. The smell was so distinct it caused Thalia’s lungs to tighten as her eyes flew open and she shot up in bed.
Had the fire gone out in the room, or the flue knocked closed?
Dimitris was already up by the window, no longer curled by her side, and she couldn’t help but feel the drop in her gut knowing he was trying to sneak out.
Before she could even make a sound, Dimitris ran back over to her, his expression like stone, and his eyes wide.
“You need to get up. Grab your leathers, bow, daggers, anything you can find in your chambers. Wake Dafne and have her help you get the elders and children to the tunnels. If you pass any guards on the way, take them with you,” his voice was strained, but it did not waver.
“What—what is happening? Are the soldiers running a drill?” Thalia asked as she slid out of bed, rushing to the chair where her cloak and dress from the night before lay.
“The city is burning. We are under attack.” Dimitris tossed on his shirt, lacing a baldric of daggers around his chest, one in a holster by his boots, and two swords that ran across his back.
“But the wards—we would have felt them…last night you said they were intact…that we would know,” she said, her voice shaking almost as much as her hands while she tried to lace up her boots. “The castle can withhold months of a siege, why are we running?”
Thalia had warned him of this. The vision of her lying on the ground, arrows protruding from her stomach flashed in her mind. Not today. She would not die today.
Dimitris bounded over to her, wrapping one hand around her waist and the other behind her neck before his lips were on her in a kiss that felt so—final.
When he pulled back, gods, if she didn’t want him to look at her like that every day for the rest of her life.
Both hands moved to her cheeks and he stroked his thumb over her skin.
“Because they are already inside the gates. I am needed there. Go! Make haste. We don’t have much time before they make it to our doors. ”
He pushed back and fled for the door.
“Dimitris—” she called after him. He couldn’t leave her, not now. If he…if he died without her by his side. The idea sent a wave of nausea rolling in her stomach. Gods, how much had changed in mere months.
“Get the innocents out. I will find you, Thalia. I promise—on the battlefield or in the gardens of Elysium—I will find you.” And in a flash of leather and midnight black hair, Dimitris was gone.
For a moment, Thalia stood there, letting the image of his shimmering gray stare pierce her, imprinting the curves and planes of his body into her mind, letting the scent of his skin and the tingling of his lips against hers fill every inch of her.
If this was the last moment she saw him, at least she would hold on to that.
Cries began to echo down the halls, and Thalia scooped Mykonos into her arms as she raced out of Dimitris’s room toward her own.
Most of the weapons that the soldiers crafted in the forge were already transported to the ships in preparation for when they set sail for war.
Little had they known that war was coming for their very shores.
Sending a small prayer to the Grechi that Skiathans never kept their chambers unarmed, Thalia squinted her eyes shut, bringing two fingers to the point between her brows and bowed her head.
Watch over the children of your world, keep them safe, and if it is their time to go, ferry them gently across the rivers of Aidesian, she repeated.
An old adage she’d learned during her time as an acolyte on Delphine.
Bodies shuffled around her in the narrow hall, some dressed as she was and others who had already changed into their fighting uniforms and armor. Men and women alike were strapped from head to toe in sharpened bronze daggers, xiphe at their hips, quivers on their backs. Would it be enough?
A voice rattled amongst the soldiers racing about, high pitched and pleading. “I will not let them take me,” the voice screamed. “I will die before I let them take me again.”
Leaning against Thalia’s door was Dafne, her hands clenched so tight her knuckles turned blue.
Blood streamed from her eyes where there should be tears and her persimmon irises had washed over a milky hue.
Dafne’s body was convulsing against the door and how she remained upright Thalia couldn’t understand.
At her sister’s feet, Nyx was curled tightly in her panther form, teeth bared anytime a soldier stepped closer to aid Dafne.
“I will not let them take me!” Dafne cried once more before she collapsed to the ground. Sweat pooled down her skin, her raven-black hair plastered to her face as her eyes returned to their ruby hue.
Pushing through the hoards of people, Thalia ran to her sister, kneeling in front of her. “It’s alright, Dafne. I am here now. We will get you out. We will get us all out.” For her sister, Thalia would, she would never feel as if she was chained to her fate again.
“The isle will burn,” her sister said under her breath. “The isle will burn and we will burn with it. It has been seen.”
Fuck. Had Dafne seen the same vision Thalia had?
“Not everything we see comes true. The Fates allow us to change our destiny. We will not burn. We will not fall. Not today.” A reassurance more for herself than it was for Dafne.
“We will burn. We will burn,” Dafne repeated again, hugging her knees close to her chest, the same way she used to when they were frightened children trying to make it through the darkness of the night.
Thalia clutched her sister’s cheeks in her palms, much like Dimitris had done to calm her down. “I will not let us burn. We must go—we have to help the young, alright? Can you do that with me?”
Nodding her head, Dafne stilled, allowing Thalia to help her up.
Pushing the door to her chambers open, Thalia pulled the two of them inside.
Her bedchambers felt hotter than usual, the air so thin Thalia could barely breathe.
The scent of ash still burned in her nostrils despite every window in the room being latched shut.
They were already inside the walls. How could that even be?
There was no time to question it further.
Thalia tossed a set of her leathers to her sister and pulled out a pair of her own, sliding on the buttery soft, fur-lined set and reaching for her metal armor.
She strapped a baldric across her chest, filling each holster with thin blades and the last with the dagger Cal gifted her.
A warm tingle shot through to her chest as she palmed the blade and tucked it in the holster, sending a wish out that the old man was safe somewhere in the castle.
Mykonos circled around, shifted in her mountain lion form, fangs protruding out of her mouth. “I was rather hungry this morning. I cannot wait to feast on the flesh of those who dare attack our home,” her psychí hissed
“We are not engaging in battle yet, little one. We must get the young and elders to the docks first, then you are free to fight,” Thalia snapped back. She wanted to fight too, but that was not her charge. Not now.
“You are no fun, human. But I understand.”
“How is she?” Thalia asked, nodding toward Dafne and Nyx.
“Nyx will not speak of your sister’s emotions to me, but there is something off. Much like after your vision the other day. It is not like Nyx to be silent.” Mykonos padded over to the panther, butting her head against Nyx’s and the panther let out a whimper.
The sound was heart shattering, and caused Thalia’s skin to turn to ice.
The two of them had been reconnected for such a short time and Thalia couldn’t imagine the fear of having a psychí’s bond stripped once again.
Death would be a sweeter sentence than that.
Walking over to her sister, Thalia helped Dafne undress, sliding back on the fighting leathers.
“We will get through this, Dafne. Remember what Dimitris has taught you. You have the strength and skill of a gladiator and no man can take that from you. We will fight. Fight for our people, fight for our freedom, fight so that no man can ever take pieces of us again.” Thalia brushed a piece of her sister’s hair back behind her ear. “We will not die today.”
“We will not die today,” Dafne whispered, her eyes wide and hand trembling.
“Anytime you feel afraid, just repeat that to yourself, alright?” Thalia said.
“Alright,” Dafne agreed.
“Darkness may reign down on us, but to fos niká to skotádi.”
A small twinkle lit in Dafne’s features. “Light overcomes darkness.”
The great hall was buzzing with soldiers all attempting to stockpile supplies that could be used as the young and elderly were shepherded through the escape to the docks.
There were carts of food and water narrow enough to maneuver through the small passageways, as well as a small supply of weapons in case they encountered battle.
It was unlikely that the adversaries would find their way to the unmarked passages dug deep within the earth from the castle to the shore, but they couldn’t be too careful.