33. Eudoxia
EUDOXIA
Eudoxia runs her hands over the grain of the wooden floorboards in a rhythmic pattern to distract herself from the fact that there’s been scarily little progress made since Zeno and Alexander spoke to Bios.
Arete, who she still isn’t talking to, is reading some book about a demigod summer camp that she and Zeno found in the Library. She watches in a tired haze until an unfamiliar knock sounds at the door.
Zeno always raps three times before he shouts her name. Alexander will normally knock for a few seconds and then start banging on the door. Ophelia jiggles the handle until someone lets her in.
This knock is just a simple double rap, as if they’re confident she’ll come get it without any bells and whistles.
Arete eyes widen at the unfamiliar know and she jumps to her feet, drops her book, and rushes to Eudoxia’s closet to hide.
Once she’s away, Eudoxia opens the door, ready to fight at a moment’s notice if it’s Kleitos waiting out there for her. Instead, it’s someone she wasn’t expecting.
“Can I come in?” Kallias asks politely, leaning on the wall next to her doorframe with his arms crossed.
“What for?”
Kallias’ expression doesn’t change. “I need to talk to you.”
“Where’s Alexander?”
Kallias’ brows furrow and, though she’s sure he doesn’t mean for it to, his resting scowl turns into a bit of a pout.
“We’re not together all the time, you know.”
“I know. But you are together most of the time,” she says with a teasing smile. Ophelia’s proclivity for matchmaking has really worn off on her.
“He follows me around.” Kallias rolls his eyes.
“Mm. He’s like a puppy, always at your beck and call.”
Kallias glares, and Eudoxia can’t help but feel bad for him. So good at keeping a handle on his emotions, but he’s too pale to hide the slightest blush.
Clearly she’s gone too far because Kallias pushes her door open over her head and enters without waiting further for an invitation. He shuts the door behind them, and Eudoxia puts herself back on guard. He may be friendly with their group, but he is not a friend.
“You have a secret,” Kallias says.
“No, duh,” she replies with a false air of confidence. “Why do you think I’m leaving in the first place?”
“Not that secret,” he clarifies. “Another one. And if it’s going to affect our getting out of here, I suggest you fill everyone else in.”
“There’s no secret,” she insists, but she’s never been good at lying to people’s faces.
Kallias scans her room, then picks up Arete’s book from the floor.
“This is interesting reading for a twenty-two-year-old,” he says, and she knows he’s got it. Or at least, he’s very close.
She should probably just tell him, but at this point, why let him win?
“Yeah, I’ve been pretty into it.”
Kallias’ eyes fill with a kind of pity, which is both disturbing coming from him and Eudoxia’s least favorite expression to receive in general.
“Your commitment to whatever you’re hiding is admirable. But you’re a shit liar.”
“Screw you,” she spits.
“Look—”
“Get out, Kallias.”
He puts his hands up in surrender, but before he can make it all the way to the door, a sneeze echoes through the room. They freeze for a moment before Kallias tilts his head and walks to the closet.
Forms, how cliché.
Eudoxia doesn’t even try to stop him.
If he sees Arete and says she can’t come, then neither will Eudoxia. She, Zeno, and Ophelia can craft their own plan.
When Kallias carefully opens the door, Arete tumbles out like she was leaning against it, listening in. Kallias’ eyes go wide in shock—strange, given that Eudoxia thought he’d put it together.
Arete and Kallias are locked in a staredown, completely still. Eudoxia almost moves to stand in front of Arete in case he tries anything, but it’s unnecessary. Kallias just sits on his heels and says, “Hello.”
Arete crosses her arms and then looks from Kallias to Eudoxia and back again. “Hello,” she responds hesitantly, before taking a seat.
Then Kallias does something entirely unexpected. He plops on the ground, leaning back on his hands with his legs crossed in front of him, and smiles at Arete in his tiny, subtle kind of way. “I’m Kallias. Eudoxia’s friend.”
He extends his hand for a handshake in an endearing way that makes it obvious he has no idea how to act around children. Good thing she raised Arete right.
Arete gives him a firm shake. “I’m Arete.”
She must have heard their conversation because she still won’t look him in the eye, glancing at Eudoxia to see if she should be speaking to him.
“It’s fine, Arete. He’s telling the truth.”
Eudoxia has to stop herself from rolling her eyes when Arete bounces off the floor and runs up to Kallias.
“Your hair is the coolest thing I’ve ever seen in my life.
How do you get it to look like that? And you kind of remind me of a painting.
Have you heard that before? I heard you talking about my book to Eudoxia.
Have you read it? Do you like books? You look like someone who would like books.
Or someone who would tell people’s fortunes, you know?
Can you teach me how to see the future? I could be a prophet! ”
Unlike Ophelia, who matched Arete’s energy and jumped right in, Kallias hesitates for a few long seconds before he says, “There’s a set of cards you might like. For telling the future. They’re down where Eudoxia got you those books. I’ll bring them up next time I stop by.”
Arete smiles from ear to ear and throws her arms around him. Kallias flinches when she does, then looks at Eudoxia with big eyes.
As sweet as this whole situation is, and as much as she’s tempted to reevaluate her view of Kallias, she needs to talk to him about this for real.
“Okay, Arete, Kallias has to go now,” she says, and Arete releases Kallias as he pushes himself to his feet.
Arete points at him and says, “I expect you to have those cards with you the next time I see you.”
Kallias puts two fingers to his temple in a lazy salute. “Yes, ma’am.”
Eudoxia reaches for Kallias’ shirt collar and pulls him outside, closing the door behind them.
He shrugs out of her grip but can’t seem to find it in himself to glare.
“Sorry. Without some force she never lets people leave.”
Kallias just nods.
“We couldn’t have too many people knowing about her. And I trust Alexander, but to be honest, I don’t trust you.”
“We?”
“Me, Zeno, and Ophelia.”
Then he says, blunt, “Why is she here?”
Eudoxia debates coming up with a lie, but at this point, her real sob story will probably elicit the most sympathy.
“My mom died when I was thirteen,” she says, and when she glances up at Kallias, he doesn’t react. It’s kind of nice having an audience that won’t interrupt with apologies and platitudes. “My mama remarried almost immediately after the funeral. To my uncle, my mom’s brother.
“He’d always been a bit touchy—handsy—with women. With mama especially, even before mom died. Once they married, he initiated intimacy any time he pleased, and slapped her around whenever he wanted to. Then he tried it on with me, and my older brother beat the crap out of him.
“He stayed away, then. From me and Arete. And in that interim I taught myself how to fight back. To this day, I thank the Forms I did, because when I turned seventeen, my brother ran away, rambling on about conspiracies. Mom’s death drove him crazy, I think.
“There was nothing standing between me and my uncle except for myself. But I managed. And then all I wanted was a ticket out of that house. When I was tested in, it felt like Forms-blessed salvation.
“I packed up right away, and it wasn’t until Arete came to my door in tears that I realized going to the Academy meant leaving her behind.
With him. And I couldn’t do it. So I took her with me.
I should have faked her death or made some excuse, but I think maybe my mama knew she’d be better off because no one’s come for her. ”
Eudoxia tries not to be sucked into the memories, but still, images of her strong mom and her beautiful mama and their wonderful family flash through her mind and she wants to cry. What would she be if her mom had never passed? Or if her mama had had more courage? Or if her brother hadn’t left?
Kallias doesn’t say anything, so Eudoxia continues. “If I had left her there, he would have taken advantage of her. If I leave her here, they will kill her. So she’s coming with us.”
“Of course she is,” Kallias responds definitively, like the opposite hadn’t occurred to him.
Then his features darken to the point where Eudoxia is tempted to step back, though his voice stays calm.
“But what exactly was your plan? You weren’t going to tell me and Alexander because you didn’t trust us, but, what, you were going to throw together some haphazard scheme to bring her along? ”
“We would have come up with something,” Eudoxia says, matching Kallias’ jump from calm to antagonistic in a second.
“Do you understand how much danger she would have been in had you never told us? Why would you risk that? How could you risk that?”
Here Kallias goes, surprising her again. Because if you had asked her yesterday, child endangerment is not what she would have predicted Kallias would lose his shit over.
“Don’t play games with her life, Eudoxia. For yourself, whatever. But to keep this a secret? From people who want to help you? It’s idiotic. And reckless. And arrogant.”
“I’m happy you’re willing to bring her along on your precious little plan,” she snarls, “but don’t stand there and tell me what I should have done. Don’t opine like you have any stake in this.”
“No stake?” Kallias asks, exasperation breaking all the way through his normal mask.
“Eudoxia, she is a child. Nobody wants to see her dead. Not even me, even though you all think I’m such a monster.
Kids need people to protect them, as many as they can get.
They’re lucky if they have one, and you’re telling me not to be—”
Kallias cuts himself off and scrubs his face with his hands, carding them through his hair, immediately calm again. She wonders where he puts that anger.
“But, whatever,” he finally says. “It’s in the past. Just know I’m on her side. Alexander will be too. And bring her to the Library tonight. She needs to understand how serious all of this stuff is.”
“Got it,” she responds cordially, reeling from the tone shift.
“Good.”
As he walks away, a weight she hadn’t even noticed under everything else finally lifts.
Eudoxia comes down to the Library ten minutes early to let Arete get her zoomies out of the way without their whole group present, but Alexander and Kallias are already there talking quietly. Their heads are tilted so close their foreheads are practically touching.
“Oh, wow,” she hears Arete whisper reverently as they walk in.
Eudoxia nods. It’s undoubtedly the most beautiful place she’s ever been—more a Temple than a library, really.
Once Arete sees Kallias, all her shyness evaporates, and she bounds over to him, shouting his name. Both boys look up at the sound, and Alexander breaks into a grin when he sees Arete.
“Kallias, did you really find this place all by yourself? This is the coolest thing ever. Where are the cards? Do you have them?”
Kallias stands. “I’ll go get them. Introduce yourself to this fool while I’m gone.” He ruffles Alexander’s hair roughly on his way into the stacks, and Alexander doesn’t even pretend to be offended like he usually does. He just watches Kallias go.
“You like him,” Arete says.
Alexander huffs in surprise, and then he laughs. “Young lady, what bluntness,” he jokes, and Arete looks delighted.
“I speak only the truth, good sir.” She bows and then, halfway through, decides to curtsy instead. “You’re Alexander, right?”
“Mhm.”
“You’re the one from—” she lowers her voice to a whisper “—the outside.”
“You got me,” Alexander admits. It’s heartwarming to see them get along, though it’s no surprise. Alexander gets along with everyone.
“You’ll have to tell me about that someday,” Arete says, tone shifting to an adorable imitation of professionalism as she pulls herself up onto one of the chairs. There are six today, which means the boys pulled up an extra one for her.
“Did I hear correctly?” a voice bellows from the entrance. She would know it anywhere. “Is the little satyr truly haunting these halls today?”
Arete jumps out of her chair and runs to Zeno, who lifts her with no effort and swings her onto his shoulders. She laughs maniacally, and a warm feeling stirs in Eudoxia’s gut—something in between adoration and jealousy at how easily Zeno makes Arete happy.
Kallias comes back with a very old set of cards and a little instruction manual, and Arete scrambles off of Zeno’s shoulders and back to the table. When she sits, Kallias hands her the cards and book. “You study up on this on your own. Next time I see you, you better be all-knowing.”
Arete cheers, absolutely over the moon, and Alexander looks more besotted with Kallias than he did before, if that’s possible.
Ophelia winks at Arete, and then, surprisingly, is the one to make them all focus on the task at hand.
“I know when I’m going to sneak into the Temple of All Forms,” she says. “But I need to borrow Arete.”