24 #2
In the open doorway, we sit and watch the waves lap the little island’s shore as Koda sleeps. August keeps glancing at the hole over my heart, and at the blood stiffening my white bodysuit against my skin now that it’s dry. And I keep staring at the holes burned into his rolled pant legs.
“He almost killed you today,” August rasps.
Torsten had the chance. It only takes a second to run someone through and leave them lying on the ground to die, but the Norseman hesitated when it mattered. “No, he didn’t.”
That truth surprises me.
Torsten is just as afraid of dying as the rest of us. He wants to win, but he didn’t want to kill me, or else he would have. Even though he cut me, he only wanted me to feel pain and fear…
“He couldn’t bring himself to do it. And it would’ve been easy for him to kill me.” I pick at an errant thread on the seam of my arm.
August exhales. “But Hazi stabbed him. Things’ll be different if he ever corners either of you again.”
Maybe.
Aymes glances over at me. “I spoke to Apollo’s oracle before the trial began.”
I bite my nail. “Which one?”
“The Pythia at Delphi.”
“Were you given another option?”
“I was, but I declined it. I just wanted to hurry through and get to Koda,” he admits.
I ask him to describe her and the room she was in. As he speaks, I realize we saw the same woman in the same temple, but she didn’t offer him a door to another seer or drink from a goblet filled with blood.
Did Apollo give every contender the same poisonous advice? “What did she tell you?”
He huffs a miserable laugh. “Just that my family mourns each step I take with you, because you’re walking to your death.”
What can I even say to him? For once, the oracle was straightforward.
I scrub my face with my hands.
Athena said the same thing to me because she was worried Ares would target Elias just for aligning with me. It doesn’t take a seer to predict how petty Ares is capable of being. Or how incredibly cruel.
“I saw her, too,” I admit, wondering if it would be possible to push August away from me now, for his safety. Can I stomach the pain of it? Will he allow it now that we’ve become so close?
“What did she say to you?” He waits patiently.
It’s one of my favorite things about August. He gives me time and room to sort my thoughts out when I need it.
“She pretended she could speak to Carina, but I knew it was a lie. My sister’s not in Hades’s domain and the oracle has no power outside her pantheon. So, I threatened to drown her in the pond.”
August’s brows rise. He wets his bottom lip.
“There’s more.” I wince.
I can’t tell him I saw my mother without endangering her, but I can give him something. I take the two new feathers from my pocket.
“The Pythia said that instead of her, I could choose to speak with a seer from my Mexica bloodline. I didn’t even know one existed, and I wanted out of Delphi, so I jumped at the chance.
But it was all an elaborate scheme. The gods of the realm want to know who the Mexica seer is, and I almost led them straight to her.
When I opened the door, the Pythia ran after me and tried to see into the door to report back to Apollo. ”
August frowns. “Why do the gods care?”
“Our people only have two remaining links to our deities. If the gods learn who they are…”
“They could kill every mortal and sever the connection,” he finishes.
I nod. “I think the Mexica gods would retaliate, which is why I think they’re too afraid to go that far. But killing the two links would be less of a risk.”
“Did the Aztec seer give you the tea?” he guesses.
Another nod.
He watches Koda breathing peacefully behind us. “I’m glad she did.”
“Anansi recognized the scent of something in it. When he locked you all out with that web, he asked me where I got the tea and who gave it to me.”
August’s blue eyes search mine.
This is the part I dread revealing. “Anansi said that Ogun would only champion you if I tell him.”
“Then I don’t want him as my champion.” He tosses a sea oat stem into the sand.
“You need him.”
“No I don’t,” he firmly says. “I don’t need him. And I’m serious. I don’t want him if that’s his price.”
My heart drops. “I think the champions will be more involved in the games than they have been in the trials. Things are still being decided now. Once they are, having a champion might save your life.”
“Only for so long. We all know how this will end.” August turns his gaze to the temple.
“If Brigid comes to the feast tonight, you should ask her to be your champion, August.”
He doesn’t immediately agree.
“We’re running out of time,” I add.
He nods once.
“August, I think it would be best if –”
“No.” He wraps an arm around my shoulders and pulls me against his side. “Whatever you’re about to say in a tone like that… It wouldn’t, Callalie.”
We sit together in silence, enjoying the salt air and watching the tides, until it’s time to get ready for the feast. It reminds me of the last quiet moments before battle, when you consider everything you’d like to say to the people you love but can’t.
Standing beside the bed where Koda still sleeps, I tie the third and fourth feathers into my damp hair as August finishes in the bathing room.