Chapter 18 I Bond with Clarisse by Trying to Kill Her #3
I don’t know why I felt so angry. Maybe it was the residual influence of the ring, or the stress of holding my own awful secrets.
But it irritated me that she was being so elusive about what she knew.
I didn’t like the way she’d left Harper and me in the infirmary, or the way she kept disappearing to do her own thing, whatever her “own thing” was.
“Hey, ‘healer,’ ” I snarled, “didn’t you take an oath to do no harm? Because that’s the most hurtful garbage I’ve heard come out of your mouth.”
Zuri looked like I’d slapped her, but her expression quickly hardened. “The Hippocratic oath only applies to doctors, which, as you have seen, I’m not. And would you rather I lie to you, like you’ve been doing to us?”
I recoiled. “Lying to you? About what?”
“Why are we just now getting all this information?” Zuri asked. “You told Clarisse about the ring before you told us!”
I rolled my eyes. “Okay, so it’s not about lying. You’re just upset because I’m not giving you minute-by-minute updates.”
Benny stepped in. “Katie, if we’re going to be risking our lives here, it’s kind of important we trust one another. You could have mentioned the ring last night, when I asked if anyone had any other secrets. Or today at breakfast. Or when you saw me at the camp store.”
“Or when you saw me in the infirmary,” Zuri said. She clapped her hands to punctuate her words. “You. Had. Chances.”
I didn’t like the sound of my own laugh. It sounded…cruel. “I’m sorry, weren’t you a little busy trying to kill Harper in the infirmary?”
Zuri’s mouth dropped open. Then she lunged at me. I raised my fists for some Ares vs. Apollo action. Benny and Harper pulled us apart.
“How dare you, Katie!” Zuri’s eyes glistened with tears. “You know how bad I felt about that! I was distracted. Being in the infirmary makes me think of someone…important. Someone I care about.”
“And you know how much I care about Silas and Grant!” I shot back. “But your response is”—I raised my voice an octave and assumed my most sassy expression—“They’re probably dead. Oh well!”
Zuri growled. Her skin began to glow.
“O-kay!” Harper laughed a little too hard. “Katie, that was an excellent impression of Zuri. And Zuri, that was an excellent impression of the sun. But maybe we should all calm down.”
His words settled over me like a warm quilt. In spite of myself, my muscles began to relax.
Zuri and I still stood our ground, glaring at each other, but her glow faded. I wasn’t sure if Harper was charmspeaking us, or if this was something else, but my anger started to ebb, backwashing into other emotions—shame, guilt.
What in Tartarus was wrong with me?
“Aaand let’s take a step back now,” Harper said, doing his best to keep his tone light. When Zuri didn’t move, he gently put his hands on my shoulders and steered me away from her.
“Why are you making me step back?” I grumbled.
“Because if I put my hands on Zuri, I’ll need new ones,” Harper said.
I couldn’t argue with that. I tugged off my fireproof gear, threw it to the floor, and then paced the far end of the kitchen like a caged tiger.
I didn’t trust myself to speak. I feared I would disintegrate into tears.
I liked Zuri. Why had I hurt her? I wanted to throw the ring into the lava like Harper had suggested, but I worried that the ring wasn’t the problem.
“Look,” Benny said evenly, “you both make good points. Zuri, that comment about Silas and Grant wasn’t helpful or kind.”
Zuri continued to glare, but her shoulders sagged a little.
Benny turned to me. “And, Katie, same goes for you and that dig about Zuri almost killing Harper. She was trying her best at something she’d rather not do. Haven’t you ever been put in that position?”
I stopped pacing and stared at the floor.
“We’re all clearly dealing with our own problems,” Benny continued. “That doesn’t mean we have to create new ones with one another. Right now, everyone else sees us not just as newbies, but as outsiders.”
I wrung my hands. “Would it make you feel better to know Clarisse offered to help?”
“Aw.” Harper tilted his head and pasted on a syrupy smile. “It really wouldn’t.”
“Yeah, she’s the worst,” Zuri said, curling her lip.
Benny gestured toward Harper and Zuri as if sharing their opinion. “So, until the people we actually trust are willing to trust us, we need one another.”
Harper rested a hand on Benny’s shoulder in silent agreement. Pain flickered across his features.
Zuri took a deep breath. “I’m not saying this to start more trouble, but since we brought this up a couple of nights ago…is it possible Grant and Silas really were taken because of that ring? Like…removing it stirred up the monster, somehow?”
I chewed my bottom lip. “Maybe. If we put the ring back…?”
She tapped the side of her head. “That’s what I was thinking.”
I stared at her, surprised we were suddenly back on the same side.
“We can solve this.” I tried to recapture some of the confidence I’d felt when I fought Clarisse. “It has to be us.”
One at a time, I looked at the other newbies. To my surprise, they all nodded.
“All right, then,” Benny said. “Tonight, after curfew, we all go back to the Wild Zone.”