Chapter 21
Apollo sleepsfor three full days and nights, during which time my dad has a complete breakdown and has to have his brothers put him back together again. His sister, my Aunt Demmy, sends the biggest bouquet of flowers I’ve ever seen to the hospital with a handwritten letter that reads I AM VISITING THE MOMENT YOU RETURN TO THE STATES. YES, THIS IS A THREAT. The bouquet is so outrageous that a group of nurses is able to re-plant it on the lawn. My mom is thoroughly tended to by Aunt Persephone and Aunt Ashley, and in no time at all, Poseidon is back to teasing my dad relentlessly.
I think that’s what helps the most, honestly, because Poseidon teasing is a sign that everything’s going to be okay.
Delphi stays in Germany, too, and spends most of her time in Apollo’s hospital room, perched near the window. She mostly plays her guitar and hums.
“No new lyrics?” I ask on the second afternoon. Apollo always talks about the songs she writes at the office, so I expected more ballads and less humming.
“No songs with words,” she says. “That was too close for comfort.”
“What was too close for comfort?”
Delphi gives me a serious look. “You don’t want to know.”
Then she goes back to playing a song that sounds like…a familiar place. Like waking up in bed next to somebody you love. It sounds like wedding bells and a moonstone rings and chasing each other through the forest, trying your best not to laugh and laughing anyway, even if it’s a dead giveaway.
While Apollo sleeps, I do plenty of my own crying. I wish none of those things had ever happened to him. I cry about it as quietly as I can, because I don’t want to wake him, but I’m not leaving his side again for a long time. Maybe not ever. I don’t know what the deal is with our bond—curse—whatever it is, but I’m not taking any chances. Can you blame me?
Yeah. I didn’t think so.
I know that dealing with all of this and the attendant fallout is going to take a long time. I know that when he wakes up, he won’t be over it, and I don’t expect him to be.
But I hope that he doesn’t feel like he has to carry it around like a shameful secret.
There’s nothing about him that’s shameful. Everything about him is bright as the sun, and it always has been.
He wakes up on the third day when Delphi’s in the middle of a melody that sounds like water burbling in a stream somewhere sunny and safe. A forest coming to life in the spring.
Apollo’s eyelids flicker, and then he opens his eyes and looks at me. My heart pounds.
I’m never going to get used to him.
“Dead or alive?” he asks, his voice rough with sleep.
“Alive,” I answer.
He smiles. “Engaged or not engaged?”
“Engaged.” I hold up my ring and let him catch my hand out of the air. He brings it to his chest.
“Germany?” he asks. “Or home?”
“Definitely Germany,” I tell him. “And we’re probably going to be here for a while. You’re officially on vacation. Everybody’s still here, too, so you might’ve been signed up for a family reunion. Uncle Hades already rented a castle.”
“No.” Apollo looks skeptical. “If he did anything, he bought it.”
“Yeah. You’re right. He did.”
Apollo laughs, and my whole heart sings with the sound. “We’re sharing a room. I don’t care what anyone thinks.”
“How about we share a whole life?” I lean down and kiss his temple. “We could do a marriage on each other, if that sounds good to you.”
“It sounds perfect.” Apollo leans up and kisses me, and I fall gracelessly on top of him. He catches my weight without so much as a grunt. He really is getting better.
“Love birds!” Delphi does a loud, triumphant strum on her guitar. “What a gorgeous happy ending.”