Bonds of Hercules (Villains of Lore, #2)(60)

“What?”

“Achilles and Patro … want to take her from us.”

“What the fuck are you talking about?”

“Alexis,” Kharon said. “Let’s go.” He whirled around and headed down the hall.

I scowled and followed.

No one messed with our wife.





21


OMENS AND WARNINGS




ALEXIS: THE NEXT MORNING, ONE DAY UNTIL THE INITIATION MASSACRE

“Alexis?”

I woke up with a start.

A storm raged outside, making the morning unusually dark, as rain streaked drearily across the window. The hellhounds, Fluffy Jr., and Poco slept in a big pile on the floor.

The room was quiet except for a strange muffled rattling.

Helen and Charlie were absent, probably already at their morning class, but the rest of us had the day off from training because the initiation massacre was in one day.

“Alexis?” Ceres called.

Groggily, I pushed myself out of bed, wrapping a sleepy Nyx around my neck as I went into the adjoining room.

Ceres was sitting on the floor, chewing on a pen, her pink hair askew, surrounded by piles of ancient tomes.

She held up a blank page with a squiggly symbol on it. “Can you believe it?”

“Believe … what?”

She pointed to the two dots on the top of the symbol. “This umlaut! It’s an extremely rare configuration that is seldom seen in this ancient language. Yet here it is. Right in front of me all along. So obvious!”

“What l-language?” I asked, struggling to follow her words because she talked faster than anyone I’d ever known.

Wait, what does this have to do with getting your memory back?

Lavender eyes sharpened. “The words of predestination.”

A sense of foreboding slithered down my spine.

“I’ve seen this umlaut before,” Ceres said in a rush. “I remember—it was crucial, a rare moment of clarity. The pieces all fit together, and it made sense. It was clear. It’s never clear. And I realized that I’m on the right track. I have to be. Because … Guess which ancient Olympian House book I found this symbol in? Guess. Please guess. Guess. You must guess.”

She blinked up at me expectantly.

“Um.”

Ceres made me realize that I was a very low-energy person.

Wait, am I anemic?

“Guess a House,” she demanded. “Guess. You gotta guess. Just do it. Do it quickly.” She practically vibrated with excitement.

“The House of … Zeus?”

“You got it!” She slammed the page down and picked up a heavy tome, flipping through it. “I’m right, I know I am. The House of Zeus had something to do with your disappearance and my memory loss.”

She beamed at me.

“But it’s so satisfying because my memories are finally coming back. It’s Plato’s cave—I’m in the dark, then I’m turned to the light and suddenly I can see. Duh, right?”

“Sure?”

I felt stupid.

“This girl needs so much help,” Nyx hissed.

“Want to sit here while I read?” Ceres offered slowly, suddenly looking self-conscious. “It’s nice to have someone around.”

I nodded.

She nudged my shoulder as I sat down next to her on the floor. Her smile made me feel warm inside.

I’d never had a girlfriend. Now I had her and Helen.

A few hours later, there was a ringing in my bad ear and a cramp in my lower back. Ceres was reading a book in silence.

With a groan, I stood up to leave.

“Alexis—” Ceres grabbed my arm to stop me and I startled. Her lavender eyes were shockingly bright. “Have you seen this symbol before? It matters tonight.” She ripped a page out of her book and held it up to me.

The cream-colored page had a single drawing on it.

The symbol was extremely crude. It was a straight line with a circle at the top, and a squiggle over the line, with two puffy clouds floating on either side of it.



I squinted. It looked familiar, but I couldn’t place it.

“Maybe … I’m not sure,” I said, confused what was going on. “What’s tonight?”

She tilted her head and stared like she was studying me, uncharacteristically silent.

“Ceres … Wh-why?” I repeated, feeling increasingly awkward.

In a flash of movement, she crinkled up the piece of paper and threw it aside. She turned back to her book and resumed reading like nothing had happened.

“Uh—Ceres,” I said, “why did you j-just crumple up that symbol? What do you mean it matters tonight? What were you—”

“What, Alexis?” She smiled. “Sorry, I’ve been lost in thought while reading.”

“The symbol you just showed me,” I whispered, deeply unsettled. “What was it?”

“The umlaut?” Ceres asked.

I reached down and picked up the wrinkled piece of paper and did a double take—the page was blank.

“I think that was just scrap paper.” Ceres went still. “Wait—Alexis, can you see something on it?”

I stared at the empty page, feeling sick.

“No, n-not anymore. I swear it just had a …” I shook my head. “Never mind. I must be tired. Sometimes when I’m exhausted, I imagine a man is watching me sleep. My mind runs away from—”