“Gods damn it!” Griffin explodes. He turns to his brothers. They must have arrived with him. “Piers! Get that healer.”
There’s only one healer among the guests, a solitary man who kept shooting Griffin and me dirty looks during dinner.
“I don’t know which room he’s in.” Piers hesitates. “He didn’t seem friendly.”
“I don’t care!” Griffin snarls. “Get him! Carver, go to the circus grounds. They’re back. Bring Selena here.”
They both leave immediately. If the circus is outside of Sinta City again, I know where Selena is. It’ll take an hour to get there and back. I don’t have that long. I’m surprisingly resistant to death, so I might have made it if I hadn’t been so worried about the blood and Andromeda tracing me to here. I never thought it would take so long for someone to find me. It was stupid to stay in the water. I hate Mother more than ever. She’s cost me everything. Again.
I shiver, my teeth rattling. “I’m cold.”
Griffin visibly pales. He picks me up and cradles me against his chest. His heat feels like a balm, but it’s not enough to warm me. Kato doesn’t take his hand off my wound. He’s up to his elbow in my blood and as white-faced as Griffin.
Flynn paces frantically before taking off at a run. “I think I know where a healer is!”
“Walk with me,” Griffin orders Kato. They leave the bathhouse with me sheltered between them, taking the side entrance to the castle and climbing the stairs. “How did you find her?”
“She was shouting in my head. I thought it was a dream, but it didn’t feel right, so I got Flynn up, and we went searching.”
Griffin’s arms tense around me. “You should have called me.”
Jealous? Even now? “Tried. Didn’t work.”
He glances down, looking even more stricken. “I should have done something about Daphne. I never thought…”
“Not your fault.” I wish I’d been more truthful with him, and not just about Daphne.
In our room, Griffin goes to lay me on the bed, but I rouse myself enough to protest. Whatever my blood touches will have to be destroyed. “Can’t burn the bed.” It’s the only place I’ve ever felt happy, and safe.
Kato grabs a blanket with his free hand and throws it on the thick sheepskin rug. Griffin sets me down without Kato ever taking the pressure off my stomach. Tears keep spilling from my eyes, silently falling. There are too many people to leave behind. There’s Griffin.
As I look at him, he moves to the side, and my gaze falls on the bowl of lemons. My eyes widen. What if I live? “Get the lemons. Wash the blood off with lemon juice.”
Griffin swings a near-frantic look on me. “That’s insane. That’ll hurt like the fires of the Underworld.”
I think we’ve already established that I’m not entirely sane, so I give him the best maniacal glare I can manage under the circumstances. “It’ll corrupt the blood. Confuse her magic. More effective than water.”
A muscle pounds in his jaw. His face turns thunderous. He still cuts open all ten lemons and squeezes the juice over Kato’s hand and my stomach. When the acid hits me, I scream like a child. I scream like the Minotaur is on my tail, and I just hit a dead-end in his maze. I scream for all I’m worth even after Griffin stops what he’s doing and curses violently, hurling the lemon rinds against the wall.
Griffin’s sisters and parents erupt into the room in their nightclothes, panicked.
“Cat!” Jocasta falls to her knees next to me. Trembling fingers brush wet hair off my neck and cheeks. She sniffs loudly and then bursts into tears. The second she starts crying, the other women do, too.
I blink leaden eyelids, wanting to keep looking at them. I have a family crying over me. What a strange idea. I hold on to that thought as I slip in and out of darkness. Eleni emerges from the shadows to greet me, a smile on her lips, blonde hair glowing, green eyes merry, a bottle of Fisan clover water in her hand. Has Hades sent her to collect me?
I guess not because she fades, and I wake up, limp and hurting. There’s a sheet covering my nakedness. Griffin is on his knees next to me, his head bowed, his beautiful, wide mouth moving on silent words, praying. I read Poseidon’s name on his lips.
Poseidon, I beg. Please take care of him.
Piers bursts through the doorway, two people in tow. “I found him! And another one! A girl.”
Griffin jumps to his feet. He grabs the man and drags him down next to me. “Heal her!”