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Thalia
Thalia had gotten Alex into the house, but the waiting nearly drove her back out again. She crossed her arms and stared out the window. Maybe if she lit a fire and made some kind of offering it would help speed things along. Or maybe if Alex would stop harassing her about Pirithous it would make it easier to sit safe inside. Pirithous was risking his life for Nikki, for Alex, for her, and all her brother could do was shout about how she had invited a so-called nutjob into their house.
“He’s perfectly sane, Alex.” But she was going to lose both her mind and her temper if he didn’t stop.
“He ran off into the woods with a sword, Thalia.”
She sighed, rubbing her forehead. “You’re going to feel like a real jerk when he gets back with Nikki and she tells you what happened to her.”
“Nikki thinks he’s lost his mind, too.”
“Nikki is going to owe him her life!” She spun away from the window to glare at her brother where he stood behind the kitchen counter, slicing a lime for a gin and tonic. “I swear to God, Alex, if he gets hurt—”
“What?” He demanded, slamming his knife tip first into the cutting board so hard it stuck upright. “You’re going to hold it against me if he gets hurt hunting his mythical enemies?”
She pressed her lips together, biting back a rude response. It wasn’t Alex’s fault that the centaurs were in the woods, and it wasn’t Alex’s fault that Nikki had been stolen. Pirithous would blame himself for that much. Not that it was his fault, either.
“I know it’s a lot to take in,” she said carefully. Alex snorted and tore the knife out of the wood. “I didn’t want to believe any of it either. But Pirithous is what he says he is, and you’re just going to have to come to terms with the fact that he’s going to be sticking around.”
He laughed, brushing the lime slices into a bowl. “You’ve known him for less than a week. You can’t really be serious about whatever this relationship is you have together.”
“Don’t you dare treat me like I don’t know my own mind. I’m in love with him, Alex! If you had any idea how hard it was for me to get to this point, to even be able to acknowledge it myself, never mind convince him that we have a shot, you would shut up and congratulate me for finally meeting someone I want to think about a future with.”
“Generally it isn’t a good sign if you have to twist his arm,” he said dryly.
She grabbed the napkin holder off the table and pitched it at his head. Alex ducked and the wood bounced off the refrigerator before cracking against the tile floor.
“For God’s sake, Thalia!”
“You have no idea what I’ve been through,” she rasped, her throat thick and her eyes blurred. “No idea at all what he’s suffered.”
“And you do?”
“I know that he’s the kind of man who goes off into the woods to rescue someone else’s fiancée. I know he loves me, and he’ll never hurt me, and if I hadn’t made him swear a vow he’d be even more overprotective and obnoxious than you are.”
“He also thinks he’s the son of Zeus from three thousand years ago!”
“He only thinks it because it’s true,” she said. “And when he comes back dragging the carcass of a centaur, are you still going to doubt him?”
“Thalia, you said yourself you haven’t seen these supposed centaurs.” He kept his voice low, but she could tell it wasn’t easy for him, to pretend to be reasonable. “How do you know he isn’t just taking you for a ride with all this?”
“Have you ever seen a man bend steel with his bare hands?”
“No, but—”
“But nothing,” she said. “Pirithous is the real thing. Beside which, it isn’t as though he can shoot himself in the shoulder, and the arrow I pulled out of him was undeniably homemade by something, so either we’ve been transported back in time or there are half-horse, half-man creatures running around out there, and either way the fact that Nikki disappeared doesn’t bode well for her.”
“Neither does a delusional LARPer running around in the woods with a sword.”
“That delusional LARPer is my fiancé.”
“That’s enough, Thalia!”
“Because you say so?” She rolled her eyes, turning back to the window. The trees were still, and it was well after noon, now. Pirithous had been gone for at least two hours.
“Damn right I say so. And if you think I’m going to let you marry some unhinged hitchhiker you picked up off the side of the road, you’ve lost what wits you had to begin with.”
“I’d like to see you try to stop me. Or him.” Something moved and she leaned forward, her palm pressed against the warm glass.
“What is it?” Alex joined her almost immediately.
“I thought I saw—” Black hair littered with dead leaves and twigs, Nikki lurched out of the trees. Her face was streaked with tears and dirt. “Nikki!”
But Alex was already charging outside and down the stairs, calling her name. Thalia raced after him, searching the trees. Pirithous couldn’t be far behind her.
“Pirithous!” She stopped at the tree line, waiting, listening for the crash of movement through the trees even knowing he wouldn’t make nearly as much noise as he should.
“The male,” Nikki gasped between sobs behind her. “He had a club. Pirithous killed the female but then her mate ran him down.” Thalia spun. Nikki was gripping Alex’s shirt at the waist, her eyes wild. Thalia’s stomach twisted, fear pumping hard through her heart. “He told me to run so I ran but he didn’t follow, and I heard this awful thud. I wasn’t even sure this was the right way!”
“It’s all right,” Alex murmured. “You’re all right. You made it.”
“But they have Pirithous.”
“It doesn’t matter,” Alex said, stroking her hair. “All that matters is that you’re safe.”
“We can’t just leave him,” Thalia said. “Alex, he just risked his life for her.”
“How do I know he didn’t set all this up to begin with?” Alex asked, his eyes hard.
“Alex,” Nikki pleaded. “He saved my life.”
“Only after he put it in danger,” Alex countered.
“You can’t be serious,” Thalia said, staring at her brother. “You can’t really think that he would do that.”
“A man who thinks he’s the son of Zeus?” Alex scoffed. “You bet I can believe it. And if you weren’t so deep in lust with him, you’d see it too.”
Nikki shook her head. “You didn’t see them, Alex. They were—they were centaurs! Honest to God, living breathing monsters, with the heads and torsos of humans and legs and bodies of horses. The female had a bow and arrow and look.” She held up a roughly fashioned rope tied tight around her neck. “They said they were going to kill me. They were going to wait until he showed up and take me apart piece by piece.”
Thalia’s hands closed into fists. Pirithous! After everything, to lose him this way. No. She wasn’t going to let it happen. She’d call Josh. He had a rifle. If she had to steal it from him, she would, because she sure as hell wasn’t going to stand around and let Pirithous rot in the woods. Every minute they waited, Pirithous could be that much closer to dead.
“Where are you going?” Alex called after her.
“If you don’t want to help him, fine, but I am.” She ran up the stairs and slammed the door behind her.
He’d promised he would come back. He’d promised he would live.
She was going to make sure he kept his word.
***
JOSH HAD SAID NO, OF course. Thalia cursed him loud and long while she pulled bottles from the wine rack, checking labels. Now that Alex was back in town, Josh wouldn’t dare be seen anywhere near her.
“What if he finds out you spent the night at my place?”
She swore again at the memory. If he thought he was winning himself any favors by catering to Alex, he was wrong. Like she was going to be interested in someone who wouldn’t even show his face as her friend while her brother was around? Pirithous hadn’t even been willing to hide in her room for ten minutes instead of meeting Alex, and there hadn’t been any question about exactly how they had been spending their nights together.
Someone should have tagged these. And damn Alex to hell, too! All these bottles were dime a dozen, worthless for what she needed. If she wanted help, she needed good wine, at the very least, and she absolutely hadn’t ruled out blood yet either. Pirithous had been clear about what his gods preferred. Blood and wine, fat and bones. Would they accept gold in place of animal products?
She fingered the cross at her throat. God help her. It had to be an unforgivable sin to throw a cross into a fire in sacrifice to another god, even to consider it...
Lord God, forgive me. Grant us both your protection, but especially Pirithous.
She had no idea what shape he was in. Nikki had seen him knocked out—or at least heard him knocked out. Would the centaur kill him? He couldn’t be dead already. She wouldn’t believe it. He had to be alive. Pirithous had said something about revenge, and Nikki had said they wanted to make him watch her suffer. But now that his mate was dead, did that change things?
She found it. One of the rare vintages from her father’s collection. It was worth at least a couple thousand dollars and Alex would have a fit if he realized what she meant to do with it. She tucked it under her arm, hiding the label and pulled out another bottle to slide into its place.
“What are you doing?” Nikki asked. Thalia hadn’t heard her come down the stairs. She glanced over her shoulder, putting the second bottle into the empty slot, hopefully in a convincing enough display that Nikki would believe it belonged there. She didn’t have time to fight with either of them about wasting expensive wine.
“Does it matter?”
“He saved my life, Thalia. More than just my life.”
She chewed on her lip, staring at the wine. “Alex can’t be serious about letting you help.”
“I don’t need Alex’s permission to do what’s right. I’m not going to let a man die because your brother can’t believe anything he hasn’t seen with his own eyes!”
“Can you?” She turned to Nikki. “There are centaurs, you saw them, but do you understand what else is out there? Pirithous doesn’t just call himself the son of Zeus for the fun of it.”
Her face was white but for the blue shadow of a bruise beginning to blossom across her cheek and the red irritation at her throat where the rope had cut into her skin. “I’ve never seen anyone move the way he did. And his eyes burned completely white. If he wants to call himself the son of a god, I’m not going to fight with him about it. But if that beast has him, it’s only a matter of time. He could be dead already.”
“He isn’t.” Thalia gripped the neck of the wine bottle and brushed past her to the stairs. “He isn’t any use to anyone dead. He can’t suffer dead, he can’t pray, he can’t convert people or build temples. He has to survive. I’m going to make sure he does.”
“You didn’t see the centaurs. They’re huge and all they could talk about was hurting him.”
“Then he’ll take his time killing Pirithous, won’t he?” She ran up the stairs, cradling the bottle against her side. If thousands of dollars worth of wine didn’t get a response, then she’d try the blood.
Nikki followed her. “You can’t just run after him and expect to crack a wine bottle over the centaur’s head.”
“Good idea.” After she emptied it into the fire. Thalia grabbed the matches, then rummaged through the kitchen drawer for the corkscrew.
“Thalia!” Alex was in the way, his arms crossed. “Where do you think you’re going?”
“Outside.” She glared at him. “I already told you, I’m going to help him.”
“He said you should stay in the house.”
“Pirithous says a lot of things. Under the circumstances, I think he’ll get over it.”
“I’m not going to let you be kidnapped too.”
She rolled her eyes. “I’m not allowed to be taken hostage in the woods, but Pirithous is?”
“We’ll call the police and report him missing,” Alex said. “They can go find him.”
“No.” Once they found him, then what? No identification. No citizenship. No legal status. No. Absolutely not, but she didn’t dare share any of those concerns with Alex. “I’m not going to let a police officer get jumped by a centaur in the woods. You can forget it.”
“I’m not letting you leave.”
She gave him a long look. Alex was big, and he knew how to throw a punch, but she wasn’t just going to back down meekly and go to her room because he said so. She had to make the offering and dumping the wine down the drain wasn’t going to accomplish the same thing as burning it.
Thalia tapped the box of matches against her thigh. “Are you going to hurt me, Alex?”
“Of course not.”
“Then I suggest you get out of my way, because if you start this, I will hurt you.”
“Alex,” Nikki’s voice was soft, warning. His gaze shifted over Thalia’s shoulder, his jaw tightening. “He needs help. We don’t have time to wait for the police. And they can’t do anything anyway except get themselves hurt, too, when and if they bother to start a search.”
“You can’t honestly tell me you believe in any of this nonsense,” Alex said, staring at Nikki.
Thalia dodged past him, making for the back door. Nikki grabbed him by the arm before he could turn, slowing him down, and Thalia skipped down the steps toward the fire pit, wine, matches, and corkscrew in hand. She grabbed the newspaper, firewood, and lighter fluid and dumped it all in the pit as she glanced over her shoulder at the house. Nothing but shadows in the windows. Who knew how long Nikki would be able to keep Alex out of her business. Long enough, one way or the other.
“Lord God, forgive me,” she murmured, building the fire. She fumbled the matches, nearly dropping the box in a puddle of lighter fluid before she managed to light one and the newspaper caught. “Please, please, please.”
And why wasn’t she praying to her own god for Pirithous’s salvation? She bit her lip and stepped back, fighting with the corkscrew. God, please, I beg of you, forgive me, and protect him. Protect us both!
The cork popped free and she stepped back from the fire, staring at the bottle in her hands. Once she made this offering, was there any going back? But who knew how long Pirithous had left. She didn’t have time to fear for her own soul while he was fighting for his life, and after everything he had done—he wouldn’t have hesitated for a moment to make any sacrifice for her, even if it cost his soul. He hadn’t hesitated to sacrifice himself for Nikki, and she certainly hadn’t deserved his help after the way she’d treated him before.
“Persephone, accept this offering,” she said, needing to clear her throat before going on. “Remember your promise to Pirithous and keep him safe. Please! He’s done everything that you asked!”
She poured the wine into the fire, and the flames blossomed deep red. Pomegranate red.
“Thalia!” Alex shouted from the deck, startling her into dropping the bottle into the fire, too. She swore. She’d hoped to keep it to throw at the centaur’s head, but it would be too hot to grab for now. “What are you doing?”
“None of your business,” she said, then made for the tree line. The stone she’d had delivered would do just as well for a weapon, if she could find something light enough to throw. Or maybe just a heavy branch. There were rocks in the stream, she was sure. The perfect size to pelt at someone.
It didn’t matter. She couldn’t let him rot in the woods any longer. Something would come to hand along the way, and if it didn’t, then so be it. She’d scratch out the centaur’s eyes if she had to. Pirithous wasn’t going to die for her. Not today, and not ever if she had anything to say about it.
“Thalia, wait!” Nikki was tripping down the stairs, her hands full of something—fire irons? “Here! At least take this. He had a club the size of a small tree.”
She accepted the poker, the black iron heavy in her hand, and took a steadying breath. “Thanks.”
“Well, one of us has to think of these things,” Nikki said softly. “I only wish your family kept guns.”
“You and me both.”
Alex scowled at Nikki, taking the rest of the irons from her arms. “You shouldn’t be carrying those.”
“And you shouldn’t be leaving your sister to go into the woods alone.” Thalia had never heard Nikki use so sharp a tone with Alexandros. “Those monsters could have killed us both, Alex! You’re lucky they were waiting for Pirithous before they made good on their threats, and you’re even luckier that he thought to come for me at all.”
Alex’s jaw worked, clenching and unclenching. But Thalia didn’t have time to listen to any more.
“Get inside, Nikki,” Thalia told her. “You should be safe now, if there’s just the one left, holding him. But I’d rather not take any more risks.”
To her credit, Nikki didn’t argue. Thalia waited until she reached the stairs, Alex still standing there, glaring with the irons at his feet, and then she left her brother and her best friend, and marched into the trees.