Page 100 of A Touch of Chaos

“Oh,everyone,” she assured him.

Dionysus sighed, rubbing the back of his neck. “Great.”

“If it helps, I expected you to faint,” she said.

“It doesn’t,” Dionysus said dryly.

She snickered.

“I came to see if you have any clothes I could borrow,” he said.

“We’re not really the same size, Dionysus.”

“ForAriadne,” he said. “She’s out of the labyrinth.”

Naia’s amusement withered. “Is she okay?”

“I think so,” he said. “She yells at me like she is.”

Naia frowned. “Did you ask her if she was okay?”

“No,” he said. “I didn’t exactly have a chance.”

He decided not to tell her about how Hades had also yelled at them.

Naia pursed her lips but said nothing. She disappeared into her room and came back with a bundle of clothes.

“She’s not all right, Dionysus,” said Naia.

“Then I guess she’ll tell her sister,” he said.

Naia leveled a hard look at him. “You care about her?”

“Do you really have to ask?”

“Then make sure she’s okay,” she said, shoving the bundle into his chest.

“Fine, I’ll ask,” he said. “But you know what she’s going to say? Just take me to my sister.”

“The point is, Dionysus, that you cared enough to ask.”

He was still thinking about Naia’s words as he wandered down the hall to Ariadne’s room. He knocked on the door, but there was no answer. He tried the handle, and it turned, but he hesitated to enter. Was this an invasion of privacy? She had to know he was coming to deliver her clothes, right?

The sheer amount of anxiety this gave him was absolutely absurd, yet he didn’t want to give Ariadne any more reason to be irritated with him.

He cracked the door.

“Ari,” he called into the room.

Again, there was no answer, and he assumed that meant she was still in the shower and it was safe to enter.

He slipped inside.

Her room was sparse, having only a small bed and desk. She hadn’t tried to make this a home, though Dionysus was not all that surprised. She hadn’t exactly come here willingly and had spent her early days trying to escape. She stayed now because she was in danger—because Theseus wanted her, though that did not seem to scare her as much as it should. She was willing to risk herself for others, even if they did not wish to be saved.

Her sister was a prime example. He wasn’t sure he’d ever tell her the truth of Phaedra’s rescue, which was that she had begged to stay.

“It will be worse for everyone if I leave,” she’d said.

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