Page 60 of Salt & Blood

Mona drew closer to him, and he wrapped his arm around her, tucking her against his chest.

After the witches returned to their human forms, they set off through the jungle. Marina and her sisters led the way, as they knew the area the best. Mona lingered behind the others, lost in her thoughts. She wasn’t eager to speak to anyone, and Evander seemed to sense this about her. He kept his hand clasped in hers as they walked in companionable silence. Thankfully, Marina and Romanos were able to fill Farah and the other witches in on what had transpired with King Midas. Farah seemed alarmed but not at all surprised that a hydra had made its way into Midas’s domain.

“It was only a matter of time,” said the coven leader as they made their way through the ruins of the village of Sodara. “Between the two realms the darkness has already ravaged, there is only one left that still has anything of value to these creatures.”

“Not to mention Midas’s powers,” Wren pointed out. “He’s been hiding under the cover of a coven of earth witches, but now he’s been discovered. More will be coming for him.”

“Midas can handle himself,” Farah said with a wave of her hand. “He has had far more training than the rest of us.”

The rest of us.Mona frowned, and, before she could think better of it, she asked, “What do you mean by that?”

Several witches turned their heads to look at her.

“Midas is thousands of years old,” Farah said, arching an eyebrow in Mona’s direction. “He has had ample time to?—”

“Not that,” Mona interrupted. “What do you mean bythe rest of us? You speak as if he is one of you. A witch.”

Farah gave a single, slow blink. “Because he is.”

Mona’s brows lowered. “I don’t understand.”

“It is rare, but once every thousand years or so, a powerful male witch emerges,” Wren supplied. “In our case, it was Midas.”

Our case.“Are you—Are you saying Midas is afire witch?” Mona asked breathlessly, her head spinning with this revelation.

“He was, until Apollo cursed him,” said Farah.

“That was after Apollo gifted Midas the power of the sun,” Wren pointed out.

Mona shook her head, struggling to keep up. “So Apollo gave him his sun magic… but also cursed him?”

“Complicated, I know,” said Wren with a smirk.

“That’s nothing like the stories I was taught,” Mona muttered, feeling frustrated and a bit betrayed that all the texts she’d studied about the deities from before had been wrong about this.

“And why do you think that is?” Marina asked with a chuckle. “Those of us blessed with immortality have the ability to rewrite those stories as we wish. Midas did this intentionally. He did not want everyone to know what he was capable of, nor did he want to attract too much attention to his witch magic. Male witches are often quite powerful, but not all covens see that as a blessing.”

“Not to mention Midas knew the inner workings of spells like no other,” said Farah. “According to Hestia, he could manipulate enchantments in ways Apollo never could. Apollo was jealous, and he felt threatened by this.”

Mona fell silent at that, still frowning as she processed all this.

“I thought Midas was an alchemist,” Evander said in his soft, steady tone.

“He was, after Apollo granted him sun magic,” Farah said. “Then, the two worked alongside one another for hundreds of years. After Midas discovered the power to turn sun magic into liquid gold, Apollo wanted it for himself. He seized Midas’s research, cursed him, and banished him to the Realm of Gaia.”

Mona winced. Such a harsh sentence for someone who had done nothing wrong. “I wouldn’t be surprised ifApollohad rewritten those stories as well.”

“He has definitely rewritten a great deal,” Marina said darkly, sharing a knowing look with her sisters.

Mona looked at Evander and found the concern in his eyes matched her own. They were both thinking of Prue and Cyrus and how they were facing such a deceitful and devious god at this very moment.

Mona prayed to the Goddess that she wouldn’t be too late.

* * *

It took them less than a day’s journey to make it back to the Rhea Desert. The trek across the dunes felt like an eternity with the desert wind whipping Mona’s hair into her face and flinging dust particles in her eyes. Farah had lent her a scarf to cover her face, and she tightened it around herself. Despite the covering, the sand still managed to embed itself into every inch of her body.

Evander kept his hand locked on hers. Mona wasn’t sure if he’d released his grip on her at all during their journey. She was grateful for his strength; it grounded her, keeping her from spiraling into panic at the thought of how long it was taking her to get to Prue.

---