Page 96 of Until the End of Ever
“Wet,” Gideon added, ever so helpful. “Definitely wet.”
“At first, I felt freezing cold, and it was dark. Then I was in open water, swimming leisurely. There were great sharks, orcas, and I’m pretty sure something with giant tentacles too, but they were chill.”
“Swimming around us like we weren’t even there!” Lucky said. “Which we weren’t.”
“So, Poseidon?” Ronan guessed.
“Poseidon.” I nodded. “He was?—”
“Sofriendly,” Kleos gushed.
I scoffed. “To you, certainly.”
I groaned, getting to my feet. I had no way of guessing how much time had passed. Hours? Days? Minutes? The maelstrom between Scylla and Charybdis could have lasted an entire lifetime. My body felt stiff, my legs locking beneath me.
A quickkronubeatustold me it was ten in the evening—onSunday. We must have started around that time Friday, so our trip had lasted two entire days.
“Don’t move too fast, you’ll feel faint.” I sent the house rune to fetch the appropriate restorative potions. “We need food, water. First, we’ll need some of this.”
A blueish rune returned shortly with a flask filled with a bloodred potion. I levitated glasses to us and divided the contents between the six of them. It wasn’t enough to completely heal full-grown adults—except perhaps Silver—but we’d handle the rest with actual sustenance.
“Oh, you’re not kidding,” Kleos whimpered, attempting to get to her feet, and ending up on all fours instead. “You know what, I’m good right here.”
Silver was the only one of us who didn’t seem to have gained the body of an hexagenerian over the last forty-something hours.
“The potions should take effect in the next few minutes,” I assured them. “But I’m not certain it’ll do much for atrophied muscles.”
“I could help,” Kleos offered. “But you’d have to come to me.”
“Only if you’re sure. You’re not at full power either.”
“I feel like a grandma, yes, but I’ve never been stronger. I haven’t drained my power in ages.” She held her palms up toward me, and I eagerly complied, though each step was torture. Bending down to her face, I pressed my lips to hers. It was automatic, done without a single conscious thought.
Her arms wrapped around my shoulders, as her golden magic coursed through my flesh, taking away all aches. She was a miracle.
I lifted her up and brought her in turn to all of our friends, starting with Lucky, and saving Silver for last as she seemed unaffected.
“I would like to formally propose,” Ronan told her as she worked on him.
I kicked him none too gently. “Mine.”
“I don’t see a signet ring on it,” he countered.
I kicked him harder, making Kleos laugh. “Don’t worry, I make it my policy to refuse any proposal after baked goods or healing. That wouldn’t be ethical.”
“Your policy ought to be refusing any and all proposals unless they come from me,” I shot back. “Let’s get you into a bath, yes?”
She’d shared she couldn’t heal herself as well as others and most of our symptoms seemed to be aches due to a lack of movement. Shifting Kleos to one of my arms, I summoned more potions and poured them in the water.
“How can you carry me for so long like I weigh nothing at all?”
“Because you weigh nothing at all,” I replied. She must be under a hundred and forty pounds.
Like her, I hadn’t drained my own magic recently—even without accounting for the two days we lost. I remained at full power, firstly, because I never had to worry about draining Kleos, and she was the only person I cared to touch these days, and secondly, because I wanted to be prepared in case of an emergency. It was only a matter of time until the person behind the dark rune ritual struck again. Especially after learning that person was acting on behalf of Zeus. Something told me they had no intention of disappointing the king of Olympian gods.
My mind on everything revealed today, I asked the question that had popped into my mind at the end of our underwater chat. “So what did you offer him?” When she frowned, confused, I specified. “Poseidon. He said he expected something from you every month.”
I didn’t like that at all. The only person who should have deals with Kleos was me. Which was highly hypocritical, given how many deals I had in place, but I never claimed to be fair.
