Page 27 of Marginally Yours
"The water? What water?" Her panicked face is about to send me into my own spiral.
"I don't know, it was just water on the floor of the cave. Is that bad?"
"It wasn't like... glowing or anything, right? Just water?"
"I don't think so," I tell her, questioning my own memory now. "Pretty sure it was just water."
She sighs in relief. "Okay, good. I don't know what would happen if they dropped you in the Styx. I don't think you'd have ended up back here, though."
“The… Styx?” It sounds familiar but I can’t remember why that would be bad exactly.
“The Styx is the river you cross to get to the underworld,” she explains. “I mean, it made Achilles invulnerable but he was a demigod so I have no idea what it would have done to you.” While my brain buffers from that particular nugget of information, Callie settles back into bed.
“Anyway, it was probably just a dream,” she continues, but she doesn’t sound as convincing as she thinks she does. She drags me back down by my shoulder and curls up into my side, pulling the comforter up over us both. With her arm across my chest, legs tangled in mine, my body finally releases all the tension and it's not long before I'm out again.
Chapter Eighteen
Iwake the next morning with my stomach in knots, despite Callie's usually calming presence at my side. She stirs shortly after I do, snuggling closer into my side. I bury my face in her hair and squeeze her tighter to me with a sigh.
As much as I'd like to pull the covers over us both and stay here forever, we've got shit to do. I press a kiss to her forehead and slip out of bed.
She comes out to the kitchen just as I set coffee and eggs on the table. We eat in silence, and I can feel the tension emanating off of her from across the table. She’s building up the courage to say something, so I stay quiet and let her. Halfway through her second cup, she finally turns to me fully and takes a deep breath, sucking in all the air in the room with it.
“If something happens today,” she begins, sitting on her hands to hide the shaking. “I… please don’t be a hero.”
“Hey, didn’t we already cover this?” I keep my voice as light as I can, hoping I can ease her nerves. “I’m in it to win it, baby.” I stretch my arm out across the table, palm up, andwait. She huffs out a tiny laugh and lays a trembling hand in mine,
“Ok, but seriously. If something… ifanythinghappens to me, promise me that you won’t get yourself killed over it. Just run, hide, whatever. Don’t try and follow me down.”
“I won’t,” I promise, lying through my teeth. I can tell she’s got something up her sleeve, and I’m trying to trust her, but I’m not letting her throw herself to the wolves alone. “But only if you promise not to go where I can’t follow.” I finish my coffee in one gulp and wink at her over my cup. She scowls at me, but it loses all its bite when she tips her head down, giving me a predatory gaze through her lashes. Suddenly, I know exactly how to ease those nerves.
I stand and round the table, eyes locked on hers. I lean down to wrap my palms around the backs of her knees and haul her up against me. She loops her arms around my neck, and her lips find mine. I walk us toward the kitchen and prop her up on the counter, releasing her knees to step in between them.
“I promise,” she lies, because how could she promise that? But now is not the time, and currently the right place is on my knees, so I bite down my protests and settle in for second breakfast.
Hours later, we're ready to meet Apollo again. Well, as ready as we can be.
"Don't forget," she stresses as we walk to the car. "Stick to the plan. Do. Not. Deviate." She punctuates her words with quick little claps that would be significantly more adorable if we weren't potentially headed to our deaths. "Do not go rogue. Do not improvise. Do not pass go, do not collect two hundred dollars. Stick to the plan."
She morphed our clothes into a new set of matching outfits. Today's theme is forest green, apparently. My suit looks relatively the same, but her dress today is testing myself-control. It's dark green silk, cut low in the front and lower in the back. The mesh straps hang off both shoulders, and there are slits up both thighs that reach dangerous heights.
When I don't respond, she stops walking to pin me with a glare. She plants one hand on her hip, and the position separates the fabric all the way up, straining it against her thigh. My eyes zero in on the bare skin, the faint bruises already forming from my fingertips this morning.
Suddenly, my suit is uncomfortably tight.
I drag my gaze back up to hers and nod. "Got it," I confirm, and her face softens. "Stick to the plan." She lays a hand on my cheek, and I lean down to meet her lips with mine, pulling her into me with a hand on her back.
"I promise, I got it," I assure her. "Come on, troublemaker. Let's go piss off a god."
The drive to the park is quiet, her hand resting on mine over the shifter. When we walk up to the gazebo, Apollo is already seated on the same bench in the same spotless suit. He scrolls through his phone again, clearly bored with this waste of his precious time that he insisted on in the first place. He doesn't even look up as we approach.
The plan is to appeal to his mercy, appear pathetic, make him lose interest in us, and go home safely to plot another day. Unfortunately, I simply cannot be trusted to keep my cool around this asshole. The way he looks at Callie, like she's an object that he can possess or some peon that he can command, makes my blood boil.
So really, the most important part of this plan is that I keep my hot-headed mouth shut.
I wasn't like this before her. I was calm, always level-headed. I never spoke out against anything or made any waves. Not because I was afraid to, but simply because I didn'tcare. I don't know when I went from living to simply existing or if itwas a gradual degradation, but I was just barely floating through my life until she dropped into it.
Icarenow. I care abouther,and caring about her woke up all of those dormant parts of myself that I had forgotten about. Not just the writing, either. I'm excited to wake up now that it means waking up next to her. As much as I love hiding from the world in my apartment with her, I want to take her out to fun places and experience the world together. I want to eat at fancy restaurants and walk through holiday displays with her while she marvels at all the decorations.
