Page 192 of Blood of Hercules
I choked on the pastry I was shoving down my throat.
I wouldn’t say “strong” was an apt descriptor.
Helen respectfully averted her gaze as I hacked, and waved her hands in the air.
“Keep up the great work,” she said. “Maybe we’ll see each other around. That will be sofun. I swear there’re like no women in all of Sparta—especially not younger like us. Ya know?” Nodding, I grunted in agreement, even though I didn’t know.
Anything.
At this point, I was 50 percent convinced I was hungry in acardboard box, lucid dreaming about Sparta. Everything seemed surreal, and it was getting more extreme by the minute.
Helen stepped closer. “It’s crazy! There’s especially no young Chthonic women. I’m the only one. It sucks. The Great War killing all the Chthonics really was terrible for dating and friendships—especially since the Chthonic men can besostifling. You’ve met Augustus, you know what I mean.”
You mean the fact that he’s the rudest, most belligerent man on earth?
I nodded at her, dumbstruck.
She was the most normal Spartan I’d met yet.
“Well.” Helen shrugged dismissively. “At least Chthonics are strong, and we’ve really banded together, everyone’s super protective of each other. It’s kind of nice, if you get past all the blustering and broodiness.”
I think she’s confusing psychosis for protectiveness. Poor thing.
Helen must have misread the horror in my expression, because she patted my arm. “Don’t worry—you’re not a weak Olympian like the rest of them... I can tell from the way you carry yourself—you remind me of my brother. You’re strong like a Chthonic.”
“Thanks?” I said.
Your brother terrifies me, so that’s alarming.
Unaware of my panic, Helen shuffled out of the kitchen with a glass of water in her hand. “Just keep up the mental strength,” she yelled from the hall. “Stay mentally calm. That’s def the key.”
My eye twitched.
The key wasdefkilling myself before I had to go back.
But I loved her fighting spirit.
In my peripheral vision, the unrolled scroll proclaimed Kharon’s betrothal and showcased my bad hair day. I frowned as Titus’s words came back to me.
Spitefully, I grabbed more food off the counter and shoved it all in my mouth at once.
Back in my room, I angrily picked up a pillow and drop-kicked itacross the room. Screaming through gritted teeth, I fell face forward onto the bed, then pummeled the mattress with my fists.
It helped marginally (not at all).
Helen would not have been impressed.
As I lay on the bed impersonating a cadaver, two voices whispered in the corner of my room.
No.
Absolutely not.
NO!
I was not doing this.
Throwing myself off the bed, I stalked over to the corner and pointed at the chair. “I don’t know whoyou are,” I said to the voices. “Or why you’re constantly whispering and following me around, but I’ve had it. Knock it off!” I made anxwith my hands.
