Page 36 of The Shadow Gods

Pollux stared, then smiled, shaking his head. “There's room service. She needs to eat too.”

Shewas standing right here, but I understood what he was doing. They all seemed to do it when I was with one of them. Directing and commanding was their way of taking care of me when we weren't together. It was sweet, even if they tended to talk over me.

“We're leaving early,” Achilles added. “Orestes and I are rooming together.”

Orestes's face went blank for a second. It was news to him. Achilles nudged his shoulder. “You're the better navigator and will find the fastest route, and I'm the best driver.”

“Uh—” Pollux started to argue, but Achilles flashed a glare. “Sure.”

I laughed, but it turned into a huge yawn.

“That's it.” Hector placed his hand on the small of my back, pushing gently toward the elevators. “We'll see you in the morning. I don't want to hear from any of you until then.”

“I bet you don't,” Achilles muttered.

Despite knowing he was just teasing, the worry that I was disappointing them prickled me. How was I supposed to do this without someone being left out or feeling lonely? It was an emotion I'd dealt with my whole life. The last thing I wanted was to make one of them feel that way.

“They'll be fine,” Hector whispered. He gazed down at me, studying my face. He took my bag from my shoulder and slung it over his. “You need the rest, and so do they.”

“So do you,” I retorted. He was running on a handful of hours of sleep. And I had the feeling he expended more energy worrying about all of us than he let on.

We piled onto the elevator. I eyed the maximum capacity sign a little warily. The six of us were definitely at the upper limits. Pollux and Achilles alone probably put us halfway there. But the elevator moved smoothly and didn't groan once.

“We're on the same floor,” Pollux said. “And I got us adjoining rooms. We want to leave early, right?”

“At first light,” Achilles agreed. “Once Orestes has our route mapped out, we'll see how many more days of travel we have ahead of us.”

“Two,” Orestes said as the doors opened and we spread out into the hall. “At least.”

“Corfu is an island,” I reminded them, though it was probably unnecessary. “We might need to take a ferry.” The thought made me shiver. We'd survived the trip from Dover to Calais, but we might tempt fate to cross by boat again. If Poseidon was really free, then—

Suddenly, I went from exhausted to wired.

“Don't worry about that now.” It surprised me that Orestes was the one to dismiss my concern. He touched his thumb beneath my eyes. I probably had some gnarly bags. “Get some sleep and let me figure it out. Sound good?”

It did. We hadn't fully explored the power I'd shown back at the church. If I had some sort of latent ability to protect myself—and not the kind that turned humans to stone—maybe it would help all of us.

Hector walked us to a room, slid the card in front of the knob, and unlocked it. “Don't bother us,” he called out and pushed me gently inside. I barely had time to lift my hand in a wave before the door closed behind us.

And now, here we were.

Hector and me. The Prince of Troy and the Nerd, or the girl formerly known as Medusa. I couldn't help the giggle that pushed its way past my lips.

He dropped the bags, watching me with a small smile. “When Pollux told me about you, I never imagined we'd end up here.”

I bet he didn't. Especially since the five of them had decided that they should kill me, rather than risk me finding any more of the seal. “I prefer this to dead.”

His smile dimmed.

Shit.“That landed badly.”

One corner of his mouth lifted higher than the other and he grunted. “I'm sorry, Leo. We should have listened to Pollux.”

“You didn't know me.” And the fate of the world rested on their shoulders. They'd been in an impossible position. “And now I know firsthand what the gods are capable of.” I left the rest unsaid. If I'd been in their position, I might have done the same thing.

I turned toward the room, studying the interior. It was clean. Sparse.

And only had one bed.

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