Page 53 of The Shadow Gods

The need to run.

It was too strong to be ignored. The shard she held in her hands made the need to run even stronger.

“Orestes...” Hector's tone grated on my nerves. It was soothing, like I was a child who was being unreasonable.

“Hector. Only one of us has been chased across continents before. Waiting for something doesn't delay the inevitable.”

“I trust him to get us where we need to go,” Achilles said. He stared at Hector, then Pollux, and finally Paris. “If he says we need to leave, then we leave. No questions asked.”

Hector pressed his lips together. Clearly, he had a lot of questions he wanted to ask. But he didn't. Nodding once at Achilles, he crossed his arms and studied the piazza. “Let's go, then.”

Pollux moved closer to me and Leo. He held out his hand to her, and she took it, but she didn’t step out of my grasp. I slid my arm around her waist, and she leaned her head on my shoulder.

My heart was still pounding in my chest, and sweat was dripping down my spine. Somewhere on the Via Ugo Bassi were bags of bread and cheese and smoked meats, baking in the sun. Achilles and I had only been a few blocks ahead of Hector and Paris, but they were closer to Pollux, and when he'd yelled—or bellowed—they'd shot off after him.

Thank the gods for power and speed. I'd reached the piazza in the blink of an eye, but slower than Hector and Paris. By the time I got there, Hector had screamed for Paris, and Leo disappeared.

One second, she was there, and the next? Gone.

Something had appeared between her and Poseidon and us. It had locked us away, kept us from her, and I knew true terror in those minutes.

I couldn't get to her.

I was strong, but not strong enough to punch through the fortress erected between us. None of us were.

Achilles walked in front of us, head on a swivel as he glared in every direction. The destroyed statue was yet another reason to get moving. The bubble Leo had managed to create between her and us would have shielded what really happened from any cameras that were trained on the fountain. But I'm sure the polizia would have some questions for us. I wished that the polizia were the worst of the things Achilles—and the rest of us—had to worry about.

If today taught us anything, it was that we might not be able to stop whatever came after her. Leo had saved herself. I tightened my hold around her waist, causing her to glance up at me.

“Did you hurt him?” I asked.

“I don't think so,” she answered.

Next to her, Pollux shot me a look that said simply,fuck.

“I scared him,” she added. “If he hadn't managed to get back into the water when he was trying to escape, I think I could have turned him to stone.”

“Hold on.” Achilles skidded to a stop. “He tried to escape?”

“Well...he sort of fell into the fountain running away. As soon as he touched the water, he melted into it. I almost had him.” She said it like she'd missed tossing an apple core into a bin.

In two long strides, Achilles held her shoulders, jerked her forward, and kissed each cheek loudly. “Tough woman. Scared a god.”

“I was the one who was scared,” she admitted, and it gutted me. I should have been there. Then she added, “And pissed off.”

“You need to let us help you,” Hector said kindly, but seriously.

“There's a flaw in my design,” she replied. “I can't choose who I turn to stone.”

“It's not an insurmountable one.” Achilles kissed her cheek once more before turning back to the street. “Hurry up.”

“I'm not sure how turning your boyfriends to stone isn't an insurmountable problem,” she called.

Boyfriend.I wanted to be more than that, but it was a start. A really good start. Leo's cheeks were red, the color so rosy and sweet that I leaned over to give her a kiss. Her skin was silky smooth beneath my lips, so I trailed them to her ear.

“Kissing won't distract me,” she said, but stuttered on the word “kissing,” so it definitely had. “And then there are the snakes.”

The— “Sorry?” I asked. Between her turning people to stone and her soft skin, I hadn't considered the other characteristics that had followed her from one life into the other. “Snakes?”

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