Page 16 of On a Pale Horse
“I don’t feel any different,” he offered with a shrug. “It tastes like apples. I drank it all. We probably should have gotten clarification if I should have only sipped it.”
She chuckled. “Guess we’ll remember that for next time. Well, it doesn’t sound too bad. And you’re not turning inside out or anything.”
Katherine’s phone rang out, shattering the ocean's deep tension in the room. It took a few seconds for her to snatch the device from a glass-top table near a red armchair. “Hello.”
Cloris’ voice cut through the line. “How’s it going?”
There were so many unasked questions in that single query. “It’s done. But nothing’s happening yet. Do we know what it should do or how to make it work?”
Shuffling cut through the line, and then the phone went dead. Katherine held it out to make sure it wasn’t on her end.
Seconds later, a soft knock accompanied someone entering through the front door.
“Why don’t you just materialize inside the house?” Katherine called.
Cloris entered and pointed at her shin, where a brown bruise bloomed in the center. “People move furniture too often. I end up getting hurt more often than not.”
Katherine never thought of that, and they had been together for centuries at this point. “Any advice here?” She gestured at Arwan, still holding the flask, eyeing them both.
Cloris folded herself down to the floor, a move that juxtaposed her perfectly coiffed blonde hair, designer clothes, and high heels. Katherine loved Cloris, but there was always something reserved and unreachable about her. Every inch of her was unruffled, no matter what situation she found herself in. Katherine always thought it would do her good to get some ruffling. Although the tension between her and Hades whenever they were in the same room screamed, there was no ruffling happening there.
Cloris reached out to Arwan. “May I?”
He hesitated a moment before holding out the flask. The minute his hand brushed hers, he jerked hard and fell back in a seizure. Katherine pounced, lifting his head, and situating it on her lap. He quieted after a second, eyes squeezed shut. That didn’t slow her heart rate, which had rocketed into her ribs the second he began to shake. Flashes of the life they spent together, and flashes the life they wouldn’t spend together, cascaded through her mind in the seconds he lay there in her lap.
Katherine stroked his cheek and his eyes flashed open as he took a sizable inhalation. His body jostled a few more times like a leg jerk on the cusp of sleep. When he finally settled, Katherine rubbed his hair away from his face and refused to take her eyes off him.
After what felt like ages she asked, “Are you okay?” It came out barely above a whispered, thready with fear, tight with tension.
He fisted his hands next to his leg, and a tear rolled down his cheek. “I’m okay. I’m okay. I saw them.” He let out a shuddering breath. “A sword, a crown, scales, and a book. I saw them all.”
Cloris looked as if she might reach out to help, but Katherine waved her back as he sat up and doubled over, pressing his forehead to his knees. “I’m okay. Can I have some water, please?”
Katherine gestured toward the kitchen door, and Cloris trotted off and returned with a bottle of water. She twisted the cap off and handed it to Katherine, who reached in front of Arwan and cupped his hand around the bottle. Some of it sloshed over her arm and his T-shirt, but neither of them cared. He drank it down, guzzling it.
“That’s better,” he whispered. “That’s better.”
“Can you tell us what you saw?” Cloris asked, sinking down on her calves beside him.
Katherine glared at her, wanting to give him a little more time to settle, to assimilate, but she held her tongue. This was important to them all, and the memories would be freshest right after the event. But she wanted Cloris out of her house so she could care of Arwan, who would only accept so much coddling in the presence of witnesses, even from her.
After a few seconds, he nodded and grabbed a notebook and pen off a shelf next to him. With quick jerky strokes he drew small sketches of each of the items he mentioned: a sword, a crown, scales, and a book.
“What does it mean?” Katherine asked, staring over his shoulder.
Cloris shook her head, looking equally confused. “Maybe these are the items we need to locate. The ones of power. It would make sense considering most of them match to our seals.”
She ticked a nail against the book. “Except that one, which I’m assuming is mine given the process of elimination.”
Cloris sat back and shifted from her calves to the floor. “What do we do with this? How do we find them? Did you see anything else?”
Arwan stretched out flat on the floor. He closed his eyes and put his forearm across his face, hiding it from the light.
Katherine reached out but didn’t touch him. “Do you need anything? Are you all right?”
He shook his head. “No. I just have a migraine starting. But I know where you should start. You need to find the temple of Maat in Karnak. The scales are there.”
He reached out and took Katherine’s hand and she squeezed his in return. The scales were for her. It was obvious he couldn’t go anywhere at the moment and she didn’t want to leave him.
