Page 121 of Blood of Olympus

Arius spun on his heel and entered the nearby treeline. For a little over an hour, we walked in silence, on an easily identifiable path winding through the pines leading mostly east.

Each with different reasons for our lack of scintillating conversation, I was left to my thoughts — and those of my interrupting wolf.

A lot has happened in the last few days.

It has.

I wasn’t speaking to you, Lykos.

You’re certainly thinking very loudly, then.

I scowled in his general direction as he slunk through the trees somewhere to our right.

She let me in.

The lilting song of a nightingale was all that pierced the otherwise soundless forest. Even the footsteps of the mortal king were silent.

Lykos, now I’m speaking to you.

A wolfish sigh entered my mind followed by the feeling — nay, the knowledge — that my bonded animal was rolling his large yellow eyes.

I was ignoring you as requested.

Well, now I’m asking for the opposite of that.

You gods and your ever-changing minds, he grumbled. Yes, she let you in. What am I supposed to say back to that inane statement?

I don’t know, maybe some advice?

Advice?

Yes. She let me in, trusted me implicitly with her soul just as much as her body — and Furies, it was better than anything I’d ever imagined⁠—

Perhaps this is a conversation meant for yourself, after all.

Lykos!

Godling, he snapped and the unmistakable bark of an annoyed wolf echoed through the trees, startling everyone but Aros, who’d grown accustomed to loud, snarling beasts. Rufus was raucous at the best of times.

I am a lone wolf in every sense of the phrase. I am the last of my kind, not unlike your bonded’s dragon, and will never again know the true sense of intimacy you refer to. He paused to collect his thoughts, anger fading into something suspiciously like regret. You worry that she will share this part of herself with you, and then try to take it all back.

And if she does? It wouldn’t be to harm you — you said yourself she’s not capable of such a thing — it would be to protect herself. Her heart.

Sometimes love is a labour. Sometimes it is heavy to carry. And sometimes we fear revealing so much of ourselves to someone, entrusting them to keep that part of us safe. She shared something with you that she has not allowed herself to share with any other. And that is an incredible honour, Caelus.

Lykos’ words stunned me into silence. He was right — of course he was right — but…

That wasn’t what I was going to ask.

An aggrieved grumble answered me. What were you going to ask, then? he sighed.

I couldn’t help the grin tugging at my lips.

When do you think we can do it again?

Godling, he sighed.

I’m just saying, I can’t wait to fu⁠—