Page 84 of Saving Grace
“Together?” I cringed at the hopefulness in my voice. Why couldn’t I sound more cool and sophisticated?
He gave me one of my least favorite Harbor smiles—the one that was a little strained, a little tinged with sadness, and filled with something akin to longing, though I doubted it was actually that.
“Yeah, together. I can’t… This can’t be…” He made a sound of frustration, glancing up at the sky as though the gods themselves would swoop down and provide him with the words he was struggling to find. “Just let me hold you, please? Let me care for you. You’re hurting from taking on everyone else’s ills. Just let me look after you.”
I nodded, my throat tight. It was more than I deserved after what I’d done to Dice.
And it was nowhere near enough.
Chapter 35
Evenwiththegrapevinesgrowing over the verandah overhead, providing some shade, it was a fuckinghotday. The skies were blue and the sun was out in full force, and while everyone claimed that it was nearly winter andreally, not that warm, Bullet, I was sweating a little in my thin shirt and shorts while I shucked peas in the shade. A quirk of me coming back from the dead, we’d all decided. I found hot weather intolerable, could only eat meagre amounts of sweet food before I felt sick, and fell into a deep, dreamless sleep every night.
All things considered, they were very reasonable quirks and I didn’t mind them at all.
“Do you still like musicals?” Orion asked me, sitting down with his own bowl of peas to shuck while I worked through mine. We’d been staying at his family’s villa since returning to Greece four weeks ago on Arsène’s boat—Grace, Wild, Riot, and Dare had made lots of friends on their travels apparently. We were staying with a lot of them now.
They treated me like one of their friends too, even though I didn’t remember any of them. It was nice. It had made it easier to fall into some kind of rhythm here. There was room for the Spartoi, and a bunch of the other agathos and daimon friends Grace and the others had collected up in their travels, and we had our own space upstairs where we all slept chastely next to one another in a big puppy pile on the bed.
Not that the others weren’t getting frisky, they were all just careful not to do it when I was around—with the exception of the incredible bonding moment between Grace, Riot, and Dare—I guessed not to pressure me.
Which was nice—really it was—but I was gettingverywell acquainted with my hand and it was kind of bumming me out. It wasn’t as though I wasn’t attracted to Grace and Wild.
I wasdefinitelyattracted to them.
Orion was staring at me, and I searched my brain, trying to remember if he’d asked me a question.
“Musicals, brother,” he laughed. “Do you still like musicals?”
“Oh! Um, I don’t know. Ithinkso.” I frowned. “Grace tells me that we used to be able to justplaymusic whenever, you know, sung by amazing singers. Maybe I’d like the songs more if I heard those versions? Not that Grace is abadsinger,” I added hastily.
She wasn’t. She was… she was fine. And I really appreciated her trying to reacquaint me with what had once been my favorite songs.
Orion snorted. “It isn’t easy being the Prophêtis. I guess Grace can’t be amazing at everything, even though it seems like she is. She was sitting on the cliff ledge next to Typhoeus earlier, teaching him sign language, did you see?”
“I did.” I decided I didn’t like other guys talking about how amazing Grace was and telling me about her day. She wasmyamazing Grace. It was only okay when Riot, Wild, or Dare talked about her.
“Are you going to bond with someone?” I asked.
Orion choked on his saliva, and I realized that maybe it was a kind of personal question. After Riot had passed on the instructions on how to bond, those who’d alreadybeenbonded had quickly reestablished their connections, but new ones hadn’t been forged yet. Between the original agathos and Aphrodite, news about bonds was apparently being disseminated quickly among mortals.
“I mean, I’d like to. One day. I’m glad I have the option now.” He blushed looking down at the bowl of peas. “But I haven’t met the right person yet. Or people. Whatever.”
Milos, an unusually smart dog that some of Grace’s friends had been looking after in Ephesus, flopped down under the long dining table a few feet away, also hiding from the sun. Smart girl. She’d really made herself at home here at the villa. She definitely preferred the agathos though—specifically Foster. A couple of the daimons, Vasileios and Estrella, had been trying to win her over to no avail.
After a long silence, Orion spoke again. “My parents came before you guys got here—a weak attempt to get their property back. They re-bonded with each other, and sort of said that it would be blasphemous of me to even consider a bond. That being alone was my fate.”
“With all due respect, fuck that. Your parents sound like idiots.”
Orion let out a startled laugh. “Yeah. Yeah, they kind of are. They’ve accepted Gaia’s defeat, but I don’t see them letting go of the old ways any time soon.”
There would be plenty of agathos like that out in the world by the sounds of it, but I wasn’t worried. None of us were, really.
One, they were outnumbered.
Two, Grace had never met a challenge she couldn’t overcome. Those stubborn agathos hadn’t encountered my girl yet, she’d soon have them seeing the light.
“You okay?” Wild asked, coming over to join me in the shade after he’d spent the afternoon harvesting olives. The seasons were changing and going forward, apparently in the future there’d be some kind of regular growing schedule, but for now, it had just been Demeter and Persephone hard at work, forcing plants to grow so we didn’t all starve.
