I slumped back against the icy wall.
Augustus whispered something about Chthonics into my left ear, but I couldn’t hear it. Also, I’d forgotten what we were talking about.
Exhaustion hammered mercilessly.
Where am I?
Gently he pulled me away from the wall and down the dark hall.
A door opened, and there was a bright, blinding light. Hewhispered something about taking care of myself and gathered the extra material of his toga. He softly dragged it over my face.
Either he’s cleaning off dirt or getting ready to suffocate me?
Either way, I stood still and let it happen.
“Do you need me to get you anything?” His voice sounded far away. “I can’t do much to help—but I can try.”
“A lobotomy,” I mumbled.
He muttered something about a “difficult, exhausted pain in his ass.”They sound cool.
Suddenly, he scooped me up into his arms and carried me through the door, then he placed me down gingerly. “Sit here—donotmove a muscle. You’ll only hurt yourself,” he ordered, which was ironic because he’d just tried tobreakmy mind.
“You better not move,” I countered smartly, then fell over. Defying gravity was hard work.
“Seriously, Alexis, just stay here and wait for me to come back,” Augustus said. “Please don’t move.”
He backed away, and the door closed.
I was alone.
It was just me, myself, and my insightful thoughts.
I have a feeling the earth is actually flat.
It was hard being so wise all the time.
Time fractured around me.
Everything blurred.
I blinked—I was lying spread-eagle on a snow-covered bank of a familiar lake. The water was frozen, and so was I.
Birds flew overhead, and my classmates’ voices sounded from a tree line nearby.
I sat up with a moan.
Oh, look, I was back in the menagerie.
There was dirt and blood all over my bare knees, and a trail of red covered the snow behind me, like I’d been crawling.
Faintly I remembered Augustus ordering me to not move.
Oopsie.
Stretching, I winced as my spinal cord popped like machine gunfire.
Rolling my aching neck from side to side, I marveled at the unnatural patch of white on the top of my hand.
