Patro took a step toward her like he was going to attack, and she cowered. Achilles shook his head, and Patro rolled his eyes and leaned back against the wall, which had a hole in it from his fist.
He stayed there while the doctors wrapped my right forearm, both shoulders, left femur, ribs, three toes, eight fingers, and my head.
When they were finally done, the doctors didn’t waste time fussing over me. They said it would take about two weeks for mybones to heal, and after a week I was supposed to take the bandages off to let the bones breathe, which made zero sense.
Then the doctorssprinted out of the room, and there was a boom in the hallway as they leaped away.
Smoke billowed in from the open door. I would have yelled, “they’re going to cut you into pieces,” but my mentors would probably snap and kill us all in a fit of rage.
Although, at this point, that might be preferable.
I resumed staring at the shockingly high ceiling while Patro launched into a lecture about how to block punches; at least, that seemed to be the gist.
I tuned him out.
I’d reached my daily limit of interacting with people.
If broken bones made Patro think I was weak (his disgusted expression made it clear he thought that was why I’d been abandoned), then he was going tolose itwhen he found out about my blind eye and deaf ear.
Not that they held me back—I’d adapted to my new reality—but something told me Patro would not see it that way.
He’ll kill me. I’ll never tell him.
The paste tingled pleasantly, and the numbing sensation penetrated deep. Everything got hazy.
Floating on clouds.
My eyes closed, and I fell into a deep healing sleep, cradled in the luxury of a bed.
Days blurred.
I was lost in a fever dream.
I woke up gasping for air, covered in a cold sweat, but fell immediately back asleep.
The process repeated.
Scales slid along my neck and whispered that everything would be okay. During a rare moment of lucidity, Nyx said something about Medusa.
“But she’s in the underworld,” I rasped quietly, my throat likesandpaper. “She used the Titans to attack the House of Zeus.” I tilted my head up.
Nyx hissed, “Idon’tbelieve it.” She snapped her teeth with a click.
I opened my mouth to ask more, but my head dropped back.
Nightmares pulled me under.
This time, death himself hovered over me with his hand possessively on my ankle. He had pale skin and hateful bloodred eyes, and he watched me without blinking. A foreign sensation of intrigue and curiosity filled my chest; it wasobsessive.
I’d never felt anything like it.
Death stayed for hours.
At some point, he left.
Everything warped and shifted. Black painted nails dabbed a cold rag across my forehead. A raspy male voice whispered insults about pathetic abandoned Olympian mutts.
I raised my bandaged middle finger into the air, delirium making me bold.
