After all, the Siren’s call came from women who were once half bird and killed men so they could feast on their dead carcasses. I mean… for real. I did not need that in my life.
I thought back to the man I’d killed from basically wet cement back in Omaha. If that had been enough to take a life, what could I do with my feet in an ocean?
Kill an entire ship of sailors?
Obviously.
Kill a god?
Maybe.
Possibly.
“Where are we, Hermes?” Ryder called from a few feet away. He did not look impressed either.
Hermes took a step toward Ryder and gave him an assessing look. “I’ve wondered something,” Hermes started. “Are you the same Orpheus? Or is the prophecy referring to a new man with Orpheus like powers?”
“I’m not Orpheus,” Ryder said confidently. “I know that you all think I am. But I’ve done my research. Orpheus was definitely bad ass, but I’m me. One hundred percent. I’m not some reincarnated Greek myth or a prophecy waiting to be fulfilled. I’m mortal. I’m human. And I’m here to get Ivy somewhere safe.”
I was as unconvinced as Hermes. “But you knew about all of that stuff with Hades and I thought-”
Ryder shook his head and stepped toward me. “I’ve been reading up on the guy. I thought it might throw them off. That’s all.”
“We’re here to see Della,” Hermes interrupted suddenly. “She has much to tell us.” He turned around and started trudging through thick, golden sand in his once-polished black loafers. The man needed to wear more sensible shoes if he was going to keep popping up on beaches.
Ryder sidled up next to me. He seemed surprisingly unfazed by the craziness of the last twenty-four hours. “Who’s Della?” he asked.
“The Oracle of Delphi. She’s like the opposite of the Fates.”
“Right,” Ryder hummed. “Nix isn’t going to know to find us here?”
I rubbed at the back of my neck and ignored the unease blossoming in my core. “I have a feeling Nix doesn’t have to chase us anymore. If he knows we’re going to Olympus, can’t he just meet us there?”
“They don’t have a restraining order on him yet?” Ryder asked dryly.
I wished. “I don’t think that’s how it works.”
“Of course not.”
We walked beneath shady palm trees as we made our way inland. My feet were mostly pillowed on rich, warm sand, but every once in a while I would step on a seashell and practically die. God, who knew they could be so painful! I missed my flip flops.
Sweat had started to bead along my hairline when a pavilion came into view. Golden linen billowed in the breeze, stretched out over thick poles stuck into the sand. The thickest pole stood in the middle of a tiled floor. The tiles were in a mosaic design, alternating a rich blue with creamy white. And overhead, the gilded pieces of fabric tented in the shape of a pinwheel. Each separate piece was tied to a pole and flapped lazily in the slow breeze.
Fires differentiating in size were spaced out along the perimeter in a perfect circle. Near the center pole stood a smooth stone slab raised up by two oval stones. If I had to guess, I would say it was some kind of altar. Mortars and pestles were spread out on the flat surface, along with what looked like brightly colored paints globbed right onto the stone. Finishing out the odd display were exotic flowers in the same colors as the paints. Vivid purples, oranges, yellows, blues and reds lay in careless heaps, dripping over the rough edge and littering the ground.
There was a scent in the air that was both familiar and foreign. I couldn’t place it, but I felt like I should have recognized it. My nose tickled with memory while my brain argued that I had never smelled anything so exotic before.
I immediately loved the scent and for that reason I hated it.
I didn’t trusts gods or their oracles and I knew better than to blindly trust anything that had to do with them.
I glanced over at Ryder, worried that he would be lulled into some kind of trance, but he seemed just as leery as I did.
“He’s immune to all of us,” the gentle voice of the Oracle of Delphi explained as if reading my thoughts.
I turned around to face her. Once again, I was hit with the sensation that this woman was intensely beautiful. There was something about her features that were so unnaturally exquisite, I knew I would never see another being like her again in my life.
And yet, I couldn’t remember which of her features stood out or why I thought she was so uniquely lovely. The only thing I could remember about her was her eyes. It was the only feature that I could remember clearly. Her startling sapphire eyes seemed to see straight through me to all of the hidden places I worked so hard to keep secret. They held my gaze with an unwavering focus that unnerved me and yet calmed my frayed nerves at the same time.
