Shit, where did she come from? “What do you mean?”
“You look worried. You walked off and have been pacing in the same spot for the last fifteen minutes.”
Theo looked up at his surroundings, not having realized that he’d stepped away from the temple.
“I’ve been thinking.”
“Obviously,” she said, playfully rolling her eyes. “Thinking about what?”
“That maybe you were right,” he said. “I was being stupid.” He kicked a rock at his feet.
“Hey, don’t do that,” she said, placing her hands on his shoulders and forcing him to look at her. “Weboththought something might be here. And don’t you go trying to steal credit. I’m the one who suggested Poseidon’s temple, remember?” She flashed him an unfairly endearing smile.
“I know, I just wanted to do something really cool for once. Show everyone that myths and fairy tales aren’t dead.”
“You mean, show your parents.”
“I suppose them, too. But, I don’t know, it was cool thinking there might actually be the eye of the Minotaur buried somewhere on this site.”
“Well, we don’t know yet that it isn’t.”
He tilted his head and gave her a skeptical look. “We’ve been here for hours.”
“We’re also searching in the dark. Come on, read me the entry from Papantonis’s journal again.”
They walked over to his bag, and he pulled out his notebook where he’d transcribed the letters, flipping through the pages until he found the right one. Andreas and Christos joined them as he looked.
“Here it is,” he said. “ ‘We’ve reached the gateway to the sea with the eye of the Minotaur, it no longer being safe in its original burial place. Its power grows restless and must be released from confinement. Now its true potential will be realized, and it will be free.
“ ‘From here, we will travel back to my home. There, belowwhere Helios rises in the east, I will put the eye to rest, accessible only to those who recognize its power. Despite his quarrels, Poseidon himself could not have picked a better place for this beast to spend eternity. It is here that the eye will sleep and blend into the dirt itself, watching over the land of my ancestors and bringing strength and fertility to my people.’ ”
“Hmm…” Dani murmured, folding her arms and pacing. The moonlight cast a glow across her skin. Theo loved when she made this face, her deep-in-thought face.
“So we’re here because this is near Papantonis’s birthplace and the reference to Poseidon,” she said, tapping her finger on her chin. “But we must be missing something. What about the reference to Helios? Who is Helios—like the sun?”
“Basically. He’s the god of the sun.”
“Well, that’s weird, because doesn’t the sun rise in the east everywhere? What about this place would be unique to that?”
“Do you think it could have something to do with where the sun rises and where the light hits the temple?”
“Possibly? It would mean we’d have to come back in the morning.”
“Unless we have his birthplace wrong.”
“But then what about Poseidon?”
He opened his mouth to say something about the possible birthplace when suddenly he was blinded by a bright white light. The four of them shielded their eyes as a dark figure moved toward them.
“What the…?” he said, taking Dani’s hand and pulling her back from the figure. But when they turned around to run, there were more figures in hooded black cloaks, closing in on them.
“Fuck, fuck, fuck,” Christos said. “What have you gotten us into, Andreas?”
“Me?” Andreas said, putting his hand to his chest.
Theo’s heart pounded as Dani clung to his arm. The four of them were ushered up the stairs to the top of the temple while the cloaked figures surrounded them, shining lights on them from all directions.
“Who are you?” Dani called out with a shaky voice.
