“I know that—”
“Do you?” Arjun asks softly. “Because sometimes the gods work in weird ways. And sometimes it’s the journey they’re using to teach you something—not the destination. But you’re always so focused on getting where you want to be that sometimes you…” He trails off awkwardly.
“Forget to stop and look at the tiles?” I fill in for him with a laugh.
“Exactly!” Fifi says, bumping her shoulder against mine in a friendly way. “Think of how many cool things you miss if you never stop to look.”
I don’t know what to say to that. I mean, who besides Aphrodites has time to just stand around looking at stuff all day? You have to have a destination in mind or nothing ever gets accomplished. I mean, sure, it’s fun to hang out. But fun only gets you so far.
I don’t say that, though. Partly because I don’t want to hurt their feelings and partly because I know they won’t agree. So I just nod as I start walking again.
They fall into step beside me, but they don’t say anything else either. None of us do.
But as we turn one more corner, I catch another glimpse of something out of the corner of my eye. And this time when I turn to look at it, I see more than just a couple of moving tiles. I see the reds and oranges and yellows combine into a tiny little fire right in the center of the wall.
39.In It for the Long Hall
I STOP WALKING AS SOONas I see it, and so do my friends.
“What?” Arjun asks. “Did you find something?”
But I’m too busy thinking about what PT told me right before I crossed the bridge to respond.
The answer is fire.
At the time, I was so busy worrying about being late that I didn’t pay much attention to it. And I haven’t exactly had the time to think about it since. But after what happened in the amphitheater a little while ago and now this, I can’t help but wonder not only what it means, but how important it is to what’s going on in my life here.
Maybe it’s nothing; maybe PT is hung up on fire because it’s his job to get the cauldron lit again.
Or maybe it’s more than that. Maybe, if I can find theanswer, it will help me finally figure out why I wasn’t chosen for Athena Hall—and how I can fix that.
“Ellie?” Fifi asks, looking concerned. “Are you all right?”
“I don’t know. I thought I saw a fire in the tiles.”
“A fire?” Fifi’s eyes go wide. “Do you think it’s a clue to the scavenger hunt? Prometheus gave us fire, and that’s why he was punished with Pandora. Maybe the fire marks where we can find one of the scavenger hunt items.”
It’s a good idea, one that comes at the perfect time. What better way to hype up a room full of Aphrodites than to prove to them the items are easy to find?
I move back around the corner to the mosaic, but that tiny little flame is long gone. That doesn’t mean anything, though. Maybe it’s behind the tiles where the flame was?
I step closer to the mural, run my fingers over the cool tiles, but there’s nothing there—no crack in the grout or tiles, nothing loose or broken. Just the same tile mosaic everyone else can see.
Still, I’m not quite ready to give up. The mural is huge, and I’ve only checked one small part of it.
It only takes a few seconds before Arjun and Fifi figure out what I’m doing and join in. And then all three of us are pressed up against the mural—Fifi duck-walking across the bottom while Arjun gives me a boost so I can check the top of the wall.
But there’s still nothing.
In fact, I’m just about to call it quits when Ihearsomething.
It’s not noisy—or even loud enough to be recognizable—but it’s definitely there. In fact, now that I’ve noticed it, I can’t unhear it. And I certainly can’t ignore it.
“Hey, can you let me down?” I ask Arjun, who immediately complies.
“What’s wrong?” he asks, eyes narrowed as he studies the mosaic like he’s trying to figure out what has caught my attention.
“You don’t hear that?”
