“Not so nice bruises,” he answers back. “What happened to you?”
“I don’t even know where to start.”
“I bet,” he snorts as he lifts a hand to my cheek. “Is that a scratch?”
“Maybe. Or maybe it’s a snake bite. I—”
“Oh my gods, Ellie!” Fifi screeches as she drops to her knees beside me and throws her arms around me. “I’ve texted you a million times. Are you all right?” She pulls back, studies my face. “You don’t look all right.”
“I’m fine,” I tell her, and it’s true. Besides being the truly exhausted recipient of about a dozen snakebites, I feel fine. Confused, but fine.
Which means the snakes really weren’t venomous, considering I’m pretty sure I’d be dead by now if they were. Especially since Underworld snakes seem way more aggressive than any of the others I’ve encountered since getting to Anaximander’s.
“I think we should go to the infirmary.” She stands up, then grabs my hands and drags me to my feet.
“And tell them what?” Arjun asks, brows raised.
“I don’t know. How about the truth?” She looks bewildered.
The responsible Penelope who believes in following the rules and doing all the right things knows she’s right. But there’s another part of me, the part that keeps seeing that woman’s face—that keeps hearing Kyrian’s voice—that tells me I shouldn’t tell anyone but my two best friends what just happened to me.
That, maybe, I shouldn’t even tell Paris.
The thought stuns me even as it makes me feel really gross inside.
Paris and I aren’t the closest twins in the world, but before we got to Anaximander’s, I never would have dreamed of keeping something like this from him.
Now, though, I’m not so sure. Not when he’s got Rhea hanging off his arm—and his every word—whenever I see him.
“I don’t need to go see Dr. Henning,” I tell her as I movetoward the stairs. My overworked leg muscles scream in agony with every step I take. “I want to go talk to Dr. Vicenzio and try to see if he’ll let me take my logic test even though I missed class.”
“We already did that for you,” Arjun tells me. “He said you can make it up on Thursday.”
“Seriously? How’d you convince him to let me do that?”
“We told him you were sick,” Fifi says, looking me up and down. “We didn’t know when we’d see you again, so we got you excused from all three classes today.”
Relief sweeps through me. Just because I’m suddenly willing to keep secrets from a few authority figures doesn’t mean I want to get a bad grade. I’ve never gotten a zero in my life, and I definitely don’t want to start now.
“You really are the best, you know that?”
Arjun smiles, but Fifi’s face becomes a thundercloud. “Oh, yeah. Well, I’m about to be the worst if you don’t tell me where you’ve been. And how you got all these cuts.”
“I can tell you this much,” I say as we start walking toward Aphrodite Hall. “It involves a lot of snakes.”
“More snakes?” she yells, then lowers her voice as people turn to look at us. “Bites?” she ends with a whisper.
“It’s a long story.”
“Good thing we’ve got all day then, isn’t it?” she shoots back.
“I have all day. You guys have to get to your second class.”
Fifi and Arjun exchange a look before Fifi turns back to me, her voice filled with outrage. “If you actually think we’regoing to leave you like this, Penelope Weaver, then I don’t think you’ve ever had a best friend before. I mean, seriously. You’re soaking wet, covered in cuts and snake cooties, and I’m pretty sure that’s a black eye you’ve got forming.”
“A black eye, really?” For the first time, I realize my eye actually does hurt. I wonder when I got it? Maybe when I fell headfirst out of the slide.
“For real?” Fifi rolls her eyes. “That’s what you got out of what I said?”
