She pressed in close beside me. “And the steam? Is that your addition?”
She glanced at my hand, but I held my empty palms up. “Nope. Must be a hot spring.”
She hesitated, still wary. “How hot?”
I bent down and put my hand in. Sighing, I said, “Perfect for sore muscles.” I pushed to my feet and started stripping out of my clothes. “Now, come on. You smell like blood and guts.”
“I could say the same,” she muttered, but her mouth tipped up in a smirk. “You first.”
I stripped off my armor piece by piece, setting each beside my swords. The heat wrapped around me as I sank into the water, sighing as I sank to my shoulders. The grime, the blood, the serpent’s ichor—all of it washed away in streaks that clouded the water for a heartbeat before the spring cleared itself.
Keres followed, wincing at the heat before easing in across from me. The torch she’d set into a crevice burned low, its light refracting across the rippling surface.
For a while, we just sat there. Letting the silence stretch.
Finally, Keres said, “So. That’s two gifts from the gods.”
I huffed out a laugh. “You’re counting?”
“Your tattoo glowed,” she said. “Hard not to notice there are three stars. What’s the third?”
“I don’t know yet,” I admitted. “So far, there’s only been the furyfire and the death magic.”
Her brow lifted. “Is that what you call it?”
I shrugged. “It’s what Sonoma—my mother—called it. The oracle called it Makarios. The gift of life.”
“In the old language, we would call it ?θανασ?α.”
“What does it mean?”
“Athanasia. Immortal.”
I looked away. The oracle had said as much, but I’d been categorically ignoring that fact ever since she’d told me.
“The Withered nearly pissed themselves watching it happen,” Keres added, clearly entertained by it.
I dragged a hand through my tangled hair, water dripping down my arms. “Do you think they’ll change their minds about helping us?”
“If they do, they are fools.”
I didn’t answer. I appreciated her support, but I couldn’t expect the entire realm to share her open-minded acceptance.Not when they’d been raised to believe the Fates were good and the Furiosities were evil.
Ironically, only the Midnight Court—a kingdom I’d once believed was filled with horrible monsters—understood that darkness didn’t equal evil.
I looked up and found Keres studying me.
“What?” I asked warily.
She tilted her head. “What did it feel like? Taking the serpent’s life force?”
“Like… a drink of water after a week in the desert,” I admitted. “Like every cell in my body was being rewritten. And when it was over, I wasn’t sure if I’d done something right or something unforgivable.”
“Did it hurt?”
“Not exactly. It was more like… remembering something I shouldn’t know. Something old.” I met her eyes across the water. “It doesn’t feel like my furyfire. It was colder. Sharper. It felt alive.”
She nodded slowly.
