“You look frightened,” Kalos comments, leaning in toward me.
I clutch the near-empty pack to my stomach, hating that it growls fiercely. I’m starving, and there’s nothing to eat, not that this is the worst of our problems. It’s just another small one piled onto everything else. “I don’t think I can do this.”
“I can’t do it,” he comments. “I imagine they’ll recognize me. It has to be you.”
I shake my head, my courage deserting me. “I can’t do it. I can’t doanyof this.”
He leans in close again. With his hand, he reaches out and grabs my chin, pursing my mouth like a fish and forcing me to look him in the eye. “Remember that I am Apathy. And remember that you are fiercer than you think.”
That is…achingly sweet of him. I relax and try to smile, my cheeks pushing against his hand. His gaze moves to my lips and for a long, fraught moment…I think he’s going to kiss me.
I…I thought he hated kissing me?
But his gaze remains on my lips for one breath, then another. Then another.
“Kalos?” I whisper.
Kiss me. Kiss me kiss me kiss me kiss me.
The god gives my chin a squeeze and then releases me. “Be strong,” he says, and retreats behind his bored demeanor. It’s almost as if I imagined it…but I know I didn’t.
For a moment, there was something there. Something more. I’m both frustrated and full of hope that perhaps he doesn’t find me as repulsive as I’d imagined. “Thankyou for the pep talk. I’m better now. We just have to keep moving, one foot in front of the other.”
Kalos nods.
I put on my best smile, hold my pack tight, and move forward to talk to the guard at the front of the group. There’s several of them stationed together near the gate entrance, but only one seems to be doing most of the work.
“State your business,” the guard says as Kalos and I make it to the front of the line.
“Travelers,” I say brightly and lower my hood. Kalos does not. “We’re on a pilgrimage to see one of the gods during the Anticipation.”
He indicates I should show him my pack, and I do so. This reminds me vaguely of being at the airport back home, and a pat-down would probably make me homesick. “You just missed one,” the guard comments casually. “Not that you’d want to meet the one we had.”
“Oh no?” I try to keep my expression eager.
The guard makes a tossing-salt gesture over his shoulder. “Vulture God.”
I wrinkle my nose. “Ew.”
“Exactly.” He tilts his chin, indicating the high walls of the city behind him. “There’s a district with marked doors down by the temples. Avoid them and you should be fine.”
“Of course.” I take my pack back from him and slide my arm into the crook of Kalos’s. “Let’s go, honey.”
His gaze goes to my hands, and then to my face. We share another fraught moment, our eyes locked, and for a breath or two, it feels as if there’s only the two of us in the world. I stroke my thumb against his sleeve, wishing I was touching skin instead of fabric.
Kalos’s mouth shifts from the forbidding flat line to a hint of a smile. “Of course, my darling.I am at your bidding.”
Heat flushes through me. Whew. That did not have to sound nearly as sexual as it just did.
We take two steps forward before the guard calls out. “Wait.”
Shiiiiit. I turn around, making my expression bright and confused, like I’m just a poor simple woman who has no idea what’s going on.
Another guard points at Dingle. “That your goat?”
I glance down and Dingle has a scrap of yellow fabric in his mouth, no doubt torn from my cloak. He chews happily and, when I pull it out of his mouth, bleats at me. Kalos sighs and loops Dingle’s lead tighter around his other hand. I turn back to the guardsman. “Yes, he’s ours.”
“Don’t let him out of your sight or someone’s gonna make a dinner out of him,” the guard comments. “Food’s sparse lately.”
