I leapt to my feet, my stare shooting around the garden, then to the house. No one was there. Not anywhere. I was utterly alone. With a hand over my racing heart, I started to think I had imagined the voice. But then it came again. Not a shout, but a whisper in my ear.
“I don't know how you keep escaping my wrath, but I have eternity to hunt you. We shall play our little game againin the next life. Maybe then you'll suffer enough to ease my fury. For now, this will have to do.”
Before I could call out for help, I was choking. Pain came. Terrible pain. Enough to send me shooting out of the memory.
“Oh, my God,” I whispered, coming back to the present.
“Was it a woman?” Lex asked.
“No. I just remembered how I died when I was Agnes. I heard a man's voice. He said I hadn't suffered enough. That he'd try again in the next life. But I didn't have a next life. Well, not until now.” I looked at the hounds, one by one. “He called it a game. Hurting me is a game to him.”
Cyrus and Lex stared back at me, silent.
“Fuck,” Jake said.
“This has nothing to do with us,” Cyrus said.
I snorted. “You sound so shocked. Here's your reality check, babe. Not everything revolves around you.”
“Salina, this isn't the time for jokes.” Cyrus leaned forward. “What else do you remember? How did you die?”
“I don't know. It hurt. A lot.”
“Apollo would have burned you. Do you remember fire or light?”
Lex smacked Cyrus. “Way to be compassionate, bro.”
Cyrus smacked Lex back. “We need to know.”
“It's fine,” I said. “And no, I don't remember fire or light. Are we sure this isn't Silas? If Apollo is backing him, wouldn't it explain the crow?”
“Yes, but not the flowers.” Cyrus scowled. “Why those flowers?”
“They're named after Apollo's lover, Hyacinthus,” Lex said. “Yet another connection to the Sun God.”
The Sun. Damn that old woman and her cards. It was probably all bullshit. And yet, it was a strange coincidence. What had she said about the card? Something about it being odd. The meaning was wrong. Maybe because what was supposed to be a happy card was, for me, an omen of death. But then, what was Death? A god. Death was Hades. I couldn't be wrong about that. The Sun, Death, and the Moon—Apollo, Hades, and me. What did it mean? Why were we connected? And was I making more out of this than there was?
The old woman's voice echoed in my memory,The Sun won't shine for you until you figure out how to shine for yourself.
Shit. That didn't sound as if Apollo wanted to kill me. Or maybe “shine” was code for kill. He waited for me to “shine” and be happy and then he shone his light on me and burned me to bits. Ugh! That's dumb. You see—this is why prophecies are worthless. They're always vague enough that you can make whatever situation you're in fit the prediction. I was pushing my situation into the box of that prophecy when I should be searching for more clues.
With that settled and the tarot reading shoved out of my mind, I asked, “Okay, so what happened to the Hyacinth guy?”
“No one knows.” Lex shrugged. “I mean, there's a myth about Apollo accidentally killing Hyacinthus and then turning him into a flower, but that's gotta be bullshit. Apollo was in love with the guy. Like seriously in love. He'd fallen for mortals before, but this guy was different. All the Gods knew it. It wasn't just infatuation. Apollo was thinking about making Hyacinthus immortal. But then the guy vanished. At first, people thought Apollo had gotten tired of Hyacinthus and killed him—that probably started the myth. But then Apollo disappeared too. Come to find out, he was in mourning. Hiding out in his heartbreak.”
“That's sad and all, but what's it got to do with me?”
“That's the question,” Cyrus said.
Lex held up a hand. “Again, we could be making more of these clues than we should.”
Jake parked, and I looked around in surprise. I'd been so focused on the conversation that I hadn't realized we were back at the house. When I looked out the rear window, the crow was gone. I assumed their ward extended over the property. No divine spies allowed. With that thought, I relaxed. A little.
I turned forward in my seat. “Silas stalking me, Ace falling prey to him, a crow leading me to my grave, flowers named after a god's dead lover, and an unknown man murdering me in a past life. What does it add up to?”
“You're not leaving again.” Jake got out of the car.
I rolled my eyes and got out too. “I can't hide out here forever, Jake.”
