I glance down, thinking the small glow isn’t worth worrying about.
Kato claps a hand on Griffin’s shoulder, saying to me, “You just shaved ten years off my life with that stunt. Since you do that often enough, it probably puts me close to the grave.”
I look at him, something thorny twisting through me. “That’s not funny.”
Kato looks straight back. “Sometimes, Cat, neither are you.”
A hot dart of betrayal stabs me in the chest. Kato just chose sides in my argument with Griffin, and he didn’t choose mine.
Carver turns his cloak around, putting the fire-bright threads on the inside now. “Keep in mind that I’ll kill anyone who admits we needed Cat to tell us we were wearing our clothes inside out.”
“Who would have thought of putting the fire on the inside?” Flynn wonders out loud.
“Someone who’s not afraid of getting burned,” Griffin says, his tone still laced with fury.
I glance up, my surprise hidden by the deep hood. Does he think I’m not afraid? I’m terrified. Constantly. I just do things anyway and hope for the best. Admittedly, that’s not always the best strategy, but sometimes there really isn’t much choice.
“Hades wouldn’t hurt me,” I announce. “And now we’re sure they’re safe.”
Griffin looks like he wants to wring my neck, which is just unnecessary.
“I do what needs to be done,” I say stiffly. “Just like you.”
“Put yourself in my place, Cat. In all our places.” Griffin roughly pushes my hood back, and I get a good idea of how angry he is from the hard glint in his granite eyes. “Keep throwing yourself into the fire first, and I’ll kill you myself.”
Heat crawls up my throat, and not only because that was a blatant lie. “That’s an empty threat if I ever heard one.”
“Fine. Then I’ll tie you up and leave you at home.”
No burn this time. “You wouldn’t.”
“You know I would.”
“You can’t. You need me!”
“I need you alive!”
I stare at him in shock. “You’re overreacting.” I’m a warrior, just like him, and heknowsit. My skill set is simply different from his. It includes burning to a crisp one minute and coming back from it the next. “I didn’t do anything reckless.”
“You aresynonymouswith reckless,” Griffin growls.
My hands clench at my sides. That was low. And kind of true. I lift my chin. “I trust in the Gods.”
“The Gods’ motivations are rarely clear,” Flynn says. “You should have been more careful.”
Flynn, too?I expect this kind of overbearing nonsense from Griffin, but not from the others. I take a shallow breath, feeling another attack of completely uncharacteristic crying coming on.
When Griffin takes my shoulders and swings me back to him, my eyes must betray something of my distress because he abruptly softens his hold. “Don’t you get it, Cat? You’re the key. I knew it the day I laid eyes on you and couldn’t take them off again. Didn’t want to.” He gives me a gentle shake, his eyes burning into mine. “Every single one of us would fall if it kept you standing.You are not expendable.”
“And none of you are expendable to me!” My voice cracks, brittle with unshed tears.
Griffin breathes deeply and then pulls me against him. My arms automatically rise, and I cling to him, my emotions so close to the surface they hurt my skin.
In a deep rasp, he says, “Enough of this. We’ve both made our points.”
I nod. I don’t move. I don’t want to. I lean my head against Griffin’s chest, surprised when the Chaos Wizard’s resonating voice disrupts the fraught quiet of the night. I’d thought he was in a trance again. Done.
“Persephone sends her blessing to the Harbinger. Hades has spoken.”
