I purse my lips. He has a point. “I loathe snakes. They have that lidless stare, and you can just tell they’re thinking about dinner. As inyouare dinner. It’s creepy.”
“Snakes are a symbol of healing. Asklepios’s rod and all that,” Kato says, obviously trying to make himself feel better about having just swallowed one whole.
Where is that thing, anyway? How can it fit?
“And protection. And rebirth. And God-like power.” I shake my head. “I still don’t like them.”
“But giant carnivorous fish and sea serpents are okay?” Griffin asks.
“Oracles? Sort of. Not really. To be honest, before they helped me, I was pretty sure they were going to eat me.”
“Poseidon’s Oracles—allscaly creatures—have only ever helped you,” Griffin points out. “You just wrapped yourself in fire and said to trust the Gods. The cloaks didn’t harm us. Even without knowing why the snake was here, it stood to reason it wouldn’t harm us, either.”
“Don’t bring logic into this!” I lift my hands and shove his chest. “And Kato didn’t look ‘unharmed’ a few minutes ago.”
“I thought,hoped, it would be okay,” Griffin says.
Okay? Okay!“In that case, why were you holding me back?”
“Just in case,” he answers.
Just in case!“So you figured we’d sacrifice Kato on the altar of ‘wait and see’!”
A small muscle contracts under Griffin’s eye. He never gets the chance to say something like “better than sacrificing you”—which would have made me explode like a hundred Harpies flying from a burning nest—because Kato suddenly grunts in pain. I whirl and see him slap his hand over his swollen neck.
My eyes widen. “What? What happened?”
His lips draw back in a grimace. “Don’t know,” he grates out.
I pull his hand down and suck in a sharp breath. A snake tattoo is starting to take shape and coil up the column of his neck. The inflammation disappears under the quick progress of the dark ink. Incredibly lifelike, glossy black scales undulate with Kato’s every breath and swallow, making the tattoo look like it’s alive and in constant motion. A forked tongue paints itself onto his skin and then curls behind Kato’s left ear, licking up into his windswept hair. Faultless crimson and gold diamonds chase each other up the serpent’s gleaming back.
“You’ve been marked,” I say, uneasy.
Panic flashes in Kato’s blue eyes. “What does that mean?”
“You have a snake tattoo. It looks just like our new friend Titos, only smaller.”
“But what does thatmean?” he asks again.
I shake my head, feeling a stab of panic myself. “I’m sorry. I don’t know.”
Kato’s eyes only stay wild for a moment. Then he takes a deep, bracing breath and slowly nods. He actually smiles at me. “We’ll figure it out. You’re Cat the Mostly-All-Knowing, right?”
Something twists in my chest. He’s reassuringme? I’d be clawing my throat out and trying to vomit up a magic snake by now. And if that didn’t work—dagger, meet gut.Maybe.
“How do you feel?” Flynn asks, handing Kato his dropped mace.
“Better.” Kato slides the hilt back into the leather harness on his back. He rolls his shoulders a few times and then moves his head from side to side. Something pops in his neck. “Stiff, but better.”
“Do you feel Titos?” I ask.
He presses the flat of his hand against his chest and then lower, running it over his abdomen. He shakes his head. “So, riddles and serpents,” Kato says.
The tension inside me starts to unwind. Men are mysteries. But I love the way they can move on from things, even giant snakes.
“And these.” I raise my arms under my cloak, lifting the sides like a set of darkly burning wings.
Griffin’s hand settles on the small of my back. “Do you think the wizard is coming out again?”
