I consider. “No?”
“Cat…” he growls.
“Fine.” My shoulders slump in defeat. Not that I put up much of a fight. “The three-headed beast chased me over a cliff. It was really dark, and I didn’t know what was behind me. I was busy trying not to get eaten, or crushed, or clubbed, and then I fell. I turned to run because I was getting my ass kicked, but then there was nothing under my feet. Luckily, there was a lake at the bottom of this huge, black pit, which means I didn’t…” I decide not to finish that thought. Griffin’s expression is turning more frightening by the word.
“I hit the water, but I was too weighed down to swim. I had my clothes and cloak, Kato’s clothes and cloak, my satchel—which I dropped. But after that, I could hardly move because it was so cold. My fingers were numb, and I was woozy anyway because I’d just hit my head.” My hand automatically rises to the sore spot under my hair. “I couldn’t get anything else off me.”
Silent but clearly seething, Griffin runs his fingertips over my scalp, lightly moving them from front to back. Feeling the sizeable lump still there, his lips thin. “You sank.”
I nod.
Griffin takes a calming breath. Then another. It takes three to actually work. “I’m going to skip over your having Kato’s clothes and get right to the new scars on your neck.”
I glance down, fiddling with my belt. “I didn’t drown. I, uh…grew gills.”
“Gills?”
Nodding, I run a self-conscious hand over my neck.
“Did you pray to Poseidon?” he asks. “Call on an Oracle?”
I shake my head. “I was too panicked. Too muddled. No air. The cold…” I shrug. “I don’t know what happened.”
Gripping my waist, Griffin lowers his head and then carefully kisses the slashing scars on one side of my neck. “What happened after that?”
I shiver when he shifts to the other side, and his lips brush a soft, warm kiss over the first raised ridge. “I hit the bottom, wrapped both cloaks around me to keep from freezing to death, picked up my satchel, and then walked to the other side of the lake.”
A puff of breath hits my neck, and I think Griffin smiles a little against my skin. “My brave, brave Cat.” His mouth gently traces another scar.
“Definitely.” I shudder. “There were eels.”
“Where was Kato?” The careful levelness of his voice does nothing to hide its sharp edges from me.
“He was getting the golden fleece for the Ipotane Alpha. We’d already been separated for three days. Maybe more. It was hard to tell in there.”
Griffin straightens. His nostrils flare as he looks down at me. “He shouldn’t have left you.”
“He got what we needed. We both made it out. That’s what’s important.”
His eyes spark with anger in the dim light. “What’s important is keeping you safe.”
“Stop.” Sharp, the one word rings out loudly in the icy quiet of the tunnel. “Stop with this obsession. It’s not fair to anyone, especially me, and for the first time ever, I can honestly say you’re being a hypocrite.”
“A hypocrite?” he grates out, stiffening away from me.
“If your goal is to keep me safe, then take me back to Castle Sinta. We’ll dance, feast, spend hours in bed together, get fat, and have babies. Don’t take over the realms. Don’t try to change the world. Don’t throw us all into the paths of power-hungry, bloodthirsty Alphas. Don’t be responsible for anything except for me.”
Griffin blinks. He looks like I slapped him. “Are you asking me to choose between you and everything else?”
Shaking my head, I lift my hands and spear my fingers into his overlong hair. I don’t know how his hair stays silky and soft when I’m going to need a vat of olive oil to untangle mine. “I have a feeling you’d choose me, and I won’t do that to you. You’d end up hating me for it, and I’d hate myself. But I’m not a princess in a gilded tower. You have to let me do my part.”
“You’re on the Ice Plains. You went inthere.” A tight jerk of his head indicates the dark tunnel leading into the labyrinth.
“I know. And I know that was hard for you. For everyone. But don’t be mad at Kato for doing his part.”
Griffin mutters a harsh curse and then stares at me, his expression like a herd of Centaurs on the verge of charging—explosion imminent.
I lightly cup his cheek in my hand. “I’m here. I’m safe.”
