“Tartarus.”
Shock wipes his face blank. He pales. “Oh my Gods! Are you all right?”
“Yes.” I lift both hands to his chest, trying to reassure him, or at least comfort him. “It wasn’t, you know…fun.” And I doubt I’ll ever tell him more than a very abridged version of what happened to me there. I don’t need to hurt him with all the things that hurt me. “I broke Prometheus out.”
Griffin glances toward the window, although we can’t see down into the courtyard from where we now stand. He looks back at me, his expression tight with worry. “Zeus won’t be angry?”
After everything Zeus has pulled, I don’t really care. I don’t say that out loud, though. I still have some sense of self-preservation in me.
“I don’t think so. I think Prometheus’s punishment was over, and I was supposed to get him out. I think that’s why we ended up as neighbors there, and I’m pretty sure the main trio of Gods approved the escape while we were on our way out.”
Just a blink floods my mind with their images again, power incarnate, all-encompassing, letting their blessing wash over me in the tunnel of light. In my life, I’ve experienced their benevolence, their manipulation, their help, and their punishment. My head spins with it. Frankly, it’s hard to know which foot to stand on with Olympians. All things considered, I think I’ll just stand where I want.
Griffin frowns deeply. “How did you get out?”
I flex my feathers, knowing I can fold them away inside me now whenever I want—and also get them back out. “A door made of lightning and these pretty new wings. I finally figured it all out.”
His eyebrows lift. “Allof it?”
I make a face. “No, notallof it. But enough.”
He traces a finger over the arch of one wing. “I like the new colors.”
I smile. I thought he would.
“Was Kato with you?” he asks.
My smile crashes to the floor. “What? No. He had no reason to be”—punished—“in Tartarus.” I wrap my hand around my ice shard necklace, remembering the day Kato, Flynn, and Carver gave it to me. Barely able to push words past the wedge of sorrow in my throat, I ask, “Where did you bury him? Are you sure he had his coin?”
Griffin stares at me in confusion. “We couldn’t bury him. There was no body. He disappeared with you.”
My eyes widen. I knew he disappeared out fromunderme, but I never thought he disappearedentirely. “That’s not possible.”
Griffin shoves a hand through his hair, grating out a curse. His distress and bafflement seem to equal mine. “I swear to the Gods, Cat, we got everyone out. The soldiers. The dead. There were two people missing. You. And Kato. Not even Lycheron could pick up your scents.”
Shock immobilizes me, even though I already knew some of this from watching Ianthe. What I didn’t know is that Griffin and Lycheron had worked together, and that Kato had vanished without a trace.
“He…” I shake my head. “He must have been transported straight to the Underworld.” To the Elysian Fields, if the Gods are in any way just. Unfortunately, that’s wholly debatable. “There’s no way he would have gotten dropped in Tartarus. That was…”
Griffin’s eyes sharpen on me. “Punishment? For what you tried to do?”
I nod.
“What were you trying to do, exactly? Bring Kato back?” The question is quiet, without censure. And pitched like he thinks I could have done it.
I nod again. “I had to try. I couldn’t…not.”
His expression mirrors my heartbreak and shows no reproach, although he does say, “Is his fate something you should try to alter?”
I slice my hand through the air with sudden violence. “To the Underworld withshouldsandshould nots! Frankly, I didn’t much care. And I still don’t. I’m not sorry. I wish to all the Gods and magic on Olympus it had worked. The fight was over. He didn’t need to die.” The bitterness in my voice sours the air between us.
“Cat…” Griffin pulls me into his arms again.
I go willingly, but I want answers now more than I want comfort or care. “I don’t understand. Even when we die, we leave a physical form here.”
Griffin shakes his head. “I don’t know any more than you do.”
What could have happened? This makes no sense!
