“I know you don’t want to hear this, but it’s been watching us ever since—”
Eleni let out a sharp sigh. “Oh gods, Danae, please not this again—”
“Listen to me!” Her body still sang with fear. “I saw it at the Thesmophoria, it was looking in through the window the night Arius was born and it was waiting on the path today. I should never have taken him.” She punched her last sentence into the air with more violence than she intended.
Arius began to cry, but Eleni did not seem to notice. She looked so weary. She was thinner—they all were—and the skin on her face was beginning to sag. Danae used to believe there was no problem her mother couldn’t surmount. But she was no longer a child and could see Eleni was as lost as she was.
“Do you believe me?”
Her mother looked at her as though she were the source of all her worry. “I don’t know what to believe anymore.”
She took Arius inside and left Danae standing alone in the yard.
8
Dance of the Deep
Since the unsuccessful visit to Demeter’s temple, there had been no sign of the shade. Now there were even days where Danae barely thought about it. Perhaps Dionysus had answered her prayer after all. Or perhaps the creature was biding its time.
“I think I should tell Ma and Pa today,” said Alea.
Her sister stood by the table they’d carried into the yard, Arius balanced on her hip.
“Hmm?” The heat of the outdoor oven blasted Danae’s cheeks as she peered in, watching the honey cakes she’d just slid into its fiery belly.
“It’s Arius’s first birthday, what better time to tell them who his father is?”
Danae’s head snapped round. “Alea, I don’t think that’s a good idea.”
Given their mother’s reaction to Danae trying to convince Eleni about the shade, she could only imagine the reception Alea claiming Arius was Zeus’s son would have.
“But what if he comes to see his son today? He will come eventually, Danae, he must. And Ma would never forgive me for not warning her.”
Danae’s chest tightened at the hopeful expression on her sister’s face. Every time Alea brought up Arius’s father, she was forced to face the kernel of doubt buried deep inside her. The little voice that whispered that Alea had created this fantasy of Arius being a demigod to protect her from the truth of what had happened to her.
Danae could not explain why the shade had taken her sister, or why it had continued to watch her nephew, but try as she might, she could not convince herself that of all the women in Greece, the King of Heaven had looked down from Olympus and chosen her sister. Heracles’s mother was a princess, as was Perseus’s. Alea was beautiful, but she was cut from the same humble cloth as the rest of their family.
No, the terrible truth was that, however strange the events surrounding the Thesmophoria, Alea must have been raped by a mortal man. And if it was brought to light, their parents’ scrutiny might tear down the walls her sister had built around her pain. If that happened...she didn’t want to dwell on what Alea might do.
“Don’t let those cakes burn, Danae!” Eleni shouted as she emerged with a jug of water, which she set on the table. “The honey alone cost...” she trailed off, watching Arius gurgle with happiness as he played with Alea’s hair. A contented smile spread across her lips, and she bustled back into the hut.
The yard gate creaked.
Alea gasped, and Danae spun around to see Santos stepping into the yard. His young sons, Egan and Minos, scampered out from behind his legs.
“Danie! Danie!”
Cakes abandoned, she rushed over to them. The boys flung their arms around her, and she hugged them tight.
“Look how big you’ve got, little bears!”
Minos puffed out his chest. “I’m not a bear, I’m Heracles!”
Egan shoved him. “No, it’s my turn to be Heracles! You’re the hydra!”
They began to chase each other around the yard. Their mother, Kafi, came striding from behind her husband. She made straight for Alea and Arius.
“He looks so like you. He’ll grow to be a strong, handsome man, I can tell.”
