As I watched them, a thought nagged at me. What did Penelope want to tell me tomorrow?
And why did it bother me so much that I would never find out?
“Not long now,” Callias whispered as he sidled up to me. “They’reall too drunk to remember their own names.”
“Mm.” I nodded vaguely.
I felt Callias’s eyes on me, then he followed my gaze to Penelope. Her face was flushed, hair a little unruly. I had never seen her so vibrant. She and Odysseus looked gloriously happy, limned by torchlight, glowing like young gods.
“Ah,” Callias murmured. “Eros’s arrow burns so brutally sweet, does it not?”
I flinched, snapping my attention away. “What? No, it’s not… I’m not—”
He chuckled. “I didn’t think he’d be your type.”
I frowned, following Callias’s gaze back to Odysseus.
“The prince of Ithaca isn’tbad-looking, I suppose. He’s got a nice smile on him,” he mused. “They seem to make a decent pair.”
“He looks more like her father,” I muttered.
“Don’t all grooms? I wonder if Penelope is excited for her wedding night or afraid. What do you think?”
“I don’t care,” I said, turning away from the twirling couple.
“Melantho.” Callias touched my wrist, his voice sobering. “There’s still time to change your mind. You don’t have to do this.”
He was wrong. Ididhave to. I had to get away from this prison. I had to know what freedom tasted like. I had to take control of my life, even if it were only to end it. At least it would bemychoice.
And there was power in that, even in defeat.
“I’ve made my decision,” I said.
Without warning, Callias leaned forward and kissed me. It wasn’t the first time he had done such a thing, for Castor often made us share his bed together, but neither was the kiss romantic. The tenderness between Callias and I was hard to describe, not driven by desire or passion yet something more intimate than friendship.
“Look at that—I can still make you blush,” Callias murmured with a smile, brushing my cheek. “I’ll miss you, my friend.”
“Take care of yourself,” I said thickly, taking his hand.
“No, no, darling. I makeotherstake care of me.” He grinned fiendishly. “Now go. I’ll make sure everyone’s cups stay full. They’ll be so blind drunk they’ll need days to sleep it off.”
I kissed his hand, unwilling to let go. “Thank you. For everything.”
“Go,” he urged, brushing off my emotion with a wink. “Go taste freedom for the both of us.”
***
Since childhood, I had been taught to be invisible, to shrink myself down to an undetectable size.
I used to loathe it, being forced to relegate myself to the shadows, to the corners of existence. But that night, as I hurried from the palace, I relished slipping through the world unseen.
The darkening skies looked heavy and somber as I made my way to the stables, mottled clouds stretching across them like cracked clay. Ahead, the mountains stood as silent and eternal as a tomb. Soon we would be ascending those peaks, facing whatever lurked within them. We’d all heard the stories, of the wolves and monsters that hunted there. I had once thought they were mere fiction, meant to quell any who dared to do what we were attempting. But now I was no longer so certain.
“Melanthius?” I whispered as I entered the stables’ farthest pen.
Only silence greeted me, and I felt a sickening panic bleed through my gut.
“Melanthius? Melanthius!”
