“Perhaps, or perhaps someone saw him!” Thalia screamed. Why were they both being so reckless? Especially Dafne. She could not afford to be captured and sold one more time, she had already spent too much time with her bond cut off from Nyx. Any more time apart and she might have begun to sink into madness—the curse that lies within all of them.
“No one saw me. Now, what do you say we set sail for ouractualdestination before someone can prove me wrong?” Dimitris said, hand clutched around a small wooden compass. He strode over to Thalia’s side, brushing his fingers over her cheek before tucking a loose strand of her braid behind her ear. “Don’t look so angry,gatáki, I did this for you.”
Her heart fluttered at the words, skin turning a damning shade of rose. How was she supposed to spend the next few weeks with someone so reckless?
Cal’s booming laughter shook the deck of theAphroditewhen Thalia eventually made it back above deck, searching for where her sister had run off to. He sat with Dimitris and one other person she could not quite make out, hidden behind the prince. Padding over to the makeshift table that was lined with cheeses and meats, her eyes narrowed on the insufferable man.
Why was the prince always eating? And why was he sitting with her sister? There was no way she was actually laughing at him, and yet Dafne’s shoulders shook, and it was paired with a full, brilliant smile. The prince winked at Dafne and rose spread across her nose. Thalia couldn’t blame her, Dafne did not reallyknowDimitris enough to be put off by his overinflated ego just yet.
If one took the prince at face value, she understood why her sister’s eyes sparkled and her chin sat delicately on her propped up hand. Anyone could see he was handsome, jaw-dropping and intoxicating with his deep black hair that sometimes swept across his eyes in the ocean breeze—those silvery storm-swept eyes any woman or man would be grateful to drown in. He was always dressed impeccably, much like today, with his tight brown leather trousers that hugged his thighs and a button-up white shirt, no wrinkles in sight, paired with a brown fur cloak that hung over his shoulders, shielding from the cold. But he was a womanizing fool and that was enough to make him untouchable to Thalia.
“You didn’t think to invite me to whatever this”—she waved her finger between Dimitris and Dafne—“is?”
“Oh,gatáki,jealousy suits you.” Dimitris’s brow arched up and he flashed those argentine orbs at her with a feral gaze.
Lip twitching, Thalia reached for a cup of wine that sat alongside the platter of food. If they were allowed to indulge in a break during the day, Thalia would be damned if she couldn’t as well. “And what exactly would I be jealous of?”
“Me.” The word rolled off Dafne’s tongue with a twinge of poison as dark as the hair cascading down her back. Oh, she did not miss her sister’s cruel—and entirely incorrect—sense of humor.
“You can have him, sister. I prefer a man with substance.”
Dimitris’s jaw feathered and his knuckles went white as he gripped the stem of his crystal wine glass. A pang hit Thalia in the gut at the sight—hewasthe one who changed his course to help her after all. Gods, he was the reason she sat here now and not in some barricaded quarters on the Lernean Legion’s ship.Although, he was also the reason the rest of the legion might set out to slaughter them all.
“I don’t understand why you loathe me so much. Did I not sit by your bedside every day making sure you were alright?” His words were gritty, straining through his clenched teeth in a snarl.
“You sat beside me because your brother asked you to,” Thalia replied. She was not going to have this conversation for the hundredth time with Dimitris. “Did you ever ask about me? Try to learn about what I love, what I’m passionate about? You were there because of duty…nothing more.”
Dafne looked toward Cal and muttered something Thalia could not make out and he gave her a cocked head, wide-eyed nod.
“And you would have let me?” Dimitris huffed, pouring yet another glass of ale.
“What?” The word came out in nothing more than a whisper.
“Get to know you. Because it seems to me like that is the furthest thing from what you want.” He took a long drag of ale from his cup, wiping his thumb over his lips.
“I—”
“You made up your mind about me already—that I am a shallow, callous prince who cares for no one but himself. Who only does things out of obligation—never of his own free will or empathy.”
“I never said that.” Thalia swallowed a forming lump in her throat. At least, not directly.
“You did. Many times you did. So I ask, are you any better than me, making flash judgments on a personyounever bothered to get to know either?” The screech of wood against metal pierced Thalia’s ear as Dimitris pushed back the barrel he sat on. “I am needed back at the helm. Cal, if you would join me after you are done, that would be appreciated.”
“Of course, Captain,” Cal said, shifting his eyes back and forth between the glaring gaze of Dimitris and Thalia before Dimitris turned, his right fist clenching and releasing.
“You really should give him a bit of grace,kóri.” Cal grabbed her hand and gave a light squeeze. “Has he once done something to you that would make you question his intentions, his integrity?”
Thalia’s face blanched. Gods, she hated when Cal was right. “That doesn’t mean he is a good person.”
“Maybe not—but where would you be, if the men and women of Skiatha had been so quick to judge you?”
Chapter Five
Dimitris
It had taken him hours to fall asleep that night, replaying the disdainful look Thalia had given him each time she spoke. What would it take for the seer to give him a chance, or at least to not look at him like he was the scum that grew along the hull of a ship? Dimitris could not remember a time where someone didn’t see him as just the pestering barnacle that latched onto wood.
When he eventually dozed off, it was the kind of deep, dreamless sleep that should have lasted until the morning. Yet, when his eyes shot open, it was still moonlight that illuminated his quarters.
