neck, which not even my long-sleeve hoodie could hide. Occasionally, my vision blurred, turning the world a sickly shade of eggplant. I would hear a distant whisper in my head…the voice of Tarquin, beckoning me to return to his tomb. So far, the voice was just an annoyance, but I had the feeling it would get stronger until I could no longer ignore it…or fail to obey it.
I told myself I just needed to hang in there until tonight. Then I could summon godly help and get myself cured. Or I’d die in battle. At this point, either option was preferable to a painful, lingering slide into undeath.
Reyna hiked alongside me, using her sheathed sword to poke the ground as if she expected to find land mines. Ahead of us, through the dense foliage, I saw no sign of Meg or the greyhounds, but I could hear them rustling through leaves and stepping on twigs. If any sentries waited for us at the summit, we would not be taking them by surprise.
“So,” Reyna said, apparently satisfied that Meg was out of earshot, “are you going to tell me?”
My pulse accelerated to a tempo suitable for a parade march. “Tell you what?”
She raised her eyebrows like, Really? “Ever since you showed up at camp, you’ve been acting jumpy. You stare at me like I’m the one who got infected. Then you won’t make eye contact. You stammer. You fidget. I do notice these things.”
“Ah.”
I climbed a few more steps. Perhaps if I concentrated on the hike, Reyna would let the matter drop.
“Look,” she said, “I’m not going to bite you. Whatever is going on, I’d rather not have it hanging over your head, or mine, when we go into battle.”
I swallowed, wishing I had some of Lavinia’s bubble gum to cut the taste of poison and fear.
Reyna made a good point. Whether I died today, or turned into a zombie, or somehow managed to live, I would rather face my fate with my conscience clear and no secrets. For one thing, I should tell Meg about my encounter with Peaches. I should also tell her I didn’t hate her. In fact, I liked her pretty well. All right, I loved her. She was the bratty little sister I’d never had.
As for Reyna—I didn’t know whether I was or wasn’t the answer to her destiny. Venus might curse me for leveling with the praetor, but I had to tell Reyna what was bothering me. I was unlikely to get another chance.
“It’s about Venus,” I said.
Reyna’s expression hardened. It was her turn to stare at the hillside and hope the conversation went away. “I see.”
“She told me—”
“Her little prediction.” Reyna spat out the words like inedible seeds. “No mortal or demigod will ever heal my heart.”
“I didn’t mean to pry,” I promised. “It’s just—”
“Oh, I believe you. Venus loves her gossip. I doubt there’s anyone at Camp Jupiter who doesn’t know what she told in me Charleston.”
“I—Really?”
Reyna broke a dry branch off a shrub and flicked it into the underbrush. “I went on that quest with Jason, what, two years ago? Venus took one look at me and decided…I don’t know. I was broken. I needed romantic healing. Whatever. I wasn’t back at camp a full day before the whispering started. Nobody would admit that they knew, but they knew. The looks I got: Oh, poor Reyna. The innocent suggestions about who I should date.”
She didn’t sound angry. It was more like weighed down and weary. I remembered Frank Zhang’s concern about how long Reyna had shouldered the burdens of leadership, how he wished he could do more to relieve her. Apparently, a lot of legionnaires wanted to help Reyna. Not all of that help had been welcome or useful.
“The thing is,” she continued, “I’m not broken.”
“Of course not.”
“So why have you been acting nervous? What does Venus have to do with it? Please don’t tell me it’s pity.”
“N-no. Nothing like that.”
Up ahead, I heard Meg romping through the brush. Occasionally she would say, “Hey, how’s it going?” in a conversational tone, as if passing an acquaintance on the street. I supposed she was talking to the local dryads. Either that or the theoretical guards we were looking out for were very bad at their jobs.
“You see…” I fumbled for words. “Back when I was a god, Venus gave me a warning. About you.”
Aurum and Argentum burst through the bushes to check on Mom, their toothy smiles gleaming like freshly polished bear traps.