if responding to my mere presence, thick clouds rushed over the sun, shrouding us in near-darkness.
“Holy fates.” Seraphia stumbled, and I righted her, wrapping my arm around her waist and gripping her to me.
I wanted to hold onto her like this forever, but she pulled away.
“What just happened with those clouds?” she asked, her face turned toward the sky.
“It’s me.”
“Are you like a vampire and can’t go into the sun?”
I shook my head. “No. It’s just the response of the sun, to hide from me.”
“That’s…unexpected.” She looked me up and down, the slightest bit of fear glinting in her eyes. “I didn’t know the sun was afraid of anything.”
“I’m not sure I would call it fear.” More like a curse.
A curse? I’d never thought of it that way before. It was just the nature of things, that darkness would follow me always. Why was I suddenly thinking this way?
I shook the troubling notion away and looked at her. “It’s just the way it is.”
“Hmm.”
It was clear that a hundred thoughts were flashing through her mind, but she didn’t speak them. Instead, she turned and inspected our surroundings. I followed her gaze, taking in the bleached ruins of the town that had once existed here. The buildings had been demolished by time, and their remains crumbled around us with sparse, tough grass growing up between them. As I watched, they began to reconstruct themselves, the whitewashed walls and terracotta roofs reappearing. Tiny windows looked like eyes into the houses, and little gardens sprouted out front. The paths cleared, as if people had trod over them for hundreds of years.
“What’s happening?” Seraphia asked.
“When a god walks upon the earth in a place that once worshiped him, it returns to its former glory.”
Her eyes widened as she took it all in. “Will the people appear?”
“No. They are gone.”
“In the underworld?”
“Among other places.”
The city had fully reformed now, the buildings lining the streets and the fountains shooting water. In the distance, a large temple speared toward the cloudy sky, sitting at the edge of a rocky promontory that jutted out over the water. A narrow land bridge connected the city to the temple, and the gray waves crashed on either side of it.
I pointed to the temple. “Come. That is where we will meet the Oracle.”
Her gaze flashed to me. “What will you ask her?”
“Not me, you.”
“Me?”
I nodded. “Ask her about your family. Your past.”
She frowned. “Wait, what? How does this have anything to do with advancing your goal?”
I frowned, unsure of how to answer. She’d wanted answers last night, so I’d brought her here. I hadn’t thought much more than that.
Her eyes widened. “Holy fates, it doesn’t.” She narrowed her eyes at me. “Did you bring me here to be nice?”
“No.” I nearly laughed, but my throat was too rusty from disuse. “That is not something that I am.”
“No. You’re not nice.” She shook her head. “That is a weak, silly word. But this is kind.”
I frowned, uncomfortable with that word as well. “Just go ask your questions. I cannot promise that you will find anything.”
She nodded, and after one lingering look at me, she started down the path by the sea. I followed her, staying close behind.
The path cut along the cliff, which rose fifty feet above the crashing waves below. She stared down at them, a wistful look on her face.
“This is similar to where I spent my earliest years, on Cyprus.” She looked back at me. “Until we had to leave.”
“Because of me.”
She nodded, her gaze shadowed.
Something sharp slipped between my ribs, a blade honed of guilt.
I swallowed hard. Guilt? Why should I possibly feel guilt?
Gods, feelings were miserable things.
“It’s strange that you should have dominated so much of my childhood—all of the running and hiding—and yet, now that I’m with you, you’re not nearly as bad as I thought.”
For the briefest moment, something bright shone in my heart. Happiness, perhaps. Or hope?
It was followed immediately by an immense wave of self-disgust. She couldn’t think that of me. It was too dangerous.
I gripped her arm and jerked her to me. She gasped, stumbling until she righted herself with a hand against my chest. Wide-eyed, she looked up at me. “What the hell is your problem?”
“Don’t think that I am kind, for I am not. I will disappoint you.”
She scowled at me. “Oh, I know it. Silly me to have forgotten.”
Somehow, the damned knife returned between my ribs. I let go of her and stepped back, then nodded toward the path