Tera Childs - Sweet Legacy

“I’m strong enough now,” she insists, and proves the truth of her words by hefting two heavy backpacks off the ground and carrying them to a nearby table.

Our super healing powers must be taking care of the poison quickly.

My gut clenches at the thought of my sisters and me splitting up. Both missions are important, though, and I know how Grace feels about finding our mother, so of course she wants to go after her. It’s the best option. Doesn’t mean I like it.

I quickly join Greer at the table of backpacks and start digging through to separate out the things we won’t need anymore. If our initial encounter down here taught me anything, it’s that we need to move light and fast if we’re going to get through the abyss, get into Olympus, and get the gorgons out without launching into all-out war. We don’t have the numbers for that right now. We’ll save the war for later.

As I start pulling things out, Nick steps up next to me at the table and helps.

“I’ll protect her,” he says quietly, “with everything I am.”

I don’t pause in my work. “I know.”

“You’re so sure of me now?” he asks with a smile. “What changed?”

I shrug. “Nothing. Everything.” I flick him a glance. “It just changed.”

He nods and reaches for the six-pack of water bottles in my hand.

“Promise me one thing,” he says.

I keep my eyes on the backpack. “What’s that?”

“That you’ll protect yourself”—he rests his hand over mine—“until I’m back at your side to do it myself.”

I snort—partly because the request is ridiculous, but also because the undertone of feeling in his request is too much. I don’t deal well with emotion. I don’t like the idea of separating from him, either. “In case you hadn’t noticed,” I reply, “I’m pretty good at taking care of myself.”

“I noticed,” he says, without moving his hand. “Promise?”

Something in his tone makes me look up. His midnight blue eyes are steady and intense. I want to make light, but I think we’re long past making jokes about serious situations. In the end, I nod. “Promise.”

The creatures around me are beautiful—not like supermodel beautiful or even bouquet-of-flowers beautiful. I try not to gawk at them slack-jawed like a total idiot. I mean, in the past few weeks I’ve seen a lot of weird things I’d never seen before. But these creatures, Gretchen’s friends, are in a class by themselves.

They are unique.

Some of them are beasts I’ve studied in mythology, like the pegasus with its breathtaking wings and the centaur guy with the body of a horse. Others are completely new and surprising. The golden maiden and the twin guards—shiny black stone, like they were carved from the world around us—are especially intriguing.

I don’t want to stare, but I can’t help it.

I force my attention back to Greer.

“Do you need anything before we go?” I ask. “More water? Some food? An emergency blanket?”

She seems so much better now after a few hours of rest, but I can’t get the image of what she looked like immediately after the attack—eyes glazed over and skin inflamed and an angry shade of red—out of my mind. She would have died if Thane hadn’t given her the antidote. That moment terrified me. I was frozen and I didn’t know what to do. Thank goodness Thane was there, that Greer encouraged me to let him come.

We came too close to losing her.

My hands shake a little as I fumble with the backpack zipper.

“I’m perfectly all right, Grace,” she insists. “Truly.”

I watch her, study her, checking for—I don’t know, signs of pain or a bad reaction to the poison or something. She pats me on the arm before grabbing one of the reorganized backpacks and carrying it over to where Gretchen has piled the ones staying here. Except for the disheveled hair and slightly pale skin, she looks fine, though. I hope that means she really is fine.

“She’s stronger than she looks,” Thane says.

He’s watching her intently, just like I was doing a second ago.

He’s right. She may not have Gretchen’s physical strength, but inside she’s tough. Bugging her and making her reassure me over and over isn’t very helpful or healing.

“I know,” I reply, turning to lean back against the table.

Thane doesn’t move. He just stands there, staring blankly across the cave. He’s not quite looking at her anymore, like he’s trying to act casual.

After more than half a lifetime together, I can read him too well. I can see beneath the surface. Greer drops a bottle of water, and his eyes are immediately on her as she bends to pick it up. Though he’s trying to hide it, his attention is fully focused on Greer. Something more is going on here than he wants me to know, and considering everything that’s happening, it’s past time he told me. Secrets lead to problems.

I clear my throat. “Can we talk for a sec?”

He looks at me, questioning. I lift my brows in return—I’m serious about this—and he shrugs. I nod my head toward the cave entrance, away from the ears of everyone gathered inside. He throws one last glance at Greer, as if he has to re-assure himself one more time, and then follows me toward the cave entrance.

Total privacy isn’t really an option in this tiny space, but we’re as far from the others as we can get while still being safely inside.

I stop in front of the narrow tunnel that leads back out into the main cavern of the abyss, turn to face him, and cross my arms over my chest. Thane stands perfectly still, unblinking and tense. I don’t need Greer’s power to know he knows exactly what I’m going to ask.

“Tell me,” I say.

He hesitates and then shakes his head.

“What’s going on?” I demand. “You clearly know more about all of this”—I wave my hands at the general circumstances of my life—“than you should. That sword. The hellebore. Tell me.”

“No.”

No? I jerk back, shocked. “Why not?”

He shakes his head again, his stormy eyes darkening to almost black.

“You know everything I know,” I insist. “I have no secrets.”

He cocks one brow at me.

A flash of heat burns my cheeks.

Okay, I have almost no secrets. I haven’t been completely open and forthright about how I’m sorta, kinda, maybe dating his friend Milo. Maybe when I know for sure if we’re together, I’ll talk to Thane about it. For now I’m too afraid to mess things up. Besides, that’s hardly relevant to our situation here.

I correct my statement. “I have no secrets about this .”

He softens, just barely—there’s a slight drop in the rigid stance of his shoulders—but I can tell he’s battling this on the inside.

“Grace-face, I—” He cuts himself off, frowning like he’s thought better of answering. “I can’t.”

What a cop-out.

“You can,” I throw back, “but you won’t .”

He shrugs as if there’s no difference.

I study him intently, trying to think of some reason that he wouldn’t want to tell me the truth. He’s not the kind to be embarrassed, so I’m sure that’s not it. He also wouldn’t keep something from me unless he felt he had to. The only other thing he’s ever been this secretive about is his past—the time before Mom and Dad adopted him into our family.

He’d only been eight. What could that have to do with this?

“If this is about your past,” I say, “it doesn’t matter. I don’t care about anything that happened before we even met. I love you. Besides,” I continue, “I know you. I know it can’t be anything bad.”