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“Nothing. He wasn’t waiting for me like I thought. Turns out he left the castle last night.” Alex straightened. “So,” he said brightly, speaking to the group. “What are we talking about?”
“The dominions,” I blurted. “And how they’re different. Right, Daciana?”
“Huh? Oh, yes.” She caught on quickly. “Olympia is night and day compared to my home, but one thing I can’t complain about is the baths. Soaking in bubbling, scented water is the only fix after long days of training.”
“What do you do in your dominion?” Theron asked.
Nitsa nudged his shoulder. “Are you asking her how she bathes herself? Want to know if she starts with the front or back?”
“What— I wasn’t—! Shut up, Nitsa!”
Daciana and I muffled snorts. It broke a little bit of the tension, then I noticed the entire mess hall was still staring, and the prickle going up my neck came back.
“It’s okay,” Daciana said. “I know what he meant. In my wolf form, I bathe in freezing cold lakes and streams. I don’t feel the cold, but I know I’m not in a hot spring. In our natural form, we need shelter but the need to move and run free is ingrained in us. That means trailers—” She noted their blank looks. “Moveable homes. Homes on wheels.”
“On wheels?” Theron repeated. “How do you put them on wheels?”
“Well, they’re these rectangular, metal... uh... boxes,” she said, motioning with her hands. “Beds, food, and bathrooms are inside, so we have everything we need.”
“But you live in metal boxes,” Ionna said, alarmed. “No wonder you want to be free.”
“No, I—I’m not explaining this right.” She blew out a breath. “Honestly, they’re quite comfortable. The point is we can take our shelter everywhere we go, and when the wolf needs to run free, all we have to do is open the door. What we don’t have are swimming pool–sized baths fed from an underground hot spring.”
“What’s a swimming pool?”
Daciana laughed. “You guys all have to visit me one day. I have a feeling it will be a mind-blowing trip.”
“I wish we could,” Nitsa said. “Olympians aren’t allowed to do the interdominion program. We’re only allowed to receive the guests, not be one of them. Nothing’s more important than our training, and then we’re bound for army service after that.Only the council and council representatives are allowed to leave Olympia without a death sentence. They’re the ones sent to foster relations with other dominions.”
“What about after you leave the army? Even when we are old and gray, my friends.” She hooked her arm through mine. “You’ll be welcome among my people.”
“I really wish we could.” Ionna grasped her other arm, dropping her head on her shoulder. “Even out of service, we have our powers. Powers that are always needed to defend our homes and family, no matter how old we are. No one leaves Olympia, Daciana. That’s the way it must be.”
“Doesn’t that... bother you?” she asked carefully. “I mean, to not be able to leave even with the promise of coming back.”
“Anyone could say they just want to leave for a short visit and then never come back,” Alex spoke up. “This is our home. This is where we belong. It is our duty. None of that bothers me.”
Nitsa, Ionna, Tycho, and Theron nodded sharply.
My eyes glazed, staring off over Theron’s head.Hold on. How was my father able to leave Olympia all those times to meet my mother?
Mom said he was always on time for every date. His power was growing everlasting flowers, not slipping through barriers. Was Crisanto Vanda the answer? My father obviously discovered a way to get in and out of Olympia under cover without tripping a single alarm. Did it enough times to carry on the world’s most difficult long-distance relationship with ease.
I leaned over, brows furrowing as my mind raced.Did the monsters discover his path or method out of Olympia and use it to track me and Mom down all those years later? Was my dad the key to understanding how Selene’s allies have been moving around unnoticed? How they got to Mom. How they carried her through the gates of the most heavily guarded location in Olympia without a single person knowing.
“She’s right,” I rasped. “Fate. The threads of fate are connecting all of us—Mom, Dad, me, Selene, Alex, and Daciana—together.”
My head was stuffed with questions, but there were only two people who could answer them for me. Selene—never going to happen. And—
My eyes traveled up to where a rock wall and the four boys eating behind it would be.Sebastian could help me talk to my dad. He and his ghostly informants could help me with a lot of things. Like finding out where in the castle they keep the barrier-jumping potion. And now that the Lethe water wiped away that self-serving, utter bastard, I can ask him without giving up a pound of flesh.
I shot to my feet. “I’ll be right back. I need to talk to someone.”
“Talk to someone?” Nitsa looked around. “But we’re all right here?”
“It’ll only take a—”
“Don’t rush off on our account.” A familiar voice stopped me in my tracks.
