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“What?”
I say that in place of caving to the urge to sing the famous song from the cartoon about taking a magic carpet ride. It’d be appropriate, since I’ve managed to levitate all three of our rugs—and us along with them. They undulate on the air as if they really are flying, making the three of us bob gently in our original spots.
“Well…original,” Circe finally blurts. “I mean, if we ignore the huge space between our backsides and the floor.”
“Kara.” Hecate’s voice is rich with its same resonance from last night. Something like an autotune, only more harmonic. “Was this what also happened to you…when you opened the book in Hades’s library? During the first time you summoned me?”
“Oh no,” I say quickly. “I mean…not right away.”
Her head tips to the side. “Not right away…inwhatway?”
“All of them. The light, the energy, the flying—”
“Levitation,” Circe supplies.
“Right. Sorry.”
“It’s all right,” Hecate assures. “You’re not being tested or graded. No stresses, okay?”
“Pleaseno stresses.”
Circe’s sardonicism is lighthearted this time, despite her pointed glance toward the stone floor below. It makes me giggle for a second, which elevates all three of us by another few feet. My apologetic shrug gets a new interruption from Hecate.
“We only want to help you understand it,” she says. “Can you tell me anything more about those moments?”
“Other than the fact that Gramps, Maximus, and I were surrounded by Hades’s henchmen and they were getting ready to toss us into the blackest pit they could find?”
She straightens her head into a defined nod. Despite the solace about this not being a test, I feel like I’ve contributed a worthy answer. “So your adrenaline spiked, and you fought back with the incantations.”
“I think so,” I admit. “That makes the most sense.”
She examines me with renewed intensity. “But you’re not as anxious now.”
“Not about henchmen and eternal black pits.”
As Circe joins her to pepper the air with melodic laughs, my face returns to normal temperature. Gradually, the three of us descend toward the sala’s floor. I’m drenched by more relief than I want to admit. Somehow I’ve managed to accomplish this without any bumps, breaks, or scratches. Unless the two of them helped without my realizing it. Which wouldn’t be so awful to accept. I’m a little more than a day into this journey. A grad student doesn’t write a thesis before learning their ABCs.
Circe gives me no clue about that answer while rising to her feet. After rolling through some stretches, she steps into the rainbowed rays cast down from the window.
I don’t join her, despite really yearning to. But I still feel…heavy. Significantly weighted by my new wonderment. Figuring out these new abilities is so much more than the ABCs. I have to be okay with that. To recognize—and accept—that there’s so much I don’t know. Can’t see. Can’tmeasure.
That’s it. I’m overwhelmed again.
I slump over to pick at stray fibers in my mat. Though not for long.
Hecate leans forward to fold my hand between both of hers. “All right. You’re not anxious. Let’s say that much. But you’re not at peace either.”
I wish the hitch of my breath wasn’t so telling. I wish the truth of the assertion doesn’t grab at Circe, making her pause and turn.
“No. Not at peace,” I confess. “I mean, not yet. But I’ll get there. Training wheels, right? The ABCs and one-two-threes. I’ll get there, I promise.”
Hecate tightens her grip. “You don’t owe promises to me.”
“Or to any of us,” Circe adds with too much tenderness.Droll femme fatalefits her so much better. “You’re safe here, Kara. You know that, right?”
“You are a diamond of Iremia now,” Hecate continues. “Rare and revered by all of us. And we will fight to protect you and Maximus if things between the gods escalate once more.”
My new frown borders on painful. “Escalate?” She really did say that, right?Escalate?“To…what? Whatthings, exactly?”
