The second boy knelt down in the dirt and began to pummel me, and I sighed inwardly. They really weren’t going to give it up, were they?
“Stop.”
A fourth person, and a voice that was definitely not male. I raised an eyebrow, and despite the beating I was supposedly enduring, I lifted my head. A girl around seventeen stepped onto the trail, wearing the same tunic as the boys. But unlike them, her bright blue eyes sparkled with intelligence and cunning, and as the second boy reluctantly stopped hitting me, she began to circle us.
“Notice anything unusual, Sprout?” she said, and the hitter pulled back enough to eye me.
“He’s not bleedin’. They always bleed when I get to ’em.”
“The small ones, anyway,” said the leader, and she bent down. “Why aren’t you bleeding?”
I sat up. She was pretty for a mortal, even with dirt smudged on her cheek and her black hair pulled back into a braid. But pretty didn’t mean much when she was the sort to sic her goons on unsuspecting travelers, especially when they weren’t carrying anything of value.
Then again, she had stopped him, so there was that. Though had I been mortal, I would’ve been unconscious for sure by now.
“My secret,” I said. “Mind if I go?”
“Not yet.” She leaned toward me, scrunching her nose. “You don’t smell bad, either. And you’re clean.”
“Is that a crime?” I said.
“No, but it means you’re not what you look like,” she said. “Where are you going? Tell me, or I’ll let Mac have a go at you.”
The big guy with the baby face cracked his knuckles. Mac, then. “I don’t know where I’m going,” I said. “That’s the truth. I don’t even know where this path leads.”
“So you’re a drifter,” she said. “Fair enough. But where are your things?”
“I live off the land. I figure if humans did it for ages before us, I can, too.”
“But no tools? No water pouches?”
I shrugged. “I have good luck.”
The girl leaned toward me, her face an inch from mine. The tug in the pit of my stomach urged me forward, almost painfully insistent. I had to get going before anyone else disappeared.
Before I could move, however, the girl touched my chin. A familiar sizzle jolted through me, and as it always did when I found what I was looking for, that tug instantly vanished.
She was the answer? Now I was damn sure my powers were messed up. She probably couldn’t even read—had likely never held a book in her life. And she certainly didn’t have the secret to our eternity locked in her head. That just wasn’t something a single mortal could know.
But I stayed put, allowing her to tilt my head from one side to the other as she examined me. She was entrancing. No surprise that she’d managed to rope three boys into doing her bidding. And not everything was what it seemed. Maybe there was something special about her. Maybe she was one of Zeus’s many bastards. The possibilities were endless, and as I stared at her, I gave her a grin. Whatever it was I was looking for could wait a little while longer.
“You really aren’t hurt at all,” she said, stunned, and she stood abruptly, exchanging looks with the three boys. I expected amusement or curiosity, but all I saw was fear. “All right, so—you can go, then,”
I stood, brushing off my tunic. “Finally decided I don’t have anything worth stealing, did you?”
“Just go,” she said, paling as she took a step away from me. “Before I change my mind.”
That was a new one. Usually mortals didn’t try to push me away. Even when I didn’t admit who I was, there was a natural connection between gods and mortals. Sort of like the food chain. We’re dependent on them, they’re dependent on us—
So why were we dying off when they were still here?
As the girl started down the trail, flanked by her three henchmen, my stomach grew hollow. I’d known her for all of two minutes, and seeing her walk away made me ache. So maybe my powers weren’t completely out of whack. Maybe she did know something.
“Wait,” I called, trotting toward them. “Could I join you?”
“No,” she said flatly without turning around. “We have trouble finding enough food for all of us as it is.”
“I can get my own,” I said. “Hell, I can get yours, too.”
Her steps grew uneven, as if something was holding her back. “I don’t believe you.”
“Then let me prove it.” I nodded to the trail. “Meet me back here in ten minutes.”
“You can get enough food to feed all five of us in ten minutes?” She turned to face me, smirking now, though there was still a hint of fear in her eyes. “All right, we’ll wait. And if you don’t show up with enough to feed us, then we’re leaving, and you’re on your own. And we take whatever food you do bring.”
“Deal.” I gave her a slight bow. “Don’t move.”
“Wasn’t planning on it.”
She sounded confident enough, but one wrong move, and I knew she’d be gone. So I walked into the woods with as much purpose as I could muster. If robbery was a matter of survival for them, then no wonder they were practically drooling at the thought of a full meal. From the looks of the youngest kid, they’d probably been hungry for most of their lives.
Once I was completely out of sight and earshot, I created five dead rabbits and three quail, along with a pouch full of berries. She already knew something wasn’t right about me, so no harm in exacerbating it. With luck she’d be willing to excuse it if it meant her belly was full.
“Dinner,” I called as I stepped back onto the trail. “Couldn’t find any greens, but I figured you’ve all had enough of…”
I trailed off. The path was empty. Was this the right spot? Of course it was. I never got lost. Where the hell were they?
I sighed. I could take off. Figure out another way to find this solution. The universe had a sense of humor sometimes, sure, but that didn’t mean I had to put up with it. There had to be a better way.
As soon as I closed my eyes, however, a bolt of lightning lit up the sky, followed by the dangerous clash of thunder. Perfect. If Zeus knew I was here, it’d only be a matter of time before he found me. He didn’t have my abilities, but he was Zeus.
I took off as fast as I could without dropping the game. No idea where I was going—I just ran. The deeper into the woods I was, the less chance Zeus would have of spotting me, and right now I really did not want to go back to Olympus.