“What kind of look?”
“I don’t know,” he says, his grin growing. “But I think it might be … a smile.”
I smack him on the shoulder. Hard.
“I can’t be sure,” he continues, “because I’m not sure I’ve ever seen one on your face before, but it definitely looks like—Hey!”
I start smacking him with greater frequency, my good mood growing with every hit. He’s laughing, I’m laughing. I feel completely … free. When he grabs each of my wrists in a fist, my laughter slowly dies. The look in his dark eyes says he feels the same comfortable connection as I do.
His gaze drops to my mouth and I suck in a breath.
“Gretchen …”
His head starts moving closer with aching slowness. My eyes drift shut. I can feel his breath on my lips, hot and damp.
As his mouth approaches mine, I feel a jolt of magic arc between our lips, like the spark of static electricity when you reach for a metal doorknob in winter. I shiver as the sensation skitters down my spine.
Then our lips meet, barely a touch. Lighter than a butterfly on a flower. But I feel it … everywhere.
Then Nick is pulling back and my eyes open. He has the same dazed look on his face that I feel. I clamp my lips together, marveling at the feeling. His smile takes over his face.
“Gretchen!” Grace’s voice echoes around me. “Here we are!”
I look up the sidewalk to where Grace and Greer are standing outside the bakery. Grace is waving like wild, trying to get my attention.
I sigh. “We’d better go.”
Nick doesn’t release my wrists. “This isn’t finished.”
No, it’s not. I shake my head, and he lets me go. I turn away from his serious expression and start up the street.
“Oh no,” Nick says.
I turn back. A black spot has appeared in the street a few feet from where I’m standing. Right next to Nick.
Not now. Can’t the beastie realm hold off for a little while? Taking down a monster isn’t exactly convenient at the moment, but it’s still part of the job description.
I face the portal, ready for whatever steps through. The creature that appears in the middle of the street is the stuff of bogeymen legends. A geryon—a hideous thing with three giant bodies joined at the shoulders, three ugly heads, and three sets of beady eyes. It’s backed by two pairs of diseased-looking wings with feathers falling off, leaving raw, gaping wounds. Technically, the thing is my cousin. A descendant of Medusa’s other offspring, the giant Chrysaor. But the gene pool definitely got corrupted along the way.
The geryon looks at me and grunts. I don’t think it can even speak.
Nick moves to my side, like he wants to protect me. He of all people should know I can take care of this myself. He’ll only get in the way.
I’m about to tell him that when the creature shifts its attention. Its three gazes focus on my companion. Looking directly at Nick, one of its faces contorts into a look of pure fury.
Everything happens in an instant.
The creature steps forward, shoves me to the side with one pair of beefy paws, and wraps its four other arms around Nick’s body. One tightens around his neck.
“No!” I shout.
With faster reflexes than I gave it credit for, the creature drags Nick back over to the portal. I run forward, reaching for Nick or the creature or both. But it’s too late. I’m not fast enough.
With one backward step, the creature disappears into the void. Nick disappears with him.
“No!” I shout again.
I turn and see my sisters running down the street toward me. They saw what just happened and are coming to help. But they’re too far away.
I have only seconds to make my decision. Let Nick go, and with him our only connection to the mythological world. Or …
I face my sisters, still half a block away. I make sure they’re watching as I reach down and pull the oracle’s note and the pendant of Apollo out of my cargo pocket and drop them on the ground. I only hope they can figure out how to use them.
Then, with the clock ticking, I turn back to the portal.
“Gretchen, no!” Grace shouts.
There’s no time. Already the edges of the portal are shrinking.
Without another thought I dive headfirst into the black.
CHAPTER 16
GREER
Grace and I rush down the hill, even though we can both clearly see that Gretchen, Nick, and the portal are all gone. When we reach the empty space, we stand there in shock. Our sister, the girl who is ultimately responsible for bringing us together, for introducing us to this world … is gone.
It stings. The thought that she has abandoned us, when we’re already so very alone in this, leaves me at a loss. But then I picture the look on her face—both when Grace and I caught her getting so close to Nick and in the instant before she dived in after him—and I understand.
“Why?” Grace cries. “Why would she do that?”
“To go after Nick, obviously,” I say. “Did you see the way they were looking at each other?”
“You think they—” Grace blinks. “Oh. Well, then.”
Still, feelings or not, I can’t imagine diving into that world, putting my life at risk, willingly. Not for a boy, not for anyone. Who knows what she’ll find—what she’s finding—on the other side?
“What are we going to do?” Grace asks. “We have to do something. We have to … I don’t know what.”