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The last rune came without hesitation, not to cover anything at all. Just at the edge of her wrist, thelaguzdidn’t have the same purpose as the rest.

“We’re done,” I announced before directly tipping the green brew into her mouth.

She unfroze almost instantly.

“It worked!” Kleos yelled, staring at herself at all angles, even attempting to look behind her shoulders. “By the gods, it worked!”

I smiled at her enthusiasm, but cautioned her. “It might not last forever. And if they started that ritual once, they can do it again. But for now, you’re clear of outside interference.”

Kleos did something that completely broke my brain next. The mad girl jumped to her feet and wrapped her arms around me.

She was hugging me.

Me.

That was…

Unprecedented.

Insane.

Dangerous?

“I—” What could I even say? “I’m not hurting you?”

She shook her head against my chest. “Not even a little bit. Thank you. Thank you, thank you,thank you! You can’t imaginehow scared, how worried I was. I didn’t even let myself think how much those runes terrified me. And they’re gone thanks to you!”

I understood her excitement. She’d been dealing with that fear for days—weeks, really. It was natural for her to be glad. But I should have been the one thanking her. Getting to my knees and worshipping her.

She was hugging me.

She didn’t get it. How could she? She didn’t understand that my own mother never could have wrapped her arms around me like this while I was at full power.

I couldn’t help it. My arms circled her, and held her close.

I felt like myself, and I was touching someone who wasn’t Cassius Regis. I never believed this would happen to me.

Kleos was warmth and light and goodness andhugging me.

I would have to let go sometime. Soon. Too soon.

Fuck.

“It makes no sense,” I whispered. “My power comes from a literal titan—an elder god. I don’t understand how it’s not destroying you.”

“I think—I think that mine might have come from someone just like your ancestor.Someone powerful.”

“Come again?”

Kleos let go, and I wanted to punch myself for interrupting with my stupid questions. Who cared, really?

“When I was little, around seven, I opened a book—the wrong book. And it started to hurt me—burnme. But all of a sudden, I came to, and there was an old man writing runes here.” She touched her hips. “Three of them. They faded, but they saved me. Ichangedafterward.”

Finally, finally, I was getting to the bottom of the question that had plagued me since I’d first seen this girl. She was telling me what she was.

“I didn’t really know what happened—how it could have happened—for the longest time, but I was talking to a colleague, and she said…that gods visited the Hall sometimes. That’s the only thing that makes sense.”

Of course. Gods were welcome in the temples and the Hall of Truce. They’d just not visited for centuries, as far as I knew. But Kleos was right. It explained everything I’d sensed about her. And the fact that she could touch me.