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She looked delicious.

“Dude!” Gideon said. “You look like you might be radioactive. Or dead.”

I rolled my eyes. At full power, I was paler all around.Overpowered, I glowed, which was ridiculous. “Ready when you are.”

“I’ll come with,” Kleos announced. Before I could repeat that no, I wasn’t letting her in the room while raising the dead, she added, “I have an interview today, and a few things to sort out at home if I don’t want my mother to strangle me. Might as well catch a ride with you guys.”

Ha. So, she was running. I should have expected as much. Wise, really. “An interview,” I repeated, calling the bluff.

She nodded. “About the murders. Gideon thinks we should warn people to carry salt. I’ll say I was recently cursed and managed to get out of it with a salt circle. It should convince a few people to make sure they keep some on their person.”

“I see.”

Except, I didn’t. We’d talked about it before, and she’d pointedly mentioned it was Tuesday. I remembered that, as I’d checked her schedule before planning Delphi. Either she was an excellent liar, she’d prepared the story ahead of time, or she actually had that interview now. I couldn’t quite tell which.

“I thought that was next week.”

“They moved it up.” She seemed unbothered. “If you don’t mind, I’ll come back tomorrow to continue with the research? And talk about what you find out today.”

I let myself take a moment to decide before saying, “Tomorrow won’t work. I have lunch at my parents, and there’s a town festival following Samhain. I’ll be away most of the day.”

I could have invited her along. I could have told her to use Theke. But it was clear we both needed space.

“Let’s meet at Apollo’s temple Monday morning, for the Delphi trip.”

Two days. Hopefully, by then, I could think about something other than throwing her on the nearest surface.

“All right.”

We were both silent on the way back, but luckily, Gideon had no problem taking up air. He loved Ronan’s horses. He loved the carriage. He loved coming to unders and absolutely adored the hydra kebabs he bought once we reached the town circle.

I loved the fact that his babbling allowed me to keep to my own thoughts.

What Kleos had offered had been clear, and I should take it at face value. She’d made herself get off over me, she felt bad about it, and blew me to even the score. It meant nothing. I wasn’t entitled to more. And yes, she would likely let me fuck her into next week if I asked, but she wouldn’t want more. I was already in too deep. I needed to get a grip.

We walked her from the Hall of Truce to her house, right across the park. Premium real estate for the vale, but I would have hated to live so close to everyone else. I memorized the address all the same.

Gideon waved as she crossed the threshold, then turned to me. “All right, what the hell happened?”

Ugh. I forgot he was less of an idiot than he seemed. “Nothing.”

He rolled his eyes. “Please. That was downright painful. Was it because you fucked last night? Practically everyone did, you know. Hell, I fuckedSilver, which was insane. And painful. I still have bruises.”

“Too much information.” I started to walk back to the Guard. “Andno. Some of us have self-control.”

Some of usdidn’t include Kleos, but he didn’t need to know that.

“Then, what?” he insisted, catching up with me. “You went from acting like an old married couple to a couple of angst-driven teenagers.”

“I will hit you,” I promised.

“Come on, tell me! If I have to put up with all the drama, the least you could do is keep me in the loop.”

He made a nuisance of himself all the way to the morgue, but thankfully left me alone once I was alone with dear cold Nancy Pebbles.

The woman was the last victim found, a week ago. I didn’t doubt we’d have a fresher corpse soon enough, but in the meantime, she’d do.

I brought my hands to either side of her head and closed my eyes, opening up the portal to the underworld that existed inside my mind. My proximity to the corpse brought me close to the specific soul I needed. I could see her shimmer at the bank of the endless dark river.