Free The Blood of Athens by Amy Leigh Strickland Page B

guilt of something he
had done in a past life. When he had met Penny, he hadn’t felt like
Hades, Lord of the dead. Now, as more memories came back, he knew
that that identity was part of his life. She knew it, too. She didn’t
blame him. She didn’t hate him. She forgave him. She just couldn’t
break that association.
    “ I'm sorry,”
he said.
    “ I know you
are.”
    “ Thank you
for explaining that to me.”
    Penny hugged
him and Peter left it at that, just a hug.
    “ Friends?”
she asked.
    Peter nodded.
“Of course.” Though there was a painful twisting in his gut,
Peter understood. It wasn't fair, but he couldn't fix it. Trying to
force the issue was only going to cost him his best friend.

    Alexis Ruiz
was down the hall, visiting one of the boys from the marching band.
Diana was alone in her hotel room, watching a nature documentary in
Greek. The language barrier wasn't that big of an issue, given
Diana's first supernatural ability; generally, when she watched
Animal Planet, she was unable to focus on the narration anyway. What
the exotic animals had to say was much more fascinating. Diana was
watching a family of Meerkats argue over food when Astin knocked on
the door.
    Diana turned
the TV on mute and got up from the bed. She looked through the peep
hole and sighed. Did she have to answer it?
    “ I know
you're in there,” Astin said.
    Diana unlocked
the door and let her brother in. “Hi.”
    Astin walked
past Diana and into the room. He stood by the window, overlooking the
busy Athenian street.
    “ What do you
want?” Diana asked. She had been cold to him since August. She had
every reason to be since the Titan Atlas had revealed that Astin had
murdered her boyfriend with a peanut butter sandwich.
    “ To talk?”
    Diana crossed
her arms and just stared at him
    “ I mean, we
used to talk all the time, and now we don't.”
    “ I wonder
why that is.”
    Astin rolled
his eyes. “Your anger is noted, Di.”
    “ Yeah, and
justified. Is there something important you needed to talk about?”
    “ I need to
fix this.”
    “ Well, you
can't.”
    “ I know, but
I need to try. Diana, I killed Ryan. I thought he was corrupting you,
or hurting you, and then he was coming between us and I just wanted
to get rid of him. I just saw him as a threat, someone who was going
to break your heart and blow our cover and ruin our lives. But the
moment he stopped breathing I realized that I had made a mistake. It
was too late. I couldn't take it back. It was a mistake”
    “ A mistake
is something that happens in the moment. You planned it. You actively
planned to kill my boyfriend.”
    “ I didn't
realize he was that allergic. I
thought I'd have time to stop it. I thought I could heal him.”
    “ You killed
him.”
    “ I know,”
Astin's voice cracked. “I'm sorry.”
    “ This isn't
even your first offense. You did this before. I have memories of you
setting me up to kill Orion. You don't even have the guts to do it
yourself, you have to trick me into it. It's like you're so
threatened that I'll fall in love with someone and stop being your
sister.”
    “ I suppose I
am.”
    Diana sat down
on the bed and picked up the remote. “Get out,” she said.
    “ I'm sorry,”
Astin repeated.
    “ I know. But
I'm not ready to forgive you. Get out.”

    Celene sat in
a large arm chair, camped out with her laptop and her step-down power
converter in the lobby of the hotel by the elevator. She wasn't going
to have a repeat of the night before. She knew that she couldn't
reasonably stay up all night until the trip was over, but she thought
that staying out until one-thirty would give the impression that she
was holding a constant vigil.
    Celene
restarted her game of solitaire and started clicking through her
stack of virtual cards, looking for aces. Bed check was soon.
Students would need to be in their rooms, then the real watch began.
    The elevator
opened and Nick Morrisey stepped out. Celene was ready to jump up and
call him