38

38

Riddle Me This

After a long, pounding silence, my plank suddenly starts moving again.

Fast.

Until I’m up on my tiptoes.

And because I’m looking his way, I know Zai is one of the askers because he has more to stand on. The furrow in his brow and the way he’s still flipping pages in that odd book tell me he hasn’t figured it out entirely.

Can I trust Zai? Poseidon’s words rattle around in my head. But I am damn sure I can’t solve this alone. If, like the others, we worked together… But how?

“Zai!” I call out.

I don’t have enough room to kick at the glass. Hells. How do I communicate with him?

The memory of Hades’ voice whispers through my mind.

The tattoos.

He said they could be used to find out information. Can they…talk?

I stare at my forearm, and an idea takes shape. Hades told me not to use his gifts unless I absolutely needed them, but teetering over this drop feels like a do-or-die moment.

I’m going to have to risk it and try to work with Zai.

It takes some maneuvering of my hands above my head to be able to trace a line up the inside from my wrist to my elbow.

Just like for Hades, in the wake of my touch, the glittering lines form on my skin. My owl, panther, fox, and tarantula all blink at me, each moving as they stir to life. Hades said to think through their skills to use them wisely, but this one seems pretty obvious. Well, assuming I’m right and the animals are capable of communicating with people.

“Hey, pal.” I lightly tickle the owl, who flaps his wings. The sensation is like a rustling under my skin. “I need you to be a messenger to Zai.”

The owl tilts his head, round eyes trained on my face.

“Tell Zai if he promises to fly me down if he wins, I’ll tell him the question I already used and the answer.” Then I describe what I’ve learned. “And tell him I have two left if he needs them.”

My owl friend spreads his wings wide and leaps from my arm, becoming real and life-size as soon as he’s away from me. A twitch of movement catches my eye, and I look up, then press my belly into the wall of the mountain, stomach churning. One of the Daemones is outside the glass of my cage, gaze intent on me…and my arm.

But she doesn’t stop me or kill me or take me away screaming…so…I guess I’m okay?

The owl, not paying the Daemon any attention, swoops low under the glass, then back up into Zai’s glass cage, and perches on the book in his hands.

I suck in hard as Zai startles, bobbling, but he doesn’t fall.

The Daemon, in the meantime, backs away, but not by much. Awesome.

I can’t hear the exchange, but my owl must tell him the message, because Zai looks at me, dark eyes lit up, then sort of blinks to himself with a frown before leaning a bit to look around me. Rima seems to be focused on trying to solve the riddle, and the other three are yelling and gesticulating at one another. Is he worrying about this apparent alliance? Or is he part of it?

Then he nods at me, says something to the owl, then listens.

And that’s when I see it—the glint in his eyes matching the crook of his mouth.

Has he figured it out?

Zai talks to the owl some more. When the owl flies back to me, Zai closes his book with a snap I can almost hear, then waves a hand over it, which makes it disappear.

The owl swoops up to perch on my shoulder. He never opens his beak. Instead, I hear a voice in my head that isn’t quite mortal, but instead a sort of low trill like hooting but in words. “Ask this question…” The owl hoos the question from Zai in my ear.

I squint at Zai.

He rolls his eyes and points, and I get it. Just ask.

I hang on to the mountain. “Lachesis. Paris is the capital of France if and only if you are true, yes or no?”

“Yes,” the goddess says without hesitation.

My own plank moves out six inches. Someone yelps from my left, and I hope to Hades that the faint sound wasn’t me killing them. I didn’t hear a slide of rock or thudding body.

“Yes,” I yell and nod my head for emphasis.

Zai nods, then faces the Fates. Suddenly, our planks start to slide back toward the mountain again. Not one inch, not two, but a lot. I have no choice now.

I’m hanging by both hands and one foot while I search for another toehold and pray that Zai didn’t fall. I can’t turn my head to see.

“Congratulations!” Hermes’ voice booms from the sky. “The winner is my own champion, Zai Aridam!”

The god sounds so happy he could fly, but hopefully he’s not, because Zai needs those winged sandals right now.

I whisper to myself, “Come on, Zai. Please hurry. Keep your promise and don’t leave me here—”

“Right behind you.”

His voice is so close and unexpected that I yelp and almost lose my grip. Felix would be hanging his head in disgust if he could see me now.

Two hands land on my waist, and I can feel the way Zai lightly bounces up and down in the air thanks to the wings on his feet. “Can the sandals hold us both?” I ask.

“Sure.” He chuckles. A nice sound, surprisingly low and warm.

I won’t be laughing until I’m safely off this mountain.

“Now,” he says. “Let go with your right hand and try to wrap it around my neck.” I manage that much, and his left arm moves around me more securely. “When I say so, jump and swing your legs over my right arm. Got it?”

“Got it.”

“On three… One. Two. Three—”

Zai wheezes in my ear with the effort of lifting me, but I manage to wrap my arms around him like a baby sloth around its mama. When I’m against him this way, the frailty of his frame is even more obvious.

I’m safe.

Thank not the gods but Zai Aridam.

The relief that shoots through my veins might as well be a tidal wave, and the adrenaline makes me tremble.

“Zai, you have won the second Labor,” Hermes is saying. “As for the rest of you…”

The others. “Oh my gods. Who fell?”

“Amir. He’s moving, though.”

So not dead? Yet. No way did the kid not injure something. I push at Zai’s shoulder. “You should leave me and take him.”

“I’ll come back for him.”

“But—”

“I’ll be quick.”

He seems determined. I frown. “The others—”

“All made it,” Zai rushes to assure me.

I sigh on another whoosh of relief. “So far.”

Hermes clears his throat as if we interrupted him. “The remaining champions may all start climbing down, and best of luck to you.”

Zai floats us downward as soon as the glass that had been caging me in disappears. At a screech, I look up behind him, where my owl is flapping its wings to stay aloft. Clutching Zai tighter, I hold out my left arm, and the beautiful, brown-feathered creature with his horned face flies straight for me. He doesn’t perch but sort of leaps right into my skin, growing smaller and turning into glittering blue lines. The tarantula waves its front legs at him, and the fox snuggles into him like one friend greeting another.

“That’s a handy gift,” Zai says.

In a very unexpected way. “Yeah.”

“The Daemones don’t seem too happy about it.”

I glance over Zai’s shoulder to where all four are lined up, wings flapping to hold them aloft. They’re watching me with such intensity, my stomach clenches. Twice. Hades must have taught them how to glare. “I noticed.”

“Be careful,” he says.

I nod, then change the subject, not wanting to face the dread knotting in my stomach at gaining another enemy in the Daemones. So I ask instead, “How’d you figure it out, anyway? The book?”

“Not entirely. The book isn’t the internet. It doesn’t give direct answers but how to find the knowledge for yourself. Sharing your answers helped narrow things down.”

He launches into a description of “if and only if” questions that is mind-numbing, but I think I follow. I’m happy to listen all the way to the ground, trying to keep up mostly to not start worrying over a new problem—facing Hades again.

With a new ally. I think.

After two Labors lost.

After that kiss.