I will never be that stupid again. Well, I'll try not to be anyway.

In an instant, I'm sitting on the coffee table at the end by his head.

"I've got some work to do," Stella says, pushing away from the wall. "I'll be in my room. With the door shut. And my headphones on."

I flash her a grateful smile. She's giving us-me-some privacy and I appreciate it. I don't need her to see me begging for forgiveness- she'd never let me live it down.

As soon as she and her yogurt disappear down the hall, I lean forward over Griffin. I take a second to absorb him before I wakehim up. I've never seen him sleep before-his thick lashes fan out below his eyes like exotic palm fronds. There is no sign of worry or pain or the weight of his Herculean obligations. Just pure, innocent boy.

Mypure, innocent boy.

Hand hovering above his shoulder, I sigh. I don't want to wake him up. I don't want to disturb his peace.

But my sigh must have been a touch too loud or too close- or maybe he just sensed I was there-because his palm-frond lashes flutter open, and instead I'm staring into his bright blue eyes.

For about half asecond, his eyes are just as worry-free as his sleeping face had been. He smiles. Then a cloud shadows their brightness.

"Phoebe,'' he exclaims, lurching up to a sitting position. "I was waiting for you."

I smile nervously. "Clearly."

"I mean, I wanted to talk to you." He looks over my shoulder. "What time is it?"

I check my watch. "Six-thirty."

"Skata.I was supposed to meet Dara at six." His eyes pop wide. "I mean-not that I-she doesn't-"

"It's okay," I say, laying a hand on his arm. "She told me."

His eyebrows pinch into a frown and he looks like he's in pain. "I wanted to tell you. You know I did. I just-"

"I know," I say, trying to ease his pain. "You have to help her. It's your Hercules complex."

"No." he says. "It's more than that."

"Then what?" I say, trying to be as open as possible. I won't let there be any more lies and half-truths between us.

"Adara is my friend. Until you helped me work through things with Nicole last year, she was my oldest friend. That's never going to change." He takes my hands and holds them between his, between us. "Neither is the fact that you're my girlfriend."

"I know." I ignore the wetness in my eyes. "I'm sorry I doubted you. I trust you. I really do. But sometimes I just don't trust my own instincts."

"We'll have to work on that," he says, grinning and pulling me off the coffee table and onto his lap.

When he's got me settled, I slip my arms around his neck. "While we're at it, let's work on you trusting me, too."

"Me? I trust you," he insists. "What makes you think I-"

"I saw you with Nicole on the beach the other night." I think back to that night. When I got so upset I'd shimmered myself home. Griffin always said my powers would be affected by my emotions until I learned to master them. "She knew what was going on with Adara."

His brows scrunch over his blue eyes. "You were there?"

I refuse to blush. He doesn't need to know I was hiding behind a boulder. "Why could you tell her the truth and not me?"

His head flops back against the couch. "I didn't tell her," he groans. "She guessed."

"Really?" That's a pretty uncanny guess.

"Interpol could use someone with her instincts. If it makes you feel any better, she was pretty pissed that I hadn't told you." He gives me a half smile. "She let me have it."

Score one for Nicole. She always has my back.

"Why did you think the truth would hurt me?" I ask.

"What do you mean?"

"You asked her not to tell me," I explain. "You said you didn't want me to get hurt."

"No, that wasn't about Dara." He turns completely serious. "You know that research project Nic's been working on?"

I nod.

"She's been trying to find a loophole in our parents' punishment decree."

"Wow." I'm breathless. "Can you do that?"

"There have been a few cases." He gives me a sad smile. "But it's very rare."

Rare, but not impossible. My mind floods with possibilities. If there was a way to undo an Olympic decree, then Griffin could get his parents back. Nicole's parents could be un-banished. Dad could get un-smoted.

"Omigods, Griffin," I gasp, overwhelmed with hope. "Do you know what this means? This means we could all-"

"No," he says, cutting me off. This is why I didn't want to tell you what she's trying to do. This is a one-in-a-billion long shot. The gods are as unyielding as they are fickle, if that makes any sense. They've had millennia to hone their skills at writing unbreakable decrees. The chance that they messed up in one of ours-" He shakes his head. "I don't want to get your hopes up, just to see you get hurt all over again."

His blue eyes are full of the same pain I felt at losing Dad. More,since he lost both his parents at once. But at the same time, deeper than the pain is his love for me. I don't know how I let myself believe that wasn't there.

And because of my love for him, I won't push the issue right now.

"We can talk about this some other time," I say. Relaxing in his arms, I snuggle my head against his neck. "Right now I'm too busy trusting you to think about anything else."

I feel the rumble of his laugh against my chest.

I know he is dead serious about protecting me, about keeping me from pain. I also know that I can't let this go forever. I'm not so dumb that I don't realize what a crazy impossibility this loophole thing is. If there is a chance, though-even the teeny, tiniest, slimmest chance in history-for any of us to get back our lost parents, then I have to pursue that chance.

For now, I'll hang back and let him and Nicole take the lead, helping when I can. But I'll follow this through to the end.

However long it takes.

Chapter 10

__________________________________________________________________________________________________________


CORPOPROTECTION


SOURCE: HESTIA


The ability to protect oneself from harm, whether seen or unseen. In some hematheos, this may manifest as the ability to sense impending danger. Others may be capable of deflecting a direct physical threat. Effectiveness diminished by mental distraction.


DYNAMOTHEOS STUDY GUIDE * Stella Patrolas

__________________________________________________________________________________________________________



TANSY IS WAITING at the cross-country starting block when Griffin and I walk up the next morning. She's wearing a tank top, supershort running shorts, and a pair of sneakers that look older than me. She's also wearing a headband and matching wristbands in a very eighties white with blue stripes. Oblivious to our approach, she's busy stretching. But not normal stretching-super/exaggerated stretching, like a cartoon or something.

"Is that her?" Griffin whispers.

"Uhhuh," I whisper back. With a shrug, I add, "She wants to be a runner."

"She, um…" He swallows hard. "Certainly has the outfit down."

"Don't laugh."

"I wouldn't. Besides," he says, "if she starts training with us, she's gonna need those sweat bands."

With a grateful smile, I take his hand and slip my fingers through his.

Tansy finally notices us approaching.

"Hi, Phoebe," she calls out, waving excitedly. "Griffin, right?"

"Yeah," he says, nodding. "I hear you want to be a runner."

Her green eyes flick to me and back to him. With a breathless, dreamy voice, she says. "More than anything."

I remember that kind of desperate wanting. If my dad had asked me the same question eight years ago, I would have replied in exactly the same way. For maybe a little bit of the same reason. More than anything-more than love of the sport or desire to win or the rush of endorphins- I wanted to be close to him. To be like him.

"Let's get started, then," I say, slipping off my hooded sweatshirt and hanging it on the drinking fountain. "Since this is your first training session, I think we should start out easy. Don't want to kill you on your first day." To Griffin, I suggest, "Why don't we take the yellow course."

"Makes sense." He shrugs out of his zip-up sweatshirt and hangs it over mine. That's the shortest course," he explains to Tansy. "That way if you get worn out, we can stop after one lap."