Page 106 of Blood of Olympus

Pan crossed his arms and raised a brow. A second later, his lips twitched and he chuckled, joining Vel in shared mirth. “How in Ephemeron you could forget all this” — he gestured downwards, encompassing his whole body — “is beyond me, Lilly Pilly.”

Ekho snorted as the words “Lilly Pilly” tumbled out of her mouth between titters.

“Lilly Pilly?” I dared ask.

“I found her wasting away beside a brush of it,” he explained with a one-shouldered shrug. “And after I’d coaxed her into filling her belly, taking a dip in the nearby river, and claiming a full night’s sleep, she made me hungry.”

“Hungry. What? How?” Ekho probed.

“Hungry,” he answered with a half-smirk, drawing out the last syllable with an ever-deepening voice. “Just like the little pink berries on the bush where I found you, you looked delicious. Good enough to eat.” The smirk was no longer just a hint of an expression — it was a public notice scrawled across his face.

“Eat?!” she repeated, aghast. “You wouldn’t have… satyrs don’t — eat… people?”

Pan unleashed a raucous laugh, the sound echoing from the mouths of Aros, Erato, Evie and others.

Aphrodite strode forward and placed a gentle palm on the girl’s shoulder. “My darling girl, he does not mean it in that sense of the word.” Then proceeded to whisper into Ekho’s hood.

“Devour my lady garden?!” Ekho screeched, rendering the need for Aphrodite’s whisper completely unnecessary. She threw back her hood, revealing pale but freckled skin, a mane of strawberry-blonde hair tied back in a loose braid, a set of wide, unblinking blue eyes, and a gaping set of raspberry-red lips.

Io gasped.

Pan stared.

Aphrodite grinned.

“Believe me, if he does it right, it’s rather a fun time.” She winked.

“Oh, I’d do it right,” Pan murmured, the hunger in his eyes visible even from ten feet away. He took two steps forward and Ekho recoiled, clutching at Io’s billowing sleeve.

“Aph.”

Her gaze met mine and she pouted at whatever she saw there. “No fun.”

Pan slumped as though he’d been held aloft by invisible puppet strings with a wily puppeteer controlling his every move.

I eyed my friend, warring with amusement and disapproval. She’d been particularly feisty lately. I wondered if it was war, being surrounded by mortals, or just the realm itself that was unsettling her. I vowed to find the time to ask.

“My apologies, fair maiden.” Pan bowed. “I was not myself.”

“I was not myself,” Ekho paused, frowning. “I am still not myself, it seems.”

Io slowly drew down her own hood, baring a wild, untameable mane of deep brown hair, and icy blue eyes. “We shall find ourselves together, then. I do not know who I am without these gods to serve.”

“Unfortunately, self-discovery will have to wait. You are about to be inundated with visitors of the royal variety,” I said.

“We are at war.” Athena’s voice reverberated around the temple, bouncing off the columns and disappearing into the open air. “That is why we are here.” She hesitated, selecting her next words carefully. “During Queen Nyssa’s coronation, certain events transpired — unavoidable events, if the Fates are to be believed. Kronos was inadvertently freed from his icy prison.”

The women looked as though they were unsure whether to believe her or not. Kronos was likely little more than a whisper of warning to mortals in this era — the ones who had suffered through his last period of arrogance, long dead.

“Hera has fled Olympus and the consequences of her actions to side with the Titan lord of time. And unfortunately, the stage they have chosen to set their war on is Ephemeron. You — each and every mortal in this entire realm — have once again been dragged into the devastation that is a war of the gods.

“In approximately thirty minutes, you shall be overrun by gods and sovereigns alike. Your temple was selected as a safe and neutral location to meet, and thus, they come.”

Athena waved a hand across the horizon, illustrating the host of ships converging on the Isle.

“Ekho, go get the others,” Io breathed. “We’re going to need a large table.”

“We’re going to need a large table,” she repeated, as if committing the task to memory — but now we knew better. She sighed deeply then disappeared down a narrow staircase I’d missed in my initial scan of the temple, hidden behind that monstrosity of a statue.