Page 160 of Blood of Olympus

“Caelus…” Evie whispered. “Her eyes…”

I jerked back, twisting the goddess in my lap oh so gently. Caressing the side of her face with one hand, I waited until my Nightshade looked at me.

Two golden tears tracked down her cheeks and then she opened her bloodstained eyelids. In place of her once beautiful, once soul-capturing, shattered, emerald irises were a pair of pure white orbs stained at the corners with glistening, golden ichor. Like a taunt.

I couldn’t hide my reaction from her. No matter if I’d been able to stifle the sharp inhale that inevitably hissed past my teeth, she’d still have been able to feel my growing horror through the soul bond.

It’s bad isn’t it?

She couldn’t even force herself to ask the question aloud.

It’s different.

Caelus, she huffed. That’s the most telling non-answer you could have given. It’s like telling a woman she looks ‘fine’ when she’s asked if she looks fat in something.

Okay, well, it’s nice to know your sass hasn’t gone anywhere, I griped, though secretly, I was incredibly relieved about that fact.

Hyperion hadn’t taken everything, after all.

Tell me, she pushed.

What can you see? I deflected, also battling fear and the urge to seek vengeance on that strobe-eyed bastard. I needed to know the extent of it before I did something incredibly stupid.

Like shadowstep right back just to kick him in his freshly castrated nether-regions.

Or kiss that adorable pouted mouth of hers just to reassure myself that she was here.

Nothing at all, she answered. After a brief pause, she continued: you know that moment you decide to fall asleep… when you close your eyes, and darkness swallows you whole, and you can float in the nothingness of sweet, dark oblivion?

Yes?

It’s the opposite of that. Her breathing hitched. It’s bright, and it’s white, and it’s glaring, and no matter whether my eyes are opened or closed, it doesn’t change! It’s like constant static, constant noise, and I cannot shield myself from it.

Caelus, I fear I have lost myself completely, she admitted in a whisper. I no longer have the solace of shadows in my mind. Everything is spotlighted, highlighted, on clear display, and I can hide from none of it. I can hide none of it.

I am being forced to confront every part of myself, even the parts long since hidden. And I’m being forced to do it with this constant grating whiteness in my mind.

I fear I will never sleep again.

She closed her eyes, then opened them, repeating the action a few times before crumpling into my chest.

Closed, open, closed, open, nothing changes…

My heart broke for her then. I gestured for Apollo to come closer, though I was wary he was about to pass out from exhaustion and an overuse of powers — putting him at risk of literal burnout — but Nyssa was even more important to me than the sun god and his prophecies.

His golden eyes shone as he inspected Nyssa’s one by one.

May I? he signed.

I waited all of a second for Nyssa to agree before I realised that she had no way of knowing he was speaking to her. Or speaking at all. For how could the deaf and the blind hold any sort of conversation that wasn’t completely one-sided?

Apollo raised his brows, still waiting for my permission.

“Nyssa? Apollo is with us. He would like to know if he can heal you?”

“Yes, oh Furies, yes,” she breathed out in a rush, sitting up eagerly in my arms.

I nodded at the sun god then watched as he placed a gentle palm on each of her temples and closed his eyes. A warm golden glow filtered out from beneath his hands and Nyssa relaxed in my lap.