Page 166 of Blood of Olympus

Oh, godling, I’m so very sorry.

It’s not your fault… I told you to go. Ordered it. None of this is your fault.

We will fix it, I swear to you. If Apollo can’t do it, then I’ll find someone who can, even if I have to fly to every land in every realm and beyond.

Words abandoned me as more tears streamed down my cheeks.

A disturbance in the chamber had me clutching more fiercely to my dragon’s leg, unwilling to string myself together to confront whatever this new thing was.

When my bond sang and my heart leapt, I knew that I didn’t have to.

He was here.

“Caelus,” I whispered a second before the balcony doors crashed open.

“Velira.” I heard him say. “If you don’t lift that wing in the next two seconds, I’m climbing under it, fangs and flames or not.”

A deep, rolling rumble sounded right next to my ear, made even louder now with my sight gone. And that renewed realisation jarred me so badly, I started shaking once more. Panic gripped me right down to the tips of my ice-cold fingers; right down to my tingling toes. It was a lance to my brain and a dagger to my heart.

“Velira!” Caelus shouted, muffled by the pouding heartbeat in my ears.

Wind danced over my face and the brightness somehow grew even brighter.

And then I was home.

I fell apart in his arms as he held me, whispering quiet reassurances against my hair. I tasted the overly-sweet tang of ichor and realised I was crying. I realised that what had been done to me — stolen from me — had scarred me worse than I’d realised.

What if I never see again?

“Shh, I’ve got you, Nightshade. I’ve got you.”

You will, Velira assured.

But what if I can’t?

Then I will share my gaze with you when you need it, and you will adapt for all else.

“It’s going to be okay,” Caelus half-whispered, half-sang.

“You sound so sure,” I said to both of them.

Their response was swift and unanimous.

I am.

CHAPTER 40

Nyssa

It wasn’t long after Caelus arrived that I passed out in his arms, worn out by the trauma of stolen senses and the exhaustion of battle. I wasn’t really sure when I came to — everything remained a crisp, piercing white, and I had no indication of if my eyes were closed or open at any given point — but it was to the soft sounds of muted conversation when I did.

Caelus and Aros exchanged words across the room, speaking in hushed tones I assumed meant they were trying to let me sleep. But even sleep held no reprieve from the light. Their sentences were punctuated by brief bursts of silence and then answers to unasked questions — which I figured meant Apollo was here, too. And then, every once in a while, Evie’s soothing tones or Athena’s low ones would add something else.

“We cannot stay here and put my people in direct harm,” Athena said.

“And where do you propose we go, Athena, if not Athenos?” Aros snarked uncharacteristically.

“I don’t know, son of Ares. Perhaps Strathos. Oh. Wait — they did not follow you into battle nor even volunteer their soldiers to save their own people, did they?”