Page 63 of Blood of Olympus

Nyssa snorted at precisely the same moment as I scoffed, amusement mingling together within our chests.

“What was it you once told me?” I asked him, the tail end of the question rising in pitch. “Okay, big guy.”

My laugh was echoed by Charon’s startlingly similar one. How in Tartarus had I missed that? How had I been so blind as to not recognise my own brother?

The thought sobered me and Nyssa’s joy stuttered as she sensed my inner turmoil. So, I offered her a small smile along with a distraction. “Try it again. Please.”

We’re revisiting this later, she sent along our mental bond.

It’s fine, there’s nothing to revisit. Try the flower again.

Her returning frown said that we would absolutely be talking about this later, whether I wanted to or not, and despite myself, I cracked a grin.

Nyssa lifted her palm again, closing her eyes, and worked to slow her breathing. The skin between her brows puckered adorably and I had to fight the urge to smooth it with my thumb — it seemed I was always fighting the urge to touch her.

With pursed lips, she exhaled deeply. When she opened her eyes again, I forgot to inhale.

Her shattered green irises were luminous, bathing the flower in a wash of neon green. She stared at it intensely, her concentration unbroken by anything — not even the dragonfly coaxed over by the light of her eyes to land on the very tip of her thumb.

Her breath fluttered the edges of the flower’s tiny petals, and as I watched, they slowly unfurled.

I took a tentative step forward, overjoyed to witness the wrinkles and bruises disappearing, the flower springing back to life.

Nyssa’s almost electrified eyes widened as her power took hold. It was not content to leave the petals unblemished. No. Instead, her mother’s power — her power — did not relent until the flower was nestled safely on a freshly grown stem, complete with an entire root system, just waiting to be planted.

“I did it,” she whispered, the plant clutched delicately between her fingers, like she was afraid the magic would reverse if she were anything but reverent.

“You did it.” My face split into a grin so wide, hers couldn’t help but follow suit.

The knuckles of her free hand rubbed across her sternum — where my pride was undoubtedly filling her chest.

Good. I hope it fills her so fully she knows nothing else but how spectacular she is.

The goddess before me was beyond words. She was beyond anything I had ever hoped to find for myself, and yet somehow she was mine? After everything — she was mine?

I dragged her into a fierce kiss, plant be damned.

She melted into it with a happy moan — until Charon cleared his throat from somewhere to my right.

“If you could quit interrupting us, that would be grand,” I drawled, only half kidding.

Nyssa pulled back with a soft chuckle, the plant still tenderly clasped in her hand.

“Now you just need to practice that over and over, on increasingly larger subjects,” he said in a way that conveyed the smile in his voice — pointedly ignoring my complaint.

Not for the first time, I found myself wishing I could lay eyes on him again. There was a lot I wanted to discuss, and it would have been nice to actually see him when I grew the balls to do it.

My train of thought was interrupted by the rhythmic thud of leathery wings as Velira swept through the pass, circled overhead, and landed gracefully on the black sand. On the juncture between her neck and back now sat a leather harness, made to match Nyssa’s fighting gear.

“Nice necklace, Vel!” I called to the dragon, who growled as she shot me a look of scathing reproach. “Oh, come on now. You love me.”

She curled her lip up somewhere between a snarl and a grin — I chose to accept it as the latter.

Nyssa laughed delightedly as she ran up to her beast and scaled her foreleg. Tossing a smirk over her shoulder, she said, “Vel says you’re lucky I love you, otherwise you’d be her roasted caramel right about now.”

Charon snorted at the same time I did, which was more than a little disconcerting.

“I’ll meet you back at the Academy!” she called down. “I have to test this thing out!”