Page 64 of Blood of Olympus

Velira crouched, muscles coiled, then launched herself into the air with a loud snap of her wings. In seconds, they were sky-bound and growing smaller by the second.

Be safe, Nightshade. I love you too.

A warm, fuzzy feeling shot down the bond, which grew fainter by the second.

“What do we do now?” Charon asked.

“Don’t you have places to be?”

“Probably. But I don’t feel compelled to be there right now… Shall we play two truths and a lie?” His voice was laced with mischief — exactly how I remembered it.

I grinned despite myself. “Sure, why not?”

“Excellent! I’ll start,” he said, pausing to consider his statements. After almost no time at all, enticing me to believe he had them ready to go in his mental arsenal, he casually offered:“I cheat in every game of Pay the Ferryman, I once beat Hermes in a footrace, and I was the fourth in a quartet involving two naiads and a demi-god — uhhh, what are you doing?”

I had just closed my eyes after dropping onto the damp sand, elbows perched on my knees, toying with the grass ring in my fingers.

“I’m imagining you.”

Charon’s laugh ricocheted off the lake in loud bursts of echoing joviality.

“Shut up,” I scolded. “It’s actually really hard to talk to invisible people.”

He chuckled again. “You can fix that, you know?”

I sat up straighter, curiosity replacing the chagrin. “What?”

“Your powers have… changed. I know that. You know that. Does Nyssa know that?”

My lips flattened into a thin line.

“I didn’t think so.” He sighed. “That’s not my secret to tell, though. So, I’ll tell you the same thing I just told her: find where they deviate. Follow the darker one.”

My forehead scrunched into a frown and I closed my eyes again, profoundly dreading what I’d find.

Dreading he was right.

My lightning stemmed from my heart, as evidenced by the bolt-shaped scars covering the golden skin of my body, emanating outward from the centre of my chest and down my arms.

I could feel the overzealous pulse of pure electricity there, right next to the warm reassurance of my soul-bond. And there — exactly where Charon had guessed — lingered a thinner, colder something.

I was almost hesitant to reach for it — knowing that once I did, I wouldn’t be able to go back to a blissful state of ignorance.

“I can see by your face that you’re hesitating,” Charon admonished. “Don’t be a baby, Caelus. Grasp it. Use it. Find out what you’re capable of now — what more you can do to protect and aid her.”

Well, that was exactly the right thing to say.

Steeling myself, I did as he bid and reached tentatively towards that new power. It came willingly to the surface. It felt simultaneously slippery and sharp; meek and overpowering; dark, and yet not terrifying.

My eyes snapped open and I inhaled a stuttering breath, just as Charon gasped.

I saw it.

I could see him — well, most of him.

He was devoid of colour and largely transparent — exactly how Nyssa had described a shade — and looked one breeze away from dissipation.

“Your eyes,” he said, his wavering form peering closer.