“Don’t like them?” Boone is practically yelling. “He wants to kill you, Lyra.”
My mouth drops open, and I know I’m staring, but the way he’s yelling…
Boone must catch my confusion, because he calms a little, eyeing me. “What?”
“You sound like you care.”
“I do.”
I give my head a hard shake. “That’s not possible.”
Tension steals through his shoulders, and he glances away. “I don’t care like that—”
Oh hells. “No,” I rush to stop him from saying one more word. “I mean care enough to worry about me like this. Zeus cursed me the day I was born. I’m unlovable. I can’t be loved or cared about.”
Boone goes thief-still, his gaze taking me in like he’s never seen me before. “Is that true?”
I shrug.
“Unlovable,” he murmurs more to himself, like he’s trying to wrap his head around the meaning. “That really…sucks.”
He surprises a laugh out of me. “Yeah. It really does.”
“Who else knows?”
“Felix. Hades. My parents.” So-called. “That’s it.”
Boone’s brows draw down. “That can’t be right.”
“I assure you it is.”
He still shakes his head. “I’ve always admired you.”
He has?
“You’re smart, and you see things others don’t—like, every detail. It’s what makes you such a good clerk.”
Boone thinks I’m a good clerk. A bubble of surprised happiness expands in my chest, but I pop it. “Admiration isn’t caring.”
“Sure it is,” he insists. “I’ve even wanted to partner with you on a few scores.”
I rear back. “The hells you say.”
He grins. “I mean it. But you’ve always put this wall around yourself with a giant ‘stay the fuck away’ sign at the gate. You kept all the pledges at arm’s length, so no one has had a chance to get to know you. To be your friend.”
Did I do that? I don’t think so. “The curse—”
Boone leans down—he really is very tall—so that we’re eye to eye and I can see the sincerity in his. “I may not be in love with you, Lyra, and maybe the curse did that. But I’d like to be your friend.”
Oh.
“Really?” I whisper.
His smile is slow and sweet and doesn’t contain an ounce of pity. “Really.”
I’m not sure I believe this. Maybe he feels this way because we’re in Olympus. Maybe this place lessens the effects of curses. I don’t know. Look at how Zai wanted to ally with me. Or at how Meike isn’t any different with me than she is with anyone else. And I’m definitely not invisible here. Although that could be because of Hades. He doesn’t exactly blend in.
Whatever the reason, the part of me that has been craving a friend since I understood that I couldn’t have any, the part that I’ve silenced and ignored and stuffed deep down, feels this. It’s light, like I could float away.
“Okay,” I say. “Friends.”
Boone’s smile widens, turning cocky. “Good. Now, about Dex…”
I roll my eyes, giving him a shove. “We’re returning the helm.”
“Hear me out.” Boone holds up a hand. “Dex sees you as his strongest competition with a dangerous god as your patron. His sister is dying of cancer, which I’m guessing he’ll ask to be healed if he wins.”
I blink. “Wh—what?” Is that right? “How do you know that?”
He gives me a look.
Right.
“In his mind, you are the person between him and saving his family,” Boone says. “Sure, he wants to help his people, but even more, winning means he gets to give his sister and nephew everything.” He points to the ground. “Luxury, longevity, blessings…you name it.”
Instead of riling me up, his words deflate me like pricking a balloon with a needle and listening to the whistle as the air slowly leaks out. I picture Rafe and the way he looks at his uncle. “In other words…” I say quietly, my chin sticking back out. “He has an honorable goal that he’ll do anything to reach.”
Boone stares at me a long moment before spinning on his heel to stalk across the room, then spins back, hands going to his lean hips. “Fine. I’ll return the helm. I know better than to argue with you when your chin does that jutty thing.”
