Where I could soak up some sun—beneath a shield of high-SPF sunscreen—and pretend the bustling city was miles away.
Where I could wonder once more why the Grecian women in flowing gowns who circle the top of the structure face inward, away from the world. I’ve always thought they look like they’re crying.
Weeping, even.
Weeping . . .
“Oh my gods.” I jerk upright.
“What?” Thane asks.
I stare at him. “Oh my
“What?”
“I think I just found the door.”
He looks at me like I’m either insane or a genius. “What? Here?”
“No.” I point at the pale concrete dome peeking above the treetops. “There.”
She whispers,
“Then Gretchen ran out with Nick over her shoulder,” Grace says, nearly breathless, “and we took off down the pier. She was amazing.”
I hold the phone away from my ear and glare at it.
She hasn’t let me get a word in since I dialed her number. “That’s great, but—”
“You should have seen the look on those charcoal guys’ faces—what?” Gretchen says something to her in the background. “Oh, right—they’re Cacuses.”
“Grace, I—”
“It was priceless.” She takes a breath. “Have you found Thane? Is he—”
“Grace!” I snap.
Her silence is deafening, and I immediately feel bad for shouting. But she’ll understand once she hears my news.
“Look, I have something to tell you guys.” I try to calm my tone. “Can you put me on speakerphone?”
“Sure,” she says, sounding a little hurt, “hold on a sec.” The sound from her end changes, and then she says, “Okay, you’re on.”
“What’s up?” Gretchen asks.
“I seem to have a knack for finding things,” I say, smiling, “because I’ve found something important we’d lost.”
“Yay, you found Thane,” Grace cheers.
“No,” I say, annoyed. “I mean, yes, I found Thane.”
“Is he there?” she asks. “Is he okay?”
“Yes, he’s here,” I explain. “And yes, he’s fine.”
“Can you put him on?” Grace asks.
Fighting an eye roll, I punch the speaker button on my phone. “You guys are on speaker now too.” I glare at Thane. “Say hello.”
“Hey, Grace-face,” he says, his eyes on me. “I’m so sorry.”
“Oh, Thane,” she says, and I can hear the emotion in her voice. “You have nothing to apologize for.”
I give him a look that says,
“Is that all you found?” Gretchen’s voice makes it clear she’s not quite as forgiving as our sister.
“No, actually. I found one other thing,” I say, not trying to hide my pride. “Well, kind of.” I scan the area around the Palace lagoon. “I believe I’ve located the door.”
Grace gasps.
“Where are you?” Gretchen demands. When I tell her, she says, “Stay put. We’ll be right there.”
The phone goes dead. As I put mine away, I give Thane a sunny smile.
“That went well,” he says gruffly.
I smile bigger. “It did, didn’t it?”
He gives me that insane-genius look again. I take him by the hand.
“Come on, we can go watch the ducks while we wait for the girls.” As I tug him over to one of the benches, I ask, “Have you ever heard of a coot?”
CHAPTER 28
GRACE
I pull out my phone and find the note where I typed in the translation of the oracle’s riddle. It feels like a million years ago that Greer and I captured that monster and forced it to interpret the ancient Greek. We were so desperate to get Gretchen back, we risked everything.
Just like Gretchen risked everything tonight to rescue Nick.
He’s still a bit groggy from whatever the boss used to knock him out—judging from the giant knot at the base of his skull, I’d say a baseball bat. Gretchen hasn’t left his side since she got him out of the trunk of her car.
Gretchen also called Euryale to let her know we might have located the door. She and Sthenno are on their way here to meet us. From what she said, it’s going to take them a while to get here. Who knows where they ended up on their missions. Guess we didn’t need the oracle to find the door after all. She left us the riddle instead. I have a feeling that’s not all we’ll need from her before this is over—she’s too important to the whole thing.
I can’t help grinning at Thane, who is practically glued to Greer’s side. He’s never been a particularly happy person—the burden of that dark secret he’s been carrying his whole life, I guess—but standing with Greer, he looks as close to content as I’ve ever seen. And now that his secret is in the open, maybe things will start to get better for him.
Sillus looks exhausted, leaning up against Gretchen’s legs with his eyes drifting shut. I can’t believe we’re friends with a monkey monster. Who would have imagined?
All in all, the whole world around me feels completely different from the one I inhabited just a few weeks ago. And I feel like an entirely different person.
“Were you going to read that?” Gretchen demands, nodding at my phone.
Oops. Caught daydreaming. My cheeks burn as I start to read the riddle out loud again. “In the space beneath the sky—”
“That must mean it’s outdoors,” Greer says, clearly excited by her find.
“Right,” Gretchen agrees. “That makes sense.”
Greer gestures at the park space around us. “And this is most definitely outdoors.”
“Definitely.” I smile at her before continuing. “Between harbor and haunted ground . . .”
That line is a little more specific.
“There is a giant cemetery in the Presidio,” Greer says. “The Palace is between the Presidio and the water —the harbor at the marina.”
“Between harbor and haunted ground,” Nick says. “Check.”
“Where graces and muses weep at gentle water’s shore,” I read.
Greer points up at the statues surrounding the roof of the building. “See how the women—the Graces and Muses—look like they’re weeping?”
“I see the weeping muses,” Gretchen concedes.
Thane nods.
“And the pond is definitely gentle water,” Greer says smugly. “It fits all the criteria.”
“What about the rest of it?” Gretchen asks.
If the first half of the riddle is meant to help us locate the door, I think the second half tells us what to do when we find it.
“Be three within three, join life with death in thee,” I finish. “To find the lost and take up destiny.”
