Crazy thoughts, Pat knew. Yet they kept coming back.

Danny doesn’t have a crush on Hermia. I’m the one who can’t stop thinking about her. Wishing I could be like her. Knowing that I never can. Not believing that anyone could prefer me to her.

“I’m no threat to you,” said Hermia.

Pat was so startled that the book she was reading flipped out of her hands. “I didn’t think you were,” said Pat, retrieving the book.

“You keep studying me,” said Hermia. “I know what you’re thinking.”

“Do you?” asked Pat.

“You’re thinking, Danny North is going to fall in love with this amazing Greek bitch goddess, only you have nothing to worry about, it’ll never happen.”

Pat would have denied it, but since this was exactly what she had been thinking, she didn’t bother. “If he hasn’t fallen for you already, I expect he isn’t going to.”

“Oh, he will, someday. When all this nonsense is over and he’s able to concentrate on something other than saving the world and keeping control of that devil he’s got trapped inside him. But don’t worry. I’ll wait to let anything happen until you’re already out of the picture.”

Pat shook her head and returned to her book.

“You don’t fool me,” said Hermia. “You aren’t actually reading, you’re just trying to keep from making some acid retort to my teasing you about how faithless the gods are. You’re the one who’s right, I admit it. Danny North isn’t your typical strutting god-boy. If there’s anybody in any of the Families who might actually make a decent, reliable husband, who might actually be there to help raise his kids, I think you’ve found him.”

Pat felt tears begin to well, or at least that thick feeling around the eyes that told her it was about to happen, so she turned away from the feeling. “Hermia, I’m really not trying to answer you tit-for-tat, but … it seems to me that the real reason you keep taunting me about how Danny and I are doomed not to last is because you really are hoping that he’ll turn to you someday.”

“Well, of course I am,” said Hermia. “He’s the best—and believe me, I’ve seen all the godlings, so I know. Of course, when my Family brought me along to look at the Norths, Danny didn’t exactly stand out. I didn’t know he was the maker of all those gates until long after. The day he made that abortive attempt at a Great Gate and sent all those schoolboys flying into the air over the high school. But since then, I’ve had a chance to compare him to all the others and I’d be a fool not to want him.”