I transferred my gaze to her. The woman I’d seen this morning had been her normal self—haughty, competent, sure of her abilities, and annoyed at the rest of us who weren’t on her level. And just now, she’d been her usual argumentative, clever, and infuriating self. But all that was suddenly gone. Her blue eyes, normally as hard and cold as twin sapphires, were warm and sincere.

It threw me more than anything else she’d done so far.

“I… owe you more,” I said, not sure how to take this new version of Agnes.

She shook her head. “I did my job, that was all. Whereas you… saved a part of me. I may not have the chance to say this later, so I wanted to do it now. Thank you.”

I thought of all the times she’d thrown me on my ass—or shot me in it. And then I thought of how brave she’d been this morning, taking on a god all by herself. And of how absolutely kick ass of a Pythia she’d been, fighting the war all alone before most people even realized we were in one.

She’d been flawed, but she’d also been the best of us.

“You’re welcome,” I whispered, and left.

Chapter Nineteen

Chapter Nineteen

I left the room and made my way to the stairs, head still spinning. Today seemed determined to freak me out, over and over. Like a prize fighter going for the knockout punch and giving his opponent no time to recover in between blows.

And then the next one landed, before I could even get down the stairs.

“Dulceață?” I stumbled and had to grab the wall, so loud was the voice in my ear. And then had to keep on grabbing it, because my eyes were suddenly seeing two different places at once, both of which were pretty damned dark.

Gertie’s back hall was lit only by a couple of squares of dim moonlight, from the windows overlooking the courtyard, and that had to filter through the branches of the great tree. It left shifting light shadows dancing on the old Persian rug, as the wind tossed the leaves around, and was usually enough to navigate by. But not tonight.

Tonight, the moonlight was dulled by the silhouette of another place, one that I could hardly see at all, even when I strained. But it was there, like a dark transparency dropped over the scene. One with half glimpsed shadows looming like monsters in the corners.

Great analogy, Cassie, I thought, swallowing. And then almost jumped out of my skin when the voice came again. “Dulceață?”

I didn’t have to ask who it was, as there was only one person who had ever called me that. “Mircea! You almost made me fall.”