“Your friend trusted you to do the right thing with it.” Piers pulled Sophie into an embrace he hoped was comforting. She wrapped her arms around his waist and laid her head on his chest, making his heart thud in satisfaction. “If Novalight’s as smart and powerful as you say, he’d eventually have discovered how to use the shard to his advantage. You’re definitely special, but you can’t be the only person in all of Attica with dormant magic. There must be other Magoi. There was just nothing to wake their power like the shard woke yours.”

She sighed, her arms tightening around him. “Maybe you’re right. I just wish I knew more about it.”

“I know one thing. We’re lucky the shard ended up in your hands and not in the hands of someone who’d use it for their own gain rather than try to give it back to the gods of Olympus.”

“Which we have no idea how to do,” she pointed out.

“Understanding your magic might bring us closer.”

She sighed again. “Whatever it is just feels like the occasional baby earthquake in my bones.”

An image of Cat slid into Piers’s mind again. Griffin’s wife had never struck him as inherently bad, just unbelievably reckless and sometimes selfish. Right now, he’d be willing to humble himself and ask for her help. He was Hoi Polloi to the core and didn’t know what magic felt like, let alone how to draw it forth and use it. Cat could teach Sophie everything she needed to know. She could probably even make enough noise to get an Olympian to take notice.

Except she was a world away, and Piers had a feeling he’d done something terribly wrong.

Was Cat all right? Griffin?

Unease ignited under his skin, burning through him like a house on fire. He let go of Sophie and turned away, spearing a hand through his hair. Gods damn it! Why was he here? What happened?

The ghost of a word flitted through his mind. Exile…

“Piers?” Sophie laid her hand on his uninjured shoulder. “Are you okay?”

He made a gruff sound, shaking his head in frustration. He hated being confused. He’d been confused enough for one day. “I can’t remember something. Whatever it is will help us. It’s important. It’s about why I’m here—or how I got here. I think it’s all connected—to you, to the ice shard—but there’s this…wall between myself and knowing. The information’s there. I just can’t get to it.” He hit both fists against his head, trying to jar the knowledge out.

“Stop.” Reaching up, she took his hands. “That won’t help either of us.”

“I think I did something.” Voice turning bleak, Piers leaned his forehead against Sophie’s. He squeezed his eyes shut. “Something awful.”