I hid my anxiety as best I could as Finnie demanded to row back to the ship to retrieve some things and “make the cabin presentable,” upon which a heated discussion that could easily be termed an argument broke out about how Frey would row her, how Finnie was quite capable of rowing herself, thank you, and how Frey knew that but he did not care, etcetera.

“They do this a lot,” Maddie muttered after leaning toward me. “Married for decades, Frey will not get it into his head that ‘me, Tarzan, you Jane’ thing doesn’t work with Finnie.”

“Tarzan and Jane?” I asked.

“You know, he’s all alpha man looking after his woman and she’s all for alpha in bed, but the rest, not so much.”

“Alpha man?” I inquired.

“Do you have wolves in this land?” she queried.

“The mainland does, but…” What she was saying dawned on me and I smiled. “Alpha. I see. Clever.”

“My husband commands the wolves,” she shared.

Apollo commanded wolves?

She turned to Apollo. “Do you think that will work here, honey?”

“Regrettably, my poppy, I have the feeling we shall see,” he answered heavily.

She turned again to me, now curiously not concerned in the slightest that her husband might have to command wolves due to our circumstances which might be dire. “He might not command dragons and elves, but he’s still badass.”

Badass?

Maddie studied my face then asked, “Have you heard of Minerva?”

I reared back. “The malevolent she-god of Hawkvale who was vanquished some years ago?”

She smiled. “Yes. Her. Well me and Finnie vanquished her. With Circe and Cora, who are on their way with Lahn and Tor, and a little more help from friends.”

I stared at her, mouth agape.

“We’re pretty badass too,” she shared.

“You’re witches?” I whispered.

“Well, I wouldn’t call myself a witch. But if the shoe fits…” She shrugged.

I had heard tales of these powerful witches who had vanquished the she-god Minerva and her triumvirate of evil-doers.

And now one of them was bickering with her man three feet from me and the other one was babbling at me.

I thought this should be good.

But they were so odd, I worried it was bad.

“I am also witch,” I shared.

She smiled largely. “Awesome!”

“If you want to row, row, for heaven’s sake!” Finnie cried, got up, cast a longsuffering glance at Maddie, then stomped down the beach to their boat.

“We’ll be back,” Frey murmured, rising and following her much more slowly.

“Do you have any more of this mango juice?” Maddie asked. “It’s delicious!”