“So you’re telling me you can walk through walls?”

“Not exactly. Just that human constructs can’t bind me. Follow me. I’m going to step outside and I want you to lock the door. Both locks.”

He headed out her back door and pulled the door shut.

Marina shrugged. What the hell? The worst thing that could happen was he was out of her house and couldn’t get back in. Seemed like a win. She headed for the door and twisted the regular lock, then pulled the new sturdy dead bolt and took a step back.

“Okay, do your thing,” she called out.

A second later, the dead bolt slid back, the knob twisted as if it weren’t locked, and Alexios strolled inside.

Marina stared at the door as if it were going to take flight. “How did you do that?”

“I thought I had explained this.”

“Yeah, yeah, you’re a demigod. So is that why the perfume didn’t make your eyes red?”

His brow scrunched. “I suppose so. Your weaponry can’t harm me, and I suppose the perfume was being used as a weapon. Alas, my birthright didn’t extend to saving me from the smell.”

“Alas? That’s what you’re going with?”

She walked back to the recliner and flopped down, overcome by a wave of sheer exhaustion. At that point, an appearance by Jesus Christ himself wouldn’t have moved her off that chair.

“You know,” she said, “your Houdini trick with the door is cool and all. And probably on a different day, I’d be surprised or even remotely interested in how you did it. But I have to be honest—I don’t have one ounce of energy left to give. I’ve pretty much decided to sit here until I starve to death or have to pee. Might not even move for the second one.”

He stared up at the ceiling. “For the love of Zeus, please give this assignment to someone else.”

A bolt of lightning came through the window and struck the floor directly in front of Alexios. He jumped back, looking sheepish.

“Point taken,” he grumbled.

Marina pointed at the singe on her donated rug, still not ready to buy into the superhero status Alexios was pitching, but unable to explain why a bolt of lightning had appeared from a cloudless sky.

“That’s going to leave a mark,” Marina said. “Was that a message from your boss?”

“Yes. A very direct one.”

“He seems like a dick,” Marina said.

Thunder rumbled and the house shook.

Alexios cast a nervous glance upward, then stared at her, clearly confused. Finally, he sat on the couch across from her.

“Your response to all of this is somewhat odd,” he said. “Definitely unlike the others.”

“I imagine you get the cops called on you quite a bit. Wait…there are others?”

It figured. She wasn’t even special in the musings of a crazy person.

“There have been several over the last couple centuries.”

“Of course there were. Wait…centuries?”

“Yes. It’s been a very long assignment. Much longer than I’d hoped.”