“Can you please sit down for a minute?” Marina asked.

“If I sit, I’ll want to start smoking or eating,” Halcyon said. “And since I gave up the first years ago and need to give up most of the second, this is my new way of dealing with stress.”

“And normally, I’d agree that it’s an awesome option, but it’s distracting and I’m only one step away from a room next to my mother’s.”

Halcyon perched on a stool next to her. “Why don’t you text Alexios? He’s part god. If this treasure hunt is so important, surely they’d be willing to help.”

Marina stopped typing and nodded. “I’ve been thinking about it, but what if Zeus’s idea of fixing things is wiping out all the LeDoux?”

“Then we’d all wear red for a month?”

“Stop joking. I don’t want them dead. I just want them to leave Avery alone. And in the big scheme of things, to stop riding herd over this town.”

“But who’s to say the gods can’t make that happen? It doesn’t hurt to ask.”

“I suppose you’re right.” She pulled out her phone and sent Alexios a text. A couple minutes later, he knocked on Halcyon’s front door.

“Why didn’t you just come in?” Halcyon asked as she let him inside. “It’s not like the lock would have stopped you.”

“Yes, but it’s rude to enter a person’s home without permission, especially if you’ve never been there before,” Alexios said.

“You came into my home without permission,” Marina said.

“Because you wouldn’t have let me in otherwise,” Alexios said. “But this is your sister’s home. Not yours. So I’m back to rude. I abhor rude.”

“Good,” Halcyon said. “Then you’ll be first in line to help with our current predicament. The people involved take rude to a professional level. Actually, they’ve progressed so far beyond rude that if they could just get back there, everyone would probably celebrate.”

Alexios frowned. “I take it your world has produced problems of a personal level, somehow involving these beyond-rude people?”

Marina nodded and gave Alexios a rundown of the situation with Avery. He listened intently but without a change in expression, and when she finished, he sat in silence for so long that Marina wondered if he was in some sort of trance.

Finally, he sighed. “I’m afraid there’s nothing I can do.”

“Why the hell not?” Halcyon asked. “Your boss is a god. And not just any god—the head god. Seems to me that something like this should be a snap for him.”

“And under normal circumstances, that would be the case,” Alexios said. “But I’m afraid the circumstances right now are anything but normal.”

“What do you mean?” Marina asked.

“I’ve lost contact with our world,” Alexios said. “I tried to transport home last night but I was blocked. All channels of communication with them are cut off.”

“Is that normal?” Marina asked.

“It’s never happened before,” he said.

“Then how can it happen now?” Halcyon asked.