Noah had killed monsters before. He had stitched wounds. Set broken fingers. Carried injured demigods three miles through a forest while something with six legs chased them. Once, when he was fifteen, he had shot an empousa through the throat from nearly seventy yards away while hanging upside down from a tree. That had been a weird afternoon. Noah knew how to handle emergencies. Emergencies had instructions. Stop the bleeding. Find the exit. Draw the weapon. Protect the civilian. Kill the monster. Get home. Simple. Useful. Things Noah could do.

There were no instructions for driving seventy miles with a seventeen-year-old boy sitting in the back seat covered in his mother's blood. Noah kept both hands on the steering wheel. Ten and two. Perfectly normal. Perfectly controlled. He had been driving like somebody's eighty-year-old grandfather for the last twenty minutes. He didn't care. The highway stretched ahead. Dark asphalt. Yellow lines. Trees blurred past on either side.

Maya sat behind him with Raine. Neither had spoken in seventeen minutes. Noah knew because he had been counting. Not intentionally. His brain had simply decided silence needed measurement. Seventeen minutes. Thirty-four seconds. Thirty-five. Thirty-six.

Noah looked into the rearview mirror. Raine sat against the window. His forehead rested against the glass. Eyes closed. Not sleeping. Noah knew. His breathing was wrong for sleep. Too shallow. Too deliberate. The guitar case remained wedged between his knees. One hand rested over the handle. Blood had dried across his fingers. His mother's blood. Noah looked back toward the road. Fuck.

Maya's hand remained wrapped around Raine's other one. She hadn't let go. Good. Noah didn't know what he would've done if she had. His phone buzzed in the cup holder. Again. Noah ignored it. Another buzz. Maya's eyes lifted toward the front.

"Are you going to answer that?"

"No."

Raine didn't move. Maya lowered her voice.

"They're going to keep calling."

"I know."

Buzz. Noah's jaw tightened. Soteria had been trying to reach him since they left the house. Probably because he had sent exactly one message.

'FOUND HIM. INBOUND. MEDICAL AND SECURITY READY.'

Then he had turned notifications off. Apparently that had not been sufficient. Buzz. Noah grabbed the phone and held the side button until the screen went black. Maya watched him.

"You turned it off?"

"Yep."

"That seems responsible."

"Thank you."

"It wasn't a compliment."

"It is to me."

Nothing from Raine. Usually that would have gotten something. A snort. An insult. A comment about Maya stealing his personality. Nothing. Noah's chest tightened. He looked at the mirror again. Raine's eyes were open now. Green. Fixed somewhere beyond the window. Noah looked away before Raine caught him. He had absolutely no right to stare. Not after today. Probably not after yesterday either.

 Yesterday. Jesus Christ. Yesterday, Noah had kissed him. Three times. Today, Raine had found his mother dead. There should have been significantly more time between those events. Preferably several years. Maybe an entirely different lifetime. Noah tightened his hands around the wheel.

He could still hear Raine. How am I supposed to know that? The kisses. Noah had said they were real. They had been. That was the worst part. Everything had been real. The music. The texting. The stupid nickname. The apartment. The way Raine had looked at him after the first kiss, as if neither of them quite understood what they had just done. All real. And none of that mattered because Noah had also been lying to him. Not technically. Not always. 

Noah hated technicalities. They were useful only when he needed them. He had known there was something different about Raine. He had suspected he was a demigod. He had suspected— Hades. And he had said nothing. Then kissed him anyway. Fantastic. Excellent moral decision-making.  Apollo would be thrilled. Probably write a poem about it. A terrible poem. Apollo wrote terrible poems. Noah had never told him that. Mostly because he enjoyed being alive.

Raine shifted behind him. Noah's attention snapped toward the mirror. Maya noticed. Again. She had been noticing everything. Of course she had. Fucking satyrs. Noah had known Maya was hiding something. He just hadn't expected hooves. That had genuinely been a surprise. Raine whispered:

"Where are we?"

Noah's throat tightened. First words in twenty-three minutes. He checked the road signs.

"About forty minutes out."

Raine stared through the window.

"From Soteria?"

"Yeah."

Silence. Then:

"What happens when we get there?"

Noah opened his mouth. Stopped. Normally? Easy. Intake. Medical examination. Identification. Housing assignment. Orientation. Training assessment. Divine lineage evaluation if unclaimed. A mountain of paperwork that made the Underworld bureaucracy look aspirational.

But Raine wasn't normal intake. A child of the Three had not entered Soteria in ninety-eight years. And this particular child of the Three had arrived approximately forty-eight hours after the Oracle announced his existence to the entire school. Noah suspected subtlety was already dead.

"Medical first," Maya said.

Noah glanced at her. She looked at him through the mirror. Thank you. Raine frowned.

"I'm not hurt."

Noah nearly laughed. He didn't. His shoulder. The monster had thrown him onto the floor. His palms were scraped. Probably bruising everywhere. He had spent the previous hour operating entirely on adrenaline.

"You got thrown across a hallway," Noah said.

"I've had worse."

"That doesn't mean you're fine."

Raine's eyes met his in the mirror. There. The old look. Only colder.

"You would know."

Noah looked back at the road. Fair. Maya squeezed Raine's hand. He looked away. A minute passed. Then Raine asked:

"Are they going to make me stay?"

Noah hesitated. That was apparently his favorite activity now.

"They won't imprison you."

"That wasn't what I asked."

No. Of course it wasn't. Noah breathed out slowly.

"They're going to strongly recommend it."

Raine laughed once. No humor.

"Strongly."

"You're being hunted."

"I noticed."

"Soteria is warded."

Raine didn't answer.

"Monsters can't cross the boundary without invitation or an enormous amount of power."

"Comforting."

"It should be."

"It isn't."

Noah's hands tightened.

"I know."

Raine looked at him. Noah felt it without checking the mirror. Eventually:

"What about my mom?"

There it was. Noah stopped breathing for half a second. Maya looked down. Raine's voice remained strangely flat.

"We just left her there."

Noah swallowed.

"I called someone."

Raine's head lifted.

"What?"

"Before we left."

Noah kept his eyes on the highway.

"Maya was with you. I went downstairs for about thirty seconds."

Raine said nothing.

"I called emergency services."

Silence.

"And Soteria."

Raine's jaw tightened. Noah hurried:

"Not because of you."

"That's reassuring."

"Because if something mythological killed her, mortal police aren't going to know what they're looking at."

Raine stared. Noah continued carefully.

"Soteria has people who work with mortal authorities. They'll handle both sides."

"My mom isn't a side."

"No."

Noah's voice softened.

"She isn't."

Raine looked away. Maya's thumb moved slowly across the back of his hand. Noah stared at the road. Then:

"They won't touch anything they don't have to."

Raine's eyes returned to him.

"I told them not to."

Noah swallowed.

"And they're going to preserve the note."

Raine's hand moved instinctively toward his jacket pocket. The note was still there. Right. Of course. Noah had forgotten.

"They can have a copy."

Raine's voice sharpened.

"They're not taking it."

"Okay."

No argument. Raine seemed surprised. Noah didn't know why. Then remembered he had spent two days arguing with him about practically everything. Right.

"Okay," Noah repeated.

Raine looked back out the window. The silence returned. But it felt slightly different. Not better. Nothing was better. Just— less sharp. Noah would take it.

⸻

Soteria Hall did not appear gradually. That was one of Noah's favorite things about it. One second there was nothing but forest. Ancient trees crowded the narrow road. Oak. Pine. Cypress. Laurel. Branches intertwined overhead until the late afternoon sky disappeared behind green. Then the road curved. And Soteria existed. Stone walls rose between the trees. Not defensive walls exactly. At least not anymore. Ivy climbed over pale gray stone. Iron gates stood open beneath an enormous archway carved with the crest.

Shield.

Flame.

Protection.

Beyond it, the grounds stretched farther than any mortal road suggested they should. Magic did that. Space became flexible around divine places. Raine sat upright. Noah saw him in the mirror. For the first time since leaving his house, grief temporarily loosened its grip enough for something else to appear. Confusion. Good. Confusion Noah understood.

"What the fuck?"

There he was. Noah almost smiled. Almost. Maya leaned toward the window. Her expression changed too. Softer. Familiar. She knew this place. Not as home. But close. Raine looked between them.

"This was here?"

"Technically," Noah said.

"What does technically mean?"

"It's complicated."

"Of course it is."

They reached the gates. The moment the car crossed the boundary, Raine gasped. Noah immediately hit the brakes. Maya turned.

"What?"

Raine stared down. His shadow had spread across the floorboard. Not violently. Not even unusually. Except Noah could see it. Really see it. Darkness moved beneath Raine's shoes like ink stirred in water. Raine's face went pale.

"What?"

Maya followed his gaze.

"Oh."

Noah twisted around.

"Raine?"

"It feels different."

Noah frowned.

"How?"

Raine swallowed.

"I don't know."

Helpful. Normal Raine. He looked toward the window. Then toward the gates behind them.

"The shadows."

Noah waited.

"They're louder."

Maya's eyes narrowed.

"Louder?"

"Not sound."

Raine rubbed his sternum.

"Just..."

He looked frustrated.

"More."

Noah understood enough. Soteria was saturated with divine magic. Raine had spent seventeen years suppressing whatever he was. Crossing into a place built specifically for mythological beings was probably like stepping from a dark room into— Noah stopped that analogy. Sunlight. Not helpful.

"Can you control them?" Maya asked.

Raine stared down. The shadow rippled. Then stilled.

"Apparently."

Noah's stomach tightened. He had seen demigods manifest powers. Some violently. Some gradually. Some not at all. Raine's abilities responded like they had been waiting seventeen years for permission. That was concerning. Very. Noah kept that to himself. Raine looked at him.

"You made the face."

Fuck.

"What face?"

"The one where you know something terrible."

"I have several faces."

"Apparently."

Maya sighed.

"He probably just thinks Soteria's magic is affecting you."

Noah looked at her. Traitor. Raine looked between them.

"Is it?"

"Yes."

Probably. Maybe. Noah really needed new vocabulary. Raine leaned back.

"Fantastic."

Noah started driving again. The gates disappeared behind them. And then the school came into view. Raine forgot to be sarcastic. Soteria Hall had been rebuilt too many times to belong to one century. The oldest buildings were stone. Tall windows. Arched corridors. Towers covered in ivy. Newer structures had been added around them carefully enough that glass and metal somehow didn't look completely ridiculous beside four-hundred-year-old architecture. Dormitories curved around the eastern side. Training fields stretched beyond them. Students moved between buildings. Some carrying books. Some carrying weapons. Some carrying both. A girl walked past with a spear over one shoulder and an iced coffee in the other hand. Raine stared.

"She has a spear."

"Yeah."

"Why?"

"Probably training."

"She has Starbucks."

"Also probably training."

Raine looked at Noah.

"What?"

"Nothing."

They passed another group. A boy with antlers. Two girls arguing beside a fountain while one absentmindedly floated three books behind her. Someone with blue skin sitting beneath a tree. Raine's head turned slowly.

"What the fuck."

Maya smiled faintly. Noah caught it. Good. Raine noticed.

"You've been here before."

Maya nodded.

"Summers."

"How often?"

"Most years when I was younger."

"And you never mentioned the secret fucking Hogwarts?"

Maya considered it.

"That comparison is offensive for several reasons."

"Maya."

"Sorry."

Raine looked back outside. Then froze. The courtyard. Three statues. Lightning bolt. Trident. Broken helm. Noah saw his face change. Shit. They hadn't repaired it. Of course they hadn't. The black stone helm remained split directly down the middle. Students had begun leaving offerings around the pedestal. Flowers. Coins. Candles. Weapons. Noah hated all of it. Raine pointed.

"What's that?"

Neither answered quickly enough. Raine looked at Noah.

"No."

Noah sighed.

"What?"

"You're doing the hesitation thing." Maya whispered:

"The Three."

Raine looked at her.

"The what?"

Noah pulled into the infirmary parking area.

"Zeus. Poseidon. Hades."

Silence. Raine looked back toward the statues. The broken helm. His father's symbol. His face emptied.

"What happened to it?"

Noah parked. The engine stopped. Nobody moved. Maya looked at Noah. Great. His turn.

"The night your powers first manifested at school..."

Raine stared. Noah continued.

"The bells beneath Soteria rang."

"What bells?"

"Warnings."

Raine's expression tightened.

"And the helm cracked."

Silence. Raine looked toward the statue again.

"You're saying I did that?"

"No."

Immediately.

"We don't know that."

Raine laughed bitterly.

"Apparently nobody knows anything until it's inconvenient."

Noah flinched. Maya closed her eyes briefly. Raine grabbed the door handle. Then stopped. There were people outside. A lot of them. Students. Teachers. Some pretending not to stare. Most failing. Raine's hand remained on the handle.

"What are they looking at?"

Noah's stomach sank. Right. The Oracle. Everyone knew. Not Raine. Noah hated this place suddenly.

"They know someone is coming."

"Someone."

Raine looked at him.

"A child of Hades."

His grip tightened.

"Do they know it's me?"

"Not officially."

Maya looked outside.

"They will in about thirty seconds."

Raine stared at her.

"Helpful."

"Sorry."

He looked at himself. Blood on his sleeve. Blood on his hands. Blood dried along his cheek. His mother. Noah watched the realization hit. Raine's breathing changed. No. Not now. Noah unbuckled.

"I'll get someone to clear the entrance."

Raine grabbed his arm. Noah froze. The contact lasted maybe one second. Then Raine released him.

"Don't."

Noah looked at him. Raine swallowed.

"If they're going to stare eventually..."

His voice cracked slightly. He hated it. Noah saw.

"Fine."

Raine opened the door.