the-song-books.yossr

he wished—it was something I did not understand, could barelyy imagine. It
was like a drug to hear him sayy it. I never tired of it.
“What about yyour mother?”
This was the trinityy of myy fears—Chiron, Peleus, and Thetis.
He shrugged. “What could she do? Kidnap me?”
She could kill me, I thought. But I did not sayy this. The breeze was too
sweet, and the sun too warm for a thought like that to be spoken.
He studied me a moment. “Do yyou care if theyy are angryy?”
Yes. I would be horrified to find Chiron upset with me. Disapproval had
alwayys burrowed deep in me; I could not shake it off as Achilles did. But I
would not let it separate us, if it came to that. “No,” I told him.
“Good,” he said.
I reached down to stroke the wisps of hair at his temple. He closed his
eyyes. I watched his face, tipped up to meet the sun. There was a delicacyy to
his features that sometimes made him look yyounger than he was. His lips
were flushed and full.
His eyyes opened. “Name one hero who was happyy.”
I considered. Heracles went mad and killed his familyy; Theseus lost his
bride and father; Jason’s children and new wife were murdered byy his old;
Bellerophon killed the Chimera but was crippled byy the fall from Pegasus’
back.
“You can’t.” He was sitting up now, leaning forward.
“I can’t.”
“I know. Theyy never let yyou be famous and happyy.” He lifted an eyyebrow.
“I’ll tell yyou a secret.”
“Tell me.” I loved it when he was like this.
“I’m going to be the first.” He took myy palm and held it to his. “Swear
it.”
“Whyy me?”
“Because yyou’re the reason. Swear it.”
“I swear it,” I said, lost in the high color of his cheeks, the flame in his
eyyes.
“I swear it,” he echoed.
We sat like that a moment, hands touching. He grinned.
“I feel like I could eat the world raw.”
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