“You know what for.”

“I didn’t take it.”

“No, but he did.”

“I wasn’t involved in any of that. It’s your own fault. If you hadn’t chased after naked women at night, you wouldn’t be in this mess.”

“I thought she was in danger,” Teddy Jo ground out.

“Sure, you did. Keep telling yourself that.”

Teddy Jo took another step forward.

Roman’s dark eyebrows furrowed. “Watch it, birdie, before I break those wings off. I already got one of you. I have no problem adding another.”

Nice to know that in a crisis his Russian accent evaporated. I stepped between them. “What’s going on?”

Teddy Jo waved his arms. “What’s going on is I was flying here to meet with you and you sicced the son of Ares on me. I’m a demigod. That’s a full-out avatar. How is he not disappearing?”

“Nobody knew he was an avatar. You triggered his transformation. It’s not my fault you left your sword at home.”

“I didn’t leave it, damn it all to Tartarus!”

“Baby,” Curran called, his voice saturated with controlled exertion. “Take Teddy Jo and go. Christopher isn’t going to calm down until you leave.”

I didn’t want to leave. I wanted to stay and figure out what was going on with Christopher. But he was right. Christopher wouldn’t calm down until Teddy Jo was out of sight and striking range.

I ran inside, pulled off the dress, threw it at Fiona, and ran upstairs. Two minutes later I was back, wearing my normal clothes, Sarrat on my back.

Teddy Jo held out a leather swing on chains. “Sit.”

“You said a harness. That is not a harness. That’s a playground swing.”

“What if she falls?” Roman asked.

Teddy Jo’s eyes bulged a little. He was at the end of his patience. “If she falls, I’ll catch her.”

“That’s it.” Roman thrust the staff at me. “Hold him. I’m coming with. I’ll be needed for negotiations anyway.”

Teddy Jo rolled his eyes.

“I’m not taking chances with this wedding. She’s going to walk down the aisle, and I’m marrying her and Curran.”

Teddy Jo looked at me. “You’re having him officiate at your wedding? Do you know what he does?”

“Could you please have this discussion somewhere else?” Barabas asked.

Roman stretched his arms and popped his neck, as if about to take a swim. “Take care of my horse, please.” He planted his feet, took a deep breath, and exhaled. “I hate this part.”

Bones crunched. Roman threw himself on the ground. Black feathers exploded and lay flat, and a raven the size of a human stared at me with brown eyes.

Holy crap.

I hugged Curran, who was still holding Christopher-Deimos in an arm lock. “Love you, I’ll be back soon. Don’t let him drink any blood.”

“Get into the swing,” Teddy Jo said.

Christopher strained, screaming into his gag. I wedged myself between Barabas and Curran and hugged him. “I’ll be back. Don’t worry.”

He continued to struggle against Curran’s hold. He had Christopher’s face and Christopher’s hair, but aside from that nothing else remained. Christopher was gentle. The creature that fought so hard Curran’s muscles bulged keeping it down was anything but gentle. I really hoped I hadn’t watched the person I knew as Christopher die in the transformation.

Julie dashed out of the house. “Sienna called.”

Damn it all. “What did she say?”

“Beware the dragon.”

Well, wasn’t that a cherry on top of my morning.

• • •

FLYING WAS OVERRATED. Heights were very overrated. Flying with wings was probably less overrated when said wings belonged to you, but when you were dangling in a swing that bopped up and down every time the angel of death carrying you beat his wings, you reached a new level of appreciation for walking. Walking was amazing and awesome, and I really wanted to do it again as soon as possible.

“Kate,” Teddy Jo called out. “How are you going to ride a pegasi? You’re terrified of heights.”

“I’m not. I just don’t like them.”

“You really, really don’t like them.”

Thank you, Captain Obvious. I stared straight ahead. Looking down made every hair on my body stand on end. I had to do it. There was no other choice.

Unfortunately looking straight ahead was boring, so I kept coming back to trying to process the whole Christopher thing and failing. If he were Deimos’s avatar, he shouldn’t have been able to exist. I couldn’t quite get around that.

“Do you want to tell me what happened to your sword now?” I shifted my grip on the chain. If I squeezed any harder, my hands would cramp up, and I needed my hands to hold my sword.

“I was flying home,” Teddy Jo said. “It was dark. I saw a naked woman stumbling along the road below me. I landed to see if she was okay. She told me a monster was in the woods. I pulled out my sword and then I woke up in the mud, in the middle of the forest. A voice told me to bring you to the same spot within three days so a bargain could be struck.”

“What kind of voice?”

“Female. Very beautiful.”

“And what does this have to do with your punching Roman?”

“His god took it.”

“You think Chernobog took your sword?”

“I don’t think. I know. Look down.”

We’d been flying north toward the Chattahoochee National Forest and then over it. I locked my teeth and looked down.

A black stain spread below us. Massive trees, so dense you couldn’t see through their crowns, stood shoulder to shoulder, their leaves such a dark green they looked black. A narrow road snaked its way around the black woods.

“Did you talk to Roman about it?”

“Yeah. He says he doesn’t know why that happened.”

“If Chernobog wanted to talk to me, why didn’t he use Roman?”

“Nobody knows that either.”

“Why does he want to talk to me?”

“You keep asking these questions. I gave you all of the information I have.”

“Anything you can tell me about the woman?”

“She had blue hair.”