"ARE YOU READY?"
I look up at Griffin standing in the doorway to my room. He looks so yummy in his tracksuit-turquoise blue with baby-blue stripes, the colors of the Cycladian team-with his sunglasses perched on his head. The Pythian Games racecourse at Delphi isn't wooded like the Academy course, so we're definitely going to need the shades.
"Almost," I say, grabbing my Nikes from under my desk and dropping onto my bed to pull them on. "I just need to lace up."
"Your mom and Headmaster Petrolas are waiting at the dock." He walks over to my desk and picks up the framed picture of us running on the beach. He's smiling when he says, "I think they're more nervous than either of us."
I finish lacing one Nike and move onto the other. "Well, it's not every day their daughter and her boyfriend get to race in ancient mythological games that used to be as big as the Olympics."
As I finish my bow, I catch sight of the leather-bound book under my bed. For luck, I run my fingertips along the smooth spine. Over the gilded letters of my dad's name.
"Have you read it yet?" Griffin asks, his voice a soft whisper.
"Not yet," I say, sitting up and snatching my turquoise duffel off the floor. "Let's go."
Griffin offers me his hand and I take it, loving the way his palm feels hot against mine. I also love that he doesn't press me about the record. It's not that I'm afraid to read it-we got past that weeks ago. I'm not sure how to explain it except that I haven't needed to read it yet. Someday I will, I know. One day something will happen or I'll just wake up knowing that the time has come to find out the whole truth.
But for now, I'm pretty content as is.
"So after we win the Pythian Games," Griffin asks as we head to my door, "what next? The Athens marathon? The Olympics? The Oxford cross-country team?"
As I turn to pull my bedroom door shut, I see the record poking out from beneath my bed.
"Yes. Yes. And-" I point at the record. It glows for a second and then slides out of view. "Yes."
Griffin laughs out loud. Wrapping an arm around my shoulder, he says, "That's what I love most about you. You always set attainable goals."
I know he's teasing. Because if I've learned one thing in the last year, it's that anything is attainable.
After all, I am a goddess.