Chapter 838 Unwelcome Attention

• He arched one brow in amused defiance and let the remark hang between them, answering her warning with nothing more than a silent, wicked smile.
• When Annabeth lowered her eyes, she noticed a thin smear of rust-colored crust on the cat's velvet pad. Curious, she gathered the paw between her fingers. To her surprise, the stray did not resist; it simply blinked and waited. The stain had dried, suggesting the contact had been brief, a finger-sized splash rather than a wound. Yet the iron tang told a different story—it had been there for hours. And it was human.
• A shadow crossed her brow, and she lifted her gaze toward the alley the cat had escaped from. Junk blocked most of the narrow passage, turning it into a crooked throat of darkness. When she inhaled, a coil of rotting stench slid along the air and scratched at her sinuses.