Chapter 3 The Heartbeat That Lied

• I had been three months pregnant when the avalanche came.
• It happened in the winter before the attack. Orion, Melantha, and I had gone into the mountains together. The snow buried the trail; by the time I dug them free, neither of them was conscious.
• I dragged them to a ridge, one at a time, then lay between them and waited for help.
• Our child did not survive.
• Afterward, Orion held me and cried. He said we would have more children. He promised to spend his life making up for what I had lost.
• That morning, he had used the same loss to explain why another woman deserved more faith than I did.
• I pressed my hands flat on my knees until they stopped trembling. I had not been careless. I had been the only one left who could move.
• ——
• Athena insisted on taking me home that afternoon. Thessa came with us, warning that I needed rest and short walks, not a celebration.
• No one had arranged a celebration.
• My old windows stood open above the olive garden, but pink silk hung where my curtains had been. Melantha’s sandals lined the hall. A portrait of her beside Athena occupied the place where my childhood shield had once hung.
• “Your rooms are ready,” Athena said.
• I looked up at the pink curtains. “Those aren’t my things.”
• Melantha rested both hands on her stomach. “The healer said the baby needs warmth. That room gets the most sun. You understand, don’t you?”
• “Where are my belongings?”
• Athena hesitated. “They were put away safely.”
• I went downstairs to find them.
• Dust coated the storage chests. Inside lay my clothes, scrolls, and the laurel crowns I had won across Greece. The crown Athena had placed on my head after my first victory had been snapped in half.
• I lifted the broken leaves. I remembered how carefully I had carried it home, afraid to crush a single one.
• “Who did this?”
• “A servant, perhaps.” Melantha stood behind me. With Athena still in the courtyard, she had abandoned the soft voice. “Does it matter? You were gone.”
• “Asleep.”
• “Dead in every way that counted.”
• I turned the crown in my hands.
• Her gaze moved over my thin arms. “Athena listens to me now. Orion sleeps beside me. Even the villages you helped thank me. I continued your work.”
• “You put your name on it.”
• “Someone had to be there.”
• I glanced toward the open door. In the passage beyond it, a blue ward crystal glimmered above the steps. Athena had installed them to record anyone entering the storerooms. She trusted a crystal’s memory more than a servant’s word.
• For once, that might help me.
• “Then you won’t mind correcting the records,” I said, loudly enough to carry into the passage. “Give back what you stole.”
• Melantha’s eyes flicked toward the stairs. Footsteps sounded above us.
• She seized my wrist, struck her own cheek with my hand, and screamed.
• Orion reached us in a burst of gold. He shoved me away from her. My back hit a pillar, and pain shot through the old knife wound.
• “You hit a pregnant woman?”
• Melantha pulled away from him and stumbled toward the steps. I saw her check the shallow drop before she let herself fall.
• Her cry brought Athena running.
• Orion dropped beside her. “The baby!”
• “She threw herself down.”
• “Of course you’d say that.” He lifted her into his arms. “If my child is harmed, I will never forgive you.”
• I braced a hand against the pillar. The wound at my side throbbed with every breath.
• “You haven’t asked whether you hurt me.”
• He looked down at Melantha.
• Athena reached the foot of the stairs. “Callista, I expected better judgment from you.”
• Thessa slipped past her and put an arm around me. At last, someone noticed I could barely stand.
• Eileithyia, the goddess of childbirth, was called to the house. She knelt beside the couch where Orion had laid Melantha and pressed a glowing hand to her stomach.
• A faint heartbeat filled the room.
• Orion sagged with relief. Melantha covered her face and cried.
• Eileithyia moved her hand.
• The heartbeat followed a fraction too late.
• Her eyes narrowed.
• “Is my baby safe?” Melantha caught her wrist.
• “For now. I’ll need to examine you again in private.”
• Orion carried Melantha upstairs. Athena followed, pausing to tell me that I would apologize when Melantha felt well enough to hear it.
• I waited until they were gone before turning to Thessa.
• “The crystal outside the storerooms. Please get it to Hermes before anyone removes it.”
• She looked at the bruise forming on my wrist. “I will.”
• ——
• Thessa settled me in a guest bedroom. At dusk, Eileithyia came back with Melantha’s discarded shawl folded over her arm.
• She locked the door and set a bowl of water beside it. Under her whispered prayer, a golden rhythm pulsed through the cloth.
• “The magic left an echo,” she said. “That’s the heartbeat we heard.”
• “Then there is a child?”
• “Something is inside her. But every beat is identical. Her fall, her crying, my examination—none of it changed the rhythm.”
• I leaned closer. Even I could hear the perfect repetition.
• “She isn’t pregnant.”
• “We don’t know that yet.” Eileithyia touched the water. A weaker pulse flickered beneath the first, then disappeared. “Whatever this is, it’s being sustained by magic. If she learns we noticed, she may get rid of it before I can identify it.”
• I looked at her. “Why are you telling me?”
• “Because you deserve to know.” She paused. “And because I was there when you lost your child. You were freezing, bleeding, still asking whether Orion and Melantha were warm enough. I won’t let anyone call that carelessness.”
• My eyes burned. I had carried that memory alone for so long that hearing someone else speak it felt almost unbearable.
• A knock sounded.
• “Callista.” Orion’s voice. “Open the door. We need to discuss your apology.”
• Eileithyia covered the bowl. “Say nothing about the heartbeat.”
• I wiped my face and opened the door.
• Melantha stood behind him, pale and composed, one hand over the pulse beneath her gown. Beyond them, Thessa waited at the turn of the stairs.
• She gave me a small nod.
• The crystal was safe.
• “We’ll speak in the courtyard,” I told Orion. “I’ve asked Hermes to join us.”
• Melantha’s hand dropped from her stomach.