Chapter 46 - Eros

Eros started looking for Alexa with a simple scan of her parents’ home and land. After all, they’d agreed to keep her under lock and key in exchange for him not going to the Olympian Council. In retrospect, he realizedhe might’ve been a little harsh.

But he didn’t spot her.

Running a hand through his soft curls, he exhaled. “Where are you, little nymph?”

He plopped onto his couch and settled in for a moredetailed scan. Eros started with some of Alexa’s favorite siblings. Perhaps she’d gone off to visit them. But her metal-working brother and flower-guarding sisters werealone. One by one, Eros checked all fifty of her brothers and sisters, but Alexa wasn’t with any of them.

Where on earth?

Eros broke from his scan to close his eyes and think. He knew she wasn’t working (he’d fired her himself) andshe wasn’t with family, so where did that leave? He thought through vacations in Crete or lazy baths in salt spas. None of those things felt like Alexa. He’d never known her to even want a vacation. Could she still beholding on to her job even though work was forbidden?

Yes. Of course. Alexa would cling to her friendship with Psyche no matter the cost. Eros realized he had to find Psyche if he wanted to track down Alexa.

The last place he’d seen Psyche was outside Megara, where he’d saved her from the soldiers. That was less than two days ago. She couldn’t have gotten that muchfurther.

“On horseback,” he muttered, “she would’ve passed Eleusis, and might be past Athens, but she couldn’t havemade it to Thebes yet.” That narrowed his search radius. All he had to do was scan the roads between Eleusis andThebes, and he would find her. As a last resort, he could
check the cities too, but Eros was sure he was close.

He was so confident that he started flying to Thebes, scanning as he flew. He planned to work his way backward, certain Psyche was moving as quickly as shecould toward Olympus. As his wings beat furiously against the afternoon sky, he scanned the dusty roads.

By the time he reached Thebes, he’d scanned theentire length of road with no sign of her.

“What am I missing?” He dropped down onto anempty stretch of road. Eros thought back through his mental calculations of how far Psyche could’ve traveled. Even galloping non-stop, he didn’t see how she could bepast Thebes already.

As he rested, he scanned inside Eleusis, Athens andThebes. Still nothing. Eros kicked a stone laying on theedge of the road, sending it careening into a strand of trees in the distance. How could she just be gone?

“This isn’t possible!”

A quiet echo played back to his ears. Possible, possible, possible.

Aching gripped Eros as realization washed over him.
His knees weakened and he took a staggering stepbackward. “Mother.”

Eros unfurled his wings and shot into the air. “Mother, where is Psyche?” he screamed as he hurtled back to Olympus.

Chapter end