The tide was still sucking at the sand under her feet. She did get it, she'd had similar inclinations to run away from Apollo and Ares and the whole sordid mess, but she hadn't. Tragos was here. She needed him
She could feel her heart being squeezed. "And… you?" She spoke in a hoarse whisper, like she might be overheard.
Tragos didn’t answer at first, he just looked down into her eyes like she’d be able to see all the choices spread out in front of him. Like she could see how much he didn’t want to leave her. He nodded, painfully. “I can’t leave him alone out there,” he explained, and dropped his head to kiss her fiercely, knowing no clearer way to show his feelings about this than by pulling her tightly up against him.
She clung to him and kissed him back, holding onto him as tightly as she could. Don’t cry, don’t cry, she told herself, scrunching her eyes shut. Her throat ached though, and she swallowed against it, and couldn’t speak.
After a few moments, she pulled back, keeping hold of Tragos’ hand, and turned away to walk to the sofa and sit down, because she wasn’t sure if she could stay standing when she felt so giddy with the shock of it. “Come sit,” she managed to say, meaning both of them. Oh gods, Kaden- “Why don’t you ask Aphrodite for help?” she asked, wiping the corner of her eye with the side of her hand. “Or- or I could ask Athena- or Hecate-” She didn’t know what they could do, but there must be something...