Kaden straightened up all the way, his face bright with sudden hope. “She should totally come with us!” he said. “Didn’t I say? Didn’t I say she should come with us?”
Fuck… Tragos thought. In some ways, things might be a whole lot easier with Marcie on board. And it would save her, too, by keeping her away from Apollo. After a long, agonised pause he took her face in his hands. “You should,” he agreed. “But we’re crossing the border under fake names, and I don’t have a passport for you. We can’t wait-”
“But she could help-”
“We’ll manage, K,” Tragos said to Kaden, not ungently, and Kaden stuffed his sleeve into his mouth and slumped down again. “We can’t wait,” he said, turning back to Marcie. “I’m sorry, we can’t. But I will come back for you.”
Marcie couldn’t stop tears forming then, not when he wasn’t giving her a chance to turn her face away. He couldn’t come back for her, and she wouldn’t let him anyway. Not when every War Dog from Lazarus down would kill him on sight. Or worse, drag him in front of Ares for his punishment. She just shook her head slightly, her heart breaking. “You know you can’t.”
Yeah… she was right, and Tragos’ face was bitterly resigned in acceptance of that fact. “Then I’ll find a way for you to follow us,” he said instead. He could accept that he couldn’t come back, but he could not accept this broken look on her face. “I’ll sort something, from the other side. We just… might need to wait for things to cool down a bit.”
“Yes - you gotta come,” Kaden chimed in. “Marcie, you gotta get out too, you shouldn’t stay - it’s fucked up here, round all these gods. Who knows what their plans are?”