"Shouldn't something have happened by now?"

I had sort of thought that when I laid hands on the crown, or maybe when I got it safely out of the club, there would be, like, a heavenly choir or a shaft of light, or a giant hand reaching down from the sky to show that I had completed the first task. There was nothing.

Alexei had suggested that we go back to the apartment and check the scroll, but when we got there, everything was just as we left it.

"Do you think it needed to be a real queen's crown?" asked Nico, voicing the fear that all of us felt.

"It was a real queen's crown," Alexei insisted, but added, "by a certain definition."

"Well, maybe Zeus doesn't recognize that definition."

I was flopped in a chair, staring at the floor, feeling about as low as I could go. I had been so sure. If I couldn't even figure out the first task then how was I going to make it through all six?

"Can anyone else hear that?" Christoph had his head cocked to one side, listening.

"Hear what?" asked Nico.

"Shh."

I listened and heard what Christoph meant; a strange sizzling sound that was coming from...

"Look at the scroll!"

We had left the scroll on the coffee table and now a thin plume of smoke was issuing from it.

"Is it on fire?"

I rushed to the table and unfurled the scroll to reveal the words of the first task vanishing into smoke, sizzling as they went. My heart leapt as there, behind the disappearing ink of the first task, new writing started to appear, scrawling across the paper in the same hand. A new task.

"We did it," I gasped, more in relief than excitement.

"You did it," said Alexei.

"What does it say?" asked Nico.

I read. "Lay your hands upon one whose heart remains but has beaten for more than a century."

I flopped back into the chair again. "One whose heart has beaten for more than a century? How am I supposed to do that?"

"Someone old, right?" said Nico. "Can't be that hard to find. Although, you'll have to find a good excuse to go around touching old people."

"Oddly worded," murmured Alexei, half to himself. "One whose heart remains. I mean; if their heart didn't 'remain' they'd be dead. Very dead."

He was right. That odd wording clearly meant something and if I failed to figure out what, then this task was going to be a non-starter. I tried to think but the adrenalin high of finishing the first task was still whizzing around my brain and making thought an impossibility.

"You'll figure it out," said Nico, comfortingly. "You did the first. You came up with a solution none of us would have. And I still don't know how you got that guy - or whatever - to give up his crown. You're good at this."

I didn't feel it. The joy of completing one task had been smacked down by the fact that I wasn't even sure I understood the second. '...One whose heart remains...'

"You should get some sleep," said Alexei. "It's been a day of massive ups and downs and that's bound to have an effect on you. You've barely stopped since we got back from Greece. Take a night. It'll all look clearer in the morning."

I nodded and fervently hoped that he was right. Though I had my private doubts.

In the privacy of my bedroom, I got undressed and tried out the shower, though I didn't currently dare to experiment with any of the more adventurous settings. My body was still fizzing from the evening's events, making sleep not an option for a while yet, so I decided to read before bed - something I very seldom do. I changed into my leopard-print onesie and examined the well-stocked bookshelves by the wall. But just as I was scanning the titles, there was a knock at the door.

"Come in."

Alexei entered. "Just wanted to catch you before you turned in."

"I can't sleep yet," I said, sitting on the edge of the bed with a sigh.

"I figured." He joined me, and I found myself pleasantly aware of his presence, as if he carried a masculinity around him that I could sense in the air. I liked it.

"You seemed a bit down on yourself."

I shrugged. "No. Why should I be? One task down in less than a day? Not too shabby."

All that was a lie, of course. I felt like I had gotten lucky with that one. I was nervous and on edge, more aware than ever of what hung on what I was doing, more aware than ever of my own stupidity, my poor education, my lack of ability. I felt hopelessly inadequate and you couldn't grift in that frame of mind - you need to be confident. So the one skill that I brought to this whole enterprise was currently being numbed by my general ill-feeling.

"I don't know why you should be," Alexei said. "Maybe I'm reading you wrong. I guess I don't know you that well, I... I just feel like I do." I felt a warm glow in the pit of my stomach, already making me feel better. It was nice that he felt that way. "I just wanted to say that, if you were feeling down on yourself, you've no reason to. You were extraordinary today. And I don't know why that surprises me because you've been extraordinary since the day we met you. You've already done better than anyone else given these tasks. Most of them broke as soon as they learned the truth. They couldn't take it. You're stronger and more special than I think you know. And I just wanted to tell you that."

I could have cried with happiness.

"I don't like feeling vulnerable," I whispered, barely loud enough for him to hear. "I don't like people knowing that I'm not as confident as I seem. I don't like to ask for... anything. I can't even say that, maybe I need a hug."

To my eternal gratitude, Alexei immediately picked up on this none-too-subtle hint and put an arm around me. I snuggled up against his strong body, feeling calm and safe and warm beside him.

"You don't have to worry around us," Alexei whispered back. "Be yourself. We're there for you no matter what. If you need anything - even if it's just a hug - all you have to do is ask."

"I don't trust easily," I admitted.

"I guess there hasn't been much in your life to rely on."

"Just Remi."

"Not your mom?"

I knew he was asking to make me talk about it, to make me face my own demons, but with him there, I felt like maybe I could.

"I love my mom more than anyone or anything. But trust? I wish I could have. And what's sadder is that I know how much she wanted to be worthy of my trust. She so wanted to be a good reliable mom. She never had dreams bigger than that, because maybe there are no dreams bigger than that. She would have been so good at it, if it hadn't been for that fucked-up brain of hers. Through no fault of her own, I couldn't trust her. We had fun together, we were happy together, but there was always that unspoken edge. I never knew when the voices would come and take my mom away again. And then one day, they took her away forever."

Alexei listened, his face a mask of sympathy reflecting my grief, as comforting in silence as he was talking.

"I bounced around the system a bit," I went on. "Some bad foster homes. Or maybe they just couldn't handle someone who'd had that upbringing. I don't know. But, finally, I found the Ralstons, who were good people, and who wanted to take on a problem case like me. They wanted me to be happy. But I still don't think I was till Remi arrived."

"You guys were always close?"

I laughed. "Practically. I hated him when he moved in, just cause it felt like he was splitting my foster parents’ attention - when all they wanted was a family. Then, on, like, his third day - something like that - we got into a fight over who could go higher on a swing set. A proper fight - fists flying, the works. For whatever reason, that made us best friends. More than that, it made us siblings. That was a pretty happy time now I look back on it."

My gaze strayed to my phone, sitting silent on the bedside table.

"You can't call him," Alexei said gently, reading my mind.

"I know. I'd just put him in danger."

"You'd put the whole of mankind in danger, actually, but why quibble?"

"I just..." I struggled to put the turmoil of feelings into words. "I miss him - of course, I do. But what I really miss is that person I can trust."

"I hope you trust us."

Did I? The horrible truth was, that I probably did. Horrible because I didn't want to. They were the employees of my father. He made them. And being close to anything that he made felt like a betrayal of my mom. Perhaps that was why my feelings for the guys were so uncertain.

"I do trust you," I said, voicing the truth I hated. "But I know I'm a fool for doing it."

"Why?"

"Because you're my father's minions. You're loyal to him."

Alexei shook his head. "He told us to look after you, and at the start, that was a job. But now," he looked into my eyes and I felt my insides melt, "you are the center of our world, Cat."

I think he instigated the kiss, but I met it as it came, and reveled in the ecstatic sensations fizzing in my body at the touch of his lips on mine. I couldn't let this happen. I didn't want any part of my father's world.

But it would feel soooo good.

Maybe it was a shallow reason to give up on my better judgment, but I had wanted Alexei since the moment I had seen him, and I was done pretending that I didn't still want him now. With gentle movements, I drew him down on top of me as I lay back on the bed.

What the hell? I might regret it in the morning, but that was a long and wonderful time away.