Drake opened the envelope. Inside were two passports, two credit cards and a stack of Euros. I opened the passport and saw myself staring back. It said my name was “Angela Chiron.” I looked at the other and it was “Gage Chiron.”
“He couldn’t have chosen less conspicuous names?”
Drake smiled, “He’s helping us out a great deal. Nash is a well-known bloodline from the original pasture, but it doesn’t carry the same weight as the Chiron name.”
We felt the plane lift up off the ground, and I watched us climb higher and higher, “The original pasture?”
“Right, we’re going back to Thessaly.”
“Thessaly? You’re serious?”
“Of course, I’m serious.”
“Thessaly is in Ireland?”
“I think so. So much myth is rolled up with legend, we may find out it’s somewhere else.”
“So we’re flying halfway around the world, and we aren’t even sure we are flying to the right country?”
Drake gathered my hands in his and brought them to his lips, “Think of it as a honeymoon.”
“A honeymoon? Just because the pilots think we’re Mr. and Mrs., I’m still single. If it were our honeymoon, you would not be getting away with taking me to Ireland in search of a pasture where ancient Centaurs used to breed.”
“It was more than a breeding ground, Camille. It was where our race was born. It’s sacred, and it has a magic all its own.”
“So we’re going to do what, dig up some soil or something?”
“It won’t be that easy. We need to find your great uncle Zethus.”
“My great uncle? I’ve never heard of him.”
“He’s Zandra’s brother. The stories I’ve heard say that he lives at Thessaly. He’s as much a direct descendant of Chiron as Zandra – but he was favored by the gods and has something that we need.”
“What?”
It wouldn’t have been possible for the pilot or co-pilot to hear us, but Drake whispered anyway, “Hercules’ arrow.”
“You’re not serious!”
“I am serious. We need the arrow. Having it will be enough of a deterrent. The tip still has the blood of a Hydra.”
No one could be more surprised than me that after everything she’d put me through, I didn’t want her dead, “But that’ll kill her.”
“We aren’t going to shoot it through her heart. If we can get the arrow from Zethus, the tip of the arrow pricking her skin will drain her of her magic. She’ll live out her life, but we won’t have to look over our shoulders.”
“Are Zethus and Zandra close?”
“I don’t know, but I don’t have any other ideas, Love.”