BLOODSHOT . . . piper mclean

72.

THE ONLY ANGEL that was in Eden's life was Kaleidoscope.

That changed when she asked to get ice cream.

The Argo II had anchored in the bay along with six or seven cruise ships. As usual, the mortals didn't pay the trireme any attention; but just to be safe, Eden, Perfect Jason, and Nico hopped on a skiff from one of the tourist boats so they would look like part of the crowd when they came ashore.

At first glance, Split seemed like a cool place. Curving around the harbor was a long esplanade lined with palm trees. At the sidewalk cafés, European teenagers were hanging out, speaking a dozen different languages and enjoying the sunny afternoon. The air smelled of grilled meat and fresh-cut flowers.

Beyond the main boulevard, the city was a hodgepodge of medieval castle towers, Roman walls, limestone town houses with red-tiled roofs, and modern office buildings all crammed together. In the distance, gray-green hills marched toward a mountain ridge, which made Eden a little nervous. She kept glancing at that rocky escarpment, expecting the face of Gaea to appear in its shadows.

They were wandering along the esplanade when Perfect Jason elbowed Eden.

"What?" Eden looked at where he was looking, frowning. "Do you want ice cream? I could go for some now. Even if it's, like, nine in the morning. Don't tell Pipes."

"He's looking at the angel, Lover Girl," Nico rolled his eyes.

Now that he'd said it, Eden noticed the angel buying an ice cream bar from a street cart. The vendor lady looked bored as she counted the guy's change. Tourists navigated around the angel's huge wings without a second glance.

"So, ice cream?" Eden prompted.

"Yeah," Nico agreed. "Maybe we should buy some ice cream."

As they made their way toward the street cart, Eden worried that this winged dude might be a son of Boreas the North Wind. At his side, the angel carried the same kind of jagged bronze sword the Boreads had, and her last encounter with them hadn't gone so well.

But this guy seemed more chill than chilly. He wore a red tank top, Bermuda shorts, and huarache sandals. His wings were a combination of russet colors, like a bantam rooster or a lazy sunset. He had a deep tan and black hair almost as curly as Leo's.

He also reminded Eden of her dad. Just a tad bit. She hated that connection.

"He's not a returned spirit," Nico murmured. "Or a creature of the Underworld."

"No," Perfect Jason agreed. "I doubt they would eat chocolate-covered ice cream bars."

"So what is he then?" Eden wondered.

They got within thirty feet, and the winged dude looked directly at them. He smiled, gestured over his shoulder with his ice cream bar, and dissolved into the air.

Eden went up to the vendor lady and bought an ice cream bar, biting into the chocolate shell. "God, that's good," she looked over at them, raising an eyebrow. "What?"

"Nothing." Perfect Jason pointed at a tall place. "I'm betting that's the palace," he said. "Come on."

Even after a few years, Diocletian's Palace was still impressive. The outer wall was only a pink granite shell, with crumbling columns and arched windows open to the sky, but it was mostly intact, a quarter mile long and seventy or eighty feet tall, dwarfing the modern shops and houses that huddled beneath it. Eden imagined what the palace must have looked like when it was newly built, with Imperial guards walking the ramparts and the golden eagles glinting on the parapets.