Chapter 40

CLAUDIA. The moment those words leave my lips, it's as though something changed between me and Achilles. A certain tension gets lifted and carried off into nonexistence. I lift my gaze and he looks back at me, then I see a flicker of a smile on his lips. The only thing that follows that is silence as we make our way to the palace. The path is familiar, but at the same time, it's foreign. When the gates open in front of me, I feel like I'm back where I belong. However, there's this strange sense of being out of place even though I haven't been gone for so long. It feels like entering your home after someone else is done decorating it, and all of a sudden you don't know your things are. It's the same feeling I get when I get off the carriage. Achilles helps me out, and we don't exchange another word because the villagers are also unloading. Before he can say anything to me, Carlos sweeps him away, and I'm left there alone, watching as all the carriages pull up. The villagers start