Wonder Woman: Warbringer (DC Icons #1)(91)

Diana packed dirt over the remnants of the campfire to make sure they wouldn’t catch again, and wondered if she should apologize to Alia. After Alia had scurried up the hill, they’d all stared at each other for a long moment in tense silence, Theo standing awkwardly at the edge of the fire.

“Should I—” he’d hazarded.

“No,” Nim had said. “Just let her shake it off, and then pretend it never happened.”

“But—”

“She’s right,” Diana had said, though she’d wanted to follow Alia herself. She’d dealt with her fair share of humiliations, trailing after her mother and her Amazon sisters, always the slowest, always the last, excluded from their understanding of the world. When her pride was smarting, she didn’t want to be reminded of her failures. She wanted the solitude of the cliffs. She wanted to be alone until the hurt dwindled, until it was small enough to pack away. “Just let her be.”

Jason peered up at Theo and raised a brow. “She sent you a love letter?”

“It wasn’t a big deal.”

“How come you never mentioned it?”

Theo had jammed his hands in his pockets. “She was just a kid. I didn’t want to embarrass her.”

“Why did you even ask that stupid question?” Nim said grumpily.

His shoulders shot up to his ears. “I thought she would say something dumb, like she drank too much fruit punch and vomited on her bunk at sleepaway camp.”

“That seems awfully specific,” said Diana.

“Yeah, well, it could happen to anyone. Don’t we need to get some rest? Big day tomorrow? Mystical cleansing?”

“I’m going back to the car,” said Nim. “I know Alia needs her space, but if I stay down here much longer, I’m going to try to drown Theo in the pond.”

Nim had headed up the hill, but as they’d gathered their empty chip bags and soda bottles and extinguished the fire, Diana’s mind was still on Alia. Though the stories of the lasso and what it might accomplish were so varied she hadn’t known what to expect, she still felt guilty.

Mortals weren’t meant to trifle with these things—and her mother would have been furious if she’d known Diana was playing party games with a sacred weapon. Although she supposed it would be the least of the things her mother would be furious about right now. She ran her thumb over the golden fibers, the lasso glowing faintly at her touch. It felt oddly friendly, like another companion who traveled with them. It wasn’t meant to sit behind glass in a cold room. She’d read once that there were jewels that required wearing to keep their luster. She couldn’t help but feel that the bracelets, the lasso, even the heartstone still tucked into her pocket, were gifts that weren’t meant to be locked away.

She looked up to realize that Jason was studying her.

“What are you thinking about?” he asked.

“Why?” She rose and dusted her hands off on her leathers as they started up the trail.

“He’s hoping you’re thinking about him,” said Theo with a laugh.

Jason gave Theo a light shove that nearly sent him careening into a tree.

“Hey!” said Theo. “Use your words!”

Diana cast Jason a swift glance. His jaw was set, his shoulders stiff as always. Was that what he’d been wondering? Or, as Alia would say, was Theo just being Theo?

She cleared her throat. “I’m wondering what tomorrow might bring,” she said. “I can’t imagine it will be as simple as just finding the spring. We don’t know what might be waiting for us.”

“Sure we do,” said Theo, swatting at a branch. “We get to the spring, Alia gets cured. We argue over the best choice for our We Saved the World victory dance.”

“I do enjoy your optimism,” said Diana.

“And I admire your ability to lift a car over your head without breaking a sweat and look fine as hell doing it,” said Theo with a bow.

“Why do I have the feeling it’s not going to be as easy as you think?” Jason said.

“Because you’re a glass-half-empty kind of guy.”

“Whereas you’re an it-will-all-work-out-or-someone-else-will-take-care-of-it kind of guy?”

“Unfair.”

“I’m serious, Theo. If this all goes to hell, you can’t just reboot or re-up or whatever.”

“You mean one-up. And good to know you’re concerned, even if you did think I was some kind of traitor.”

“Theo—” Jason attempted.

Theo clapped Jason on the back. “I get it, okay? Just maybe give me a little more credit. You guys are my family. More than my dad has ever been. Besides, without me you’d currently be riding a mule over a mountaintop.”

“The mule would talk less,” Jason noted.

“Probably smell better, too,” said Theo.

Was it really that simple? A shared joke, a pat on the back, forgiveness given when no apology had been offered? She’d seen Jason’s frustration with Theo’s glib ways, Theo’s irritation at how easily Jason dismissed him. But they seemed perfectly happy to avoid talking about any of it. Boys were peculiar creatures.

Diana left Jason and Theo to set up their makeshift camp across the clearing from the car. Through the windows of the Fiat, she could see Alia and Nim already dozing. She hated to wake them.