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We kept looking Alexei, Oliver, and Rachel reappeared, all of the an armload of firewood A few minutes later, Rachel started a fire in a stone pit close to the tents I took a break froo war the heat fro fla into the flowers once more

Another hour passed By this point, ca for the a?" Ajax called out, his voice tight with frustration

We all shook our heads He sighed and crouched back down, peering over the flowers in front of hie on his phone, like the rest of us were doing

I finished sweeping a section and stood up to stretch out e of the courtyard, and ain as I looked out at all of the plants and vines We hadn’t even covered half of the courtyard yet We could search for a week and still not cole ambrosia flower - and Nickahed and leaned against a half-cru sharp dug into h my purple snowsuit and all the layers I had on underneath I turned around and realized it wasn’t a wall I’d been leaning against - it was a statue of the goddess Eir

I straightened up and stepped back "Whoops Sorry about that I didn’t ine how much you like to look out over your flowers"

Of course, the statue didn’t respond Instead, it seeoddess’s head had turned in my direction until her ehed Every statue stared at ht that I’d quit being creeped out by it, but apparently not Or oddess whose ruins I was standing in right now It wouldn’t surprise me if her eyes suddenly popped open, and a series of poisoned darts shot out and slammed into my chest That hat always happened in theat et puood

The goddess looked at an to move

Seriously, the stone - it just - the statue just turned One second, Eir was peering straight at me The next, a series of sain, the goddess was looking in the opposite direction Not only that, but I swore that I saw her raise her hand, her finger pointing toward the back corner of the garden - alo see as over there

I eased away fro toward that one spot, although her head swiveled back around in my direction After a moment, her eyes narrowed, as if she was upset that I hadn’t already followed her instructions Once again thinking of poisoned darts and other nasty traps, I decided to do what she wanted Probably not a good idea to anger a goddess when you were in her house Or at least standing in as left of it

"Okay, okay, I’," I said "Give me a second"

I maneuvered around to the other side of the statue Then, I leaned down so I could get a better look at the spot where she was pointing Once I had a bead on it, I headed in that direction

Everyone else was still busy searching for the flowers, so no one noticed ht wall of the courtyard Every so often, I glanced behindin the saht spot I crouched down,over the patch of flowers in front of me Thick stands of vivid purple lilac e, grayishthat looked like it could remotely be Chloris ambrosia Frustration filled me, and I looked over my shoulder at Eir

"Don’t tell oose chase," I muttered

The statue’s eyes seemed to narrow a little more, as if she was displeased with me and my snarky tone Well, she wouldn’t be the first person - or the last

"Okay, okay," I ain I looked at the statue, trying to see exactly what she was pointing at, and I realized her finger wasn’t airound but rather at the rock wall in front of aze - and almost shrieked when I realized I was face-to-face with another gryphon carving

Seriously, I looked up - and it was this freaking close to my nose I rocked back on ed to findheart Get a grip, Gwen It was only a carving, one of dozens I’d seen so far in the courtyard It wasn’t like it was a real gryphon

But the more I looked at it, the ryphon - it was one of Eir too The gryphon stood in front of the goddess with its head bowed A few srown out of the part of the rock that for it look like the creature was presenting Eir with the flowers Okay, that was a little strange, buteven closer at the blossoms

I used my phone to pull up the photo of the aood Now caently turned one of the flowers so that I could see inside it

Purple and gray streaks ringed the petals

My heart started to pound with excitement, but I made myself study the flowers that er than ain to the photo on ray streaks

This time, I knew I hadn’t made a mistake - and that we had a chance to save Nicka across my face "I found them! I found the ambrosia flowers!"

The others hurried over, and we all peered at the blosso out of the rock wall

"That’s theainst the flowers "It looks like thereement

"How did you ever think to look in this re at me instead of the flowers "We all assumed the Chloris ambrosia would be in the courtyard itself, not out here on the edge"

I shrugged "I’uess"