Chapter 87
Here I Go Again
LYRA
Those terrible nightmares where you wake up somewhere totally unexpected and unwanted always suck. That’s what it feels like to be taken by time in the middle of the night. Snatched right out of Hades’ arms and shoved back into hell.
Or the worst part of the hells, at least.
Time travel can also be like bad déjà vu.
I land back in Boone’s room to the tune of Titans arguing with each other over his body, no longer bloody but still out cold.
I don’t give a shit what they’re yelling about.
I’m staring at Persephone. She’s sitting by Boone, holding his hand but staring straight at me with a face gone pale. Which is when I remember what I saw just before Persephone shoved me into the shard of time and sent me away.
Bringing my power forward, I grunt at the sight of the veil contoured to her features. Not just her eyes—over her entire face.
A glamour.
She’s been glamoured. Again.
Taking a note from Hades, I prowl through the room, directly to her, parting the Titans with the force of my determination to get to her fast.
Persephone jumps up, backpedaling until she hits the wall. “What are you going to do to me?” She throws her hands up.
I grab her wrists, yanking them down, and then I pluck the mesh of light right off her face.
This time, unlike when I’ve tried before, it slides right off.
Like film formed over cooling melted cheese.
There’s the second glamour under it, the one I originally saw.
But that one doesn’t budge when I try it.
Persephone sways a little, eyes rolling back in her head, and I grab her by the shoulders.
She sucks in a sharp breath, coming back to herself.
Then she stares at me with eyes growing wider and wider. Her hands fly up to cover her mouth, blue eyes welling with tears. “What did I do? On Olympus, I never meant to hurt you, Lyra. I—”
“It’s okay.” I squeeze her arms, then swing around to face the rest of the room.
The Titans have all gone dead silent, watching us.
I hold up the mesh they can’t see, then throw it on the ground, where the magic hisses and fizzes until it turns black and the ash blows away. “She was glamoured.”
“I knew she wasn’t acting like herself,” Mnemosyne murmurs.
But it’s Iapetus who whirls on the others. “Which one of you motherfuckers is a traitor?”
“She’s not the only one,” I say.
Then I kneel beside Boone and remove his.
It’s so easy for me now. Maybe learning one power—like teleporting or seeing the glamours—makes figuring out the next one easier.
Or maybe the intensity of the need to do it helps bolster my ability.
Because removing the door’s glamour or the rabbit’s wouldn’t make a difference, really, but this is important.
I’ve also had a lot of time down here now, what with all the resets.
So maybe time sitting with a power plays a role.
I don’t care which it is, just that I can do this now.
Just like with Persephone’s, the glamour dies a quick death.
Boone doesn’t wake up, but the frown of pain immediately eases and a bruise on his cheek starts to visibly change colors. His healing is restored.
“Boone, too?” I hear Koios say.
I don’t answer as I’m back on my feet and crossing to Phoebe. The goddess’s eyes flick from me to Koios and back. “It’s not me,” she says. “I would never—”
I pull the mesh from her face, too, tossing it away to the sound of more hissing and fizzing, and she stumbles back a little. Koios is instantly there, propping her up. When the Titaness recovers, tears suddenly spill from her eyes. “I… I was wrong.”
“You were all glamoured to believe I was awful,” I say. “It’s okay. I—”
“No.” She shakes her head hard, silky hair streaming around her too-pale face. “I mean the prophecy. It was a glamour.”
“What?” I take a small, stumbling step back. “We can’t get you out?”
“I don’t know about that. But you and Boone… You’re not fated in any way. It was all a lie.”