Chapter Five
Ijostled in the back of the cart, bumping along down the forest lane.
Stella and Freckles—real name Luca—got rid of the manacles on the first day of the trip when they saw I wasn’t going to run. Actually, I think they wished they could trade the manacles for a gag to stop my endless questions about Deucalion Academy and all that went on there.
I’d more than proven I was eager to go. No deserters here.
I got up on my knees, straining to see over their heads. I’d never seen the place before, but I knew what I was beholding.
Deucalion Academy.
Pristine white stone glinted in the early morning sun, blinding me, so I couldn’t stare too long at the towering statues lining the stone steps beyond the gates. I counted three—four—five floors stacked on Corinthian columns and each one topped with a piedmont depicting a different historical battle scene.
I could tell this from that far away because every part of the academy was larger than life. Even from a distance, I couldn’t see all of it in one look.
“Peace is the way,” someone called. “Say no to violence. No to war.” The chant popped the wall of silence, letting a flood of noise in.
It was as though we emerged from our own private path to rejoin the world once again. Carts and horses lined alongside the gates, letting out demigods from all over the land. Winter coats and boots worn by demigods from somewhere cold. Sleeveless tunics and short-style pants of demigods from somewhere warm. Then there were the glitters and jewels of the demigods from places I couldn’t guess but assumed didn’t have much of a middle class.
Gathered near the entrance were a group of people dressed in all white, from their woven boots to the flowers in their hair. They chanted to people who walked past like they didn’t see them.
“Peace is the way,” said an older woman with a scar on her cheek that curved her mouth unevenly on one side. “You can say no to violence. Say no to war.”
“Children of Eirene,” Stella said to my unasked question. “They protest conscription, the army, the academy, and campaigns to hunt down monsters. None of them actually have the power of the goddess though. She doesn’t choose humans as her host.”
I wanted to ask what kind of goddess Eirene was, but Luca near enough had a heart attack the first time I showed such ignorance of the Greek gods. Three days we’d been on the road, traveling to the academy. It was impossible to hide how little I knew about Olympia, and they were suspicious. Very suspicious. But so far they stuck to their orders to deliver me to the academy.
“You go on campaigns to hunt down monsters?” I heard myself ask. “Does that mean you attack them unprovoked?”
Stella flashed me a sharp look. “Don’t start that child-of-Eirene bullshit. Monsters attack us unprovoked. All the time. Every day. Any chance they get.”
“No arguments here.” I wouldn’t be banging around in the back of a cart if monsters left the innocent alone. “But if they’re hunting down the demigods, and you’re hunting them, that means... Olympia is at war.”
“The demigods? You’re? Them?” she repeated. “Why are you speaking like you’re not one of us?”
“No, I meant us! We, you, me, all the demigods. What else would I mean?”
“What else indeed.”
The cart came to a sudden, jerking stop, throwing me to the side.
“We’re here. Get out.”
Stella didn’t have to tell me twice. I grabbed my new pack and hopped out, joining the line of young men and women streaming through the gates.
After seeing that I wasn’t lying about not having gold and silver coins other Olympians had jingling in their pockets, Callan ordered Stella and Luca to buy me everything I needed to join the academy. Turned out there was a list, a dress code, and no room for argument.
I glanced back and found Stella and Luca hadn’t moved. They were both watching me like hawks. Was that because they had to make sure I entered the grounds, or they were considering whether to report my strangeness to Callan or take it right to the enigmatic council?
“Hurry up, girl. Cross the gates. Enter the academy. You must begin the search for me immediately.”
Her voice faded. Standing just inside the gate, handsome and shining under the rising sun, was Alexander.
I beat it around everyone, running up to him. “Alex? Alex!”
He turned around and cursed. “What the fuck? What are you doing here?”
I skidded to a stop. “Okay, that wasn’t the reaction I was expecting.”
“I—” Alex blew out a breath, rubbing his temples. “I’m sorry. I just wasn’t expecting to see you here. I told Callan to bring you to Sara.”
I shrugged. “No chance of that once he found out I was eighteen. They questioned me immediately after you left the room. When I refused to answer, Callan offered me a one-way trip to the council. Coming here seemed like the better option.”
“Coming here isn’t optional, Aella. Neither is leaving.” He drew me in, rubbing my arms. “Okay, okay, let me think. It’ll be a thousand times harder to search for your mom with both of us here, but I’ll figure something out.”
I wished I could save him. Tell him the two of us were exactly where we needed to be, but Selene berated me for three days—warning me her allies were everywhere, and they’d act if I breathed a word about a single thing she told me.
Also, Alex was so cute when he worried his lip with that little wrinkle in his brow.
“—who’s that?”
“—with Alexander—”
“Oh my gods, he’s so gorgeous.”
Our bubble popped, letting in a tide of whispers and open stares. Everyone who passed was ogling Alex and sizing me up.
“Alex?”
“Yes?”
I flinched at a particularly nasty sneer that came my way. “Did you leave something out the other night when we were talking? Who are you in this world? Why do grown men call you master?”
“Xander.”
“Me?” He shrugged. “No one. But my father’s kind of important. And that master thing is just Callan. No one else calls me that.”
“Xander?”
“No, they call you sir. How important is your father? I overheard Stella and Luca talking about nobles. Is he one? Are you?”
“Aella.” He sighed. “My father is—”
“Xander!”
The shout sounded in my ear.
“Xander, did you hear me calling you?”
I looked up as a cloud of rose scent hit my nose, heralding the arrival of the most glamorous woman I’d ever seen. Her flowy, bloodred dress billowed behind her—marking a path through the people stopping and staring. Hair the color of roasting chestnuts fell around her shoulders, framing big brown eyes, an upturned nose, and a small mouth twisted in distaste.
“What’s this?” She raked me up and down as she curled her arm through Alex’s and pulled him close. “Go away.”
“Wow. Nice to meet you too.”
She rolled her eyes. “Of course it’s nice to meet me, but I couldn’t give a shit who you are. I said go away.” She shoved my forehead, nearly popping me off my feet. “Come on, Xander. Everyone’s here already.”
She led him off, leaving me standing there in shock and confusion. What the hell was that!
I fumed for a full minute, contemplating if I should follow. Alexander was the only person I knew at the academy. He was my friend and... possibly more. Although his choice of friends was shitty.
My eyes narrowed on the girl still hanging off his arm. She and Alexander fell in with a group of guys and girls. Demigods or mortals, I knew the popular crowd when I saw them. Each one was just as gorgeous as the other, and their mere presence created a barrier around them. People veered off and stared from the fringes—all eyes on them.
Alexander suddenly lifted his head and trapped my gaze. I heated as a slow smile curled his lips.
His eyes were on me.
“That was brutal.”
I jumped. “What? I wasn’t doing anything.”
A curly-haired, smiling guy moved between me and Alexander. “You don’t have to be to draw Sirena’s ire. Here’s a heads-up you got the hard way. She’s pretty territorial over Xander. They’re engaged to be engaged to be engaged.”
My heart stopped. “Did you just say engaged?”
“Not officially,” he breezed, unaware of my crushing chest. “But don’t tell her that.”
“I don’t want to tell her anything. She couldn’t care less about me. The feeling is mutual.”
“Then you’re my kind of people.” He threw an arm around my shoulders, giving me my second shock of the morning. “My name’s Theron Zervas. From Trono City. You?”
“I’m...” My brain stalled at the oddness of this random stranger touching and being kind to me after two years in a padded cell.
“Pausing to make something up?”
I laughed and was shocked I did. It had also been a while since I’d done that so freely. The last time was with Alex. “No. My name is Aella Vanda. I’m from... all over.”
“Nice. Named after an Amazon warrior. Mother had high hopes for you.”
My smile melted away as quickly as it appeared. Of course it couldn’t last long.
Theron guided me through the crowd of people idling on the lawn and steps. Part of me was curious to ask what we were all waiting for. The rest of me told that part to worry about something important. My mother did have high hopes, and those hopes were that I’d free her from this prison.
But how can a school be a prison? Kind of hard to hide a trapped goddess and her human captive in a place where hundreds of people tramp around every day.
“Over here. Let me introduce you to my friends.”
We found ourselves before a small group gathered under the cypress trees. A slim, pretty girl with short brown hair he introduced as Nitsa. The shaggy-haired guy who kept flipping his curls out of his eyes was called Tycho. And leaning against the tree between them was a long-haired girl with a stocky build named Ionna, gazing blankly at the sky. She could’ve been listening to our conversation, or she was in her own world.
“Nice to meet you guys. Are you all from Trono City?”
“Yep,” Nitsa replied. “We all went to the same school. Glad we can keep it up for another four years.”
“Cool.” I looked around. “So, do you know what everyone’s waiting for?”
Tycho jerked his chin at the entrance. “We can’t do anything until we’re placed in our class. Can’t unpack in our dorms. Can’t get our class schedules. So, they don’t even let us inside until it’s done. We’re to wait here until they get us for placement.”
“What’s placement?”
Ionna dropped her head to squint at me. Her friends all did the same.
“How do you not know?” Nitsa asked.
“I don’t know anything about this place,” I said, sweeping out over the colonnades. “I was locked away for years because people thought I murdered my mother, chopped her up, burned the pieces, and mixed the ash in the soil in our flower shop.” The truth was always easier to keep straight than lies. “Now I’m finally free, but I’ve missed a lot.”
I got open stares all around.
“I didn’t do it, of course.”
Nitsa laughed uncomfortably. “Course you didn’t. No one would ever do something so horrifyingly grotesque to their own mother?”
“Exactly,” I said brightly. “My mother is alive, well, and waiting for me.”
Ionna and Tycho shared a look. “But if she’s alive and well,” Tycho spoke up. “Why did they think you killed her?”
“Monsters made it look like I did it.”
I truly was in another world. Every single one of them nodded their heads and hummed, accepting the truth easily.
“Bastards,” Ionna spat. “Kobaloi like to do that. Play with their food. Torment them. Use tricks, traps, and lies to ruin their prey’s life, then when they can’t take it anymore, the kobaloi eat them alive.”
My throat burned with bile. I didn’t know what was worse. That such beings existed at all, or that I was now living in a dominion where they ran amok.
“Was it them?” Theron said. “Or I bet it was an empousa? They’ve got a nasty streak, even for a monster.”
“It was an echidna.”
“Ahhh,” they collectively voiced.
“The mother of all nasty, evil monsters,” Nitsa said. “Literally.”
“But you must’ve been pretty young if you didn’t get a chance to learn about the academy,” Theron said. “How long did they hold you?”
“A long time.” I looked away. “I didn’t have any family who’d take me in. No friends to stick up for me. I was all alone and—according to the world—a crazy, dangerous murderer. It was easiest to just lock me away and toss the key.”
“Wow,” Nitsa whispered. “I’m so sorry. That’s awful.”
Theron squeezed my shoulder. “Don’t worry, Aella. We’ve got your back and we’ll fill you in on everything you need to know. Warning: all this is going to seem strange if you’re hearing it for the first time. Maybe even cruel. Some could say barbaric.”
“Cool it,” Tycho hissed. “It’s one thing bitching this place out over a game of dice in our rooms. It’s another doing it here. If they hear you, you’ll get punished for insubordination.”
“He’ll what?” I said. “Who told you that?”
Tycho pulled a book from his bag. “It’s all here in the information they sent us.” He gestured at mine. “You know. With the pack list and stuff.”
“Everything happened really fast,” I admitted. “My bag was packed for me. I never got the information.”
“Flying totally blind, then,” Nitsa said. “Don’t worry. Just stick with us and you’ll be fine.”
I thanked her while casting a glance back at Alexander. Our eyes met again. I couldn’t help looking back at him. Seemed he couldn’t either.
“Can I ask you guys something?” I spoke up. “Why do they say this place is inescapable? That’s a scary, prison-type word.”
Theron chuckled. “It’s not a prison. We can leave for the summer. It’s just that some of the training and tests can get... intense. Years ago, there was a rash of midnight runs.”
“Midnight runs?”
“Yep. A student says good night to his friends, heads up to bed, then the next morning, his sheets are empty and the window is ajar. Taking off in the middle of the night.”
“Got it.” I sighed. “So to stop it, they did what?”
They all shrugged. “Just some spells and enchantments,” Nitsa said. “They take them down two days a year. At the start of the training year and at the end.”
Spells and enchantments. Like the one separating New York City from all of this.
“Hey, guys, look,” Nitsa hissed. “The doors are opening.”
Two soaring white stone doors echoed through the valley, scraping across the marble. Three people stepped out. They were too high up and far away for me to make out what they looked like or if they were men or women. Were we supposed to go up there to them? Were they coming—?
“Ladies and gentlemen.” The greeting boomed over the crowd, knocking me and a dozen other people off their feet. “Welcome to Deucalion Academy.”
I clapped a hand over my ringing ears, gaping at the assembled culprits. How on earth was he doing that?
“I am your headmaster, Drakos. It is my pleasure to see so many fine young men and women taking their place in the service of Olympia. Some of you will not make it. I dare say, most of you won’t.”
I started. What did he just say?
“But those that do will go on to carry the legacy of the gods and the hopes of the people on their shoulders. There is no finer sacrifice. No greater duty. And no higher honor.
“Good luck to you, novices.”
With that, one of the figures—Headmaster Drakos—turned and went inside.
“Did he really just come out here to tell us most of us are going to die, but congratulations to the rest?”
“I’ve heard a lot about Headmaster Drakos,” Theron said. “That he’s warm and encouraging was never mentioned.”
“Well said, Headmaster.” Again, I covered my ears. “Let me extend my own welcome to you all. I am your combat instructor, Commander Vasili. You may address me as commander or sir.
“Over the years, I will get to know you, your strengths, and your weaknesses. By the end of these four years, I will only know strengths. Is that understood?”
“Yes, sir,” the crowd chorused.
“For many, it’s been long days and nights of travel. I believe a rested fighter is a focused one. Let us get through the day’s requirements so you can retire to your chambers. Classes begin bright and early at sunrise tomorrow morning. Late arrivals will be punished.”
That was the second time someone used that word and didn’t follow it with clarification. What did punishment look like in Deucalion Academy? A place where the headmaster spoke of the low survival rate without irony or concern.
“Leave your bags where they are and follow the path leading around the left side of the building. Your placement starts now.”
We did as we were told—stacked our things in a pile under the trees, then followed the shuffling crowd around the building.
The gates didn’t come in this close to the academy. They extended into the forest, claiming a piece of it for the grounds. I started looking for how far the gates went in, and then I was just looking.
Sunbeams broke through the leaves, leaving shifting spotlights on what looked like a bunch of thin, gnarled, giggling tree stumps waddling around.
“Creepy, aren’t they?” Nitsa drew my attention. “Dryads. Ancient male artists drew them as gorgeous green deities with flowing moss hair and shining eyes because that’s how they appeared to them. To our very female vision, they look nothing like that. Hard to imagine the gods mating with them.”
“Aww, I wouldn’t say that. They’re kind of cute— Whoa!” I ducked, narrowly avoiding the rock one of them threw at my head. “What the hell was that for!”
Three waddling stumps hissed at me and picked up more rocks.
I ran.
“You must’ve been away for a long time if you didn’t know dryads hate women,” Nitsa called. She jogged after me, easily keeping pace with my retreat. “Nothing cute about them.”
“I’ll say!”
Something rose out of the corner of my eye. The closer we got, I picked it out as a—
“Stadium?”
“That’s right,” Theron said from my other side. When did he get there? I did not run as fast as I thought I did. “Placement begins.”
Another word people kept saying without explanation. I would stop asking though. I was giving myself away as clueless and too many questions about my past were dangerous. Stella called us novices. If we were all as new to this as that word implied, we were all starting at zero. I’d pick things up along with everyone else.
Our group broke apart, heading for different entrances into the stadium. I stuck with Theron and his friends, the five of us going straight instead of up to the higher seats. We filed into the second row as the seats filled up. Gazing around the novices, I noted that these were all the eighteen-year-olds from every corner of Olympia. Knowing that... it struck me that there were not very many of us.
Hundreds of people pushing and shoving on a lawn seemed like a lot. Hundreds of people in a stadium built for thousands... Were our numbers really this low? Or were the missing lucky enough not to run into Callan on their way to Miliadis?
I was pulled out of my musings by a man stepping out in the middle of the arena. I pegged him as Commander Vasili with a single look. His blond hair cut close to the scalp, the opposite of the thick, full beard trying and failing to cover his square jaw. Though we would be battling no monsters today that I knew of, he wore a cuirass, a short sword on his hip, and greaves to protect his shins. Not a flicker of emotion rode his sculpted face, but my impressions about him were already forming.
Vasili unstrapped a horn from his belt and held it to his throat. “Let’s begin,” he boomed. “Your instructions are simple. When your name is called, you’ll step up here, name your power, the god or goddess who gifted it to you, then demonstrate that power. If you need materials for the demonstration, make that known. Understood?”
Everyone chorused agreement except me. I knew this was going to happen. I couldn’t be in a school that trained demigods to use their power without answering the question of mine.
“What do I do?” I hissed at my wrist.
“You lie and say you don’t know what your power is. You’re here to free me from my prison, not play around with swords. Stop this time wasting and find me!”
I tuned her out. She’d be no help.
“Alexis Andino.”
The commander stepped off and a tall, ungainly guy took his place. He swept the audience with a look like he wished he was somewhere else, throwing up.
“This isn’t right,” I whispered. “Why does he have to do this in front of everyone? We could easily wait outside while they call us into the stadium one by one.”
Theron shook his head. “One thing they’ll never do at Deucalion is make things easier for us.”
My lips pressed together. There was nothing to say in response.
“Speak up, boy,” the commander barked. He sat at a table at the end of the arena with a list and two silent companions on either side of him—a woman in a white coat and an elderly man in old-timey Greek robes.
“Er-Erebus, sir,” Alexis got out. “Son of Erebus. The god of darkness and shadows. I can m-make it dark.”
“Demonstrate.”
No sooner was the order out of his mouth than the sun winked out of existence. Total and complete darkness dipped my vision in black. Screams and cries went up all around me, telling Alexis to stop. I couldn’t see who was freaking out. I couldn’t even see Theron and Ionna sitting next to me.
In a blink, the light returned—shining on a guy whose only fear was public speaking, not performance anxiety.
“Excellent,” Vasili said. “Titan class.”
“What’s the Titan class?” I broke my promise not to ask questions almost immediately.
“The top class,” Theron said. “It’s for trainees whose powers will make a difference in the war effort.”
I nodded. Stealing the light from monsters would come in handy. The monsters who stole my mom wouldn’t have gotten away so easily if they were stumbling around in the dark.
“Kosma Ariti.”
The next demigod stepped up, appearing no more comfortable than the first. “Daughter of Poseidon. I can speak to horses,” she said. “If one is brought from the stables, I can—”
“No need,” Vasili broke in. “Sisyphean class.”
My mouth dropped open. “Did he just say—?”
“Yes,” Nitsa replied.
“Doesn’t that mean—?”
“Yes, it does.”
I dropped my head in disbelief. Sisyphean. That was the word for a task that was hard and thankless but, in the end, futile. It was a battle that couldn’t be won. It was a labor that would never be completed.
It was another word for useless.
One after the other, novices stepped up and revealed their powers. One after the other, those powers were deemed vital or pointless.
“Sebastian Barba.”
A hush fell over the stadium—so sudden, I looked this way and that for the source. Did something happen?
“Oh my gods,” Nitsa whispered. “The Sebastian Barba? Is he really here?”
“Look.” Theron pointed to the right of us. “That must be him. He’s here.”
“He had to come, didn’t he?” Tycho said. “Either that or be hunted as a deserter. Do you think they all came?”
I stuck my head in the huddle. “What are you guys talking about? Who is he?”
They shushed me.
TheSebastian Barba walked onto the platform and faced me. I swallowed through a suddenly parched, aching throat.
“Son of Adonis,” I whispered.
“You’d think so, wouldn’t you,” Nitsa said, eyes glazing over as fast as mine. “How could anyone who looks like him not be?”
Long, flaxen hair swept down his back, constrained with a single band. The sun drenched his gypsum skin as though he denied her touch for years, and now she would bronze every inch of him with abandon. He rolled his neck—flexing wide, muscled shoulders—and I watched his bottom-heavy lips pucker as he blew out a bored breath.
Yes, he was bored. It was obvious in the dull sheen in his azure eyes and the displeasure wrinkling his broad, Roman nose. A short time ago, I would’ve said he was the most handsome man I’d ever seen, but Alexander put paid to that. Even so, the two would break the judges’ minds deciding if they were entered in the same beauty contest.
“He’s even more rare than a child of Adonis,” Theron said. “He’s a son of Hades.”
“Okay?” I drew out. “Cool?”
“That’s all you have to say?” Tycho goggled at me. “When he says they’re rare, he’s not kidding. There’re only like five in all of Olympia, and they don’t live in Trono. This is the first I’ve ever seen one in person.”
“Very cool?”
“It is,” Nitsa said. “Hades is generous with his children by far. Every one of his children throughout Olympian history has been granted powers that could topple kings. Like Midas with the gold touch. And Phedora who could douse her enemies with a deadly venom just by brushing their skin.”
“I heard he’s more powerful than both of them,” Tycho added. “My father said he can summon an army of the dead.”
Theron put in, “My mother said he can travel in and out of hades itself. That’s how he evades the spies the council sends after him.”
“Imagine,” Nitsa breathed. “There are treasures and horrors in the depths of hades that only he can get to. No wonder they keep sending spies to watch him.”
“I am Sebastian Barba.” The three of them snapped their mouths shut so fast there was an audible sound. He had their full attention. “Son of Hades.”
They leaned in, hanging off their seats, and damned if I wasn’t too. I couldn’t help it. They got me curious.
“If we’re going to do this, we’re doing it right.” Sebastian snapped his fingers. “Jason, Dimitri, Castor. Up here.”
“What?”
“What’s going on?”
“What’s he doing?” I asked.
“What’s the meaning of this?” the commander echoed. “You— Return to your seats! I did not summon you.”
The guys climbed the steps, blatantly ignoring Vasili’s bellowing.
I leaned back in my seat as the four of them lined up. I think everyone did. Something about their presence... overwhelmed.
“This is Jason.” Sebastian gestured to the guy at the end. A tall, muscly, buff guy who looked like he stepped out of a swimsuit magazine and found clothes—to everyone’s disappointment. He was more than hot with his wicked grin and mischief dancing in his green eyes. Hot guys had posters of him in their rooms, wishing to be him one day.
“Dimitri.” Shorter, bespectacled, and looking even more bored than Sebastian, there was something about Dimitri that made you want to draw close, closer, and too close. And it wasn’t many beads, metal links, and skulls woven through his dreadlocks or that he was as lickable as his friends.
No, it had to be the uncommonly light gray eyes sweeping over the stadium and hushing as he went. Dimitri saw right through us.
“Castor.”
Castor was Asian? Was that correct to say since, technically, no one here was from Asia, Africa, Europe, or the rest? They were all from Olympia. I’d have to learn more to be sure, but what I was sure of was that Castor had skin like the light of the harvest moon and hair darker than midnight.
Strange descriptors but those were the only ones to come into my head. Something about this guy said shadows, darkness, and the chill that goes up your spine when you’re alone in the woods and you hear a twig snap behind you.
And yes, he was also gorgeous as hell.
“We’re sons of hades, but not the god,” Sebastian said, breaking whispers out all around me. “We’re reincarnations of the physical place. As in reincarnations of hell.”
That made Vasili stop his bellowing. He and the two other teachers rose to their feet. “Explain.”
Sebastian shrugged. “Don’t ask me how it works. But hades must exist just as the gods must exist, so they’ve put the connections to hell in humans like the gods did with their essence. Jason is the reincarnation of Elysium.”
I knew enough from the short lesson we did on Greek mythology in eighth grade to know Elysium was the fields of paradise.
“At your service,” Jason said, bowing exaggeratedly. “I can summon paradise flowers. When brewed, they make a tea that heightens everything to maximum pleasure. Everything you eat becomes the best thing you’ve ever tasted. Everything you smell, the best perfumes. And orgasms”—he whistled—“you might literally die because paradise flower orgasms are ten thousand times more powerful.”
Nitsa sat up straight. “Um, can I get one of those?”
“Enough,” Vasili commanded, ending the very loud and eager questions of the same type.
“Tartarus for Castor,” Sebastian continued.
A terrible, horrible black pit for bad people.
“I summon rocks from the pit,” Castor drawled, rolling his eyes at the sky. “When touched, they punish you for your sins.”
“Asphodel Meadows for Dimitri.”
That’s where they dumped everyone else.
“I summon water from the River Lethe,” Dimitri said. “If you drink it, you’ll be able to forget any memory you’d rather do without.”
Sebastian stepped out in front of them. “I’m the reincarnation of the gates of hell. The dead pass through me to get to paradise... or not. They appear before me as real and whole as I see all of you.
“Like your grandmother, Kosma Ariti.” He spun on a wide-eyed Kosma. “She says you forgot your monster plant textbook at home.”
“I did?! Shit.”
“And your mother, Commander Vasili.” He twisted on the man with a beaming grin. “She doesn’t like the beard.”
The commander’s mother was in luck. His darkening face was so red it was about to catch fire and burn the beard off. “Careful, Mr. Barba. You’re dangerously close to insubordination.”
“I mean no disrespect, sir,” he said, putting his hands up. “I’m merely explaining to everyone... why we run this school now.”
The vibe in the stadium changed immediately. As quickly as the bored expressions left Dimitri’s and Castor’s faces, and were replaced with smirks.
Alexander and his friends rose from their seats. They did not look happy.
“But don’t worry,” Sebastian said. “Our services won’t be too expensive, and our punishments only the right amount of harsh.”
“What is happening?” I whispered.
The gaping shock on my new friends’ faces said they didn’t know either.
“Thank you for that display, Mr. Barba, but you’ll shortly find that you run nothing.” Vasili’s voice was flat. “Sit down. All of you.”
They turned to file off. Jason stopped at the last second and spun around.
“Oh, ladies and gentlemen, Sebastian wasn’t kidding. It’s all available for your service.” He ran his hands down his chest and thrust his hips. “All of it.”
Nitsa straight swooned.
“Sit down, you fool!”
Jason strolled off howling.
“And valiant attempt, but it was not going to be that easy,” Vasili said as they reclaimed their seats. “Neither downplaying your abilities nor making rebellious fools of yourself will get in the way of your duty. Titan class. All of you.”
“Titan?” I repeated. “Did he do that because he knows those guys can do more than summon tea and rocks or because he hopes they can?”
“They can.” Theron’s tone was firm. “A child of Hades has never gotten a power so pathetic. They’ve also never been the friendly, team-player type. They must be trying to stay under the radar so they can’t be used.”
That was staying under the radar?
“Nitsa Castellanos.”
She flashed us a tight smile. “That’s me. Get ready to be shocked and amazed.”
Her friends chuckled and patted her back on the way down. I didn’t know what to say or do. They knew what her power was and if she was being serious or sarcastic.
Nitsa stepped into the stadium. Skin the color of autumn flushed sickly under the burning sun. “I’m Nitsa,” she called. “Daughter of Hera. I can shape-shift.”
“Demonstrate.”
Closing her eyes, Nitsa doubled over—tucking her head between her legs.
Is she sick?I stood up to help when Nitsa winked out of existence, and a moon-faced cow blinked at me from her place.
The audience burst out laughing.
“ENOUGH!”
I rocked back, falling hard on my ass. Laughs abruptly ended in favor of groans and moans. I would’ve been happy that Vasili shut them up, if it wasn’t his fault she had to do this in front of everyone. I wasn’t surprised to hear his decision.
“Sisyphean.”
Nitsa shuffled out of the stadium, still in her cow form. A second passed before I realized her ripped clothes were in a pile on the floor.
“I’ll help her,” Ionna said, standing up.
Vasili didn’t comment on her running out, grabbing the clothes, and chasing after Nitsa.
The pattern was clear. Any power that could kill or help others kill was worthy of the Titan class. Anything else was useless. Vasili turned down demigods that could sweeten dreams, grow wheat, talk to animals of all kinds, grant good fortune, and fly.
“Sirena Cirillo.”
Alexander’s fiancée peeled herself off his arm.
“Sirena Cirillo. Daughter of Hera.” She actually paused like she was waiting for applause. Even more shocking, she got it. Sirena smiled and waved to her fans—blowing kisses here and there. “I can also shape-shift, but not to worry, sir. The goddess knew what she was doing when she left the cows for the peasants and the power for the worthy.”
Ah. So she’s a bitch. Good to have it confirmed.
“Demonstrate.”
Taking a deep breath, Sirena straightened her neck and raised her arms above her head—posing like a dancer. I blinked and I missed it. Sirena vanished and a beautiful snowy owl flew— No, a bat flapped its wings— Not a bat. An eagle. A falcon. A phoenix. A pegasus.
Gasping, I lurched back, grabbing Theron’s hand automatically.
A fifty-foot dragon filled the stadium. Sunshine glinted off silver-painted scales, widening my eyes with wonder. Wings so pale they were translucent stretched above her head, adopting nearly the same pose as she tipped her head and roared.
“She can change into monsters?”
“Sirena can change into any and everything that can fly. She can even change into creatures that don’t live in Olympia. She isn’t limited to what she knows.”
“Amazing,” I blurted.
He blew out a sigh. “That’s what everyone’s been saying her entire life.”
“Ever wonder how and why certain people get the powers they do? Both Nitsa and Sirena were chosen by Hera, but one can turn into a dragon while the other turns into a cow. There’s no making sense of it.”
“I wonder if they asked why too,” Tycho spoke up. “Do you think Hades wanted to be trapped in hell while his brothers ruled the skies and the seas? It’s a random, unfair world for all of us—gods and demigods alike.”
The dragon disappeared and down floated Sirena—naked as the nymphs scurrying through the trees. Lewd whoops and cheers sounded around me, earning another ear-ringing reprimand from Vasili.
“Titan class.”
Sirena walked off unfazed—head high and looking plenty pleased that, again, all eyes were on her. She left her clothes behind, which confused me until a girl ran out and scooped them up for her.
“Daciana. High priestess of the Volana pack.”
A name and title? Vasili didn’t read all that out for anyone else. “Volana pack? You have packs in Olympia? And priestesses?”
“No,” said Theron.
“You’re about to find out why,” Tycho added.
I got a good look at the high priestess of the Volana pack, scanning over her wavy brown and bronze hair, wide nose, elven eyes, and pleasant smile.
She cleared her throat. “My goddess is Luame. She sings to the wind and runs with the moon.
“I am a werewolf.”
“Werewolf?” The only reason I knew the world hadn’t been ripped out from under me was because it was still digging uncomfortably against my ass. “Werewolves exist?” I squeaked.
“What are you talking about?” Tycho gave me a funny look. “Of course they do.”
“Demonstrate.”
Calm as could be, Daciana removed her clothes and set them in a neat pile beside her. Watching her transform was nothing like the blink-of-an-eye changes of Nitsa and Sirena. Her fur sprouted first, layering her face and body in black, downy strands. So fascinated was I by the slow elongation of her nose, I didn’t see the tail sprout from her back until it flicked the air—long and powerful.
Her bones popped. Legs bent. Arms lengthened. Torso widened and stretched. She didn’t make a sound, though I wondered if she was in pain. Every bit of her broke apart and re-formed in front of my eyes.
She wasn’t a fifty-foot dragon, but if you told me this wolf could take on one, I wouldn’t doubt it. There was power in her lethal-sharp seven-inch claws and even longer fangs. She moved and pure muscle rippled throughout her body.
“She’s beautiful.”
The wolf swung to me, gazing straight into my eyes. Did she hear me? Her ears were as big as my face, so it was possible she did.
“Sisyphean.”
“What!” I burst out. “Are you kidding?”
“Silence.”
“But—”
“Don’t,” Theron hissed. “He’s not slighting her. The high priestess is part of the interdominion program. She leaves Olympia at the end of training. She didn’t leave her home to fight our war.”
“Interdominion program?” I had questions—lots of them, so much for not showing my ignorance. The first chance I got, I had to speak to her.
“Alexander Damien.”
If anything could’ve made me forget about the sudden existence of werewolves, it was Alexander.
The son of Zeus fell on me, his green pools sending out tendrils that stripped me bare, leaving me more exposed than Sirena and Daciana ever could be. He didn’t let me go as he moved to the middle of the platform. Those secret over-ear curls and that little wheezy sound he made when he laughed too hard to stop.
I couldn’t look away.
“Son of Zeus,” he said, the truth dripping from his lips in that deep, rolling way he spoke. “All living beings have electricity in their bodies. In his wisdom, Zeus granted me the power to tap into that electricity and increase it tenfold.” Alexander said it to Vasili but spoke to me. “I cannot demonstrate, as I said, it only works on living—”
“Titan class.”
Alexander dipped his head, accepting his fate as the novices burst into applause.
“Yeah, Alexander!”
“You were meant for Titan.”
“We love you, Alex!”
“My goodness,” I breathed, blushing at the carrying on and it wasn’t even for me. “They’re going to throw their panties at him next. Why is everyone so excited he got into Titan? Who is he exactly?”
“Ares, take me, Aella. Was that place they put you Tartarus itself? How do you not know who Alexander Damien is?”
A blank look was his only response.
“Alexander Damien,” he repeated slowly. “His father is the Zeus councilman, Maximos Damien. Maximos is leader of the Twelve, the most powerful demigod alive, and heads the only high-governing body in Olympia. Moreso, he’s already named Alex, his son, to take his seat on the council when he steps down. Soon, Alex will be the most powerful man in Olympia.”
I nodded stiffly, turning away. “That... makes a lot of sense.”
“Aella Vanda.”
I snapped my head up. How had he reached my name already? Weren’t they going in alphabetical order?
“Aella Vanda.”
“Go,” Theron said. “Don’t make him say it again.”
Hurriedly, I stopped, smoothing down my new shift dress and the new linen pants that went under it. There was no fighting it. This was coming whether I wanted it to or not.
I took my place on the platform, facing Vasili and his silent companions. “I am Aella Vanda,” I said clearly. “I am a—”
“Tread carefully, girl.”
“A child of Eirene,” I announced. “The goddess of peace.”
If I expected shocked awe and gasps, I didn’t get it.
“Interesting,” Vasili said. “She’s never been known to bless a human.”
“I’ve been told I’m rare.”
“What is your power?”
“Ummm.” I thought quickly. “When people are angry, upset, or fighting, I can calm them.
“With a kiss.”
Jason shot to his feet. “I volunteer for the demonstration.”
That was the cue for almost a dozen guys, all jumping up valiantly offering to be kissed. I could’ve crumbled into dust and blown away. Nothing in life prepared me for this.
“Enough,” someone shouted, and it wasn’t Vasili.
I flicked to a very angry Alex. “All of you, sit down and shut up.”
They all sat down and shut up. Except for Jason, who blew me kisses and mimed a few things for me. The man had no shame.
“If it’s all right, sir, I’d rather not demonstrate,” I said.
Vasili flapped a hand. “That’s fine. There’s no need anyway. You can hardly go around kissing monsters. Sisyphean.”
“Yes, sir.”
“Good,” Selene said as I walked off. “Not so stupid after all.”
I LEFT THE STADIUMalone, not staying for the rest of the placements. Making my way out of the shadows, someone called my name.
“Aella, over here.” Ionna waved me under the awning. She, Nitsa, and Daciana sat on the steps of a side entrance to the academy. “Are you finished? How did it go?”
“Sisyphean,” I replied, leaving out the details.
“Nice,” Nitsa said, giving me a smile that trembled. “We’ll be together.”
“Are you okay?” I put my arm around her. “Were you hoping for something different?”
She shook her head. “I knew I would be in Sisyphean, but that doesn’t make it any easier to tell my parents. They and my three older brothers were Titans. Having a useless daughter doesn’t go down easy.”
“You’re not useless. The way they think about these things is ridiculous. You have one of the most incredible powers out of the bunch.”
She snorted. “I’m a cow, Aella. There are thousands of them grazing the fields. What exactly is so incredible about turning into a lowly, common animal?”
“Do you retain your mind when you change? Do you see and understand everything that’s going on?”
“Yeah. So?”
“Then you’re not a lowly common animal. You’re a spy, Nitsa. You’re the best spy in the land,” I said. “Monsters will pass you by, dismissing you as a lowly cow, and it’ll be the last mistake they make. Sounds pretty fucking useful to me.”
“I... I never thought of it that way. A spy,” she whispered, rolling it around on her tongue. “A tracker. No one would see me coming.” Nitsa bumped my shoulder. “Thank you.”
“I’ve got to go back,” Ionna announced. “I don’t want to miss it when he calls my name. You guys are done. Get us a good dorm room before they’re all snatched up.”
“She’s right,” Nitsa said. “No point sitting around here when we could be scoping out the place. Three brothers and I’ve never been inside. Can’t wait to see what’s real and what’s one of their silly tricks.”
Her good mood was back in full force. Nitsa took off, hurrying to grab her bags and begin her first day in the academy that labeled her useless. I followed at a slower pace. Daciana fell in step with me.
“Thank you for that. We’d been trying to cheer her up all this time. You did it instantly.”
“I meant everything I said. I can think of a great way to utilize every person who was shoved in the Sisyphean class. For one thing, the guy who can grow wheat from stone is a marvel. He can keep everyone in his squad fed with a wave of his hand. No one wants to fight a monster on an empty stomach.”
“Wise thinking.”
“What do you think?”
She shrugged lightly—pretty face serene. “It’s not for me to have an opinion. It wouldn’t hold any weight if I did. I am a stranger to this land. One that was plotting her escape home until you.”
I looked around. “What? Me?”
“Yes, you,” Daciana said with a laugh. “Demigods don’t know much about werewolves. Or they do and they don’t care that my heightened hearing heard everything they said about me when I shifted. From the graphically lewd remarks to the comments that I was a disgusting beast, should be put down like the other monsters, or be captured like a wild animal and forced to serve the army.”
“They said what? They’re the fucking beasts!”
She didn’t lose her amused smile. “My father did the interdominion program when he was young. He told me what to expect. He also told me that when someone shows you who they are, believe them.
“Out of everything said about me, you were the only one to appreciate my form for the beautiful gift from the goddess that it is. Also, you defended me when you believed I was being treated unfairly. You’ve shown me you’re kind and without prejudice, so I’ll believe it. You and I will be friends.”
I shared her smile. “And you just spent half an hour trying to cheer up a girl you didn’t even know. I believe that’s who you are too.” I held out my hand. “Friends.”
She shook. “Friends.”
“Now that we’re friends,” I began, the two of us following after Nitsa. “Would it be okay if I asked you absolutely everything about what it’s like to be a werewolf and about your pack?”
She laughed. “Sure. Ask away.”
Pretty sure she regretted saying that five seconds later. I pelted her with questions as we topped the stairs, needing to know everything about her and the dominions. Alexander used that word more than once, but I never thought to ask.
The only thing that shut me up was stepping inside.
There’s no reason I should’ve formed ideas about what existed behind the white doors, and those expectations were blown all the same.
I spun on the atrium’s polished floors, and the mammoth statues of the twelve Olympian gods spun with me. With one hand, they palmed the ceiling. With the other, Zeus threw lightning, Hera held a babe, Artemis drew her bow, Poseidon raised his trident.
“Come on,” Nitsa called. She and Daciana waited in front of another, albeit smaller, pair of doors. “The map says the Sisyphean dorms are this way.”
“Do we have to call it that?” I jogged to catch up. “Just because they named us Sisyphean doesn’t mean we have to as well.”
“I’ve decided I won’t let it bother me either way.” She raised her chin. “No one is going to tell me that I’m useless to my home. If I’m fighting for it, I can never be useless.”
Daciana pushed open the door, spilling us into a long marble hallway. The two of them consulted the way while I looked around, memorizing my escape route.
I hadn’t seen guards outside, and so far, none inside. That was one point in the place’s favor.
“Nitsa, does it say anything in the book about a curfew?”
“Course not. We’re not children. But we also train from sunup to sundown, so whatever midnight fun you’re planning will have consequences in the morning.”
Alex flashed through my head, making me hide my face. “No one said anything about midnight fun.”
I looked even harder at my shoes when I caught her knowing look.
“This door.” We stopped in front of the third one at the end of the hallway. “This leads to the dormitory wings. That leads to the food hall and the classrooms. That one leads to the training rooms. We’ll explore after we dump our bags.”
We entered another hallway, the near opposite of the one we left. Stone packed us in, drawing us shoulder to shoulder. Doors lined the left side, going down and twisting around the corner. They were labeled simply “Sisyphean Dorm One.” “Sisyphean Dorm Two.” Etc.
I drew ahead to the end of the hall and craned my neck around the corner. One side had more Sisyphean dorms. The other side had a single staircase entrance with a golden sign above that read “Titan Wing.”
“This one looks nice. Aella, check it out.”
Their calls drew me to Sisyphean Dorm Eleven. A low whistle cut through my lips.
“Not bad at all.”
One grand circle lay before me with ten alcoves starting and ending where I stood. Each alcove boasted a stone, curved archway that granted us a glimpse of the bed, desk, bookshelf, and dressing table on the other side. In the middle of it all was a sunken common area of squashy couches and cushions.
Nitsa flung herself on one. “If our rooms are this nice, imagine how incredible the Titan dorms are. My brother said that each one came with a beautiful personal attendant who caters to you and rubs your feet.” She flashed me a flat look. “As you guessed, they’re idiots and I’ve learned to ignore everything they say.”
I laughed. “Let’s go find out for ourselves, then. The entrance is right down the hall.”
“Better we don’t get in trouble on the first day.” Daciana tossed me her welcome book. “Sisypheans aren’t allowed in the Titan wing.”
“It doesn’t really say that, does it?” I flipped through and there it was—word for word. “Never mind. I need to unpack and find the showers. I feel like I’ve been traveling for years.”
“But I’ll bet you haven’t traveled as far as me,” Daciana teased. “So... I’ll be taking that shower first!” She snatched up her stuff and raced out. Shrieking, I ran after her and was popped off my feet and tossed on the couch.
Nitsa saluted me in the doorway. “Too slow, Vanda. Looks like you’re third.”
Okay. Now it was on.
I chased after them—our laughter echoing through the hallway.
“THIS ISN’T SO BAD.”Theron tossed his stuff on a bed and then himself after it. “If I can’t have my own room, at least I’m sharing with you guys.”
If his wish was to share a dorm with his friends, fate smiled on him like it never did for me. Ionna, Tycho, and Theron were all placed in Sisyphean.
“Might just be the six of us too,” Ionna spoke up. “This year’s novice class is a bit... thin. I bet there are more beds than bodies.”
“Fine with me.” Nitsa was already set to work making her alcove cozy. Drawings of her family filled her shelves where the books were supposed to go. Drawing out a knit blanket, she set the starry night sky over our plain white sheets.
Daciana stretched on the couch, looking wholly relaxed and at home with this close-knit group. “Is it rude to ask people what their powers are?”
“No,” Tycho said. “Not rude at all. It’s the first thing strangers ask after ‘What’s your name?’”
“Then what are your powers?”
My ears quirked up. I stopped fussing with the clothes Luca packed me and stuck my head out of my alcove.
“I’m a son of Persephone,” Tycho said. “Children of Hades are rare. Children of Persephone aren’t. She was the queen of the underworld and had real authority—unlike Hera, who had to give in to Zeus’s whims.” He sucked in a breath. “Basically, I can speak words of power. Whatever I say must be obeyed.”
“Are you serious?” I gave up on hiding my eavesdropping. “Don’t take this the wrong way, but what are you doing here?”
He shared a look with his friends. “Everyone’s impressed when I tell them until I remind them that Persephone was queen of hades. My words of power only work... on the dead.”
“Ahh,” I drew out. “I see.”
“Thought you might. It’s not a fun power. Seven years old and making my dead dog sit, stay, and follow me scared my parents. They banned me from using it for years.” He lifted his shoulders. “I continued the ban on my own. I have no use for a power like that. The dead should be allowed to rest.”
“Goodness. Now I do feel it was rude to ask,” Daciana said.
He chuckled. “Honestly, it’s cool. There is shame in misusing a power, not in having it. I didn’t choose it, but I’ll choose what I’ll do with it. Thankfully, Commander Vasili agrees that I won’t do anything with it.”
Ionna squeezed his shoulder. “I’ll say it so you don’t have to ask. I’m a daughter of Apollo. He granted me the gift of prophetic visions.” She raised a hand, stopping me as I opened my mouth. “Don’t be impressed with me either. My visions are confusing, dipped in double meanings, and often downright wrong. I can’t trust a single thing I see.”
“I’m sorry,” Daciana said. “That must be really hard.”
Ionna looked away, jaw stiffening. “Yes, it is,” she whispered. With that, she ducked into her alcove. We left her in peace.
“Guess that leaves me,” Theron said. “I won’t be coy about it. I’m a son of Ares.”
And now I was fully out of the alcove, erasing the distance between us.
“Ares?” Daciana repeated. “But I heard it said children of Ares can only use their power when they feel intense hatred.”
He nodded, expression blank. “That’s correct. Which means every other day of the week, I’m as mundane as our counterparts in the neighboring dominion.”
“I can’t believe a power could be so specific.”
“Ares was the god of violence and brutality. He represents no more than the horror of war. A piece of that god’s essence wasn’t going to result in bunny shape-shifters or flower conjurers.”
“Do you know what your power actually is?” I asked. “When... you can summon it.”
“I’d know even if I couldn’t. All of his children have the same power,” he replied. “We can summon the destructive force of an explosion. The intensity of the explosion matches the intensity of the hatred.” Theron gave me a funny look. “Why don’t you know this?”
“Locked away. Remember?”
“Right. Sorry. You remind me the world doesn’t revolve around Trono and its shallow problems.”
“Hey, we’ve all got stuff.”
“Enough of this prattle!”
I almost jumped out of my shoes, inciting questions of concern from everyone.
“Find me!”
“I’m okay, guys,” I said over my ringing ears. “I just... had a chill. I’m going to step out for a moment. Go for a walk and warm up.”
“Okay,” Daciana called. “See you later.”
I rushed my byes and ducked out into the hall.
“What is your problem?” I snapped at my wrist. “I obviously want to find my mom as badly as you want me to find you! We’re on the same side right now, so stop yelling at me and calling me stupid!”
She sniffed. “You’re the one yelling right now if you want to be accurate. But... very well,” she said, surprising me. “You are suitably motivated to find where we’re being held. I will cease losing my temper.”
“Uh, thank you,” I muttered. “Okay. Now that I’m alone, I can do this. Tell me where my mom is.”
“I do not know.”
“Tell me where you are.”
“I do not know that either, except that I am somewhere within the confines of this academy.”
“All right, then tell me where to begin to find you. Are you buried somewhere in the forest? Are you in one of these rooms?” I asked, looking up and down the long hallway. “Where do I go?”
“I do not know.”
It was me who had to rein in my temper. “What do you mean you don’t know?” I forced through clenched teeth. I moved farther down the hall so my new roomies wouldn’t hear me talking to myself. “You sent monsters after my mother. They brought her to your prison. How did they do that if you don’t know where you are?”
“Have some sense, child. My prison was crafted by the gods themselves. Their intention was that I never be freed. Do you imagine they’d make it easy on anyone who would be my rescuer?”
I frowned. “What does that mean?”
“There are protections on the prison. One such being that anyone who enters it forgets who they are, why they’ve come, and where they are.”
My eyes bugged. “But then how did the monsters bring my mom to you?”
“Once you’re in, you can’t get out. You can’t remember why you need to get out. The only way to go is forward. Your mother was brought through the barrier by the monsters, and then my allies on the inside of the academy gave up their memory and their lives to bring her to me. She fought her way forward until she wound up in my chamber.”
Horror seized me. “Does that mean my mom’s forgotten me?”
“No, she has retained her memory,” she said, making the breath whoosh from my lungs. “The traps were designed for demigods and monsters. Not powerless mortals. There was no need. Your mother couldn’t free me if she tried.”
I’d bet anything Selene tested that theory by forcing my mother to try.
“I still don’t understand,” I said. “How do you know you’re somewhere in the academy if what you said is true? Are you guessing?”
“I do not guess. For centuries, I wallowed in the dark, and then she found me. She gave me voice. She found a way to anchor my essence so that I may speak to her as I speak to you, and then she gave me the key.”
I didn’t know I had slid down the wall until my butt hit the cold floor. “Anchor your essence? You mean the bracelets. Part of you is inside of them. How did she do it?”
“What does it matter how?”
“I guess it doesn’t.” I twirled the band around my wrist. “She found a way to free your voice so that you can manipulate and destroy lives to finally get your freedom. Why couldn’t she find a way to free you?”
“She is a daughter of Apollo. Nothing like the useless child you just met. She sees the future that will come to be. Any future where she tried to come for me herself ended in failure. As it did when she saw into the future of my other allies.
“Failures and weaklings. All of them,” she spat. “The only future where I broke my chains and rose to once again sit atop the throne of the universe... included you.”
“I succeed,” I rasped. “I free you.”
“I do not know.”
“What? But you just said—”
“You do not listen. I’m sure that trait frustrated your mother to no end. You’re a child of fate, Aella Vanda. One cannot see the future of a girl who changes her past. You are nothing but a mystery, a black spot, a missing chapter in my ally’s mind’s eye.
“All she knows is that the locks on my cage begin to break, and my future begins to change when a girl named Aella Vanda enters Deucalion Academy.”
I was quiet for a long time.
“This means you don’t know what I do, or how, or when. All you know is that I have something to do with your freedom. For that, you ruined my life and abducted my mother.” My calm voice belied my fury. “For all you fucking know, I sneeze on the person who really frees you, and that’s the only way I’m connected. You took my mother for nothing.”
“Oh no, child. There has been no mistake. You are the one I seek. You are the key.”
“How do you know that? I’m a mystery. A missing chapter. You don’t know anything.”
“Why would I need to know your future when I know mine? My ally gave me a prophecy, dear girl. It told me what I needed.”
“What prop—?”
“The weaver, the deceiver, and the believer stand guard. Within the eyes holds the gods’ lies.
“The son of Zeus will break the chains. A wolf will cross domains. On she fights as her mother’s love sustains. But don’t be fooled, the danger still remains.
“For within the dark she sleeps, within the dark she hates, within the dark she waits... for the child of the Fates.”
Laughter rang in my ears as I shrank, holding myself tightly.
“A ‘she’ who is both a child of the Fates and a loving mother. One who captures the devotion of a son of Zeus and a wolf’s friendship within minutes of meeting them?” Her snickers chilled my soul. “Do you still believe your only part to play in this is a sneeze?”
My lips trembled. I wanted nothing more to deny. To rant and rage and curse her for forcing me into the middle of a fight that wasn’t mine... but that was me. How could that prophecy be about anyone but me?
“Within the dark she hates,” I croaked. “Who are you, Selene? What exactly are you the goddess of?”
Her snickering grew faint. “What does it matter, girl? You will come. You will free me. I will rise. The future is written.
“Find me.”
I tossed and turned all that night, my dreams haunted by Alex’s words. The only thing someone could want more than freedom is revenge. What did Selene want? Was I her key to freedom? Or to so much more—? No. Was I the key to so much worse?