Zoe handed it to me with a grimace. “I hate the way that thing feels,” she said.
“Me too.” I slid it onto my bicep, feeling my power surge the second the back of the stone made contact with my skin, and pulled my sleeve back down over it. My heart was pounding harder, adrenaline rushing through my system. I could feel the rage of the immortals trapped in the stone, and that fed me even better than Persephone’s fear had.
“These other… things, or whatever, that are threatening to invade… you’re actually kinda scared of them, huh?” Zoe asked, sitting on the sofa and tucking her legs under her.
“Yeah. They scare the shit out of me.” I sat down beside her. I thought for a moment, decided to say what I’d been wanting to tell her for so long. I guess, in the back of my mind, I was afraid I wouldn’t get another chance. “I don’t want this life for you. I want you to get an education and have a normal life. I mean, as normal as it can be, considering.” I knew that was what she wanted, too. She wanted to help. She wanted to fight. But at the same time, she craved something beyond the Netherwoods, beyond the death and the destruction. And she wasn’t an immortal. She deserved to make as much of her life as she could, because unlike mine, or Hades, or Nain’s, her life was not limitless.
I tried not to think about that too much. I’d investigated the possibility of using my blood to extend her life years ago. My blood had not reacted well with hers. At all. A drop had nearly killed her, the combination of shifter, demon, and immortal too much for her system to handle.
“You guys taught me how to fight. You trained me to be a warrior, the same way you trained Sean and Hades and Michael. Rose, too.”
“I know. And I’m glad you know how to defend yourself, if nothing else. But you deserve to actually have a choice in this shit. I won’t think less of you if you decide to take another path. I hope you do. I don’t want you to be like me.”
She gave a little snort. “We both know I’m already like you. Too late.”
I shook my head. “Just give it some thought.”
“I will. As long as you promise to remember what you told me, that if you think I can help with this current mess, you’ll let me help.”
At that moment, E and my mom rematerialized into my office, E carrying two large white bags that were emitting the scent of spicy Indian food. A moment later, Athena appeared as well.
“Before, a great battle was always preceded by a grand feast,” Athena said.
“And she was craving curry,” my mom said, and Athena shrugged.
We started shoving weapons and other crap off of the large coffee table in front of the fireplace and E unpacked the bags, We spent a few minutes passing containers back and forth before settling in.
“We should probably at least offer to share with Nain and the rest of them,” I said around a mouthful of chicken curry.
“No point. They’re all gathered in Heph’s makeshift workshop admiring their weapons and talking about their former feats in battle,” E said, rolling her eyes. “I nearly choked on the testosterone when I was in there earlier.”
My mom laughed, and we ate in silence for a few moments.
“Demon girl,” E finally said.
I looked up. I knew that tone. She was about to tell me something she knew I didn’t want to hear.
“What?”
“I overheard what Persephone was saying to you after the funeral.”
“She’s cracked,” I said, shoveling rice into my mouth. I hadn’t realized how hungry I was.
“I think she may have a point. She could be of use.”
“No.”
“Mollis, this is not the time to be vengeful. You kept her alive all this time—”
“Because it’s the harshest punishment I can give her,” I said. “You all act like I did it to be nice. She sits there hating herself, every second of every day—”
“And you visit her, every day,” my mom said quietly. I looked at her in surprise.
“Word travels, daughter.”
I didn’t answer, aware of Zoe, E, and Athena’s surprise at this revelation.
“I think she should come with us,” E said after a few moments of awkward silence. “She was right. She may be able to pick up a sense of the breach easier than I could, because of her connection to the Earth.”
“I don’t trust her, and we’re going to have enough shit to deal with when we find the breach, if we don’t run into more of those assholes before then.”
“I don’t trust her either. We would be foolish to do so. But if she can help us find this breach quickly, it will be worth the extra attention we have to give her to make sure she does not do anything stupid. And it could very well be that she wants to kill them more than any of us,” E pressed.
I set my fork down, appetite gone.
“She’s loony. She’s unpredictable, and she’s not trustworthy in the least. It would be more trouble than it’s worth.”
“It seems to be a sound plan, actually,” Athena said. I shot her a look. The goddess of wisdom and battle looked every bit the part. Her long golden hair was braided in a rope over her shoulder, and her golden armor, which would have looked gaudy as fuck on anyone else, shone in the flickering light of the fire. Behind her, perched on the back of one of the chairs, her little golden owl sat placidly.
“You must be kidding me,” I huffed.
“I’ve often been told I have no sense of humor, so, no,” Athena answered. “You take any possible advantage you can in a situation like this one. This is an enemy unlike anything we have faced. And as excited as I am at the prospect of real battle after all this time, it would be foolish to let battle lust and bravado lead us here.”
I took a large bite of naan and thought about it. Athena and I weren’t exactly close, but she’d ultimately been the one to train me to fight and be able to hold my own against immortals. She’d been brutal and demanding and unfeeling, and she’d made me try to see more to a situation than just recklessly bashing my way through it. She’d been loyal to me since I’d been trapped in the Nether, and her advice had never steered me wrong. Must be that whole goddess of wisdom thing.
Plus, E seemed to think it was a good idea, and E’s pretty much the closest thing I have to a conscience sometimes.
I glanced across the table at my mother, who’d been silent through the whole conversation.
“Mom?”
She looked up from her food. “It seems prudent to bring her. Just keep her away from me, lest I run my blade through her heart.”
Yeah. This was going to work out well.
After we’d finished eating and made our final preparations, I hugged Zoe and told her I loved her and to watch out for her asshole brother. She hugged me hard.
“Just come back, okay?” she murmured.
“I will,” I promised her. I’d hoped Hades would make an appearance, but he was clearly still pissed. I quickly wrote him a note and gave it to Zoe to deliver to him. He needed to know that I was sorry for the things I’d said, and that we’d figure everything out when I got back. And he needed to know that I love him, even if I’m shit at showing it sometimes.
I watched Zoe walk toward the stairway that led to her chambers. She’d already seen Nain. She was afraid. Terrified, actually, that something bad would happen to us. Her emotions were a mess, the endless battle inside her raging even harder with her heightened emotions. She would spend the night in her room, fighting for control.
She spent too much time having to do that, I thought with a sigh as I followed E and the rest of our dinner group through the corridors. We’d all agreed to meet up in the courtyard. It was time to go. I felt a surge of excitement, echoed by my companions. Battle.
We reached the courtyard to find Nain, Bren, Hephaestus, and Triton already there. Triton had ended up with the same armor as Nain and Heph, but Bren was wearing his usual jeans and flannel shirt. He’d be fighting in panther form, most likely, and, genius though he was, Heph still hadn’t figured out how
to create an armor that would work with the shift.
“Ready?” Nain asked when we reached them.
“Almost,” I said. “I need to go get Persephone first.”
“For what?” he asked.
“She is coming with us,” Athena told him.
“The fuck she is,” he growled.
“If he doesn’t kill her, I will,” Heph said in a tone that made it clear that he was dead serious.
“Her abilities may help us find the breach more quickly. And it’s not as though she can plan anything and actually keep it from us,” E said, gesturing toward me. I’d taken my glasses off after parting from Zoe. I’d need every bit of information I could get, no matter how much I’d rather not see some things.
“And nobody’s going to kill her,” I said, looking at Nain, then Heph, then my mother, all of whom looked absolutely mutinous. “If she steps even a toe out of line, I’ll kill her myself. She’ll be wearing those cuffs Heph made that will keep her from rematerializing. If she even considers trying to fight us, I’ll see it coming and we’ll stop her. All that matters is that she can’t get away and she can maybe help us end this shit sooner. All right?”
Nain and Heph didn’t answer, though the stony looks on their faces made it very clear what they thought of this plan.
“Great. Good talk,” I said. I rematerialized to Persephone’s cell. She looked at me in surprise when I appeared, and I tossed an armored uniform similar to mine on her bed.
“Change. Time to go.”
“I’m going with you?” she asked, standing up from her chair.
“Yep. And about half the party wants to rip your head off with their bare hands, so it should be a ton of fun for you.”
She quickly started stripping and pulled on the leggings, tunic, and boots I’d given her. No weapon. If she ended up needing one, we had plenty of extras, but I wasn’t going to just hand her one.
“If you even think about trying to betray me, I’ll spend eternity torturing you. I’ll make you relive every good memory you have of my father, until you miss him a little more every second. I’ll make you see, again and again, the day he broke his bond with you, the day you realized he’d been unfaithful to you, the first time you saw him and my mother look at each other like the soul mates they were. Every one of the nightmares that wakes you up screaming at night, I’ll make sure you live, over and over again, for eternity.”
She swallowed. “Understood.”
I took her arm and rematerialized, reappearing in the courtyard with the rest of our group. They didn’t acknowledge Persephone. Athena and E automatically flanked her. They wanted her here, but they weren’t taking any chances, either.
“I think we should go to the first place we spotted them. Greece. Maybe we can start picking up a trail there,” I said. The rest of the group nodded, and I closed my eyes and teleported us to the rocky cliff on which I’d had my first vision of Volodhal. The hunt was on, and we were all more than ready for a fight.
Chapter Nine
We stood on the cliffs, the sun beating down mercilessly. It was silent other than the constant wind. The last time I’d been here, I’d had Anti-Theist assholes screaming at me.
And I’d seen Volodhal for the first time.
We walked around a little, scoping out the area. Bren had already shifted to his panther. The place was deserted, desolate. There wasn’t a sign of a single living thing, which was as it should be in a place as far-flung as this. I glanced at Persephone, still flanked by E and Athena. Her eyes were closed, as if she was listening or sensing for something.
“Anything, Molls?” Nain asked, and I shook my head. He was just behind me, and he rested his hands on my shoulders.
“I wasn’t expecting to find the breach here, but I was hoping we’d get some sense of where to go next,” I said, leaning back into him.
“Remember when the craziest shit we had to deal with was you?” he murmured, and I laughed.
“Those were the days.”
Nain pulled me closer, his arms circling me, crossing over my chest as my back rested against his broad chest. Comfort. This was the only real comfort I knew. And it was for him, too.
I know some people would call that codependent or some other psychobabble bullshit, probably. But what it is, is unbreakable. There’s no one I’d rather have with me when I’m facing the impossible. We fight. Damn, do we fight. He pisses me off, and I frustrate him. But we always end up having each other’s backs.
I reached up and gently patted his forearm, pressed a kiss to it, and he let me go, his hands lingering on my body long enough that it was clear he’d had no intention of letting go until he absolutely had to.
“What do you think, Persephone?” I asked. She opened her eyes and shook her head.
“I sense nothing here. Blood has been shed on this soil, but I don’t sense anything otherworldly here.”
I nodded. Then I laughed. And then I laughed harder, wiping my eyes.
“What is it, demon girl?” E asked, looking at me like she was sizing me up for a straightjacket.
“Wouldn’t it be just a fucking hoot if the breach was in Detroit, the same way the gateway to the older Nether and Aether was?” I said.
E nodded. “I had that thought, too. The Guardians and I scoured every inch of the city and found nothing.”
“I felt nothing there, either,” Persephone said. “Did you?” she asked me.
“No. But it would be our luck that the people we’re most worried about protecting are there, and we’re here, wouldn’t it?”
“Do you want us to check again?” E asked.
It was stupid. I knew it was. Still…
“If you wouldn’t mind. Detroit has so many ties to shit it shouldn’t. I just want to make sure it’s not somehow tied to this, too.”
She nodded, said a few words to Brennan, then glanced back at me. “I will find you as soon as we check it over again.”
“Thanks, E.”
In an instant, she was gone, and I looked around at the rest of our group. “Okay, well. I hoped we’d at least get some idea of where to go from here. You guys know more of the history of this shit than I do. Were there any areas that Nyx was especially fond of, places that maybe she and Volodhal might have visited together? If the breach was affected by power and imbalance, it’s possible that it would have been attracted or helped by energy left here from Nyx and Volodhal gallivanting around before things blew up between them, right?”
The immortals all seemed to be thinking. After a few moments, Heph shook his head helplessly. My mother shrugged. Persephone said she knew nothing of Nyx. Athena still seemed to be thinking.
“I am not sure if it meant anything to her… while many of us had oracles, and multiple ones, at that, Nyx only ever had one.”
“Oh? Where was that?”
She smiled. “Actually, it is a place named for the Fury Megaera, fittingly enough. It is in the region of Attica. At least, that is what it is called now,” she added with a shrug.
“Greece?”
She nodded.
Of course. I felt a sense of relief. It was likely that anything we found would be in Greece, not in Detroit. The immortals were all closely tied to this land. They gained much of their power through the beliefs of ancient civilizations, then merely adapted and changed as the time required them to.
“Can you take us there?” I asked her. She nodded, glancing at my mother.
“You know the place, yes?” she asked Tisiphone.
“I do.”
A few of us gathered around my mother, the rest around Athena, and the next instant found us standing on a hill overlooking what looked to be olive groves. Beyond, I could see a small town of stone buildings hugging the coastline, deep blue sea beyond.
“Welcome to Megara. In our day, this was a powerful kingdom all its own,” Athena began. “The population was wiped out almost entirely… I forget exactly when that was, and those that remained traveled to what is now Sicily and
founded another city, also known as Megara. This, though… this is the land of gods and kings, of warriors and battles.”
“And this is where Nyx had her oracle?” I asked.
Athena nodded, then gestured to the west. “There is actually a monastery named for one of the Catholic saints not too far from here, over that distant hill. The ruins of what had been a temple lie beneath its foundation, and that was where Nyx’s oracle was once found. It never fails to amaze me,” she said quietly, “that places of power often hold onto a kind of resonance. Even men who did not share belief in us still felt the power in that site and built their holy house there.”
I looked around. I found it hard to believe this place had once been anything even remotely considered “powerful.” The rolling hills of olive groves and farmland took up most of the view, the small town with its cramped, tall stone buildings seeming to huddle near the coast. White beaches lay beyond that, and then nothing but deep blue.
“So, it’s a farming town now?” I asked dubiously.
Athena nodded. “Farming and tourism. There are several vineyards here as well. Most of the farms are poultry farms.”
I scrunched up my nose. “And you’re sure this is the right place?”
She looked at me, expression as serious as always. “Of course. I visited the temple many times, both before and after its destruction.”
“Well, let’s go, then,” I said, and she held a hand up.
“The monastery is a working religious site, though tourists visit to take photos or whatever it is they do. You will have to act like normal people.”
“No problem,” Heph boomed, and all of us winced. I felt humor from Nain’s general direction.
“The armor will likely have to go,” Athena said. She focused for a moment and glamoured herself so that hers seemed to disappear, then Heph did the same. I turned to look at Nain, and he was giving Heph a dirty look.
“Asshole,” he muttered as he started unbuckling his armor. “If this gets stolen—”
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