“No, but it will probably be in that hovel she’s been living in in Berkley’s Bay. We’ll send someone to fetch it tomorrow. Her power is little enough compared to that of the sun god and the sky father.”
“Those really are the other two lightning bolts, then? We can draw Zeus out?”
“Finally. And then we can take the rest of them down. Has everyone arrived?”
“We’re still waiting on the Brenvale contingent. Most of them weren’t home, and it’s taking some time to track them down.”
“No matter. We have some work to do still to prepare the sacrifices. Let’s get onto it.”
“Yes, my lady.”
Two sets of footsteps left the room, and I risked opening my eyes to check. Apollo was still slumped in his chair, but he was the only one here besides myself. The two lightning bolts were gone from the table—Hestia must have taken them. And Damian would be back at any moment with collars for the two of us, to prevent us using our powers.
How long would my brother sleep? Perhaps for hours. I had to assume that whatever she had given him would keep him out long enough for them to collar him, chain him, and get everything ready for the sacrifice. So he would be no help. I sat up, keeping low behind the furniture in case Damian reappeared, while I retrieved my bow and quiver. With my bow in my hand, I felt much better.
It pained me to see my poor, trusting brother collapsed in his chair, mouth open, head tipped back at an awkward angle. He was going to have one hell of a sore neck when he woke. There must be something in that drink she’d given him that had wiped his short-term memories as well as putting him to sleep. “I’d trust Hestia with my life,” he’d said once, and now that unwavering trust had delivered him into her power again.
All he remembered of his first capture was going to bed in his own room and waking up in Mrs Emery’s prison cell. In between, I was willing to bet Hestia had turned up at his home one night with some sob story, and he’d taken her in without question. She must have laughed at how easy it was to exploit his trust in her by slipping something into his drink.
She’d probably done the same thing to Hephaistos. He’d trusted her, too, and had been captured. But she’d had him even more wrapped around her little finger than Apollo—she’d managed to convince him to make the very collars that proved the gods’ undoing before she’d killed him. Probably with some story about how frightened she was. Poor little underpowered Hestia.
And now she was ready to collar Apollo again. But this time, the outcome would be very different. This time he wasn’t defenceless. As footsteps approached, I drew an arrow and nocked it. I was still crouched behind the group of armchairs, mainly out of sight from the door. Whoever walked through was going to find it much more difficult to collar the sun god than previously.
When Damian entered the room, I felt a powerful surge of disappointment that it wasn’t Hestia. I was building up a thirst for vengeance that would only be quenched by spilling her blood. Damian’s would have to do for the moment. Once he shut the door behind him, I let the arrow fly, catching him in the throat. He fell, and the two collars he’d been carrying rolled across the hardwood floor, coming to rest by Apollo’s feet.
I picked them up. No point leaving these for the shadow shapers’ use. But where to put them? In the kitchen, I pulled open drawers at random and shoved them inside a large pot. With the lid back on, they weren’t visible, and I doubted anyone would be making soup or boiling chicken carcases in the next hour or so, anyway. If I’d had a backpack, I would have taken them with me, but I needed a hiding place in a hurry, so this would have to do.
I left Damian where he’d fallen: the pool of bright arterial blood spreading underneath his neck told me he wouldn’t be getting up again. I retrieved my arrow, though. That was worth a lot more than some shadow shaper traitor.
*Syl? What’s happening?* I cast my mind out even as I sent the question, and found the bright sparks of the werewolves rushing toward the back of the barn. But Syl didn’t answer. Perhaps she was in human form right now. She might even be opening the barn door for the werewolves, because, as I watched, their sparks moved inside. Quickly, I jumped into the head of the lead wolf.
Unsurprisingly, it was Ray, the alpha of the pack. Now the darkness the shadow shapers had been hiding in worked against them—wolves could see perfectly well in the dark. They fell on the massed shadow shapers, biting and snarling, and chaos erupted in the barn. I watched through his eyes for a moment, to make sure that the wolves would be all right, before leaving his head without speaking to him. He didn’t need the distraction right now.
The shadow shapers were so panicked by the sudden appearance of a pack of ferocious beasts in their midst that most of them forgot any power that they might have had and made a concerted rush for the main barn doors. They were desperate to escape the rending teeth and the terrible sounds in the dark all around them, so desperate that they hindered each other as they pushed and shoved blindly. That was the trouble with stealing other people’s magic—when the shit hit the fan, drawing on your power wasn’t instinctual, developed over long years of living with that power. A couple of them set Zephyrus’s stolen winds roaring around the interior of the barn, but that didn’t bother the wolves one bit. All it achieved was to slam the barn door shut just when some hapless shadower had managed to heave it open.
Back in my own head, I strode to the back door. *Syl!* I called again, and this time she answered me.
*Lexi! Where are you?*
*Just heading outside. Apollo’s unconscious—can you send someone in to guard him?*
*I’ll send Winston in.*
*Winston’s still here?* I’d expected Winston’s role to have extended no further than ferrying the disobedient shifters here. Now I was worried about the old man. *He’s a bit old for battle.*
*He’s still a fireshaper,* she pointed out. *Probably strong enough to wipe the floor with any second-rate shadow shapers. Besides, guard duty will keep him out of the way.*
Not that we had so many options that I could afford to be choosy. And she was right; guard duty would be safer than the mêlée in the barn. He was also completely devoted to my brother. The only more dedicated guard Apollo could ask for would be Jake, and I had a feeling I’d need his help taking Hestia down.
Speaking of whom, where had she gone? I let myself out into the cool night, where screams and snarls from the barn rent the air. She had the two other lightning bolts, so the logical place to find her was at the garden shed housing the third.
I’d barely moved from the house when I heard running feet and a panicked voice calling for her off to my left. Someone had finally managed to escape the slaughter in the barn. I melted behind a bush as another door opened at the back of the house, down the other end from where I stood, and a small group stepped out, Hestia in their midst. The glow surrounding her could only mean she carried the lightning bolts, though I couldn’t see them through the press of people surrounding her. I drew an arrow from my quiver.
“My lady! We’re under attack!” the escapee blurted. Even in the dark, I could see the man’s chest heaving with the effort to draw in breath. One hand clutched his shoulder, which was bleeding heavily. “The barn is full of werewolves.”
“So?” she asked, eyeing him with disdain. “You are shapers now. Blow them away. Metalshape something. Really, Justin, you have all of Athena’s knowledge, and you’re afraid of a few overgrown dogs? Hurry up. I’m taking Zeus now, and I’m not waiting for anybody.”
She swept past him, leaving him standing there uncertainly. He glanced back at the barn with obvious reluctance. Clearly, he didn’t relish the thought of going back into the slaughterhouse, and yet his mistress had all but ordered him to do just that. He swayed a little on his feet, and then the decision was taken from him as he collapsed. Probably from blood loss.
Her callousness shocked me, though it really shouldn’t have. She was prepared to kill her own family—what could the lives of a few insignifi
cant humans matter to her? Even if they were her most favoured followers, called here to share in Zeus’s and Apollo’s power. She seemed supremely unfazed by the sounds of slaughter from the barn, though the group surrounding her were obviously ill at ease. Perhaps she had decided that if the people in the barn couldn’t defeat a few werewolves, they weren’t worthy of sharing in Zeus’s power after all.
I tracked Hestia with the arrow nocked at my bow, ready to fly straight to her heart. But she didn’t oblige me with a clear shot. The handful of people who walked with her shielded her. I could pick them off one by one, but she would blast me with fire before I could get to her.
I cast my mind out into the night, searching for an edge. A herd of deer slept uneasily in a clearing, but they were too far away to be of use. A pair of owls hunted over the treetops, and I brought them winging my way. Aerial distractions were always useful. But the forest was remarkably clear of other life. No foxes, wild boar, or feral cats anywhere within range. I probably had the werewolves to thank for that. Any creature catching the scent of werewolf on the wind would have hightailed it out of the area.
Keeping low and moving as soundlessly as only a goddess of the hunt could, I began to circle my way closer to the shed that housed the lightning bolt, which was Hestia’s target. She was striding towards it with obvious eagerness. There were plenty of low bushes between us, at least until I got to the edge of the vegetable garden.
The shadow shapers with her looked around nervously, perhaps worried that more werewolves might appear out of the night. Hestia herself was so focused on her target that she looked neither right nor left, indifferent to the sounds of people dying inside the barn as she passed. It was a far cry from the nurturing goddess I’d always known. They were her people in there. How could she act as if their fate made no difference to her? Her hunger for Zeus’s power must be all-consuming.
She reached the shed and threw back the door. It was like opening the door on the sun, so bright was the light inside. I blinked, my night vision destroyed in the very moment when a clear shot presented itself. Dammit.
The two owls I’d called circled in, and I launched them at the little knot of people shielding Hestia so effectively. They fell back, scattering, shrieking and batting ineffectively at the buffeting wings and darting beaks. Instantly, I drew back the arrow, my arms steady, gaze unwavering. The bowstring thrummed as I released it, sending the arrow on its way, straight to Hestia’s traitorous heart.
She should have fallen down dead. I was so close I could have targeted a single freckle on her weathered face, and the golden arrows of the huntress never failed to find a target.
They didn’t this time, either, but one of the shadow shapers under aerial attack lurched violently to the right at the exact moment to intercept the arrow’s flight. Instead of finding the goddess’s heart, it skewered her disciple through the shoulder. The shadow shaper sent up a shriek loud enough to wake the dead and fell to the ground, where she writhed, still screaming.
Hestia’s black gaze turned to the bushes where the arrow had come from, and I threw myself to the side in desperation, knowing what was coming next. She raised her arms and fire burst forth. Apollo’s sun-boosted powers were more impressive, but Hestia’s fire was still strong enough to kill me. I covered my head, sinking my face into the dirt. Maybe it would roll over me. Yeah, and maybe pigs would fly.
When death failed to overtake me, I cautiously raised my head again. Another wall of flame had met Hestia’s, holding it at bay. The vegetable garden, once so lovingly tended, had become a battle ground, and the beans blackened on the vine, shrivelling in the intense heat. The lettuces and carrots were nothing but a smoking ruin. Cautiously, I got to my feet, squinting into the ruddy glow of the flames.
Jake stood by the back door, a look of cold determination on his handsome face. I’d never been so glad to see him in my life. Until the shadow shapers had come along, with their nasty avatar-destroying ritual, gods had been pretty much invulnerable to anything mortals could throw at us, but it had always been possible for us to kill each other. Without him, Hestia’s fire would have wiped me out.
“You again,” Hestia spat at him. I moved out of the shadows and her eyes widened. “Sneaky. You didn’t drink the tea.” She tried to see past Jake, into the house, but the windows only reflected the flames back at her. I guessed she was looking for Apollo, since her expression relaxed when it became evident that Jake was the only fireshaper confronting her. “You always were smarter than that big, blond oaf.”
She moved a hand to divert a small stream of flame into the air, and my poor owls fell to the ground, mere blackened chunks of meat. Unmolested now, her followers regrouped behind her, straightening their hair and clothes. Most of them had blood running down their faces from where the owls had pecked them.
“But not quite smart enough. What are you going to do now? Set your dogs on me?” She gestured at the barn, and a tongue of fire leapt toward it, landing on the roof. It licked hungrily down the sides of the barn. Horrified, I cast my mind inside, to find most of the wolves were already out. Too bad if any of her people were still in there, wounded. Her callousness took my breath away.
*Stay away!* I broadcast to the wolves, my mental tone urgent as the last couple scrambled out of the burning building. *There’s nothing you can do against fire. Jake and I will handle this.* I couldn’t bear it if any of them got hurt. And Holly would kill me if I let any of her family come to harm.
“Shoot me with your shiny arrows?” Her voice was mocking as she tried to send another lick of fire my way. Jake’s wall of flame shielded both of us, preventing her from getting through. Beads of sweat gathered on Jake’s forehead, and his outstretched arms trembled from the strain of holding her fire off with his own. That wasn’t good.
I locked eyes with Hestia; best not to draw her attention to Jake’s struggle. “Sounds like a plan.”
In a fluid movement that felt as natural as breathing, I drew, nocked, and let fly another arrow, certain of my target this time. She stood right out in the open on the other side of the flames. I couldn’t miss.
Yet again the bitch proved me wrong. She batted aside my arrow with a gust of wind that bent the flames, sending them streaming back toward us. Jake countered, finding more strength somewhere to feed into his fiery wall.
I chewed at my bottom lip. Where had she gotten that wind from? That was no part of the goddess of the hearth’s powers. Wind had been Zephyrus’s strength, but surely I would have noticed if Hestia had been there at his sacrifice?
Idiot. I was still thinking like a human. She could have been disguised as anyone. I certainly wouldn’t have felt her divinity back then, or known what it was even if I had.
But Zephyrus would have, and he hadn’t said anything. Hadn’t cried out for help from the goddess he must have felt in the room. I shook my head. It didn’t make sense, but it was a problem for another time. Right now, I had to focus on living through the next few moments.
Jake’s fire dipped lower, and Hestia laughed. “I can keep this up forever, little fireshaper. Can you say the same?”
Jake’s flames surged upward in response to her taunt, but I could see the effort cost him. The shaking of his arms must be apparent even to Hestia now.
*I’m circling around through the trees with the wolves,* Syl said into my mind. *We’ll come at her from behind.*
There was a wide stretch of cleared land between the back of the shed that housed the lightning bolt and the edge of the trees. The wolves would be completely exposed while they crossed it. If Hestia saw them, or even one of her followers …
I’d just have to make sure their attention was fixed on me. I nocked another arrow and shot one of the shadow shapers, who was trying to circle around the edge of the flames to get at Jake. The others shrank back around Hestia. Good. Fortunately, none of them had guns. I hadn’t heard any gunfire in the barn, either, when the wolves had attacked. The shadow shapers’ stolen powers had made them
cocky.
They didn’t look so cocky now, as I shot another arrow. Since I wasn’t going for secrecy anymore, and they were all just standing out in the open, I gained nothing by letting them live.
“Use your powers, you fools,” Hestia commanded, but one of them broke and ran for the shelter of the trees, and once one of them bolted, the others got itchy feet, too. I let them go, knowing the wolves were waiting in the dark, under the trees. There would be no escape for these god-killers.
*Wait for my signal,* I said to Syl. There was a scream from the wood, abruptly cut off. Guess I didn’t need her to tell the wolves to deal with the shadow shapers I’d just sent their way. They had it under control. A cold smile curved my lips.
“Laugh all you want,” Hestia said, a vicious gleam in her eye. “You won’t be laughing anymore once your pet fireshaper runs out of juice. You’ll be mine, then, Artemis, and your precious werewolves won’t be able to save you.”
I glanced at Jake. Sweat ran freely down his face now, and the muscles of his neck were taut with strain.
“Look at him shake,” she said. “He’s only a mortal. A talented one, I grant you, but he’s no match for my power. Even now, he’s draining his life force to feed that fire.”
Shit. That sounded bad. Come on, Jake, just hold on until the wolves get here. Hestia’s wall of flame didn’t extend behind herself. If the wolves were quiet enough, she could be down before she even realised what had happened. They might not be able to kill her, but I certainly could. All I needed was a second when her attention was distracted to be able to put an arrow through her heart.
I moved sideways along the barrier of flame, keeping an arrow trained on her the whole time. “Your stolen powers, you mean. What exactly do you hope to accomplish by all this, exactly? Are you trying to take Zeus’s position as top dog?”
“Top dog,” she jeered. “You have no imagination at all. I’m going to be the only dog. My so-called family is more trouble than it’s worth. You think I want to waste my time adjudicating the squabbles of a bunch of overgrown children? I’ve done enough of that down the millennia, thank you. Time to clear out the old dead wood and let a new generation of shapers come to power.”
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