“Why is she like this?” Hansel asked. “I must speak with Clotho.”
“She’s busy working on Liam,” Theo replied. “I’m sure she’ll find a way to heal Cara once she’s done with him.”
Hansel brushed a hand through his hair. Unable to keep still, he paced back and forth. “I can’t stand to see her like this.”
“You and me both.” Devon sat on a nearby couch and rested his elbows on his knees.
None of them had showered. They ought to. They were covered in grime and dirt. But parting from Cara was another pain they wished not to endure.
A knocking on the door interrupted them from their misery. A young servant girl stood in the doorway with a nervous expression. She shifted her weight from one foot to the other. The girl was dressed in the uniform servants wore in the council—a plain collared garment with a skirt that drooped toward to her ankles. This one had clipped her hair up with a golden pin.
“Um, sirs,” she began. “The goddesses have invited you to their council.”
“For?” Devon asked, looking up from his hands.
Theo folded his arms over his chest.
They really didn’t have to act this aggressively. The servant was merely a messenger, there to carry out orders from the goddesses. But Hansel understood them. The battle had worn them down, and Cara’s condition made them testy.
“We don’t want to leave her alone,” Hansel said.
The girl nodded. “She won’t be. I’ve been instructed to watch over her with my sisters. She’ll have plenty of company.” She gnawed on her lower lip. “Plus, it doesn’t seem like she’s going anywhere.”
Hansel nearly growled. She didn’t have to point Cara’s state out. The image of her like that was already too painful to look at.
The three of them deliberated over the council’s order, exchanging glances. How could they leave Cara when she was this vulnerable and weak?
“Please,” the servant said, bowing. “I’ll be punished if you don’t show up at the meeting. The goddesses were adamant about your presence.”
“What is it about?” Devon asked.
“The goddess’s fate.” She shifted her eyes toward Cara’s lifeless body. “They’re going to discuss it, and as her vassals, they thought it was only right that you hear the verdict.”
“The verdict,” Theo said. “You make it sound as if she’s being put on trial.”
“She is.” He looked at her feet. “At least, that is what I got from what I overheard. I’m sorry I can’t be clearer. I’m a lowly servant.”
A trial. Hansel wasn’t surprised. After what Cara had done, the inhabitants of Haven must have been furious. They would have their pitchforks out.
Didn’t the goddesses still need her, though?
“We should go,” Devon said. “I don’t want them to decide on anything stupid.”
The servant sniffed. “I’m sorry, sirs, but I don’t think—”
“We’ll be there.” Devon lifted himself from his seat and stomped out of the room and into the hallway.
Hansel’s muscles strained from the need to fight. He should be exhausted after what he’d experienced at the chiasma, but his desire to protect Cara triumphed over his fatigue. He steeled his resolve and followed Devon toward the goddess council.
Hansel hated the thought of leaving Cara alone in that room, but he had a bad feeling about this meeting. He agreed with Devon. They had to protect Cara from a bad verdict.
Their boots clicked against the marble floor as they followed the servant to the council. The large door of the main chambers swung open. They were met with stained-glass windows again, but this time, the arrangement of goddesses seemed… lacking.
There were far fewer goddesses in attendance. Empty chairs surrounded them, but those stares were the same as before. Judgmental and cutting.
Hera took her place at the tallest seat. She adjusted her golden leaf headdress before directing her cold attention toward the vassals.
“Cara’s vassals,” she said. “Now that you’ve arrived, our deliberations can begin. Your opinion is not needed. You are merely here for formality’s sake.”
What was the point of coming here, then? Their voices would not be heard.
Clotho approached and led them toward their seats, on the far side of the room, together with the other vassals, a good distance away from all that was important.
Hansel’s mouth fell open. Why would they be given a voice? They were merely vassals, after all. Only there to serve. And now that their goddess was out of the picture, their insignificance was amplified.
Today, the feathers that hugged Clotho’s frame were black. She appeared to be in mourning. “I never expected Cara to be that vicious,” she said.
“It wasn’t her,” Hansel replied. “What she did at the chiasma was something else. It took over her body.”
“And how do you know that?” Clotho asked.
“I just know Cara very well. Whatever that thing was… it took over her body.”
Clotho opened a small wooden gate that led to a row of steps where the vassals waited. She gestured for them to move through. Hansel obliged, entering first. He knew the importance of this event, but his mind kept reaching back to Cara, lying there in her room. He wanted to be there for her.
“How is Liam?” Devon asked. “Is he healed?”
“Almost,” Clotho said. “I did whatever I could with my magic. He should be awake and well tomorrow. There’ll be no indication that he was injured as badly as he was. It was more difficult to heal him than usual, however. That dark fire Cara put out… I can’t recognize their magical energy. It’s like they belong to the chiasma, but different.”
“You need to heal Cara after this,” Devon said.
“Need to? Dear vassal, you overstep. I don’t need to do anything. Who I heal and who I help is my own choice.”
“Please make that choice, then.”
Clotho clicked the gate shut. “There might be no need after this event. Few goddesses want to see her well.”
“She is supposed to be your weapon, right?”
Clotho shot Devon an incredulous look. “One that we apparently cannot control. We all fear her now. Can you not sense the tension that permeates this place?”
“Even you?”
“Fear? I suppose I am wary of her.” Hansel could tell that Clotho lied. She was as afraid as the rest of the goddesses. She just didn’t want to admit her fears.
The main entrance creaked open. It was so heavy that it groaned under its own weight. Hansel looked over Clotho’s shoulder. His view from his angle was terrible, but vaguely, he could still recognize Aphrodite. Ares and Deimos trailed behind her. Generals, also vassals, wore fine armor and followed them. Unlike Hansel and the others, they were not forced to stand amongst the insignificant, and could take their positions amongst the goddess. King Axies, the head of the centaurs, walked with them too. With his hooves and antlers, he stood out from the mass of humanoid bodies.
What were they doing here?
“Thank you for entertaining my request,” Aphrodite said to Hera as she sat. “My armies view vassals just as importantly as goddesses. Your understanding is much appreciated.”
Clotho must have seen the question in Hansel’s eyes. “We have called a truce with their forces,” she said. “Our main concern now is dealing with Cara.”
Hansel’s eyes widened. “Your forces are banding together?”
“We both suffered greatly at the chiasma. They are now calling whatever happened there the Burning. Nobody thought that Cara might experience an outburst like that. It was a miscalculation on our part. A deadly one. Does the council not look more empty than usual today?”
“It does,” Hansel replied.
“Because we’ve lost too many sisters during the fight.” Clotho’s eyes shifted to King Axies. “I heard the centaur king lost his son. He wants justice.”
Benjie? The centaur Liam had spent many days of his childhood with? Hansel h
ad no feelings for the traitor’s death, though Liam might feel otherwise.
“There is no justice in war.”
“People want someone to point fingers at, and it is obvious that Cara is guilty.” Clotho sighed and shook her head. “I’m not sure I want this. I’ve grown to love the girl, but she is too much a threat.”
And Clotho feared Cara.
Hansel saw it in her eyes.
“You speak of this as if the verdict has already been made.” Hansel’s entire body tightened with the need to protect Cara, but he knew that his efforts would prove useless here. He exchanged glances with the others. They were likely thinking the same thing—they had to get Cara out of here.
“The sentiments do clearly lean to one side,” Clotho said. “I must take my position now. At least you all are now ready for the news.” She waved goodbye, then ambled off. Her movements were as graceful as ever. She sat with the sisters of fate, Lahkesis and Atropos. The three of them were powerful goddesses.
And they were no longer on Cara’s side.
“We have to stop this,” Hansel said. “They’re going to have Cara killed.”
“Can they even do that?” Theo asked. Unable to keep still, he leaned forward and placed his hands on the wooden gate that separated them from the more important members of the hearing. “Agness mentioned trying to kill Cara once, and they never managed that feat.”
“Why did she go berserk, anyway?” Devon asked. “Was it Ares’s powers in her?”
“That wasn’t Ares,” Theo said. “Ares is the god of war, but even the deaths he caused weren’t so horrific. That was… I don’t know what that was.”
Hansel shuddered as he recalled what he’d gone through. He never wanted to experience it again.
“She’s still our Cara,” Devon said.
Hansel nodded. “Yeah—”
A loud banging interrupted them. Hera had knocked her gavel against the table.
“Let us commence,” Hera said. “We will discuss the temporary truce, and the fate of Caramel Valencia, daughter of Aphrodite.”
The entire council fell into silence.
Hansel listened closely to the entire process. The truce between Aphrodite and the goddesses was simple. Both sides had suffered heavy losses during the Burning. Cara’s destruction left both forces decimated, and they wished to take a break from war.
“My vassals refuse to serve under the goddesses,” Ares said.
“Your concerns are unfounded,” Hera replied. “But I’m doing my due diligence to try to understand them. The lot of you are too lazy to fulfill your divine duties, am I correct?”
Ares scowled. “Lazy is not the word I’d prefer to use.”
Hera waved her hand dismissively. “A matter of semantics.”
“Respect, more like.”
Hera gave a condescending chuckle. “Something I bear little of for you. I tolerate your presence. Acknowledge it. Respect? There is none of that. Do not forget—it is your daughter we are trying to subdue.”
“You goddesses were foolish enough to make her powerful.”
Hera brushed off Ares’s comment, moving on to the next topic. “I’m being lenient with the conditions of our truce, but it is what we need to hold off the current war so that we can address this issue properly.”
It infuriated Hansel to hear Cara be boiled down to an “issue.” She was so much more.
“It is not your verdict to make,” Aphrodite said. “It’s an arrangement we both agreed upon. We take the southern isles and are allowed to govern our subjects as we please, halting the conflict for the time being. Once Caramel is dealt with, we will no longer be allies, but enemies once more.”
“Let us talk about Caramel, then. How do we get rid of her?”
Anger inflamed Hansel. They were unaware of how much it pained him to hear about his loved one being killed.
“Physical harm will not work on her,” Agness said. She had changed her casual clothes for more elaborate robes today, mimicking the rest of the goddesses. “And our magic proves futile, too. We’ll require more drastic measures to take Cara out.”
“We have armies behind us,” Aphrodite said. “The strength of the entire goddess council. Surely that amounts to something? This is merely a girl we’re talking about.”
“Stop this,” Hansel muttered. The goddesses had brought them here for formality’s sake. But it wasn’t just a formality. Having to sit through this quietly was torture.
Hera twined her fingers. “There are artifacts that may help us. Zeus’s charm. I have not taken that out in years. That may amplify our powers. And as a collective whole, maybe we can subdue her.”
“There’s no need to do this,” Hansel said, even though he knew he wouldn’t be heard.
Aphrodite continued, “We have to ensure she doesn’t go berserk again. The charm takes time to charge. At least a day. What if she goes crazy during that time?”
“She’s currently lying as still as a log,” Hera said. “It seems like there may be time for us yet.”
“We don’t know why she’s like that,” Agness added.
“We have no choice but to wait for the charm to be ready. Meanwhile, we keep her comfortable. We don’t want her to be alerted of our plans before we strike.”
Agness turned to Hera and frowned. “Have you considered the bracelet? To rein her powers in.”
Hera sighed. “I put that on her right before she unleashed herself at the chiasma. It isn’t a viable option. Her powers seem to transcend the usual constraints. It would have been a convenient solution, but this problem doesn’t have simple answers.”
“Is it the blend of love and war, perhaps?” It was another goddess who spoke this time. She wasn’t significant, and Hansel didn’t know her name, but this discussion involved more than just the few who dared raise their voices. “Is that what gives her such strong abilities?”
Aphrodite answered, “It could be the chiasma’s workings on her body.”
“We can’t know for sure,” Hera said. “The only way to ensure our safety is to have her killed. Have we come to an agreement, then? We use Zeus’s charm as a locus for our powers to get rid of her. If that doesn’t stop her, I’m not sure what might.”
“Agreed,” Aphrodite said with a nod.
The council fell into silence. Hansel thought he heard a knocking in the back of his mind. It sounded like the fall of a guillotine’s blade.
“We have to vote on Cara’s death,” Hera said. “Merely a formality. I think we all know that she is a threat that must be subdued.”
Hansel couldn’t help but think that the goddesses acted like idiots with too much power. Cara had merely wished to solve a mystery. She wanted to save the girls in the Sanctuary. Along the way, she’d ended up a chess piece in their silly games. Now that they’d created too strong a weapon, the goddesses had to see her destroyed.
The unfairness of this situation tasted bitter on his tongue.
If the goddesses had left Cara alone, then she could have been happy. Granted, she might have never met the vassals, and Hansel might have missed out on her brightness. But she was a simple girl with big dreams, and normalcy would have fit her better. Gods and magic might have given her unimaginable power, but they also plagued her with fear. Fear that seemed absent when Hansel first met her at the convenience store.
The goddesses opened boxes that were placed in front of them. From each box, two bright orbs floated out. One red, the other blue.
“Shall we take Cara’s life with Zeus’s charm tomorrow?” Hera asked with a blank expression.
She talked about Cara’s fate far too coldly. Like a business transaction.
The goddesses sent out their orbs. In the center of the council was a large bowl adorned with Grecian symbols. The orbs floated across the council before lowering themselves inside the bowl.
Blue.
Blue.
Blue.
All wished to see Cara gone.
They didn’t have to coun
t to know the verdict. Before this display, Hansel had dared hope. Maybe some of the goddesses knew empathy and saw the truth of Cara’s actions.
“She’s just a scared girl,” Devon said in a booming voice, loud enough that the whole council could hear. “Maybe we can teach her how to control her powers. Figure out what made her that way in the first place.”
Hansel had been holding himself back, but his training had conditioned him to show respect before the goddesses, and so he kept his mouth shut.
Devon’s courage, however, gave Hansel more of it. “Cara doesn’t have ill intentions,” Hansel said. “She just wants what’s best for everybody. I’m sure that if you talk to her, she will—”
The vassals who had surrounded them unsheathed their swords and pointed them at Hansel and the others. Once comrades, they were now turned against each other. Devon’s father, Maxwell, led them, angling the weapon at his son’s own throat.
Many of these vassals had been at the Burning, too. They’d watched their peers get taken by the bloodlust.
They all hated Cara.
“Are you going against the council?” Hera asked coolly.
Devon remained levelheaded. “We’re merely offering a suggestion.”
“It is not the place of vassals to offer any. You are our soldiers. Warriors. Protectors. You follow orders. And when a higher power takes you away from your goddess, you must listen to its orders. Understood?”
Hansel had the urge to push away the sword that hovered right next to his neck, but he knew that there would be ten others to replace it.
Ares laughed darkly. “I’m not certain that I agree with those sentiments. That is the entire point of the Vassal War.”
“We shall leave that discussion after the matter of Cara has been dealt with,” Hera said. “But we must agree that if her vassals do not cooperate, they might prove a problem.” She lifted her hand. Bracelets, like the one she’d locked over Cara’s wrist, lifted from her table. They floated toward Hansel, Devon, and Theo.
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