Total pages in book: 102
Estimated words: 95458 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 477(@200wpm)___ 382(@250wpm)___ 318(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 95458 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 477(@200wpm)___ 382(@250wpm)___ 318(@300wpm)
“Too many,” I whisper. Only the knowledge that killing Zeus would be a bandage—and not even a good one at that—stayed my hand. He had to die, but not until the right time. I’m still not certain it was the right time when the fight with Hades resulted in his death, but if Hades hadn’t done it, then Demeter would have the moment he laid hands on Persephone. There was no way they’d have made it to their first anniversary.
For the first time since seeing her again, Circe actually seems troubled. The calm mask flickers, revealing the fiery woman I fell in love with a lifetime ago. “How could you stand it, Hecate? I’ve seen the pictures, the many articles in that farce you call a gossip column. You were near enough to slip a knife between his ribs countless times over the years. Why didn’t you?”
My mouth is far too dry. I wish I could blame it on the drugs, but shame is the true source. She’s right; I had plenty of opportunity to kill the last Zeus. The others, too. There isn’t a locked door in Olympus that can keep me out. I could have murdered my way through the Thirteen and kept doing it until the legacy families stopped trying to put people into those positions…or I died. The only reason I didn’t do that was because Atalanta. She pulled me back from the brink, ensured I had a slip of a soul left to save.
I tell Circe the same thing Atalanta told me all those years ago, when vengeance was the only thing I could see. “He’s a symptom of the problem, not the source. Killing him wouldn’t have brought you back.” My voice cracks. “I had to make sure there’d never be another you in the future of Olympus.”
Her sympathy falls away as if it’d never been. “But there were others like me. Lamia. Leda. Persephone herself would have numbered among them, and not a single person stepped forward to stop it.”
“Hades did.”
“Hades had an opportunity dropped in his lap and took advantage of it.” She scoffs. “If she hadn’t fled to the lower city, he wouldn’t have lifted a hand to save her.”
I hate that she’s right. The concept of acceptable losses has become far too familiar to me. “That doesn’t make your way better.”
“Yes, it does.” She rises, taking her warmth with her. I can actually see her slipping her mask back into place. “Because, unlike you, the only losses I find acceptable are those of my enemies.”
“Circe—”
“No.” She slashes a hand through the air, still graceful in her anger. “You don’t get to tell me about the high road you’re taking. You’ve stood by while the Thirteen committed untold amounts of harm to those who couldn’t defend themselves. To people like you were before you became that. People like I was. Zeus is the worst offender but hardly the only one. Peitho had plenty of indirect blood on her hands, which she’s now paid for. The last Apollo went after teenagers. Athena tried to have a woman killed simply because Odysseus found his mistress inconvenient—and that’s not the first time it happened. The list goes on!”
“That doesn’t make your way better!” I’ve done what I can to ensure justice finds its way to the predators in this city, but I’ve had to move cautiously because I couldn’t risk losing the Hermes title. The secrets of the barrier were hidden too well. It took me years to sift through the spotty information about what really kept the barrier up all these generations. Years of searching Olympus’s secrets, of honing my skills to break into more and more complicated locks. Imagine my surprise when it all led to a bunker on the outskirts of the upper city. Somewhere I’d walked past hundreds of times over the years. “At least my way isn’t going to be wholesale slaughter.”
“Which is why your way isn’t making any progress at all.” She carefully drags her fingers through her short hair, refreshing the style. “I know how good you are, but you won’t make it out of this room. I’m too close, Hecate. I can’t have anyone interfering—even you.”
She’s not lying. I’m trapped. Panic flutters in the base of my throat. I always have a way out. It doesn’t matter where I’ve wandered over the years; I always have an exit strategy. Until today. Until I let my emotions get the best of me. For nothing. Eros is still dead, and now Atalanta is on her own. I suspect Circe’s plan for the lower city’s barrier is the same as mine for the upper city.
She’ll find the location of the main hub and blow it up, bringing down the barrier. She has a small number of soldiers, yes, but clearly her plan hinges on the civilian population doing her dirty work.