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)
If not for sheer luck, she would have allowed Atalanta to die at Minos’s party. Artemis took her there with the intent to sacrifice her to political games, to use her death as mutually assured destruction. The fact bothered me when I thought Atalanta was just a normal soldier, doing her best to survive. Now that I have an idea of what scars she holds, it incenses me.
But I can’t show that emotion. Not here, not now. I hold up my free hand. “Please, friends. I do nothing without reason, and that includes bringing Artemis to you. Before we list her crimes, however, Demeter would like to say a few words.” She should be able to quell the simmering unease I’m seeing on far too many faces.
“Thank you.” Demeter accepts the microphone from me and hesitates. It’s the tiniest pause, but from her it might as well be a scream.
I frown. “Demeter?”
Ignoring my low question, she steps forward. “You know me.” Her history of public speaking is on full display, the words carrying even without the technical assistance, her presence commanding the attention of everyone present. Even me. I watch, rooted to the spot, as she swishes forward. “I will not pretend that every action I’ve taken in my life is above reproach; we all know better. There are all those rumors about the pigs, after all.” There’s a spattering of laughter that she allows to fade before she continues. “But I’ve done my best to make Olympus a better place for its people. Regardless of my ambition and my endless plans, under my time as Demeter, I have diversified our crops and navigated several near-disasters in harvest seasons that would have resulted in people starving.”
I share a glance with Antigone. Where is she going with this? She said she wanted to speak on the corruption within Olympus, to truly drive home what we’re doing here.
“But in the end, it wasn’t me who did those things. It was you. The people. There would be no food in this city if there weren’t workers planting, tending, and harvesting. If there weren’t drivers and distributors to transport it. If there weren’t grocers and small businesses that put that food into people’s hands. The best parts of Olympus have always been the people.” Demeter takes a deep breath. “Not the Thirteen.”
“There we go,” I murmur. The crowd seems to agree, whispers rising in a wave and then falling to anticipated silence almost as quickly.
“Every one of us is aware of the ways the Thirteen have used their power for selfish gains—including me.” She lifts her chin. “We wouldn’t be here if that wasn’t the truth. You deserve better than to be ruled by people who aren’t elected by the citizens, are not representing the population, and have no accountability to the city. And that applies whether there are thirteen leaders…” Her gaze slides to me. “Or one.”
I realize a beat too late what she’s doing. “Stop her. Now!”
Antigone rushes forward, but the other woman keeps speaking. “You deserve a new form of government that represents you. One that won’t kill on a personal vendetta and—”
Antigone punches Demeter in the stomach and yanks the microphone out of her hand. It’s too late. The damage has been done. The crowd shifts restlessly, people starting to shout.
“Let her speak!”
“She’s right!”
“We deserve better!”
On the other side of the space we’ve cleared, one of the three speakers we set up explodes in a brilliant flash of sparks. Shot, my brain supplies, even as I crouch down, hands instinctively going over my head. The second speaker dies a bare moment later, quickly followed by the third. Someone just eliminated our ability to speak over the crowd; any attempts to calm their growing rage will be unsuccessful. Shit.
Next to me, Artemis laughs. “You dumb bitch. She played us. You thought she wasn’t going to play you, too?”
“Shut up,” Antigone snaps. She pulls the gun from her holster and shoots Artemis twice in the chest.
I freeze as the woman’s body slumps next to me. “What are you doing?”
“The pomp and circumstance isn’t working. This is faster.” She turns the gun on Demeter. “You fucked us.”
The crowd surges forward as one, violence in every shriek and surge. I marched on the city—well, drove on the city—with the citizens. I gathered them on the university campus and spun their anger into purpose. Part of me always knew there was a possibility that they could turn on me, but I didn’t expect it like this.
In a single heartbeat, I’m back in the ocean again, Zeus’s hands around my throat as he holds me under the surface until he shoves me out into deeper water, letting the currents take my limp body away from him. Helpless. Terrified.
Noe disappears in the first wave. I have no idea if she goes down or if she is simply pulled into the mob to become part of it. All I can focus on is Antigone pulling me to my feet and shoving me behind her. I find myself next to Demeter as we back toward the barrier in the middle of the bridge.