Chapter 11

11

SELENE

O nce Zeus had finished his speech and the harpist had returned, the Archon dismissed anyone who wished to return to their rooms. I remained in my seat while Dionysos fled out the door, closely followed by Hera and Aphrodite. Demeter stayed, lounging in her seat at the far end of the table—alone—and sipping a goblet of wine.

After a while, I rose and joined her. Demeter hadn’t made much of a fuss during the earlier confrontations, and no one seemed to mind she was still here. I didn’t think sitting with her would be making any kind of statement. Hopefully.

“You’ve entered the viper’s pit, little bird,” Demeter said quietly when I sat, swirling the wine in her goblet.

“I have fangs of my own,” I replied.

The older vampire nodded. “I’m sure you do. Just be careful who you bite. ‘Cause they’ll bite you right back.”

“I don’t know whether you’re warning me about Hera or Zeus.”

Demeter gave a slight smile. “Good. Not all of us like to throw our cards on the table for the entire world to see. I certainly don’t. Neither do you, as far as I can tell.”

“You chose to sit on Hera’s end of the table,” I pointed out.

“Ah.” Demeter tapped her goblet with a sharp fingernail. “I arrived before she did. Zeus and Poseidon were having a serious conversation they clearly didn’t want me to overhear, so I took a spot down here, giving them space until they were done. It’s not my fault all his antagonists decided to join me.”

Nodding, I leaned back in the chair. “You could have moved.”

Demeter chuckled. “I do not move for anyone, little bird.”

I started to ask Demeter about her daughter Persephone, then thought better of it. Instead, I took another sip of blood to give myself some time to think. Demeter had chosen the middle ground, it seemed.

“I must ask,” Demeter said quietly, “what did Ares say to you when he met you outside?”

I searched her steady gaze and decided I saw no reason to hold back the truth. “In basic terms? He threatened to kill me.”

She shook her head, no expression of surprise on her face. “He has a short temper, that one.”

“I don’t think it has anything to do with his temper. He seems to have it out for me specifically, because I’m the ruler of Troy instead of one of you.”

“How is Troy?” Demeter suddenly asked.

Instinctively, my hand tightened on the goblet. “Troy is as it’s always been.”

Demeter chuckled again, then lowered her voice to a soft whisper. “That is a non-answer if I’ve ever heard one. You’ll need to do better than that.”

Frowning, I cast a quick glance toward the opposite end of the table. The other Olympians were too engrossed in an argument about which one of them had bested Prometheus. Zeus, of course, insisted it was him, while Hermes argued he’d had something to do with it. None of them were paying attention to me.

I turned back to Demeter but kept my voice to a whisper. “It is a non-answer because I didn’t think it was a serious inquiry. As far as I’m aware, none of you care much about Troy.”

Demeter cocked her head. “Do you know why you’re here?”

For a moment, I didn’t know how to respond. “Well, yes. I received a letter from Zeus. He invited me to participate in the—”

“No.” Demeter gave a quick shake of her head. “I don’t mean literally here and now. I mean…why are you alive? Why wasn’t Theia banished to Tartarus along with the rest of the Titans? And why didn’t Zeus kill you when he found out Theia was keeping the truth of your existence hidden from him?”

I pressed my lips together, hating the traitorous pounding of my heart. The truth was, I’d asked myself these very questions. I’d asked my mother, too. And in my mind, I could hear my mother’s whispered words as clearly as if she were speaking them now.

I will tell you when the time is right. For now, I need you to trust me, Selene.

So I had trusted my mother, and only a month later, High Queen Theia had been nothing but a pile of ash.

Demeter gave me a knowing smile. “It’s because the gods insisted. Your survival is part of the pact.”

My brow furrowed. “What?”

“The gods who created you and the mortals—Gaia, Eros, and Aether—were angry about what some of the Olympians did to the Titans. Gaia wanted to wage a war to get the Titans back from Tartarus, but the god of love stepped in. Eros has always had such a soft heart, and he saw that Gaia’s war would end in the death of mortals, including his beloved Psyche.”

I’d heard some of this, of course—I was all too aware of the love Eros had for Psyche, and the lengths he would go to in order to protect her. But I’d never heard anything about Gaia’s rage. I never knew she’d tried to get the Titans back.

Demeter continued her story. “And so Eros went to Erebus and offered a deal. He agreed to convince Gaia to refrain from war if we Olympians made peace with the Titan that Zeus had yet to trap. And that she’d be given her own kingdom to rule. That was your mother.”

A ringing filled my ears. I saw where this was going now.

“Erebus had his own requirements, of course. He already required a yearly blood sacrifice from us, so he demanded fealty from the Titan, too. And so the treaty was born. A royal Titan must always sit on the throne in Troy. If any of us kills you, the punishment is death. There must always be the Thirteen Crowns.”

The pounding of my heart felt like a war drum. I carefully took one last sip of blood and savored the heat of it, the way the sweetness coated my tongue. I couldn’t focus on what Demeter had just said. I couldn’t, not if I wanted to keep my mask in place.

It was all just too much . And the implications were…

No. I would not let my mind stray in that direction.

“Are you two down there whispering about Gaia?” Zeus barked from the far end of the table.

“I was just explaining the treaty to High Queen Selene,” Demeter replied. “She didn’t know the details.”

“Didn’t know? Ha! That explains a fucking lot.”

Demeter turned back to me. “We didn’t know you existed until just before Zeus found your mother lurking around his city. And then when she showed up, and he knew you were alive…”

Zeus had known I could take the throne when he killed her. His actions wouldn’t break the treaty. And when he’d thought she was the only one, she’d been safe.

So that meant none of them could kill me. Not unless they wanted to risk the wrath of the gods. I leaned forward and met Ares’s gaze. I cast him a serene smile. He could threaten me all he liked, but he couldn’t kill me. The displeasure of their god, Erebus, was one thing. The combined vengeance of the rest was quite another.

But Ares merely smiled right back, as smug and dismissive as the Fates when they knew something everyone else did not.

Like he knew.

His questions from that horrific night blazed through my mind. Ares had kept asking me about my father.

Oh gods.

He knew.

I sucked in a sharp breath and looked at Zeus, but he’d returned to his tales about Prometheus, ignoring me completely. To him, this conversation was over. It was old news. Nothing interesting. And nothing in his expression matched the threat in Ares’s eyes.

But if Ares knew, Zeus had to know, too. Was his nonchalance part of the game? Would he wait to see how I fared here before he revealed just how much he’d learned about my life and my family and Troy?

“Little bird,” Demeter murmured.

I blinked, calling upon the blood magic to calm my raging nerves. I couldn’t let them see how much this had rattled me, and yet…there was a slight tremble in my hands as I reached for my chalice.

“I didn’t know any of this,” I eventually said, smiling tightly at Demeter. “I don’t understand why my mother never told me. And Orpheus? Surely he knows, too, and yet he kept it to himself.”

“I imagine your mother meant to tell you but never got a chance. But as for your advisor, be careful who you trust.”

“Yes, people keep telling me that. And yet it always comes from someone I know I can’t trust. You were there when Zeus trapped the Titans. I’m sure you keep your humans in wretched farms, too.” I stood and placed my chalice on the table.

“I understand why you’re wary of me. I would be, too. But know, High Queen of Troy, I do not engage in barbarism like Zeus.”

My heart pounded. “I hope that’s true.”

With lifted shoulders, I strode from the table without casting another glance at the Olympians. I’d wanted to avoid anything too confrontational on the first night, but there’d been too much pity in that room, too much poor little bird shining in Demeter’s eyes. A show of strength was needed.

When I reached the door, I fought the urge to look back at Ares. I could feel his eyes on my back. The way he’d looked at me…I was desperate to know how much he knew. A part of me hoped he’d follow me out the door, so I could corner him and demand answers.

But that would only give him the satisfaction of knowing he’d gotten under my skin.

Ares wanted me dead. He’d hesitated when he’d gone after me in the ruins, giving me just enough time to draw my wooden stake and point it at his heart. I’d replayed the moment time and time again, always wondering why he’d slowed.

And now I knew. At the time, he must have believed the gods would punish him for murdering the only remaining Titan.

Something had clearly happened since then to change his mind.

I needed to speak to Orpheus at once. Quickly, I hurried down the corridor.

“High Queen Selene,” a deep voice sounded from behind me. “You’ll get lost if you wander the halls alone.”

Heart pounding, I slowed, but I kept my gaze forward. “Go back to your party, Ares. I have no desire to speak to you right now.”

“No?” I felt a caress of soft wind as he closed the distance between us. “You seemed to have plenty of questions in your eyes only a moment ago.”

“Questions for you? No. Now leave me in peace.”

Pulling a breath into my lungs, I started off down the corridor, but Ares grabbed my arm before I was even a footstep away from him. His hand tightened around me, holding me in place. With a frustrated grunt, I tried to pull away from him, but his fingers were like a vise.

I whirled on him, glaring. The earlier blood sang in my veins, and an intoxicating ache shot through my canines. My tightly held control snapped. Lips curled back, I showed my enemy the glint of my sharp teeth, daring him to attack me.

Ares scowled right back. “I see the truth in you, Selene. You aren’t as perfectly composed as you want everyone to believe.”

I twisted my hand so that my fingers grasped his wrist, just as his grasped mine. Before he could react, I tugged him closer. And since he clearly underestimated me—most did—it worked. He lurched forward a step, which brought his face within an inch of mine. Curly silver hair tumbled into his burning eyes, and his breath was hot on my skin. It smelled like blood.

“Unless you’ve followed me out here to fight, release me,” I said.

“And what if I have followed you to fight? Hestia deserves the thirteenth crown, not you.”

“Go on then, Ares,” I hissed up at him. “Take your wooden dagger and stab me in the heart.”

“Oh, if only I could.” He tilted his head, brought his lips close to my ear, and whispered, “Didn’t you hear what Demeter said? A Titan must always wear the crown of Troy, and you’re the only Titan left. Or do I have that wrong?”

Heat bled into my cheeks. Ares was playing with me, and I didn’t enjoy feeling like a doll. With my free hand, I gripped his arm and ripped my other one free, stumbling away from him while my heart pounded my ribs. The top of his white shirt fell open, where he hadn’t bothered to button it past his naval, and the edge of a tattoo peeked out from behind the ruffles.

Curious, I stared. It was notoriously difficult for vampires to keep tattoos. With our fast healing, our bodies usually rejected the ink before it could fully take, the black oozing from our pores like blood. Two dark lines swirled toward his neck, curling like the wisps of flicking torchlight.

Ares tugged on the edge of his shirt, and the tattoo slid out of sight.

“How did you get that?” I couldn’t help but ask.

His lips curled. “Share your secrets with me, and I’ll share mine.”

Tensing, my eyes darted toward the megaron doors. They were still open, spilling light and music down the corridor. Nearly drowning out the melancholy strings was raucous male laughter. Coming from Zeus, no doubt. Even with his keen vampiric hearing, he’d never hear this conversation because of his own bloody noise.

“I’ll never share anything with you, Ares, least of all my secrets.” Now free from his grip, I stepped back and put ample space between us. He watched my every step with hawkish eyes, his body coiling like he was ready to pounce. A gleam of hunger lit his crimson eyes. I kept walking backward, facing him. Only when I reached the far end of the corridor did I dare turn my back on him.

As I twisted away, Zeus’s thunderous voice echoed down the hall. “Ares, get back in here. We’re having another drink! I want to hear that story again. You know the one.”

I paused, arching a brow, and whispered my words just loud enough for Ares to hear. “Go on, be a good boy. Your master is calling.”

As soon as the words left my mouth, my stomach turned. I’d let Ares get under my skin. All the preparation, all of Orpheus’s advice and lessons, all the things my mother had taught me about survival in this brutal world. I’d forgotten it all, even if only for a brief moment.

I expected Ares to punish me with a knowing smirk. He’d been trying to get a rise out of me, and he’d won. But instead, his gaze grew distant. Frowning, he looked over his shoulder and then turned without a word. No jabs. No taunts. No victorious smiles.

He walked away, heading back inside the megaron. I was left alone in the corridor—at long last. A line of torches lit up down the corridor to the right, leading into a tunnel of darkness. I had no idea where my rooms might be, but I didn’t want to stay near the megaron any longer, just in case Zeus called for me next. And so I took off down the hall, following the path of light.