Chapter 21

21

SELENE

“ P lease tell me this is not what it looks like,” Ares said quietly, his hand tensing around the wooden dagger strapped to his waist. Hermes, the king with the orange hair and horns, moved from behind his column and joined Ares. Together, they were a shield, ready for battle.

“I’m afraid it is exactly what it looks like.” Dionysos met my gaze. Any last remnants of revelry had vanished from his eyes. In three short days, he’d lost so much— too much. And while Zeus’s lover likely meant nothing to him, he understood the implications. He knew where this would lead, and it wasn’t a path any of us wanted to take. Except Hera, who continued to watch us all, smiling wickedly.

She thought she’d won. Gods, she was a fool.

“What’s the matter, Ares?” Hera pushed through the gathered monarchs and flicked the top button of his shirt. Her eyes then swung to me. “I have done my duty . Here is my blood sacrifice, as commanded by our esteemed leader, Zeus. Now you must finish it.” She tipped back her head to gaze up at the sky. “Erebus is watching, after all.”

“How many of you drank?” Ares asked, looking around.

“All of us,” Athena called out, sighing heavily.

She leaned against the hilt of a broadsword she’d shoved into the ground near her column, as if she anticipated a brewing fight. The columns of Hera and Zeus were adjacent to hers. Crowns sat atop them, their white marble bases stained with blood.

“All of you?” His frown deepened. “Even you , Athena?”

“She gave us little choice. It’s the second night, so it was her turn for the sacrifice. This was who she brought. And when Zeus was late…well, we didn’t want to risk anything going wrong.”

“What are you all droning on about?” Zeus called out from the arched entrance, his voice a softer tone than I’d heard before. He almost sounded weary.

Ares and Hermes shifted to face him, still shoulder-to-shoulder, still standing tall like a shield. It would block his view—for a moment longer, if that. Before he reached us, I knelt beside the corpse and took a small drink of her blood. When I looked up, I caught Aphrodite watching me.

“We have to finish the sacrifice,” I whispered.

She nodded, then passed me the chalice. “For Ares. He’ll need to drink it, too.”

I took the chalice and slid it through the puddle of blood, drawing in enough for both Ares and Zeus. I didn’t know how I’d get the Archon to drink it, but I’d worry about that later. Right now, I had to get away from the body.

I strode toward the rear outskirts of the group, where Athena leaned against her sword. She squinted at me, frowned. “You don’t look particularly ruffled.”

“Neither do you,” I replied.

“You experience this kind of thing a lot in Troy?”

“Thankfully, no.”

Zeus was halfway across the arena now. In only moments, he’d reach the gathered monarchs. And unless he decided to turn right back around and return to the palace, he’d spot the corpse.

Athena leaned sideways, her hands still gripping the hilt. “There’s been a lot of trouble here since you arrived.”

“It seems the trouble started long before I got here,” I said.

Athena was silent for a moment as we both watched Zeus come to a thunderous stop in front of Ares. His eyes were lined with red, amplifying his crimson irises. He scowled around at his fellow monarchs, then his gaze froze on Hera’s glinting smile.

“Yes, it certainly did.” Athena tensed. “Ready yourself. You’ve never seen Zeus truly angry, but I have. This might go badly.”

“You.” He only spoke the word, but somehow, it echoed through the amphitheatre like a thunderous boom.

Hera’s brow arched. “Is there a problem? You’re the one who’s late, my love.”

“Oh, don’t you dare.” He started toward her, but Hermes and Ares remained in place, blocking them from going near each other. With a snarl, he spat at Hermes. “Move aside. This doesn’t concern you.”

“It concerns all of us. We can’t fight like this now. If you two want to have it out, you need to wait until the sacrifice is over,” Hermes said with a quiet calm that defied logic.

Every caress of the wind, every rustle of clothing, every furtive look exchanged between the monarchs—it all crackled with tension. The ancient power of the gods thrummed beneath my feet, sinking into my bones. It almost felt as if the very world itself slowed to a stop, like the fate of everything hinged on this moment.

Zeus’s nostrils flared. And his jaw tensed.

“Fuck,” Artemis murmured.

He knew. He’d scented it. Because of course he had. The Archon of vampire monarchs didn’t need to see a body to know death had visited this place tonight.

“Move aside,” he said with a lethal calm. “I won’t say it again.”

Hermes hesitated—only for the smallest of breaths—and then he closed his eyes and stepped aside.

“Zeus.” Ares reached for the Archon as he strode toward the sacrifice, veins in his neck pulsing. But Zeus ignored his friend. The grief on his face was palpable.

“I should have known,” he muttered, more to himself than to anyone else. “I should have known one day you would take your claws and try your damndest to rip me apart. You know why I was never loyal to you?” He whirled toward Hera, pain branded in his eyes. “Because you’re a wicked, vicious thing. You don’t know what it is to love.”

Hera scoffed. “ Love? Oh, come now, Zeus. She was one of your little mortal playthings. You would have tired of her—sooner rather than later. And besides, what was it you said to Dionysos only two nights ago? Vampire gods are not to frolic with mortals.”

Zeus sneered, shoving the nearest monarch aside—Poseidon, who growled in response. He stormed toward Hera, his face twisted into a furious scowl. From beside me, Athena sighed.

“Here we go,” she muttered. Straightening, she walked toward the two of them, dragging the sword behind her. A line cut through the mud. By the time Zeus had reached Hera, Athena was already standing in the way.

When she held up a hand, he actually stopped. “Calm yourself, Archon. Remember the commands of our god.”

Zeus spit on the ground, but he made no move to go around her.

“Honestly, I don’t know what all this fuss is about,” Hera crooned. “I’ve followed the rules. I’ve done my duty.”

“The girl was mine,” Zeus bit out.

“No, she was born in Arcadia. My kingdom.”

“She fled your fucking kingdom, Hera.”

“And since when does the Archon of the Olympians welcome mortals into his kingdom with open arms?” she countered. “Or is it just the pretty ones?”

Zeus’s face boiled red, but when he spoke, his voice was dangerously quiet. “When we leave this arena, I am going to—”

“Enough.” Athena closed her eyes. “We need to finish the sacrifice.” Snapping her eyes back open, she motioned me to join her. “Zeus and Ares, you need to drink.”

Tugging on my sleeves, I moved toward them. With every step I took, more of Gaia’s power thrummed in my bones, filling my head with static. And I swore, somehow, she was watching—witnessing what could only end in the breaking of the Thirteen Crowns.

And it excited her.

“No. I won’t have anyone going near her. We will sacrifice another,” Zeus argued.

“It’s too late for that. You and Ares are the only two left who need to drink, and Selene here has done you a great favor.” Athena snapped her fingers, never taking her eyes on Zeus’s face or her other hand off the hilt of her sword.

I passed the other monarchs and pressed the chalice into her hand. She held it up before her, and the light of the blood moon speared the clouds for just long enough to illuminate the bright, angry red inside it.

Zeus curled back his lips, exposing his fangs. “I swear to Erebus, I will kill her for this.”

“You best rethink those words unless you want to doom all the rest of us.” Athena held out the vial. “Now drink.”

Someone was watching me. The weight of a stare pressed heavily on me, and I turned to find Ares more focused on me than the blood painting the ground, or Zeus’s barely contained rage, or the way Hera was still smiling at Zeus. Triumphantly.

When she’d first told me her plan, I thought she’d had a scheme in mind, a real way to change things. And she’d hurt him, yes. She’d taken the sharpest sword she could find and she’d shoved it right through the heart of him. But she’d chosen the wrong weapon. A sword—no matter how sharp, no matter how large—couldn’t kill him. He would knit himself back together. And he would make her pay for what she’d done.

And in doing so, he would cut the tattered ribbons of peace. He would defy his god’s orders. And then…well, I didn’t know what would happen then, and I didn’t want to find out.

As Ares met my gaze, I swore he could read all this in my eyes. Because he gave me a grim nod, confirming his thoughts echoed mine.

As if we were somehow on the same side.

Instead of telling me an Olympian wanted me dead—which I’d already known—I wished the Fates had told me about this —that my enemy might one day be my greatest ally, at least when it came to protecting the future of the vampires.

Zeus snatched the chalice out of Athena’s hands and tipped it back. Blood smeared across his lips. He grimaced, then passed it to Ares. Only then did Ares take his eyes off my face. After taking the drink, he set the chalice down and looked to Athena for insight on what to do next, how to handle the return trek to the palace.

How to handle Zeus.

“All right. Very good.” She nodded, her voice firm. “After the events of the past few days, I think it’s time we held a meeting to…discuss how we plan to proceed. We still have eleven sacrifices ahead of us. Eleven days where we must make peace, as difficult as that may seem right now. Erebus made his rules for our dominion clear. If we wish to continue to reign upon this world, wielding the power that we do, Nekros must succeed no matter what. We must finish this.”

Zeus grunted. He turned, gazing at the cloud-studded sky above, like the hidden blood moon held the answers to everything he wanted to know—questions we all had. Hera had brought Zeus’s lover to the island as her sacrifice. There were no rules against that. No commandments from their god. And she had boldly owned it. So where did that leave Hestia? Could Hera have truly targeted her, too? And was she my attacker from the storm?

When Zeus remained silent, Athena nodded, taking that as encouragement to proceed. She went to the front of the gathered monarchs and motioned for us to follow her out of the amphitheatre, leaving the poor sacrificed mortal bloodied and broken on the ground. Zeus’s steps were heavy, but he followed her all the same.

And a thought occurred to me: Athena was so much more suited to lead the Olympians than Zeus. Her power was understated and controlled. The others listened to her—respected her. She didn’t have to bellow and roar to get them to listen to her. They just…did.

Even Zeus.

Twelve of us started across the mossy ground. We’d made it halfway to the wall when Hera cleared her throat from where she’d remained, standing firm in the shadow of Erebus.

“That’s it, Zeus? She truly must have meant nothing to you for you to walk away so easily. You’ve always been such a heartless bastard, and I’m glad the others finally see it, too.”

Zeus froze. I slowed and shifted to the side, out of the way. Artemis trotted up to him and whispered something in his ear, placing a gentle hand on his arm. But he shook her off, like she was nothing more than a pesky bee who’d flown far too close.

Athena started back across the muddy ground, her eyes pinned on Hera’s face. Her ebony cloak rippled behind her as she walked, dancing in the growing wind. A crash sounded—a thunderous boom. I jumped at the suddenness of the sound—the closeness of it. A cloud of mist rushed in, and a sheen of gray smudged the world, sucking the color out of everything.

I frowned up. Nothing about this was normal. Tonight’s sudden storm, and the one from yesterday. Erebus was watching, listening. And he was growing angrier by the day.

“You must stop this,” Athena hissed when she reached Hera. She snatched the monarch’s arm and tried to drag her away, but Hera was as immovable as that statue. “You fool! Don’t you see the sky? If you don’t stop, you’re going to ruin it for Zeus, yes, but you’re going to ruin it for all the rest of us, too. And while I might not matter to you, I know you still hold some love in your heart for Dionysos and Aphrodite, at least.”

Hera merely shook her head. “Don’t you see the vampire you serve? For fuck’s sake, he doesn’t care about anyone at all. Just himself. Something has to change, Athena. But nothing ever will until we take a stand against him in the eyes of our god.” She motioned at the amphitheatre’s crumbling walls, at the statue, at the sky. “Here and now, this is the best place to reveal Zeus for what he is. And I have .”

Zeus laughed. He tipped back his head, and booming laughter erupted from his chest. He continued on for what felt like an eternity. I shifted further away from him, as did the others, until he was left alone in the middle of our circle, glaring at Hera across the moss-drenched arena.

His laughter finally stilled. Then he said, “Very well, Hera. In the eyes of our god, I, the Archon of Olympians, hereby demand you endure a trial. Here and now, just as you wish. You are accused of the murder of Hestia, the protected advisor of High King Ares. And if you are found guilty of this crime, your sentence will be death.”