Chapter 43

43

SELENE

“ W e can’t go out that way!” Artemis screamed and rushed past Athena. She slammed the door against the fire, but it was too late. Flames had already spread into the megaron, lighting up the tapestries lining the walls. Soon the entire room would be a sea of fire.

My heart clenched, thinking of the mortals stuck in my room, along with Orpheus. I could only hope he had the wherewithal to get them out of there.

“Come with me,” Demeter said, taking charge. She motioned us to follow her through the archway and into the kitchen. We quickly followed in a tense group. Zeus shot me a dark look, but he didn’t speak. Our quarrel was nowhere near over, but right now, we had to focus on escaping this place. We could heal from fire, but it would not be pleasant.

As I stepped into the kitchen, I cast one last look over my shoulder. The doors were aflame. Beyond them was the entrance to the tunnels. It was the only way to reach Tartarus, where my ancestors had been trapped for centuries. If I left, would I ever get another chance to reach them? A moment ago, it had felt like I could actually reach them, after so long spent believing they were lost to me forever.

And now they were gone again.

Ares pressed his hand into my back. “I know what you’re thinking, but he never would have let you get to them.”

“I didn’t plan on giving him much of a choice.”

At the front of our group, Demeter led us past the kitchen and down a corridor. She approached a rear door and threw it open. Outside, all was still and quiet. The blood moon lit the world in crimson, but there was no sign of lycanthropes or poisonous rain. The fire raged behind us, but we had a way out.

A path to escape.

Athena swore, motioning us away from moonlight and back into the kitchen. “We need cloaks if we’re going out there without cloud cover.”

No one had donned a cloak for the meeting. They all wore their usual courtly garb. Plunging necklines on the women. Unbuttoned ruffled shirts on the men. They’d gathered to discuss a plan, not flee into the moonlit night. If anyone went for cloaks now, they’d burn.

Dion stood just in front of me. He twisted to face me and arched an expectant, knowing brow. Internally, I swore. He knew what I could do, and he wanted me to reveal all my secrets to everyone gathered around me. All to save my enemies.

It would be so easy to step outside and leave them all to burn.

Zeus would endure so much agony from these flames. He’d burn and scream, knowing I’d left him here to his pain. With red misting the corners of my vision, I truly considered doing it.

But then I thought of Ares. I thought of Dion and Demeter. Aphrodite, too. They didn’t deserve this, and if I left them here, I’d be no better than Zeus. And no matter what he did to me, no matter how much he took, I refused to become like him.

I had to be better.

“Move aside,” I said quietly.

Dion’s face brightened. He shifted away, patting me on the shoulder as I moved past him.

“What are you doing, Selene?” Ares asked from where I’d left him. When I didn’t answer, I heard him repeat the question to someone else, presumably Dion. “Where is she going?”

“She’s going outside to see if there’s a path of shadows,” Dion said. He was lying for me, giving me a chance to hide what I was doing. I would be forever grateful to him for that.

When I moved past Zeus, he grabbed my arm and hissed into my face. “Don’t you dare do something that will fuck us.”

I didn’t say anything. I just yanked my arm out of his grip, left the kitchen behind, and stepped into the moonlight. The brilliant crimson rays caressed my skin. After checking that no lycanthropes were around, I took a moment to tip back my head and bask in it. The light danced across my skin, fuelling me. It always did.

I’d been born beneath a blood moon, and my soul was inexplicably linked to it.

From somewhere nearby, a symphony of howls filled the air. The beasts were likely stalking around the palace, searching for the Olympians who would be forced to flee the safety of the walls. Quickly, I walked around the nearest corner, out of sight of the rear door.

I knelt to the ground and closed my eyes. Palming the moss, I dragged a long, slow breath in through my nostrils. I wasn’t entirely certain this would work. I’d once done something like it before, but never this . The blood moon called to me, but I needed more power, more strength to get it to listen.

But there was power in this island. So much power I’d felt it humming beneath my boots every time I walked outside. Gaia had roamed these lands. She’d imbued the soil with her magic, drawing Circe here. It was the same power Medea used to create her monstrous beasts. I had to believe it would listen to me now.

I curled my fingers into the moss. Power skittered up my arms with an intensity that made me gasp. It felt like a drum was sounding in my skull, a hammer beating its way into my mind. I ground my teeth against it, holding on to the here and now.

The back of my neck burned, and as I knelt there in the moss, I swore I could feel strands of my hair lifting around me. Heart pounding, I reached for the deepest parts of the power I could feel. And I begged for it to listen.

The power shuddered through me, a ripple of spine-bending magic. It screamed inside my head and ripped through me, nearly snapping every bone in my body. I collapsed forward, and my forehead hit the mud. For a moment, all I could do was gasp for breath. It felt like I hadn’t filled my lungs in months.

Eventually, the feeling ebbed, and I lifted my eyes to the sky.

A full silver moon hung low over the horizon. I gasped, rocking back on my heels, scarcely believing my own eyes. I’d done it. I’d actually done it. The moon had listened to me. The blood in it was gone.

The implications were…well, I couldn’t think about those right now. The howls were growing closer.

I pushed up from the ground and hurried back to the door. Dion stood just inside the entrance, waiting for me. He arched a brow. I nodded. A slight smile crested his lips, then he tugged me toward him and planted a kiss on the side of my head.

“You brilliant, beautiful creature, you,” he murmured.

“Don’t tell anyone,” I whispered.

“What’s going on?” Ares asked. He’d ventured from the kitchen to join us at the door. “Did you find a path?”

Dion pulled back, shoving his hands into his pockets. “She said it’s no longer necessary. The blood moon is gone.”

Ares furrowed his brow. He moved past me to look outside, frowning. His face held no hint of hope or relief or happiness at all. Instead, he seemed troubled.

“I’ll go tell the others,” Dion said, vanishing back into the kitchen.

“What do we do now?” I asked Ares. He stood in the doorway, his back turned toward me. “All the ships have been destroyed.”

“I got a message from Odysseus. He sent a boat to the main cove. There’s one waiting for me there.” He turned to face me, his expression still tense. “Why is the moon silver now? It’s been red for days.”

“I’m sorry?”

“You heard me.”

“It just is, Ares.”

He folded his arms, his broad form backlit by the moon beyond the door. “I don’t think so, Selene. Why won’t you tell me the truth? Do you still not trust me?”

No, I didn’t. Not as long as he was still on Zeus’s side. It wasn’t even our twisted fate any longer. That, strangely, I could deal with far more easily than this.

A howl saved me from finding an answer. It sounded far too near. Ares twisted toward the door and stepped outside, drawing his sword. And for the first time since I’d arrived on this island, a silver light danced along the steel.

He sniffed the air. “It’s near. Stay inside.”

“No.” I joined him on the moss, scanning the nearby shadows. Soon the other Olympians joined us. A few had found steel blades. Those that hadn’t flashed their fangs, ready to fight regardless of their lack of weapons. And by the looks on their faces, they were itching for it. Even Dionysos.

A few moments passed in breathless silence as we waited. And then the enemy soared from the darkness, his murderous howl consuming the night.