Chapter 47

CHAPTER 47

“ S o. King of Olympus, huh?”

Hermes didn’t so much as flinch when Terena stopped at his side.

“It seemed wrong not to seize such a perfect opportunity to thumb my nose at my father.”

Terena smirked. Leaning over the stone wall, her gaze ran across the Strait of Olympus to the land she’d known her whole life. The view from the battlements took her breath away. Everywhere she looked, the landscape shimmered as if covered in layers upon layers of diamonds. Terena shivered, pulling the furs they had given her after Fell River tighter around her body.

Hermes, standing in a plain white cotton tunic and leather pants, didn’t seem to notice the cold. He folded his large arms across his chest and frowned.

“You’ve much to catch up on. Which is why I’m here.”

“How are you even here? You were all banished.”

Hermes gave her a weird look. “I’m a realm walker.”

Still not understanding, Terena shook her head.

“I’m the messenger god. I can pass between realms,” he drawled, as if to a young—stupid—child. “I am immune to the banishment the Titans decreed.”

“But why?”

Instead of answering, he glanced back over the horizon at the pure white of Olympia below them and waved his hand lazily. “I cannot believe how much it’s changed. This is no longer Greece.”

Terena eyed him for a moment before shrugging. “You’ve been gone a long time.”

He nodded absently. “Before the war, this was all ours. We created it. All of what you see here and more you cannot. And when we were banished, we recreated it in the new world. All of it, as it used to be here. Better, even, because we learned from our mistakes. Of course, part of our punishment was that we could no longer leave Mount Olympus. But Zeus found a way around that. We could join the humans, but only in animal form. It made us even more creative in how we interfere in the humans’ lives.”

“And you all want to come back? To this?”

Hermes smiled in a way that made her uncomfortable.

“We have plenty of time to discuss that later,” Hermes said. “You asked me many questions earlier. Do you wish me to answer?”

Terena straightened, staring up at him.

“When we lost the war, Zeus agreed to banishment only if there was a way to come back. So he went to the Fates. They told him we’d return when the heir of Ares rises. Which is why you and Sonah are so important to us. Your destiny is tied to our return.”

“Pytho told me something a little different,” Terena said, looking at him askance. “She said ‘False death betrays love, forging Athena’s Weapon. From the ashes of gods, the Heir of War rises, leading the gods to glory. The fate of man is for the Weapon.’”

“Fucking Fates,” Hermes said under his breath. He looked out over the Strait, his mouth pinched. Terena turned to the snow covered landscape as well.

Somewhere out there, Sonah was on her way back to Sparta.

With Daris.

Terena dropped her gaze, her nails scratching idly at the stone .

She would go back. She had to go back. For Sonah. And when she did, Terena wasn’t sure what she would do about Daris.

As if reading her thoughts, Hermes turned to her, his big frame blocking out the bright morning sun.

“We must get your sister back.”

“Aye.”

“We cannot continue without the Heir, but it is you?—”

Terena’s body jerked hard at his words. She looked at him, unsure of what he’d said.

“The Heir?”

Hermes turned back to the view, his eyes on the horizon.

Terena waited, a slow buzzing building beneath her skin. She itched with it but did not squirm.

“You are the key, but she is the lock,” he replied.

Terena hung her head for a moment. Frustration bit at her so hard hot tears pierced the backs of her eyes.

“Is that what godhood is?” she asked bitterly. “Just throwing us into bullshit, withholding information that could help us do better, be better? All in the name of whatever games the Fates decree?”

“You and your sister are different,” Hermes said. “You had no one to guide you. But you’re here now. You’ve cut it close, waiting until the eighth circle to find me.”

“You assume I know of what you speak,” Terena bit out. She stopped and took a breath, and her voice was stronger when she said, “I do not. Which is why I’m here. I need to know, Hermes. I need to know who I am and who Sonah is. I know Ares is our father, but who is our mother? Why is there a prophecy around us? How do I make sure I don’t fail in this eighth circle?”

She hated the way her voice broke. The wind at the top of the castle was much sharper and stole her breath when she opened her mouth to breathe in deep. Terena had a brief panic that it might freeze her lungs.

She stared at Hermes a long time before he cocked his head, considering. “Your mother is a complicated answer. One I cannot share, as it would have unpleasant consequences. ”

At her rigid stare, Hermes sighed dramatically. “Believe me, if it would help you to know right now, I’d tell you. Besides, it would make the Fates angry and you do not want that.” He grunted and turned away. “No one likes them very much.”

“What can you tell me?”

“I can tell you that, in the prophecy the oracle gave you, you are Athena’s Weapon. She claimed you in your Naming Ceremony.”

Terena gaped. Several times she opened her mouth without saying a thing while Hermes watched her with amusement.

“ I’m Athena’s Weapon? What about Daris Antonius? They call him that in Sparta!”

“It matters not what they call him,” Hermes replied and for a moment she swore something unpleasant crossed his features. “You are Athena’s Weapon.”

“And Sonah is the heir?”

He nodded.

“How?” she asked. Her throat was dry. “How is that possible? She’s seventeen!”

Hermes frowned. “Huh?”

Terena waved her hand. “How can she be the heir if I’m older?”

Hermes’s face lost some of its color. “No,” he said, bemused. “She is the elder. By mere minutes, aye, but she is the elder child.”

Terena’s eyebrows hurt from how high they climbed. “Well, does age work differently with gods? Because I promise you, she is younger than me by almost four years!”

Hermes was still. The silence that stretched seemed pregnant, as if the world had stopped to listen in. Who knows? Maybe it had. Terena knew one thing after everything she’d endured.

And that was that she knew nothing.

Then Hermes laughed. It was a chuckle at first, and Terena folded her arms and glared at him. When he saw the look, he roared, his laughter shaking the ground beneath them, his head tossed back as he bellowed his mirth to the sky.

When he calmed enough that he was grinning at the ire in her stare, he said, “You and Sonah are twins. ”

Terena gasped.

“Aye,” Hermes said with a smirk. “I don’t know what happened this last time, but she’s never been this young. The weather is new, too.” This last, he remarked with some bemusement.

Terena grabbed a fistful of his sleeve, craning her neck to look him in the eye. “That’s not possible!”

“Aye, she’s your twin,” he said as if to a dullard. “When you made it through the portal?—”

“Wait, what?”

Hermes scowled. She’d made a god scowl. Terena backed up a step, letting go of his sleeve.

“We are not from here?”

Hermes’s scowl faded, and his eyes turned sympathetic. “No, child. You are from the realm we were banished to. The new Greece we created. The new Mount Olympus. Your mother tried to hide you from Ares and made a bargain to keep you from him. Although, as the Fates will tell you, there’s no running from destiny.”

Terena’s stomach flipped. The acidic taste of bile climbed her throat.

“When you and Sonah went through the portal,” Hermes continued, “Zeus… was not happy. He threw a lightning bolt after all of you.”

Terena’s hand flew to her mouth.

Hermes looked around, considering. “Must be what caused all this.”

Terena made a noise in her throat. “Zeus did this? It’s been like this for almost two years now.”

“And it’s also the first time you and I have met in this realm.”

“That’s why I had no visions of you,” Terena thought out loud, ducking her chin to stare at her nails. When she looked back at Hermes, her eyes were hopeful. “My mother came through as well? So she’s here?”

“Careful,” Hermes admonished. “Remember, you’ll have to wait to hear about your mother.”

“Gods,” Terena groaned and lifted her hands to her head. “So we both get eight circles? Me and Sonah? ”

“No, Terena,” Hermes snorted. “You and Sonah are bound. Your destiny is bound. You share the loops. If you die or she dies, the loops reset. But this is the eighth and final. Whether you succeed in your labors or not, whether you live or you die, there will be no new loop. No more chances.”

“But I have a destiny,” she said with a sharpness to her voice that made Hermes’s eyebrow arch.

“Aye. And whatever happens in this last circle is that destiny.”

Terena squeezed her eyes shut tight. “This is hurting my head.”

“Aye,” Hermes said, almost sounding sympathetic. Then he clicked his tongue and Terena’s eyes popped open as he hit her on the shoulder. “Cheer up, niece. You found me and now we can begin.”

“Begin what, Hermes?”

His smile was slow as he bent over, his face so close to hers she could see something moving behind his eyes. It made her tremble.

“Taking back what’s ours.”