Misha glances over her shoulder and makes eye contact with Leo, who I hadn’t even noticed. His large frame had somehow melted into the shadows. He pushes away from the wall beside Orfeo’s front door and steps into the living room.
“Let’s go, Meesh.”
She makes like she’s going to stand, and I reach out for her hand. “No, wait. We all need to talk.”
In the nanoseconds leading up to telling Orfeo, Misha, and Leo everything, I’m overwhelmed with the sudden and inexplicable feeling that I am a liar.
I didn’t meet Hecate in the Dream Place, halfway between life and death.
Hades isn’t my father.
My mother isn’t trapped, her soul isn’t tangled in the fibers of the universe, tossed back and forth at Hades’s whim but never fully allowed to rest.
You just want attention,a nasty little voice whispers.
All that deified blood coursing through my body and somehow,still, I’m anxious and self-deprecating.
As soon as I begin the story, the pieces tumble out of me.
I tell them about the basin’s missing panel, how I pressed my hand to it and was transported through the universe, through time and space and realms. I tell them everything I saw, what I already knew about my mom going missing.
I tell them about Hecate and her message, and how the last piece of the story—the panel missing from the basin—is obviously that someone must overthrow the evil being looming over the city.
And how I think, ipso facto, it has to be me.
By the end, I’ve been talking for so long my lips are dry and my throat hurts. I’ve pushed myself up from the floor and have been pacing back and forth from the living room to the kitchen.
No one interrupts me.
“I can’t just vanquish Alfo and Nis. That’s not enough to send a message to my father, not strong enough for a blood bond with someone as powerful as him. I need to send as many demonsand beings as I can back to hell.” I pause and flash an awkward smile. “Minus you guys, of course.”
“We would become your subjects,” Misha says as if this is obvious, and maybe I’m an idiot.
“Wait…” I must be hearing things. There’s no way. “What?”
“You outrank Alfo, naturally,” Orfeo says. “You are an Underworld goddessandthe daughter of a witch. He’s just a brainless, ball-less demon.” He flashes Leo a darting look. “No offense.”
Leo rolls his eyes without looking up from his phone. I think he might be playing Tetris. “Used to it.”
“So, once you vanquish him,” Orfeo continues, “our debts will transfer to you.”
“Okay, hold on. I’ll inheriteverythingfrom him? Including his little…little…” I wave my hand helplessly in a circle.
“Drug trafficking business?” Leo offers.
“Yeah, that.”
All three of them trade anxious looks. Misha speaks up first.
“Yeah, that…We’ll need to figure that out, I guess.”
“Guys, I don’twantyou or anyone to be in debt to me!”
“Diantha.” Orfeo tilts his head down, fixing me with a fierce look through his brows, his tone calm and even. “Please. Consider it a formality. You can absolve us, grant us our freedom.”
“What about you?” I ask Leo, altogether tempted to snatch his phone out of his hands. “You can’t just…just become my follower. He’s your brother, that has to mean something.”
Leo considers this for a moment. “I think I should leave town for a little while, so as not to raise suspicions that could result in Alfo punishing or vanquishing me before you have a chance to take care of him. And then, once the war is over, I can pledge my allegiance.”
