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Together, Achilles and Hector approached the goddess, their movements just as dangerous and graceful as hers had been.
Fear flashed across her eyes. “Release me.”
“Tell us,” Hector repeated.
When she said nothing, Paris acted. With a snap, he twisted her wing, breaking the fine bones.
Athena screamed, plaster raining down on our heads as everything around us trembled. “I need her!” she cried, breathless, shoulders heaving. “I need her!”
“Why?” Leo asked. Her hand tightened on mine, but her voice was stronger. “Why do you need me?”
Silence. Paris pressed one hand to the broken wing, and she whimpered. “Because of what you are.”
“What I am?” Leo’s gaze found mine, and she shook her head. “Or what I was?”
Athena shook her head, chuckling softly, then whimpering. “That, I can’t tell you.” Paris shifted and she went on quickly. “Break as many bones as you want, Prince, but I can’t tell you because I don’t know.” Her eyes flicked toward the ground, and the piece of the seal lying forgotten on the floor.
Leo reached for it. “Then you can show me.”
Athena’s eyes widened. There was a sudden pulse of power, hitting us like a shockwave. It must have been everything she had left, because it knocked us backward. A fire alarm blasted, water pouring on our heads as the sprinklers activated. Each window shattered as the building seemed to throb, unable to contain whatever it was Athena had released.
I caught sight of her, a spot of gold in the sky like the sun, and then she winked out of existence. Like she’d never been here at all.
Paris
My hands shook, and I clenched my fingers together. But my body wasn’t responding to fear.
It was anger.
Anger at the gods appearing after so long, and once again toying with us. How many hours had we traced that pulse of power around Oxford before finding it here, with Leo?
My anger at what Athena had revealed burned as bright as the power of the old gods.
Leo sat, clutching the seal as the newly released humans ran around the room like confused chickens. She ignored them.
Her former colleagues, drenched in the water still spraying from the ceiling, yelled at each other. Shouting directions, asking questions none of them could answer.
Achilles opened the door and waved his arm at them. “Leave.” His voice was a bellow, and did the trick. As a group, they scurried out, not once checking on Leo, or offering assistance.
Not that I wanted them to, if any one of them approached her, I’d probably hurt them.
I’d definitely hurt them.
Like I’d hurt Athena. I could still feel the vibration that followed the snap of her bones in my hands.
Glancing away from the door, I found Pollux staring at me, eyebrows lifted.
“I’m fine,” I told him. I felt like myself again, but better. More like the man who’d existed before Helen, except wiser. Steadier.
More certain.
“We need to get her out of here,” I said.
Orestes held Leo tight, one arm wrapped around her waist. “I’ve got her.”
She dropped to one knee and he had no choice but to release her.
It was the seal. She reached toward it, water dripping off her finger tips before she could clasp it. “Don’t touch me,” she warned.
