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Terror gripped me by the throat. “Please don’t do that. There’s a lot of good in humanity. And we can change, adapt. And you like the animals, right? That’s why the daimons are vegetarians. They’ll all die too.”
“At some point, I have to consider the greater good, little agathos. If I’d tried to wipe out humanity in one fell swoop at any other point in time, Gaia would have fought me. It is too convenient of an opportunity for me to overlook that she’s too enraged at the mortals to defend them.”
My hands shook and I clasped them in front of me, trying to hide it. Her words were chilling, a perfect encapsulation of what Sophia had told us. Balance. We needed balance.
Here I’d been, thinking I was some kind of peacekeeper, when what I needed to do was get these two terrifyingly powerful goddesses to hate each other again. At least enough to always be on the opposite team, but not enough for outright war.
“I’m sure once she realizes that, she’ll be furious,” I said slowly, dropping my eyes to the ground and shaking my head lightly. “She would have offered you anything, but by that stage, it will be too late.”
Nyx froze, her veil as she moved her head, and I got the impression that I was the full focus of her attention. It was an incredibly unsettling sensation.
“Unlikely. She’s punishing the humans, too, for daring to deny us.”
“Not quite to the point of wiping them out, but yes, you’re right,” I agreed, blood rushing loudly in my ears. This was a dangerous game, one that Nyx had been playing for longer than mortals had even existed. I was outmatched in every single way and we both knew it, but that was my secret advantage.
I had nothing to lose. No immortal being could ever truly know what that was like, how it could make us do and say things that we’d have never done or said otherwise.
Nothing encouraged innovation like desperation.
“I wonder what she would offer…” Nyx mused. “Sophia requested a meeting between us, and I was going to decline, but perhaps out of curiosity…”
If Nyx agreed, then surely Gaia would have to agree also, if only not to appear afraid. While I wasn’t confident that Gaia would fight to save us, I did think she’d offer Nyx a worthwhile concession, if only because Gaia would want to pull the plug on humanity herself rather than let anyone else do it.
I was walking a knife edge between two psychopaths, and this was why the prophecy existed in the first place. This was why we needed the Olympians back.
We needed a buffer between us and the all-powerful Primordials. Divine middle management, so to speak.
“I have not seen Gaia in centuries, after all. It might even be fun to watch her beg.”
I doubted Gaia wanted to save us enough to beg, but I managed to keep that thought to myself.The world around me rippled, a sure sign that I was about to wake up.
“What a strange agathos you are,” Nyx murmured. “Though I suppose it no longer matters. Once you’re in the underworld, it’s no longer relevant. But if you’d like to go to your pyre knowing, then perhaps that is a question for you to decide before you meet the goddess who gave you your agathos gifts. Who do you want to be? What would you be, if you could choose for yourself?”
I woke up with a gasp, jackknifing upright, Bullet’s fear pouring through the tight bond between us, washing back and forth as it mixed with waves of my own terror.
“Amazing Grace…” he whispered, his voice barely audible over my loud, rasping pants for air.
“What is it?” Riot asked, grabbing clumsily at my arm in the dark. “What’s going on?”
The marble ground beneath was so cold it was soaking into my bones, and my teeth chattered with the effort of answering. How long had we been sitting here?
“Nyx tried to summon me to her,” Bullet replied, grabbing my hand with his shaking ones. “But Grace answered the call in my place. I tried to get into the garden, tried to get to you, but I couldn’t.”
“Good,” I rasped, ignoring his sound of protest. It hadn’t been adecisionI’d made to go in his place, rather aninstinct. One I wasn’t going to fight.
“How?” Riot demanded in a hoarse whisper. “How is that possible? You’re an agathos…”
Wild’s guilt and sense of responsibility was suffocating, and I pushed as much love and warmth down the bond as I could. Whatever the cost was for saving Bullet, I’d pay it. I was grateful every day that Wild had seen past my panic and encouraged me to use the bond to bring Bullet back.
“Someone’s approaching.” Dare’s voice from behind the ruin where we were sitting made me jump.
“We’re not done talking about this,” Riot grumbled, patting my arm like he was verifying I was still whole and present.
“It’s a good thing,” I reassured him. “I think Nyx is going to agree to the meeting so she can gloat. It’s our opportunity to get them back on opposing sides.”
“Clever,” Bullet replied. I could hear the smile in his voice, despite his shaky nerves. “Gaia has to show up now, though it may take some time for her to agree. She won’t want to look like she’s coming running because of Nyx.”
“How many people are going to die while we wait for them to make up their minds?” Riot asked. “We don’t have the luxury of just waiting around for them. Maybe we need to take another look at the prophecy—”
