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“Sophia told me it is time, but it seems you already know that. Here, I dug out the flashlights and batteries,” she said, handing us one each. “Not that you will need them when you enter the realm of the divine, but you have to get there in one piece. Milos will accompany you to make sure you find the way.”
“Thank you,” I breathed, giving her a hug on instinct. She froze for a moment before wrapping frail arms around me, squeezing me tight. “We’ll be okay, Milos should stay with you—”
“No. Milos is a smart girl, her family line as intertwined with the sanctuary as mine is. She will return to me.” Eirene moved back, cupping my face and looking into my eyes. “You are always welcome to return here too, young Grace, however this meeting goes. Even when you are old and gray like I am, my daughter and my granddaughter will always welcome the Prophêtis into this home.”
“Where are your children?” Riot asked. “Why did they leave you alone?”
Eirene gave him a sad smile. “There are other sacred sites. My children dispersed to cover them all when the sky went dark, to pay homage to the goddesses, to pray for our salvation. We each have a part to play, young daimon, but none as important as what you all have to do. Go, don’t keep the goddesses waiting.”
We didn’t. Fed and rested and dressed in warmer clothes, the journey back to the ruins felt like it went faster, even though the blisters on my feet still bothered me, especially since the boots I’d borrowed from Eirene were a size too big. Milos ran ahead, a pale blur in the darkness, keeping us on track.
Our steps slowed as we got to the long avenue that led to the library. I thought it had been quiet last time, with those few subdued agathos hanging around, but that was nothing compared to now. Idly, I wondered what visiting this place would be like if the world wasn’t falling apart. In the time before, when there were human tourists and agathos or daimon pilgrims alike. I shivered in my wool coat, hands scrunched into fists inside the pockets, wishing I’d worn the gloves.
It was never a pilgrimage I intended to make, even though many agathos did. I’d always felt too twisted inside, too tainted to contemplate visiting such a sacred place.
And yet here I was, by invitation of the divine, to visit one goddess that I served, whose image I’d been made in, and one I was supposed to hate, but couldn’t. One who’d given me life, but the other who’d given mepurpose.
I was standing on a precipice from which I couldn’t return, and I wasn’t alone. I would never be alone again.
Maybe I’d walk out of this as the first agathos to fall from the light, or maybe I’d already fallen. Perhaps I might be the first daimon to bemade,notborn. As I looked between the four men standing stoically at my side, ready to face off against the divine without an ounce of fear, I wondered if that would really be so bad.
I was born to serve the light, but the dark had brought them to me. My friends. My lovers. My soulmates. The dark had given me life and hope andmeaningwhen I’d had none.
Once upon a time, their kind had been my enemy. Now, it was my own people I had to fear.
There was no barrier as we entered the foreground to the library this time. No test of worthiness. There was a distinct sense ofkeep awaythough, and any sensible person would turn around and get as far away from here as possible.
The archway between Sophia’s plinth and Arete’s plinth emitted a faint golden glow, and the five of us climbed the steps as though we were in a trance while Milos paced in the courtyard. I gripped Bullet’s hand on my left and Riot’s on my right.
“Hold each other’s hands,” I whispered, coming to a stop in front of the archway. “I don’t want us to get separated.”
“Done,” Riot assured me—Dare on his other side and Wild on Bullet’s. “It’s not too late to turn around, Gracie.”
“Yes, it is,” I replied softly, taking the first step across the threshold into the unknown with my bonded at my side.
Chapter 21
Ittookamomentfor our eyes to adjust. There waslighthere. A lot of it, in fact. It was a different kind of light to a bright sunny day in our realm, provided I was remembering correctly what sunshine looked like. The clouds overhead were the pinkish gold color of the sky at dawn, and everything had a sort of blush-colored tint to it.
“Where are we?” Riot murmured from Grace’s other side. It was warm here, with soft grass beneath our feet and the soothing rush of a waterfall in the pool behind us. Wherewewere was some kind of pretty, Eden-like oasis, surrounded by lush trees and glittering pastel-colored flowers, but that wasn’t what Riot was asking about.
He was asking about the looming mountain above us, every inch of it carved with statues of deities as tall as skyscrapers, with palatial Grecian-style palaces dotted around the sides of the mountain, right up to the biggest, most ostentatious one on top.
“We’re at the base of Olympus,” I said softly, staring up at the long abandoned palaces, their owners still very much imprisoned in Tartarus’ domain. Despite how long it had been, they still looked pristine.
“So clever, my Spirit of Dreams,” Nyx crowed, stepping out of the shadows in a thicker veil than usual, her silver crown glinting in the light.
“Yes, yes, brilliant.” We all jumped as a goddess who could only be Gaia emerged from the very ground itself, growing from the earth like the Spartoi had, but with far more flourish.
Nyx had always been veiled, and the deities we’d seen in the underworld had been relatively human-looking, but there was no mistaking Gaia for anything other than a divine being. She wasn’t made of flesh and blood, butnature. Her “skin” was the rough texture of tree bark, and thick, leafy vines sprouted from the top of her head like hair, draping and intertwining around her body like a shroud, leaving tree-like arms exposed. Both she and Nyx were at least ten-feet tall, easily dwarfing us as they came to stand facing one another right in front of our little group.
Grace’s terror poured through the bond, and I attempted to squeeze her hand, though mine was shaking so much that I wasn’t sure if my muscles had cooperated or not.
“Lift your darkness,” Gaia ordered Nyx, skipping the pleasantries. “You’ve proven your point.”
“And what point is that?” Nyx asked pleasantly, cocking her head to the side.
“You wanted the mortals to believe, they believe. We’ve both received more prayers and offerings in the past few days than we have in centuries.”
