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Well, me and Bullet, but he wasn’t here. I’d failed him and I didn’t intend on failing anyone else.
“The pit is for me—” I began.
“The pit is a power trip,” Dare snapped. “An egotistical statement from a maniacal goddess. Don’t play her games, Grace. You go into that pit, you’re never coming back.”
“It’s the path,” I insisted. “That’s the way to Tartarus. Theonlyway.”
It wasn’t as though I trusted Gaia, of course I didn’t, but she and Nyx had come to an accord. Nyx wouldn’t have told me to take the path if it didn’t lead to where it was meant to go.
“Leaping to certain death or imprisonment isn’t the answer.” Dare paused for a moment, giving me an unreadable look. “Bullet wouldn’t want you to do that either. None of them would.”
“I know,” I replied, a sense of calmness overtaking me. No, not calmness. It was like the darkness I’d always fought against, butmore. A well of rage as deep and black as the pit in front of us.
There was no breathing through the anger this time, no fighting against it. The rage was the fuel I needed to keep going. To keep myself from collapsing onto the ground and never getting up again.
“The path is for me, Dare. I need to follow it—more than I already thought I did if Riot and Wild are down there too.”
Dare made a sound of discontent. “Obviously, I’m not going to let you go alone.”
“You don’t have a choice.” I remembered Gaia’s words, her pronouncement that only one could volunteer themselves to go to Tartarus.
Because of course she’d make me go alone. Whatever the hardest option was, that was what Gaia insisted on. However she could punish us, whatever would hurt themost, that was what she did. Why she hadn’t just killed me yet, I wasn’t sure. Perhaps she couldn’t, maybe the Fates had determined it wasn’t my time yet, and there was nothing she could do.
The rage in my chest where my bonds had been burned hotter. I hadn’t asked for this. I’d inherited a battle I wasn’t qualified for, that I didn’t want to fight, and I’d done my best to do the right thing and it had cost meeverything.
The soul bonds were one of the few things Ididn’tresent about being an agathos, the one thing I’d always longed for, and she’d destroyed them, taking Bullet in the process. Maybe taking Wild and Riot too.
Gaia wanted me to go into that pit and lose Dare too. If she couldn’t get rid of me, she’d get rid of anything that mattered to me if I let her. If I couldn’t find a way to stop her.
How was I supposed to walk this impossibly fine line between being Grace the Prophêtis, Grace with a job to do whether she wanted to do it or not, and Grace who loved Bullet, Riot, Wild and Dare? The more I tried to fulfill the Prophêtis, the more they suffered.
No, no more. If there was a way to get them back, I’d find it. I’d find the Fates, I’ddemandan answer. Or I’d find the Olympians and demand they fix this if they wanted to be free from Gaia’s prison.
Hadn’t I sacrificed enough? Hadn’t I done enough to ask for something in return for everything I was forced to give up?
I held onto Dare’s arm, savoring the warmth and strength of him under my palms. He was here and whole and healthy. Strong. I had to keep him that way, had to keep him from coming to harm too.
In the short time I’d known him, Dare had helped me grow into myself, in the way that Wild had made me stronger, and Bullet had made me wiser, and Riot had given me a sense of belonging. I hoped I’d given them each something just as important. I hoped that me being in their lives had made them better.
“Grace—”
“I love you.” Dare’s mouth slammed closed at my pronouncement, eyebrows darting up. “I just want you to know that, Dare. Ineedyou to know that.”
“This isn’t goodbye, Grace, so don’t talk like it is,” he shot back fiercely. His indignant rage rising to match mine. “I loveyou. I wish I’d realized earlier just how much, trusted that what I felt was real and that it wasgood, but I know now. I’m not making that mistake again. I love you, and I’m not letting you go off alone. Not into that pit, not anywhere. Whatever trials we have to face, we face them together.”
I couldn’t lie, so I didn’t. I didn’t tell him that I couldn’t risk it, that I couldn’t lose him too. Instead, I pulled Dare close and kissed him like there was no tomorrow.
Just in case there wasn’t. Not for us.
Milos interrupted our moment, barking loudly before shoving into us when we took too long to respond, knocking us back a few steps.
“Hey, chill,” Dare chided, giving her an affronted look while pulling me back another couple of steps. Milos continued to bark, darting back and forth frantically in front of us. Between us and the pit.
“Listen,” I whispered, grabbing Dare’s elbow, ready to drag him away. There was a noise coming from the earth—a faint, scraping sound, like boulders rubbing together. “They need to move. They need to move! Everyone! Get away from the pit!”
I tried to get closer to them, but Milos and Dare held me back. Fortunately, her barking had caught their attention anyway. Both Vasileios’ group and the agathos on the other side of the pit stood, scrambling clumsily back as the scraping noise grew too loud for anyone to miss.
Please, please, please, don’t let Riot or Wild be down that hole.
