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“This is wild,” Dare mumbled, gripping my hand tightly as he wound past a group dancing silently in a circle. There was a glazed, faraway look to their eyes that made me think they weren’t entirely sober. “Then again, the sun disappeared for days, and there’s no food, why not party like we just survived Y2K-on-steroids?”
That was true. Even now the planet felt like it was on the verge of dying a permanent death. Who knew how long it would take for plants to grow again, for there to be enough food to sustain those who’d managed to survive?
“Hey,” I whispered, pulling Dare to a stop. “That’s one of the agathos who was staying in the ruins. I saw her by the pit before the monster came out.”
She was sitting around a small campfire that someone had built, surrounded by a group of humans. Like many of the others, she’d wrapped fabric around her nose and mouth, but I recognized her because of the startling amount of pink in her opal agathos eyes.
“…it wasn’t agodthat came flying out of the pit,” the agathos said, immediately capturing the group’s attention. “I would know. I am an agathos.”
“Like Grace the Agathos?” one of the humans gasped.
I froze, and Dare immediately moved closer, blocking me completely from their view. That agathos knew I was here, or at least nearby. She’d seen me, kneeled to me.
“Yes, like Grace. You’ve heard of her?” she asked in a thick accent. If pressed, it was unlikely that she’d be able to lie, but she didn’t seem like she was rushing to disclose that she’d seen me at least.
“I saw her videos on the internet. Where she grew the army? Did you see that? Can you do that?”
“No,” she laughed, a throaty sound. “Grace is unique, most of us are not so interesting.”
“How do you know it wasn’t a god?” someone else asked.
“I can’t be certain,” she admitted. “But I think it was one of Anesidora’s—Gaia, as you call her—one of her children. Some of them were rather…” the agathos trailed off, seemingly struggling with finding the right word to describe such a creature.
“Monstrous?” the man she was talking to suggested.
“I suppose, yes.”
“Gaia’s monster baby,” Dare grumbled, his voice low enough that only I could hear him. “Of course. Why not? You know it’s definitely not secretly a good guy monster now, right?”
I could acknowledge that all signs were pointing in that direction but my stubbornly hopeful heart wouldn’t give up. “Maybe he doesn’t like his mom,” I whispered back. “I don’t like my mom.”
Dare twisted to look at me, most of his face hidden by the shawl, though I could see the wry twist of his lips. “That’s quite the insult coming from you, bravo.”
I smiled down at the ground, my cheeks heating up.
“The others are calling us over,” Dare said, guiding us away from the fire. It was a shame—I wanted to hear more of what the woman had to say, but I didn’t want us to be separated from the others any longer than we had to either.
While the mood was strangely cheerful, for the most part, it felt precarious too. Yes, these people were happy to be alive, but they wanted tostaythat way, and doing so might require making some difficult choices.
“…I still think we should throw someone in,” someone mumbled to their companion as we went past. “If the beast god was happy with our sacrifices, then food would grow again. We need to offermore.”
My blood ran cold. I had to get down there before they started throwing others down instead.
“Did you hear that?” I whispered to Dare. He grunted, pulling me behind the broken pile of rocks as Vasileios, Foster, and Estrella grew closer.
“Dare, they want to throw someone in as asacrifice.” I swallowed thickly, movement at the edge of the pit catching my eye. Someone had made a makeshift monster shrine out of rocks and sticks and broken pieces of stone, with ripped pieces of fabric to represent the beast’s matted hair and serpent legs. Dare and I paused to watch as someone approached with some kind of bundle wrapped in paper, setting it down reverently at the base of the shrine, before dropping to their knees in front of the pit and holding a second package up in their palms toward the sky.
They mumbled something too low for us to hear before parting their hands and letting the package fall into the depths of the pit. Dare and I both stood still, listening, but there was nothud, no indication that it reached the floor.
Nerves churned in my stomach. How deep was it exactly?
It was my pathway to Tartarus. Ihadto go, before someone was tossed down there in my place. Everything the goddesses had put the world through—not just us, but everyone—had led to this. People haddiedfor this.
Fear wasn’t a good enough excuse. Not when there was this much at stake. I took a steadying breath, gripping the edges of my shawl, ready to take a running jump to my destiny, come what may. I had no idea how I’d liberate the gods once I got to Tartarus, but I had to believe I’d at least get there.
“There’s that self-sacrificing face,” Dare murmured, his fingers brushing up my spine. The sadness in his voice had me turning, but before I could, his fingers were on my neck, and the world faded into nothingness.
Chapter 9
