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“I’ve been praying for their souls in the underworld. For them to find peace,” Grace said quietly. “It should have never happened. There was no need for it to be like this.”
Suddenly, Hermes appeared, winged sandals fluttering as he landed lightly in the center of the field. We were all silent—Olympians and mortals alike—as we watched him hold up a glinting silver ring the size of a dinner plate in the air above his head. He had the ring.
Not Gaia.
She hadn’t returned, and Tartarushadn’tgiven her the ring.
Could it really be—
“Nenike´kamen!” the Spartoi shouted among themselves, jumping on each other and clapping one another on the back.
Grace was gripping my arm tightly, and Wild jogged over from the wreckage to join us, covered in blood and dirt.
“Tartarus is upholding his end of the bargain,” Hermes announced. “Not that I could hear him over Gaia’s outraged shouting. It’ll take a few centuries for her to cool off.”
Zeus grinned, clapping Hermes on the shoulder before nodding at the ring. “You should probably return that to Tartarus right away. Let’s not get back on his bad side so quickly.”
Hermes grinned, shooting off into the air again. I wasn’t even sure how he was traveling between realms—as I watched, he sort of flew into nothingness and disappeared. God stuff, I guessed.
“Unfortunately, now is not the time to celebrate,” Zeus sighed, looking around the battlefield. “But someday. Someday, Prophêtis, you will spend your nights going from celebration to celebration, and we will join you because you joinus—gods and mortals. Until the world is comfortable with us once again, you are our link.”
Grace managed an impressively calm smile, though I was pretty sure she was ready to faint on the inside based on how shaky her hand was.
The Spartoi broke apart, shaking off their cheerfulness to get back to the business of clearing the dead. Persephone walked past them, wandering over to the dragon’s corpse and yanking his giant mouth open to peer inside.
“What… what is she doing?” I whispered.
“Harvesting Spartoi, I imagine,” Wild said drily, startling me and Grace. “The Spartoi couldn’t attack him because they’re harvested from his teeth.”
“Sown men,” Grace said, eyes lighting up in understanding. “Bullet told us that.”
I glanced nervously at Wild, waiting to see if the mention of Bullet was going to set him off on another round of bloodlust, but Wild just managed a sad half-smile, staring while Persephone started hacking out teeth. Thank the gods for that. I didn’t have anything in the tank to fight with right now.
We spent hours giving rites to the dead, burning their bodies on the multiple pyres set up on the battlefield. The base of them was made of perfectly stacked stones—courtesy of Hephaestus—with wood stacked neatly on top. I assumed that the stones would stay, and I liked the idea that there would be some kind of monument here. Some physical reminder of the lives that had been lost in the chaos, for a cause that was long since lost.
There was also a brand new volcano, of course, and the remnants of the raised plateau, surrounded by the ditch. But those were reminders of Gaia’s wrath, not tributes to the fallen.
Grace, Wild, and I stood side-by-side in front of the flames, watching in silence. The Olympians had trickled away, one at a time, off to begin the daunting task of rebuilding, going to wherever their skills were needed most. And maybe to do a victory lap too, and collect more of those sweet, sweet worship points for the power boost.
“It is time for me to leave,” Athena said, startling us. We hadn’t spoken to her yet—of all the deities, she may have been the least approachable. “But I wished to congratulate you, heroes. Yes, all of you,” she said, raising an eyebrow ever-so-slightly at Wild. “Surely, you assumed that slaying a dragon would elevate your status. And you, Prophêtis, making a deal with a monster and throwing yourself off a building to push him into joining your cause. You were the first, you know.Youbrought forth the Second Age of Heroes.”
“You threw yourself off a building?” I hissed. Grace glanced at me out of the corner of her eye, blushing a fierce shade of red. Oh, we were having words aboutthatlater. By the look on Wild’s face, he was thinking the same thing.
Athena looked around, beyond the pyre. “It was no accident that you all ended up at this site. These lands are where the last great battle between mortals took place before our fall. For ten years, they fought. And we on Olympus were divided, supporting different sides, torn apart by our own petty squabbles.”
Athena turned her penetrating gaze on Grace. “Eutychia is not a particularly appealing gift for agathos, no?”
Grace grimaced slightly in the firelight. “It’s not considered one of the more desirable lines, no.”
“You would never have been what you have become without it,” Athena replied, her voice giving nothing away. “Long before all of this began, before you called to the Goddess of Night for help, you were already accustomed to reaching out to those who were overlooked. There is nothinggrandabout bestowing a little luck on someone to make sure they have a bed for the night or enough money to pay for their groceries, not in the way that the agathos perceive grandness. It is not the solemn dispensing of wisdom or the self-sacrifice of good health, nor does it bring with it the savior element of providing safety. But never doubt that you wouldn’t bethisGrace, had you never beenthatGrace. I’d like to think that over the centuries, we Olympians have turned our past experiences into our strengths too. I suppose time will tell.”
And with that rather ominous proclamation, she whistled for her chariot and disappeared into the night.
Chapter 30
Itwasalotslower traversing the underworld with Dare than it had been alone. There was no running so fast I was flying, that was for sure. On the plus side, we didn’t have to navigate any crowds because all the souls leaped out of Dare’s way like he smelled bad. And yet…
“I’m going to miss this place,” I sighed.
