I clutched my head with ruined hands and opened my mouth to beg for mercy, but no sound came out.
The animals in the menagerie hated me because they saw what I truly was.
My head was underwater.
My soul was in hell.
I’d been delusional this entire time, hoping my ability was mundane.
The reason I felt no euphoria when I spoke to Nyx and the sirens was because it wasn’tmy Spartan powers that let me converse with them. It must have been something else.
Drex had never been the Chthonic monster.
It had always been me.
Too much was happening—I was free-falling, unable to slow down as I plummeted to ruin.
Oh my god.
Patro’s pleading expression made sense. Because of him, everyone thought my power just caused pain—it didn’t.
It killed.
And I would have murdered Theros if Patro hadn’t helped me calm down. I would have killed animmortal.
It shouldn’t have been possible.
It was.
If evil is unnoticed, does it still exist?
I was boiling apart at the seams, falling back into the sand, sprawled brokenly. The drowning sensation intensified.
What am I?
Inky fog rolled in as dark robes approached.
How do I live with myself?
How do I live with what I’ve become?
“But that’s not possible,” Hades said loudly, and all of Sparta fell silent. “She can’t be a Chthonic heiress. We would knowif a child was birthed to?—”
He stopped talking and reared back.
The face of a haunted man.
“ZEUS,” he bellowed abruptly. “Yousaidshe was dead... you said you knew for a fact that the Titans killed her. We held a funeral together!”
Zeus stepped forward, electricity sparking all around. “She was!Vyco of the House of Hermes—where are you? Explain yourself!”
An older man jogged forward.
“Patro,” Hades ordered. “Touch him right now—we need to know if he’s lying or not.”
My mentor nodded and hurried over to the man who’d stepped forward. Achilles stood protectively at his heels, like a muzzled sentinel.
“KNEEL,” Zeus commanded, and Vyco fell to his knees. “Explain again—exactlywhat happened the day Hercules was killed.” Storm-gray eyes rolled with fury.
