“How did you escape?” Vassori asked, sitting up in bed as she stared at the seer.
“Believe it or not, one of the authors of our demise was my savior. The goddess, Athena, favored the Greeks during the war, but she was angry when she’d seen them defile me. And angry with Apollo for punishingmefor it. She arranged for myfreedom. I cannot explain the details but, suffice to say, she helped and now I am here.”
Terena’s fury was a living thing, twisting and churning in her gut. She hated that a few cowardly men had taken away her friend’s dignity, her safety, her power.
One of the most fearless women Terena had ever known, Cassandra hid her gifts behind a playful, irreverent mask, numbing her trauma with drink and magical herbs. Despite how they’d met, Cassandra was one of them now, and Terena would ensure nothing like that ever happened to her or any of her friends.
Cassandra’s soft, ragged breathing was the only sound in the room for a long time. Her small hands shook, and she clutched at the fabric of her skirt.
Migela reached out and covered them with her own. When the assassin lifted her gaze, her eyes were glassy with tears. Her hands flew, signing faster than Terena could decipher.
“What are you saying? Slow down?—”
Cassandra whimpered, covering her face as a sob wracked her. Terena rose from her seat, alarmed.
After a moment, Cassandra lowered her hands. Her face was bleak. She reached out and hugged Migela, whose tears flowed freely now.
“What happened?” Terena demanded, taking a step closer to the two women. Glancing up at Vassori, the tracker shrugged, equally baffled.
“Migela,” Cassandra started, her voice cracking. The assassin looked up at Terena, her hands flying again as she signed something else. Terena didn’t understand everything she said, but she understood one of the words.
Killed.
“Migela,” Cassandra said again and took a deep breath. “When she was a child, her village was attacked by soldierson their way to her country’s capital. They attacked her family, killing her father and two brothers. They cut out Migela’s tongue because she started screaming while they raped her mother. When she was old enough, she tracked down those men and killed them all. It’s why she became an assassin.”
Fury writhed through her insides, and Terena hung her head. Lifting her head at last, she looked at her friend.
“I am so sorry for what you went through, Migela. I’m glad you’ve avenged your family. Those men deserved everything you did to them. And we will avenge you, Cassandra. We cannot make those men pay for what they did to you,” Terena said to Cassandra, her throat tight as she snapped out the words. “But, I can make Apollo pay. And the day he and the rest of the Olympians return, is the day I honor this vow.”
Cassandra swallowed and hung her head for a moment. She remained stiff as Migela continued to hold onto her hands.
Despite the tears falling unchecked, Cassandra’s expression was harsh now, her jaw tight and her eyes gleaming with resolve.
“Aye,” she whispered, smiling ruefully. “I know you will. Because I’ve seen it. And when that day comes, I will be at your side. I’ll be at your side through it all.”
They settled for the night,Terena taking the bed and insisting it was no bother for Cassandra to share the bed with her.
Vassori took first watch in the antechamber and Migela slept on the couch in the small common area.
Hours later, a sharp stab of pain in her belly made Terena pitch forward, her hands grabbing hold of the bedding on either side of her. She panted, blinking rapidly as another wave of intense pain speared through her middle.
Rolling off the side of the bed, she fell to her knees.
Terena gasped as another sharp ache stabbed her insides and she reached to clutch at her stomach. Cassandra’s voice beside her was dull and unintelligible, as if she spoke underwater. As Terena panted, she saw Migela and Vassori run to her side, their mouths opened but she couldn’t hear their words.
A million memories flashed behind her eyes. Most from this journey, but going backwards, further back before her earliest memory, back before she’d arrived in this realm. Tears fell as the memories bombarded her mind and she went back
back
back
back
to the first circle.
“You have to kill her!”
Terena swung her terrified gaze away from Sonah to Lerek.
