I rolled my eyes, but relaxed some. “So how do we do this? How do we take him out?”
“We have to be on the mountain,” Hermes explained. “We have relatively no power anywhere else. If we are going to fight him, we need to be where we’re strongest.”
I chewed on my bottom lip until I tasted blood. “I’ll be strongest there too?”
Della cocked her head and regarded me carefully, “No, you will always be strongest in water.”
I raised my eyebrows. “There’s no water on the mountain?”
“Not enough to destroy a god,” Hermes muttered.
Point taken.
“What about my mother?” I turned back to Della. “What do the Fates want with her?”
Della let out a bitter laugh. “Those old crones are more interested in the future than the present. They’re playing the odds that Poseidon loses.”
“What does that mean?” Ryder demanded. “What does Ava have to do with any of that?”
“Ava has managed to procreate two of the strongest powers of this time. They want her blood.” Hermes’ explanation was accented with a flick of his hand.
“Her blood?” I asked on a croak.
“Her next child.” Hermes sprung up to sitting. “They want whatever she can spawn.”
No. Not another one of us. “Who is the father going to be?”
“There are rumors that Phorcys has offered his seed.”
“Oh, gross. Let’s phrase thatanyother way,” I suggested.
Hermes tried to hide his smile. “Alright, he has offered tofatherthe monster. And we would know it would be nothing but a monster. He has a bit of a reputation for his hideous children.”
“Do you think it’s possible? Do you really think Ava can have another child?” I hated the idea of another person going through what I had. And this sounded a thousand times worse. This little girl would be property of the Fates. They would destroy her. They would rip her to shreds and sacrifice her for their own power grab.
“Yes,” Della said immediately. “They can and will create something for their pleasure. Ava is their vessel to do with what they want.”
“Shouldn’t we stop them?” My voice shook as hard as my insides.
“We can only fight one battle at a time,” Hermes scolded. “Besides intervening with their plan takes more thought. We’ll need more resourcefulness when that time comes. But rest assured if Ava manages to birth such a creature, we will destroy it. There are several years before the Fates can do any real harm. We must focus on the worst and most immediate of the threats.”
The shaking inside of me turned to tremors. Hermes would kill a baby? He would destroy a child if he had to?
I closed my eyes. But what kind of creature would come from my mom and Phorcys. If I remembered my history right, his other children had been sea monsters. He was one of the primordial gods. He came from the deepest places of the ocean, the dark, hidden recesses that not even Nix would venture to.
“Is Honor in danger?” I asked in a small voice.
Della’s gaze hit mine and I blinked from the brightness of it. “She will always be in danger,” she said honestly. “But right now she’s safe.”
“And by safe you mean…”
“I can’t find her. And if I can’t find her, nobody else can either.”
I nodded and sucked in a slow breath. I knew Smith would keep her safe. I had never doubted him.
Smith… I had a very strong suspicion about him, but I didn’t want to voice it just yet. Instinct whispered that this was not the right time. And I could be wrong.
I turned away from Della and Hermes and tried to gather my thoughts. Could I do this with them? Could I go to the mountain and destroy a god?
