I laughed bitterly. “What am I doing here? How am I supposed to stop gods that act like children and hold the universe in their fingertips?” I plopped down on the edge of the bed and the silk covers were so smooth, I nearly slid off. I caught myself just in time and had the worst urge to cry.
“Despite how it feels, you are not alone,” Hermes promised. “And we may be capable of great destruction, but you are not a weak flower for us to trample. There is a reason Nix wants you above everything else. There is a reason he could not destroy Orpheus. You must have faith in yourself, Siren. Or all else is lost.”
I lifted my gaze to meet his. “How will you protect me from him now that he’s here?”
“I won’t have to protect you. You are an equal on this mountain. He can no sooner possess you than he could Hera.”
“But before, he said that-”
Hermes interrupted me before I could relive my lifetime of painful memories. “He told lies to a child that did not know better. He might have taken you to his home in Greece or kept you locked away in your pretty condo and that would have been true. But on this mountain you are goddess of the Nesoi. He must abide by our laws now.”
“Oh, right.” I could have used that little gem of knowledge at least a year ago. I might not have run for so long.
Except I didn’t believe it for a second. Nix would find a way to own me. That was the whole reason he’d followed me here. He didn’t believe he was beneath any law, not even the laws of Olympus.
“We’ll be careful, of course,” Hermes added. “But there are enough of my brothers and sisters on our side that we will be able to protect you.”
“Can’t I just hide out here?” I asked meekly.
Hermes frowned. “There is a feast tonight.”
“How do you know?” Before the airport fiasco, I hadn’t planned to call Hermes or ever follow him here. I knew he had Delphi on his side, but could she see the future that clearly?
“There’s a feast every night,” Hermes explained. “We’re gods. We don’t eat supper. We feast. That is our way.”
So maybe everything wasn’t about me.
Hermes turned for the door. “I’ll summon you when it’s time to depart.” He left before I could ask any more questions.
As soon as the door clicked closed, strong arms wrapped around my waist and hauled me against an equally strong chest. My hands slid around Ryder’s waist until I clung to him as if my life depended on how desperately I could hug him.
“We’re going to make it through this,” he whispered into my hair.
“We’ll be lucky to survive the night.”
He pulled back and cupped my jaw with his calloused hands. “I won’t let anything happen to you,” he swore. “I’ll die first.”
I looked up in to the swirling depths of his silver eyes and believed him. The problem was that I refused to let him die. I refused to let anything else happen to him.
“Just stay with me,” I whispered. “Don’t leave me.”
“I won’t.” He bent down to sweep a kiss over my forehead. I immediately went up on my tip toes hoping for more. I ignored the sinking disappointment when he pulled back. “How do they expect you to kill Nix?” he asked the question I had been wondering about for a year.
“I don’t know. I have no idea where the god-killer is and as far as I know my mother was the last person to touch it. Maybe Nix has it now?”
Ryder’s hands moved down my neck and landed on my shoulders. His thumbs trailed back and forth soothingly, calming some of the tension crackling through my bones. “Where do the Fates live? On this mountain or somewhere else?”
I ignored the hopeful burst of fire burning through my stomach. “On Olympus,” I told him. “At least according to lore. Not near the city of the gods, obviously. But somewhere on this mountain.”
“We’ll find out tonight,” he decided. “Bring it up casually, but before we leave the feast, we need to know where to find Ava.”
I didn’t know how to feel. Over the past few days I had started to really worry about my mother and then when Della confirmed that the Fates would use her for something truly nefarious, I had started to feel a sharp pain in my chest whenever I thought about her.
“It would be suicide to cross the Fates,” I whispered, in case they could hear me from whatever demonic pit they’d crawled into.
“It’s suicide to go up against Nix without a plan. Either we try to rescue your mom or we wait until tomorrow morning when Nix has figured out a way to get around the rules. We’re in a no-win situation. We have to start thinking outside the box if we want to stand a chance.”
I didn’t tell him that the god-killer might not be enough or that saving Ava would only add to our problems. The Fates would snip our strings before we ever stepped foot onto their property and my mother might not have any idea where the sword disappeared to.
