“Life had other plans for you. I won’t hold it against you. Just promise me you’ll be there on the day.”
“I promise.”
It was a foolish thing to do. A promise that I had no idea if I could keep, but I was sick of losing people from my life. Tired of letting my divinity stop me from enjoying the simple things that once brought me so much joy. If I didn’t hope for those things again, then I’d already lost this battle.
“I’ll be right in the front,” Charlie assured me. “Ready to hear what you have to say.”
I nodded and watched as she walked away and slipped into the front row. As I stared out at the growing crowd, I could sense Andreas’s looming presence behind me.
“I think you’re making them feel unsettled,” I muttered over my shoulder.
He came forward, stopping by my shoulder. “Perhaps. But I think they are just as terrified of you.”
“I’m not?—”
“You’re a Goddess, Quentin. Even a demi holds more power than a mortal.” He sniffed, and I watched him as he steadilyassessed all my colleagues. “If they aren’t terrified of you now, they will be once you’ve had this conversation with them.”
The thought made me pale. “I don’t think we should waste any more time.”
“I’ll follow your lead.”
Sucking in a deep breath, I moved towards the lectern. Memories of the last time I stood here hit me. Gray was by my side as I announced to the rest of the team what I was. It seemed a lifetime ago. Things were different then as Hunter orchestrated my confession, but this one was my decision.
“Hello, everyone.” My voice reverberated around the space and a hush fell over the room. “Thank you for being here on such short notice and at such an unsociable hour.”
Silence.
“Tough crowd,” I muttered, more to myself than anyone else, but Andreas chuckled behind me.
The door to the room opened again, and everyone’s attention turned to the latecomer. Matthew stood in the doorway, sheepish at turning up late. When he caught my eye, I thought he might turn around and leave. I wouldn’t have blamed him if he made that decision after the way our past had unfurled. Eventually, he dropped eye contact and strode into the room, taking a seat at the end of one row.
“Um,” I said, trying to find my train of thought. “You all know what I am and where I’ve been.”
There was a murmur of conversation that met that statement.
“Becoming one of the Gods was never something I could have imagined, but it has meant that I’ve learned about their lives and their history and their politics.” I glanced back at Andreas, unsure of how much I was allowed to say. And then, I decided I truly didn’t care. “You need to listen to me. They are waging a war up there and it will filter down here. All the freak accidentsand weather reports. All those strange incidences that you’re seeing, they aren’t a coincidence.”
The din of the murmur rose.
“Hunter has lied,” I told them loudly. “He’s been misleading everyone. He wants complete submission from mortals to keep them in existence. He wants complete submission from the Gods so that he can continue to lead without question. We have to stop him.”
“And what are we meant to do?” someone shouted from the rows in front of me.
“I can help stop this, but only with all of your help.” Swallowing hard, I continued, “I’m not demanding anything from anyone. If you don’t believe me or if you don’t want to be a part of this, you can leave. I’ll never hold it against you. But if you’re willing, then I need you to pray to me. I need you all to think of success in whatever form you want it in, and I need you to pray. It’ll strengthen me, and that means I can go back to Elysia and help them fight against Hunter. We don’t have time to waste, so I need you to decide what you want to do now.”
The faces in the crowd morphed into a range of emotions. Fear. Anger. Confusion. Unsurprisingly, a few bodies shifted, rising from their seats and making their way out of the room. When the space settled again, I addressed everyone that was left.
“Thank you,” I told them as they stared back at me.
I noticed Charlie slowly bow her head, lips moving slowly. The lab technician to her left followed her lead. Gareth leaned forward, clasping his hands together on the desk and closing his eyes as he began his prayer.
A warmth pooled in my stomach and spread through my body, flooding my limbs and reaching down to the tips of my fingers and toes. My aura, which had been forced away by the cuffs, began to stretch out from me in lazy wisps. The relief thatmy plan had worked made it difficult to breathe. We were so close to finding a way out of this.
As I looked at the bowed heads and listened to the whispers, I was filled with an immense amount of gratitude to the people in front of me that I had enough faith to believe what I said.
When my eyes found Matthew again, he was the only one who hadn’t joined the prayers. He held my gaze before finally getting up and leaving through the door at the back.
There was no point in focusing on those who had left. I needed to put all my energy into what was next.
