“Even when Yaya tried to explain to me, it made no sense. So make it make sense, Cass,” she demanded. “Tell me why you tried to kill yourself.” Tell me why you left me.
Cass heard the unspoken demand loud and clear. Hell, it had echoed in her ears for years even though Sofia had never actually said the words. “That wasn’t what I was doing,” Cass managed to choke out through the devastation of years of remorse. “I just wanted it to stop.”
“Wanted what to stop?” There was the merest bit of snideness in Sofia’s question that tore open old wounds.
Cass didn’t resort to her normal habit of being careful with her words. Instead, she gave Sofia what she wanted. The truth.
“All of it, Sofia. The visions, the pressure, the guilt.” The demand to see only the paths that lined Pythia’s accounts, regardless of the human costs. The pressure to become Mother’s pet monster—a pressure I broke under.
Sofia threw up her hands in agitation. “Oh, boo-fucking-hoo. You know you weren’t the only one to lose Thena. She was my sister too.”
The beloved name landed like a bomb between them, exposing the fracture that never closed. “I’m aware.”
“Are you?” Sofia’s eyes glittered with unshed tears and fury. “Because it sure as hell doesn’t seem like it. Not when you made damn sure everything was about you after she died.”
Anger, hot and bright, seared through Cass, and resentment charged in behind it. “Fuck you, Sofia. That’s so far from the truth it’s laughable.”
Sofia’s features were twisted and red, a testament to the depth of her rage. “Do you see me laughing, Cass?”
“No, but you sure sound like Mother.” The accusation was out before Cass could stop it.
Sofia flinched but quickly recovered and sneered. “Let me guess—this is all Mother’s fault, right?”
Refusing to acknowledge the flare of remorse that flickered under her rising frustration, Cass folded her arms. Maybe it would keep her from grabbing and shaking the shit out of her youngest sister. “Yeah, actually, it is.” Icy fury dripped from each syllable.
“Funny,” Sofia all but hissed. “I don’t remember Mother buying the messed-up hex that about killed you or walking out the damn door. That was all you.”
Cass felt that hit deep, but Sofia was far from done.
“And you leaving meant she needed a new heir apparent. It didn’t matter if I had other plans. All that mattered was that an Ambrose would run Pythia. Even if there was only one Ambrose left, and it wasn’t her precious Oracle or her beloved Harbinger. Just a barely average Sage who could never meet her ridiculous standards no matter how hard she tried. Mother decided, so it was a done deal.”
The pain in her sister’s voice made it hard for Cass to talk. “And you think, what—that if I’d stayed, things would be different?”
That cut through Sofia’s fury and pulled her up short. “Well, yeah.”
“You’re wrong.” Cass’s soft response fell between them.
Sofia’s temper flickered then faded into cautious confusion as she held Cass’s gaze. “I’d say you don’t know, but…”
“But yeah.” Then Cass shared a dark truth that had been buried for over a decade. “I tried to save Thena, you know. I warned Mother about what I saw, but she brushed me off.” She tried not to react when Sofia’s eyes widened with shock. “She told me I wasn’t reading it right. It didn’t matter how much I argued—she was right, until she wasn’t. And afterward…” Cass fought back the lump in her throat. “Afterward, I looked, Sofia. I tried to find another way to survive her intentions. Every decision but one led to the same result within a year.”
Horrified realization was creeping in, erasing the angry flush and leaving Sofia pale. “What result, Cass?”
Cass held her gaze, refusing to voice it because there were some things even an Oracle didn’t want to tempt, and death was one of them. But her sister was an Alcmene. She knew.
Sofia swallowed hard and spun away to brace her hands on the edge of the sink. Her head dropped, and her shoulders slumped. Cass watched her, giving her space even though everything in her screamed to wrap her baby sister in her arms.
Finally, Sofia muttered in a choked voice, “Dammit, Cass.”
As the leading edge of the emotional storm eased, Cass carefully closed the distance between them so she could run a comforting hand down Sofia’s spine. “I’m sorry I hurt you.”
Sofia lifted her head, her eyes watery as she met Cass’s gaze in the mirror. “But not that you left.”
Unwilling to lie, Cass shook her head.
A storm of emotion flickered then faded as resignation filled Sofia’s face, and she looked away. “Yeah.”
She pushed away from the sink and straightened, forcing Cass to drop her hand. She turned until she could lean back against the sink and hugged herself as if cold. She studied Cass for a long moment. “Yaya knew, didn’t she?”
