His brow rose. “Oh yeah?”
“Yes,” she said, lifting her chin. “We’re twenty-one.”
Another snort. “But if your power is that good…wait, what is your power, exactly?”
Zara opened her mouth, but before she could answer, Medusa and Perseus stepped into the room.
“Good, you’ve all met Hektor,” Medusa said, taking her usual spot at the head of the table.
“For this meeting, we’ll sort out everyone’s roles,” Perseus added, giving a nod toward the triplets. “And you three should explain your abilities, so Hektor knows what he’s working with.”
Liora, naturally, jumped in first.
“Elian can read magical signatures,” she said, jerking her thumb at her brother. “Auras, traces of enchantments, if something’s been tampered with, he sees it.”
Elian lifted his gaze from his phone long enough to give a tiny wave.
“And Zara,” Liora continued, “picks up emotional residue. Feelings left behind in a place or on an object. Hidden intentions, too, she senses what people aren’t saying out loud.”
Zara felt Hektor’s stare flick toward her at that.
“And me?” Liora tapped a hand against her chest. “I get…family echoes, I guess. A kind of pull when someone shares our geryon blood. It’s not exact, but I catch glimpses, symbols, or memories that feel like they belong to someone way before us.”
She shrugged like it wasn’t a big deal, though it absolutely was.
“There,” she said. “That’s the basics.”
“That’s all fine,” Hektor said, leaning back in his chair, arms still crossed like he was physically incapable of relaxing. “But I thought we were looking for the children of Zeus and not the descendants of Cyncus.”
“Right,” Zara replied, sitting up straighter. “We are. And for the past couple of weeks, we’ve been training with Hecate.”
At the name, even Hektor raised a brow.
Hecate—Titaness of crossroads and shadowed magic, ally of the Olympians, and one of the few beings who could make Medusa look mild—had taken the triplets under her wing with surprisingly fierce dedication. She’d pushed them in ways none of them had expected.
“It wasn’t easy,” Zara continued. “But she taught us how to refine our abilities. To distinguish Zeus’s lineage from the other monster branches.”
“Basically,” Liora said, “she grilled us until our brains felt like overcooked noodles. But we can do it now. Mostly.”
Elian nodded, rubbing the ink along his forearm. “We’re strong enough that Hecate thinks we can handle the search on our own.”
Zara felt a flicker of pride warm her chest as she said, “So yes, we’re looking for Zeus’s kids. And we’re ready.”
“The abilities you listed don’t really explain how you can find Zeus’s offspring,” Hektor frowned, unimpressed. “Just what doyou do? And do you do it individually or as a group, since you are triplets?”
Zara couldn’t help the small smile tugging at her mouth. Sharp of him to catch that.
“Oh, right,” Elian said, straightening. “We forgot the important part.”
Zara exchanged a glance with her siblings. This, at least, they knew how to demonstrate, even without actually activating it.
“The real magic?” Liora said, standing up. “It happens when we’re together.”
They moved instinctively, forming a loose triangle around the center of the room. The shift was immediate, subtle, invisible to normal senses, but present enough that Perseus stiffened, eyes narrowing as if he could feel pressure gathering in the air.
The room seemed to hum, a faint resonance thrumming through the floorboards, as if something ancient were stirring beneath the surface of reality.
“When we focus,” Liora continued, her voice low and electric, “our senses blend. What Elian sees, what Zara feels, and what I pick up through resonance, it all fuses. One stream. One interface.”
