Artemis laughs, a beautiful chiming sound that reminds me of something I can’t quite place. “Poseidon was right about you.”
Do I dare ask?“What did he say?”
“That you’re reckless, hot-tempered, and irreverent in the extreme.”
I grimace. That sounds about right.
“Zeus has plans for you,” the Goddess continues.
“Plans?” I ask, suddenly finding it hard to catch my breath.
“It’s best you don’t ask.” Artemis glances briefly at Griffin, her brow creasing, and that scares the magic out of me.
My fingers tighten on his arm. “If anyone tries to harm him, I will personally see to their bloody and painful demise. Man. Monster. …Or God.”
Artemis’s blue eyes ice over. “The sharp-tongued Origin should be more interested in making friends. She may need them.”
Origin?A cold slab of marble seems to settle heavily on my chest. Breathing gets even harder. “The Origin has been dead for thousands of years. He’s barely a memory, and, to most, not even that.”
“Strange, then, that Zeus keeps saying it’s you.” Artemis’s tone remains frosty.
“I… But…” My ribs feel like they’re folding in on me.Breathe. Breathe.“How is that possible?”
“Not reincarnation, if that’s what you’re thinking. But you’re more a child of the Gods than you realize.”
I stare at her, my heart pounding. “What does that mean?”
“Don’t you understand you have a destiny?” Artemis frowns. “I suppose not, or you might not have made it so difficult to keep you alive.”
I lose the battle not to hyperventilate. Tachycardia—also a check. Griffin’s arm comes around me, and I brace myself against his side.
“Gills.” Artemis suddenly snorts with mirth, and even that’s beautiful. “Poseidon primed you once already, time was running out, and Persephone was having a fit about your drowning.” Artemis laughs, like drowning is funny. “He was trying to think of another way, but she grabbed his trident and poked him until he did it.” She slashes her fingertips across her neck. “Persephone’s quite fierce, you know.”
“Primed me?” I echo.
The Goddess waves a graceful, slim-fingered hand in the air. “That other time you almost drowned. Quite recent. Not a good habit,” she adds offhandedly.
So this is Artemis opening up? Her people skills are as good as mine. “Persephone?”
Artemis looks at me like I’m a little damaged in the head. Or maybe a lot. “She sends her regards, by the way.”
I nod. Sort of. Mostly, I just shake. I have no idea why Persephone keeps sending her regards. Artemis is talking to me like I’m one of the family,herfamily, which I guess I am in a way about a thousand times removed. And she just called me the Origin. By definition, that means I am the beginning—the start of something new.
My eyes meet Griffin’s, and I know they’re scared and wide. It’s not that I wanted him to be wrong about everything, it’s just that I could never really make myself believe he was right. Now, all I can do is keep breathing, which is harder than it should be. It’s like someone cracked the world over my head. It’s falling all around me, and everyone’s looking at me to clean up the mess.
A memory hits me hard. Eleni and me high up in a leafy tree, our hands sore and raw from gripping the rough bark, our legs swinging, our guards combing the woods for us. Thanos whistling loudly enough to cover our whispering because he knows exactly where we are, of course. My twelfth birthday is approaching along with the rainy season, and Eleni is all that’s good in my life.
“Look, Talia. What do you see to the east?”
I squint into the morning sun. “The ocean.” Blue vastness rolling in. A distant horizon where sea creatures make themselves at home.
“And to the west?” Eleni asks.
I shrug, twisting a hank of long, windblown hair around my grubby finger. My nails are a mess from digging upstones to throw at Cousin Aarken when he chased me into a ravine the other day. He shot me with an arrow, but I knocked him out. “Fisa? The lakes?”
Eleni shakes her head. Her loose blonde hair slides over her slim shoulders, and her clear-blue eyes sparkle with a hidden joy I’ve never understood. “That’s the entire world. And it’s yours.”
CHAPTER 25
