It’s my turn to blink.What? Why?
“Good question,” Persephone mutters, as if I’d just said that out loud.
I glance at her sharply, my eyes narrowing. “Youarereading my mind! Oh my Gods, do you do that all the time?”
I turn to Ares in horror. “And you?” Heat blasts through me. I’m not often embarrassed, but right now, there’s cause. No one should know even half of what went on in my head between the ages of twelve and fifteen, and especially not him.
Persephone scoffs. “Goodness, no. We were always in our muted forms around you, which blocks out a great deal of knowledge and puts us all at a disadvantage. When we were with you, we didn’t know what was happening on Olympus, in the Underworld, with our enemies, with allies… But at least toning himself down meant that big brute never accidentally killed you.” She jerks her head toward Ares, who glowers in response.
“It takes concentrated effort to read a mind when we’re in human form. I did it with you, at first, to try to get to know you faster. But your thoughts were always so dark and violent that I mostly stopped. After a while, that faded somewhat, but then there was just too much sarcasm to bear.”
I snort, the knot in my chest starting to untangle loop by loop. She’s still Selena. She’ll still tease me, and love me, give me frustrating half-answers, and tell me when I’m wrong. Right then, I realize I haven’t lost her.
She smiles. She’s definitely reading my mind.
“Oikogeneia,” Persephone says warmly, using the old language.
The ancient word for family doesn’t send a potent shock through me like the first time she used it, claiming me as her own. That bond has already been forged, and the magic in it was so intense I should have guessed there was more to her than a powerful Magoi woman running a circus. There was a Goddess, and real family, because in a roundabout way and about a hundred generations apart, she’s my aunt.
“Back to the question at hand.” Ares examines Athena, traces of wariness and reserve creeping into his voice. “Why do you want Piers?”
“We’re all in agreement—for once.” Athena rolls her eyes, showing a frightening amount of white, and then gestures vaguely toward Griffin and me. “We need to keep these two together so they can get on with what they’re supposed to do. Kaia should stay here, but Piers can go. Let me take him to Attica. I have scientists running amok with sensitive information.” She shrugs, as if it matters, but not all that much. “He might be of use.”
Scientists? Does she mean alchemists?
Persephone cocks her head, studying the other Goddess’s face. “You’re worried,” she finally says.
Athena tenses, if the slight stiffening of her rather prominent jaw counts as tensing. “They may have forgotten all about worshipping me and lost their magic when they did, but Attica is still my world.”
Ares grins all of a sudden, looking almost devious with excitement. “They do have interesting weapons there.”
Athena turns a glare on him that would frost icicles. “I’ll thank you not to stir things up.Again. And you would like anything capable of mass destruction,” she adds bitterly.
“Mass destruction?” I ask. “Like Galen Tarva?”
All three Gods laugh at me.Laugh!At least they’re finding common ground.
“So, can I have him?” Athena’s tone goes back to neutral, almost bored, but she’s not fooling me anymore. I doubt she’s fooling anyone else, either. If she’s here, and she asked for Piers, she wants him.
I glance at Piers. He looks totally defeated, and I get the impression he doesn’t really care what happens to him after this.
“You’ll owe me,” Ares says.
Athena’s brown irises flare with hints of power-infused red and gold. Then her eyes narrow to aggravated slits. “Owe you what?” she asks.
“An audience with your father. Zeus hasn’t heard me out in decades.” Ares turns to me and winks. “He put me in charge of you as a punishment. Olympian idiot. That was the most fun I’d had in an age.”
I can’t help smiling, even though it’s weak. He was the best part of my life growing up, the only good part—him and Eleni. “Punishment for what?” I ask.
“For causing and prolonging conflict in Atlantis,” Persephone answers for him. “Poseidon still hates you, by the way.”
Ares looks perfectly all right with that. “He’s not so fond of you either after you poked him with his own trident the other day.”
Uh-oh.That was because of me.
Persephone shrugs. “He was moving too slowly.”
“Or you’re too attached.”
