My mouth goes even drier. “No pressure there,” I say.
“Olympus was fracturing. You know we fight like cats and dogs. The competition, the betrayals, the games. Thalyria has always been the glue that binds us, the one place where we all have a stake, the best of all our worlds. Or it used to be,” he adds with a bitterness that startles me. “You carry Zeus’s blood because he’s your ancestor, but there are others who chose to help alter the path of Thalyria through you.”
Others? Like Nike?
Sulfurous air stings my tongue, and I snap shut my wide-open mouth. “Youmademe?” I blurt out, incredulous.
He scoffs. “Your mother and father made you.”
I draw back as if slapped. I don’t like that any better, all considering.
“You look like them,” he says. “That’s the outside. Inside, you’re all ours.”
If it weren’t so damn hot in this hole, a chill would probably be ripping down my spine right now. “Ours like who?” Why can’t the Gods just say what they mean? Tell you who they really are? Beclearfor once?
“Like Nike,” he growls in answer, clearly losing patience with me.
Nike. I turn my head to look at Ares again, careful to keep a steady upward path this time. Nike is a Goddess synonymous with strength, speed, and triumph. One of Athena’s closest companions. The idea of being partially shaped by Nike slowly starts to sink in—and Ilikeit.
“Are you saying the Winged Goddess of Victory put her blood in me, and now I can fly?”
“You could always fly,” he snaps. “You just repressed it, like everything else.”
Shock ripples through me. “Why didn’t you tell me?”
Before he can answer, a sudden gust of cool wind pushes heavily downward on us from above, and flying gets infinitely harder. I spread out my arms, trying to steady myself. We’re almost to the top.
I shoot a glare at Ares, my pulse pounding hard. “Knowing I could fly would have been helpful when I was falling over a cliff. Or two!”
“You weren’t ready. You weren’t ready for a lot of things until recently.”
Frustrated and desperate to get to Griffin, I beat my wings harder and practically shout, “What does that mean?”
“It means you weren’t balanced enough for that much power, and deep down, you knew it. You had no grounding force and no confidence in your own humanity.”
And then I met Griffin. My grounding force. He didn’t coax me from my shell; he dragged me, but every second that he was doing it, he also made me believe that I was good, worthwhile, and capable. He showed me how strong we could be together.
“I’ve always been an Elemental.” I speak out loud for my own benefit, to finally believe it. “Who could fly.”
Ares grabs me, stopping me just before I reach the top. Our eyes connect, and my breath cuts off. I’ve never seen him look so serious, and we’ve been through some serious stuff.
“You’ve been so scared of what you might be able to do that you never stopped to actually figure out what youcando. You’ve buried every bit of power you possibly could since you were six years old and made that one mistake with Ianthe. Your compulsion nearly killed her, and you’ve punished yourself daily by locking up your own magic and being terrified of it. Anything you’re unsure of or don’t understand? You bury it so deep it can’t hurt anyone—or help. The Gods have favored you. Zeus offered you power like none other and gave you his own thunderbolt. You have a job to do here, but you keep throwing away the tools.”
“I didn’t throw anything away!” I wrench in his hold, but he doesn’t let go of me. “I didn’t even know I had them! And you could have helped me! Taught me! I could have saved lives!”
I could have saved Eleni!A sharp inhale tangles in my throat.
He shakes his head, reading my thoughts. “You were too weak by then. Andromeda had been battering you both in that arena for days.”
“Which would never have happened if I’d hadanyidea of what I could do.” My words are rough and accusing. And they should be.
If only I’d known Griffin then. He would never have just stood by and watched those dreadful days in the arena play out. The Gods may have gifted me with magic, but Griffin is the one who has truly helped me. His support and love gave me the courage to open those locked doors, even just a little, and to believe in my own decency and humanity enough to let my repressed magic peek out.
Ares releases one of my arms and then pops me again with the flat of his hand, this time right in the center of my forehead. My vision momentarily goes dark. “He brought stability to your chaotic heart. Helped you to believe in your own goodness. In your fated path. But free will, little monster. You have to knowyourself.”
I scowl. “Because everyone just wakes up one day and thinksHey, I’ll bet I can fly and shoot lightning from my hands. Let’s do it!”
Ares’s face turns terrifying. “I may love you like my own, but you are not exempt from my wrath.”
