“More Hoi Polloi than Magoi. Got it.” She used both hands to sweep her hair back. “But Earth is what you’ve been calling Attica all this time. No one has magic here. Notrealmagic.”
“Are you so sure?” Piers glanced at the Shard of Olympus, which illuminated Sophie’s face with an eerie luminescence. “That doesn’t glow for everyone. It didn’t glow for me.” They’d proved it. Sophie went down the hallway and back to test their theory that the ice shard only shined for her. The moment she’d shut the heavy hotel-room door behind her, the shard went dark. The moment she came back, it lit up again. Being out of the room, she hadn’t seen it for herself and didn’t want to believe, so they’d documented the experiment on her phone. Piers now knew about a fantastical thing calledvideos, but she still insisted there wasn’t magic here. It was absurd.
“You’re not onlyHeracleidae; you’re Magoi.” He was sure.
“Pfffft.” She waved her hand in the air.
Piers caught her hand and held on to it. “Think about it. Who was the father of Heracles?”
“Zeus,” she said slowly.
“Heracles, the man, died. His immortal side went to Mount Olympus, joining Zeus and the other Olympians. Your lineage isn’t only powerful, it’s themostpowerful. You’re a direct descendant of Zeus.” Just like Griffin’s wife, Cat. But while Cat already used her incredible power to conquer realms, Sophie was only just becoming aware of hers. “Any magic that remains in Attica would definitely be trapped inside a person like you.”
Her eyes grew rounder. “A person like me?”
Blink. Breathe, Sophie.Piers squeezed the hand he held. “I mean you’re special. You’remore.”
Her troubled gaze darted to the glowing blue shard. “But if Novalight can’t use the shard for anything, what does it matter if I just give it to him? Then I’ll be safe. My family will be safe. I can go home.”
“We don’t know his origins. Maybe he can.”
Sophie chewed her bottom lip, thinking. “I don’t think so, which means he’s going to eventually figure out that he needsmealong with the shard.”
Piers wanted to crush that possibility under his boot heel and kick it all the way to the Underworld. “Or someone else with a direct ancestral line to a powerful Olympian.”
Her face fell. “That’swhat Aaron figured out. That’s why he sent me the shard. He knew I could make it work, but Novalight couldn’t. But why send it? All that did was put me and everyone else in danger. If it was useless in Novalight’s hands, it could’ve just stayed that way.”
“Your friend trusted you to do the right thing with it.” Piers pulled Sophie into an embrace he hoped was comforting. She wrapped her arms around his waist and laid her head on his chest, making his heart thud in satisfaction. “If Novalight’s as smart and powerful as you say, he’d eventually have discovered how to use the shard to his advantage. You’re definitely special, but you can’t be the only person in all of Attica with dormant magic. There must be other Magoi. There was just nothing to wake their power like the shard woke yours.”
She sighed, her arms tightening around him. “Maybe you’re right. I just wish I knew more about it.”
“I know one thing. We’re lucky the shard ended up in your hands and not in the hands of someone who’d use it for their own gain rather than try to give it back to the gods of Olympus.”
“Which we have no idea how to do.” She sighed.
“Understanding your magic might bring us closer.”
She sighed again. “Whatever it is just feels like the occasional baby earthquake in my bones.”
An image of Cat slid into Piers’s mind again. Griffin’s wife had never struck him as inherentlybad, just unbelievably reckless and sometimes selfish. Right now, he’d be willing to humble himself and ask for her help. He was Hoi Polloi to the core and didn’t know what magic felt like, let alone how to draw it forth and use it. Cat could teach Sophie everything she needed to know. She could probably even make enough noise to get an Olympian to take notice.
Except she was a world away, and Piers had a feeling he’d done something terribly wrong.
Was Cat all right? Griffin?
Unease ignited under his skin, burning through him like a house on fire. He let go of Sophie and turned away, spearing a hand through his hair.Gods damn it!Why was he here? What happened?
The ghost of a word flitted through his mind.Exile…
“Piers?” Sophie laid her hand on his uninjured shoulder. “Are you okay?”
He made a gruff sound, shaking his head in frustration. Hehatedbeing confused. He’d been confused enough for one day. “I can’t remember something. Whatever it is will help us. It’s important. It’s about why I’m here—or how I got here. I think it’s all connected—to you, to the ice shard—but there’s this…wall between myself andknowing. The information’s there. I just can’t get to it.” He hit both fists against his head, trying to jar the knowledge out.
“Stop.” Reaching up, she took his hands. “That won’t help either of us.”
“I think I did something.” Voice turning bleak, Piers leaned his forehead against Sophie’s. He squeezed his eyes shut. “Something awful.”
He could still see them. Griffin and Cat. Kaia. And three shadowy figures he couldn’t quite bring into focus. Who were they? Griffin’s expression was so damning. If anything, Cat’s face showed more sympathy. And Kaia… The fear in his little sister’s eyes, the heartache.Hisfault. Piers knew it.
