“You didn’t stop it,” Bellanca growled.
Hera’s long, serious face remained impassive. “Don’t you wonder? What happened? How I did it?”
Bellanca didn’t answer, but curiosity burned inside her along with magic. Cleito’s shout in the throne room jumped back toher.What was ripped apart is reunited!Those seemingly random words had meaning now, but Bellanca could barely accept it. How could they be sisters?
“I see the question in your eyes, the curiosity, and even though you’ve been a thorn in my side intwoworlds, I’ll answer it.” Hera stepped closer to Cleito, and Bellanca’s heart leaped in fear. If she’d just found a sister, she did not want to lose her. “The new princess was one day old. You said hello to her in the nursery in Castle Tarva. You were old enough to remember. Do you?”
“That baby had blue eyes. That baby was Lystra.” Bellanca held as still as she could because inside, sherattled. “There was no kidnapping. No child went missing.”
“Almost all newborns have blue eyes. They can change later, even if they’re fated for chaos magic and the swirling gold of infinite knowledge.” Hera’s gaze flicked to Cleito. “She was a little bald bag of flesh. No hair color yet to mark her. Eyes just like most infants. I found a little bald bag of one-day-old flesh in Atlantis and I…switchedthe babies.” Hera’s expression changed for the first time. She seemed delighted with herself, and Bellanca wanted to vomit. “The Tarvan royals got a Hoi Polloi child, and an Atlantian family got the most powerful seer alive in all the worlds. It was obvious Eryx would find her.”
Bellanca’s heart battered her ribs, and her breath sawed in and out, loud in the night silence. Lystra was still her sister in every way that counted, but she had another. She had onehere, in Atlantis. “How could you?” Disgust,disappointment, pushed acid up her throat and a sting toward her eyes.
“I did nothing to the children that wouldn’t have happened to them anyway. Do you think Cleito would have had a better life with your family? She was fated for abuse. It didn’t matter in what world or in what household.”
“She would’ve hadme!” Magic pulsed out of Bellanca, destructive and concentrated. She pushed it forward and away from Cleito. The street around the goddess brightened with blinding, white-hot light, then darkened. Hera’s robes softly wafted in the heat of Bellanca’s temper.
“My…” The goddess laughed coolly. “You’re as fiery inside as out. I’m almost glad my automatons didn’t manage to kill you.”
Bellanca’s jaw dropped. Zeus had more faults than she could count, and she’d started hesitating to support him, but if a curse-wielding, baby-snatching, ice-cold goddess who’d tried tokillher was the alternative, Zeus had Bellanca’s full support and then some.
“Maybe Lystra would’ve been happy and safe in Atlantis.” Her poor sister had suffered atrociously for her lack of magic.
Hera scoffed. “Is any woman truly safe in Atlantis?”
“You tell me, goddess of women and family,” Bellanca snapped, loathing Hera with all her being.
Hera’s stern face tightened. “Bitterness coats your tongue. It’s unbecoming.”
“Kidnapping, manipulation, and attemptedmurderare unbecoming. I might’ve chosen someone other than Zeus. I do not choose you,” Bellanca said hotly.
“You’ll change your mind.” Hera didn’t bother to give a reason.
Bellanca shook her head. In a convoluted way, Zeus and his core allies had brought peace and true leadership to Thalyria after centuries of violence and injustice. They’d given Bellanca new hope, a reason to fight, and people to fight for. They’d provided hands-on help and magic when needed. “I don’t care if you hate your husband. Figure it out yourself. Don’t drag innocent people into it.” Like hersisters.
Bellanca moved closer to Cleito, fear churning in her stomach. It turned out, she’d had two seers in her family, one extremely powerful and oneall-knowing. Not to mention her parents and other siblings—fire wielders and earth shakers and snake conjurers. Her bloodline was mighty, and yet here she stood, defenseless when she had so much to defend. Her new sun-flare magic, the most powerful weapon she’d ever possessed, had made Hera chuckle.
“Enough.” Hera suddenly vanished. She reappeared next to Cleito and yanked her into the folds of her gown, trapping her there as though the pleats had tentacles. “My patience has limits, and you’ve caused me enough trouble.”
Cleito looked at Bellanca with wide, shining eyes. “I remembered you from the nursery, just like I remember everything, past, present, and future.” Her smile turned brilliant. “I knew you’d come for me.”
Bellanca lunged for Cleito just as Hera swept her out of reach. Through rage and searing eyes, she hissed, “Give me back my sister.” Her throat burned with a thousand screams and a flood of tears she’d never shed.
“Weave your right threads for a pretty picture.” The golden flecks in Cleito’s eyes swirled like stars speeding across the cosmos. “Tug your wrong ones and destroy the tapestry.”
Bellanca understood instantly. Cleito was talking about the balance between fate and free will, about destiny and making the best choices within its predetermined framework. But what was Cleito trying to tell her? What were the right choices? Fight Hera and likely die? What good would that do anyone, including Cleito? Beg? The thought galled her and soured her magic like poison.
“Please,” Bellanca rasped out anyway. Somehow, Cleito had just been woven back into her life. She wouldn’t destroy the new tapestry. “Please give me my sister.”
“The power of the Shard of Olympus for your sister,” Hera demanded coldly. “Find the shard and use it inmyname to restore magic to Atlantis. Givemeits grateful population, its rejoicing worshippers, and you can have your little oracle back.”
A fresh swell of fury and shock rose inside Bellanca at Hera’s ultimatum. Her eyes darted to Cleito. Her sister looked at her intently, her endless gaze heavy and steady as though carrying a message.
Bellanca turned back to Hera, dread throbbing inside her like a heartbeat. “And if I don’t?”
“If you give Atlantis’s worshippers to my controlling, adulterous husband, I’ll drop your little sister from the heavens, just like Zeus did to my Hephaestus.”
Hera’s chilling words iced the night air as she abruptly vanished, taking Cleito with her.
