Carver watched, powerless, grief gouging a hole in his gut, as the last of their army turned into centaurs. Screaming and pleading dragged his attention back up, and his heart twisted violently. The soldiers were bad enough, but he physically ached for the children. He saw their stricken faces, could already see their shattered bodies. “The stolen children were never for you,” he said hoarsely. “They were only to use against us.”
“A precaution—and a means to an end.” Hera held out her hand for the amulet. “Hand it over, and they live.”
Bel stared in horror at the goddess who’d betrayed them all. “For Eryx and his ceremony? Because I refused?”
Hera nodded, and Bel’s eyes burned with hesitation and disgust. She didn’t move, maybe couldn’t, and Carver stepped closer. His sickened heartbeat thumped in his ears, beating like the doom of their mission. If Bel let this happen, she’d never be the same. Soldiers understood their safety wasn’t certain after putting on a uniform. Cleito knew exactly what would happen and accepted it. These children, though… Bel would hate herself until the end of days.
“Give her the amulet,” he said softly. “It’s okay.”
Bel’s breath shuddered loudly. “We’ll condemnworldsto Hera’s hate and vengeance. She’s gone mad. Can’t you see?”
He looked at her steadily, hoping his gaze conveyed the words he didn’t dare say aloud.We’ll find another way.
A tear welled up so fast it snuck past the fire in Bel’s eyes and spilled over, tracking down her cheek. Swallowing, she turned back to the goddess, her spine straight as a lance. “Put the children down—gently—and I’ll give you the amulet.”
Triumph flashed across Hera’s face. “Is that your binding word?”
Bel stiffened even more. Magic boiled in her eyes, and her expression hardened to volcanic rock as she made a more precise vow. “Lower the children safely and return the soldiers to themselves, and then I’ll set the amulet on the ground in front of me and let you walk away with it. I swear it.”
Hera scoffed. “You’re not in a position to bargain.”
“And you’re not in a position to test me.” Magic swelled, bathing Bel in fire. The grass beneath their feet dried and withered. The amulet pulsed with Olympian power, tugging at the marks on his chest.
Hera eyed the medallion, her covetous gaze reflecting the cool, blue-white light of the shard. Then, her features tightening, she waved an impatient hand toward the centaurs.
Carver glanced over his shoulder, searching for Dex, Silas, and Pav. He saw them all on two feet again almost instantly, along with everyone else. “It’s done.” Relief washed over him. “The soldiers are human again.”
Hera signaled to the automatons. At her command, they slowly glided to the ground and let go of the children on the windswept grass. The metal creatures flew off again as Carver heard one little boy cry out, “Papa!” A soldier ran to the boy, hugging him fiercely. Carver’s chest squeezed hard. He recognized the man as one of the gravely injured, but there were no signs of his wounds now. The transformation must’ve healed the suffering soldiers. More relief swept through him, though this was far from done.
The rest of the children huddled together, the soldiers surrounded them, and Carver turned back around.
“She kept her word,” he said. Bel hadn’t once taken her eyes off the goddess, her stare fire and wrath.
Bel’s lip curled in contempt as she took the medallion from around her neck. “You started an Olympianomachy. A War of Gods. Well, guess what, Hera? You’re at war with me now, too.” She tossed the necklace to the ground.
Hera’s nostrils flared. “Such a bold challenge. Careful, human. I can bless marriages.” Her angry, immortal stare scraped over them. “I can also curse them.”
Bel chuckled, a hard, dark sound full of loathing. “You have no power over us. Becausewe forsake you.”
Hera gasped. The aura of magic around her diminished. It blasted back an instant later, but Carver saw it. He understood.
“Hera, oath breaker,” he accused. Harshly, he added, “Queenof shattered vows.” This goddess needed an island to love her? What would happen if it hated her instead?
A sudden pallor grayed Hera’s skin. She darted in and reached for the amulet, missing it at first. Snarling, she grabbed it on the second try, and with a last, furious glare at them, leaped into the sky.
A crack rang out, and in seconds, the goddess disappeared the way she’d arrived.
Chapter 31
Having to change a good plan made Bellanca want to spit olive pits in someone’s eye.
It had been so simple and efficient. Go home, take that bath she desperately wanted, gather weapons, stop the evening sacrifice, and challenge Eryx. Their new army would discreetly position themselves around the temple square. No one would fly over the high wall to the stones below, Eryx would die, and Atlantis would gain magic.
Now, she had no idea what would happen, and their priority had to be getting the children back to their families. She didn’t have the amulet, Hera was about to set Eryx on a path to even more power and violence, and she had no way to ignite magic for the island.
She tipped her head back and gave the stink eye to the entire cosmos as she growled in frustration. With any luck, Zeus might hear her and deign to get involved in his own issues for once instead of just plopping people down in roughly the right place and hoping they figured it all out for him.
Hands on her hips, she focused her attention on the now almost-empty hillside. At least Dex, Silas, and Pav—who’d all gone from centaur and back—seemed to have nerves of steel and had helped them rally the anxious men and corral the traumatized children. They’d paired kids with soldiers who lived in the same general areas of Atlantapol and begun sending themhome over the hill, little by little. They couldn’t hold the kids or the soldiers back from their families after everything they’d been through, but there was no way word wouldn’t spread about what had happened, and she had no idea how any of that would play out for them.
