Her question was met with silence.
‘There were no dead in the Underworld …’ croaked Heracles, still staring into the flames.
‘The cleverest lie of them all,’ said Metis.
‘Where do they go?’ pressed Heracles.
Danae stared at him. He believed her. Then she looked to Metis. She could not bring herself to repeat what Hades had told her.
Metis gazed around the circle. ‘Back to the tapestry of life.’
‘What does that even mean?’ Atalanta’s body was tight as a bowstring. ‘Who are you? Why do you live alone on this island?’
Metis met the warrior’s gaze with the weight of all her years. ‘We’ve heard enough for one night. My story shall keep for another day. Besides, we could all do with rest.’
The fire crackled. No one moved.
Then Telamon murmured, ‘What do we do now?’
‘We fight,’ said Danae, hope thrumming through her limbs. They had heard her truth and were still here. ‘We end the tyranny of the false gods.’
‘How?’ Telamon breathed.
Danae lifted her chin, pressing her hands into the floor to prevent them betraying her fear. ‘Once Metis has taught me how to fully master my powers, I’m going to storm Olympus and destroy Zeus.’
He blinked. ‘I see.’
‘You have a choice.’ Danae willed her voice not to waver. ‘You can join me or go back to your old life.’
‘Fuck that.’ Atalanta’s chest heaved. ‘Those bastards lied to us, to everyone. We sacrificed for them, we worshipped them, we loved them.’ She fixed Danae with a glare hot as molten bronze. ‘They all deserve to die.’
Metis tensed. Then the woman stood abruptly, saying, ‘I’m going to see if Pegasus has returned.’ She left the hut.
Danae looked after her for a moment, then turned to Telamon. ‘And you?’
He was silent for a while, his brow heavy with thought.
‘There are some truths you cannot come back from. I can’t make sense of everything I have been taught being a lie. The origin of the world, the Titans being evil, the gods creating mankind … the three realms of the afterlife … It doesn’t seem possible. But I know what I saw in the Underworld. And if that part of your story is true, then I suppose the rest of it must be …’ He shook his head. ‘We are heroes, and it wouldn’t be very heroic if we ran from the greatest battle of our lives.’ He braved a small smile. ‘Think of the stories they’ll tell.’
Atalanta nodded, her face grim.
All eyes slid to Heracles. No one voiced what they were all surely thinking. Even if Heracles wished to take up arms against his father and the Olympians, he could not fight as he was. In joining Danae, Telamon and Atalanta were treading a path Heracles could not follow.
Then Telamon gingerly slapped the hero on the back. ‘What say you? Build up your strength then take revenge on your father?’
Danae bit the inside of her lip and glanced at Atalanta. The warrior was watching the two men under knitted brows. Danae could see her own thoughts mirrored in Atalanta’s gaze.
A smile stretched the hero’s wizened cheeks. Then he laughed, a pain-riddled sound that wheezed from him like a rattle. ‘You cannot win.’
Danae pressed her fingers into her palms, nails biting through her skin. ‘We can and we will. It is my destiny.’
Heracles blinked. ‘Whether my father was once mortal or not, does not change what he has become – he is King of the Gods, the most powerful being on earth with the full might of Olympus at his disposal. We are but men.’
‘I am not a man – I am a Titan. And fate is on my side.’
Danae could feel the others’ attention shifting, their eyes turning to her like flowers stretching towards daylight. She remembered the first night she’d spent with Heracles’ crew, huddled amongst the stones of an old ruin outside Corinth. A different girl had sat quivering before those heroes. A stranger who shared her blood, her bones and, though she had not known it, her power. They had travelled to the end of the world and back since then. So much had changed, and yet here they were, the remaining few together once more, ready to undertake the greatest challenge of them all.
But now instead of Heracles, they looked to her.
