It was a flicker at first, a distortion in the light like heat rising from pavement. But as the Skal stared, paralyzed by divine awe, the image sharpened.
Superimposed over the plain, severe face of Keeper Marissa was another face.
It was beautiful and terrible. A woman with skin like polished marble and eyes that burned with a cold, white fire. She wore a crown, not of gold, but of peacock feathers and woven stars. Shewas taller than Marissa, grander, her presence filling the room until the cavern felt like a closet.
The overlay didn't move like a puppet; it moved like the master. Marissa was just the suit. The vessel.
Queen,the Skal whimpered in the depths of its mind.The Mother.
Recognition slammed into me with the force of a falling star.
I knew that face. There were statues of it in the archive's restricted section. Descriptions of her in the texts Theron had hidden. She wasn't just an Olympian. She wasn't just a general or a soldier.
She was the Matron. The one who presided over marriage, birth, and the sanctity of bloodlines.
Hera.
Or at least, an avatar of her. A shard of the Queen of the Gods, wearing my tormentor like a second skin.
The realization washed over me, freezing the marrow in my bones. The breeding program. The obsession with the Pandoros blood. The redundancy. It wasn't just the Council trying to maintain a lock. It wasHer.
She hadn't hidden. She had been there the whole time, watching me on the table, guiding the instruments, ensuring that the line would continue so the bait remained fresh.
Through the Skal’s eyes, the goddess-avatar looked directly at the creature. And then she lookedthroughit.
Her cold, white eyes locked onto the Skal’s vision, and I felt her gaze travel up the psychic tether, lightning fast, hunting the source of the override.
She saw me.
Across the distance, across the link, she saw me huddled in the dark tunnel with her enemies.
The face overlapping Marissa’s finally smiled, and it was a look of pure, terrifying possession.
Found you, little vessel,a voice echoed in my skull. It sounded like bells tolling for a funeral.
She flicked her wrist.
A pulse of white power sought to travel up the line, to touch my mind, perhaps even control it, just as I had taken control of the Skal’s.
I panicked. I slammed the mental door shut, severing the connection with a violence that felt like chopping off my own limb.
"Aria!"
My scream tore my throat raw as I snapped back into my body.
I fell, thrashing, the phantom sensation of white fire licking at the edges of my mind. Strong arms caught me, Kaelen and Thane, holding me down as I convulsed.
"Not right," I gasped, clutching Kaelen’s tunic, pulling him close until our foreheads touched. I was hyperventilating, tears streaming down my face from the sheer psychic shock. "She's here, but not here."
"Who?" Kaelen demanded, his hand cupping the back of my head, dragon fire flaring hot against my skin to chase away the cold. "Who is here?"
I looked at them. The Dragon, the Wolf, the Bear, the Phoenix. The bait.
And now I knew who had set the hook.
"Marissa," I choked out, the name tasting like ash. "It isn't just Marissa. It’s Hera."
The silence in the tunnel was absolute. Even Flynn stopped breathing, seeming to freeze in place.
