“What’s this?” Perseus strode toward us from the shadows, his steel armor clinking with every step. An intense fear swept through me, prickling my skin. He tucked his helm under one arm, nostrils flared as if he were scenting the air. His dark hair curled like strands of ink around his sharply pointed ears as a breeze suddenly swept across the courtyard. The cold bite of it scraped my skin.
“Perseus,” Sirius said dryly. “I can’t say I’m surprised to find you lurking around.”
“Andromeda ordered to keep an eye on that one.” He inclined his head toward me. “Imagine my surprise when I spot her chatting withyou.”
“Yes, me. What of it?”
“You’re not to interfere.”
“Interfere with the third trial, you mean,” I said.
Perseus turned toward me, his dour expression shifting to something more akin to surprise. It had been a guess, but I could see I was right. This wasn’t a sneaky test to determine my willingness to remain in Malroch. It was—like the two previous trials—designed to erode any lingering goodness inside me. Letting the caged man die meant destroying another piece of my soul.
Shewastrying to turn me into one of them.
“Does that mean you’ve made your choice?” Perseus asked. “Are you going to save the man in the cage, or are you going to let him die?”
“How is it a choice when I can’t leave the city walls?”
“There are those who would attempt to save him, no matter how doomed their quest. I thought you would be one of them.” His armor creaked as he lowered his helm over his face. “Come along, then. I’ll take you to Andromeda.”
“Wait,” I quickly said. Perseus paused, but my words were meant for Sirius. “What didyouthink I would do?”
The God of Pestilence cocked his head. Clearly, he hadn’t expected me to ask his opinion. “You are the Daughter of Death, but I must admit, I expected you to attempt to save him. Turns out you’re more like Andromeda than I thought.”
“Then you’re mistaken,” I said.
As I fell into step beside Perseus, the strange god in his creaking armor motioned at the looming stone building before us and said, “If you want to save him, you’re heading in the wrong direction.”
“Just take me to Andromeda.”
His helm shifted, and I could have sworn it looked like he nodded. It was an eerily deferential act coming from an immortal being who could crush me beneath the weight of my worst fears. As we walked up the steps, I noticed that uneasy feeling I had around him, that cold, dark hiss against my skin, was gone. I took in his armor, his helm. Was that why he kept himself fully covered most of the time?
“You have a plan,” he said, his voice slightly muffled by the helm.
I didn’t deign to respond. Instead, I kept my ears as attuned to the sounds of the city as I could. So far, I had yet to hear the gurgling screams of a man being torn apart, piece by piece, and so I could only assume—and hope—that Andromeda was waiting to see what I would say when we reached her.
Thankfully, it didn’t take long to find out. Perseus bypassed the Great Hall and led me to a study where Andromeda was flipping through several sheets of parchment that looked like maps. I couldn’t see the details of them in the dim lighting. Located beside the interior stairwell, the room had no windows, only a few flickering candles. I couldn’t help but think it would have worked well as a bedroom in Teine, if it weren’t for the portraits of the gods hanging along the wall behind the desk.
But there was something about the frantic brush strokes that transformed the gods’ faces into only a passing resemblance of what they were. It was as if the painter had been in a hurry. Somehow, the result made them look less like otherworldly creatures and more like regular fae one might encounter wandering the streets of Dubnos.
The most unnerving thing about the portraits was Andromeda’s beaming smile. She actually looked happy.
“Well done, Tessa. You’ve passed your third trial,” she said, almost dismissively. “You may visit the docks and enjoy the market. Will three hours be enough?”
“I want to discuss the man’s life.”
Her head jerked up. The hand clutching the maps dropped to the table. Now I could see a few details. On the top sheet of parchment, a handful of islands were clustered at the western edge of Aesir.Star Isles. What did she want with them?
“You want todiscusshis life?” She wrinkled her nose in disdain. “You realize if you try to save him, you fail my trial.”
“It just seems like such a waste.”
“Not a waste. His blood and flesh will fuel Callisto’s beasts. Do you dare deny them of that?”
Interesting.
“No, let them feast.” I ignored the pounding in my head at my words, the wave of nausea that swept through me. What I was about to propose filled me with a horrifying revulsion I knew I’d not soon forget, but the alternative was…well, there wasn’t one, as far as I could tell. “After they have their fill, I’ll bring him back to life. I can tell him I did it against your will. He’d be forever indebted to me, which means he’ll do anything I ask of him.”
