The steps curved overhead. I continued up them, tugging on the sleeve of my gown and keeping my face a mask of calm indifference. My mother would be so proud, even if she wouldn’t approve of my methods. High Queen Theia never would have threatened the sacrifice, not even if it was all for show.
I hoped the Olympians’s spies had seen everything they needed to see.I am one of you. The mortals do not matter to me.And perhaps if I repeated my threats enough times, I might be able to convince them of that.
Otherwise, Troy was doomed.
6
SELENE
The oval amphitheatre rose from the craggy hillside. The salt-worn stone cast the scent of petrichor into the warm air, and a brief flash of the dying sunlight illuminated the faded ancient markings carved by the Titans who had roamed this earth centuries ago. The markings spelled out the covenant sworn to the goddess who had created them. To Gaia, who the Olympians hated now.
I slowed as we passed. Though the markings were faded, the words they spelled—in the long-dead language of Doric—were embedded in my mind. Scholars from centuries past had copied them, word for word, so that they would never be forgotten. For a moment, I paused, reached out, touched the stone. A drumbeat of power pulsed against my fingers.
Inwardly, I flinched, but I forced my hand to remain steady. That power was like thunder, roaring through me with a terrifying sound. It felt like it wanted to beat its way into my skin and steal all the blood from my veins.
“Careful, you don’t want anyone to see you touching that thing. They might think your loyalty lies with Gaia,” a voice came from behind me.
I tensed, and this time, it was entirely beyond my control. Because I knew that voice. I’d heard it on the worst night of my life. And then I’d heard it in my dreams for days and weeks long after.
Tugging on my sleeve, I steeled my spine and turned. And there he was. Ares, the vampire king who’d tried to murder me after tossing my mother’s ashes at my feet. He looked just as I remembered him. An ebony cloak whipped around his powerful legs, held in place by a golden clasp beaten into the shape of a boar. Windswept silver hair curled around his ears, and his crimson eyes were vibrant against the sea of stone and graying skies surrounding us.
“Your boat wasn’t in the cove.” I said the first words that sprang onto my tongue.
His gaze roved across my face, but his expression betrayed nothing. “I thought I’d surprise you.”
A moment passed in tense silence. A cough sounded from behind me. Orpheus, trying to get me to remember who I was and why I was here. Ares had no doubt ambushed me on the path to make me feel unsteady before I’d had a chance to enter the palace.
“Move aside, Ares,” I said. “Even if we didn’t have the peace treaty, we’re under the Hellas Agreement during Nekros. No violence is allowed on the Isle of Aiaia. You can’t kill me here.”
“Not unless you were in league with your mother.” He strode toward me, and the guard stepped to the side to let him pass. Ares’s eyes were narrowed, and the looming walls to our side cast ominous shadows on his face.
“I already told you I wasn’t,” I said, dropping my voice into the lowest tone I could muster. I could not show fear, but my heart began to pound anyway. Coming to Aiaia, I’d known the monarchs would play their little games, but I didn’t think it would happen within moments of my arrival.
Ares stepped closer, invading all my space until he was only a breath away, the edges of his cloak rustling against my legs. I swallowed and tipped back my head, forcing myself to keep eye contact.
Do not show weakness. Do not show fear. Do not look away.
“You’re a liar,” Ares murmured, so low only I could hear him. “And I’ll prove it. You’ll end up just like your mother.”
I lifted my chin. “You might not find it so easy to kill me. And the others will not allow anything to go off course for Nekros—”
“The other Olympians? You are nothing to them. Nothing but a stain on our rule. The thirteenth crown should belong to one of us, not to you.” He shook his head and laughed, but there was only darkness in the sound. No light.
“Then go ahead and try,” I hissed.
A pained cough sounded from behind us. Orpheus wanted to help, but he couldn’t. No monarch worth her salt would need her advisor to protect her from an enemy. Not that Orpheus could do much if it truly came to a fight. He only wielded instruments or pens, not swords. Fighting was not his duty.
“Tell me. If you are not like your mother, then what do you plan to do with that sacrifice?” For the first time since we’d come face-to-face, his eyes briefly shifted away from mine. They flicked toward Orpheus and the human.
Time seemed to slow as my vampiric instincts flared to life. My fingers tensed. The weight of the wooden dagger strapped to my thigh seemed to anchor me to the spot. Orpheus had instructed my seamstress to sew a slit on one side but to keep the fabric hanging heavily enough that most would never notice it. I could toss the skirts aside, grab the dagger, and stab Ares in the heart before he had an inkling of what was happening.
If he planned to kill me, I could kill him first.
His crimson eyes rushed back to me, and a low chuckle rumbled in his throat. “Don’t think I didn’t notice the slit in your skirts, where you no doubt have a weapon hiding. Tempted to stab me, are you? I thought you came here to demonstrate that you’re one of us now.”
“Being ‘one of you’ means arming myself. The twelve of you have made that more than clear.”
He arched a brow. “And the sacrifice?”
