I would have done it, too. I would have brought the lycanthropes here so they could kill Zeus. Gladly. But instead, everything about this plan felt like a violation. She’d never given me a choice.
“Why didn’t she tell me?” I whispered, tears dripping down my cheeks. Quickly, I brushed them aside. “Why didn’tyou?”
“I was going to, but then…” Orpheus reached for me, but the chains stopped him short. “I decided we shouldn’t go through with it. It was too much of a risk, and you are far too precious to me, Selene. I love you as if you were my own daughter.”
“Oh, Orpheus.” I slumped forward, palming the cold stone. My mind spun, remembering broken pieces of old conversations, hearing my mother’s song echoing in my mind. Orpheus said she’d been planning this for months, but it went back much further than that. When I’d been nothing but a child, she’d begun shaping me into this weapon. Her darling albatross, who carried a full moon wherever she went.
She should have told me.
Boots tapped the floor behind me. Instantly, I was on my feet, blocking the new arrival from seeing Orpheus. Ares stood in the doorway. He held his sword in his hands.
“Move aside, Selene,” he said with quiet resignation.
I lifted my chin. “No.”
“Then I’ll have to ask him from here.” He raised his voice, though he needn’t have bothered. With the deadly silence of the room, Orpheus was well aware of every word he spoke. “Who harmed Hestia? Was it the wolves?”
“Yes, yes. They’ve been behind it all, I’m afraid.”
“There,” I said. “Are you happy?”
“Was that part of the plan from the beginning?” Ares asked, ignoring me. “You thought you would take her and what? Make the monarchs distrust each other?”
A pause. “Essentially, yes. Theia thought if you blamed each other for something like Hestia’s death, you’d start a war between yourselves long before the lycans attacked. That meant there’d be less of you for them to worry about. I’ll admit, they did plan to murder her instead of abduct her, but I convinced them to wait until—”
“You convinced them towait.” Ares’s hands tightened into fists, and his jaw went hard. “So you and Theia planned this. And part of that plan involved killing Hestiaeventually.”
My heart throbbed. “Don’t answer that, Orpheus.”
“No,” Ares shot back. “If he has any measure of honor, he will tell me if he planned on my sister’s death.”
Orpheus heaved a sigh. “I am afraid so.”
“No,” I said, spinning around to face him. “Orpheus, please take that back. You weren’t involved in this. You tried to stop it. You—”
“I might have tried to stop it in the end, but it was only to keep you safe. For years, I schemed with your mother. No matter what I’ve done these past few weeks, I’m responsible for this.”
“Selene,” Ares said from behind me. “Move aside.”
I turned back to face him. “No, I won’t. I know you’re angry, but harming Orpheus isn’t the answer.”
He pointed a shaking finger at the chained man behind me. “He would have killed her in the end, but she wasn’t the only victim. We blamed Hera for her death, and Zeus put her on trial because of it. She died because of Orpheus. Poseidon, too. Now move aside.”
Ares went to move past me. And before I even understood what I was doing, I flipped up the blade he’d given me, and I pointed it at his heart.
“I can’t let you do this,” I whispered, even as tears brushed my cheeks. “He’s important to me.Please, I’m begging you, Ares. Please don’t kill him.”
An anguish look twisted Ares’s face. “You would choose him?”
The world seemed to tip sideways, and I finally understood why our entwined fate could only end in death. Even if we tried, even if we wanted everything to be different, we’d always been on opposite sides. We always would be. There was no fighting it or escaping that path. Only hours ago, I’d been in his bed, and he’d gazed at me with pure adoration. It hadn’t taken long for that to change.
Look at us now.
“I’m sorry,” I whispered, failing to hold back the tears. “It turns out the Fates were right all along.”
“It seems so.” He reached out, caressing my cheek with his thumb. “And I want you to know I’m truly sorry for what must happen next. In a different world, I never would have done this. But you never would have chosen Orpheus, either.”
“What do you mean?” But the words were barely out of my mouth before his whistle filled the air.
