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Clive’s brow furrowed. He glanced at Vlad, who appeared to be fighting a smile.

“She had two massive dogs with her—also black—and she told George not to do anything to wreck the mission or whatever. She said if we did, she’d kill us.”

Red lights fired in Benvair’s eyes.

“Oh!” Owen said again. “And she said they’ve been waiting thousands of years for this, which is why they didn’t want us messing it up.”

Clive and Vlad shared another look.

“They’ve been waiting thousands of years?” Clive repeated.

Owen nodded.

“For a twenty-five-year-old?” he clarified.

Owen shrugged, looking at George for help.

“I took that to mean they’ve been waiting thousands of years for this event to happen,” George told them, “not for Sam to be here.”

“I see,” Clive responded, recalling that text Sam had received from Meg. “Go on.”

“That was it,” Owen said. “We promised we wouldn’t go in. She disappeared. And then we came up those scary-ass stairs of death.”

“Interesting,” Clive murmured. “Do we have any idea who she was?”

Owen looked at George and Alec before shaking his head. “We looked up the symbols associated with different goddesses, but there’s a lot of overlap and it seems to depend on whose version you’re reading. This goddess was all in black. She had a silver belt with thin chains that hung down. One had a crescent moon and the other had a key.”

“Hmm.” Vlad brushed his fingers over his mustache in thought. “Stheno would be the first to remind us that what we know about the gods was written by humans, so most of it is wrong. If we follow the threads of what we do know, though, Meg asks for Sam’s help. Meg works for Hades. Sam arrives and is sent into the Underworld, Hades’ domain. Thanatos and Hypnos, gods associated with Hades, arrive to make sure the four go on their journey and that the vampires don’t gum up the works.

“Artemis, a goddess connected to the moon, lends a hand. Now, that could be because Sam is a werewolf and tied to the moon or there could be something else at work. We don’t know who the goddess at the airport was, but, again, she helped make this journey happen, so I think we can assume she’s on Hades’ side.”

Owen turned to George. “I wish I had one of those suspect boards they have on cop shows. We could add all the gods and goddesses and start connecting them with red string.”

Vlad tapped his forehead. “It’s all mapped out up here. So, given the goddess in black didn’t want you to screw up the quest, we can probably label her as a friend of Hades. The moon symbol could mean it was Artemis again, but that seems unlikely.”

“Why?” Alec asked.

“Artemis isn’t described as having black hair or wearing black robes. This goddess also had a key on her. The fact that she seems to be working on Hades’ side and that she wears a moon and a key lead me to guess that was Hecate.”

It was quiet for a few moments while they all began piecing together their own suspect boards.

“What about Aphrodite?” Fyr asked.

Vlad’s brow furrowed. “What about her? She’s not connected to Hades. Her loyalties lie with Zeus, I believe.”

Clive turned to his friend. “I had no idea you were such an authority on Greek mythology.”

Vlad shrugged a shoulder. “I have a lot of time on my hands during the day to read.” He turned back to Fyr. “Why do you ask about her?”

Fyr relayed his encounter with the gods to Clive and Vlad, leaving out the part about his heart being taken. “I was thinking, though, as you were talking about connections. When her husband came—assuming I’m right about the two of them—he said that she couldn’t ruin this for him, that it’d gone on for too long. At first, I thought he meant me, but I haven’t been waiting for anything that she could ruin.”

Owen’s eyebrows rose at that and Fyr gave him an annoyed look before continuing. “Later, though, when I was sitting on the cliff, I started to wonder if it might have been Hades they were talking about.”

“And either one of them?” Alec began. “Is that Hades and Persephone?” He turned to Clive. “I’ve been reading too.”

Vlad hmmed, considering. “This possible Aphrodite asked why she should care?”

Fyr nodded.