Winter of the Gods

by Jordanna Max Brodsky

  But she’d refused.

  She’d thought when she saw Theo in his golden cap and flashing sword that maybe there could be a future for them. But then he’d almost died. Again. She’d saved him, but it would just be a matter of time before she couldn’t.

  Already, Dash—or Scooter, as he now called himself—had reported that the police had found only three bodies on the charred torch. They had to assume Saturn was still alive, and likely headed to Greece to chase down Zeus, his final target, with the help of the cult’s other branches. He would have to be stopped.

  Flint would come with her. She knew that for a certainty. She’d known it the moment she’d ripped free of his golden net.

  When Flint’s whip had transformed into a javelin, she’d finally been able to decipher the pictures etched into the gold. A single, continuous story spiraled its length. Artemis’s story. Her birth on the island of Delos. Sunlit days dancing at her brother’s side on the crest of Mount Kynthos with her mother’s smile to lift their song. Moonlit nights running wild across the groves of Attica with her nymphs beside her. And more. Diana, presiding over her temple outside Rome, then haunting its shattered remains as her acolytes turned to other gods. Wandering through Europe in the Diaspora, finding solace in the wild places. Then Phoebe Hautman crossing an ocean to Mana-hatta. Dianne Delia, watching a country spring to life. And so many others. Cynthia Forrester protecting her city from harm. Selene DiSilva walking the riverside. Alone.

  Hephaestus had claimed he couldn’t invent new divine weapons. When the necklace became a whip, she’d wondered at that. But when she’d seen the engravings, she knew he’d been working on it for millennia. The necklace wasn’t new—and neither was his love for her.

  Flint walked toward them down the path, his stride steady on new titanium braces but his body hunched against the just-healed wound on his stomach. She would let him love her. She would accept that gift from him, just as she’d accepted the necklace now lying against her collarbone. And in return, she’d found a space in her heart for him. Not a lover’s place, not yet, but something nearly as precious and rare—a friend.

  That night on the riverbank, not far from where Theo now sat huddled beneath his blanket with another woman at his side, Selene had opened herself to love. She couldn’t close that door, not now.

  Flint stood before her and held out an arm to help her to her feet. She was still weak. She looked older than she had before, but Flint didn’t seem to mind. The lightning had carved a scar upon her chest. A ragged oval, like the outline of Apollo’s laurel tree. It would not heal. She didn’t want it to.

  “We should get going,” Flint said in a gravelly rumble as she gently removed her hand from his. “Phil, your flight to Paris leaves in two hours. And Scooter said we can catch a flight to Athens that leaves later tonight.” He looked meaningfully at his stepsister. “He just needs to know what name to put on your passport.”

  She didn’t answer. Philippe packed his small bow into a satchel and slung it across his shoulder. Her own bow—recovered by Scooter, the Giver of Good Things, as he ran from the Statue of Liberty—was already packed beside Flint’s hammer, ready for their flight across the ocean.

  She turned to look over the wall and down to the riverside. The top of Theo’s head leaned just an inch closer to Ruth’s than it had before. She opened her mouth, desperate to shout his name. Wanting him to turn around so she could see his face one more time. Instead, it was Hippo who tasted the air, then leaped to her feet and turned toward her mistress, tail wagging furiously. Theo twisted around to look in the direction of Hippo’s sniffing.

  For an instant, she saw his face. Pointed chin, floppy hair, haunted eyes. A mouth whose taste she still remembered on her lips. She stepped out of sight before he could see her.

  Good-bye, my hero, my love.

  Flint was waiting for her. As they walked, she said, “Tell Scooter that Selene DiSilva is dead. Tell him Selene Aidnos is going to Athens.”

  Philippe frowned at her. “Aidnos? Like Greek for ‘darkness’? So depressing …”

  “How about Neomenia, instead?” offered Flint, his voice gentler than she’d ever heard it.

  Selene Neomenia. Selene, goddess of the New Moon. Darkness that grows once more into light.

  “I like it.”

  She couldn’t smile, not yet, but she knew that someday, she would.

  AUTHOR’S NOTE

  Mithraism flourished in the Roman Empire between the first and fourth centuries, around the same time that the new religion of Christianity began its ascent. An all-male Mystery Cult, Mithraism spread as far afield as England, carried there by members of the Roman legions as they conquered the world. The seven major ranks of initiates as described in Winter of the Gods are all depicted in numerous surviving mosaics and frescoes. Only one ancient source, however, mentions the female Hyaena. If she ever existed, she has been largely forgotten; I couldn’t resist giving her a life of her own.

  Scholars estimate that hundreds, perhaps thousands, of mithraea existed across the Roman Empire. Today, the remains of some of those secret temples are easily accessible to the public, such as the chamber beneath the Basilica of San Clemente in Rome or the sixteen mithraea still extant in the nearby archeological site of Ostia Antica. Others are open only one day a month by reservation, such as the spectacular remains beneath the Church of Santa Prisca. For a comprehensive database, with images included, of Mithraic artifacts and temples, check out mithraeum.eu. My website, jordannamaxbrodsky.com, contains a collection of photos from the sites I’ve personally visited.

  The bull-killing scene, or tauroctony, exists in nearly every Mithraic temple. Scholars have debated its meaning for a very long time. Franz Cumont, the cult’s first modern interpreter, theorized that Mithras was merely a reinvention of the Persian god Mithra. Current scholars see Mithraism as a primarily Roman creation instead, but their explanations of the tauroctony vary. In 1991, David Ulansey presented a compelling, comprehensive interpretation of the tauroctony in The Origins of the Mithraic Mysteries: Cosmology and Salvation in the Ancient World. Theo and Minh’s epiphanies about the shift of the equinoxes and the astronomical significance behind the tauroctony are based almost entirely on Ulansey’s groundbreaking work. Apologies to him—and to all Mithraic scholars—for the simplifications and generalizations I’ve used to fit their theories into my work of fiction. If you’d like a more detailed understanding of the cult, you can read Ulansey’s excellent articles at mysterium.com.

  The connection between Mithras and Jesus proposed in Winter of the Gods is inspired by actual theories. The two figures do have a number of corresponding characteristics, such as participating in a ritual feast, ascending to heaven, and an association with the sun. These similarities have led some academics over the years to theorize that early Christians may have been highly influenced by Mithraism. Some conspiracy theorists have latched on to this correlation and decided that Christianity is no more than an imitation of this “pagan” rite. However, most current scholars maintain that the religions’ similarities arose because they evolved in the same era with the same influences, rather than due to any direct interaction. Since we will never know the full extent of the connection between the two religions, there remains plenty of room for a novelist’s imagination.

  The Piacenza liver is real, its inscriptions referring either to the Etruscan gods or to astronomical charts. Most scholars agree that its primary use was as a teaching tool for haruspicy, but don’t get too excited—its secrets are so deeply buried by time that it’s not about to reveal any earth-shattering omens.

  While I’ve taken licenses with the landscape of classical scholarship, I’ve tried to remain as true as possible to the geography of New York. All the locations (with the exceptions of the underground mithraeum and the bootlegger’s tunnel beneath Selene’s house) are real. Anyone can (and should) visit the Rose Center for Earth and Space, the Prometheus and Atlas statues, and the breathtaking Top of the Rock observa
tion deck. Brunch at the Rainbow Room will cost you a small fortune, but the views are indeed spectacular—and so are the poached eggs. Although illegal to enter, an Amtrak tunnel runs down the West Side to Penn Station (as many of the city’s more intrepid urban explorers can attest). Governors Island is as described—except for Mars’s lair beneath Castle Williams, which is wholly fictional. North Brother Island, now an inaccessible bird sanctuary, was indeed a quarantine hospital and the site of the wreck of the General Slocum. Check out the fascinating RadioLab episode “Patient Zero” and photos of the island at radiolab.org. For images of the derelict hotel that houses Flint’s forge, read Pablo Maurer’s article, “Abandoned NY: Inside Grossinger’s Crumbling Catskill Resort Hotel” on gothamist.com. And if you want to know more about the War of 1812 blockhouse, head to the northwest corner of Central Park or see photos of it on my website.

  Since 9/11, you need a reservation to get into the Statue of Liberty’s crown—often made months in advance. From inside, New York’s Colossus seems both more intimate and more impressive: a thin sheet of copper folded into the visage of a deity. If Winter of the Gods has whetted your appetite for getting inside the head of a goddess, I suggest you make the trip to Liberty Island for yourself. Gazing out the windows of the crown at Lower Manhattan, towering far above the harbor, you feel divine indeed.

  Jordanna Max Brodsky

  New York, NY

  July 2016

  By Jordanna Max Brodsky

  OLYMPUS BOUND

  The Immortals

  Winter of the Gods

  Olympus Bound

  Praise for

  JORDANNA MAX BRODSKY

  Praise for The Immortals

  “Wonderful.”

  —Library Journal (starred review)

  “Thrumming with life.”

  —B&N Sci-Fi & Fantasy Blog

  “Brodsky’s thriller feeds on the long-held love of Greek mythology in a reimagined present-day world where gods and goddesses still walk among us.”

  —Booklist

  “Irresistible… a page-turner that deftly weaves action, romance, and a dash of intellectual heft into one seamless whole.”

  —Dustin Thomason, New York Times bestselling coauthor of The Rule of Four

  “A fun… treatment of myth and mystery.”

  —Kirkus

  “Bravo to Brodsky for developing such a complex tale… One to watch!”

  —RT Book Reviews

  “Brilliantly conceived and tautly plotted… a pulse-thrumming, fascinating novel. Selene is a perfect heroine for our times.”

  —Eliot Schrefer, New York Times bestselling author of Endangered

  “Done with great panache and intelligence.”

  —Guardian

  “Imaginative and fast-paced… pulse-pounding entertainment.”

  —Kevin O’Brien, New York Times bestselling author of No One Needs to Know

  “Intelligent, provocative fantasy breathes exciting new life into old, familiar tales.”

  —Publishers Weekly (starred review)

  “An engaging premise, a page-turning plot, and an eye for the arresting and uncanny in contemporary urban life.”

  —Deborah Harkness, New York Times bestselling author of A Discovery of Witches

  “Brodsky’s writing has claws… They sink in with the first word and don’t let go until you are finished with the book.”

  —Darynda Jones, New York Times bestselling author of First Grave on the Right

  “A richly imaginative, multi-layered tale that stimulates the heart and the mind in equal measure.”

  —Ian Caldwell, New York Times bestselling author of The Fifth Gospel

  Praise for Winter of the Gods

  “Stellar… intelligent, versatile, and esoteric… a satisfying adventure that remains true to the spirit of the original myths while granting them several millennia of weight, consequence, and even regret.”

  —Publishers Weekly (starred review)

  “Another winning combination of gritty crime procedural and intellectually stimulating urban fantasy.”

  —B&N Sci-Fi & Fantasy Blog

  “Readers who enjoy detective fiction, ancient Greco-Roman myth, and a bit of romance will enjoy this series.”

  —Booklist

  “Cleverly examines mythology and religion while still giving readers a thrill-packed adventure.”

  —Bookish

  The story continues in…

  Olympus Bound

  Book 3 of the Olympus Bound series

  Keep reading for a sneak peek!

  APPENDIX

  Olympians and Other Immortals

  Roman names follow the Greek, along with traditional astronomical symbols where applicable. Note that the ancients knew of only five planets, thus only their symbols have been included.

  Aphrodite/Venus : Goddess of Erotic Love and Beauty. One of the Twelve Olympians. Born of sea foam after Kronos castrates his father, Ouranos, and throws his genitals into the ocean. Wife of Hephaestus and lover of Ares. Called Laughter-Loving. Attributes: dove, scallop shell, mirror.

  Apollo/Apollo: God of Light, Music, Healing, Prophecy, Poetry, Archery, Civilization, Plague, and the Sun. One of the Twelve Olympians. Leader of the Muses. Twin brother of Artemis. Son of Leto and Zeus. Born on the island of Delos. Called Phoebus (“Bright One”). Attributes: silver bow, laurel wreath, lyre. Modern alias: Paul Solson.

  Ares/Mars : God of War, Bloodlust, and Manly Courage. One of the Twelve Olympians. Son of Zeus and Hera. Lover of Aphrodite. Often considered the father of Eros. Called Man-Slayer, Battle-Insatiate. Attributes: armor, spear, poisonous serpent. Modern alias: Martin Bell.

  Artemis/Diana: Goddess of the Wilderness, the Hunt, Virginity, Wild Animals, Hounds, Young Children, and the Moon. One of the Twelve Olympians. Twin sister of Apollo. Daughter of Leto and Zeus. Born on the island of Delos. Called Phoebe, Cynthia. Has many epithets including Huntress, Swiftly Bounding, Protector of the Innocent, and more. Attributes: golden bow, hounds. Modern aliases: Phoebe Hautman, Dianne Delia, Cynthia Forrester, Selene DiSilva, and more.

  Asclepius/Aesculapius: Hero-God of Medicine. Son of Apollo and the mortal princess Coronis. Worshiped in the Eleusinian Mysteries and many other cults. Attribute: a snake-twined staff.

  Athena/Minerva: Goddess of Wisdom, Crafts, and Justified War. One of the Twelve Olympians. Virgin. Attributes: helmet, shield, owl.

  Atlas: Brother of Prometheus and leader of the Titans in the war against the Olympians. As punishment, Zeus condemned him to hold up the heavens on his shoulders for eternity. His name translates literally as “Endures.” Attribute: celestial sphere.

  Cybele/Magna Mater: The Great Mother, originally a primal nature deity from Asia Minor, later incorporated into the Greco-Roman pantheon. Mother of all gods, humans, and animals. Attributes: tall crown, lions.

  Demeter/Ceres: Goddess of Grain and Agriculture. One of the Twelve Olympians. Daughter of Kronos and Rhea. Sister of Zeus. Mother of Persephone. Called Bountiful, Bringer of Seasons. Attributes: wheat sheaves, torch.

  Dionysus/Bacchus: God of Wine, Wild Plants, Festivity, Theater. One of the Twelve Olympians. Son of Zeus and Semele, a mortal. Called Phallic, He Who Unties, He of the Wild Revels. Attributes: grape vine, thyrsus (a pinecone-tipped staff), leopard. Modern alias: Dennis Boivin.

  Eris/Discordia: Goddess of Strife. Often considered a sister to Ares. She haunts battlefields, reveling in bloodshed.

  Eros/Cupid: God of Love. Son of Aphrodite and Ares. Commonly portrayed as a winged infant, although sometimes as a youth. Attributes: wings, bow. Modern alias: Philippe Amata.

  Gaia: Primeval Earth Divinity. Mother to all. Consort of Ouranos, the Sky.

  Hades/Pluto: God of the Underworld, Death, and Wealth. Son of Kronos and Rhea. Brother of Zeus. Husband of Persephone. Called Receiver of Many, Lord of the Dead, Hidden One. Attributes: helm of invisibility, bird-tipped scepter. Modern alias: Aiden McKelvey.

  Hecate: Goddess of Crossro
ads, Dark Magic, Night, and the Moon. Sometimes identified as an aspect of Artemis. Often portrayed as a three-faced goddess or, occasionally, as a maiden in hunting attire. Called Lady of the Underworld, Night-Wandering, Terrible One. Attributes: two torches.

  Helios/Sol/Sol Invictus : God and embodiment of the Sun. Also identified with Apollo, who has dominion over the sun. The Romans revered him as Sol Invictus, the “Invincible Sun,” and celebrated his birthday on December 25. Attributes: seven-rayed crown.

  Hephaestus/Vulcan: God of the Forge, Fire, and Volcanoes. One of the Twelve Olympians. Son of Hera, born parthenogenically. Lamed when thrown off Olympus by Zeus, walks with a crutch. Called the Smith, the Sooty God, He of Many Arts and Skills, Lame One. Attributes: hammer, tongs. Modern alias: Flint Hamernik.

  Hera/Juno: Queen of the Gods. Goddess of Women, Marriage, and the Heavens. One of the Twelve Olympians. Daughter of Kronos and Rhea. Sister and jealous wife of Zeus. Mother of Ares and Hephaestus. Known as “white-armed.” Attributes: crown, peacock, lotus-tipped staff.

  Hermes/Mercury : God of Thieves, Liars, Travel, Communication, Hospitality, Eloquence, and Athletics. One of the Twelve Olympians. Son of Zeus and a nymph, Maya. Herald to the gods. Called Messenger, Giver of Good Things, Trickster, Dissembler, Many-Turning, Busy One. Attributes: caduceus (staff twined with snakes), winged sandals, winged cap. Modern alias: Dash Mercer.