by Jasmine Walt
“On the tablet,” I continued as the memories and the depictions on the tablet collided, “the wheat all around your heads and feet is a representation of the people who died. Hundreds were sacrificed to bring you into the world.”
“No,” Poseidon stated grimly. His square jaw was steely, but his clear eyes darkened. “Not hundreds of people. Thousands of human lives were taken to make way for us. Hades and Demeter were forged in the city of Atlantis. Hestia and I were brought forth in Memphis, Egypt. And Hera and Zeus came to life in Pompeii.”
Atlantis, Egypt, Pompeii? “All those cities had civilizations that vanished,” I said.
Bet looked over at me as though to say I told you so. But when a tremor wracked Demeter’s shoulders, he turned and laced his long fingers with her shaking hands.
“Our father took human souls to give us life,” Poseidon said. “We are made of stolen souls.”
“But that’s not how we live our lives,” Demeter insisted. “We only take the willing, I told you. And we don’t take their lives; we don’t need to. They share their souls with us. It sustains us longer and allows us to give them long life. We are not parasites.”
“But Hera’s going to try to raise your parents with unwilling souls,” I said. “Why?”
“I don’t know.” Demeter shook her head. “I don’t know what she’s thinking.”
“Your mother was calling out to me from the grave . . . or wherever a goddess goes when they are no longer worshipped. She knew this was happening. She knew what Hera planned to do.”
“Our mother still maintains a connection to each of us,” Hestia answered. “She sacrificed herself so we could continue living.”
“I thought Zeus saved you all from your father?”
“Our father had no care for humans,” Hades said. “He looked at them as food.”
“Perhaps that’s why he fell out of favor.” I said the words lightly, but grave faces stared back at me. I kept forgetting this was a sore spot with these people.
“He felt himself fading,” Demeter said, “because the humans no longer called upon his name. And so, he turned to his children. We still called upon his name. So he tried to steal our very essence back. Zuzu was the last of his children he tried to consume. Zuzu was able to evade our father’s treachery because of our mother’s insight and rescue us.”
“Zeus was able to get your father to release your souls?”
Demeter shook her head. “I told you, we don’t have souls. Cronus pulled the humans’ souls he’d sacrificed to create us straight from our bodies, leaving us as empty shells. Without the energy, we simply ceased to exist. Our bodies fell where we stood. We would have become mounds in the earth like our parents are now. Our minds were in the darkness. We were together, but so far apart. It was terrifying.”
“How did Zeus free you?”
“The same way you would kill a demon. Zeus stabbed our father in the eyes with a lightning bolt. We were reborn—truly reborn. We never made another demon after that. Everyone comes to us of their own free will. It’s a choice.”
I believed her. “What about your mother?”
“She shared some of what was left of herself with our father. But it wasn’t enough for their existence to last very long. It soothed him, though, and they both came to rest in Eleusis.”
“She stayed with him after what he’d done to her children?” I asked.
Demeter shrugged. “She still loved him. Who understands what the heart wants?” Her gaze slid to Bet’s. Then, realizing they had an audience, the two of them jerked away as though they’d been caught with their hands in the cookie jar.
“Anyway,” Demeter continued, “you were horrified when you learned how we came to be. I suppose that’s when you made the Ninnion Tablet. Then you forgot us. And here we are again.”
“The dirt doesn’t lie,” I said, reciting the one constant truth in my life. No matter what people tried to hide, it would one day be dug up and revealed to all. “Did you take the tablet from the museum?”
“I did,” Demeter admitted. “I didn’t like having my greatest shame on display for all to see, even if most people didn’t know what it meant.”
I tilted my head back against the headrest and closed my eyes. More people keeping secrets from me. And because of it, more humans were about to die.
We pulled up to Eleusis and the temple, then filed out of the car. There was a crowd of humans out amidst the ruins. There were far more than a hundred people—closer to two hundred, maybe even three—spread out among the grassy knolls and fallen stones. The party was in full swing. People were dressed in their clubbing finest, as well as in old Greek garb to resemble the gods. Girls sashayed their bodies in peplos. Guys wearing togas made lewd gestures. There were even a few bare-chested men with shields and swords trying to emulate the Spartans.
Standing atop the highest pillar on the mound at the center of the ruins was Hera. As though she sensed her siblings, she turned to us. Even from this distance, I saw her glowing eyes narrow.
“Hera,” Demeter shouted. Music blared, people yelled, but I got the sense that Hera heard her sister loud and clear. “Hera, stop this now.”
Hera turned away from Demeter with a haughty defiance. She raised her arms up into the night’s sky. A ripple went through the crowd. The spines of every person dancing and drinking straightened. As one, they turned to face Hera. Their eyes glowed brightly, just like the initiates during the rites a few nights ago before their souls were offered up to the gods.
But it wasn’t a joyous hum that sang through the crowd. This energy rubbed my skin the wrong way. It left behind a foul taste in my mouth. It burned my eyes. When the sickening hum died down, hundreds of blackened, red-rimmed eyes turned on us.
“Shit,” said one of the Olympians. I wasn’t sure which one. It may have been all of them.
24
Four gods, two Immortals, a Spartan warrior, and a human woman walked into a temple. It sounded like the beginning of a bad joke. But I stood in the reality of it. The eight of us faced off against one neglected deity and a horde of mindless humans who were now under her control. This was not how I’d planned to spend this evening.
“We have to get to her,” Demeter said. “We can still reason with her.”
“Demi, she’s stolen hundreds of souls.” Hestia looked aghast. “She’s past reasoning.”
“Nia,” Loren called beside me.
“Loren, hold on.” I kept my attention on the gods and goddesses before me.
“We can’t kill her,” Demi cried.
“It looks like she’s about to try to kill us,” Hades stated.
“But she can’t kill us,” Demeter said. “We’re family.”
“I seem to remember you saying the same thing just before Father dearest swallowed you whole,” Poseidon pointed out.
“Nia,” Loren said again. Her voice sounded panicked. I’d never heard Loren sound that way. I turned to her. Panic rose in my own chest when I saw why.
Her eyes were slowly turning black, the blue receding and red bleeding around the edges. It was obvious by her expression that she was fighting the possession. Baros stood beside her. His jaw clenched, his dark eyes wide, his handsome face stony as he looked between Loren and the goddess on the hilltop who was taking his lover’s soul away.
“I can’t stop it.” Loren gasped, and then took in a series of shallow breaths. “I can feel her in my head.”
Loren ran her hands through her hair. Then she pulled at the roots as though she could yank Hera’s grip on her spirit away. It was a losing battle as her blue irises were nearly swallowed whole.
Demeter stepped between us. “You need to give me your soul.”
“No.” Loren jerked away from Demeter and reached for me. I took her hands in my own, but I couldn’t hold onto her life force. It was beyond my grasp.
“It’s the only way to keep her safe,” Demeter insisted, speaking to me instead of Loren, as though I were her keeper. “B
ut she has to give it to me freely. And she has to do it quickly before Hera has her completely in hand. I’m surprised she’s lasted this long without succumbing.”
I looked at Loren’s struggling face. A red ring burned brighter and brighter at the edges of her eyes. I thought of Socrates, dirty and discarded in a corner as he begged for death. I couldn’t let that happen to Loren.
“Do you promise you’ll give it back?” I said to Demeter.
“Yes, of course.”
“Loren . . .?” I had to ask. I couldn’t force her. She had to make this decision.
Sweat dotted Loren’s brow as she struggled with the lesser of two evils. “Fine,” she hissed through clenched teeth.
Demeter held out her hand. “You have to give it freely, pet.”
Even through the dark redness, Loren glared. “I give you my soul . . . freely . . . for now.”
“Good enough.” Demeter’s eyes turned golden, and I watched as Loren’s soul was sucked from her body. Because it was no longer a struggle, the energy flowed freely and quickly from woman to goddess.
It was just in time. With the humans under her control, Hera whipped her head to her siblings. A wicked glint lit her fiery eyes. She raised her hands. As one, the humans did the same. Only most of their hands weren’t empty. They held beer bottles. A shower of bottles blocked out the moon and prepared to rain down on us.
Before any glass could hit, boulders rose from the ground. The rocks formed a protective shield above our heads, and shards of glass rained down around us. When the storm finished, Hestia stepped to the front.
“I can’t believe she just did that.” Hestia’s face filled with anger.
She took a menacing step toward her sister. Humans ran into her path. She shoved them aside like they were gnats flitting over her picnic.
I caught up to her, grabbing her shoulder. “Wait, we can’t hurt these people. They’re innocents.”
The innocents continued charging us from all sides, surrounding us, pummeling us with their fists and costume weapons. I left my blade strapped to my thigh. I could incapacitate those who came at me with some well-placed punches and kicks that would maim but not murder.
The ground began to rumble beneath our feet. I looked over and saw Hades raising his hands. Stones rose, blocking the path of the advancing humans.
From behind, Poseidon called forth water from some underground well. The splash knocked down a few dozen people, but others kept coming from all sides.
“We need to stick together,” Baros said, taking command like the soldier he was.
“No,” Bet said. “We need to spread apart and take them in quadrants.”
The two men faced off, metaphorically measuring the size of their balls as the humans advanced. Now wasn’t the time to air out ancient grievances. They were on the same side in this battle. Both Demeter and I stepped to them, likely prepared to deliver the same zip-up-your-pants-and-put-it-away pep talk, but Hestia beat us to it.
“We don’t have time for this,” she shouted. “The wise thing is to take down the root of this problem—Hera. We’ll cut a path through the humans directly to her. We’ll strike on three.”
“Wait, do you mean on three?” Loren asked. “Or do you mean three and then we go?”
Hestia took a split second to glare at her before taking command again. “On three, ready?”
She counted off. We charged forward on three. Bodies fell around us as we plowed through. It felt like a bad action movie. But it was working. The humans were no match for our immortal strength and a badass swordswoman. In fact, it was said badass swordswoman and her Chosen lover who made their way to Hera ahead of the rest of us.
With Hera busy maneuvering hundreds of minds to do her bidding, she was caught off guard when Loren lifted her sword to the goddess’s glowing eyes. All human activity stopped as Hera focused on the blade hovering at the tip of her nose. I felt a moment of pride swell through my chest . . . until a sword was aimed at Loren’s throat.
“Drop it, Lolo.”
Loren turned wide eyes on Baros. “I never thought I’d say this, but, Lenny, you need to point that thing somewhere else.”
“Sorry, it’s not about you.” Baros smiled sadly, but he didn’t lower his weapon. His hot glare turned on Bet. “It’s about him.”
With the humans no longer swarming around us, we formed a semi-circle at the crumbling steps of the temple below where Hera, Baros, and Loren stood. Energy still hummed in the night. The air was thick with the struggle of minds trying to break free of a power greater than the alcohol and drugs they’d consumed.
“I pledged my life, my sword, to you gods,” Baros said, eying each of the Olympians standing at the bottom of the stairs. “With all your power, you let him and his savages ravage my homeland for centuries.”
“Baros, we keep out of the affairs of humans,” Demeter said. “You know that.”
“No. You choose your battles, just as you choose your initiates and your bedmates. I have free will. And now I’m making a choice of my own. If you won’t fight the continued assault against my homeland, then I’ll bring back someone who can.”
In the standoff, a sheet of copy paper fluttered by my feet. It was an invitation to tonight’s event. The lettering was written in black and white. A wreath of wheat crowned the letterhead surrounding a plume of peacock feathers. Peacock feathers—the symbol of the goddess of fertility.
It was all making sense now. Back in Budapest, the blogger who was denied entry, the stack of invitations in the church office, the browser displaying the invite in an online forum. Baros had sent out the invitations for hundreds to come here to a ritual led by Hera.
“Cronus would have never allowed an invasion onto the lands he occupied,” Baros said.
“Baros . . .” Demeter’s voice was firm. “Put the sword down and stop this nonsense. This isn’t about you. It’s about Hera.”
“Wrong again, sister.” Hera sounded smug. “It’s never been about me. But now it will be. I’m calling Daddy.”
“Damn, girl.” Loren shook her head. “You’ve got brother and daddy issues.”
I closed my eyes and turned to Demeter. “Can you shut her up, please?” I chucked my thumb at Loren, whose sword still held steady at Hera’s nose. “Before she gets herself killed.”
“Your pet still has her will,” Demeter answered. “Just like you do, Baros. You don’t know what it was like when my father was alive. He swallowed whole civilizations to get what he wanted. He’ll do the same to Greece, starting with these people here in Eleusis.”
“So long as he aims his eyes at Turkey,” Baros said, “we’ll get along just fine.”
Hera’s eyes turned away from Loren and flashed at Baros. “Kill her.”
Baros sighed. His broad chest rose and fell with reluctance. “Put it down, Lolo.”
“Look at that.” Loren’s voice was sarcastic. “You’re giving me a choice, and I’m choosing to stab the bitch’s eyes out.”
Baros sighed again. Then things went in slow motion. I saw his wrist flick. Loren’s eyes flinched as she took in his movement. The blade of Baros’s sword glinted in the moonlight as it swiped toward her. But the space where it swiped was empty.
Loren ducked and rolled out of reach. She tumbled down the hill and landed at my feet, popping up before I could reach down for her. Her dark eyes flashed murder.
“He was really going to do it,” Loren fumed. “Oh, that fridge between us is not only on the ground, it’s in a freakin’ trash compactor.”
With Hera’s gaze free once more, the humans were back in play. But instead of attacking us, their voices rose in a chant, calling out an ancient name. The ground began shaking again, and we all toppled. I turned to Hades, but he shook his head.
“That’s not me,” Hades said. His fists were clenched at his sides, not using the dominion he had over the earth.
“Oh, God.” Hestia’s face dripped with worry. “Our father. He’s waking.”
&n
bsp; The humans’ voices rose louder and louder as they sang out Cronus’s name. If the energy of the stolen souls felt heavy in the night’s air, the energy calling forth the slumbering Titan felt like it would suffocate me with each breath.
“If our father wakes,” Demeter warned, “it could be hell on earth. He’ll tear their souls right off their bones to stay alive. We have to stop this now. I’m sorry, Nia, but we need to sacrifice these few hundred human lives to stop the rise of a monster who will feast on the entirety of humanity. We have to kill them before Cronus can rise.”
Now coupled with the sensation of suffocating, my stomach roiled and bile rose in my throat at the thought of what had to be done. Because Demeter was right. If we couldn’t get Hera to get these people their will back, then we’d have to silence them to keep Cronus in his forced respite. But these innocents wouldn’t be the only ones forfeiting their lives.
“If we have to kill these humans, then you’ll have to take out your sister,” I said.
She shut her eyes briefly. I could feel her gulp down the lump in her throat. “I know,” she whispered.
Demeter looked as despondent as I felt. But we had no other choice.
We all sprang into action. We tunneled through the humans, gunning up the steps to the temple and the goddess of fertility who was trying to birth a monster. Bet made it there before either of us.
Baros’s grin was feral as he raised his sword to hack into his oldest enemy. Baros may have been a Spartan fighter, but Bet was an ancient warrior. Bet evaded the sword by stepping into Baros. With an elbow to Baros’s solar plexus, Bet freed the sword from Baros’s hand. Instead of either man picking up the weapon, they went at it hand to hand. But the ground they stood upon shook. They lost their footing and fell apart. Baros rolled down the hill. Bet nearly fell into a crevice that opened in the ground.
Demeter reached the top of the hill before I did and faced her sister. Hera lunged for Demeter, knocking the golden-haired deity to the ground. Demeter sprang up, putting her hands around Hera’s throat.
The ground was still shaking as though Cronus was tossing restlessly in his bed. I stood over the two women. After pulling my blade from its holster, I handed it hilt-first to Demeter. She didn’t look directly at me, as her hands were still occupied around her sister’s throat. But I knew she saw the blade in her peripheral vision.
