(KNEEL)
Athena didn’t think. She knelt with reverence and haste. Anyone watching would have thought she wanted to. That doing it was her decision.
She couldn’t look at Hera. Couldn’t stand to see her smug expression of triumph.
The Moirae were here, and they stood with her enemies. Fate had never been with her at all. It was too late to warn the others.
Too late to tell them that she’d been wrong.
* * *
Cassandra stood still in the center, between Athena and the Moirae. They ordered the goddess onto her knees, and Athena’s kneecaps struck marble as she obeyed.
They made Athena obey. It almost made Cassandra like them.
“I’ve heard of you,” Cassandra said. “The Moirae. The Fates. They Who Must Not Be Named. Is it true? Are you the gods of the gods?”
She didn’t really need to ask. Invisible leashes wound around the necks of every god in the room, from Hera to Ares, tethering them to the sisters. And the dark one in the middle had thrown a rope around Athena easy as roping a lame calf. It could be good. Leashed gods were easy targets.
(COME CLOSER, CHILD)
The words pulled her, but their voices were softer in her head. Whispering instead of ringing like cathedral bells.
(COME, AND BE GRATEFUL FOR THE GIFT WE GAVE YOU)
“What gift?”
(PROPHECY)
“That wasn’t your gift. It was Aidan’s, and it was a curse.”
(COME KNEEL)
“No.” The leash wouldn’t go around her, she realized. And now that she had her eyes on them, they could bombard her brain all they wanted. It would be no different than if they screamed in her face.
(NO?)
“That’s what I said. I don’t take orders from a Frankenstein monster in patchwork silk.” She looked back at Athena as the burning in her hands spread up her arms and into her shoulders. Soon, she’d be able to taste the fire in her throat. “I don’t take orders from anyone.”
(YOU ARE OURS)
“It would seem not,” she said, her eyes on Aphrodite’s deliciously terrified face, hiding behind a pillar. Time would stop while she watched it melt. So many gods, ripe for the picking.
“Athena, stand up,” she said, and willed Athena’s legs to move. Athena trembled and started to sweat.
(YOU WILL NOT)
“I will,” said Cassandra.
A door she hadn’t noticed flew open on the other side of the room, to the rear of Ares and Aphrodite. Achilles and the others spilled through.
* * *
The weight of the Moirae disappeared from Athena’s shoulders when the others burst into the room, and she slipped her foot under her and tensed, ready to spring. For the time being, no one moved. Hermes and the rest fanned out into the back, their arms out as if to ward off evil, their weapons raised. Cassandra lifted her arms, too. Even Ares. The two groups looked between each other, held in limbo, a Mexican standoff with no guns. Athena was very aware of the heart in her chest, and how the Moirae would explode it if she tried to move against them. But she would. The distraction might be their only chance.
“Finally found you,” Achilles said. “Orders or a plan might be good about now.”
“You think I have one for this?” Athena asked through clenched teeth.
(ACHILLES) The Moirae strained toward him. Atropos extended her lovely hand. (IMMORTAL ACHILLES)
“The Moirae,” Hermes whispered. His eyes were wide and rimmed with tears. Shame kicked Athena straight in the gut.
Achilles held his sword out, pointed at Atropos.
“Cut them!” Athena shouted. “Kill them!” If Cassandra could disobey, Achilles could, too.
Clotho and Lachesis shivered in their husks. Atropos ignored her. She was too busy admiring her weapon. Achilles. The other weapon of fate.
(YOU ARE OURS. AS CASSANDRA IS OURS. WITH YOU, WE WILL DEVOUR THE GODS)
Across the room, a nervous wave passed through Hera, to Ares and Aphrodite.
“Don’t listen to them, Achilles,” said Cassandra. “We’re not theirs.”
But they were. The Moirae were the gods of the gods. Nothing could stand against them. And Achilles only fought for the winning side. He would never charge the cannons believing he would lose. He just wasn’t the type.
“Get away from them, mate,” Odysseus said, and walked slowly closer. “They don’t have anything good in mind for you.”
(COME, ACHILLES. COME TO US, AND RISE AS AN IMMORTAL. AS A TRUE GOD)
“A true god?” Achilles asked.
Athena closed her eyes.