I grab a sister in each hand and sprint for the door. That has to be our only concern.
Something swoops down in front of us. I keep running.
I don’t know how they knew what was coming. It doesn’t matter how they knew we’d found the door. They knew. And they’re ready for the battle.
The world explodes around us into a chaos of fights and combat among humans, monsters, nymphs, and gods. The uninvolved humans—just out to enjoy the day—flee, frightened by the outbreak of random violence. If they only knew what they were really running from.
I duck and dodge, keeping my sisters moving and my eye on the prize—the door.
Greer screams.
My arm jerks back. I release Grace and spin around to see a catoblepa grabbing Greer by the shoulders. I swing my arm down, grab a dagger from my boot, and reverse the momentum, striking up into the hoofed creature’s chest.
Thane comes out of nowhere, launches himself onto the catoblepa’s back, and knocks it to the side. As he struggles to pin it to the ground, he turns and shouts, “Keep moving!”
I grab Greer by the hand and take off.
We’re only about fifty feet closer to the door when a trio of hippocampi jump out of the pond and position themselves between us and our destination. I hesitate, holding my sisters back as I decide on a tactic.
“Go left,” I shout, shoving my sisters to the side as I run the opposite way.
The hippocampi look confused, unsure of which way to go. Their uncertainty gives me time to get in position. In the end, they decide to go after the easier target, the single girl. Me.
Big mistake.
“Come on,” I say, taunting them, trying to draw them closer as I back toward the water.
“Coming my way?” a sickening voice says behind me.
I spare a glance and see a man—tall, broad-shouldered, with gray hair and a long gray beard—rise out of the water. “What—?”
He raises his hands, and the water shoots out of the pond.
Poseidon?
“We cannot allow you to open the door,” he bellows as water rains down on me.
“Not your call, big guy,” I reply.
I really don’t like being told what I can and can’t do.
First things first. I turn back to face the hippocampi, only to find my sisters tackling them to the ground. I trained them well. Fine, I’ll deal with Poseidon now.
A blond woman with hair flowing down to her waist and swirls of pink fabric wrapped around her body rises out of the water in front of the sea god.
“You have lost the path of right, uncle,” the woman says.
Poseidon scoffs. “Love cannot protect the human world from monsters, Aphrodite.”
She spreads her hands wide, and a bright glow surrounds her. “You would be surprised by the power of love.”
The bright glow expands in a quick burst. Aphrodite turns her head. “Run, Gretchen,” she shouts. “Get to the door.”
My mind is reeling at the idea that a god—an honest-to-goodness god—is here to fight me. To fight us. To kill us. And a goddess is just as determined to protect us.
I glance around the battlefield and am amazed to see more gods battling. A goddess with wheat in her hair—Demeter, maybe—is grappling with another who has a regal bearing—the queen goddess, Hera. A god with dark looks and an air of evil flings bolts of flame at a goddess who returns fire with golden arrows. Hades and Artemis are battling over whether or not we’ll die now . . . or later. I’m voting for neither.
I’m ready to end this phase of the war.
“Come on,” I yell to my sisters. “We need to get the door open. Now!”
I sprint for the spot, with my sisters right behind me.
When we finally reach the location, there is a giant serpent winding its way around the three trees. The thing is huge, with muscles that bulge and ripple as it circles. At first I hesitate—it could crush the air out of all three of us without much effort—but then it winds itself around so tightly that it’s practically in a knot.
It’s stuck, and I see our chance.
I leap over its coils, into the space between the trees. Into the door.
My skin feels like I walked into a ball of static electricity—sparks and tingles everywhere.
“Hurry.” I hold my hands out to my sisters.
Grace jumps over as I help Greer climb the slimy serpent.
Once we’re all together, the three sisters of the Key Generation standing in the heart of the ancient door to the monster abyss, the weight of what we’re about to do hits me. What we do next will change everything. Forever.
With one action, we will set our futures in stone.
My hand tightens around the hilt of my dagger.
I almost wish we had time to absorb this moment, to take in every detail. But it’s probably better that we don’t. Too much thinking would just muddy a decision that we already made. There’s no thinking left to do.
Time to fulfill that prophecy.
“Let’s open this sucker,” I say, drawing the blade over my palms. “Quickly.”
I trace the same lines in Greer and Gretchen’s outstretched palms.
We stand in a circle, inside the circle of trees.
Three within three.
I look first at Grace—the first sister I found—and then at Greer. I’m a sister. I love them and I can’t imagine going back to the way things were before. Who would have thought I would be so comfortable relying on others? So happy to not be alone anymore?
Life truly has come full circle.