I only wanted my demigods to touch me.
“When you reach your full power, you’ll have the ability to unmake worlds, Celeste.”
The landscape beneath us shifted again. We were flying across domes of sand. I hadn’t expected to see a desert in this realm. I’d thought Hell was all about lakes of fire, black mountains, and endless dungeons for tortured souls.
“Vi had to go where she was needed to set things in motion,” Loki continued. “She’d taught you everything you needed to learn at that point. She laid the foundation, but she couldn’t teach you magic. We couldn’t afford for you to be discovered before you matured. You managed well on your own. You even took in two wards.”
“Where is Vi?” I demanded.
I’d once thought she was the only family I had before Circe and Jasper came into my life. Now, thinking back over it, I’d been no more than an assignment to her.
“You met her again at the Half-Blood Academy.”
I narrowed my eyes.
Loki sighed. “Esme Von Rouche, the headmistress.”
“That’s impossible.” I sneered. “You think I don’t know what Vi looks like?”
“Illusion. Esme is the grand mistress of illusion. She came from the most ancient witch line, as did I. She also has Olympian blood. I raised her both here and in the human world.”
She was his spy in the heart of the demigods’ territory—and I’d thought Ares was the biggest mole.
“Ares should have discovered it,” I said, “but he’s an arrogant fool.”
“As I said, illusions. The gods can’t detect the most ancient Earth magic that glamours Esme.”
Everything about the headmistress flashed back—how she’d looked at me, how she spoke the demonic language without an accent. I could speak the same ancient demonic tongue—the fallen angel’s language—because I was the daughter of an archangel. It was a genetic thing for me. It was in my blood. But Esme had learned the tongue from Loki.
Deceptions, lies, danger, and manipulations had been surrounding me earlier than I’d realized. The game had started before I was born.
“She tipped off the Dominions to my presence in Crack, didn’t she?” I asked drily.
I’d thought they came for Circe and Jasper, but that had been a smokescreen. They’d wanted me. To make it happen, she’d nudged a demigod to come along, knowing he would sense my power. And she’d chosen Axel, the youngest, least experienced, and the most hotheaded demigod. And he’d done just as she’d expected—dragged me to the Academy.
All my life, she drilled it into my head to stay away from both the demons and the demigods—but that was before she thought I was ready to meet either.
“We had to wait,” Loki said. “She left after she was sure you’d become your own person and wouldn’t be easily influenced by any power. We can’t afford to let anyone control you.”
“That’s your privilege, right, to use, manipulate, and control me?” I sneered. “Only neither of you expected the demigods to get to me first. You hadn’t thought that they would take such an interest in me.”
“Power attracts power,” he said darkly, feeling no remorse for his actions and his “grand design” for me, but angered at the demigods for getting in his way. “I should have expected that those assholes would be drawn to you. For centuries, all they have done is sabotage my plans at every turn.”
“So you came to take me away. You tried to abduct me when you realized that the demigods were going to snatch me away.” My voice dripped with sarcasm. “Why didn’t you come for me earlier, before the demigods made their moves?”
“I can’t afford to let anyone know our connection,” he said, running a hand over his thick, medium-length hair in frustration. “And I do not have the means to break the seal to your Titan power. Only the Ritual of the Blood Runes could remove it. So I planned carefully and drew no attention to you. But we underestimated your power. It’s not like I’m an expert in your kind of magic. I thought you’d just be like any other Olympian descendant and receive your power quietly. Who would expect it to create an explosion at the ritual? After all, the Olympians came from the Titans.”
None of the demigods had expected the Ritual of the Blood Rune to go crazy when it spotted me either. I’d believed that I was a human and wouldn’t survive the ritual. But I lived through it—only, however, after burning badly until Axel had shielded me and taken the burning into himself, and then Zak and Paxton had poured their powers into protecting me and averted a disaster.
“I got burned awfully!” I hissed. “You have no idea how painful it was!”
Loki nodded, but there wasn’t much sympathy in his dark eyes. “I’m sorry.”
And the fucker didn’t sound sorry at all. He was a half-witch from an ancient line, but his demon half dominated his vicious nature.
“You need to compensate me for all the wrongs you’ve done to me,” I said, “if you ever want me to work with you.”
Although we both wanted Lucifer dead or gone forever, I couldn’t work with him if all he would do was manipulate me.