The god laughed. “I suppose I can see the justice in this.” His voice came out tight with pain and breathless. “We wasted our power prolonging a war that killed you. Then, bored out of our minds, we bring you back and inadvertently weaken ourselves enough that you can kill us. It is almost poetic.”
Paris shifted his stance, replacing his hands with his knee so he could move his face closer to Poseidon's. “Do you know what is the most poetic, though? After we kill you, we'll present your head to the woman you cursed, the same way her head was presented to the world. Then, she'll use her gift—the gift you call a curse—to kill all of you.”
Poseidon made one final play for freedom. He tensed, tried to fling us off by breaking our holds, but like he'd admitted, he was weak. And the gods' power had made us stronger.
Pollux leaned his weight against the trident. “Paris.”
From my place at Poseidon's side, I could see my two friends communicate without words. The pain on Pollux's face wasn't from his injury; it was from the memory of each time he had been seconds too slow to protect Leo.
All of us wanted to do what would happen next, but it was Pollux who needed it the most.
Moving faster than even the god could track, Pollux pulled the trident from Poseidon's back and tossed it to Paris. Paris stood smoothly, and at the same moment Pollux yanked the god's head from his shoulder with a wet snap, Paris drove the trident through his body again and again.
Pollux stood slowly, hand wrapped in the god's long hair. I had only enough time to take in the slack-eyed and open-mouthed expression before the body melted. Poseidon's form went from solid to liquid. But it was different than his escape into the fountain in Italy. This time, the pool of liquid disappeared seconds after it formed, evaporating like a fog, and then into nothing.
Pollux wiped his hand on his pants, staring at the dirty and dusty floor. Not even a puddle of the god remained. He knelt, trailed his fingers along the ground, and then brushed aside the dirt. “Paris,” he whispered.
He curled his fingers into the dirt, and I wondered if he was scooping up the dirt as some way of remembering what he'd done to Poseidon.
But that wasn't it. He withdrew a dull gray object from the ground and held it out. Paris stepped closer, staring at the object so long I inched closer too.
He swept his sleeve over the surface, and it was then I saw it—a golden-haired figure on the prow of a ship, arms wrapped around a woman whose beauty was evident even in a simple rendering of gold and obsidian. “The last piece.”
Paris shoved it into his pocket. “It doesn't matter.”
“It does,” Hector argued. “There's a reason for finding it. Especially here.”
“It doesn't matter,” Paris countered. “We need to go.”
One-by-one, we stood. Our gazes lingered for only a second on the spot where we'd killed a god and found the final shard of the vessel that had contained our power. Along my skin and inside my chest, I felt that electric tug again. “Leo.”
Paris was right. The reason for finding the shard didn't matter unless it would help Leo. We'd eliminated one enemy, but there was still Athena. And I was afraid she was as desperate as she was dangerous.
Leo
Iwas torn from Athena's memory like she'd ripped me out of her head and flung me to the floor.
“How dare you!” The shock in her voice reminded me of the tone she'd taken when she'd punished me. So full of disdain I didn't deserve.
I released my grip on the shard. It had shown me something, but I wasn't sure what.Think, Leo, think.
“You planned on watching and waiting,” I said, repeating aloud what I'd observed. “Did you steal my head when Perseus's back was turned?”
My accusations made the goddess freeze before she seemed to relax. “Until the Trojan War, things were very boring.”
That's right. Mortals were just entertainment. If the gods didn't like what was playing on one channel, they set up an entire drama on the next. But there was something off about her voice. That wasn't what was happening here. Athena hadn't brought me back to life to relaunch her favorite TV show. She’d brought me back for the power.
Power she wanted.
Power she needed.
Suddenly, all those events the seal had shown me, all the research I'd done, and all the brainstorming I’d done with the guys, coalesced like separate fires into one bright, illuminating flame. The gods could be killed. And this goddess? “You're afraid.”
Athena's response was immediate. In a flash of white and gold, she gripped my arms and shoved me into the wall so hard my head hit the stone. Her dark wings stretched behind her, trembling with rage. Inside me, my sleepy, unwieldy power stretched and blinked.
Help me.If I ever needed my serpents and the strength that Athena had unknowingly given me,thiswas the time.
Back in the cave, something crashed and shattered. Athena glanced over her shoulder, then back. Her eyes fluttered closed and she grinned. “They won't be helping you.”