Something's changing,Castor had said. What if that change wasn't a bad thing? After all, we'd been able to speak face-to-face.
Could have been a dream...
But it could have been real.
Stuffing my hands into my pockets, I winced when my shoulder twinged and kicked at a loose rock. “I don't know what the right answer is. I don't know what we might lose that we haven't lost already.” I thought about Castor and the fate I might have damned him to. “But I think we have to try it.”
Leo
Achilles flung the broken lid off the container and pulled out a shard of the seal and stuffed it into a backpack. At Pollux's agreement, he strode toward the church.
There was very little traffic and no pedestrians. Stomach clenching, I followed him to the white and beige stone church with a tiled roof. Once we'd gotten through the traffic accident, the journey had been pretty smooth. With each mile behind us, the scenery changed from rugged and green to flat and brown. The temperature was warmer too. More arid.
“Is it open?” Achilles asked.
I hurried to try the door of the church, and it swung open. The inside was cooler, bordering on chilly. Goosebumps rushed over my arms as the door closed behind us, blocking out the sun and heat.
It was empty, but we paused in the vestibule, anyway.
“I'll check in back,” Paris said, walking down the aisle. He went past the altar and through a small wooden door behind it. He came back seconds later, shaking his head. “No one.”
I studied the inside of the chapel. It was painted white and had long, rectangular windows high up on the walls. There were light wooden stations of the cross hung at different spots on the walls, but the whole thing had a stark, impersonal feel, and was nothing like the abbeys and chapels in England.
Dropping the bag at his feet, Achilles let out a low whistle. “So, this is it. We just...do it.”
He bent to unzip the bag, then lifted out a shard of the seal with both hands. Our gazes met, his hazel eyes dark with wide pupils from adjusting to the dim interior. I moved closer, studying the piece. It was Achilles, dragging the body of Hector behind his chariot.
He peered at the four men surrounding us, then at the shard, then back to the one who stepped closer. Orestes stared at the seal as Achilles placed it on the ground.
“I'll do it,” Orestes said.
My heart thudded in my chest, along with something else. I hadn't felt it since England—the stretching and unfurling as something sleepy became interested and focused.
What if this was the wrong thing to do? What if we tried to shatter this thing and, instead, it released the gods?
What if they've already been released?The question bounced around my brain.
Orestes knelt, touching the edge of the seal with his finger. “All of you had years between now and the picture on this seal. I lived with the Furies every single day. They've been my companions more than you have.” He glanced at his friends, then me. “Unwanted companions. I won't be sorry to destroy this.”
He stood fast, lifted his knee, and slammed his foot onto the shard.
Light erupted from the shard, blinding us, and Orestes flew backward. He hit Achilles, who caught him and slammed into a pew. It cracked, teetered, and smashed into the pew behind it.
My heart pounded with fear—and relief. It was then, staring at the perfectly intact shard, that I realized I hadn't wanted to destroy it. It meant too much. It had been the vessel these men had poured their hurt and heartbreak into, and it deserved better than to be cracked and stomped on the floor of some no-name church in a no-name town.
“Let me try.” Hector moved before any of us could stop him.
The same thing happened. A flash of light and a percussive wave of power sent him skittering into Pollux.
“We should stop,” I said, but I wasn't loud enough.
Face set in hard lines, Achilles glared at the innocuous obsidian shard. He was a huge man, but focused on an enemy, he seemed to grow even bigger.
“Achilles! Wait!” I cried just as he slammed the heel of his boot down.
Power blasted into me, flinging me back. My ears rang with a high-pitched and shrill scream before another sound took its place. Light. Airy. Sibilant.
I waited to hit something. A pillar. A pew. A window.