That kiss, paired with those words, shifted something inside me, and turned me from a doubter to a believer.
“I do,” I replied.
“You being here isn't a mistake.”
If I wasn't here, I'd never have met them. I never would have learned that there was more to me than I’d imagined. This life—it had a purpose. And maybe it wasn't anything like I had imagined, but I embraced it.
* * *
Hector kept my hand clasped in his, arm slung around my shoulder as we drove through the rest of the day. Unlike me, their brief naps seemed to tide them over. As afternoon transitioned into evening, and the land turned from flat green and brown expanses to winding mountainous roads, I leaned my head against Hector. We discussed the vision I had with Orestes, breaking it down into smaller details for them.
“So, you think that was the first time anyone beside Athena came into the temple?” Hector asked.
“I do. I could have been there for years. It seemed like it. It wasn't the same place I started out, either. I had this thought...comparing what I'd seen when I had been a priestess to what the temple looked like once Athena had transformed me. Even the air was different. And if I think about the myths of Medusa, she was never at Athena's temple. Not after. I mean,Iwas never at Athena's temple after...” Trying to keep things straight was giving me a headache.
“Did you see a shield?” Hector asked.
I never saw a shield in the memory, but I had thought about it. Not a thing, though—an action. A way to protect myself against other people.
I didn't understand what that meant when it came to Athena, though. “There's so much symbolism tied up in the myths of Medusa and with Athena, as well. Trying to figure out what is real and what isn't?" It felt impossible.
“If you found evidence that Medusa had once lived, what would you do?” Hector asked. “Before you knew things like this were possible.” He gestured between us and then at his friends. “What would the historian Leo do?”
Easy. “I'd look for evidence.”
“And where would you start?” he asked.
A bubble of excitement welled in my chest.ThisI could do. It was what I’d spent my whole life training to do. “Research. I'd go back to the myths, and then I'd try to find evidence of her life. I'd go to where she might have lived.”
“Where was it believed you lived? In the myths?” Hector asked.
“Well...This is going to be a bit convoluted. The oldest images of Medusa have been found on the island of Corfu. In Greece.”
“Obviously.” Achilles glanced at me in the rearview mirror and winked.
“Obviously.” I laughed, feeling lighter than I had in a long time. “If a whole bunch of soldiers began to disappear, and ancient people made up stories to make sense of those disappearances, I'd start at the scene of the crime.”
“But how would they have known what you looked like, if everyone who saw you was turned to stone?” Orestes asked.
It was a good question and one I didn't really have an answer to.
“Not everyone who saw her turned to stone,” Paris said, quietly. “There was one person who survived. Besides Athena.”
Right.“Perseus.” The hero who used Medusa's head to save a princess and turn a monster to stone. “Perseus is the one who killed Medusa—me. And I know that part of the myth is true. In my earliest visions, I saw him kill me. Now, in mythology, Perseus found Medusa sleeping in a cave, which fits what I saw. It was dark and there was no air.”
“We look for a cave on Corfu.” Achilles spoke with certainty.
“It could have been a cave,” Paris agreed but seemed hesitant. He'd been in my head, too, and seemed to be racking his brain to remember the scene. “Except for the remnants of a temple. There were fallen columns—”
“And an altar,” Orestes added.
“But I have no idea where the cave was. And Corfu is small, but not that small. It could take years to find where I was.” And we didn't have years. Not if Athena was after us, and the other gods were released.
“I don't believe that,” Achilles said. “You found the seal within weeks of arriving in England. Your research had you narrowing down the third piece to Egypt, and if Athena hadn't stolen your work, you would have found that too. You're underestimating yourself.”
Paris, Orestes, and Pollux wore matching expressions of pride and nodded in agreement.
“So, we go to Corfu?” I asked.