Between me, my brother, Achilles, Pollux, and Orestes, we'd untangle the goddess's plan and make Leo safe.
Leo
I'd carried box after box of tools and any books I thought I might need from the cottage to the car. After one trip, Orestes had taken them from my hands, indicating that I needed to rest and let him and the others handle it.
Now, I sat in the front seat of Hector's Land Rover with the heat blasting while I watched these beautiful, protective men prepare for war.
Because that's what Athena had started today.
I'd woken up this morning thinking the worst thing that would happen was having to defend my reputation. My former advisor from Harvard, Diana Regan, had accused me of stealing her research and taking what should have been her credit for my discoveries. Everything I'd worked for was in danger—my job, the papers I'd published. But Oxford, the place where I'd dreamed of working all my life, had given me the opportunity to counter her charges.
At least, that was what I'd expected to do. When I'd arrived at my department, I'd been blindsided by accusations from Diana and the other members of the Classical Studies department. And I hadn't been able to prove my innocence. As a result, I had been relegated to lecturing introductory classes for undergrads.
That should have been the worst thing that happened, but it wasn't. Nothing was what it seemed. The committee's decision hadn't been based on intellectual differences. And Diana Regan's grudge against me wasn't one of advisor to student.
No. This went deeper and way further back in history than my graduate years at Harvard. This grudge went back to another lifetime, when a mortal priestess had angered a goddess.
Diana wasn't merely a professor. She was the goddess Athena, and she'd been setting me up for a game I hadn't known I was playing. Today, she'd fired the first shot, announcing her existence not to just me, but to the five heroes who, like a Greek goddess, shouldn't exist.
But I wouldn't say she'd won the battle. For being the goddess of wisdom and strategy, she hadn't anticipated the strength of my five heroes. By some miracle, we'd come out the victors, and Athena had run away.
Wood crashed against stone, jerking me out of my thoughts. Through the rain, I saw Hector fling open the small wooden door built into the base of the foundation of his cottage. He ducked through it, disappearing beneath the cottage.
For a little while during our drive here, he'd held my hand, and I'd studied him, taking in his fierce profile. His dark hair, which was just a little too long, curled around his head and fell over his forehead. His beard was a shade darker than his hair and only outlined how solid his jaw was. I'd observed the muscles jumping in his jaw and caught the tightening around his eyes and mouth, giving away his tension.
He was broad-shouldered and tall, and even in the driver's seat, he'd made me feel like a shrimp. His hand, I’d noticed when it had covered mine, had thin, white scars over the back. One day, I would kiss those scars and watch those icy blue eyes melt.
Some day.
I shivered and squinted through the misty windshield, feeling a little bit guilty that they were rushing around while I sat here.
Achilles and Paris rushed in and out of the cottage carrying suitcases and boxes, which they unceremoniously pitched into the vehicle.
I watched the action, grateful for the space to breathe.
There was something inside me, unfurling and stretching, and it took all the control I had to keep it from breaking free.
“Leo.” Pollux leaned into the open window, hands gripping the doorframe. “Leo.”
Flicking my gaze away from the cottage, I cleared my throat. “Sorry. What?”
He frowned. His green eyes, so much lighter than the rolling moors and moss-covered stone walls surrounding us, fixed on mine.
He had a bag flung over his wide shoulder, his giant hand gripping the strap. I recognized the bag as one that sat next to Hector’s desk in his office. I wondered if Pollux had shoved into it the tools I'd left there.
I didn't know where we were going, but that Pollux thought we would need those things had my brain racing. There was a pinch of pain behind my eyes, and I winced. Through the windshield, I caught sight of Hector shoving a plastic container through the small opening.
I felt it then and realized what the Trojan general had hidden.Them.The pieces of the ancient seal meant to keep the gods trapped in one place, away from humans.
But it hadn't worked.
Power hummed through the air, and Pollux sucked in an audible breath. Like Hector, he was tall and strong, but Hector held himself differently. He never made himself smaller. His posture was straight, shoulders thrown back, head high.
Pollux, on the other hand, rivaled both Hector and Achilles for size, but when he was with me, he would curl toward me or around me. I loved it.
I put my much smaller hand on his. I needed his touch. It was an anchor, keeping me in this time and place. Not in another life.
Get your head on straight.