I didn't answer, but she didn't care.
“Their second life was the first time I didn't think strategically. I wanted more—more death and weeping and prayer and sacrifice. All of it. I gorged on it. So, when Zeus proposed to bring them back, I said yes, and I didn't think about the consequences.”
She dropped the fourth piece of the seal into place.
Achilles
Iwas three-quarters of the way up the sheer rock wall when I was hit with a billion volts of electricity. My body jerked, fingers splaying as I fell back from the cliff, down down down, to the beach.
It was going to hurt.
But in the space between letting go and landing, something happened. The pain changed from a weakness to a strength. I'd spent thousands of years in this form, strong, but not like I'd once been.
Twisting, curling, I landed, knees bent, with enough force that I drove a body’s length into the sand.
Around me, my friends fell and landed the same way. It was instinct to bend my knees again and launch myself out of the hole.
What was this?
Hector's voice lifted in question, but I ignored him, concerned more with the power pulsing through my body. Reaching out, I pushed my fingers against the stone. It was like dipping my fingers in warm wax. There was no resistance, no pain.
Pollux appeared next to me, gaze on my hand before he reached out to do the same thing. “Achilles.” His voice was uncertain and tinged with fear.
One by one, my friends approached, but it was Orestes who took the first leap. He shifted, placing his weight on his back leg, and jumped.
In one smooth motion, he went from the beach to the edge of the cliff. Like it was nothing.
Like he flew.
“The seal,” Pollux said.
Yeah.Shutting my eyes, I ignored the panic that came hand-in-hand with the knowledge that our power had returned and that the only reason for its presence was that the seal was together. We’d had four pieces. Could the fifth be in place?
“Are the gods are free?” I asked.
Pollux didn't respond. Instead, he, then Hector, and Paris rocketed up the cliff. The four of them waited for me. I'd been planning for this since we first trapped them, because I always knew they'd get free.
Our power, as great as it seemed to be, couldn't hold them forever.
Strength hummed along my veins. If I wanted to, I could have leapt from one side of Corfu to the other. I could swim from here back to Italy in minutes. That was what the gods had given me when they brought me back to life. That was the measure of my potential.
“Hurry up!” Orestes called. “I can feel her.”
For the first time since opening my eyes, I smiled. All of our abilities were amplified. Orestes—a man who had followed his instincts to outrun the Furies—could find anything. Anyone.
And if he had a bead on Leo, I'd follow him into Underworld to get her back.
Leo
Something happened the second Athena fit the fourth piece of the seal into place. An invisible shockwave blasted out from the seal, racing out of the cave and into the world. The force of it knocked me onto my ass, but not her.
For a split second, the goddess froze, and I read her expression like a book.
Fear.
“Was that not part of your plan?” I asked.
She didn't answer. Instead, she stood, body graceful in each flex and step. I tried not to flinch when she approached me and knelt by my feet. “You have no sense of self-preservation. Every word out of your mouth makes it easier—”