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She hummed, brows furrowing. “Nice indeed, but are you certain they said those goddesses? There’s a portrait of Apate and Pistis in the west wing, but Clotho is nowhere near it. If Clotho is portrayed with two other goddesses, it’s always her sisters of fate.”
“Maybe I misheard. Where in the west wing is that portrait? Maybe that’s the place they were talking about.”
“I doubt it,” she replied. “The west wing is where the instructors eat and sleep. Students aren’t allowed in there.”
I rocked back on my heels, chewing my lip. “So there’s nowhere in the castle where those three goddesses are together,” I said mostly to myself. “Maybe it’s outside. Somewhere on the grounds.”
“I couldn’t say for certain that it’s not in the castle. As much as I’ve explored, there are dark corners and forgotten corridors that not even I’ve ventured down.” Picking up a stack of scrolls, she carried them to her side door and office. “There are secrets in Deucalion Academy that there isn’t time enough to discover—in this life or the next.”
She left me with that, and a whole lot of help it wasn’t.
“Well?” Selene slid into my ear. “Who will you speak to now?”
“No one.”
“No one? What do you mean no one?”
“There are no more demigods to talk to because Madame Remis just confirmed a suspicion of mine. No one can tell mewhere to find the weaver, deceiver, and believer, and I doubt it’s because their memory is wiped every time they trip over their location. Because something like thatwouldhave been noticed by their friends and colleagues.”
“Go on.”
“You said the gods themselves locked you away. If they did, they did it before they scattered, before Olympia, and before Deucalion Academy,” I said. “You also can’t have been moved from your prison because you said yourself anyone who enters it becomes a vacant, drooling moron.”
“Yes, this is true. What has this led you to conclude?”
I didn’t have to look back to be sure. This was definitely the first time Selene spoke to me calmly, rationally, and without implying I was stupid or insolent. For the first time, she wanted to hear what I had to say.
“It’s too strange. Too much of a coincidence that you would happen to be locked away in the most impenetrable, best-defended location in Olympia.” I paced the room much like Madame Remis did. “It’s too much of a coincidence that when the demigods came together and formed their dominion, they happened to choose the very land where you were cast out. The lost and forgotten city of Atlantis.
“It’s like you said. You don’t make something that you’re trying to hide easy to find. But here we all are, right on top of you.”
“Yes,” she whispered. “Yes, it is strange. Continue, girl.”
“This spot was chosen by the demigods for a reason. It was different. Special in some way. I think when the gods locked you away, they left behind more than just the protections you and the prophecy know about.
“This place was already protected. Already defended. Already a monster repellant. Already a safe place. So, they built the castleon or around whatever those protections were, not knowing those protections were made to keep youin.
“We’re not supposed to be looking for paintings, or tapestries, or anything put here by demigods. We need to know what was here before the academy, before the castle, before Olympia, and before the gods fell because that’s the entrance to your prison.”
“Yes, my champion. My savior. I knew the Fates were right to send you to me.” I never heard her sound so pleased. “Speak to the Remis woman again. She knows the history of this world. She will know what stood here when nothing did.”
“No,” I said, turning away. “I told you. We’re not speaking to any more demigods. We’re talking to the beings who were here when the gods created your prison. The trees.
“The dryads.”
Half an hour later, I ran out of the forest with a grapefruit-sized bruise on my head—getting bigger and purplier by the second. “All right, all right,” I shrieked, dodging the rainstorm of rocks and branches. “You evil, stumpy tree rats! I got one word for you jerks: matches!”
“Ahhhh!”
The wailing and outrage of the forest resounded in my bones, rattling my teeth. They didn’t have to say it. I wasn’t welcome back in there again, even if I brought flowers, chocolate, and jewelry.
“That was a bust.” I collapsed on the foot of the stairs, catching my breath. “Guess I should’ve seen that coming. They hate women. I’ll ask Alex to—”
“No.”
“What? Did you say no?”
“No. You are not to tell the Damien boy anymore about this. You’ve already told him too much.”
