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“Daughter of Aphrodite. She’s a Sisyphean like us because her power is being able to know when people are in love.”
What did she say?
“Apparently, Alex went from not in love to in love recently, and since he’s been with Sirena forever and wasn’t in love before, something’s changed since he got here. And that change isn’t Sirena since she’s still a vicious, fork-tongued harpy.”
My breaths were coming too fast. My cheeks hurt fighting off my smile. Alex loved me? No. He wasin lovewith me. That was infinitely so much better. “But why would Sirena know what Eleni knows? She doesn’t talk to Sisypheans.”
Ionna winced. “It was in field medicine. You didn’t hear because you were talking to Madame Cassia. Sirena was going on about Eleni being so stupid and useless, she couldn’t even tell the difference between a leaf and a berry. Eleni shot back that at least she can tell that her girlfriend loves her, and Sirena’s lover is in love with someone else.
“The only reason Sirena didn’t tear her head off is because we were in the middle of class, and Cassia punishes Titans harshly for fucking with Sisypheans. Harsher than any of the other instructors.”
Daciana flicked to Sirena. She was currently in the process of beating another sparring partner to a pulp. “Instead, she’s tearing off every other girl’s head. Lovely.” Daciana looked away from her and fixed on me. “Guys, just a guess, but what do you think Sirena will do if she finds out who Alexander is dating?”
“Kill her,” Nitsa, Ionna, Tycho, and Theron said at the same time.
I forced a laugh. “You guys are exaggerating. She wouldn’t really kill someone over a guy she’s only engaged to in her head.”
No one else laughed.
“Sirena will have a powerful position as the heir to the Hera seat, but the power she’d have if she were married to the Zeus councilman.” Theron whistled. “It’s like in the ancient times. Hera’s power came from being Zeus’s wife. Otherwise, she was just another one of his sisters. The council can be unnecessarily traditional about these things.”
“What kind of difference of power are we talking about here?” I asked. “What exactly will being married to Alex do for her?”
“She’ll have an entire wing in the palace instead of just a room. She’ll have personal staff and an army of servants who work only for her. Ten times the salary. The right to veto and repeal laws,” he said. “The Zeus and Poseidon council members already have those rights over laws, but she’ll have it too if she marries Alex.
“She’ll also become the official tiebreaker. You need one with an even number. It’s the Zeus councilman if they’re married to anyone else, but married to Sirena, that power goes to her.”
“It’s the power to veto and repeal laws,” I said, voice flat. “That’s what she wants, isn’t it?”
Nitsa and Theron nodded.
“So she can axe the law that everyone who lives and works in the palace is educated the same?”
“Yes.”
“So she can kick Sisypheans out of Deucalion Academy?”
“Double yes,” Nitsa replied. “She also wants to put an end to all the aid that goes to struggling villages, as well as theprotection. According to Sirena, if you aren’t strong enough to defend your home and family, you deserve to lose them.”
My stomach heaved. “That’s barbaric. How could she open her mouth and say something so horrible?”
“It’s tough,” Tycho said, tone soft. “Monsters hit the outer villages the hardest. You can’t send Sisypheans to fight them, so it has to be the best and strongest. The Titans. Scattering them all over Olympia to put down those random strikes splits our forces and puts the Titans at higher risk. Which the monsters know very well.”
Nitsa met my eyes. “My parents say it’s a part of the monsters’ larger plan. They wear the Titans down to nothing. Stamping the army’s best force out, and then there’s no one else but the useless to fight back.
“Sirena has her own ideas for how to make sure that doesn’t happen. The strong will protect their own. The useless can do the same.”
“You think her cruel, don’t you?” I was wholly unsurprised Selene took that moment to speak up. “Why, I ask? Isn’t it the expectation of every being in this universe to protect themselves? The lion doesn’t protect the mouse. The shark doesn’t fight for the fish. Is it not asking too much of those young men and women that they should fight and die for you because you’re too weak to fight for yourself?”
I didn’t reply to her then, and I wouldn’t later.
“I understand now,” I said. “She doesn’t want Alex because she loves him. She wants him because she loves power.”
If I felt any guilt for sleeping with her wannabe fiancé behind her back, this killed that guilt dead.
We turned the conversation to lighter topics, going back to the Guess the God game.
“Titans, you’re done for the day,” Vasili announced, releasing the battered Titans to the showers. “Sisypheans, I assume you’ve been rigidly practicing your arm-strengthening exercises?”
