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“I’m not lying,” I cried. “My mom is down there. I have to save her!”
“Whoever you think is your mother does not exist.”
I choked on a gasp.I’m not crazy. I AM NOT CRAZY!
“Someone has clearly toyed with your mind, little Sisyphean, so that you would break into that chamber. Did that someone give you that curse?”
“I’m not crazy,” I screamed, blowing both their brows up. “My mother is Irida Vanda. Maiden name Baker. She was married to my father, Crisanto Vanda, and on October twenty-third, two years ago, she was taken by a cerberus and an echidna, and brought to Deucalion Academy where two students and an instructor sacrificed themselves to shove my mother into the bowels of a trap that not even a Titan-level son of Hades can get into.
“That’s what happened. That’s the truth. And if one more fucking person calls me crazy or delusional, I’m going to kick their balls up their throat!” My glare burned them where they stood. “My mom needs me. So are you going to help me get her back, or are you going to stand in my way, because they’ve been trying to do that for two years, but I’m here. I may be a little Sisyphean, but I don’t give up.
“I never give up.”
Drakos was inscrutable during my outburst. He moved then, rounding the desk. “That was a very rousing speech. Quitemoving. A tale of a loving, loyal daughter willing to sacrifice everything—including the lives of her comrades and an entire generation of demigods.”
“I didn’t mean for that to—”
“But you slipped up and lied, proving that somehow, verity stones don’t work on you.”
“What?” I whipped between confused and relieved when the skeletons removed the stones and stood back. “What lie?”
Drakos rolled up his sleeves. “I’m afraid we’ll have to result to harsher means to question you.”
“No!” I cried, jumping up and running behind my chair. “They work! I swear they work, and I didn’t lie.”
“You have lied. Irida Vanda is no one, but I did once know Crisanto Vanda. He was a friend. A comrade. A brother-in-arms,” Drakos said, “and he had no wife or child.”
I bit my lip, eyes darting to the door. How far would I get if I tried to run?
Damien blocked my path.
Not far at all.
“It’s not a lie,” I rasped. “My dad did have a wife and child... in the mundane dominion.”
Drakos stilled. “Excuse me?”
I snatched a verity stone from his dead guard. “My mom isn’t a demigod. She’s a mortal, born in the mortal world, and lived there every day until monsters stole her and brought her into this world. I am their daughter, half demigod, born in New York City, and I didn’t know anything about this place, or any of the dominions until I crossed the border to find her. Also...”
I gripped the stone. “My hair is blue. I love pickles. The sky is cheese and— Ahhh!” I flung the burning thing away, snapping my hand to my chest. “There,” I hissed, eyes watering. “Do you believe me now?”
“You’re half mundane?” Damien repeated.
“Yes. My mom—”
“Disgusting.”
I blinked, shocked by the loathing etched in his grimace.
“You dirty, filthy abomination,” he hissed, advancing on me.
I tripped throwing myself back. Crashing on the floor, true fear strangled my throat as this strange man towered over me.
“Toovian spy!”
Drakos was suddenly between us. “Cease, Damien. There is no need for—”
“There is every need! Do you know what that thing has done? She’s disgraced my son. Seduced him. Dirtied him! A half-mundane piece of Sisyphean filth has shamed the House of Damien!”
