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“I don’t want it.” I shoved it back at Sebastian.
“What? What are you talking about? Your father said you’d be pleased.”
“Pleased? The last time I held that dagger, I stood there shaking and cowering instead of helping my mother. The echidna even dared me to. She told me to fight, to use the dagger, and I d-didn’t.” My voice cracked. “I’m not a warrior, or a fighter, or some badass Amazonian demigoddess. I’m never going to be like the first Aella Vanda who conquered tyrants.
“I appreciate the high expectations my dad had for me, but this is all there’s ever going to be,” I said, throwing out my hands. “But that’s okay, because this Aella Vanda is going to save her mom, and she won’t stop until she does.”
“Uh-huh,” he drew out. “Well, if you don’t want it, I’ll sell it. Bet I get a good price in—”
“Give me that!” I snatched the dagger back, stomping off. “Asshole.”
Laughter followed me around the rim. I looked down, gazing into the depths of our next problem. “Lethe water.”
“Dimitri.”
Hands grasped my shoulder and guided me back. Dimitri claimed the spot, crouching at the end of the rim. Removing hisglasses, he cleared his throat—dreads swinging as he rolled his neck.
“Is something supposed to be happening?” Nitsa muttered.
Eyes snapping open, Dimitri dropped his jaw... and dropped it... and dropped it. His mouth unhinged wider and lower than humanly possible, and he roared.
Water burst out of the chamber. Rising, swirling, spinning, an explosive spinning tower of memory-eating poison escaped its prison, and sucked into Dimitri’s mouth.
I stumbled back, hand clapping over my mouth as if it could be next.Who were these guys? What power was this? Was this what it meant to not be aregulardemigod?
It felt like eons, but was only minutes, when the final droplets flew down his gullet—continuing its path to the Asphodel Meadows.
My friends and I stared at him.
“It’s done,” Dimitri said. “Every last drop gone. There wasn’t that much, so that hole doesn’t go down deep. Also, there’s wood, sediment, and—” He snapped his head back, then forward like a sneeze. Something trapped between his teeth. “—this in the water.”
Dimitri handed me a small, ornate gold key. A caduceus was carved on the face.
“Thank you,” I said, pocketing it. “Okay, guys, before you do this, there’s something I need to say.”
“What is it?” Ionna asked.
“This chamber isn’t just a chamber. It’s a prison.”
“Hold your tongue, girl!”
“No! What’s the point of your secrets now? For better or worse, I’m jumping in this hole, so why don’t you shut the fuck up and realize when you’ve won?”
“I will win, Aella Vanda,” she replied, tone soft—even kind. “It is foretold. It is fate. Today, I rise.”
“Uhhh.” Tycho looked around. “Aella, who are you talking to?”
“I’m talking to my wrist because I’m wearing an invisible, possessed bracelet of a trapped goddess that goes by Selene.”
More than half a dozen blank faces looked back at me.
“Look, we don’t have a lot of time, so here it is. Centuries ago, the gods of Olympus ambushed and trapped a goddess in there.” I pointed down. “All this time, she’s plotted her escape, collected allies, and abducted my mother so that I’d be forced to do what I’m doing now. Open the prison to rescue my mom and ultimately set Selene free.”
“The goddess of what?” Tycho asked, recovering quicker than the others.
“I don’t know.”
Daciana stepped forward. “What will she do when she’s free?”
