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“We are not brainwashed, novice.” Vasili spoke as clear and calm as he always did. “We know our goddess Pandora, the mistress of despair is confined with that box. We free her from eternal imprisonment on this night, and right the wrongs of the fallen gods.”
I gaped at him. “Why the fuck would you want to do that!” Panic turned my voice up a dozen octaves. This wasn’t happening. How could this be happening?
“Is this wise, dear?” Remis hissed at him. “Every second she’s awake is a second she could use to go back in time and ruin everything we’ve worked for.”
“Calm,kara.”
I gagged to hear him use the same word of love and affection that Alex called me.
“The goddess has had many months to weave her essence within the fabric of the girl’s mind. No one else knows when she’s gone back and changed the past, except for the goddess. If she attempts such a thing now”—he latched onto me—“your mother will be killed. Without hesitation or remorse.”
My lips trembled, literally shaking with all the pain and rage I wanted to unleash on him. All I could do was look at my mom.
I came all this way to save you, Mom. I can’t lose you now.
Balling my fists, I fell silent.
“Excellent.” The triumph in his voice burned me. The evil bastard believed he already won.
But there’s a way out of this for us. All of us. There has to be.My eyes rolled in their sockets, sweeping every inch of the dirty, forgotten temple.I just have to think of something.
“Now, let us continue,” said a woman I didn’t recognize. Lines crinkled the corners of her mouth and eyes, and heavy streaks of white were sharp contrast to her brilliant, red hair. “To the goddess, we offer these keys. Separate they are insignificant, together they are power.” Our hard-won keys to the prison appeared in her hands. “Hermes, messenger of the gods. Apollo, god of the sun. Aphrodite, goddess of love. Ares, god of war. Hephaestus, god of the forge.” She listed them as she lined each key on an empty stone table. A silly, ridiculous display that gave me time to think.
I lit upon my dagger resting at the end of the table at my feet. The leather bindings around my wrists and ankles were tied too well—may Vasili rot in hell. I couldn’t get out of them to reach the dagger, which I needed to get out of them.
There must be something. Maybe while they’re distracted, I could—
“And, Zeus, king of the gods,” she cried. “We call on you, reform! Return the power of the gods!”
Blinding light burst in the temple, bleeding out the high, stone widows to pierce the starless blackness outside. I blinked away dancing white spots, straining to see.
Vision clearing, I landed on an unbelievable sight.
The keys were gone. In their place rested a gleaming, gold scepter topped with a fierce and undefeatable golden eagle.The symbol of Zeus.
“It can’t be,” I whispered.
“It can.” Vasili beamed at Remis, face lighting up with joy I’d never seen him feel before. “By the goddess, it can. She was right, my love. It is exactly as she said.”
“Let us wait not another moment.” Excitement laced Remis’s voice. “Free her. Let our goddess walk among us!”
Vasili claimed the scepter and made for my mother. All too quickly I understood, he was opening Pandora’s box.
“Don’t do this,” I cried. “Pandora is insane! She wants to destroy Olympia and rub demigods off the face of the earth. Everyone will die!”
“Simple, dull-witted child,” Remis snapped. “You do not understand. You do notsee! She has a plan for us. She will wash the weak and unworthy from this world, and rebuild it as a temple to strength, power, and freedom. Too long we’ve festered in this pit of monsters, fighting a war we cannot win, and pandering to a weak-willed council too frightened to do what needs to be done.
“We are gods,” she hissed, insanity brightening her eyes. “We are the rightful rulers of this and every dominion, and under our goddess’s mercy, we will return to our birthright.” Remis shared a smile with the other batshit crazy followers. “Mount Olympus.”
“You’re insane,” I cried. “You’re all insane!”
She tsked. “Now, now, you know better than anyone insanity exists at the limits of your enemy’s knowledge and imagination. Every revolutionary was insane... until they won.” She jerked a nod a Vasili. “Do it.”
There wasn’t time to scream.
Vasili wielded the scepter, and roared—coming alive with shining, radiant, godly light. The power filling him was so immense, it overwhelmed me. Such a thing was not of this world, it was never of this world. That scepter belonged to the king of gods himself.
Vasili smashed it on the chest and burst the lid open.
