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“A part of it? No. Of course not.”
My tension eased.
“I planned and executed the plot to steal your precious mommy. How dare you reduce me to a participatory role. Insolent girl.”
The bracelet slipped through numb fingers. I stared at it on the floor—unable to move. Unable to breathe.
“Don’t stand in your play horror and surprise. How else would I know where your mother is if I wasn’t the one who took her in the first place? All of those mundanes were wrong to call you crazy, but right to call you stupid.”
Rage burned my chest. “Bitch!” I stomped on the ugly thing and kicked it behind the toilet.
Laughter echoed in my ear. “Oooh, so there is some fire in you? Good. You’ll need it to face what’s ahead.”
“To face what? Where is my mom! What do you want with us?”
“Us? There is no us. Your mundane mommy is nothing to me. No more than a means to get you to do exactly what that boy said—spring my trap.”
My head spun. I tipped over, falling heavily against the door. “I don’t understand. Why take her, then? Why didn’t you just take me? Why didn’t you take both of us?”
“Tch.” Irritation crept in her tone. “I asked that question many times, but the prophecy and the person who uttered it was most insistent. Events must be acted out in the right way and right order if I’m to be successful.
“Your power is a tricky one. The goddess who bestowed it on you even trickier. It cannot be forced out of you. It cannot be controlled—even by you. And it cannot be predicted. You were no use to me until your power manifested, and also no use to me until you’ve learned how to wield it.
“Saving your mother will give you the proper motivation to do so, and after the two years of hell you’ve endured, you’re even more determined to do so.”
I balled shaking fists. “That’s why you took her? To—to—to motivate me?!”
“I’d sooner have nothing to do with either of you!” she snapped.“Fate has forced my hand as surely as it’s forced yours. Neither one of us has choices.”
“You don’t have a choice? You can definitely choose not to slaughter the human race so that monsters can rule hell on earth! I don’t give a shit about your the-gods-were-mean-to-me sob story!” Stress turned my pitch up high. “There’s no tragedy, or curse, or jealous goddess wife that makes the slaughter of a billion people worth it!”
“The gods were much more than mean to me, little girl.” Her voice dropped to an icy, chilling hiss. “They imprisoned me. They locked me in the cold and dark for an eternity despite me committing no crime. All because I was different. I didn’t fit their ideal of what a goddess should be, so I was thrown away.
“I do not want to slaughter the human race, my child. I have no quarrel with you humans—demigod or otherwise—so don’t you dare reduce my suffering to the pitiful whining of monsters. Monsters roam Olympia freely. They live, die, mate, and feast to their heart’s content while my only company for three thousand years has been these four walls! I pray to have their struggles!” She sucked in a deep breath. “No, girl. My wish is and has always been to be free. It is my right, as it is the right of all beings.
“That is what you will do for me. Free me, and I will free your mother. You both can return to your little apartment behind the flower shop as if none of this ever happened.”
My jaw worked. “These four walls?” I forced out. “Does that mean you’re not in the bracelet? You’re being kept somewhere else?”
“I am indeed, and you needn’t worry because fate will bring you right to my doorstep soon enough, and mastery of your power will pick the lock.
“That little trinket was created by a child of Hecate to ensure my voice reaches you and keeps you on the right path. Pick it up, girl.” A chill climbed my spine, scurrying away from the threat in her voice. “Your mother is teetering on the edge of sanity, and she’s lived my hell for merely two years. Imagine how determined I am after three thousand. Imagine what I’ll do to her if you don’t obey me absolutely.”
“Stop it,” I shrieked. “Stop threatening me, you asshole. I’ll do it! I’ll do what you want. Just leave my mom alone.”
“Put on the bracelet.”
Jaw clenched tight, I put on the bracelet.
“Good. Now put on a smile, return to the Damien boy, and tell him nothing about me or what I’ve told you. No one is to know about me, and don’t think I don’t have the means to carry out a threat if you test me. My friend of Hecate spelled these bracelets invisible. All of my allies wear them, but you’ll never know if one is nearby to carry out my will. Or my punishment.”
Bile burned my throat. “I told you to stop threatening me. I won’t tell anyone about you. The last thing I need is to be locked in another asylum for running around saying I talk to invisible bracelets.”
Selene chuckled. “Glad we understand each other.”
“You’re forgetting one thing.” I stomped to the sink and splashed cold water on my face. It did nothing to soothe me. “I don’t have any fucking power. Certainly not one that picks the locks on the prisons of evil bitches.”
“I am a goddess, girl. Every woman who fights for what she wants will be called a bitch at some point. Mortal or goddess. If she isn’t, she’s doing something wrong.”
