AllFreeNovel
Share Us
Hope burst in my chest.The weaver, the deceiver, and the believer stand guard. Within the eyes holds the gods’ lies.
“Dolos is his name,” Kazran said. “He also has a few children around here if you’d like to share your poetry with them.”
“Thank you, sir.” I threw my arms around his neck. “Thank you, thank you, thank you.”
“Away with you, girl.” He peeled me off. “Get that nose seen to.”
He didn’t have to tell me twice. I beat it out of the stadium, making fast for the castle.
“Selene, tell me you know every statue, mural, tapestry, bedsheet, and toilet associated with Dolos in the castle.”
“I do indeed. I cannot say which hides my prison, but you will soon discover that.”
“It mentions lies right in the prophecy. Sometimes, these things are literal.” I squeezed my hands so hard half-moons pierced my palms. “I’m coming, Mom. I’m coming for you.”
AN HOUR LATER, I HADa healed nose and four spots checked off my list.
For a god I doubted was very popular, Dolos had six busts, two tapestries, three portraits, and four murals devoted to him. I investigated the ones closest to my classes, but so far nothing.
“I don’t know what I’m looking for,” I whispered. I hung back a bit from my friends, following them out to the practice green. “The only clue is that the lies are in their eyes. I smacked andprodded his eyes until I bruised my finger. Nothing. How will I know I’ve found the right entrance?”
“You won’t know. Your memory will be taken from you. Which, therefore, means since you have memory of your tries, they were not the entrance to my prison.”
“It’s hard to fault that logic, but that brings us back to the problem of me losing my memory. I need a way around that.”
“You have power over your past. It’s possible it cannot be taken from you.”
I stopped dead. “Is that true? Is that why the prophecy says you’re waiting for me?”
“I do not know. Your power comes from the Moirai. The three goddesses of fate. They stood above and separate from all of us. Even Zeus had to submit to them. No one—god or man—can escape their fate.”
I flashed to that still, dark, and calm place surrounding my threads. Mount Olympus was wrenched to the ground. The gods reduced to living in mortals like parasites. Even hell had to be anchored to the Hell Boys so we could continue passing into the afterlife. I don’t know how I knew, but that place wasn’t part of me or our human world.
It was above and separate from us all, and it’d live on long after we were all gone.
I shook myself, shivering. What was I? What ancient and terrible power was inside me?
“I cannot tell you what your power is, why, or how it works. Your fate is your own. The journey you walk will be a solitary one.”
She fell silent and I let her. I didn’t know which Selene bothered me more. Shouty, imperious, bitchy Selene. Or grim, pessimistic, serious Selene.
Neither one can nor cares to help me and Mom survive this,I thought,which makes her right. I can’t look to her foranswers. I need to learn how to one-up fate myself because those witches aren’t taking another person from me.
AFTER CLASSES, I WENTstraight to the library. According to Selene, a portrait of Dolos hung between the bestiary section and the monster plant section.
Like everywhere in the academy, the library was larger—and more impressive—than any life I’ve lived. This place was the same style as Madame Remis’s room with the spiral staircases leading to stacks upon stacks on floors over floors.
I walked up to a small woman sorting and stamping books behind a desk. Some things are the same in every world.
“Excuse me?”
She flicked up. “Yes, dear?”
“I was wondering if there are books written by demigods about their powers?” I asked. “How to train them, control them, and get stronger. Books like that.”
She tittered. “I dare say nearly every book in here is a book like that. The rest are how to use those powers to kill monsters. Haven’t you been in a library before?”
Great. Once again I open my mouth and ignorance tumbles out.
