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Damn.I mouth the word while pulling back, blending with the shadows, just in time. As Hecate drops her head back, her gaze hits the edge over which I was just leaning.
“Insanity? That’s not what you were saying a few days ago during Hera’s freshest drama.”
And now I wish I still had a full visual on them.Hera. I didn’t hear it wrong, though I deeply wish I had. It’s three degrees of separation, the Olympian version. The queen’s name, on this goddess’s lips, circles my mind back around to Magaera and her continued cavortings in this realm, disguised as Erin Levin. Clearly, the harpy isn’t making a single move without Hera’s consent—but why?
Hera’s drama…
Something happened to set off Z’s spiteful spouse…
Ten days ago…
Between one blink and the next, my brain aligns facts more succinctly than the hay bales behind me.
It was me.
Ten days ago was when Z found me and reached out to me. And by finding me, putting himself one step closer to my mother. The woman he clearly still has feelings for…
Circe’s enraged huff hooks my attention again. I dare to lean out by an inch, watching her face pinch with matching ire.
“A few weeks ago—even a fewdaysago—I assumed Hera and Megwerethe craziest ones in the acropolis. I didn’t comprehend how you were chugging your own train straight toward the cliff…” Her cracking syllables send her head into her hands for a long moment. “And now you’re about to crash it.”
I’m able to catch the hitch of Hecate’s shoulders, which does eerie things to the snakes tattooed there. The images seem to frown deeper along with Circe.
“But I’m still the locomotive,” the goddess croons.
“Even after you’ve exploded at the bottom of a ravine?” Circe spreads her hands in an entreating sweep. “Goddess. Please. You’re gambling on credit weallcan’t afford. If anyone, especially Arden, discovers that you were the back-channel source of intel to theHysminai—”
“And how exactly would they learn that, my lovely lustre?” Hecate levels her stare. “While I’m certain that Rerek’s started to harbor some theories, only two individuals know that little tidbit as fact—and I’m positive my favoriteHysminailieutenant plans on keepinghismouth closed.”
Circe drops her hands and pivots away. “None of that makes it right.”
“From whose view?” the goddess retorts. “Are you really committed to the end result here, Circe? If so, then resign yourself with the means to get there and the timeline we have to accelerate. Our window to act is closing, and more rapidly than we thought.”
Circe whirls back around, eyes encroaching on reptilian with their amber intensity. “But Kara—”
“Has to be shoved past her comfort zone at a less-than-ideal pace. As do we all.”
“Well,we allweren’t the ones soaring over Malibu last night.”
Hecate pulls up her posture so regally, it’s daunting. Even from up here. Circe is obviously affected too, her posture cowing like a subdued cobra.
“It was necessary,” the goddess firmly declares. “Not the way I would normally go about such a test for a novice diamond, but urgent times call for bold decisions.”
“So that’s why you supplied Kell’s exact location to theHysminai?” Circe spits. “Because you wanted to throw some more activator fluid on Kara’s abilities?” She doesn’t wait for Hecate to finish with the regal nostril flare. “What if things didn’t work out that way? If Kara never got word about Kell’s capture?”
“Contingencies were in place,” Hecate assures. “Though I must admit, Prieto behaved with heroism I didn’t expect. And there I was, thinking I’d have to implant the girl with a hideous premonition.”
“Well, of course.” Circe doesn’t pull the wallop of her sarcasm. “Because that wouldn’t have taxed her circuits to their limitsbeforehaving to do a controlled levitation onto a three-level Malibu villa protected by a chaos demon hex. Not too much to ask of her at all, right?”
“Enough.”A severe huff escapes Hecate. Her chin juts with defensive purpose. “Would you rather I told them to take the mansion’shousekeepers? Tell me, how effective would that have been in motivating Kara? You think she would’ve pushed past her fear—the panic so great, she’d probably still be trembling at Rerek’s place right now—to do what she did? And my stars, how shedid. Come now, darling. Even you have to admit that it was glorious to witness.”
“My impressions are of no matter here.” Circe steps back again, though now it’s to put her defiant flare on Hecate’s captious prioress pose. “Kara’s the one who should take center concern—”
“She does,” the goddess insists. “Sheismy highest—”
“That so? So you’ve come clean with her? Told her about using her own sister and brother to speed up her progress toward witchy gloriosity? That you sold Kell out to Hades’s forces as a means to that end? Have you let her ponder what would’ve happened if it had all gone sideways and her siblings were still in Rerek’s hold?”
Hecate’s steps, tracing an invisible oval in the middle of the floor, are no longer so regal. She’s not in the corner but feeling like it. She’s agitated. Aggravated. Unsheathing the claws.
