Heart (27 page)

She looked tragic.

I was almost afraid that she would drop dead
right in front of me and my deal with the Fates would have been for
nothing.

“You shouldn’t be here,” she croaked. Her
throat worked to swallow, but I could tell how dry her mouth was
from her cracked, bloody lips.

“I’m not staying,” I promised her. I was
relieved to see that some of the tension faded in her expression.
“I just wanted to see that you’re still alive.”

“I’m alive,” she whispered. In those simple
words, I felt defeat like I had never experienced before. She was
alive, but not by choice. If she had her wish she would have left
this world long ago.

“I’m going to get you out of here,” I found
myself promising her. I stepped forward, ignoring Veda’s childlike
chuckle. “I promise, I’ll get you out of here.”

Suddenly she lunged forward and wrapped her
hands around the glowing bars. She flinched as if the effort nearly
killed her, but she didn’t let go. She also didn’t try to touch me.
“Don’t,” she hissed on a wheezing inhale. “Please don’t. I don’t
want to leave. You can’t make a deal with them, Ivy. No matter what
they promise, it won’t be in your favor. I swear that to you. They
will kill you. Or worse… And I tried so hard to keep you… away… I
tried so hard to get you out…”

I shook my head, feeling the inexplicable
need to comfort her. I was shocked at how wounded I was to see her
like this. Tears streaked her dirty cheeks and I felt my own eyes
grow hot and wet. “It’s not like that,” I quickly assured her.
“It’s… I’m going to get you out,” I repeated, not knowing what else
to say to her. I wanted to ask about the god-killer, but Veda
hovered too closely. Intuition told me that regardless of what they
said earlier, they were not on my side. They wanted me more than
they wanted Nix dead and therefore I couldn’t give them the
opportunity to take away my one possible advantage.

My mother looked distraught. I saw it in her
despairing eyes that she had never expected to see me again. And
she had wanted it that way.

Because if she never saw me again, that meant
I had gotten away.

That meant I had found freedom.

“Did Nix bring you here?” she asked in a
small voice.

“No, not Nix. Hermes.”

She frowned. I would have given anything to
know her thoughts in that moment. She didn’t seem to approve of
Hermes any more than she did Nix, which worried me. Ava’s entire
reaction to seeing me made me want to run away from this mountain
as fast as I could.

“Time’s up.” Veda clicked her tongue on the
roof of her mouth and moved toward me, using her small body to push
Ryder and I back down the hallway.

“Mom!” I gasped, suddenly too attached to
leave her. When had that happened? “Stay alive,” I begged her. I
swiped at my foolish tears and held back a sob. “Don’t die and
don’t get pregnant!”

She leaned against the bars of her cell and
smiled faintly. Some of her old self sparked to life and she
murmured, “I’m supposed to tell you that.”

I stumbled on the rocky ground and had to
turn around to keep from face-planting. Ryder’s hand stayed around
mine the whole time and I took comfort in his strength and
confidence. I didn’t know where I would be without him right
now.

Maybe behind bars with my mom.

“She’s used to being a prisoner,” Veda
taunted behind us. “That’s the only reason she’s still alive. She’s
never known anything but captivity. She was born broken.”

I swallowed furious curses and willed my
fists to stay at my side. I wanted to rip her hair out.

I felt her lean forward. Her unearthly body
heat covered my back and raised the hairs on my arms. She seemed to
sense my reaction and it caused another tinkling of giggles to fall
out of her.

“You’ll never last that long, Siren,” she
whispered into my hair. “Do you know what happens when you try to
cage a wild bird?” She didn’t wait for my guess. “They die.”

Swallowing my outrage, I asked the one
question I had held back so far. “My friends… Exie and Sloane. Do
you know what’s happened to them?”

Her black eyes seemed fathomless in the dark
hallway. They widened at my question, seeming to become a hellish
abyss right there on her small face. “Your mother lives in the lap
of luxury compared to what Poseidon has done to them. And it’s all
because of you. He punishes them because you’re out of his reach.
But not for long, Little Bird. He’s close to what he wants. He has
his prize within his reach.”

I didn’t turn around, but with a voice made
of steel and vibrato, I asked, “Are we done yet?”

I sensed her fast jerk to upright and the
tension that leaked into the air. She had wanted to wound me, but I
wouldn’t let her. I wouldn’t let her threats get to me.

I wouldn’t let any of them get to me.

“We are,” she clipped in a business-like
tone. “Be gone.”

I stumbled again, but this time not from the
broken rocks and crumbled bone. My foot landed on unfamiliar
ground, but it was definitely ground I could see.

My head rushed with the unsteady feeling of
sharp déjà vu, and when I lifted my head, I could see why. Veda had
sent us right back to the center of Olympus. One second we’d been
in the Fate’s cave of iniquity and the next we were in the middle
of town square with ten armed men and three angry Furies
surrounding us.

“Siren,” Eryn bellowed. “You’re under arrest
for the murder of a god.”

Chapter Twenty-Two

“The goddamn Fates,” Ryder muttered under his
breath.

I glanced around, absorbing every escape
route. The last year of hiding had taught me to make sure I knew
where every exit was at all times.

Trapped in the middle of the road on a
mountain that shouldn’t even exist, there weren’t many options. But
an alley to my left faded into gray obscurity that could be
helpful.

“Settle, Ivy,” Nix cooed gently. The gloating
lilt to his deep baritone voice curdled my blood. “There’s nowhere
for you to go. And we need to speak with you. I’m sure everything
can be explained easily and to our satisfaction.”

I met his dark eyes and registered the
victorious glint to his sinister expression. There was no reasoning
that would make it okay to kill a god. Not even an evil one.
Whatever I said would condemn me.

Nix continued, “And if you can’t explain the
situation to our liking, I’m sure we’ll find an acceptable way to
punish you.”

Ryder’s body pressed against mine, his chest
to my back, shaking with rage. I could feel his determination, the
unrelenting drive he felt to get me out of here alive. Nix would
not win this way.

I held Nix’s gaze and with confidence I did
not feel said, “I’m not sure my explanation will be to your liking,
Nix, but I think the rest of the Pantheon will see that I am
without fault.”

“And the musician?” Hera asked with a dark
eyebrow raised.

“Neither of us killed Hades,” Ryder growled.
“You need to question Persephone and Medusa.”

Hera’s face flinched with visible surprise,
“Since they both reside in the Underworld, that will be rather
impossible.”

Shit.

“Come,” she beckoned with the authority that
only the queen of the gods could command. “It seems we need to be
tedious and hold a trial.”

Ryder nodded subtly and I gathered my
remaining courage and followed Hera toward the temple. Hermes fell
into step next to me and although he didn’t speak, I could feel his
disapproval of our actions.

Shame twisted with anxiety inside of me. If
we had gone straight to him could he have helped? Would he have
been able to get my mother back without striking a deal with the
Fates?

I couldn’t decide if we could trust him or
not, but my indecision might be the death of me.

Inside the windy, open pavilion, Hera took
her seat on her throne with regal grace that scraped at my nerves.
Her narrowed eyes glittered with arrogant disapproval and her lithe
arms crossed over her chest in a pose that declared her judgment
before either of us had spoken.

“Such shocking behavior from you, Siren. Need
I remind you that you are a guest in my kingdom?” She raised that
one eyebrow again, daring me to disagree.

“I remember,” I replied. I aimed for cool
indifference, but I landed somewhere between breathless from fear
and trembling from anger.

“And yet you tromp about with your
self-righteous morality, trying to kill each of us?”

“No,” I hissed immediately. “I never intended
to kill anyone. I
didn’t
kill anyone. What happened with
Hades? That was… He attacked us! We defended ourselves. Neither
Ryder nor I thought we had the ability to kill him.”

“You don’t,” Nix boomed from somewhere behind
me.

Gods and goddesses surrounded us as a
volatile, angry jury that would decide our fate. I kept my
attention on Hera. For some reason she was easier to hold eye
contact with than any of the other amoral gods.

“Tell us what happened.” Hera waved her hand
lazily at us. “Start from the beginning.”

“Go on, Red,” Ryder encouraged.

I took a steadying breath and ignored the
riot of nerves jumping through my blood. I hadn’t really been
afraid of the repercussions of Hades’ death until this moment. I
didn’t realize they would know so immediately or that they would
hold us to our actions.

I thought I was here to kill Nix! If it was
such a problem to end the life of a god, what did that mean for
Nix?

What did that mean for me?

I licked my dry lips and told the story of
where Ryder and I had gone last night and how we’d come to meet up
with Hades. I left out the parts about trying to save my mother and
my purposeful meeting with the Fates. Instinct whispered that any
deal made with those three creatures would not do anything good for
us.

“He wanted to take me to the Underworld,” I
told them sincerely. “He wanted to use my powers for himself, to
enslave the entire world to him. When he attacked, we fought back.
Both Ryder and Hades fell over the veil. They both died.”

“And yet the musician lives.” Ares stepped
next to Hera’s throne and cast a baleful glance at both of us.

The sickening part of this was that I knew,
I just knew
, that Ares would have done the exact same thing
if he had been given the opportunity.

“Persephone gave him mercy,” I said in a
smaller voice than I intended.

A cruel smile lit his face, when he said, “I
bet she did. A favor for a favor. She’s been waiting to sink her
claws into Hades for centuries.”

“Can’t blame her,” Hera snickered. “He would
never have survived two days if he’d imprisoned me that way.”

Hope blossomed in my chest. Maybe this trial
was just for show.

“Nevertheless,” Hera’s voice resounded
through the columned building. “You are directly responsible for
the assault and murder of a god. This is an unforgivable crime. It
is in my power to punish you to the full extent of our law.”

“What is that?” I took a step forward.
“What’s the extent of your law?”

A passive look of disgust flashed over her
face and she said, “Death.”

“And my other options?”

Her slender nose wrinkled and she said, “Or
you will be put in the charge of one of the other gods to work off
your deeds until the time of their choosing.”

“Those are my choices? Slavery or death?”
Chills racked my body and I suddenly saw clearly why Nix was so
excited about this trial. This was the opportunity he had been
waiting for.

“They are not choices, Siren,” Hera sneered.
“I will decide how to punish you. You do not get a say.”

“Fine,” I huffed. “Just as long as you choose
death. I will kill myself if I have to.”

“Ivy, you don’t mean that,” Nix chuckled from
behind me. “My queen, she doesn’t mean that.”

“I suppose you want her, Poseidon?” Hera’s
face relaxed into cold indifference. She seemed glad Nix was
willing to take me off her hands. I wanted to chain her to the
bottom of the ocean too.

If I could have eliminated the entire
Pantheon in one sweep, I would have.

I would have drowned them all.

They were despicable and disgusting.
Humanity, with all of our faults and mortality, was so much better
than these self-righteous sadists.

“I would like that very much, my Queen.”
Nix’s large hand landed on my shoulder. I tried to shrug him off,
but his fingers dug into my flesh until I winced beneath his
punishing grip. Ryder moved to take me from him, but other gods
stepped forward and pulled him into an unbreakable stronghold.

A few minutes of struggle followed, as Ryder
and I fought to find our freedom. Bright streaks of lightning
flashed overhead in the suddenly midnight sky. The power of the
gods warred against us, proving how frail and weak we were in
comparison.

My stomach churned with fear and despair. But
something else pulsed with my wild emotions, something like fury.
Power undulated beneath my skin, screaming in protest against the
unfairness of the situation.

Nix coughed behind me, gurgling a sound that
surprised me. I gave into the power; I let the energy of this anger
take over. I pushed aside my weak feelings of impotency and gave
into the strange electricity that charged my blood and rushed
through my spirit.

My bare shoulder was suddenly cold and wet. I
looked back at Nix to see water pouring from his mouth, dripping
down his chin to the front of his robe. The pristine white cloth
became translucent with the deluge of water. It came from every
part of him. Not just his mouth, nose and other orifices, but
seeping from his skin too. He looked like a sponge that had been
submerged in water and then rung tightly.

I took a step away from him and he didn’t try
to stop me. His hand fell to his side in a limp bounce against his
thigh. He swayed on his feet and for a moment I thought I had hurt
him... I thought I had killed him. His eyes rolled into the back of
his head, before they snapped forward again and locked onto me.