Chapter 36

SUNBEAM

Theo’s first thought was one of relief. The police had made shown up after all. “Nice disguise, but where’s the SWAT team?” He could see Geraldine Hansen’s eyes through the holes in her hyena mask. He wondered how he hadn’t recognized her steely gaze before.

She took a step backward. “I don’t know what you’re talking about.”

Theo wondered whether the blow to his head had messed with his brain; he couldn’t believe what he was hearing. “You got Flint’s message, right?”

“Whatever you’re thinking, you’re wrong.”

He heard Gabi give an impatient grunt. “Okay, now I’m really lost,” she said. “Who the fuck are you?”

And with that, she ripped the mask from the Hyaena’s face.

“You shouldn’t have done that, Ms. Jimenez.” The police captain turned her gun reluctantly on Theo’s best friend. Gabi’s eyes widened, and she opened her mouth to scream for help, but the captain shook her head warningly. She gestured with her chin for Gabi to stand facing Theo, then used another plastic restraint to cuff her hands lower on the bookshelf.

“Oh, you are so in for it,” Gabi hissed over her shoulder at the cop. “You’re getting a call from the ACLU, the Lambda Legal Fund, and every goddamn lawyer I know. This is police brutality, and the people of this city won’t stand for it.”

Theo barely heard her. His reeling brain was finally putting the pieces together. Hansen wasn’t disguised as the Hyaena—she was the Hyaena. There would be no rescue. And worse still, Flint’s call to Hansen meant the Mithraists had known the gods would attack the planetarium. The Athanatoi never had a chance—Theo’d made sure of that.

“What are you going to do?” he demanded over Gabi’s continued diatribe. “Kill us both?” He strained against the bookshelf, trying to rip free, but the restraints showed no sign of weakening. This is my fault, he thought desperately. And if I don’t get free, Selene and Gabi are both doomed.

“I tried to save you.” Hansen’s voice sounded weary. “I wanted no more innocent blood on my hands. But I have a role to play, Schultz. And nothing can stand in the way of that. Now that you know who I am, I can’t let you go. If I turn you over to the others, they’ll surely torture you further before you die. Is that what you want? I can give you a clean death. That’s the only mercy I can spare.”

“Wait, wait,” Gabriela interrupted, finally sounding uncertain. “I thought you were just going to rough us up. Unjustified incarceration maybe. But when you say death, you really mean … death?”

“I don’t like this any more than you do, Ms. Jimenez.”

“Oh, really. Then why don’t we just switch places, huh? Give me the gun and the badge.”

“And what about Selene?” Theo interjected. “You’re going to stand by and let them kill her, too? You’re her friend.”

“She stopped being my friend the moment I realized who she really was,” Hansen retorted. “Her death is needed for the resurrection. There’s nothing I can do about it, even if I wanted to.”

“The resurrection? Of Mithras? Why on earth would you care?”

She shook her head. “Mithras isn’t who you think he is.”

“Goddammit! You all keep saying that! I get it. He’s more than a Persian god, he’s the deity who allows you to ascend through the celestial spheres to heaven. Or at least a whole bunch of Roman soldiers two thousand years ago thought he did. But there are no celestial spheres! Let’s take a tour of the museum, shall we, if you need a refresher course in heliocentrism.”

“We were tasked, don’t you understand? To bring Death to the Deathless Ones and return our God in their place. The Host himself visited our founder to give him the command.”

“The Host?” I thought that was the name of the cult … now it’s a man?

Hansen scowled at him. “I can see the wheels turning in your head, Schultz. You think you can figure this out. But this is a deeper mystery than even you can solve. You would need a lifetime to uncover our secrets. And I’m afraid yours is just about up. I have to get back in there.” Her smile faded. She leveled her gun at him. “I’m sorry, Professor. This isn’t how it was supposed to happen. I’ll give you a moment to say good-bye to your friend.”

Before he could speak, Gabi craned her head to look up at him and flashed him a tense smile. “Well, Theo-doreable, I guess this is it.” He could feel her heartbeat, fast as a bird’s, where his bound hands pressed against her chest. Her own hands were trapped somewhere near his belt. “If we die, at least we die in each other’s arms, sort of.”

“Gabi—”

“You know, this is quite the compromising position. Good thing I always carry protection, just like you told me to,” she continued, her trembling voice belying her saucy wink. She slowly turned her eyes downward to her own chest.

“Glad to know that even at a moment like this, your mind’s in the gutter,” he said, slipping his hand beneath her jacket. Gabi’s eyes widened as his fingers squeezed past her breast to brush against the plastic canister in her inside pocket.

Hansen cocked the gun.

Gabi ducked. Theo yanked the pepper spray from her chest, aimed it at the captain, and squeezed the trigger. She screamed in agony and fired at the same time, but he’d already dragged Gabi down the pole of the bookshelf and out of harm’s way.

Hansen was too well trained to shoot again, not while blind. She cursed and put a hand to her streaming eyes.

Theo wished he had Selene’s skills. A well-placed kick to Hansen’s right hand would’ve had the cop’s gun flying free. But before he could even think about how to manage that while bound to the bookcase, Hansen stumbled back out of his reach. She groped blindly and staggered to the opposite side of the shelves. Selene might never have taught Theo her combat skills, but he’d learned from her example to always use all the resources at hand.

“Come on, Gabi,” he urged, “you said you were working out, right?” They threw their weight against the bookshelf. To his utter shock, it tipped over, dragging them with it, and crashed on top of the captain, knocking her unconscious.

Theo whooped.

“Nice work, chico, but now we’re trapped, too,” Gabi grumbled. They lay awkwardly on top of the bookcase, still cuffed to the metal rod.

“I didn’t come this far to wind up lying here when the cops finally do show up. By then, it’ll be too late. Selene will already be dead.”

“You going to tell me what the hell’s going on?”

“You going to help me get out of here?”

They knocked each shelf of the bookcase loose with an awkward combination of their knees and feet until they could slip the plastic restraints off the edge of the pole. They dug through Hansen’s pocket for the key to Theo’s handcuffs and used a pair of scissors from the cashier’s desk to cut Gabi’s restraints. Throughout it all, the cop lay motionless. Gabi pressed a finger to Hansen’s neck, then picked up the fallen gun, staring at it distastefully. “She’s still alive. Do you think we should … I don’t know, shoot her in the foot to make sure she can’t come after us?”

“Leave her alone. She’s just a pawn.”

“Wow. You’re the most naive guy ever, you know that? Do you really have to see the good in everybody? She just tried to kill us.”

“You don’t cut off the tail of the snake, you go for the head. Now give me that—I’ve got to go get Selene.” He held out his hand for the Glock.

“I almost got killed, too,” Gabi insisted, holding it out of his reach. “You owe me an explanation.”

“You wouldn’t believe it. And there isn’t time. Now, Gabi.”

“You don’t know how to shoot it.”

“And you do?” He lunged for the gun, but she took a step back, her face growing hot.

“It’s embarrassing. You remember when I was doing that dig out on the Navajo reservation …”

“I do not have time for your stories right now.”

Her words rushed out in a single breath. “Let’s just say I had a brief fling with a Navajo medicine woman, and she taught me how to shoot jackrabbits, and I’m not proud of it, but I happened to be really good.”

“Jackrabbits don’t shoot back!”

“I’m coming with you.”

Selene regained consciousness with a gasp of pain. It felt like someone had just ripped her spine from her back. She twisted far enough to see the Pater standing above her holding her gold arrow in his hand. Blood dripped from its tip onto her cheek. She tried to wipe it away, but found she couldn’t move her right arm.

As she tried to rise, two syndexioi hurried to grab her, and she found herself too weak to throw them off. A quick glance around the planetarium told her that the rescue had gone horribly awry. Flint and the others lay facedown on the ground beneath the golden net. The syndexioi, despite various wounds, still held their divine weapons.

Selene’s only solace lay in the knowledge that the two men she cared most about had escaped. Theo was gone. It’ll be easier to die, she thought, without him here to watch. His very presence makes me want to live. And by now, Paul would be out of the museum. If he could simply flee, he might escape the cult’s influence long enough to recover from his despair and find the strength to fight them off when they came for him again. There was no such hope for her.

When I am gone, Apollo, she prayed to her brother, you must take all that was mine. When women talk of Artemis or Diana, when they dream of a Huntress and her golden bow, I ask that you hear their prayers. That you help them where I have failed. And—in return—that their reverence might lend you the strength I’ve squandered.

Flint, however, had not given up. Despite the arrow wounds in his stomach and the golden threads holding him down, the dam that held his rage had split open. He growled like a caged animal, his biceps bulging, the whites visible around his rolling eyes. Yet no matter how he strained, he couldn’t free himself from his own net.

Dash, a red welt on his neck from the snakes’ embrace, spoke rapid fire to the legionary holding the edge of the net, no doubt hoping to lie, cheat, or steal his way out of captivity. The masked man just looked away impassively.

Philippe, one hand pressed to the spear wound in his side, simply stared at his stepfather’s futile battle against his own creation, his eyes filled with compassion. Then he calmly reached for the golden threads—he tore a hole in the net as easily as he might rip the tissue paper on a Valentine’s gift. Selene didn’t understand until she remembered what Flint had told her about the net’s supernatural properties—only someone who truly loved him could escape it.

Philippe slipped out of their prison and turned to reach a hand through the hole. “Allons-y, Papa!”

Flint lurched toward the opening, but the gap in the net magically repaired itself, blocking his way. He roared in frustration. He doesn’t love himself, Selene realized, otherwise the net couldn’t hold him.

Dash began to cackle hysterically, a sound of more madness than mirth. “Oh, the irony!” he gasped. Flint kept clawing at the net, but all in vain. Philippe screamed at him to try harder, but the syndexioi dragged him away, bending him sideways to stretch his wound. He gasped in agony and then stood still in their grip, incapacitated by pain.

The Pater, his eyes bright blue behind his metal mask, looked from one god to the next. “The pantheon comes to me,” he said, a smile in his voice. “Tonight’s sacrifice will be powerful indeed!” He turned to the exit. “Bring the Bright One forth!”

“What?” Selene cried as the doors to the planetarium burst open, and the Heliodromi reappeared, dragging Paul between them.

“NO!” she screamed, writhing in her captors’ grasp. Paul raised his head slowly, his eyes slitted. It’s all been for nothing, she thought. They never meant to let him go. Still, she begged, “I won’t go willingly to my death if you kill him!”

The Pater only laughed. “Who needs you when I have them?” He gestured toward the Athanatoi within the net. “They will all go willingly in the end, far more easily than you did.” He turned to Paul, lifting his sickle high. “Ashes to ashes, dust to dust.”

A crack like lightning. As if Zeus himself had sent a thunderbolt to save his favorite son. The Pater doubled over with a pained grunt. Not lightning, Selene realized. A bullet. From somewhere far overhead, Selene heard Gabriela Jimenez shout, “Next time, pray faster, cabrón!”

The two syndexioi holding Selene dropped her and rushed to their Pater. Then Theo was at her side, grabbing her useless right arm and dragging her toward an emergency exit.

“No, wait,” Selene managed, her mind spinning as she stumbled after him. He ignored her protests, still pulling her arm with surprising strength.

Around them, bullets flew, sending the syndexioi cowering behind the seats. The wounded Pater managed to raise his head, his eyes full of fury. He clutched his stomach, and blood seeped between the fingers of his left hand, staining his white robe. His right hand still held the sickle. He staggered toward Paul.

Selene froze, barely able to process the scene before her. She knew she should rip away from Theo, but her arm was dead weight; she couldn’t twist it from his grip. Pain from the arrow wound seared up her back and into her skull as she tried to break free. For the first time, Paul’s eyes locked on hers.

“Artemis,” he whispered, so faintly only the Huntress’s ears could hear him. “I can’t see the sun …”

Using her whole body, Selene tore from Theo’s grasp just as the Pater drove Saturn’s divine sickle into her brother’s heart.

Around her, every mortal injured in the chaos suddenly collapsed, reaching for minor wounds that suddenly grew deeper and bruises that spread wider. The man she’d kicked in the groin keened in high-pitched torment. The Corvus grazed by Dash’s bullets moaned as he tried in vain to stanch the sudden gush of blood that drenched his arms. Theo clutched at the wound peeking above the collar of his shirt, his groan of pain a stuttered hum. With Apollo’s death, healing simply ceased. An atonal symphony of agony arose in its place, a discordant requiem ripped from the throats of men to proclaim the God of Music’s passing.

Theo reached for Selene once more, clearly fighting through his own suffering. “This is our chance,” he gasped. He dragged her out of the planetarium, urging her to run faster.

But she heard only the dirge. She felt only the sickle as it sank into her own chest. As it sliced her twin away. As it cleaved her heart in twain.