Chapter Fourteen

Betrayal

Andy hadn’t heard from Anteros since last night during their fight with the Huntresses, and honestly, after everything Prometheus had said about the convergence stuff, he was glad for it.

Apparently, Asteria had told Prometheus something similar to what Zoey had been told in her own weird garden dream, but with a few differing details. She said that Anteros and Calliope were definitely trying to take over Andy and Zoey, but that that was “beneficial,” and that it needed to happen “for the greater good.” According to the Titan goddess, this whole god-possessing-a-human thing had happened before, and it was pivotal for Anteros and Calliope to become their “most powerful selves” again so that the gods could be defeated.

Yeah, Andy was never trusting Asteria again.

Not. Ever.

“Who does she think she is?” Andy cried as they continued trekking through the forest toward New Mount Olympus. “Seriously, is it not enough that we died and got brought back to life five hundred years later in this whacked-out postapocalyptic hellscape? Is it not enough that we’re pushing ourselves so friggin’ hard all day, every day, to steal the gods’ magical toys so we can defeat them? Is it not enough that we try to save everyone we can, while putting our own lives at risk? And now she wants us to give up our bodies and ‘converge’ with these assholes who can’t even respect our personal boundaries? Ugh!” He kicked a pile of pebbles as they passed it, sending them flying.

Zoey bit her lip as she walked beside him. “Yeah, I don’t know. How did Calliope and Anteros even get inside us? I think I had some brief flashes of Calliope’s memories from when it might have happened, but I don’t really understand them. I’d need to ask Calliope about them, but I haven’t heard from her since I woke up.”

“You don’t understand them because they’re unreal,” Prometheus replied. “I’ve never heard of a situation so ludicrous, yet at the same time, I know it must at least be partially true, because ever since your powers started developing, I’ve seen divine essences growing within you.” He paused for a moment and tilted his head at them. “Yeah, I see them now. They look like they’ve shrunk a bit, but they’re there.”

Darko shrugged. “On the bright side, you haven’t heard from Anteros and Calliope, right? Maybe they realized how awful it was to expect you guys to just give yourselves over to them. I mean, it’s not your fault they somehow got trapped in mortal bodies, and I think you can still defeat the gods without their help.”

“Oh, most definitely,” Prometheus said. “I’m not sure how the two of you are going to do it yet, but you know what? Ever since I met you, you’ve surprised me time and time again. I’m sure you’ll surprise me when you figure out a way to win this thing, too.”

A while longer passed before they were close enough to Olympus that they needed to bathe, get into their disguises, and travel the rest of the way on their own as “aristocrats.” Narcissa and Harmony had already appointed twelve new nymphs that would be going with them, since Eugenia and several others had been killed, and since Harmony and Narcissa were going to stay behind to tend to the wounded.

One by one a trio of Naiads took Andy, Zoey, Darko, Prometheus, and the twelve new nymphs away from everyone else. The Naiads had them strip naked, and then they were hosed down with cold, clean freshwater until they were squeaky clean.

After the Naiads finished directing all the water off each of them and they were completely dry, they put on the nice clothes they’d bought in Artemis City. The nymphs braided one another’s hair, and one of them even styled Zoey’s. When Andy saw her all dolled up and in her blue gown, he had to focus on keeping his jaw from dropping.

When it was finally time to go out on their own, Andy, Zoey, Darko, and Prometheus made sure to hug Kali and the pegasi (who had flown away during the fight with Artemis’s Huntresses and had come back a while after it ended). Thankfully, Kali seemed to be doing kind of okay, but her brown skin had turned ashen, and she was way less snarky than usual. The sooner they rescued Diana and got her to heal up Kali, the better.

“Good luck, Darko,” Harmony said, embracing the satyr. She pecked him on the cheek. He brushed his fingers where her lips had touched his skin, his cheeks going from deeply tanned to scarlet. Andy gave him a high five as they marched off into the trees.

Pretty soon, they started catching sight of other people—really, super nicely dressed people in horse-drawn chariots who had their noses stuck in the air and acted self-important even as they rode by. The actual aristocrats, Andy thought, and Prometheus must have been thinking the same thing, because he concealed Andy’s wings and Darko’s horns and furry goat legs, and he made the nymphs look like regular young women. He also shrank himself down and transformed his chains into jewelry and Poseidon’s Trident into a cane. Andy assumed he probably even concealed Andy’s and Zoey’s divine essences, too.

About a half hour after Prometheus concealed everyone’s magical nature, the trees began to grow sparse, and a pearlescent columned palace that stood high atop a giant mass of floating rock came into view in the distance. Storm clouds hovered around the palace. It glistened under rain and lightning.

Beneath the huge floating boulder was a long line of aristocrats, and Andy and the others scurried over to the end of the line to wait their turn to be transported to their seats by Heracles, the Gatekeeper of Olympus. As the others in front of them eyed what looked like invitations, which were handwritten upon rolled-up pieces of papyrus, Prometheus studied the papers carefully. When the group neared the front of the line, he took the liberty of snapping his fingers. Light sparked in their hands, and then they all had their own invites.

Finally, it was their turn, and Andy couldn’t help but get nervous when he laid eyes on Heracles. The hulking dark-haired god was bigger and more muscular than even Prometheus, and that was saying something.

“Invitations, please,” Heracles said to all of them since they were clearly together. He held out his hands. They relinquished the doctored papyri, and Andy held his breath as Heracles examined each one.

Finally, Heracles said, “Great. Next.” Andy released the breath he’d been holding, his lungs aching, and the massive god snapped his fingers. In the blink of an eye, Andy and his companions were sitting in one of the coolest pieces of architecture Andy had ever seen.

It had to be half the size of one of the gods’ cities, with a temple on the far end of it that looked as if it led into the palace, and a sprawling dirt floor surrounded by hundreds of rows of seats made of sloping gray stone that was curved into a sort of crescent shape. The seats were already filling up with who Andy assumed were gods, demigods, nymphs, and aristocrats. There had to be thousands of them; in fact, it was kind of baffling.

Andy leaned over to Zoey beside him. “Don’t all these guys have better things to do?” he whispered.

“No,” she whispered back. “Probably not, if they’re as petty as the gods.”

Darko shushed them, and no one said anything else as they waited for the execution to begin.

Karter spent the day of Diana’s execution training relentlessly alongside Zeus, Heracles, and Dionysus, and the night came quickly.

As he waited to be summoned for the event, he sat alone in his bedchamber, thinking of his plans for tonight.

There was a knock at his door, and he answered it. Violet, Layla, and Xander stood in the doorway.

Karter made it a point to barely look at Violet. He hadn’t spoken to her since last night, and if he had things his way, he never would again. “The king sent us for you,” Xander said. “It’s time for the Daughter of Apollo to die. Are you ready?” He and Violet snickered. Perhaps they suspected Karter would fumble his task again.

Not this time, he thought, and stepped out of his chambers. He pushed past the other demigods. “I am.”

As they walked, Karter noticed that the halls of Olympus looked so much longer and darker than they ever had before, but he didn’t mind. For the first time in his life, he knew he was exactly where he was supposed to be, doing exactly what he was supposed to do.

Soon they reached the long, twisting stone staircases leading into the jail located deep within the belly of Olympus. Flaming sconces that hung from the walls lit their path. Karter and Layla started down the stairs, Violet and Xander close behind them. “I request a word with the Daughter of Apollo,” Karter said to Layla, his tone ice cold. “Before the execution.”

Layla stared straight forward, a blank expression on her face. “The king insisted we were not to be late to the execution. Are you sure?”

“Layla, are you some kind of half-wit?” Violet hissed from behind them. “Why would you allow him to speak with her at all? He’s meant to kill her, not make friends with her.”

Karter shot Violet a quick glare over his shoulder. He halted, straightened his posture, and turned around to face her. “You would do well to remember your place, Daughter of Aphrodite.” He gestured at Layla and Xander. “In fact, all of you would do well to remember your places. Tonight, I will be made an immortal god, and you’ll be below me. I thought it was polite to ask first, but now I’m not asking anymore. Daughter of Ares, hand over the key to the cells. Now.”

Layla didn’t hesitate. She handed him a ring, a single bronze key hanging from it. Violet and Xander scowled at him.

Go ahead, he thought. Suspect me of every crime under the sun, and especially of betraying the gods. At least this time you’d be right to suspect. But try anything, and I’ll kill you.

He gripped the ring tightly. “Thank you. Now, when I go in, be sure to stand guard outside the door in case the Daughter of Apollo manages to attack me.”

“Surely you don’t need anyone to protect you,” Xander mocked. “Why would such a powerful Son of Zeus need worthless, lesser demigods to defend him?”

Karter wiggled the fingers of his free hand. Pulsing, hot power burst in his chest. It snaked down his arm, and then sparks of green electricity danced in his hand, crackling between his fingers.

Xander’s eyes went wide. He took a step back, almost stumbling over the stair behind him as his calves ran into it. “I don’t need any of you to protect me,” Karter said. “But if for some reason I have to execute the Daughter of Apollo in her cell, I want witnesses of my kill.” They all remained frozen in place.

Karter didn’t say another word. He simply nodded at them, then continued down the steps.

Once they reached the jail—a cavernous chamber constructed of stone—Layla directed Karter to Diana’s cell. From out here, he couldn’t see her, as the cell doors were fashioned with slabs of solid rock.

Karter stuck the bronze key into the keyhole and unlocked the cell door, then conjured his child-of-Zeus strength to shove it open.

Sucking in a deep breath, he stepped inside.

He shut the door behind himself and conjured a red lightning bolt to illuminate the jail cell before him. He spotted Diana among the mottled, uneven stones making up the room right away.

The last time he’d seen her, he’d thought that was the smallest and weakest she’d ever look. However, he was almost certain he’d been wrong. The smallest and weakest she’d ever look had to be right now in this cell.

It seemed the gods had only permitted her to have the least amount of food and water possible to keep her alive until her execution. She’d definitely lost a few pounds, her skin dull with dehydration. Shackles were secured around her wrists and ankles, the chains attached to the floor. A chalice full of water and a plate filled with bread and fruit sat on a nearby table, but there was no way Diana could have reached the refreshments; the chains weren’t long enough. Someone must have purposely left those there, weakening her further before the execution.

Diana looked up from the floor and glowered at Karter. “Come to gloat?”

He shook his head, hurrying over to the food and drink. He grabbed the cup with his free hand, hastened to her side, and held it to her lips. She quickly gulped down the liquid. “No,” he whispered. “Listen, I know that—that I’ve had trouble picking a side in the past. But over the course of the last few days, I . . . well, I’ve come to realize a few things. Some of those things are about fate and destiny, but most of them are about—about myself.”

“What are you talking about?” Diana whispered back, her gaze softening ever so slightly, though she still looked suspicious.

“Let me explain.” As he continued, he hardly believed what he was saying. It wasn’t until this moment that he’d been able to verbalize how he felt. “Listen. I, um—I thought I didn’t have a choice in all this. Whether I execute you, I mean. And I thought I was fine with the gods telling me what to do, so long as it meant becoming one of them. So long as it meant forgetting about the hardships I’ve experienced. But . . . as it turns out, I do have a choice in what happens next. What’s more, pain is not so—so easily buried.” He thought of how he’d wanted to let go of and forget about Spencer and Syrena and his mother. How even the gods could not completely shut out the memories of the people they’d loved and lost. “Pain is something you just have to learn to live with.”

He paused to clear his throat. “I guess my point is, I know I’ve hurt the people I love most. I’ve harmed them beyond measure, and now that they’re gone, I can never make up for it. Even still, I won’t be able to live with myself if I kill you tonight, or even if I let you die at all. So my plan is to get you and the grandchildren-of-Hephaestus out of here. Alive.”

Diana’s green eyes brightened with hope, and Karter went on. “I’m going to undo your chains, Diana. Take a few minutes to eat and gather your strength. You’re going to need it if we’re to save Troy and Marina and escape Olympus.” He freed her of her shackles, and within less than a minute she inhaled all the bread and fruit on the plate.

A knock sounded at the door. “I hate to disturb you,” Xander started on the other side, sarcasm lacing his tone. “But Zeus is waiting on us, and if I know him at all, he isn’t doing so very patiently. Let’s get going.”

Karter and Diana shared a frantic look. “Are you ready?” he whispered.

“I don’t think I have a choice,” she replied.

“Besides, love, we shouldn’t be keeping the people waiting for their show all night,” Violet said mockingly.

Layla added something else, then Xander, and then it seemed all three of the demigods outside the cell were talking at once, because Karter couldn’t understand a thing they were saying. He allowed his red bolt to disintegrate, then conjured two green ones, one in each hand. He turned to face Diana. She was already in a fighting stance, balls of golden sunlight glowing in her palms.

Neither of them had to say anything. Although they hadn’t been part of the same demigod warrior team, they’d still fought together before, and they’d fought one another, too.

“Layla!” Karter yelled, and everyone outside the cell went quiet. “Open the door. I’m ready to take the prisoner to the amphitheater for her execution.”

When Layla started opening the cell, Karter jumped into the air, focused on his strength, and kicked the hunk of rock open all the way. The force sent the Daughter of Ares flying backward. Violet and Xander cried out in surprise.

Karter soared above them, brandishing the green lightning bolts. “Quiet, all of you! Keep your mouths shut, or I’ll be forced to kill you!”

That was enough to silence them, but Violet and Xander glared at Karter with their fists balled at their sides. Layla stared up at him in shock.

Diana slipped out into the open. Boldly, fearlessly, she stepped up below Karter, readying her spheres of light.

“Karter?” Layla asked in a low voice. “What—what’s gotten into you? I don’t—I don’t understand. You’re to be made a god. Why would you do something like this?”

“I’ll tell you why,” Xander snapped, not bothering to keep his volume down. “It’s because of his precious Spencer and Syrena. He’s always allowed his weakness for them to cloud his judgment, and now he’s—”

Before Xander could finish his sentence, Karter swooped down and brought a green lightning bolt so close to his face it almost touched his nose. Xander yelped, stumbling back.

“You’re right,” Karter said through clenched teeth. “I am doing this for Spencer and Syrena. They loved me despite my shortcomings. They stood beside me even when I was considered a disgrace. While everyone else pretended to care, and only when it was convenient for them, no less. And I . . .” He swallowed back tears. “I fell for it. I fell for the lie, because I wanted to believe that one day, I could forget all the hurt and have the life every demigod dreams of. But I can’t. So instead, I’ll have to learn to live with myself for what I’ve done. I’ll have to—to make up for it as best as I can. I’ll have to try to be the man I should have been for Syrena on the night of her execution, and for Spencer long before his stepmother betrayed him.”

“I can’t believe I wanted to make you fall in love with me a second time,” Violet said off to the left. “Not only did that repulsive scar ruin your looks, but you’ve become pathetically emotional over the years.” Karter turned to see Violet as she raised a few of the darts she kept hidden in her dress.

A ball of golden sunlight rammed into Violet’s stomach, sending her spiraling to the floor. Her head ricocheted off the stone. With a soft sigh, she fell unconscious.

Xander grabbed a dagger from his belt. Layla put her hands up. “No,” she said. “If we fight Karter, we die. Let them go.”

“I’d rather die than let traitors roam free,” Xander replied. Before he could rush toward Karter or Diana, Layla leapt up behind him and rammed a fist into the side of his skull, knocking him out. She used the trick often in battle; it involved channeling her super-strength, which she’d inherited from her father. She grabbed Xander by the arms, shoved him into Diana’s cell, and slammed the door shut.

“Go,” she said to Karter and Diana. “Get out of here.”

Diana took a tentative step toward the Daughter of Ares. “Layla? Why would you—”

“I said go!” Layla shouted in desperation.

Karter shook his head. “Not before we have the grandchildren-of-Hephaestus, too. Where are they being held?”

Layla quickly led them to a cell located within an adjacent jail-chamber, and Karter didn’t waste any time. He unlocked the door, opened it, and, using his free hand, illuminated the cell with red lightning. Sure enough, Troy and Marina were in here. They lay on the ground only a few feet from one another, their wrists chained to the floor. A table with empty plates and cups stood between them, and Karter breathed out a sigh of relief. At least they’re not starving like Diana.

Marina groaned, lifting her head. When she saw Karter, she glowered at him, crackling orange flames forming in her palms. Troy was next to spot him. The Grandson of Hephaestus’s jaw clenched.

Karter raised his hands as if in surrender, jangling the key. “I’m here to save you.”

“Yeah, right,” Troy said.

“He’s telling the truth.” Diana entered the cell. Graceful as ever, she jumped up to snatch the key from Karter, then jogged over to Troy and Marina and unlocked their chains. “All right, get up,” she said, offering them each a hand. “We have to hurry and escape.”

Marina laughed coldly, and Karter’s stomach bubbled with nausea as he recalled what Zeus had done to the grandchildren-of-Hephaestus. “If my punishment went as planned,” Zeus had said, “and my punishments generally do, Troy and Marina will be paralyzed from the waist down for the remainder of their miserable lives.”

This is all my fault, Karter thought. They’re paralyzed because of me.

“What’s wrong?” Diana asked, still holding out her hands for them. “Come on, we have to go.”

“You weren’t awake for it, were you?” Troy asked.

“Awake for what?”

Marina glowered at Karter, then looked up at Diana. “Zeus struck our backs with lightning. He made it so we can’t—can’t move our legs. We can’t walk.”

“Maybe I can heal you,” Diana started, her tone frantic. “Maybe I can—”

“No,” Troy said, his lip quivering. “I don’t think this is something that can be reversed. I’m afraid we’ll only burden you.”

“Let me try.” She knelt and placed one hand on each of them. Her body blazed with golden light, and the glow spread into the twins.

Almost a full minute passed before she pulled away from them, all their illumination fading away. “Well?” she said between gasps of breath.

They knit their brows and grunted in effort, but nothing happened.

“I’m so sorry,” Marina said. “I think it’s better if you leave us here. We wanted to do more for you, but—”

“No,” Karter interjected. “I refuse to leave you to die.” He stepped toward them. “Let me carry you out of here. After we escape, we’ll do something for your paralysis. Diana’s in a weakened state. Surely, once she’s had time to rest and she’s back to full strength, she can do something about it.”

“And if she can’t?” Troy asked.

Karter averted his gaze from theirs. He ran a shaking hand through his hair, pressing his lips into a thin line. Finally, he looked at them once more. “The fact that you’re here . . . it’s my fault. It’s a result of my decisions.” He thought of Zoey. Of how she’d asked him to join her group, and of how he’d chosen to bring Diana to Olympus instead. “If it weren’t for me, neither of you would be here now, and I’m going to have to find a way to make it up to you. If Diana can’t help you, I will.”

“How can we trust anything you say?” Marina replied. “Zoey and Diana tried to save you, and you repaid their kindness with betrayal.”

The words spilled from Karter’s mouth before he could think about how he sounded. “I understand why you can’t be certain whether to trust me. However, none of that matters right now, because you can be certain of one thing: if you don’t let me help you, you’ll die.”

Troy and Marina shared a somber look, then nodded at Karter. Tapping into his strength, he bent down, picked them up, and hoisted them over his shoulders. “Are you ready to go, Diana?” he asked.

“More than you know.”

Together, they exited the cell. Layla waited for them outside.

Diana grabbed the Daughter of Ares’s hand. “Layla, come with us.”

Layla glanced down at her hand in Diana’s, then at Diana’s face, with wide eyes. Her skin turned the same burgundy shade as her coil-y hair, as it usually did when she grew upset, but strangely enough, she didn’t seem mad. “I—I can’t,” she stammered. “You know . . . you know what he’ll do to me if he discovers I even thought about helping you. Don’t you remember what happened when I tried convincing him to just consider resurrecting Pearl?” Karter raised a brow. He’d never heard anything like this from Layla before. As far as he’d known, she’d never argued with the gods about the decision to leave Pearl dead.

“He taught me to—to honor the gods no matter what,” Layla continued. “That my duty must always be to them. That my destiny has always been to serve them. If he finds out about this, he’ll see it as the ultimate betrayal, and he’ll pun—”

“Ares can’t hurt you anymore if he’s defeated along with the rest of the gods,” Diana interjected, seizing Layla’s other hand.

I see, Karter thought as Diana paused for a few seconds. I’m not the only one with a cruel father. Why am I not surprised?

Diana continued, “I don’t understand why even now, you still feel like you have to stay here and be loyal to the gods.” She jerked her head toward the chamber where Violet and Xander lay unconscious. “Besides, won’t Xander remember you were the one who attacked him from behind? You can’t stay here. It’s too dangerous.”

Layla shrank in on herself, though she held tight to Diana’s hands. “I have to. Besides, I can just tell the gods the truth: Xander would have died by Karter’s hand if I hadn’t knocked him out. It’s better to regroup and fight smart later rather than get yourself killed in the heat of the moment, right?”

“Please, come with me,” Diana said, her voice pleading. “Let’s do this together, Layla. Like we should have all along. I know you loved Pearl as much as Syrena and I did. She was your best friend, and . . . and so was I.”

At this, the color drained from Layla’s face. Karter thought he saw tears forming in her eyes.

The Daughter of Ares pulled away from Diana. She hung her head. “I . . . I can’t. I’m sorry. Please go. Get to safety, before someone comes down here and sees what’s happened.”

Diana’s bottom lip trembled. She turned away from Layla, clenching her fists at her sides, before finally running toward the jail exit. Karter followed close behind.

As they started up the winding staircase, Troy asked, “How exactly do you plan on getting all of us off this cursed hunk of rock, Son of Zeus?” He patted Karter’s shoulder blade. “I know you can fly, but it doesn’t seem like you’ve got room for more than two.”

“Not an issue,” Karter said. “We just have to sneak through the palace to my bedchamber. I stole a pegasus that Diana can ride down. It’s stationed outside my window.”

“You stole a pegasus?” Diana wiped a few tears from her cheeks. “You planned this out ahead of time, didn’t you?”

“I did.”

They reached the top, and a quick scan of the halls confirmed they were alone. Karter bolted in the direction of his bedchamber, while Diana raced toward the amphitheater.

Karter halted, almost tripping over his feet. “What are you doing? My room is this way.”

“Yeah, but Andy and Zoey aren’t,” Diana replied with a shrug.

“What in all the gods’ names are you talking about?” Karter cried. “There’s no way those two are here. They might have escaped Poseidon’s palace and stolen the Trident, but—”

“You clearly don’t know them very well,” Diana remarked. “Thanks, by the way. For confirming they got Poseidon’s Trident. If anything, that only makes me surer about them being here. If I know them, they’re waiting for you and me to enter the amphitheater so they can save me.”

“So what do you propose we do? Go out and face my father? He’ll kill us!”

Diana smiled mischievously, her eyes brightening ever so slightly. “Not if you ‘kill’ him first. Didn’t you learn how to make green lightning?”

Karter’s jaw dropped. “You can’t be serious. Zoey and Andy—they—”

“They’re here,” Diana finished for him. “Not just to save me, but to steal your father’s Master Lightning Bolt too. And they’re going to need our help.”

“What about Troy and Marina? They can’t fight right now.”

“Leave us,” Marina said. “Here, in the hall. We might not be able to use our legs, but I can still conjure flames. If someone sees us, I’ll use my fire-powers to protect us.”

Troy nodded. “And once you meet up with the Chosen Two, you can come back for us. We’ll all escape together.”

Karter couldn’t believe what he was hearing. What they were suggesting. Even still, he set Troy and Marina behind a pillar, trying to hide them as best he could. Then he sprinted after Diana as she rushed for the amphitheater, his pulse pounding in his ears.

Zoey grew more and more restless, practically bouncing in her seat with anxiety. The crowd in the amphitheater whispered among themselves; Zeus had announced that the execution would start whole minutes ago, yet there was still no sign of Diana.

Andy leaned over to Prometheus. “Should we start without them?” he whispered. “Maybe storm the palace? Find everyone and break them out?”

Prometheus sighed. “I’m not sure that’s the best idea.”

“But what if it’s our only choice?” Darko asked.

“If it comes down to that, then—” Prometheus never finished his sentence. He didn’t have to. A woman in the front row screamed. Then someone else did, and someone else, and someone else, until it sounded as though everyone in the audience were yelling.

Zoey looked out at the amphitheater and couldn’t believe what she saw. Karter was flying above the audience, two peridot-green bolts crackling in his hands. What was strange, however, was that he was supposed to be using them on Diana, and she was nowhere to be seen.

Multiple people in the audience shrieked, “What is the Son of Zeus doing?” and Zoey found herself wondering the same thing.

“Now?” Andy asked.

Prometheus kept Andy from getting up. “Hold your pegasi. We haven’t located our girl yet.”

“Where is the prisoner, son?” Zeus boomed from the center of the dirt floor. He sounded aggravated, as if he’d written a script for tonight’s show and Karter had decided on improv instead.

The King of the Gods jumped into the air, his robes billowing around him as he soared to Karter’s level. Thunder roared in the distance, green lightning crackling in the sky. “Look at all the lovely citizens who came to watch the execution.” Zeus gestured at the crowd. “It’s not necessary to drag this out any longer. Why don’t you go get the Daughter of Apollo now, my boy?”

It was then that Karter did something that shocked Zoey to the core. He narrowed his eyes at his father and yelled over the thunder, “Today, Diana lives!” As the words left his mouth, he chucked his green lightning at Zeus.

In an instant, the bolts hit Zeus—one in the chest, the other an arm. He screamed and convulsed, smoke rippling off his skin, and plummeted to the floor of the amphitheater. He landed hard on his back, his mouth lolling open, his unblinking eyes staring up at the roaring black sky.

As the audience screeched in terror, Zoey finally spotted Diana. The Daughter of Apollo ran into the amphitheater and looked out at the crowd as if desperately searching for someone or something. Karter swooped down to her side, and what appeared to be the other gods of Olympus piled out from the front rows of the audience. The gods advanced on Diana and Karter. Diana began chucking golden spheres of sunlight at them, while Karter conjured green lightning and shot at them with it.

“Zoey, now,” Prometheus said. “Subdue them, before they trample any of us.”

Zoey focused on her voice-powers, on what she could say to calm these panicked people. However, the familiar tingling sensation in her throat never came. Not only that, but her body didn’t feel as though it was thrumming with power, as it usually did when she tapped into the abilities.

“It’s all right,” she yelled, hoping that if she went ahead and spoke anyway, her powers would show up. “This must be part of the event. Zeus wouldn’t have allowed for it otherwise, don’t you think? There’s no need to panic.”

Even the citizens closest to her didn’t stop shrieking, nor did they calm down, as she’d hoped they would. Soon everyone had begun to stampede out of their seats.

Zoey swallowed hard. “Sorry, you guys. I guess Calliope’s still recovering from our encounter with Artemis. It doesn’t seem like she’s going to lend me any power tonight.” Prometheus nodded, and with a snap of his fingers, he allowed all their disguises to melt away, then whipped his chains in warning at the scattering citizens if they even threatened to get too close.

In seconds Andy returned to himself, feathered butterfly wings and all, as did Darko, Prometheus, and the nymphs. “Andy, fly with Zoey over to Zeus,” Prometheus barked. “If he’s really dead for now, steal that Master Lightning Bolt from his robes. Dryads—get me and Darko and the Naiads down there, too. This is about to be the fight of our lives.”

Zoey retrieved the Helm of Darkness from their pack and put it on. Prometheus handed the Trident to Andy, and Zoey threw her arms around Andy’s neck. As she touched him, he disappeared with her. Tightening one arm around her waist, Trident in his free hand, Andy flew them toward Zeus’s body. To Zoey’s surprise, he seemed a lot more wobbly than usual, as if he was having trouble keeping his balance in the air. Thankfully, though, they didn’t crash to their deaths.

Behind them, the Dryads made a bridge of vines above the audience that led down to the dirt floor of the amphitheater. Darko, Prometheus, and all twelve nymphs scrambled up onto it and started sprinting across.

Even when Andy landed, Zoey didn’t let go of him. She slid her fingers down his arm and grabbed his free hand. “We stay invisible for as long as possible,” she said.

“Agreed.”

Together, they raced toward Zeus.