Darkness Becomes Her

Fifteen

AS SEBASTIAN LED THE WAY THROUGH THE CROWD, IT WAS impossible for me to keep my eyes on his back; the lure of sequins and satin, masks and mystery, was too hard to avoid. The soft murmur of voices, the music, the colors, and the light reflecting off everything made the entire house pulse.

He moved fast, weaving through bodies, allowing me to catch only small glimpses of things, things I tried not to search out, but couldn’t resist. I was drawn so easily, finding dark, hidden places, couples engaged in more than just dancing or conversing. My heart leaped at the flash of small, white fangs, the single drop of blood that gleamed on the corner of a smiling mouth with the same luster as a teardrop ruby, before a tongue darted out and licked it away.

Sebastian tugged at me, the movement drawing my attention. We’d stopped near the second-story balcony. The air was even cooler than before, easier to breathe, and it sure as hell helped to clear my head again.

The loud bang of cymbals and drums from outside drew closer, drowning out the orchestra. The guests inside the house surged to the balcony. Sebastian cursed, squeezing my hand tightly as we were carried with the tide and jostled onto the balcony railing as the Mardi Gras parade rounded the corner.

All around us, the guests yelled and cheered, their drinks sloshing over their glasses, their eyes lit with alcohol, their cheeks flushed with blood, excitement, and the sensory delights of the parade.

Floats began to pass by, one after another in slow succession, each depicting life at sea in some way or another. “The Poseidon Parade,” Sebastian said.

Men stood aboard what appeared to be a centuries-old warship, their faces turned toward the balcony, eyes subdued beneath plain gold masks with hooked noses. They wore Napoleon-style hats and long, decorative coats and white stockings. Some of the crowd called down to them, but they didn’t move a muscle, just continued to stare at us. The effect was unnerving.

Mermaids occupied the next float. They tossed beads into the crowd lining the street and up to the balcony. The people behind us pushed forward, pinning us even harder against the railing. Sebastian’s arms went around my waist, and I knew it was an instinctive gesture — not because he wanted to hold me that closely.

He leaned down, lips close to my ear so I could hear. “We should check the house while everyone’s distracted.”

As he spoke, another float passed by, a scene depicting a sea cliff where half-naked sirens reclined, waiting for unsuspecting sailors to approach. The music that came from the float was designed to sound like a lure, a siren’s call.

Suddenly gleaming flashes — bronze, glittering bodies— darted through the onlookers below. Delighted squeals burst from the crowd. Men in nothing but loincloths and bronze masks jumped onto the sirens’ float. They crouched down, waiting. And then the sirens gestured with sultry, secretive smiles. The masked men approached, crawling up each siren’s body and covering them with their own. The crowd cheered.

My face was on fire. My senses had gone totally haywire. I couldn’t take any more. It was like that sound below had a real hypnotic effect. But it couldn’t be. . could it? This entire party was one big high. I’d gotten drunk on the sights and sounds like some lightweight, and now it was making me ill. I squeezed my eyelids closed tightly, forcing my mind to block out the distractions. I needed to get the hell out of here. Check the house. Find Violet and the others and leave.

Sebastian shifted, his thigh pressing against mine and causing the blade to move against my skin. The metal had warmed, matching my body temperature, and the strap was snug, almost too snug. But it was enough of a reminder that it sharpened my focus.

Strands of beads and candies flew over our heads. I shifted, angling away from the rail with Sebastian and allowing others to take our place. We drifted back, pulled like a wave retreating into the sea. Back into Josephine’s house.

God, I needed to get out of this gown! It had become way too hot, too constricting. I removed my mask and then dug my fingers into the edge of the bodice, pulling it up and away from my skin, trying to let the cooler air in. Didn’t help.

“Come on,” Sebastian said, striding through the now empty room.

We hurried across the empty ballroom floor.

A French door slammed closed.

Then another. And another.

I slid to a stop on the deserted dance floor, turning to see each door close and lock all by itself. The orchestra stopped playing. Some guests, I saw through the glass panes of the doors, tried to get back in but couldn’t. All around them doors slammed and locks clicked.

And then there was silence.

There was one more door open.

We watched it, waiting for it to close, but something told me it was waiting. A warning slithered down my back.

The sheer white curtains on either side of the door billowed. The air between wobbled and shimmered.

And then a tall figure stepped out of thin air.

The blood froze in my veins.

There was no doubt in my mind who strode into the room. How could there be?

The door slammed shut behind her, making me flinch.

Six feet tall. Perfect body. Wrapped from neck to wrists to ankles in thin, skintight leather, the color of dark, muted olive. There were lines in the leather, lines that looked reptilian — that looked like it had once been a living thing.

Athena.

She had porcelain white skin, emerald eyes lit from within, and long, wavy black hair that brushed her lower back. All through the strands were braids, braids woven with thin strips of leather, sinew, and bone beads — braids that looked like they’d been in her hair for hundreds of years. Tiny symbols were etched into the skin along both temples, just at her hairline.

Full wine-red lips curved up. “Not thinking of leaving, were you?” came a throaty female voice ringing with an undeniable vibration of power.

My eyes traveled over her. In shock. Couldn’t speak.

“I’ve wondered at your existence for years, child.”

I forced down a dry swallow, my feet rooted to the spot, as the goddess strode closer, a grin stuck on her face, a malicious, victorious grin. My hand gripped Sebastian’s tightly.

Oh God.

My stomach rolled as the leather bodysuit Athena wore became clearer. It moved. It fucking moved. Like a living thing wrapped around her body, a thing that had a very faint outline of a huge face, squashed flat, as though the skin had been peeled off the bone and pressed thin, sewn together to make this. . thing.

“You like?” she asked, a glint of delight in her eyes. “I made this from the skin of Typhon. Just a small piece of flesh, really. He was a Titan, after all.”

It was obvious why Athena had chosen to wear the suit. Scare tactic. Intimidation.

Her gaze covered me from head to toe, her expression becoming nonchalant but strained, as though she was trying too hard to show she didn’t care. “Not as pretty as the first one of you, but I see you have the hair and eyes.”

“I don’t want the hair or the eyes,” I croaked, having to force out the words. “You can take them.”

Athena’s eyes crinkled at the corners, and she laughed. “Be careful what you say, child, lest I take you literally. I did not give you the hair and eyes. Those are yours naturally.”

“But—” Then what the hell did she give me?

“Athena, you have no rights here!” Josephine barked in a furious voice, making me jump. The door she’d burst through slammed against the wall. The matriarch of the Arnaud family marched her begowned self across the floor like the queen of England. “You have broken the compact.”

“Oh, fuck your stupid little compact, vampire.”

“You agreed never to set foot in New Orleans again. That was the sole reason we turned the τερας hunter in our possession over to you. That was the deal.”

“The child changes everything, Josephine. You know that. You know I cannot leave her in your hands. What will you do, hmm? Protect her like you did her parents? Betray her, too?”

My gaze whipped to Josephine. “You said you helped my mother.”

Josephine cast an impatient look my way. “Your mother was young and stupid and didn’t know what was best for her.”

The other heads of council came into the room, spreading out to encircle us. The single door they’d filed through shut behind them and locked by itself. A glance over my shoulder revealed that the partygoers on the balcony were still engaged in watching the parade, though a few rattled the doors, trying to get back inside. Apparently, the Novem also wanted this to be a private affair.

Michel gave me a grave nod, his eyes telling me he was on my side, though I couldn’t trust that. How could I trust anything after what I’d heard earlier?

Sebastian stiffened, and his hand tightened around mine as he saw his father for the first time in almost ten years. I squeezed back and then let my hand go slack, signaling him to go to his father, but he remained by my side.

“Enough of this, the child is one of mine.” Impatiently, Athena reached out and grabbed my arm.

Fear rushed into my open mouth with a gasp, coursing down my throat and into my lungs. Athena’s touch was cold, her fingers like ice as she gripped the bare skin of my upper arm.

Sebastian refused to release my hand. Athena leveled her gaze on him as the council encircled us and raised their arms straight out to their sides. The air in the room went electric as a shimmering blue line of energy connected them from fingertip to fingertip, making the circle whole.

“We forced you out before, Athena,” Josephine said, her voice strong and never wavering. “And we can do it again.”

Athena’s thick fingernails dug into my skin, burning, signaling that soon the skin would break and blood would flow. The goddess slowly turned her attention to Josephine, her entire being going still and deadly, her voice coming out low and with more power than before. “Go ahead. Link your powers. Let them loose on me and watch your party end in a sea of blood.”

I stared in horror as Josephine actually considered those words. I knew then that Josephine wouldn’t give a damn if everyone here died as long as it meant getting what she wanted.

The skin-suit moved again along Athena’s arm and wrist, so close to me that it made me jerk against the goddess’s iron grip. Panic weaved its way in. “Why do you want me?” I burst out, pulling against her.

Athena stilled, withdrew her attention from Josephine, and then leaned down, her face inches from mine. Then she let me see what the goddess of war was really made of.

The perfect face changed from beauty to the darkest, most horrifying hell I’d ever seen. Death. War. Bones. Her face transformed into the queen of it all. Part skeletal. One eye gone, one vibrant emerald eye still intact. Bugs scurried through the space between Athena’s eye socket and eyeball. Tendons pulled her lips into a smile. And inside her skull, between the ragged hair, bone, and rotting flesh, I saw movement. All through the goddess, all through her body, beneath her ribs, were the souls of warriors, the hell they’d found inside her.

Athena straightened, once again a beauty, and smirked. “We let the child decide.”

I had glimpsed into the heart of war and death, and knew the goddess had the power to wipe out the entire city if she wanted. Sure there might be politics and compacts and laws that maybe even Athena was bound to, but in this, she’d ravage the world to have her prize. Me.

“No,” Sebastian said, realizing which way I was leaning. He tightened his grip, but I pulled my hand from his.

“One day, Athena,” Michel said, eyes on the goddess, “the creatures you made will turn on you. And the gods help you when they do.”

Her head whipped around. She snarled. “And every time they try, they fail. I can put you right back where you were, Lamarliere, so shut the fuck up.”

He’d hit a nerve.

My mind raced. Goose bumps rose on my skin. I thought of the harpy and Arachne, but I was too afraid to call them, too afraid of what Athena would do.

“Thirteen years ago, you nearly succeeded in your quest to destroy us,” Michel said in an even voice, but his eyes were bright with hatred. “Tell me, Athena, do you regret summoning the wind and the sea? Regret your lust for power?”

“I regret nothing,” she hissed.

“Oh, surely you must. Your hurricanes grew uncontrollable. Maybe if you hadn’t been so overzealous, you could have held on to the Aegis and not dropped it into the sea.”

Athena’s intake of breath told me Michel had revealed something he shouldn’t have known. But Michel only grinned. “There’s not much to do in prison other than talk. … If your father, the great Zeus, were alive today and knew you’d lost his Aegis, one of his most powerful weapons, the one you killed him for, I bet the irony would amuse him, no? Without the Aegis you’re no longer invincible. “

Athena stiffened, her eyes narrowing in on Michel. Then she yanked me hard, pulling me closer. “Aegis or not, I am still more powerful than you. And this little shit”—she flicked my hair—“will be my new Aegis. I’ll remove her head from her body, flay the skin from her bones, and with it make a new shield, a better Aegis than the one before. Or perhaps I will make my next Aegis a breastplate or a cape.” She ran a finger down the side of my face. “Skin has many uses.”

Josephine laughed. “I think you’re forgetting, Athena. You killed the only god capable of crafting you a new Aegis. Losing your mind along with your wisdom, perhaps?”

Oh shit. My eyelids fluttered. Not only did Michel have a death wish, but so did Josephine. Her words made Athena’s fingernails dig deeper into my skin and pierce the flesh. The sting shocked me, but just for a second. Blood streamed in a slow, thin line down my forearm.

Athena’s anger mushroomed. A suffocating, heavy energy enveloped us. “I don’t need to wait to use her now. I think I shall like seeing you die first, Josephine.”

“You cannot use the girl,” Josephine countered. “She hasn’t reached maturity.”

Athena’s cruel mouth quirked. “Well, how about I speed up that process?” She shoved her palm against my chest.

“NO!” Josephine lunged, breaking the circle. Athena flung out her other hand, sending Josephine flying back into the wall. Sebastian appeared behind Athena.

Michel shouted, “Sebastian, don’t!”

Sebastian’s arm went around Athena’s neck. A headlock. He squeezed hard, but her flesh gave way just long enough for his arm to pass through. He fell backward, with nothing to hold on to.

Heat spread beneath the goddess’s palm, seeping into my chest, through my body and into my head. The same astounding pain I’d had in the street engulfed me, burning my brain, enlarging the blood vessels that ran under my scalp and making them throb and stretch. A screech erupted from deep within my core, rising, until it burst from my mouth. It didn’t sound human.

Just as my eyes drifted closed, I saw Michel holding Sebastian back from attacking again and Josephine standing to realign the circle. The council members began chanting, the line of power among them thickening. But it didn’t matter. I was dying. My head was going to explode, or implode, or melt.

I never knew I could scream so hard, so loud, or for so long, as though the sound was fed from the pit of my soul.

I saw flashes, then, in my mind. A beautiful woman who looked like me. Kind. Loving. Devoted. In a temple, a temple by the sea. A baby crying. So much death. Through the ages. Misery.

It had to stop. It had to stop. God! I didn’t want to die!

I grabbed Athena’s wrist with my right hand and clamped down hard, trying to pull her palm away and end the agony.

Anger suddenly came to the surface, for a brief second blocking out the pain in my head. My chest swelled with it. All those images, all that death, all that hurt on my family because of Athena. I’d done nothing wrong, none of us had.

I opened my hot eyes.

My hand squeezed so hard, with every ounce of strength I had. My eyes locked with Athena’s. “I. . hate. . you,” I hissed, wanting to get it out before I died. “For all that you have done to them. . for being an evil. . fucking. . bitch!”

Athena flinched, eyes widening for a fraction of a second. Just a small flicker of pain and a jerk to her arm. My jaw tightened. She pressed harder against my chest, but I was somehow pulling her hand away.

I glanced down at my hand wrapped around the goddess’s wrist, where Athena’s white skin was turning hard and gray.

What the hell?

Both shocked, we let go at the same time.

But I took the advantage. I was good at shoving things aside and saving them for later. All that mattered now was the fight. I balled my fist and gave a swing that would’ve made Bruce proud. My fist connected with Athena’s jaw, sending her head snapping sideways.

My heart pounded. The pain inside my head made my vision waver. I couldn’t feel my knees and wasn’t exactly sure how I was still standing, but I put both hands up, ready for a comeback.

Slowly Athena’s hand went to her jaw. Astonishment swam in her emerald eyes, and I swear I saw a glimpse of vulnerability and embarrassment. I took a wild guess and decided that no one had ever slugged the goddess of war before.

And then she was gone.

Just like that. There one second, gone the next.

My legs gave out and I dropped to my rear on the dance floor, the gown billowing around me, making me feel very small and very much like the child everyone called me. A child pretending to be a big girl in her frilly ball gown. A child who didn’t know anything about the world she found herself in. A child compared to the old and ancient beings I’d come to know.

Michel released Sebastian. He ran over, skidding down to his knees. “Ari. Are you okay?”

Numb, I could only nod.

Josephine marched forward, her heels clicking on the floor, and yanked me up by the arm. “Get up. We have work to do.”

“Josephine,” Michel’s low voice boomed. “That is not the way to treat the person who just saved this entire house from annihilation.”

She opened her mouth to argue, but the other members had moved closer too, obviously not happy with her treatment of me. She dropped my arm. “Fine.” She turned to them. “Athena has gone back to lick her wounds, but this is only the beginning. She will wage war over this child.” She lifted her skirts and swished away, yelling at the maids to unlock the doors and motioning for the stunned orchestra to begin their music again.

“Josephine is right.” Michel offered Sebastian a hand to help him off the floor.

I brushed off my skirts as Sebastian rose, standing across from his father, a father he hadn’t seen in years. He glanced from his father’s face to their linked hands. Emotion swam in his gray eyes, and he suddenly looked like a child as well. Michel pulled him into an enormous hug.

I left them alone, watching as the guests came back into the room. The orchestra began playing, and a line of waiters came in carrying trays of hors d’oeuvres and champagne.

But the one person I noticed above all others was Violet, gliding across the floor with a spring in her step, the purple skirt flouncing, her mask down. She came right up to me, lifted the mask, and said, “What’d I miss?”

The absurdity of what had just happened finally took its toll. I laughed. I couldn’t stop it once I’d started. Violet just stared up at me with her usual stoic eyes. Then she said, “I’m tired. Let’s go home.”

I blinked, the laughter fading.

Home.

The threat of tears stung my eyes. I opened my hand. Violet slid her tiny hand in. “Yeah. Let’s go home.”

Screw the council. We were leaving.

We strolled out of the ballroom and away from Josephine’s call to come back.

Athena wouldn’t lick her wounds forever. I knew that. But right now, I needed to go back to the old house in the GD and try to be normal for a little while, even if it was just for the night.

“Hey! Wait up!” Sebastian caught us as we exited the house. I stopped in the middle of the street. The parade was over, but people still hung out in groups, still not ready to end the party.

Sebastian looked happy for the first time since I’d met him, like the dark cloud constantly hovering above him had lifted.

“You’re not staying with your dad?”

“I don’t want you going back to the GD alone.” His face colored slightly, and he shoved his hands into his pants pockets. “If there wasn’t a goddess after your ass and bent on destroying the Novem, then, yeah, I’d stay with him for a while and catch up.”

“She’s not alone, Bastian,” Violet said, offended.

Sebastian smiled. “I know, Violet. But the more protectors Ari has the better.” He met my gaze. “My dad wants you to consider staying with him. It’s safer at his house.”

I knew where I wanted to be. “I’ll think about it. Right now, I want to get out of this dress and eat. I’m starving. And the first places Athena will look for me are the Novem’s houses, not some run-down place in the GD.”

Sebastian nodded. He made a flourish with his hand. “Shall we, ladies?”

A funny feeling swept through my chest. He’d chosen me. He cared. Yeah, the world as I knew it was basically falling down around me and my life was in the balance, but the happiness I felt in that moment erased it all. We walked down the sidewalk, heading for the streetcar that would take us home.