Antigoddess (36 page)
Aunt Demeter, who is this girl? What did you send me to find?
Hera’s left arm slipped free and Athena heard it hit the ground, crumbling the asphalt. It had been close. Cassandra rolled away before locking her fingers in again. The look on her face carried thousands of years of resolve, thousands of years of vengeance. Hera screamed.
Will she turn that power on me next? Will I explode in a mass of feathers, just a pile of white and speckled brown, cut through with ribbons of skin and sinew?
In the midst of the thought, Hera’s arm swung again. It caught Cassandra in the chest and threw her back. Athena twisted just in time to see the girl bounce onto the pavement, and to hear her head strike the road with a sharp, final crack.
“No!” When Hera shoved her away, she barely felt it, too busy scrambling across the road to Cassandra’s limp body.
She wasn’t moving. Was she breathing? Fresh prickles rose on the back of Athena’s neck. She was afraid to touch her. Behind them, Aphrodite keened, and a scraping sound told of Hera’s rock-infested flesh being dragged from the road. It didn’t matter. What mattered was Cassandra. Apollo’s Cassandra. And the death she’d faced even though she’d known it was coming. Athena knelt. The others called Cassandra’s name as they ran closer.
“Get up,” Athena said. “Get up and breathe. I won’t have failed my brother so soon.”
Cassandra’s head swiveled, and she locked upon the goddess with empty eyes. Athena backed off a step. It was like looking into an abyss, power she didn’t understand. And then Cassandra blinked, and the window slammed shut.
Cassandra pushed herself up onto her shoulders. The strange electricity was gone.
“It’s over.”
Athena nodded. It was over. Hera would be dead soon if she wasn’t already. Poseidon drifted in pieces at the bottom of the lake to be swallowed by his own servants. Aphrodite, even though she lived, was mad and unable to make much mischief on her own.
Athena looked down at her wounds. Adrenaline still sparked through her exhausted frame, and blood saturated her left side. The impact of Hera’s fist had turned her rib cage into a mess of pick-up sticks and paste. She took a hesitant breath and felt the itch of feathers. They were still there.
Just because they don’t disappear instantly doesn’t mean anything. Maybe it doesn’t happen all at once.
She swallowed. It sounded like bullshit even in her head. Hermes was going to be so disappointed.
Odysseus jogged up to her, his eyes bright. She walked back and picked up the tire iron.
“Not a bad plan, was it?” He grinned, and she shoved it into his hands.
“Then don’t look so surprised that it worked.” She took his shoulder to lean on.
Andie and Henry stood on either side of Cassandra, holding her arms for support even though she didn’t seem to need it. The darkness that had swum up and around her in waves when her skull struck the pavement was gone. Hermes limped around behind her on his crushed foot.
“What do we do now?” he asked, and looked at Athena.
“We take them back to their homes.” Her eyes rested on the unmoving form of a god propped against the tire of the car, dressed in a boy’s clothes. “All of them.”
EPILOGUE
The coffin was overlaid with flowers. A huge spray of calla lilies, creamy white, draped over an obsidian black box, arranged in such a way that they strained toward the ground. They were good flowers for funerals. Their stems dipped, hanging their heads mournfully. If a plant could weep, it would be a calla lily.
The service was crowded, full of students from the high school and many members of the community. They had all come out for the funeral of the boy they only thought they knew.
Cassandra sat to the side, with Aidan’s parents. Throughout, she said nothing, but she kept her back straight, even as tears coursed down her cheeks. Andie and Henry sat behind her, their faces constricted. Both of Andie’s hands were bandaged, and under her shirt were stitches forming the lines of claws. Henry had a broad cut on his forehead from the window glass, and another stitched together on his hand from sharp gills.
Such a shame, people said, to lose a promising young man to a car accident. It was a miracle, they said, that all four of them hadn’t been killed. The Mustang was completely mangled. State police would never be able to figure out just what happened, how fast they had to be going to lose control of the car so badly.
The service ended, and people began to stand, began to come to her, to Aidan’s parents, and tell them how much he’d be missed. How much he was loved. Cassandra did her best to not hear a word. A hot, seething ball hung suspended in her chest, and she wasn’t sure what it was made of. Screams? Tears? Love, or hate, or all rolled up together. But Aidan’s funeral wasn’t the place to find out.
“I’m so glad he had you, Cassandra.” Aidan’s mom squeezed her hands.
“I’m glad he had you.” She looked at both of his parents. “You gave him a family.”
But then, he’d always had a family. Athena, Odysseus, and Hermes stood on the outskirts of the cemetery, underneath the bare branches of an elm tree. Cassandra waited until everyone but Andie and Henry had filed out, even Aidan’s parents, before nodding for them to come closer. Hermes and Athena leaned on each other. The damage done to her rib cage and his ankle still needed to heal, but Cassandra supposed that wasn’t the only reason.
They stood around the coffin, lost and drained.
Athena’s eyes wandered over the black box. He was in there, her brother, or what was left of him.
“This doesn’t want to sink in. He was eternal. Now he’s in that box.”
“Jesus,” Andie hissed. “Don’t say things like that. Not today.”
Athena looked up and blinked at them like she was bewildered. Cassandra supposed she was. She didn’t have any experience burying family.
“I’m sorry,” she said, and nodded. “But it feels wrong. And I can’t do anything about any of it.”
Cassandra drew a shaky breath.
“I don’t have the energy to say anything to you. He’s dead.” Tears slipped out of her eyes and fell softly on the chest of her black dress. “I think it was a mistake. I want you to take it back.” They would lower the coffin into the ground soon. They would cover him over with dirt. “I was supposed to spend my life with him,” Cassandra said. “And then you showed up.”
“Hey,” Odysseus said gently. “It wasn’t her fault.”
Cassandra clenched her fists. “But whose fault is it, then? Are you still dying?”
Athena glanced at Hermes, then at Odysseus. She nodded, but Cassandra didn’t really need an answer. Athena had coughed twice on the walk across the cemetery, and Hermes shook with fever as much as mourning. It hadn’t stopped. Aidan was dead, and they still hadn’t saved themselves.
“Maybe this was never about saving our lives.” Athena looked at Aidan’s coffin. “Maybe it was about redemption.”
“Or maybe it isn’t over.” Cassandra wiped her eyes. “Do you know what happened? What went through me?”
Athena shook her head. “You kill gods. It must be what Demeter meant. That you could change everything. That you’d be more.”
“Why? And how?” Beneath her gloves, her hands burned. It was still inside her. “It’s not over.”
“It’s over,” said Hermes. “It has to be.”
Cassandra stared at Aidan’s coffin. There were other gods out there. Gods who would fight, just like Hera did, to stay alive. They’d be coming. And the one who had killed Aidan. She was still alive. “This isn’t over. Not for me.”
“Cassie.” Henry shrugged helplessly. “Maybe everything can go back to normal now. Maybe we’re safe.”
“They’re not safe.” She turned to Athena. “You can’t just leave. You promised Aidan you’d protect us.”
“Maybe with Hera and Poseidon gone, you don’t need protecting. Maybe Henry is right.”
“I’ll need protecting when I go after her. I’ll need your help.”
Andie grabbed her arm. “Go after who?”
“Aphrodite.” Cassandra shrugged her off. Athena and Hermes exchanged a glance, and Cassandra’s fists tightened.
If they say one word about revenge not being what Aidan wanted, I’ll scream.
But Athena only sighed.
“I wasn’t going to go far. People with destinies like yours are rarely safe.”
“So you’ll help.”
Athena lowered her head, and Odysseus edged forward. “Hey. We shouldn’t be talking about this today.”
“There’s a lot that shouldn’t be today.” Hermes spoke loudly, his eyes on the overcast sky. “He shouldn’t be put beneath the dirt. He was the god of the sun. He should be burned on a pyre of oak, hot and bright. It should be glorious.” He looked at his sister and took her hand. “So let’s make it so.” He nodded toward the gray clouds.
Athena exhaled. “It won’t work.”
Cassandra studied the sky, felt the chill of the wind against her cheeks. Hermes was right. It was all too cold.
“Try,” she said softly.
Athena and Hermes closed their eyes, using the will of gods to move mountains, to wield the power they once had. Not even Cassandra expected anything to happen, until she felt the warmth of sunlight on her face and hands.
Athena opened her eyes and watched the clouds roll back.
“I should have told my brother I loved him.”
Cassandra swallowed hard. “I should have too. I guess I thought he’d be around to hear it later.”
Athena stepped to the coffin and ran her fingers along the shining edge of black. “He was proud to die like this. Like a human. Like one of you. He died a hero.”
Cassandra’s breath hitched. She felt Andie and Henry’s hands on each of her shoulders. Odysseus and Hermes put theirs on Athena’s.
“Good-bye, Aidan,” Athena whispered.
Cassandra stared with wide eyes into the clearing sky, as the clouds dissolved and drew back like a curtain. It took a long time, but finally, a small smile started to curl at the corners of her mouth.
They left the cemetery together. Behind them, the black of Aidan’s coffin blazed like fire beneath the bright light.
And thus was their burial of Apollo, god of the sun.
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
I have to start off by thanking my publicist, Alexis Saarela. Not only because she is a publicity wiz, which she is, but also because for two whole books I’ve forgotten to thank her. So thank you, Alexis, and I apologize for being such a huge butt.
Thank you to my agent, Adriann Ranta, for being the best advocate a writer could ask for. She also made sure this book got a much better title than the one I had originally planned.
Melissa Frain … what can I say? If there’s any downside to having her as an editor, it might be that I’m becoming completely dependent on her expertise. Something weird? And it don’t look good? Who’m I gonna call? Mel. Duh. She’ll see it in an instant. (I apologize for the
Ghostbusters
reference. I miss writing those.) So thank you, Mel!
Thank you to the lovely and talented novelists Sara Bennett Wealer and Daisy Whitney. Without Sara this book would be firmly lodged in 1985, technology-wise. Daisy, thank you for your focus and fixing the ending!
Art director Seth Lerner, thanks for another striking cover. The entire team at Tor is incredible, and deserves undying gratitude.
I feel like I should thank Homer, but he might not have even existed. Still,
The Iliad
and
The Odyssey
were badass. So thanks for those, Homer, or the multiple people who actually wrote them.
As usual, thanks to Ryan VanderVenter, Missy Goldsmith, and Susan Murray, who continue to read everything I write even though they’re very busy and are probably pretty annoyed at this point. Thanks to Dan and Kristin, for support and excellent catson-watching. And of course, Dylan Zoerb, for luck.
TOR BOOKS BY KENDARE BLAKE
Anna Dressed in Blood
Girl of Nightmares
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Kendare Blake holds an M.A. in creative writing from Middlesex University in northern London. She lives and writes in Lynnwood, Washington.
This is a work of fiction. All of the characters, organizations, and events portrayed in this novel are either products of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously.
ANTIGODDESS
Copyright © 2013 by Kendare Blake
All rights reserved.
Cover art by Alejandro Colucci
A Tor Teen Book
Published by Tom Doherty Associates, LLC
175 Fifth Avenue
New York, NY 10010
Tor
®
is a registered trademark of Tom Doherty Associates, LLC.
The Library of Congress has cataloged the print edition as follows:
Blake, Kendare.
Antigoddess / Kendare Blake.—First edition.
p. cm.—(The goddess war)
“A Tom Doherty Associates Book.”
ISBN 978-0-7653-3443-5 (hardcover)
ISBN 978-1-4668-1221-5 (e-book)
[1. Adventure and adventurers—Fiction. 2. Sick—Fiction. 3. Athena (Greek deity)—Fiction. 4. Hermes (Greek deity)—Fiction. 5. Cassandra (Legendary character)—Fiction. 6. Hera (Greek deity)—Fiction. 7. Goddesses—Fiction. 8. Gods—Fiction. 9. Mythology, Greek,—Fiction.] I. Title.
