Ungodly: A Novel (The Goddess War) (33 page)

“Yes, you do,” said Odysseus.

Athena studied them. They were all staring at her. Even Cassandra’s parents. Even Ares. Her throat went dry.

Andie gave her a nod.

“We were all there,” Andie said. “On Olympus. And we’re still asking, anyway. We still trust you.”

Something tightened Athena’s chest. Gratitude. Sentimentality. She looked at Odysseus, who seemed proud, and finally at Cassandra.

“I never trusted you,” Cassandra said. “But I’m still asking.”

Athena held her breath. Odysseus was right. She was afraid.

“Look,” Cassandra said. “We’ve all decided to go anyway.”

Athena dug her fingernails deep into her palms.

Caves. The Moirae burrowed into the ground like moles, and wanted them to stick their hands in blindly after. No thanks.

“I don’t think we should go to the caves,” Athena said. “No holes or wells or mazes. We ought to take the high ground, with open space and cover.”

“I didn’t think they were giving us a choice about location,” Cassandra said.

“I didn’t, either. But aren’t you tired of following other people’s plans?”

From behind the couch, Andie smiled. “I’ll get food, water, and supplies,” she said. “The first-aid packs from the basement.” She slapped Henry on the arm. “Let’s go get your shield.”

“What are you doing?” Odysseus asked Athena from across the room of mobilizing bodies.

Athena wasn’t quite sure. But whatever they did, they would do it on their own terms.

*   *   *

“I need to ask you to do something for me,” Athena said. She sat before Cassandra’s parents, her weight making the coffee table creak.

“You mean we’re not coming?” Tom asked. “It feels like we should. I want to go.”

Athena nodded. He did want to go. To be a dad and protect his kids. But his eyes were wide and bewildered. He wouldn’t know what to do if she agreed.

“I know you want to. But I was hoping you would do something for me here.”

“What is it?” Maureen asked.

“Hermes is upstairs in his room. We can’t move him. And we can’t wait for him to…” She paused and let the tightness in her throat pass. “He’s not going to last much longer. And I don’t want him to be alone.”

They looked at Cassandra, and their eyes went unfocused as they thought of Henry. Then they nodded.

“When will you be back?” Maureen asked.

“Your kids will be back. Soon.” She touched them fondly on the knee and on the shoulder. “I have to go say goodbye to my brother.”

*   *   *

Hermes lay still. He was so thin, he barely made a shape underneath the blankets.

Athena sat on the edge of the bed and held his hand, careful not to disturb him even though he wouldn’t wake up. She’d said his name three times to no response. She should have been happy about that, that he was unconscious and not in pain. But she would have given anything for one more word. One more smile. All this sleep and slowness didn’t suit him.

Ares sat in a chair on the opposite side. When she’d come in, he’d made to leave her alone, but she’d told him to stay. Hermes wasn’t awake. She didn’t need to be alone with him, and truly, having another god in the room felt like comfort, even if it was Ares.

“Knock knock.” Andie poked her head in. Henry and Odysseus stood behind her. “Can we come in to say goodbye?”

Athena nodded, and stepped back to give them room. She didn’t listen to what they said. She just saw them laugh, and wipe tears, and touch Hermes’ shoulder. Andie kissed his cheek.

If he were awake, he’d tell me to keep them safe.

“Cars are packed. Ready to go,” Odysseus said.

“We’ll be down. Soon.” She leaned down over Hermes as they filed out of the room, and kissed his forehead. It felt strange. She thought there’d be more to say. But Hermes knew everything he ever would. And the cars waited downstairs.

Ares stood.

“I’m not going with you,” he said. He hung his head a second and gestured weakly to his stomach. “He cut me up worse than I thought. It isn’t healing.”

“Let me see.” Athena put her hands out, but he caught them.

“The day I get examined by you,” he said, and smiled. He looked down at Hermes. “I’m going to stay with him. Make sure they don’t check here first and do something you wouldn’t want them to do.”

“I thought you’d want the blood,” Athena said.

“Make no mistake, I want the blood,” said Ares. “But leaving him alone doesn’t seem right. And I didn’t catch a knife in the gut saving those two downstairs,” he nodded to the door and down to Cassandra’s parents, “just to let them get skinned two days later.”

So much for his bitter words about playing the hero.

“After he’s gone, I’ll come and find you,” he said. “I’ll stash the parents and pick up your trail.”

“We’re headed up the southern face of Mount Emmons. I’ll look for you.”

“If something goes wrong,” he said. “If Atropos can’t be stopped. What do you want me to do?”

She looked at Hermes on the bed, so pale he’d turned gray. They’d come so far. She’d led them here.

“I’m not your general, Ares. I never have been. But if I were you…” She took a slow breath. “I’d spring Aphrodite from the underworld and spend as much time with her as I could. Someplace warm. I’d run and I wouldn’t look back.”

They stood beside Hermes’ bed together for a long time. Athena had been unfair to Ares, and he to her, for as long as she could remember, but it didn’t matter. Ares would look after their brother, and Athena would trade herself so Ares could heal.

“So long, Ares,” she said, and he flinched when she touched his shoulder, like she might hit him. It made her smile. They would never be friends. But they were family.

*   *   *

Cassandra watched Athena’s house recede as Thanatos backed out of the driveway. Inside, a god she’d hated from the moment she laid eyes on him sat beside Hermes’ bed, and protected her parents.

“Are you sure we can trust him?” she asked, and in her side mirror, she saw Athena glance up to the house.

“You killed his mother and he saved yours,” she replied. “That earns him at least a little slack, don’t you think?”

Cassandra clenched her teeth. But it wasn’t Ares who weighed on her mind. The instinct to go where her vision indicated was so strong it pulled. Strings tightening around her heart.

29

NO HIGHER GROUND

Their caravan drove northeast, racing the dawn for higher ground. Where Athena intended to take them, there were no good trails. No cleared paths at all, save the ones made by deer. But their legs were fresh, and their fear would keep them sharp. For a little while at least.

Somewhere ahead, Mount Emmons waited in the dark, one of the high peaks of the Adirondacks. They’d push their way up and wait for Atropos and Achilles to come up behind. With luck, they’d hold the high ground, and maybe find cover to dig into.

“What if they don’t come?” Cassandra asked. “What if by not going where we’re told, we’re spoiling Clotho and Lachesis’ plans?”

“What if,” Athena said. Her teeth caught the edge of an emerging feather and she winced, but she felt strangely elated. “I think it was when we deviated,” she continued after a moment. “I think that’s when it changed.”

“What are you talking about?” Cassandra asked.

“Fate isn’t fate anymore. The Moirae grow weak. We turn away from their plans, and they don’t turn us back.”

“That’s all in your head.”

“No,” Thanatos said from the driver’s seat. “I feel it, too.”

Cassandra turned. Her eyes shone in the dark like marbles. “You both know how this is going to end.”

Athena smiled.

“I don’t.”

*   *   *

Henry followed Athena’s car down back roads that turned from blacktop to dirt, and finally to not much more than twin tracks. He didn’t know how she knew where they were going. Maybe the gods’ innate sense of direction. Maybe Athena had used part of her long, immortal life to commit every inch of the globe to memory. However they did it, Henry kept the Mustang close to the rental’s taillights.

Andie sat beside him, still not speaking much. She hadn’t said she’d forgiven him for trying to become Hector. He wasn’t quite sure if he forgave her for not understanding why he should have. But there’d been a moment, at Hermes’ bedside, when she let him put his arm around her.

Brake lights lit up ahead, and Thanatos turned off the road completely. The cars bumped and lurched through fields of greening grass and mud. Trees popped up in the Mustang’s headlights, and he couldn’t see the sky ahead anymore in the face of the mountain. Just when he thought they couldn’t go any farther, Thanatos’ brake lights lit up and stayed lit.

Henry threw the Mustang into park. The ground felt too soft even behind the wheel. If they survived the fight, they might return to find the cars sunk in up to the tire rims.

Andie opened her door.

“Hey,” he said, and popped the trunk. “Are you going to stay mad at me the whole time?”

She turned and kissed him.

“I’m not mad at you. Just nervous. It’s not every day I have to fight an insane hero of legend.”

She got out and walked around to the trunk. Henry followed.

“What do you mean you’re going to fight?” he asked. “I’m the one who has to do it.”

“Who has to kill him. Right. But no one ever said you had to do it alone.” Her eyes narrowed at him in the light from the trunk, and Henry wasn’t about to tell her no.

Odysseus walked out of the dark and reached in for a bag of supplies.

“Did you tell him?” Odysseus asked Andie.

“Why else would he have that look on his face?”

Odysseus smiled. “Come on, Henry. You didn’t expect us to just sit up on the wall, did you? He put a sword through my chest. That needs answering.”

“And with us along,” Andie said, “you might not die.”

*   *   *

Cassandra looked up toward the summit of the mountain. The cave where the Moirae lay was hours away. The pull of it made her chest ache, and the dark part of her mind throbbed like a burn.

“Are you all right?” Thanatos put his hand on the back of her neck and it felt like a bucket of ice water.

“I’m just hoping we don’t break our legs walking up a mountain in the dark.”

“It won’t be dark for much longer.”

Her eyes strained. After a minute it seemed that the sky grew lighter.

We’re wasting so much time. Clotho and Lachesis need us. Now.

Her brain screamed it. But her gut told her to take Athena’s advice. To do something contrary. Something outside the plan. Even if it was only defiance for defiance’s sake.

“I’ll take point with Henry and Andie,” Odysseus said.

They’d assembled and armed themselves, loaded down with backpacks of supplies and first aid, swords and spears drawn or strapped to their backs. The Shield of Achilles rested against Henry’s leg and gleamed in the headlights.

“Cassandra and I will sweep behind.” Athena looked at Thanatos. “Are you fighting?”

“I don’t know,” he said, and glanced at Cassandra. “I don’t think it’s my fight. But I will if—”

“Just don’t get in the way,” Cassandra said. She reached into the car and killed the headlights. A moment later, flashlights clicked on, and they started up the mountain.

*   *   *

For a long time, the only sounds were their feet breaking through twigs and crushing pine needles and grass. And then of breathing, as they began to tire.

Athena kept her ears wide open, and couldn’t help checking over her shoulder. At any moment, the Moirae could crash down like a sack pulled over their heads. She hoped they had enough of a lead that the attack wouldn’t come while it was still dark. And as the light around them turned first gray and then silver, she hoped the Moirae would strike soon, before the strength in their legs gave out, or they lost their nerve.

*   *   *

No one broke an ankle in the dark, but it was a wonder. In the predawn light, more and more exposed roots and fallen branches came into view.

Cassandra adjusted the medical pack on her shoulders. She’d taken it from Andie an hour ago, when the weariness on Andie’s face was too much to bear.

Cassandra looked back, down the mountain. Surely they’d gone far enough. They should start looking for someplace to use as a sort of stronghold. But Athena kept going up and up, and glancing over her shoulder far too often, unsure as a sheepdog without an owner to command it.

(Athena breaks her word. She runs. But don’t fear. We can be anywhere we need to be.)

Cassandra stopped short and blinked hard. But Clotho and Lachesis weren’t lurking behind the nearest tree. They hadn’t wriggled their way up through her nose or into her ear. It was only their voices. In the dark part of Cassandra’s mind, a curious itch started, like an oiled gear clicking around and around. Turning from a cave in some other mountain to a cave in this one.

Cassandra stole a look in Athena’s direction. The goddess continued to walk. She gave no indication of having heard or sensed anything.

Cassandra exhaled, and the knot of strings in her chest began to relax.

30

ONE FATE

They stopped for a light breakfast, using a fallen log for both bench and table. No one ate much. They nibbled at granola bars and sipped from plastic bottles, and tried not to look as tired as they felt.

Athena perched on the edge. The Moirae should have come by now. She’d thought they’d be enraged that they’d tried to run, that they’d have spurred Atropos and Achilles, driven them out of their cave as horses harnessed to a chariot.

She looked over the sweat-streaked faces of Andie and Henry. She couldn’t keep them going for much longer. They’d have to find a good place to make their stand, and wait.

Or we could just keep on running. The hell with the feathers in my lungs and their plan for us. We could run like Hermes, fast as we could, until they couldn’t even track the dust behind us. Maybe with that much defiance, I could defy even my own death, and we could go on like that together. Forever.

Forever was a very pretty word. A very pretty, very bullshit word.