Sons of Zeus (The Warrior Trilogy #1)

Sera didn’t know what else to do. She got up and pulled the man into a hug. He certainly didn’t respond, but he didn’t pull away either. The episode lasted for just a minute or two and then he regained his composure. Sera went back to her chair and sat down, looking at Dak, then Riq. They had to decide what to do, but in everything they’d been through so far, no matter how awful, at least they’d had Hystorians and clues and guides as to what to do next.

Not so now. They were at the end of the line, and all bets were off. Like never before, Sera and her friends were totally, completely on their own.

“You know what we have to do, right?” Dak asked.

Sera did, but the very thought terrified her. “You want to go back in time again. Stop Tilda before she can kill Alexander. But it throws all our plans off — how do we know we won’t alter history even worse? Or set reality up to break a thousand more times? This is uncharted territory.”

“Yeah, it is,” Riq agreed. “But what else are we going to do? Say ‘Oh, well’ and just go back to the future, hang out on the back porch until our house falls into a river of exploding lava?”

Sera sighed. “Of course not. I’m just saying it’s scary and we have no idea what to expect. This isn’t a video game we can just reset.”

“Why are you being so negative?” Dak shot back. In all the years of their friendship, she thought it might be the first time he’d ever truly hurt her feelings. She felt his words like a dagger. “We all know there’s no choice here. Alexander is dead, and Aristotle told us” — he eyed the philosopher with a You-know-what-I-mean glance — “that his dying is the first Break. The Prime Break. The Break that started it all. So nothing else matters. There’s no decision to make. We go back and we save him. Boom, that’s it.”

Sera wanted to strangle him for sounding so arrogant. The only problem was that her best friend was totally right. What else could they do?

“Well?” Dak pushed.

“Quit acting like you just found the cure for cancer,” Riq muttered. “We all know that’s what we have to do.”

Sera nodded, refusing to let her pride get in the way. She knew that part of her problem was worrying about her parents and the Remnants. It scared her to death to stray from the plan that had seemed to be leading her to an actual reunion with them in the future. But she was being stupid. If the Hystorians were right, then Alexander’s death presented a much bigger problem. It had to be undone, no matter what the cost.

Dak seemed to sense he’d been a little forceful. “What do you think we should do, Sera?”

“Go back. Stop Tilda. You’re right.” There, she said it. And the way he nodded in response saved her from any more wounded pride.

Riq clapped his hands once, loudly, then stood up. “Then let’s get on it.”

Aristotle rose as well, very slowly, looking back and forth between the other three with a very uncertain expression. “Are we . . . sure about this?”

Sera and her two friends nodded immediately.

The philosopher straightened and appeared much more confident. “Then I’m going with you. And I don’t want to hear any argument about it. I’m going and that’s that.”

Dak blew a loud breath through his lips. “Why would we argue? We need your help, dude.”

The translator didn’t like that last word so much — it sounded more like a burp.

Aristotle started walking toward the balcony door. “We’ll find out everything we need to know from Python, and then off we go. I just hope that toy of yours actually works.”



If Dak could’ve chosen anyone to go on a time-traveling adventure with, it was a no-brainer that it’d be Abraham Lincoln. But Aristotle was a pretty good second choice. After talking to Python for an hour or so and learning everything they possibly could about the details of what had happened, Dak, Sera, Riq, and the philosopher were ready to go back in time — they’d decided on three days to be safe — and stop Tilda.

The lady with hair of flames and lips of tar.

It made Dak think of Medusa, who was almost as bad as Tilda.

They stood on a patch of dirt behind the official stables of the League of Corinth. The sun had started to set in the west, and Aristotle said that he highly doubted there’d be anyone around.

In the waning light of day, the philosopher stared at the Infinity Ring as Sera pulled it out. “I’ve programmed in the time and the location,” she said.

Olympias’s palace, Dak thought. The home of Alexander and his mom. Back when this had all begun, if he’d made a list of one million places they might have to visit throughout history, that one probably wouldn’t have made the list.

“Is this going to hurt?” the philosopher asked as he put his hand on the cool metal of the Ring.

“No,” Sera answered simply. Dak didn’t know if that was the most honest answer ever, but it seemed to make their famous friend feel better.