Marcy shook her head. “Then why did they come back?”
“For me,” Diana said. “They were looking for the muse Thalia, hoping she would lead them to me.”
“She’s going to kill you, you know,” Harper said pointedly, and she was so irritated and enraged, Gemma was afraid she might get up soon and slap Diana. “If we could find you, eventually Penn and Thea will, too. And they’ll kill you. You do understand that.”
“I do. And I’ve made peace with it.” Diana looked out the window again. “Maybe I even welcome death. That’s why I’ve made my home so close to Capri. It’s far enough inland that Penn won’t readily travel here, but close enough that it really won’t make it that hard to find.” She breathed in deeply. “Forever is too long for anyone to live.”
“If she kills you, you won’t even see your revenge exacted,” Gemma said. “If you won’t even be here to watch them suffer, then why not end this? Why not let it go?”
“Or just let my sister go,” Harper interjected. “She’s not like them. She didn’t do anything to you or your daughter. Isn’t there a way that she can break free?”
Diana shook her head. “No. The curse binds them all together. I’ve already told you that I won’t help you break the curse.”
“But that’s only because you want to see Penn suffer.” An idea occurred to Gemma, and she licked her lips. “What if I killed Penn? Then would you tell me how to break it?”
Still staring out the window, Diana said, “If you tried to kill Penn, then you wouldn’t need to break the curse.”
“Why?” Gemma asked, and her heart pounded so loudly in her chest, she was afraid she wouldn’t be able to hear Diana’s reply over the sound of it. “What do you mean?”
Diana didn’t say anything right away, then the bell above the front door of the store chimed loudly.
“I think this visit has gone on quite long enough, and I now have customers to attend to.” Diana stood up. “If you’ll excuse me, you can show yourselves out.”
Gemma jumped to her feet. “No, Diana, please. If I kill Penn, is the curse broken?”
“I’ve already given you my answer,” Diana said as she continued toward the door.
“Diana!” Harper shouted, and chased after her. “You can’t just leave it like this. You can’t just walk away!”
“Harper.” Lydia grabbed Harper’s arm, stopping her from running out of the sitting room. “That’s enough. She’s helped as much as she’s going to.”
“We could hold her hostage and make her tell us,” Marcy suggested from where she sat on the floor, still petting Thallo.
“There’s nothing we have that could hold her if she didn’t want to be held, and that’s not how we do things,” Lydia said. “If she doesn’t want to help us, we can’t make her.”
Diana had gone back into the store, but Gemma couldn’t just let it go. Not like that. She chased after her, and when Diana wouldn’t stop, she grabbed the billowy sleeve of her dress, forcing Diana to turn back to her.
“No. It can’t end like this,” Gemma begged her, and she was near tears. “Demeter, please.”
They were nearly hidden underneath the dangling flowers and vines from the potted plants above them, but from the corner of her eye, Gemma could see the new customers. They were still far enough away that they wouldn’t hear them, but they were coming closer.
Diana stared down at her, her green eyes tired, but there was a new anger that flickered behind them. But Gemma refused to look away or let go of her, not until she got an answer.
“One of the other girls, Aglaope, she came sniffing around. It must’ve been … five years back,” Diana said finally, apparently seeing that Gemma wouldn’t leave without something. “She never found me, but she got close enough when I heard that she’d been looking.
“I’d always liked her,” she went on. “She was kind and loving, but in order for Thea to be punished, Aglaope had to be punished even worse. It pained me to hurt her like that, but her anguish was a means to an end, and oh, how she’d anguished under Penn’s cruel rule for thousands of years.
“But when she came looking for me, looking for a way out, I ignored her. I liked her, pitied her, and she’d been tortured plenty, but her cries went unheeded. And if I wouldn’t help her, what makes you think I would help someone as insignificant as you?”
THIRTY-FOUR
Renunciation
All Gemma could think about was getting out to the water. Their flight home had been delayed for hours. It was well after five in the morning by the time they got home, and she had barely made it. Her migraine had gotten so bad, she’d thrown up twice on the way back.