“What do you mean?” Harper turned back to face her.
“The way I see it, there’s three possibilities to this scenario.” Marcy held up three fingers, then ticked them down one by one as she listed the options. “One, Gemma finds the scroll. Two, the sirens have hidden the scroll so well that no one can find it. Three, they don’t have the scroll.”
“Gemma hasn’t even had a chance to really look for the scroll yet,” Harper said quickly. “We can’t rule that out.”
Marcy shook her head. “I’m not saying rule it out. I’m saying look into other avenues.”
“That’s probably a good idea,” Gemma agreed. “But Lydia seemed to think they’d have the scroll. It’s important to their existence.”
“But maybe they left it with somebody they trusted more than themselves,” Marcy suggested.
“Like who?” Harper asked.
“When I leased my apartment, the landlord didn’t trust just me, so I had to have someone else put their name on it.” Marcy waited a beat for it to hit Gemma and Harper. “My parents.”
“You think the sirens’ parents are still alive?” Harper asked.
“I don’t know.” Gemma shook her head, thinking back to what Lexi had said. “I don’t think they are.”
“Aren’t their parents immortal?” Marcy asked.
“Their dad was, but I don’t really know about their mom,” Harper said. “I was a little confused on that.”
“Who is their mom?” Marcy asked.
“Um, a muse,” Gemma said, thinking. “Or two muses, actually. Thea and Penn have different mothers. I’m pretty sure the muses are immortal, too. Just not goddesses. So I think that in their regular life, pre-siren, Thea and Penn were mortal.”
“But both their parents were immortal, right?” Marcy said. “Wouldn’t the kids of immortals also be immortal?”
“No, I think in order to be born immortal, both your parents have to be gods and goddesses,” Gemma said. “Like how Hercules was mortal. And the muses were granted their immortality by Zeus as a blessing, so they couldn’t pass it on.”
“But their dad was a god?” Marcy asked, and Gemma nodded. “He’s definitely got to be alive, then.”
“Well, not definitely, but probably,” Harper agreed.
“I really don’t think he is.” Gemma shook her head.
“Why not?” Harper asked. “I know some of the books implied that Hercules killed him, but they also said that the sirens were dead, so I wouldn’t really give that much credence.”
“I know, it’s just…” Gemma trailed off. When she’d told Lexi she’d met Penn’s dad, Lexi had laughed and said he was dead, but she didn’t want to explain that to Harper. “It’s just a feeling I have.
“And anyway, even if he is alive, Penn really hates him,” Gemma went on. “And she didn’t have anything nice to say about her mother. After I first became a siren, Thea actually called the muses prostitutes.”
“So it’s unlikely that they would rely on them,” Harper said, finishing Gemma’s thought.
“And if they did, they’re probably more powerful than the sirens. Hence, the title ‘god,’” Gemma said. “And I highly doubt they’d want to help us kill their daughters.”
“You never know,” Marcy said.
The three of them sat in silence for a few minutes, thinking about what they’d been talking about. Gemma twisted the tab on her soda can and wondered if Marcy was barking up the right tree. She hadn’t had much of a chance to look for the scroll yet, but even if she had, it wouldn’t be bad to have a backup plan.
“You know who would want to destroy them?” Harper asked finally, and Gemma lifted her head to look at her. “Demeter.”
“The chick that made the curse?” Marcy asked.
“She’s not a chick,” Harper corrected her. “She’s a goddess, and she hates the sirens.”
“Why does she hate them again?” Marcy asked.
“Penn, Thea, and the two other original sirens were handmaidens for Demeter’s daughter, Persephone,” Gemma explained. “They were supposed to be watching her, but instead they were screwing around, swimming, singing, and flirting with men.”
“So the sirens were like guards?” Marcy asked.
“I guess.” Gemma shrugged. “I think they said that their dad got them the job. From what I understand, their mothers stayed with whoever they were ‘inspiring,’ so the sirens were pretty much homeless from a young age.”
“So they get a job watching Persephone, and they bail,” Marcy said, returning the story to its main point.
“Right,” Gemma said. “And then Persephone is kidnapped by Hades and taken down into the Underworld to be his bride.”
“But if what Lydia says is true, that these were just powerful humans and not deities, then Hades wouldn’t have been ruler of the Underworld,” Marcy said. “A human—even a powerful one—wouldn’t be in charge of the afterlife. So where did he take her?”