“Take care,” Athena said. “Don’t fall out.”
Aidan wasn’t there. Not in the boat beside her or in all of the underworld. He was nowhere. Not even a shade of him remained to wander. He had been blotted out with no stain left behind. But that couldn’t be. Aidan was too bright, too bold, too beautiful to disappear. He was too much a part of everything she was.
“I love him,” she said.
“I know,” Athena replied. She paddled slowly, sadly. Mournful paddling.
Cassandra’s hands began to burn.
Before they were through, the gods would take everything. They would spear Henry and Andie onto wooden pikes to buy themselves another ten minutes. They blew up buildings full of people and burned homes to the ground. All to extend lives that had gone on for too long already.
Aidan. She loved him as much as she ever had. As much as she hated his family.
“We’re almost there, Cassandra. The light’s returning.”
Yes. She could see that. Athena said such stupid things. Dying bitch, taking too many others down with her. Hades’ death alone would cost a city. Thousands of innocents dead, choking on phlegm or full of sores.
Once, a long time ago, the gods had murdered her whole family. All of her people.
The Styx disappeared, replaced by the steel blue of the lake. Cold wind slipped down her collar.
“We’re home, Cassandra.”
She was supposed to kill them.
Cassandra turned and stared at Athena. Shadows crawled across her face.
She was supposed to kill them all.
25
ALL THE HOURS THAT REMAIN
On the drive back to Kincade, Athena treated her carefully. A gentle touch here, a soft word there. No pushing. No questions. Stupid goddess, playing at sympathy. But Cassandra took it, so she wouldn’t have to talk. So she wouldn’t have to scream. She didn’t say a word until they passed the Motel 6 where Athena, Hermes, and Odysseus had stayed when they first hit town that fall.
“What day is it?” Cassandra asked.
“Still Thursday, I think.”
“If you don’t know, don’t guess. Just drive me to school.” But Athena was right. Almost no time had passed. They’d gone so far, and it had been nothing. Been nothing, and for nothing.
“What time is it?” she asked. She glanced around the Dodge, but there was no clock display on the radio. She pulled her phone out of her backpack and looked at the dead screen, then tried to power it off and back on again. It did neither. The fucking underworld had fried her phone.
She squeezed it hard in her fist, to no effect. She could kill a god but lacked the strength to crack a Samsung.
“There’s only one thing I’m good for,” she whispered. “Only one thing I can change.” And it was a good thing. An important thing. It would save the lives of strangers and those she loved.
“Cassandra,” Athena said.
Cassandra ground her teeth and threw the phone hard against the dash.
“Don’t touch me!” she shouted when Athena pulled over. “If you touch me now, you’ll be feathers to the elbow. And I still need you to get me onto Olympus.”
“It’s ‘into’ mostly, rather than ‘onto.’”
“Are you still talking?”
Athena stared straight ahead, both hands on the steering wheel. Her fingers twitched, and her throat worked like she might say something about the brother she’d lost, the one her war had gotten killed. If she did, Cassandra would go for her face. She’d spear long feathers though her eyes. Through her tongue.
“Listen,” Athena said, “you don’t have to go to school if you don’t want to.”
“Where else would I go?” Cassandra opened the door. “When do we leave?”
“When you’re ready to,” Athena said.
“I’m ready now.”