Sigyn let out a laugh. “Why would you think that?”
I shrugged. “Oh, I don’t know. All their claws. All my wounds. All the blood dripping out of my body.”
She laughed again. “It takes more than that to kill a warrior like you, Rory. You should know that by now.”
“So…I’m not dead, then?” I asked, totally confused.
Instead of answering me, Sigyn gestured with her hand, asking me to fall into step beside her. I did, and we began walking around the courtyard like we had the first time we’d met here. Once again, all the wildflowers bowed their heads as the goddess brushed past them. I stepped as lightly as I could, trying not to crush any more of the flowers underfoot than necessary, but they all sprang right back up again the second I moved on. Even more unusual, the wildflowers all swiveled in my direction, as though they were tracking me through the courtyard.
I shivered. I wondered if this was how Gwen felt with her psychometry magic. Like flowers and other inanimate objects were watching her all the time. It wasn’t as cool as you’d think it would be. In fact, it was downright creepy.
“You’re probably wondering why I brought you here to the ruins again,” Sigyn said. “You have done well, Rory Forseti. No one could have fought harder than you did against so many chimeras.”
“Not well enough,” I muttered. “Mateo got hurt, and Covington and Drake got away. Plus, they still have the chimera scepter.”
She shrugged. “You can choose to focus on the negative, if you wish. But I choose to focus on the positive.”
“And what would that be?”
“Covington used an artifact to try to turn you into a Reaper. A gold signet ring studded with a ruby that once belonged to Apate, the Greek goddess of deception. Have you heard of her jewels and what they can do?”
“That they can control people’s minds? Yeah, Gwen told me about them.”
“Then you know how powerful they are.” Sigyn tilted her head to the side, studying me. “But you resisted the ruby’s magic and Covington’s commands.”
I shook my head. “I have no idea how I did that.”
“Don’t you?” she murmured.
Her black gaze dropped to my wrist, and I realized that I was fiddling with the heart locket on my charm bracelet. My fingers stilled, and I remembered how the bracelet and locket had glowed with that pure, bright silver light that no one had seemed to notice but me.
“This isn’t just a charm bracelet, is it?” I whispered.
“No, it’s not,” Sigyn said. “But you know that. You’ve known that for days now.”
How could I possibly know that? I started to ask the goddess what she meant, but then I remembered all the artifacts I’d seen in the Bunker, including one that had looked exactly like my charm bracelet.
“The Bracelet of Freya,” I whispered. “This is Freya’s Bracelet—the real bracelet. The one I saw in the Bunker is a fake, isn’t it?”
Sigyn nodded.
“But how did I wind up with it…” My voice trailed off as the realization hit me. “My parents. They gave me this bracelet. They…they must have stolen Freya’s Bracelet sometime before it was taken to the Bunker. They must have left a fake behind in its place, so they could give me the real artifact without anyone realizing I had it.”
I thought of all those times I had searched the library and our old house, looking for a clue from my parents. They had left something behind for me after all, even if I had been too blind to see it until right now.
“But why? Why would they give me the bracelet?”
“What do you know about the artifact?” Sigyn asked.
I fiddled with the heart locket again. “On the identification card, it said that whoever wears the bracelet will be protected by Freya’s love. It didn’t really say exactly what the bracelet would protect someone from.”
“Protected not just by Freya’s love but also by the love of your parents,” Sigyn said. “Your parents gave you the bracelet out of love, which means that no one can ever take it away from you by force. Remember that.”
I stared down at the heart locket. My parents had surprised me with the bracelet on my birthday, and I remembered my mom telling me that it was special, just like I was special to her and my dad, and to always keep it close. I’d absolutely loved the bracelet, and I’d worn it every single day, right up until their funerals. All this time, I had been so angry at my parents, but now I realized that they’d been in an impossible situation, and they’d done what they could to help me. They’d tried to protect me the best way they knew how—and they had.
They had given me a Spartan heart in more ways than one.
“My parents must have known that they might not be able to leave the Reapers,” I said. “They must have guessed that Covington would kill them and try to get me to take their place someday. That’s why they gave me the bracelet, isn’t it? To protect me from Covington and whatever magic or artifact he might try to use on me. So he couldn’t force me to become a Reaper. So I could use my own free will and decide for myself what kind of warrior I want to be.”
Sigyn nodded. “And that you did, Rory. That you did.”
Another thought occurred to me. “But the bracelet wasn’t the only thing, the only artifact, that helped me. So did Babs with all her talking. That’s why you put the sword out for me to find in the library that first night, isn’t it? You knew that Babs would try to talk me out of becoming a Reaper. That she would help me resist Covington and his magic.”
A smile curved the goddess’s lips, confirming my suspicions. “As I said before, talking swords can be quite useful.”
We kept strolling around the courtyard, both of us lost in our own thoughts. My parents were gone, but I still had the bracelet and my memories of them in my heart. Those were the things I would keep close to me, those were the things I would focus on, those were the things I would treasure, just like my mom and dad had wanted me to.
Sigyn and I walked past a crumbling wall at the back of the courtyard. The goddess stopped and trailed her fingers over the gryphon carved into the stone. I knew this spot—it was where Gwen had found the Chloris ambrosia flowers that had healed Nickamedes. But instead of more ambrosia, a small white winterbloom was growing out of the gryphon’s beak now. Sigyn plucked the flower out of the stone and rolled the dark green stem back and forth between her fingers.
“Your cousin, Gwendolyn Frost, is a true Champion. She did what no one else could, and she saved countless lives by imprisoning Loki. Nike chose her Champion well.” The goddess kept staring at the flower. “I’ve never had a Champion. Not a single one.”
“Never? Why not?”