“This is…very concerning.” Athena’s brows pull low over glowering eyes.
“You recognize the runes on the dagger, don’t you?” Zaid presses.
She stares sullenly ahead, her gaze unseeing, before she nods once. “Of course I do. I… I created them. Or at least, the one that’s causing Thea’s current predicament.”
The outcry is instantaneous.
Krystian’s bow materializes in his hands, and Everett’s hands tighten around my ankles, the hold almost bruising. Rafe has gone very, very still. Too still. A predator hiding in a bush, waiting to strike. Only Zaid appears unperturbed, keeping his curious gaze fixed on Athena.
The goddess absently brushes a curl behind her ear. “Don’t look at me like that. I’m not the one who put the rune on the dagger.”
“What does it do?” I ask quickly, trying to get the conversation back on track.
I don’t know if the guys are capable of killing a goddess, and I really, really don’t want to find out.
I’ve become a little attached to them, dammit, and I refuse to lose them now.
Athena’s long, perfectly manicured fingers tap against her thigh. “It… It holds souls.”
“Holds souls?” Everett repeats, incredulous.
“Anywhere from one soul to…a million. A couple million.”
An uneasy feeling snakes through me, making the acid in my stomach sluice uncomfortably.
“Are you saying that when I reap a soul, their soul is trapped in the dagger?” I whisper.
“That rune you described…the one on the pedestal…” Athena stands suddenly and moves towards a bookshelf beside her bed. She peruses the titles before evidently finding the one she’s looking for, pulling it free with a satisfied hum. She returns to us while flipping through the pages. “Is this what it looks like?”
She thrusts the book in front of me, and I peer at the intricately drawn rune on the page.
I nod stiffly. “That’s it. But there are hundreds of that rune etched across the pedestal.”
Athena nods as if she expected as much, but her face has drained of all color. She swallows convulsively and all but falls into the armchair once more.
“Fuck,” she breathes.
“What does this rune mean?” Krystian demands, his tone impatient.
“It’s… It’s a way to transfer power.”
“What are you saying?” I ask, though I already know.
“I’m saying that every time you use that dagger to reap a soul, that soul—and consequently its energy—transfers to it. And every time you place that dagger on the pedestal, the energy of the soul relocates to the one who placed the runes in the first place, while the soul remains trapped in the dagger.”
Athena turns to stare at me, fear brimming in her dark eyes. “Someone is collecting power. Alotof power. More powerthan maybe even Zeus has. And I can think of only one reason someone would do that.”
She swallows again, her hand shaking slightly. “We are so fucked.”
CHAPTER THIRTY-ONE
THEA
“So someone is using me to steal souls and harness their powers,” I surmise, an angry flush crawling up my cheeks. “And because of that, the souls are trapped in my dagger with no hope of escape?”
My entire life, I thought I had a purpose, and while I hated the cage I was put in, I deluded myself into thinking I was helping the souls. Allowing them to cross over to a better place.
But that was all a lie.
