Her words hit Ash, flashing unavoidable light over the shadowed pieces she had been fumbling to connect for weeks.
Hydra’s message to Ignitus.I have heard no similar rumors. Stop worrying.
She took it from me, Stavos had said with his dying breath.
“The message. The person Ignitus fears. A mystery woman,” Ash said, her head ringing like a struck gong. She looked at Tor through a blur of wonder.
A god who had helped kill Anathrasa would be right to fear her.
He would be right to shudder at the mererumorof her.
“It’s her,” Ash wheezed, lifting her hand to her mouth. “Tor—it’s her. Isn’t it? She’s back. Madoc—” Ash looked at him, sagging. “She’s his god. The goddess of souls.”
“Wait.” Ilena spun, her posture hard. “Ignitus mentioned her in a message? Does he know about Madoc?” Her face paled, but her eyes blazed. “What exactly do you want from us?”
“We thought a god planted Madoc in this war to rig it against Ignitus,” Ash said. “It seemed too convenient that Geoxus selected Madoc—a gladiator without geoeia—to become a champion without someone having an ulterior motive, as Tor said. And we’ve beentracking a person Ignitus fears—maybe... maybe he fears Anathrasa? But that’s impossible. She’s been dead for centuries.”
Ash’s euphoria fizzled out, a storm leaving behind a hot, muggy dawn.
If the Mother Goddess truly was back, and she was at the center of all of this—she had captured Stavos, murdered him; she had planted Madoc in this war—then the godshadn’tkilled her hundreds of years ago, like they’d said. And there was no proof that gods could be killed.
“You think the Mother Goddess is alive? And what—she intentionally put me in this war?” Madoc gawked. “If she survived, why would she wait until now to show herself? Not even show herself—just interfere with a war between Geoxus and Ignitus? I don’t think so.”
It was a stretch—and Ash breathed a little easier in it. “That’s true, I guess. If Anathrasa had survived, she would have brought down a reckoning on the other gods for turning on her. They killed her because she almost destroyed the world—it doesn’t make sense that she would have survived for hundreds of years without making herself known. Maybe she truly is dead and only a line of her descendants survived?”
Tor nodded, grim. “But if she or her line did survive, the world would not have endured this long. That kind of energeia control brought such chaos that it united all six gods, and we know how volatile they are.”
Ash chewed her lip. But who was thesheStavos had mentioned, then? Could it be as simple as an unknown assassin hired to kill him? Maybe Stavos wasn’t tied to this at all.
And if Anathrasa was truly dead, then it meant it was still possible to kill a god.
Tor bobbed his head in thought. “We can look into it. Maybe press Ignitus for—”
“I’m not descended from a soul goddess.” Madoc whirled on Tor. “Why do you even care what I am? Why not turn me in and reap the reward?”
Ash stepped closer. She had laid Madoc’s secret bare; it was only fair she reveal hers too.
Her fingers trembled. She had never told anyone this before, outside her little group. It was such a nourishing sensation, the truth of her motives waiting on her tongue, ready to spill free.
“We want to kill Ignitus,” she said before Tor could stop her. “We want to stop him from hurting Kula any more.”
She felt giddy. She felt light. She even managed to ignore the look of confused horror on Madoc’s face, too high on saying these things out loud.
This is who I am. This is what I want.
She had never been more raw.
“We think Ignitus fears a gladiator for some reason—that he fearsyou,” Ash said. “And it makes sense, if you can control souls.”
Ilena and Seneca stared at Ash, and she felt Tor’s disapproving glare.
“You bring dangerous ideas here.” Seneca’s glassy blue eyes were narrow.
“I’m not part of any plot,” Madoc croaked. “I can’t help you. I can’t controlsouls.”
“Are you sure?”
A new voice came from the door. Someone had opened it. Ashspun around to see Elias stagger past Taro and Spark.
