Total pages in book: 74
Estimated words: 69923 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 350(@200wpm)___ 280(@250wpm)___ 233(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 69923 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 350(@200wpm)___ 280(@250wpm)___ 233(@300wpm)
I tensed. There it is. He finally asks.
“Now what will you say?” she teased for my ears alone.
“Even if I had such a power, killing her while we were trapped on top of that mountain was suicide. She was the only access to food and water. She was the only one who could get us down.”
“Fair enough. Your power had to be stifled for your own safety. Possibly the first time you used it deliberately was in that cell.”
“I don’t—”
Drakos shot forward. “Think carefully before you utter another syllable. There are worse things within these walls than the reflection room.”
My weakened body shook. I feared him, but not as much as I feared her.
Eyes widening, I shot to my fingers gripping the chair arm. Beneath the blood, they were turning black.
No, no! My fear of the consequences of lying to him was combating my fear of telling him the truth. Oh the fucking irony.
“I don’t have power,” I blurted. “Your threats and torture chambers cannot change that. Call a child of Hecate. Call a child of the goddess of truth. I’m not a demigod.”
“Then how did a soldier die in your locked cell? How did the demon?”
I said the truest thing I ever would. “They were killed by a monster. That monster wasn’t me.” Laughter rang in my ears. “Give me any amount of truth serum you desire. My answer will not change.”
“Hmm. I can see we’re hitting a wall, Miss Galanis. One you’ve dug yourself under quite nicely,” Drakos clipped. “You’ve made your bluff. Now it’s up to me to call it or give proof you’re still lying.”
“Of course she’s lying.” Purplish veins shone stark on Vasili’s forehead. “If this was happening, we would know. If he was taken or killed, I would know!”
Remis cupped his cheek. My brows popped at such an intimate gesture. “Maybe not, Leonidas. The lamia attacked your home while you were miles away across the sea. If it took Philo, you weren’t there to see—”
“Stavra!”
“—and doesn’t that give us hope,” she continued, raising her voice. “Hope when we had none at all. There’s a chance he’s out there somewhere. If it takes rooting out every lamia nest in Olympia, we won’t stop until we’ve found Philo, or destroyed the monster who took him.”
He shook off her grasp, lines hardening around his weary, grizzled jaw. “She has not given me hope. I can swear to you that of all the things this girl did here today, giving hope to those grieving families was not one of them.”
Vasili slammed out the door. The force rattled books off Drakos’s shelves.
“I know I haven’t given hope,” I said softly. “When the truth comes out, parents will drive themselves mad wondering if their children were spared. They’ll risk life and limb to bring them home. That’s if it’s not already too late. Anyone who remains of Iris’s, Chloe’s and Evangeline’s families can now suffer the guilt of knowing they were waiting for them to save us... and they never came.”
Remis made for the door. “I need to speak to him.”
“One moment, Stavra.” Drakos halted her in her tracks. “Miss Galanis has missed a week of training. I’m certain she’s eager to return to her classmates—whole and ready to do her duty.”
Hold on. Was he saying that I could...?
I didn’t have to voice the question. Madame Remis laid her hand across my forehead again. A cool trickle spread through my body, taking the pain with it. I blinked and the endless stab wounds were gone.
“I don’t understand,” I said as Stavra shut the door behind her. “That’s it? You’re done questioning me?”
“I am.”
I remained seated. “What about Galen? What about training? I’m not lying,” I repeated. “I don’t have powers and I won’t live as a fraud, pretending I do. What am I to do for the next four years?”
“Galen Teresi was a tragic death that could’ve been avoided. One of the most powerful demigods to step through these doors—snuffed out for no reason at all.”
“Not no reason,” I said, dropping my gaze. “He didn’t know it was a trick when he risked his life for me. Galen died a hero.”
“Galen died for a no-nothing coward and traitor.”
I blinked. What did he say?
“There was a question I didn’t ask you, Miss Galanis, because now I know.” Drakos rose to his full, imposing height. “You were out there alone in the forest because you were looking for a way over the fence. Don’t deny it,” he hissed, snapping my opening mouth closed. “You are a child, Aella Galanis. Running from the devastation in your wake instead of standing your ground.
“I was wrong about your strength, but not about your character. A promising future soldier was snuffed out for nothing... because he died protecting you.”
I sank lower and lower in my chair. As low as my sinking heart.