Page 89 of Invoking Ruin

Lethe leans against a tree with a basket of carrots in her arms, trying to bribe Pegasus.

Still sneaking up on me, after all this time.

Still unwelcome.

The world is ending, and my sister still manages to interfere with my business.

I hate that I’m so glad to see her.

I straighten up. “Are you going to call for your beloved? Mother? Tell them I’ve escaped?”

“You’re as dramatic as mother,” Lethe tells me, with far more confidence in her voice than I remember. She comes forward and holds out a carrot to Pegasus, who happily munches it down. “I didn’t want them to lock you up to begin with.”

“Right, thank you for saying that at the trial. Oh wait.” This isn’t a time for a heart to heart. Both our guilty consciences won’t matter if there’s no tomorrow.

Lethe levels her dreamy, disquieting gaze at me. My barbs never garnered much of a reaction from my sister.

“Hephaestus has very different feelings on the subject,” she says. “Keeping him from condemning you was more important.”

I huff. Rather poor job she did of that, too. It’s not important. “I need to get out of here.”

Her pale eyebrows shoot up. “And go where?”

I tip my head back to the darkening crevasse in the sky. “To take care of some unfinished business with our grandmother.” I grin to keep the gnawing terror in my belly from showing on my face. “Should I tell her you say hello?”

“Atê.” She grabs my arm. “You can’t be serious. You won’t make it back. He won’t either.”

Pegasus has taken to sniffing at my pockets again. I scratch behind his ears. “I’m not taking him. Such a good boy. He doesn’t need to be near any of this.”

“Then how?”

With one last pat, I leave Pegasus and go to the chariot. Sure enough, my chest is still there with everything still inside. Amateurs.

I pull out Hermes’ winged sandals and a sword. I set about pulling the former on, wrapping the golden laces around my feet. The soles spring back and forth, wings pumping, ready to lift me up.

Last time I wore these, I almost fell past Tartarus into the Void. Now, I’m heading right back for it in the opposite direction.

I’ve come full circle.

Above me, Lethe watches, impassive. “This is a terrible idea.”

“It’s the only idea anyone’s got. Or do they have some grand plan up there?”

Her silence is answer enough. I glance up at her.

A frown pulls at her face, strong emotion from a goddess meant to be beyond feeling. “How do you even know she’s in there? Or that fighting her will do anything?”

I don’t know if it will do anything, but as I test the edge of the blade on my thumb, bright ichor welling up as the wound opens and seals itself.

“Erebus and Momus both disintegrated when their heads were chopped off, so, that’ll be step one.” I get to my feet and step on air. Down, shoes! Controlling these things has never been easy, and I need to be able to pinpoint one goddess in a massive sky.

These shoes never came with an instruction manual when I took them, and Hermes isn’t about to give me pointers. “No reason to think it won’t work a third time.”

“The Void will drag you in like Carybdis into her maw. You will only have one chance, and if I’m honest, I don’t know if you can do it. This isn’t exactly your skillset, sister.” Lethe sighs. “Why not give it to Ares, or Hermes? They’re his shoes.”

That would be the reasonable thing to do. Send either a warrior or the messenger god. They could manage it with far less danger to themselves. Far lower chance for failure, too, but it won’t be them. It can’t be. “Because she took the knife from me.”

Because I cannot get her voice from my head.

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