Page 30 of Surrendering Hope (The Hope Legacy)

Emi is an unknown. But she has more knowledge at her fingertips than our collective brains, and she can clarify the riddles of Greek mythology for us. Jed seemed comfortable enough leaving her here when Zac called him back, plotting and scheming their own plans.

She stands next to me studying the family tree, her family tree. Her finger lashes out as she points half way down to ‘Themis’. “That’s me.”

Zee inserts her name in pink.

“Were you around when Typhon was captured the first time?” I ask.

She sighs. “Sure.”

“How did they do it?”

“We caught him. It took several gods including Archan, Jed, Tartarus and Zeus.”

My stomach twists. Zeus, my maker and the guy who set me up to take down humankind. I hate the guy. Duncan pokes his finger at the paper this time. “Zeus was your nephew?” he asks Emi.

She groans and flops into the high-back chair next to me. “Yes, but I never liked him. He wasn’t only arrogant, he was wicked and had ambitions above his station. When it became apparent he wasn’t about to become the god of humans, he found a random excuse to become angry and make you.” She points at me. “Anyway, Typhon being the insane god of monsters decided Zeus needed to die. They fought and Zeus lost, the first time. My idiot sister rescued and restored him back to health. Zeus saw fit to work with us. It took power, but also cunning. We lured Typhon into a trap of his own making. His arrogance led him to think he was indestructible, and to a degree he was right. But he didn’t expect us to lock him away.”

“What happened to Zeus?” I ask.

“That was the trap. We locked both Zeus and Typhon in Tartarus.”

“Zeus sacrificed himself?”

She snorts. “No, the trap was also for him. The pair of them were idiots.”

“We need to get him to fall for a trap?” I muse, my fingers tapping against the wooden table. “What if we agree to give him the Jar to make him whole, but trap him in the Jar instead?”

“Sounds simple enough,” Duncan says, “but why would we give him everything he wants? It has Las Vegas style lighting saying ‘Trap’.”

“True, it has to be believable.” I glance at Zee, who’s giving me a weird look. “What if… I let myself get kidnapped and you trade the Jar for me?”

Zee’s gaze narrows. “Here we go, rushing into the most dangerous situation you can find. That’s not a solution, it’s an escalation of the problem.” His anger flows out of him like a raging volcano.

“And what would you suggest?” I demand with a thump against the wood.

His green eyes flash with fear. “I don’t know, but risking your life isn’t worth it.”

My head falls back, my eyes catching Aaden’s intelligent steel gaze. “What if we try to offer it in exchange for Archan? Offer a different host?”

Emi shakes her head. “Typhon needs a strong host, a Primordial, and handing him Jed would just shift the problem.”

“You’re forgetting one important thing,” Duncan says. My head snaps to him.

“What?”

“This plan rests on us acquiring a spell to pull Typhon out of Archan’s body and into the Jar.”

My lips turn down. “I thought your witch was supplying that?”

He sighs. “Only if it’s possible. Right now all we have is the Jar. No lure for Typhon, no spell to contain him.”

“Do we need the key for the spell to allow him to get sucked in there?” Zee asks, standing and pacing back and forth.

“I would imagine so,” Duncan says as his phone vibrates in demand on the table. He glances at it. “It’s Jed, he’s ready to come back.” Without preamble, Duncan disappears. I blink at the sudden gap. It’s weird, I can teleport, but it’s still odd seeing someone wink out of existence. He reappears with Jed in tow. It’s even odder watching them materialize.

“What are we doing?” Jed asks, studying the paper.

“Sorting out who is who and planning Typhon’s demise,” I state.

---