Page 32 of The Shadow Gods

I held my hands out to examine my nails. My skin was dirty. There was no water, no place to bathe and wash the filth off me. No food. No light. No water.

I wasn't hungry, though. I wasn't tired, either, beyond the weariness of being forced to live a life I wanted to end.

I didn't think it would. Without seeing the sun, I had no way to measure time. It could have been decades, or centuries, that had passed.

Trailing my hands over my scales, I considered how immortality seemed to be built into my form. After all, it was a goddess who had transformed me into this creature.

Half-woman, half-serpent. In all actuality, I felt more serpent than woman.

The thought occurred to me at the same time a near-forgotten sound pierced my home. Men’s voices filtered into the temple.

My fear was immediate and all-consuming.

Hide.

I slithered from the spot where I rested to a darker corner.Hide.I wrapped my tail around my body, over and over, until I was coiled tightly.

Go away.

I had no idea what this place looked like from the outside anymore. If it was still Athena's temple or something else. Once I had become this, everyone I knew disappeared. There were no more priestesses or acolytes. Just me.

And my serpents.

Sensing my worry, the creatures hissed, winding from my head over my neck to rest on the tops of my breasts. Their dark eyes fixed on the direction of the sound, looking for all the world like guard dogs. I ran my fingertips over their smooth heads. Strange how what Athena had considered a punishment turned out to be my only source of comfort. Without them, I would have gone mad from the darkness and solitude. A few of the snakes closed their eyes and tasted the air. Others wound around my wrists in a kind of embrace. Sweet babies.

There was a sudden crash as something fell. A cloud of dust kicked up, filling my nose and burning my eyes. I shut them, turned my head to the side, and tried to catch my breath.

“Gods!”

The voices were here. I opened my eyes, blinking as the dust cleared to find three men, soldiers, with weapons in hand.

My serpents hissed, and the rattle on the end of my tail shivered in warning.

All it took was a second—time to blink. Their gazes raked my body in a way that reminded me of Poseidon. Summing me up. Measuring me. They scanned me, tip of my tail back to my eyes, when the change happened.

One of them choked, the sound like I had wrapped my hand around his throat. Then, as I watched—equal parts horrified and fascinated—they went from flesh and blood to something else.

They were young and strong. Their shoulders were wide and the muscles in their arms defined. For eternity, they would remain just as they were now. The color in their faces drained, and they became hard, gray, and still.

They became stone.

Athena's curse came back to me.No man will ever look on you again.

This was what she meant by it. She'd ensured that not only would I be alone forever, I would be surrounded by those who were unlucky enough to gaze upon my twisted form.

I didn't know if I should thank her or marvel at her punishment. She'd given me a shield against the world, one that would leave no survivors.

* * *

Orestes took my hands, studying them as if he was seeing Medusa's. I barely had time to breathe before something tugged at my mind. It was a sense of forgetting and remembering at the same time—like trying to find a word. The vision had shown me something important, but I didn't know what.

Outside the church, a truck rumbled to a stop. Moving quickly, Hector and Achilles straightened one pew. Pollux and Paris did the same while I dropped the shard into the plastic container. By the time the doors opened, we’d put everything to rights.

The priest hesitated inside the door, staring at us in confusion. “Bonjour.”

“Bonjour,” I replied and went on to thank him for allowing us to pray in the beautiful church.

He was slow to reply, and his words dripped suspicion, but we held nothing but the container, which was too small to squirrel away anything of worth. His gaze traveled quickly around the church, cataloguing everything. Finding nothing missing, he answered, “Bien sûr.”Of course.

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