Page 31 of The Shadow Gods

My other life.It was my life. Whatever reason Athena had for bringing me back to existence was still a mystery, but I was that ancient woman who'd been beaten and raped and tortured. I was Medusa.

Oh my god. Iwas Medusa.

Paris

My brother wasn't ready to see Medusa's life. He wasn't ready to be in her head, see everything through her eyes, and then watch from a distance. The sound of Poseidon's voice echoed in my head. Smug. Selfish. Demanding.

Damn the gods. Damn their belief that they were entitled to inject their desires into our lives just because we amused them.

Easing back, I gazed down at the woman in my arms. She was so different. Nothing like the one the seal—and Athena—had shown me. But somehow, Medusa and Leo were exactly the same.

Okay.On the surface, they were opposites. One tall and lean, blonde and green-eyed. Beautiful by any standard.

Whereas Leo had a more complicated beauty. It snuck up on me and took me by surprise. It was in the way she cut a glance at me, raised her eyebrows, crossed her arms. She would speak and I was just struck dumb. Logical and so, so careful, even when she was blurting out questions or ideas. I could see her agonizing over everything that came out of her mouth both before and after she spoke. No one was harder on her than she was. I wanted her to know, no matter how long it took, that she could be herself with me.

I had seen beauty. Held beauty. I had fought a war for beauty.

Leo gazed up at me, brown eyes warm, reddish-brown eyebrows lifted to study me. A pink flush lifted from her neck to her cheeks the longer I watched her. I lifted one hand to her face, tracing the color with my thumb. She was small and soft and perfect, and I never wanted to let her go.

A change came over her. The flush stayed, but she pressed her lips together, gazed away and then back to me, and pushed her hand against mine. “Hold on to me.”

I wished I could push my strength into her, the way I'd pushed my power into the seal, and make everything better. “I've got you.”

Holding me to her, she told the story of what the seal had shown her. I could see every moment as she laid it out, back to being the observer I was when we both touched the seal.

“I've already trapped the gods.” Pollux's voice was harsher and angrier than I'd ever heard it. “But I wish I was strong enough to kill them. I wish I could bring the weight of the ocean down on them and obliterate them.”

He pulled his hands from his pocket, and I caught how they shook as he rubbed the back of his neck. “It had to be Poseidon as we crossed the Channel. It had to be. He's free and Athena's free.”

“The seal could be warning us,” Hector said. His jaw was so tight, it looked like it hurt to speak. “It could be a harbinger. It might be in our best interest to see what else it shows us.”

“It's part of you,” Leo said. She hadn't let go of my hand. Her thumb trailed along the back of it and over my knuckles. “And you're good. Down to the marrow good. I trust it.”

She was wrong. I'd done bad things. Put myself above other people. I wasn't like her.

“You're good.” She suddenly flicked the back of my hand, like she could read my mind. “I know it.”

She saw sides of me I wasn't sure existed, but I wanted them to. I'd make them exist just for her.

“I think we should try it again, then.” Orestes lifted the seal from where Leo had placed it. “It doesn't have to be me. It could be any of us. The only thing that seems necessary is that we both touch it.”

Leo tensed. “What if you see something really awful?”

She was talking about herself. What if Orestes saw something awful from her life as Medusa?

“There's nothing it can show me that would change how I feel,” Orestes said, which was fucking perfect. I wished I'd said it. He held it out to her. “I promise.”

Shifting, she dropped her hands from mine. With one last look at me, she sucked in a breath and touched it.

Leo

The candles flickered. With nothing else to do, I watched the shadows shift and dance on the walls.

It was always dark in here. When Athena had changed me, the temple had been light and airy. The breeze flew up from the ocean, across the city, and through the columns.

It was a tomb now.

My tomb.

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