Turning her head toward me, she lifts her good hand—the one I didn’t send a lightning bolt through—and then brushes her fingertips against my cheek. It’s the only time she’s ever touched me with affection. The softness in her face is so different, so bright.
My knees hit the floor, and I bend over her, my throat squeezing tight. Griffin kneels down next to me, his warm hand a comfort on my back. I thank the Gods he’s here. Without him, I might break.
My obligation was clear. Griffin knew it. I knew it. Mother knew it. Extract a binding promise from her to do no further harm, or strike her down. She refused the vow. Mother’s only gift to me besides life and my sisters was taking this terrible duty out of my hands.
With her last breath, she exhales words I never thought I’d hear. “I’ll tell Eleni I’m sorry.”
My vision blurs as her eyes dull into the sightless stare of death. All is quiet around me, and Griffin is a strong, silent, consoling presence by my side.
We won. Thalyria is ours. Only one life was lost today.
Love is weakness. It’s what Mother always said. It’s what’s true, in a way.
Merciless Cat. Griffin had it right, too.
Compassion and ruthlessness have always danced around each other inside me like wary partners, but I know the music they spin to, and I’d rather have a heart to break than no heart at all.
I’ll never believe that Mother chose this path today because she knew I could beat her and that her kingdom was lost. If she’d wanted to, she still would have fought to the bitter end, would have forced me to kill her. But in the face of my mercy, something inside her shifted. Elpis finally touched her heart.
My breath shuddering, I pat down Mother, looking for her obol. Finding it, I force the tremor from my hand and pull the coin from her pocket, gripping it hard.
Her life force has only just left Thalyria. She’s just now seeing the other side.
I stare at the coin. I could doom her to Asphodel. I could take her payment for passage across the Styx.
I rub the coin between my fingers. It’s not even gold. It’s nearly worthless on our plane of existence. But take it from her? Some days, I despised her enough to do it. I’ll always struggle with the darkness in me that sometimes sways the scales and will always fringe my wings and shade my actions. But today, I have no desire for revenge, and the choice of where Mother goes next isn’t mine to make.
I tuck the coin into her still-pliant hand and then fold her closed fist across her chest. I judged her plenty in life. Charon and Hades can judge her in death.
And if she gets that far, Eleni can decide if she wants to forgive.
I sit back on my heels, taking a deep, steadying breath. Then, turning to Griffin, I gently kiss his lips. “I can’t believe it’s over.”
“It’s over,” he says, cupping my jaw. “And you were amazing and strong.”
I tilt my head, studying him. “You were awfully quiet through all that.”
A small smile lifts his mouth. “You did everything you needed to all by yourself.”
He’s right. Today I mostly needed him supporting my choices, watching my back, and showing Mother that together is so much better than alone.
Aetos clears his throat, and I pop up, turning to my friends.
“It’s time to get you out.” I only waited this long because I figured they were safer from Mother behind bars.
I go to Desma and Aetos first, grip two bars of their cage, and then let my hands heat with the extraordinary power of Zeus himself. The metal glows red-hot, but no part of my own magic ever burns me, and I pull outward, easily bending the iron. I yank extra hard, knowing that Aetos will need plenty of room to get his big body out.
Desma stumbles out of the cage first and straight into my waiting arms. The swell of her growing baby bumps lightly into mine. She hugs me hard, even though she must be bone-weary.
Drawing back, she looks at me, her eyes as damp as mine. “I understand why you lied to us now, Cat. All these years. I don’t blame you for wanting to protect us.”
Aetos shimmies through the bent bars after her, and Desma leans against him. Somehow, he hugs us both at once, and for a moment, I also lean into his familiar, tattooed frame. Then I step away and turn to the next cage.
Vasili and I look at each other, and my heart turns over achingly hard at the sight of his abused face. There’s dried blood in his mustache, making it lopsided and crisp. His eye is puffed out and tight, the skin around it a terrible color. He needs a healer as soon as possible, or his vision might suffer, and he may never throw a knife as accurately again.
With his good eye, he stares steadily into my face. “I don’t regret a thing.”
Beside him, Phaedra nods her silent agreement. Their love and acceptance transport me back in time to when they first found me. In their wagon home, the red and gold paint forever coated in a fine layer of Sintan dust, they were the first to give me food, shelter, and clothes, knives to replace mine that had already seen too much blood, and a place to lay my head where I wasn’t terrified something was going to jump out at me.
I don’t regret a thing. Vasili isn’t only talking about this terrible, recent trial. He also means the beginning—the day he first saw me, weak and wandering, and quietly coaxed me toward him, and I went. I saw him, his hair already graying, his mustache wide and bushy, and his eyes so strong and kind, and my weary feet simply carried me toward him, and then he carried me to my new circus home. If I hadn’t been so bristly, he and Phaedra would have taken me in as more than just a friend. I’m the child they never had, but I was too damaged to let them have me, either.
I break Vasili and Phaedra out of their cage in mere seconds.
“I love you all,” I say, because it’s not something I say enough. “You’re my family, and I love you.”
“Oh, Cat.” Phaedra’s voice cracks, and Vasili wraps his arms around her.
“How did this happen?” I ask. “Why are you all here?”
“We heard you’d gone missing,” Aetos says. “We figured she must have had you.”
“We walked right into this trap,” Desma says sourly.
Good Gods, she’s pregnant, and she came to Castle Fisa for me? “Are you insane?” I hiss. Not that I’m much better. I pretty much did the same.
Aetos actually smiles, showing a touch of dry mirth. “You were with us for eight years. You must have rubbed off on us.”
I snort. “I’ve decided to stop charging recklessly into dangerous situations. That’s now a bad habit of the past.”
There are raised eyebrows all around. Griffin’s are the highest.
My husband slides his arm around my waist. “You really think you can do that?”
I wrap my arm around his waist, too. “I can try.”
Griffin’s eyes dance with humor as he looks down at me. And despite everything, we all laugh together, because that’s what friends and family do.
Finally, I turn to my brothers and open their cage. Laertes and Priam step out, watching us warily. I don’t ask them for a vow. I don’t ask them for anything. I say only, “Choose your loyalties carefully.”
“Good advice,” a calm, smooth new voice counsels from the side.