Blade's Edge || Deception Book II ||

Chapter 31: Fracturing Secrets Pt.1

"We've got her!" a voice cackled gleefully through the black walkie-talkie I was holding and I frowned, dread and worry knotting my intestines into a ball, joining the snake that reared its head whenever my thoughts drifted to Luke and . . . that. I refused to think about it.

Somehow, the lackeys had gotten to the goddess of the Hunt before I had. "Bring her back," I ordered, steeling myself to face the goddess who had been like a sister to me. "I'll meet with you there."

There was a crackle of confirmation on the other end, and then I was gone, leaving behind the icy forest in gods knew where, heading back to Mount Othrys with a captured immortal in chains.

I'm so sorry, Artemis, I thought as I appeared in a swirl of Mist before the ruins of the castle. I reigned in my gasp as I caught sight of her, her silver dress ragged, celestial bronze chains wrapped around her arms and tied to her feet. But it wasn't the bounds that nearly had me shattering everything around me in rage and terror. It was the lack, or rather, the significantly diminished amount, of her aura of power.

Where a blinding, silver nebula had once been, there was nothing more than a bright glow. A lot, capable of insane power, but nowhere near what a goddess, and one of the Olympians, should have had.

Just what plaything had Atlas given them?

"The chains are enchanted," Artemis said to me in my head. "I don't know what it is, but it's leeching at my power."

I blinked, tucking away the shred of information, then turned to face the growling monsters around me. "Bring her in. The General is waiting."

***

I honestly didn't know how I wasn't dead yet. There were at least a dozen battles I was engaged in, each slowly tearing and shredding through my soul. Emotions, all of them more intense than a hurricane brought down with the wrath of Poseidon, warred inside as I watched, a sentinel facing a terrible change of power.

Right before Artemis was dragged up in chains, Luke had stepped forward, knelt beside Atlas, and shouldered the burden. I'd been forced to watch from the sidelines as he'd clenched his teeth, all the muscles in his body going taught, beads of sweat already running down his face. it'd been a struggle of willpower to run to him, to ease that crushing weight if only by half.

I'd barely heard Atlas as he'd bellowed his freedom to the world, too busy fighting my own shadows as they leaped and writhed inside to fly to the boy kneeling on the ground, the weight of the sky on his shoulders. Hell, I'd almost given myself away, the desire to take away the burden with my magic so strong I almost blacked out from the surge in my magic, but I gritted my teeth and forced myself to watch.

And then did the same as after a few minutes that had seemed like an eternity, Annabeth had run in, pain and terror on her pale face as she saw him crumpled against the rocky ground. I'd watched, silent from my sentry in the darkness as Luke pleaded with her to help him, then rolled free and walked away, leaving Annabeth alone in the cave.

At that point, I couldn't stand it anymore. Atlas was gone, Luke was gone, and as far as anyone was concerned, I was off somewhere in the city, and so, after making sure no eyes were watching, I'd flicked my fingers and invisible pillars of black shadow sprung up next to Annabeth, helping her even if it was nearly inconsequential as she held up the sky.

The sudden suffocating drain on my powers and flash of blinding agony nearly had me dropping to the floor as well, but then they'd simply faded into the tumult of pain swirling through me. Physical, mental, it didn't matter.

When Artemis had been dragged in, in chains, her hands bound and her auburn hair tangled, I was numb. Cold, unfeeling, like the misty plains of Asphodel. It was like my mind had escaped somewhere, leaving my body and its mess of emotions as an empty shell skulking in the shadows.