Page 81 of Flame and Fury

“That is the most likely scenario,” Nyx agrees.

Atlas curses under his breath.

“Is Dolos that little shit that used to pride himself on breaking up as many marriages as possible by impersonating people?” Hades frowns like he’s desperately trying to remember.

“Among other things.” Nyx shakes her head. “This symbol that Nathaniel Rogers burned into my granddaughter’s chest belongs to Dolos. It makes sense now,” Nyx says, more to herself than to the rest of us.

“Why?” I ask, because none of this makes sense to me.

“He’s been perpetrating the biggest hoax of all. When the gods were put to sleep last time, many lesser gods escaped. There were just too many. But they faded into the woodwork and behaved, for the most part. We can’t know for sure, but I suspect Dolos was tired of the small amounts of power he could accumulate while the gods were asleep. He needed them awake to pull off such widespread trickery.”

“Nathaniel always said he woke the gods through the power of prayer.” Hades scoffs.

“No,” Nyx whispers, looking weighted down. She may be eternally youthful, but her eyes hold the pain of thousands of years. “That’s not how he woke them.”

“How?” Atlas asks softly.

“He used the blood of the Furies.”Nyx looks like she just figured something important out.

A frisson of real fear skitters down my spine. “What do you mean?”

“The Furies put the gods to sleep and bound them with their magic. It was a collective effort. No one Fury could have gathered enough power to do that on their own without some magical aid that we didn’t have access to anyway. We didn’t need it. There were many of us back then. Tasked with ensuring justice was served across the land. When the gods grew more and more out of control, we knew we couldn’t stand by any longer. The power of all of us together was so strong it kept the gods asleep for over three millennia.” She pauses, sorrow filling her eyes. “But then Dolos must have figured out how to fracture our hold. To poke cracks in the magic. Furies began dying in the decades before the gods woke. Some went into hiding, but many had grown complacent over time. Nathaniel likes to say that he kills Furies now to keep the gods safe from the evil beings, but he must have been doing it for years before he raised the gods. Spilling all that Fury blood would have loosened our hold on the gods little by little, until there were only a few of us left to bind it together. Without the other Furies, there was no hope to keep them asleep.”

Nyx doesn’t even notice my shocked silence. Does she realize that she’s just answered questions I’ve had since I found out I was a Fury in a few sentences. Somehow, the Furies collectively came together to put the gods to sleep. And then Nathaniel butchered those Furies because of that power. Each sacrifice chipped away at the magic that held the gods in their sleep.

“All this time, Dolos has been hiding in plain sight. Creating the Heralds of Olympus to spread his misery as far as his tentacles can reach.” Nyx laughs, but the sound holds no joy. “He’s even tricked the gods of Olympus.”

“I wouldn’t be so sure about that,” Hades interjects. All heads turn in his direction.

“What do you mean?” Atlas asks.

“It wouldn’t surprise me if Zeus knows exactly who he is.”

“Fantastic.” I pinch the bridge of my nose and wonder how we’re going to tackle this latest problem.

Nyx turns back to me. “As revealing as this conversation has been, my dear granddaughter, why is it that you’re here?”

CHAPTER41

WREN

Nyx turns to me, her gaze assessing. “As important as all of this information has been, I think we’ve gotten sidetracked. How did you convince Hades to bring you here? The danger hasn’t disappeared for either of us.” Her tone is reproachful, but it’s directed at Hades, not me.

I glance over at the god of the Underworld and then at Atlas. I find strength in the conviction staring back at me. “It’s time to put the gods back to sleep.”

“Not all of us obviously,” Hades adds in.

“No, not all of them. But if I'm perfectly honest, I don’t feel capable of making the decision of who needs to be put to sleep.” I shake my head. “With the exception of Zeus, Hera, and Aphrodite.” I feel to the depths of my soul that those three are vile. My Fury burns just thinking about them.

“I’d suggest you add Poseidon to that list,” Atlas says.

Hades makes an agreeing sound before he adds, “And Nathaniel Rogers as well.”

As for the others, I don’t know. I thought I had a grasp on the truth of the gods. Looking over at Hades, thinking of him and Persephone, and how supportive Ares has been in his own dickish way, has thrown me for a loop. Then there’s Jasper and his kindness, and the way he spoke of his mother, Athena. He was raised in a different way from the other children of the gods.

“I always thought the rest of the world was like Zeus and Hera’s territory. That the clerics ruled everywhere, just as they do here. I’ve quickly learned that I’ve made a lot of assumptions.” Admitting that out loud rankles. No one wants to be wrong, but I don’t want to be a monster either. My Fury demands justice and putting the gods to sleep when they don’t deserve it isn’t who I am.

I pull at a loose string on my pants. Nyx places a hand over mine to stop my fidgeting.

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