Rise of the Blood

potential for destruction inside of me. Despite what I’d said, I could shake the earth. Or she could, and had back at the police station.

Rhea. Could it be? Wouldn’t I have known? Or did it somehow have to do with that head-nodding from my fellow prisoner back at the jail? Was it possible I wasn’t alone in my possession? That somehow, like disaster coverage, Rhea could show on multiple screens at once? If so…if so, she could be anywhere. In anyone. And if this was like a multiplication dance where I tag three people and each of them tag three people…how long before the possession or mesmerism or whatever this was spread like an infection? I’d been worried about Zeus and Poseidon, Hermes and his addiction schemes, but an invasion from within…how did we fight that?

“Tori!” Nick snapped—literally and figuratively—in my face. “Tori, come back to us. What’s the matter?”

“Only everything.” I looked for Uncle Hector in the crowd and spotted him not far away, watching us. “I think it’s time to rally the troops,” I told him. “So far we’ve been reactive. I think it’s time we change that.” I grabbed his hand and started for Uncle Hector…Pan. That was going to take some getting used to.

“Wait,” Yiayia said with a hand to my arm that wouldn’t have stopped me if I’d been really determined to get away. “That really wasn’t you in there, was it?”

“No. I’m sorry you didn’t know that.” I took my hand back. “I really didn’t start this, any of it, but I’m going to finish it.”

“How can I help?” she asked.

I looked at her and at Fergus standing behind her. How much did he know about Yiayia’s crazy beliefs? Did it really matter?

“For now just see that all the wedding guests get back safely to the hotel.”

I turned for Uncle Hector again, to find Apollo, Althea and Junessa converging as well.

“What was that all about?” Althea asked, but it was a general question, not directed at me. The knot in my chest didn’t loosen, but I could breathe through it.

I had a horrible fear I might even know the answer, though saying it out loud seemed to somehow make it real.

I looked at everybody, weighing my words. “When Rhea was in my head she ranted about the time for the Olympians being past and about it being time for the titans. The last time I felt the earth shake like this a dragon had awakened…” from its slumber at the peak of Mount Lee in L.A. Its rise had knocked the Hollywood sign askew. “Do you think she could be awakening the titans?”

Silence met my question. I’d been hoping someone would tell me I was crazy, that the titans had died out ages ago, but I could tell from the looks on their faces that no one would be laying my fears to rest.

“Where’s Serena?” I asked Apollo, like he was her keeper.

“She’s trying to convince the firemen to rescue her purse,” he said with a grim smile. “I made sure she left it behind when I dragged her out.”

Nick and I exchanged a look. “You mean this purse?” he asked, letting it peek out from beneath his jacket.

Apollo’s eyes widened. “You couldn’t have just let it burn?”

I stared at him. Nick stared at me, and I got a sinking feeling. “You mean fire would have done the trick?”

“Maybe. Hector told me about your theory. If whatever she’s using to fuel her spell is inside, fire should have cancelled it out. It’s anathema to water.”

“Gah!” I poured my frustration into that one word, but it was inadequate for the job.

“Never mind,” Apollo said, amusement trying to twitch the petrified planes of his face into a smile. “Now that we have it, I know just what to do.”

“Good,” Nick said, handing it over. “Then it’s all yours. Goes much better with your outfit anyway.”

Althea looked over her shoulder to where clipboard guy was heading for us. “I’m supposed to be rounding you up,” she said. “Andre wants us to stick to the schedule. The fire department has things under control here, and we’re due at the Tholos for pictures.”

“But—” I said at the same time Nick said, “Tholos?”

As Althea started to explain, “Well, the guidebooks call it the Sanctuary of Athena, but really it was designed to celebrate some old military victory…” Apollo walked over to one of the glowing luminaries and passed a hand over it. The candle inside flared and started to engulf the paper. Before anyone around could react, Apollo reached into the purse and pulled out a little stick doll, an effigy, and dropped it onto the flames. Off to the side, Serena screeched, but it was too late. The little stick figure caught fire instantly, and as Andre arrived, Apollo stomped out the tiny bonfire, crushing the effigy beneath his feet. Instantly, I could see his face relax. The smile he turned in Serena’s direction was chilling.

“Come, come,” Andre said, bustling up, oblivious to everything. “We’ve got to keep to our schedule. The fire department has things well in hand here.”

As the others started to move, I said to myself, “Yes, by all means, let’s go film a movie, then stop the titans and save Greece.”

There was a sudden gasp, and my head whipped around to see that Hermes and Christie had reached us and that she’d just heard me loud and clear. I was looking straight into her widened eyes, her gaze willing me to deny what I’d said, turn it into a joke. I’d kept everything I could from Christie thus far, but she’d seen things that were hard to explain away and it was clear that all the pieces were suddenly falling into place for her.

But Andre was shepherding us toward the limos waiting back at the hotel with a nudge here and there from his clipboard. I could have avoided the accusation in her eyes if his herding hadn’t pushed me closer to Christie, who hissed quietly. “Save Greece? What’s going on? How could you not tell me?”

“I was trying to protect you.”

“You’re not my mother, and you’re not my keeper, so cut it out.”

Beside her, Hermes grinned, but it faded when she turned on him. “And you. You knew too, didn’t you? That’s why you locked Jesus and me away in that bathroom in San Francisco, isn’t it? To protect us?”

Hermes didn’t look a bit cowed in the face of her anger. “You needed protection. You don’t know what you’re dealing with.”

“What about you? You didn’t need protection?”

Hermes met my gaze, and I bit my lip, not willing to lie to Christie anymore and not quite ready to rock her world.

“No, I didn’t.”

Christie waited, trying to dig in her heels but being pushed along by the crowd.

The ground shook again, like an aftershock, and we all grabbed each other to steady ourselves. I felt something pass to Christie when she gripped me, an electric shock that arched between us, zapping us both. She looked at me, startled, and then Andre pushed us on, talking into his Bluetooth. “But the Tholos is still standing? The quake didn’t— No, no, you tell them it’s already been approved. The tremor is over, and we have insurance. What we don’t have is a lot of time in the production schedule. Yes, ten, twenty minutes. Make sure it’s all ready.”

“Do you feel all right?” I asked Christie, worried about that zap.

“Perfect,” she answered. It was too serene to be reassuring. She should still be angry at me. Or hurt. But she sounded strangely calm now. I thought about my fellow prisoner back at the jail and started to pull away, to try to drop to the back of the group. What if I was like patient zero, spreading Rhea’s infection? What if Christie’s calm was every bit as unnatural as it seemed?

But Andre pushed me again and nothing happened this time but an overwhelming urge to deck him, which I was pretty certain was all mine.

Back in the hotel parking lot, the makeup staff waited to touch us up as Andre directed us toward our limos, all the better to drive to the Tholos and the stunning vistas with the Delphi temple complex in the background. They could do remarkable things in post-production now, including, I hoped, smooth over any still-smoking or singed wedding finery. I envied the regular guests who got to stay behind at the hotel and drink away the horror of the wedding chapel going up in flames during the cocktail hour. I just hoped the shoot would go more smoothly than the wedding and that when we returned the bride and groom would make a triumphant entrance and put all