daughter. And you never even seemed to mind.”
“I belonged in Hell as much as I belonged here. My place was as Queen of the Underworld.”
“Your place was here with me.” She moves back, and her eyes bulge out of her head. They aren’t focused on me. They don’t focus on anything. There’s sweat beading down her face, catching in her hair. “With your mother. Not off in some godsforsaken place damning souls for eternity. You should have been among the living. Not wandering around underground with no one to keep you company but ghosts.”
“I had Shayne.” And I want Shayne now.
My mom raises her eyebrows. “Yes, you had Shayne. But that’s hardly a reason to spend half the year away from your mother.”
“Was he really that bad, Mom? Couldn’t you have just tried to get along?”
My mom stops cutting since all the leaves are gone. “Of course he was that bad. He couldn’t stand to be around me. He was rude to me and arrogant. He showed me absolutely no respect.”
My mouth falls open. I can’t believe she’s saying this. “But he was good to me. And I loved him.”
My mom throws down the scissors, smashing them into the ground. “Good to you? He took you away from me.” Overhead, the glass creaks again, and then the branch is too much. An entire section of the roof comes down off to my right raining glass in a glittering shower.
“Yes, he took me away from you, but he treated me like a queen.”
My mom doesn’t even seem to notice the roof. “So what? Any god could do that.”
My mind flashes to Reese, but I push him aside. I don’t need him coming into this conversation.
“I didn’t want any god. I wanted Shayne. But you ruined all that.” I dig my fingers into the soil of a nearby plant and grab a clump, smashing it in my fist. “You ruined everything. You’re selfish, Mom. You’ve always been nothing but selfish. But let me tell you something. I’m grown up now. I make my own decisions. I will not be under your control any longer. You don’t own me.”
She meets my eyes then, and we hold them there. Her gaze bores into me, but I maintain the hold, not wanting to look away. Refusing to back down.
“You will obey me, Piper.” Each word comes out slowly. Methodically. Like she’s making a plan even as she says it.
I shake my head. “No, I won’t.”
“You will go upstairs and pack your things. We’re leaving. Right now. We’ll hide, and no one will find us again.”
“No.”
She moves to me to grab my wrist, but I’m faster. I grab hers instead. I clench as tight as I can, hard enough to break it if she were mortal.
“Do you dare to defy your mother? Are you forgetting who I am?”
I grab tighter, holding until I feel the pulse in her arm. “Who?”
My mother stands a little taller. “I am a goddess.”
I let go of her hand, thrusting it down to her side. “And so am I.”
She stares at me, her mouth opening, but nothing comes out. Around us, the wind from the storm whips through the hole in the roof.
“Mom, do you know what the punishment for killing a phoenix is?”
My mom looks down, picking up the bucket of water by her feet. It’s left a wet ring on the tile and drips when she raises it.
“It’s life in Tartarus, Mom. Did you know that?”
She nods, still looking down.
I think about my visit to Tartarus. My horrible meal with Aeacus, Tantalus, and Pirithous. A meal that might have been my last. “Have you ever been to Tartarus?”
My mom lets out a bark of a laugh, but it’s laced with fear. “Of course not.”
“It’s the most horrible place imaginable. Even worse, in fact. I’ve been there—as Piper. I should send you there myself. But even after everything you’ve done, I will never let you end up there.”
The bucket of water falls, and I realize my mom is crying. I stand there, holding my resolve, but her crying tears at my heart. I try to be strong. I try to stay angry. But when I can’t listen any longer, I move to her and catch her in a hug.
“I only did what I thought best for you, Piper. Best for us.”
She’s shaking under me. “Well, you screwed up, Mom. And now everything’s falling apart.”
She stops crying and pulls back to look at me. “I can get help.” Her eyes are wide as if she believes the statement. “I can get Apate to help. She’ll know what to do.”
I stare at her, trying to keep my eyes impassive. “Mom, you can’t trust the goddess of deceit.”
But she nods her head. “Yes, Piper. I can. She helped me before. With you. I never intended to go through with my end of the bargain. I wasn’t going to lose you again. So we came up with the idea of the box. To hide you from Hades and Ares.”
I throw up my hands. “The box! How could you ever think that was a good idea?” The image of the box flashes in my mind, and I get the overwhelming urge to smash it against the wall.
My mom grabs my hands. “It kept you hidden from the gods for eighteen years. Until you opened it.” Her eyes narrow. “Which you never should have been allowed to do.”
“But I did, Mom. Don’t you see? Apate tricked you. You thought you could tuck away your secrets forever. But she tricked you, and I opened it.”
My mom shakes her head. “No. There must have been some weakness. Apate swore to me it would work. We’ll get her help now. Get away from here. No one will ever know.”
I tear my hands away from hers and meet her wide eyes with a cold stare. “But I know, Mom. And I have no intention of ever being part of your games again.”
My mom walks closer to me, but I don’t want her sympathy. I don’t want anything from her.
“I was just trying to help,” she says. “When Ares came to me with the idea—”
My eyes nearly pop out of my head. “Ares! He came to you?”
My mom nods. “Of course. I never would have known about the power of the phoenix sacrifice if not for him. He was the one I made the bargain with in the first place.”
Something clicks far in the back of my mind, but it’s nearly silent.
“Ares told you about the phoenix?” My heart has started beating like a drum, pounding so hard I’m sure it’ll come out of my chest.
“Ares came up with the idea. We planned it all out. But nobody could be told. Not your father. Not Hades. And certainly not you. Everything had to be just perfect.”
Ares knew about the phoenix. It was his idea.
“What happened?” I’m trying to stay calm, but something is building inside me, trying to come out.
My mom pulls off her gloves and tosses then on a plant stand. “We waited until you were due home. And when Hermes brought you back, we acted. We took you to Phoenicia, to the Well of the Phoenix.”
“I fought you.” I remember this like it was yesterday. Standing by the well. Being forced to drink from the water. And flames. Lots and lots of flames.
My mom nods. “Yes, you fought. But Ares managed to control you. He has this way of calming people. Getting them to do what he wants.”
It settles on me; I know only too well about Reese’s power. It’s the power that overcomes me every time he’s near. “He drugged me.”
My mom shrugs. “Drugs. Power. Call it what you want. We needed your cooperation.”
How my mother could be a part of her own daughter’s abduction and drugging and death is beyond me. “I drank the water. And there was fire.”
“Yes, Piper.”
She moves toward me and reaches out, but I slap her hand away. This is not my mother. She’s a demon in the body of my mother.
My mom lowers her hand. “Ares killed the phoenix, then. It had to be done just right. With flames and a knife made of pure gold. Hephaestus himself crafted it, though he had no idea why.”
“Reese killed the phoenix?” I say.
