The Wicked Within

appearing in his hand and lengthening into a wicked curve. His action garnered him a surprised look from Apollo and Menai, but not from Artemis. She just dipped her head in thanks.

“I’m starting to believe no one likes me,” Dora said flatly.

“No one ever did,” Artemis shot back.

“Except my maker. And you all just hated that, didn’t you? That I was Athena’s favorite? I loved her above all others! Me! And what does she do but betray my trust, betray me by offering my child in place of hers.”

“You’re mad,” Apollo said coldly. “You could not have stood against Athena, nor can you stand against us.”

Dora rolled her eyes. “Think I would come here, set all this in motion if I wasn’t protected, if I didn’t think I could win? You seem to forget the Aegis your dear sister dropped into the waves when she set her hurricanes upon this city.”

“You have Zeus’s Aegis, his shield,” Artemis said, disbelieving.

Horus cursed.

“What?” Dora glanced down at her armor. “Did you think this was just a pretty piece to wear into a battle? It is more than that. I found it. I made it better. I gave it life. I am a witch of great power, trained by Hecate and Athena alike. I took Zeus’s Aegis and stripped its Titan god skin; it is the skin that gives the shield its power, and I nurtured it, grew a tiny egg into something new in the womb of the Titan skin and the bayou. A living shield.” She laughed. “My very own shield maiden. A living, breathing Titan.”

The hell?

“Violet. Show yourself, my dear.”

The breath whooshed out of me.

I watched, horrified, as the strange breastplate withdrew from Dora like a shroud, pooling in front of the altar, growing higher and more substantial until it became Violet. Our Violet.

Dear God. Violet was a Titan?

“Now,” Dora said, “I want that child. I want it dead like mine.”

My gaze went to Violet. She’d been raised in the bayou by Dora. I couldn’t wrap my head around it, but I knew one thing: I would never let Dora lay a hand on the child in my arms. “Bring me the child,” Dora demanded, her wicked eyes locked with mine.

It was on the tip of my tongue to tell her to suck it. My anger was rising. I swallowed, holding the baby a little tighter, my hand going to the back of its soft head as it looked over my shoulder at whatever was behind me. “You’ve had your revenge, Dora,” I said, my attention flicking between her and Violet, who waited so quietly beside the altar. “It’s over. Athena’s separated from her child forever, just as you are from yours.”

Dora’s expression went shrewd. “Unless you change her back. And we can’t have that now, can we?” Her hand shot out, power surging straight for me. I covered the baby and spun as Dora’s power hit the statue of Athena square in the chest. It toppled to the sounds of her siblings’ shouts. It happened so fast. Athena crashed to the floor and shattered even as Apollo slid down to catch her. He was too late.

In disbelief, I swung around to Dora. The patient man that my father was, he’d waited for the perfect opportunity to strike. Dora was without her shield. In a flash, he grabbed Dora’s hand that held her knife, spun off the table, and was around her back, holding the knife to her throat before I could blink.

But Dora was just a fraction quicker, tracing to the front of the altar as my father went to slide the blade across her throat.

“Violet, to me,” Dora commanded.

With a solemn look my way, Violet dispersed and her darkness latched onto Dora, clutching her, this time covering her from ankle to neck and coming over her head to protect her skull and face, leaving only her eyes, nostrils, and mouth visible.

Damn it.

We couldn’t hurt Dora without hurting Violet.

High-pitched laugher filtered through the cathedral again, zipping and zinging and gathering behind Dora. More spites and vices. Great. My father shoved Kieran behind him.

“Get me that child and the gorgon,” Dora barked.

The horrors flew at me, and it was then that the full force of my predicament hit me. I had a baby in my arms. A tiny being to protect. Cradling him against my chest, I bolted down the aisle, leaping over debris, heading for the door, panic spurring me on. Almost there.

The next thing I knew Henri and Dub were there, running through the vestibule toward me, both angry and itching for a fight. “That stupid witch locked us—”

“Fight the horrors!” I yelled. “Violet is on Dora, don’t hurt her!”

They gave me incredulous, confused looks, but there wasn’t time to explain. A horror landed in front of the exit, blocking my path. I veered right. And I learned very quickly that one way to destroy Dora’s horrors was by fire. Dub came in very handy. He and Henri ran to my father and Kieran, my father using her sword against one of the spites.

Dora appeared in front of me. I slid to a stop.

“Violet,” I said, backing away, trying to get through to her as Athena’s baby sensed my panic and started to cry. “Don’t let her do this.” But Dora had raised Violet. Dora was the only mother she’d ever known. But still, I tried. “Don’t let her take this baby. Please, Violet.”

I was powerless, unable to risk turning Violet to stone along with Dora.

“Goddamn it, Vi!” Dub yelled. “Get the hell off that witch!”

Henri shouted Violet’s name too. So did Sebastian.

Dora snatched my arm in her cold grip. I knew the horrors were keeping the others busy. I was on my own. No sooner did I have that thought than Sebastian wrapped an arm around my waist. He pulled against Dora’s hold. She pulled back.

“Don’t,” he said to her in that powerful voice, the kind that could stop armies. She hesitated, his power working to slow her, but with Violet’s protection, it had very little effect otherwise.

From the corner of my eye, I saw the lioness slinking down the far side of the nave, her steady gaze on Dora. Hunting. Dora laughed at Sebastian’s attempt to reach for the baby. I pulled free. Sebastian shoved us behind him. There was a reason the Aegis had made Zeus and Athena invincible. It seemed to not only protect, but to diminish another’s power.

Dora sent Sebastian flying. He slammed into one of the columns, shearing it in half. One side of the balcony groaned and dropped a few feet, threatening to collapse.

“Ari, duck!” I shielded the baby and ducked at Menai’s warning.

Two of her arrows zipped mere inches from my head. Dora spun just in time, and they glanced off the back of her head. She hauled me up.

Damn if I was handing over the child. With every cry it made, my protective instincts increased. I wasn’t letting him go. Her hand snaked around my throat, the other grabbing on to the child.

“Violet,” I pleaded.

“She can’t betray me.”

The lioness leaped onto Dora’s back, her massive paws clutching Dora’s shoulder and her giant mouth latching onto her skull. The force sent us sprawling. My hold over the baby loosened as I stumbled over a pew, grappling to maintain my grip on the child.

Damn it. No!

As I fell, I flailed for the baby. Falcon wings swooped blazing fast over us, claws latched on to the baby as I hit the ground, the breath knocked out of me and pain shooting through my side, the place where Athena had stabbed me only two weeks earlier. I glanced down. A large wooden splinter had pierced my side.

The lioness’s brutal snarls grabbed my attention as Horus transformed from falcon to god, the baby in his arms. Relieved, I focused on Dora. She was on her back but reached for her staff and shoved it against the lioness, sending the beast sailing across the room.

Quickly I searched the ground, knowing I had to move now, before she got up. There. One of the arrows Menai had shot. I swiped it and bolted, tackling Dora to the