The temple trembled with every breath.
Silver lines burned across the floor, threading outward from my bare feet like roots cracking through a brittle world. The do above was etched with constellations that had no na, and they spun slowly, responding to the rise of my energy. It was a symphony—one only gods could hear. And now, it answered .
I stood in the center of it all, arms outstretched, power coiling around like the wind of a forgotten storm.
The glyphs on the walls surged to life. Light poured from the ceiling in cascading ribbons, wrapping around my body. Magic flowed into my bones, sharp and endless. It felt like touching the stars with my soul.
I felt infinite.
Until I didn’t.
A flicker.
A tremor.
The light faltered.
Then—scread.
I gasped as fire exploded behind my eyes. My knees buckled. A jolt of agony ripped through my spine, burning down to my fingertips.
Sothing was wrong.
"NO—!"
The power twisted inside , turning to shards. I fell to the ground with a cry, clawing as if it could anchor to myself. But the light no longer welcod . It turned violent, unforgiving.
It was trying to tear apart.
The temple trembled—no, it recoiled.
My scream echoed off the celestial walls, raw and animal. My vision blurred with pain. My veins lit like fire.
Then ca the voice.
Soft.
Feminine.
Terrible.
"You were never ant to reclaim it this way."
I turned my head, panting, my body shivering from the force trying to rip it apart. A figure stood in the mist—a woman cloaked in robes darker than the void between stars. Her face was obscured by a silver veil.
She wasn’t even kind.
"Who are you?" I hissed.
She stepped forward. The floor did not crack beneath her feet. It obeyed.
"One who knows what you were... and what you lost."
My mouth tasted like blood. "I’m taking it back."
"You seek to rise," she said, "but without sacrifice. Without passage. You think what you did is enough to claim divinity again?"
"I am divinity."
She tilted her head. "Then why are you breaking?"
I tried to stand. My legs gave out. The power was turning to acid in my chest. My own magic rebelled against .
I scread again as the power surged upward in a violent surge. My back arched, and for a mont—I thought I was dying.
No, worse.
I thought I was being unmade.
Her voice dropped into my ear, impossibly close.
"Now you will be marked."
My chest burned.
White-hot pain seared over my heart. I choked, slamming my fists against the ground, but the pain didn’t stop.
A symbol—twisting, ancient, divine—was etched into , drawn with magic I didn’t recognize.
She stepped back. "Until the price is fulfilled, your power will remain locked."
"What... price?" I gasped.
But the shadows closed.
The temple walls shuddered one last ti. Then shattered into silver ash.
And I fell.
Down.
Down.
When I opened my eyes, I was lying on cold stone, the stars gone, the air thin and unfamiliar.
Not the temple.
Not the gods’ realm.
I was in a ruin—one I didn’t recognize. My hand trembled as I reached for power.
Nothing answered.
I tried again.
Nothing.
I sat up, panic scraping through my ribs. "No," I whispered. "No—no—no—"
The rune on my chest glowed faintly through my tunic. A dull throb echoed from it, pulsing like a wound.
I was cut off.
Nothing.
The weight of it crushed . After everything. After reclaiming who I was. It had all been ripped away again.
I don’t know how long I sat there.
The wind whispered through the broken stones, and my fingers curled into fists over my knees. My body ached. My soul burned. But I did not cry.
If there was a price...
I would find it.
And when my power cos back—
I will bring every god who betrayed to their knees.
Even if it kills .
I was still on my knees when he appeared.
One mont the ruins were empty, filled only with the echo of wind and my rattling breath—and the next, I felt a presence behind , warm and familiar like a mory I hadn’t chosen to keep. My spine stiffened. Lucas.
I clenched my fists, the rune on my chest pulsing with a dull ache as I slowly rose to my feet.
"How?" I said, voice low, too controlled. "How are you here?"
He didn’t answer at first. Just stood a few feet behind , shadows wrapping around him like reluctant veils. His cloak was torn. His jaw set. There was dirt on his face, and sothing wilder in his eyes than I’d ever seen before.
"We don’t have ti for this," he said, stepping toward . "We need to go. Now."
I stared at him.
"No."
His brows furrowed. "Athena—"
"No." I stepped back. "You don’t get to show up like this. You don’t get to say we need to go without telling where you ca from and how you found ."
He swallowed hard but didn’t speak.
"You know sothing," I whispered, the anger starting to rise. "Don’t you?"
Lucas’s jaw clenched.
"Answer !" I scread.
The wind whipped between us, stirring ash and broken stone. The air tasted like betrayal, bitter and sharp. My body trembled—not with fear, but fury. The kind I could no longer suppress.. Not when the last thing holding together had just been torn from .
"I’m trying to protect you," Lucas said, finally eting my eyes. "I didn’t co to fight. I ca to get you out of here."
"Oh, that again?" I spat. "Like you protected when you handed over to the king? Like you protected Lira when you let her be bound by a false father? Or maybe you an like how you’ve been protecting by lying at every turn?"
He flinched.
"I can’t explain right now," he said. "But if we stay here, sothing worse is coming. This place isn’t stable. The other gods might find out that you’re weak now."
My vision tunneled.
"So you knew?" I whispered. "You knew I’d lose my power here?"
"I couldn’t stop you," he murmured, voice hoarse. "Even if I tried. And I knew you wouldn’t trust ."
"You’re damn right I don’t trust you!"
A gust of raw energy burst from my body, full of rage. It cracked the ground between us. Lucas didn’t move, but I saw the strain in his posture, the way his fingers flexed at his sides, ready to catch if I fell again.
I hated that.
"I begged you," I said, voice breaking. "I begged you not to lie to again. And still, you do. Over and over."
Lucas stepped forward slowly, eyes soft. "Athena, I swear to you—this isn’t like before. I didn’t plan for this. I didn’t want—"
"You’re still hiding things from ," I hissed.
He looked away.
I stepped closer, face inches from his. "Look at . Look in the eye and tell everything right now."
He opened his mouth.
And closed it.
That was it.
That silence shattered sothing in .
I shoved him. "Coward!"
He didn’t move. Didn’t retaliate. He just stood there and took it, as if this was the punishnt he expected.
"I think you don’t know what you’re walking into," he snapped finally, his voice rising to et mine. "I think if I told you everything, you’d do sothing reckless. And I’m not going to risk that again."
I laughed bitterly. "Again?"
"Yes!" he exploded.
My breath caught.
"Athena, you weren’t supposed to go through the Fla Gate alone," he said, pacing now. "There’s a process. A balance. If you claim too much at once without... without the offering—"
He froze.
I pounced on the word. "Offering? What offering?"
Lucas cursed under his breath and turned away, dragging his hands down his face.
"What offering, Lucas?"
He didn’t answer.
I surged forward and grabbed his arm, spinning him back toward . "WHAT OFFERING?!"
Lucas looked devastated.
"She didn’t tell you," he whispered.
"The one who stripped of my powers?" I demanded.
He didn’t answer.
I shoved him again. "WHO?"
"She was ant to guide you through the reclamation—but only if the conditions were t."
I stared at him, my blood roaring.
"What conditions?" I asked slowly, deliberately.
Lucas looked sick. "I’m sorry, I can’t. It’s for your own good. I stepped back from him, suddenly too tired to speak. Too angry to think.
"Don’t you see?" My voice cracked. "Everything that’s happened to —everything—has been because of other people deciding what I needed to know. What I was ready to hear. What I could survive. And it never stopped from being ripped apart, did it? I died anyway. I shattered anyway. And now here I am, still clawing my way through lies."
Lucas reached for . I recoiled.
He let his hand fall.
The silence stretched between us, thick and ugly.
"I can’t tell you everything," he whispered. "But for now, we don’t have ti. I ca through a fractured path to find you. It’s closing. And if we don’t leave now, we’ll both be trapped here.
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