Chapter 426: When the seasons change 2
FIA
Athena’s eyes brightened. Sothing fierce and alive flickered behind that ancient exhaustion.
"That’s good. Anger is good." She stepped toward
again, close enough that I could see the gold flecks in her dark eyes that matched mine exactly. "Hold onto it like a lifeline."
She reached out slowly, like she was afraid I might disappear if she moved too quickly. Her fingers didn’t quite touch my arm, hovering just above my skin.
"Valentine Blossom is part of the reason why I couldn’t live a fulfilled life and raise my own daughter right. The reason I couldn’t be there for my grandchild. For you."
The words ca out asured, each one weighted with decades of pain that had never found proper release.
"There were others too. Pauline Strati and her dented husband. But those are sins of old."
Her hand dropped away.
"New sins however deserve punishnt. If Valentine intends to repeat a cruel history I died for and Muna escaped to prevent for your sake, then we have to take it upon ourselves to protect the innocents of the future."
My hand moved to my stomach without conscious thought. The gesture felt automatic now, protective in a way I hadn’t fully understood before this mont.
Athena’s gaze followed the movent.
"That’s why you instinctively called
to this space."
She said it like a conclusion reached after long deliberation. Like she’d been watching
since the mont I’d pulled her here and had only now figured out the why of it.
"You inherited the light from Muna. But not the darkness."
The statent should have felt like an accusation. Instead it landed like simple observation, a fact stated without judgnt.
"Healing and foresight won’t help you where you wake up."
She smiled then. The expression transford her face completely, made her look like the woman she might have been if Valentine hadn’t gotten his hands on her first.
"What will?"
I needed to know. Needed to understand what she thought I could possibly do against everything waiting for
on the other side of this conversation.
Athena held out her hands, palms up. As I watched, light began to gather in them. Not the warm blue glow that ca when I healed, but sothing cooler. Silver and ethereal, like moonlight made solid.
"For my great grandchild, I gift you this, granddaughter."
She opened her left hand first. An olive branch materialized there, small and perfect, each leaf catching the strange light in this space and reflecting it back brighter.
"The gift of small miracles."
Then her right hand opened. A garnet stone sat in her palm, deep red and gleaming like fresh blood.
"And we can’t forget... the red."
I stared at the objects in her hands. They felt significant in a way I couldn’t quite articulate, like symbols of sothing larger than their physical forms suggested.
"What is that?"
The question ca out quieter than I’d intended.
Athena’s smile widened.
"There are divinely appointed seasons for the mortal experience." She stepped closer, close enough that I could sll sothing floral on her, jasmine maybe. "As Selene’s own maiden, you should know. There’s a ti to heal and a ti to..."
My hand closed around the garnet stone before she could finish. The weight of it felt right, felt like sothing I’d been searching for without knowing what I needed to find.
"A ti to kill."
The words left my mouth with certainty. With the kind of clarity that ca from finally understanding what had been missing from every plan I’d tried to make, every attempt to escape or fight back that had failed because I’d been trying to win a war with the wrong weapons.
Athena’s expression went radiant.
"The goddess promised
this day would co. Justice."
She was starting to fade now. I could see the wall behind her through her chest, could watch as she beca more transparent with each word.
"So get us all that." Her voice stayed strong even as her form weakened. "Show Valentine he’s nothing but a small minded mortal at the end of the day."
The olive branch and garnet stone began to sink into my palms. It was not painful in any way and if anything, it felt as if they were becoming part of , like they’d always belonged there and were finally returning ho.
Athena’s smile turned sharp as she slowly disappeared.
"Destroy. Everything. Granddaughter."
Then she was gone.
The cell around
began to crack. Not violently, but like ice breaking up in spring, pieces of it falling away to reveal sothing underneath. Light, bright and insistent, leaked through the fractures.
I could feel my body now. The real one, wherever it was. Could feel pain returning in waves, could taste blood in my mouth and sll sothing chemical and wrong.
The garnet stone pulsed once against my palm.
I understood then what Athena had given . Not just power, but permission. Permission to stop trying to heal what couldn’t be fixed, to stop offering rcy to people who had never once shown it to anyone else.
Valentine wanted to repeat history. Wanted to take
and do to
and my child what he’d done to Athena and Muna, what he’d done to countless others in his endless pursuit of whatever perfect creation lived in his head.
But I wasn’t Athena. I hadn’t been broken by years of captivity, hadn’t had my will stripped away piece by piece until nothing remained except what he’d put there.
And I wasn’t going to let him write that ending for .
The light grew brighter, swallowing the last remnants of the cell.
I held onto the anger Athena had told
to keep. Held onto it like the lifeline she’d promised it would be.
Then I let the light take , and sowhere in the distance I heard my own heartbeat. Slow at first, then stronger. Then steady.
I was waking up.
And when I did, Valentine was going to learn exactly what happened when you pushed a blessed werewolf too far.
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