“Use the gun,” Oliver said, drawing my attention back to him. There was no trace of fear in his voice. Killing Echidna would probably send her children into chaos, and we could use that to get away.
I tried to make my shrug nonchalant, but the way I was still trembling ruined the effect. “Lost it, I’m afraid.”
“A gun would not harm me,” Echidna told Oliver. He snarled and tried to run at her, but the winged creature held him fast.
As he went still again, I caught several of the females around us giving Oliver appreciative looks. Frowning, I refocused on my best friend, and that was when I noticed how his white shirt clung to every plane of smooth skin and ridge of muscle. Fury blazed in his eyes and the tension in his body promised violence.
Possession clanged through me, loud and jarring as a bell.
Ollie was mine.
There was a dog-like creature near me—I saw Cerberus in its hunched shape, lips curled back to reveal the flames burning inside it—and it snarled. I resisted the ridiculous urge to snarl back. I swung around, facing Echidna again.
“You’re here to guard the memory, right?” I demanded. Her eyes glittered, and that seemed to be the only response I’d get. I ignored the fear pounding in my throat and went on, “I am the one who asked you to protect it. Thank you for your diligence. But… I’m finally ready to remember again. I need you to let me pass, and let my friend go.”
It felt like the entire underground city fell silent.
“I will free him,” Echidna declared at last, and I struggled not to show my rush of relief. Then she added, “In exchange for three truths.”
I didn’t hesitate. Impatience leaked into my voice as I answered, speaking over Oliver, “Fine. Yes. Deal.”
“Very well. Here is my first question. Why does it matter so much to you, reaching this memory?” the goddess asked. I opened my mouth the second she was finished, but Echidna held up a long finger, stopping me from blurting the answer forming in my head. “Ah, ah. We will know if you lie. If you lie, I will kill your heart.”
My heart? I started to question her, but I figured it out on my own. Oliver. She meant Oliver.
“I…” My throat had dried from the heat of my fear and rage. I wanted to kill this bitch on the spot for threatening him. I swallowed, knowing the only way to get Oliver back safely was just to play her game. But I hadn’t admitted, even to myself, the true answer to this question.
“Talk to me,” Oliver said suddenly.
Frowning, I tore my gaze away from Echidna. “What?”
“Don’t look at her. Look at me. Tell me why it’s so important to you,” Oliver urged softly. The stillness in the cavern was so absolute that his voice floated down to my ears, even with the distance between us.
It felt like there was a small army in my stomach, shouting and fighting and stomping. Breathing raggedly, I stared into Oliver’s blue eyes. He smiled as if we were the only two people in the room.
“There’s more than one reason,” I said, holding onto that image—the two of us alone, facing each other on an ice-slickened staircase made of black rock. I swallowed and continued, “The biggest one, though, is that I just wanted to see more of them. My parents. I loved them more than anything else in this world, and even seeing them in a flashback was better than not seeing them at all. And I felt guilty that I’d let myself forget what they looked like.”
Another image flashed in my mind. Kneeling over my mother’s body, moonlight from the other end of the hallway making the pale bones of her rib cage gleam. Whenever I tried to remember their faces, that was what I saw.
“Second question,” Echidna announced, startling me and Oliver. Still using that matter-of-fact tone, the goddess pointed at him and asked, “Do you want to fuck this pretty male?”
“Wh-why would you want to know that?” I stammered.
One corner of her mouth tipped up in a wry smile. You know why, that smile said. Because this creature had been designed to hurt me. Drive me away. Stand between me and this memory by any means, including emotional warfare. And with every second that passed, I was losing.
“Yes,” I ground out. I kept my gaze on Echidna to avoid Oliver’s reaction, but my face was on fire.
“Last question,” the Mother of Monsters purred. I waited, showing no expression. Somewhere nearby, a dripping sound echoed. Then Echidna tossed down her final challenge, her words joining with the dark. “What are you most afraid of?”
I almost smiled.
The answer to this one was easy. If she’d thought to trick or shame me, Echidna had gravely miscalculated. I met the female’s gaze, feeling as cold as the ice beneath my feet. I didn’t flinch as I said, “Myself.”
Displeasure spread across the goddess’s face, and silence fell like an ax. Echidna’s slitted eyes bored into mine as if she were searching for something. She thought I would lie, I realized, watching her.
Then, moving faster than my eyes could track, Echidna surged down the stairs. She shoved me, hard, and I went flipping into darkness—there had been a hole next to the place I’d been standing. A huge hole hidden by shadow. The shrieks and roars of Echidna’s children followed me down.
As I hurtled toward the glassy lake, I registered that a bright-haired figure was falling beside me. Ollie.
Then we were hitting the water again. Sinking down again. Kicking to air again. When my head broke the surface, it was quiet, those terrible noises nothing more than a bad dream. Oliver and I moved close to each other, but neither of us spoke. Our movements were soundless and urgent.
This time, nothing came from above or below as we headed for the other side of the cavern. Within a minute Oliver and I dragged ourselves up the slanted shore, our chests heaving. The backpack against me felt like it weighed a hundred pounds.
Once I was able to lift my head, I instantly discovered the source of the light we’d seen.
It was the strangest, most haunting tree grove I’d ever seen. Gold glittered everywhere I looked. The bark of every trunk we passed was so solid-looking, so brightly gleaming, that I wondered if they were actually made of gold. The honeyed hue was only enhanced by the layer of snow that also draped over everything.
“Wow,” Oliver murmured at last. “Your head is a beautiful place, Fortuna Sworn.”
“Thanks, I think,” I murmured back. I didn’t even remember the moment we’d started walking.
Then it rose up in front of us like one of the giants. It was the only tree in the grove that wasn’t gold. There wasn’t a single speck of it along the ground, leaves, or branches. There was no snow along its branches, either, as if this eerie thing didn’t adhere to the rules of dreams.
It was the same tree I’d dreamed about, while I was human, and the one Oliver had already led me to within the dreamscape. It was identical to the other one we’d seen in almost every way—the twisted branches, the gnarled bark.
But there was one detail that was vastly different.
Standing around the tree, gently aglow from a mermaid lamp, were walls. Two pink walls with furniture propped up against them. I hadn’t laid eyes on it in years, but I recognized the place instantly.
It all looked like the set of some strange, fairy tale play.
Frost and snow glittered behind my childhood bedroom. There were three figures, one sitting upright in the bed, her spine leaning against the headboard, and the other two perched on the edge of the mattress. Once again, I realized I was looking at my younger self. My arm was in a cast. I’d broken it, I remembered suddenly. I’d tumbled out of that huge tree and hit the ground too hard. Thankfully, I hadn’t had to wear the cast long, due to my Fallen blood.