Diana snapped the lasso tight, and for a moment, its fibers seemed to glow in the dim light of the church. Jason stumbled but kept his footing, thrashing at the end of the rope like a fish on a line. Despite what she’d seen on the jet, the reality of his strength still came as a shock.
“Diana!” Alia yelped.
“Oh dang,” said Theo.
“What is that thing made of?” said Nim.
Diana ignored them. “Who are you?” she demanded. “What are you?”
“I’m exactly who I said I am,” Jason said through gritted teeth.
“How did you catch hold of the jet’s wing at those speeds? How did you hang on? What are you, Jason Keralis? Speak.”
Jason gave an angry growl, his muscles flexing, the tendons in his neck drawn taut. But he was no match for the lasso’s power.
“What’s happening to him?” Theo asked, a frantic edge to his voice. “What are you doing?”
“He’s fine,” said Diana, though she wasn’t entirely sure that was so. “The lasso compels the truth.”
Jason grimaced. “I am a descendant of Helen and Menelaus, just as Alia is.”
Of course he was—he was Alia’s brother—but that didn’t account for his abilities. “Another Warbringer?”
“Something…else.” He spoke the words as if they were being torn from him. “I carry hero’s blood. The blood of Menelaus and the Spartan kings before him. My mother and father helped me keep my strength secret.”
“Why didn’t you tell us?” Alia said. Diana could sense the worry she had for her brother, but the hurt in her voice was clear, too.
“Mom and Dad didn’t want anyone to know,” said Jason. “It was dangerous for all of us.”
“You held back when we fought at the hotel,” Diana said as realization dawned.
“I’ve been holding back my whole life,” Jason snarled. “Now get this thing off me.”
“Let him go,” Alia said. “This is wrong.”
Diana narrowed her eyes but let the rope slacken.
Jason pulled it over his head, casting the lasso away from him like a snake. “What the hell is that thing?”
Diana yanked the lasso back. “A necessity in the World of Man. You’ve been lying this whole time. To all of us.”
“And you’ve been so forthcoming?” He pointed an accusing finger at her. “You come out of nowhere. You shrug off bullet wounds like they’re paper cuts. You can outfight my best security guards.”
“I’ve made no attempt to hide my gifts,” Diana replied. “The secrets I protect do not just belong to me.”
“You think that lets you off the hook?” Jason made a sound of disgust and stalked through the chapel door. He looked back once over his shoulder. “If you want the truth so damn much, maybe you should think about offering it in return.” He vanished into the dusk.
Alia moved to follow, but Theo laid a hand on her shoulder. “Maybe give him a minute. If there’s one thing Jason hates, it’s feeling out of control.”
“You shouldn’t have done that,” Alia said to Diana. “You shouldn’t have used that thing on him.”
Diana coiled the rope at her hip, using the time to quell some of her anger. Alia was right. Maybe Jason was right, too. But he was also a hypocrite. The whole time he’d been badgering her for information, he’d been keeping his strength a secret.
“Well,” said Theo into the silence. “I guess now I know why he always wrecked me at basketball.”
Alia cast him a skeptical glance. “I’ve seen you play basketball, Theo. He beat you because you’re terrible.”
With great dignity, Theo stated, “I’m good on the fundamentals.”
Nim hooted. “And I’m the queen of the Netherlands.” She glanced in the direction Jason had gone. “It kind of makes sense, though. Alia, has Jason ever been sick a day in his life?”
Alia shook her head slowly. “No. Never missed a day of school. Never took a day off work. I thought he was just…I don’t know, Jason being Jason. Like a cold wouldn’t dare be caught by him.”
“Also, his sweat smells like pinecones,” said Nim.
Alia’s gaze snapped to her. “What?”
Nim blushed and shrugged. “Why do you think I liked his dirty T-shirts so much? He smells like a sexy forest.”
Jason did have a pleasing scent. Almost better than new car. But Diana didn’t intend to discuss it.
Alia gagged. “You’re disgusting.”
“I’m honest,” Nim said with a sniff.
“Well, there’s no way I’m going to stop giving him crap about his cologne,” said Theo.
It was almost fully dark now. Diana sighed. “It would be best if Jason didn’t stray far.”
“I’ll go,” Theo said.
“Great idea,” said Nim. “Maybe you can find a ditch to fall into.”
Alia pulled the parachute-tracking screen from her pocket. “Here,” she said, handing it to Theo. “The screen is pretty bright. You can use it as a flashlight.”
“I wish I could use it as a sandwich. Next time we throw ourselves out of a plane, remind me to grab a bag of pretzels.”
Alia pointed toward the grove. “We have olives and also olives.”
“Maybe we can cook and eat Nim,” he grumbled as he headed out the door.
Nim ran a hand through her black hair. “I would be delicious.”
Diana considered offering to go after Jason instead of Theo, but she knew she wasn’t quite ready to apologize, and she doubted he was ready to hear it. Besides, someone needed to remain with Alia.
At least there was one apology she could make and mean. “I’m sorry I lost my temper,” she said quietly.
Alia blew out a long breath. “I’m mad at him, too,” she said. “I’m just so glad he’s alive, I’m having trouble staying mad.”
Maybe that was part of what Diana resented, that horrible moment of watching Jason vanish, of believing he’d been lost for good. She thought of the soldiers they’d left behind on the jet, of Gemma Rutledge, someone she’d never met, a blond girl in a party dress lying dead beside Nim. She thought of Ben’s chest pocked by bullet holes. She’d never known someone who had died. She’d barely known Ben, and yet she felt the weight of loss pressing down on her, all that courage and easy humor gone forever. Jason was right. Death was too easy here.
They bedded down against the cold, packed earth. Eventually, Theo returned with word that Jason would take the first watch.
“Let him sulk,” he said with a shrug, curling onto his side a short distance from Nim and Alia.
Diana wasn’t quite ready to trust Theo. Once the others were breathing deeply, she slipped out of the chapel and crept silently through the trees and underbrush until she spotted Jason’s shape in the dark. His back was to her, his head tilted up at the stars. He looked like a figure carved in stone, a statue of a hero, still standing as everything around him fell to ruin. Or maybe just a lonely boy keeping watch with the stars. What had it been like for him to hide the truth of himself even from his best friend, his sister?
Diana didn’t ask. Without a sound, she turned and made her way back to the chapel. She lay down beside Alia and let herself fall into a deep, dreamless sleep.
Jason woke her sometime after midnight. He said nothing, and wordlessly, Diana left to take up the watch as he bedded down on the chapel floor.
The hours passed slowly with nothing but her thoughts and the ceaseless buzz of the cicadas to keep her company, but at last the sky began to brighten, and gray dawn light spilled across the grove below. Diana made her way back to the chapel, eager to begin the day’s journey. She pushed open the decaying door and saw Alia sleeping peacefully on her side, Jason on his back, brow creased as if expressing disapproval even in his dreams.
And Nim crouched on top of Theo, her hands locked around his throat. Theo was clawing at her arms, his face red with suffused blood.
“Nim!” she shouted.
The girl turned her head, but the thing looking back at her was not Nim. Her eyes were hollows, her hair a mane of star-strewn night, and from her back sprang the filthy black wings of a vulture. The image flickered and was gone.
Diana launched herself at Nim, knocking her off Theo and rolling with her over the chapel floor.
“What’s going on?” Jason said blearily as he and Alia came awake.
But Theo was already shoving to his feet, coughing and gasping. He roared and rushed at Diana and Nim.
In a heartbeat, Jason leapt up and seized Theo’s arms, holding him back. “Stop!” he commanded. “Stop it.”
Theo thrashed in his grip. “I’ll kill that little bitch—”
“You should have died in the crash!” shouted Nim, hissing and spitting as Diana attempted to restrain her without hurting her. “You shouldn’t even be here! You’re as worthless as your father says!”
Theo snarled. “Fat, ugly, stupid co—”
Jason snagged Theo’s jaw in his hands and clamped it shut, silencing him forcibly. “Shut your damned mouth, Theo.”
Diana hauled Nim off her feet and slung her over her shoulder, hearing the breath go out of the tiny girl in a disgruntled whuff. At least she couldn’t keep shouting insults. But Nim did not cease her snarling and struggling until they were several hundred yards away in a stand of cypress trees.
Diana dumped her onto the scraggly grass.
“Nim,” said Alia, coming up behind them. “What the hell?”
“I…” Nim panted. “I…” She unballed her fists, a look of horror dawning on her face. Her shoulders slumped, and she burst into tears. “I wanted to kill him. I tried to kill him.”
Alia met Diana’s gaze. “It’s getting worse, isn’t it?”
Diana nodded. Maybe the terror of the past few days had made Theo and Nim more susceptible to Alia’s power, or maybe it was simply the coming of the new moon. Only one thing was certain: They were running out of time.
“We have to find some way to keep them separated,” said Alia.
“You’re not leaving me here,” Nim said, wiping the tears from her eyes.
Alia offered her a hand. “That wasn’t what I was suggesting, you nerd. But we have to do something before you guys murder each other.”
“We’ll just have to try to keep them apart as much as possible,” said Diana.
“Being near you helps,” Nim said.
Alia’s brows rose. “Are you saying that because you enjoy being carried like a sack of flour by a cute girl?”
Nim planted her hands on her hips. “I’m serious. As soon as she separated me from Theo, I could feel my mind start to clear. It just took a little while for the rest of me to catch up.”
“It’s possible,” said Diana. “Remember how you were healthier when you were near me on the island?”
“Okay,” said Alia. “But we have to watch them. I’m not going to be responsible for my friends killing—”
Diana caught a flicker of movement from the olive grove below. “Silence,” she whispered.
There were dark shapes moving through the trees. They were still far enough away that Diana could just make them out, but they were drawing closer, and Diana could only whisper a prayer of thanks that they hadn’t overheard her conversation with Alia and Nim. She needed to be more cautious. They all did.
Diana gestured for Alia and Nim to follow, and as quietly as they could, they traced their steps back to the chapel.
“Maybe they’re not looking for us?” Nim murmured.
“Yeah,” whispered Alia. “They’re probably going to use those guns to shoot the olives off the trees.”
Theo and Jason were seated near the entry. Theo’s eyes narrowed as they drew closer, but Diana laid a hand on his shoulder and some of the tension in his body seemed to ease.
“There are armed men approaching the chapel,” she said.
Jason was on his feet instantly. “Damn it,” he said. “We need to get out of here.”
“We need a car,” said Alia.
Jason shook his head. “What if they’re watching the roads?”
“He’s right,” said Diana. “They may even have set up roadblocks. We’d be better off continuing on foot until we can get farther from the crash site.”
They did their best to hide the evidence of the night they’d spent in the chapel and hurried down the south slope of the hill, keeping away from the main highway, scurrying over fields that offered little cover, through orchards where they plucked their breakfast from the trees, and past a scrubby pasture where a scrawny goat bleated furiously at them as they passed. In a small backyard, they found a clothesline strung with damp laundry, and Nim and Theo exchanged their Keralis Labs shirts for a linen undershirt and a bright-blue button-down.
The previous night, they’d tacked east, but now they moved back toward the coast, where campers and beachgoers might provide some camouflage for their oddly dressed crew. At one point, they crested a series of low ridges and Diana caught a view of the bright waters of the Ionian Sea. The blue was more like her home waters than the sullen slate of the Atlantic, but it was still nothing compared to the coast of Themyscira. She was closer to home than she’d been since she’d crossed into the World of Man, and yet she’d never felt farther away.
As they looked out at the water, Diana was startled to hear Nim say, “Sorry about this morning, Theo.”
Theo kept his eyes trained on the sea. “I’m sorry I called you names. You’re not fat or ugly.”
Nim cut him a glance. “I am fat, Theo, and far too hot for your sorry ass.”
A smile flashed over Theo’s face. “I think you mean my worthless ass.”
Diana couldn’t help but respect their willingness to set their anger aside. She knew those insults must have stung.
They continued on, keeping as much distance as they could between Theo and Nim without losing sight of each other, just in case the reconciliation didn’t take. The situation suited Diana just fine, since it meant she and Jason had to stay away from each other, too. They hadn’t spoken a word since the previous night, and Diana wavered between feeling that was best for everyone and crafting an apology in her head.
She matched her pace to Theo’s. He’d removed his new shirt and tied it around his head, revealing dark freckles on his narrow brown shoulders.
“Theo?” she began.
“Yes, Big Mama?”
She raised a brow at the nickname. “This morning, when Nim was—”
“Trying to kill me?”
“Yes. Did you see…anything odd?”
“You mean like a hideous winged hellbeast?”
Diana didn’t know whether to feel relieved or distressed. “Exactly.”
“Yeah, I saw it,” said Theo. He shivered despite the heat of the sun. “When I looked into her eyes, they were…ancient, and I could feel…”
“What?” Diana prodded.
“She was happy. No, gleeful.” He shuddered and shook his arms as if trying to rid himself of the memory.
“She had wings, black eyes, what else?”
“Wild hair—not really hair at all, like you were looking into the dark—and gold smeared all over her lips.”
Diana hadn’t noticed the gold on her mouth. Her stomach clenched. “Gold from the apple of discord. That was Eris, the goddess of strife.”
“A goddess?”
Diana nodded, her stomach churning at the possibility. She had been raised to worship the goddesses of the island, to make the proper sacrifices, speak the appropriate prayers. She knew they could be generous in their gifts and terrible in their judgment. But she had never seen a god, and she knew they didn’t make a habit of revealing themselves to mortals, either. “She’s a battlefield god. She incites discord and thrives on the misery it creates.”
Again, Theo shuddered. “It was like there was a chorus in my head, egging me on. I hated Nim. I would have killed her if I had the chance. I didn’t just feel mad—I felt righteous.” He blinked. “And I’m a lover, not a fighter!”
“There are others,” said Diana. “The Algea, full of weeping,” she recited. “Até, who brings ruin; Limos, the bone soldier of famine. The brother gods, Phobos and Deimos.”
“Panic and Dread,” said Jason, catching up to them.
“And the Keres.”
“What do they do, exactly?” asked Theo.
“They eat the corpses of warriors as they die.”
He winced. “Maybe we don’t need to stop for lunch.”
“Is it possible Alia’s power is drawing them?” asked Jason.
“I don’t know what’s possible anymore,” Diana admitted. It was a frightening thought.
She loped ahead to scout the territory before them. She needed to think, and she wanted to be away from mortals for a moment, from their squabbles and hungers and wants.
The landscape here reminded her of parts of Themyscira, but there was no mistaking this place for anything but the World of Man. She could hear the rumble of cars in the distance, smell burning fuel in the air, hear the buzz and crackle of telephone lines. Through all of it, in the pulse and flow of her blood, she could still feel the pain and worry of her sisters on the island. She hated that they suffered, that she’d been the one to cause it, but she couldn’t deny that she was grateful for the connection, for the reminder of who and what she was.
Had she and Theo truly seen Eris? The gods of battle had been the creatures of her earliest nightmares. They were the enemies of peace, more terrifying than ordinary monsters because their power didn’t lie in jagged teeth or terrible strength but in their ability to drive soldiers to the worst atrocities, to drown the empathy and mercy of warriors in terror and rage so they were capable of things they’d never imagined. What if Jason was right and they were coming to the mortal world, drawn by the prospect of war?
As the day wore on, the heat rose, and the group’s pace slowed. By late morning, Diana could see that Alia’s steps were weaving and Nim was bleary-eyed from exhaustion. She dropped back to talk to Jason.
“We can’t keep on this way. We’re going to have to get a car and risk the roadblocks.”
“Seconded,” said Nim over her shoulder. “Or you’re going to have to leave me by the side of the road.”
“Well—” began Theo. Alia hurled an olive at him.
“We can’t stay away from the roads forever,” said Diana. “They’re just going to keep widening the perimeter of their search. Besides, there’s no way we can make it over the Taygetus Mountains on foot, not before the new moon.”
“Is there another way around?” asked Theo.
Alia shook her head. “Not without backtracking north. Therapne is backed by mountains to the east and west. It’s part of what made Sparta so easy to defend.”
Diana grinned, surprised, and Jason cast Alia a speculative look. “How do you know so much about it?”
“I did a lot of reading on the plane. I wanted to know about Helen. Where she came from.” She wiped the sweat from her brow and glanced at Diana. “You realize you’re suggesting stealing a car?”
“I’m suggesting borrowing a car,” Diana corrected. “Surely there’s a way to compensate the owner.”
Theo reached into his back pocket and pulled out his wallet. “I have twenty-six bucks and my Better Latte Than Never card. Only one more stamp for a free cappuccino.”
“Wait a minute,” said Jason. “Can any of us even drive?”
“I drove,” said Theo. “Once.”
“That was a golf cart,” said Alia.
“So? It had four wheels and went vroom.”
“You crashed it into a tree.”
“I’ll have you know that tree had been drinking.”
“Everybody, relax,” said Nim. “I can drive.”
“Where did you learn to drive?” Alia asked incredulously.
“With the rest of the peasants on Long Island.”
“We have a driver,” Diana said, new hope surging through her. “Now we just need to find a car.”
“You know this means I get to choose the radio station,” said Nim as they set out across the field.
Theo whimpered. “How about I just let you run me over?”
It took far longer to locate a car than they’d hoped. Many of the farms they passed didn’t seem to have much in the way of vehicles beyond donkey carts and bicycles, and in one case, a truck set up on cement blocks, its wheels long vanished.
As they were approaching a promising-looking farmhouse with Jason in the lead, he snapped, “Get down.”
They sank to their bellies in the grass just as two men emerged from the front door of the house.
“Police?” whispered Alia.
“Those guns don’t look like standard police issue.”
The men wore nondescript blue uniforms, but the long, ugly guns they carried looked like those Diana had seen their attackers use.
“That’s some serious firepower,” said Theo.
“Are you surprised?” asked Jason.
“That they’re willing to just walk around the Greek countryside brandishing semiautomatics? Kind of.”
“They weren’t afraid to attack us in a New York City museum,” said Jason. “Why would they hesitate here? They know the stakes.”
“And it’s possible Alia’s power is at work here, too,” said Diana, “eroding the barriers to violent action.”
“Ironic,” said Nim.
“That’s not technically irony,” said Theo.
“Do I need to remind you that I tried to strangle you this morning, loser?”
“Let’s get moving,” Alia said hurriedly.
They made sure the men were leaving, then circled around the back of the farmhouse to a dilapidated stable. A horse nickered from a stall on the intact side of the structure. The roof on the other side had almost completely caved in and was covered by a tarp, but there were two vehicles parked beneath it: a truck with its hood open that seemed to be missing part of its engine, and a funny bubble-shaped car the color of a tangerine.
Theo shook his head. “We’re going over a mountain range in a Fiat?”
Diana eyed the car doubtfully. “It doesn’t seem very…sturdy.” In fact, it looked less like a real vehicle than one of the pretty handbags Nim had shown them.
“We don’t have a lot of other options,” said Alia. “Unless you want to try the horse.”
“I’m not really the noble-steed type,” said Theo.
Diana sighed and glanced over at the horse watching them with dark, steady eyes. She would have preferred riding, but she knew they needed the little car’s speed.
“So…,” said Alia. “Does anyone actually know how to steal a car?”
“We could break into the house,” said Nim. “Take the keys.”
“There are people in there,” said Alia. “What if they catch us?”
Nim tossed her hair back from her eyes. “Well, you guys are the science geniuses. Can’t you just hotwire it or something?”
“We’re biologists,” said Jason. “Not electrical engineers.”
“All I’m hearing are excuses, people.”
But for once Theo wasn’t weighing in. He was silently contemplating the car. “I can do it,” he said slowly. “But I’m going to need to use my phone.”
“Out of the question,” said Jason.
“I told you it’s untraceable,” said Theo.
“Even so—”
“You know, I can actually be helpful if you’ll let me.” Theo’s tone was light, but Diana heard the edge in his voice and felt a surge of sympathy for the skinny boy. She knew what it was to be underestimated. But was he trustworthy? If he’d wanted to harm them or alert their captors to their whereabouts, he’d certainly had plenty of opportunities.
She met Jason’s gaze and gave a short nod. “Let him try.”
Jason blew out a long breath. “Okay.”
“Okay?” said Theo.
“Yeah,” said Jason more firmly. “Do it.”
Theo’s smile was small and pleased, far shyer than Diana would have expected.
“All right, then.” He pulled the phone from his pocket, his thumbs moving rapidly over the screen, and said, “If this were an older car, we’d be screwed. No Bluetooth. No wireless. But everything’s digital now, right? Cars are basically just tricked-out computers on wheels.”
Jason folded his arms, unconvinced. “And you have a magic phone?”
“This phone can’t be sold in some countries because the computer inside it is powerful enough to operate a missile-guidance system, and I can use it to access my desktop through a spoof IP I set up on the dark net.”
“Okay, okay,” said Jason. “All hail the mighty phone.”
“Thank you,” said Theo. “The phone accepts cash gifts by way of apology. Now, all we have to do is mimic the signals the key sends to tell the car to unlock the door. It’s not like the car cares if the key is there.”
“Same with the human brain,” said Alia. “We see something, we react based on the stimulus, real or artificial. It’s all just a collection of electrical impulses.”
“Divine lightning,” said Diana.
Alia frowned. “Huh?”
“I second that huh,” Theo said, not looking up from the little screen, thumbs moving so fast they blurred.
Diana shrugged. “It’s just what you were saying reminded me of Zeus. He’s the god of thunder and lightning, but what you’re describing in our minds, those electrical impulses…It’s another way of thinking about that power.”
“Divine lightning,” repeated Alia. “You know, it’s kind of fundamental to the way we think about thinking. Like a big idea at the right time is catching lightning in a bottle.”
“Or when you’re dumbfounded, you say you’re thunderstruck,” said Nim.
The corner of Jason’s lips tugged upward in a small smile. “And when you connect with someone, you call it a spark.”
Despite the morning’s long silences and her lingering anger, Diana was glad to see that smile again. She couldn’t help returning it. “Exactly.”
Theo held up his phone. “Who’s ready for a little divine lightning?”
“Just do the thing,” said Nim impatiently.
He jabbed his finger down on the screen. “Shapow!”
Nothing happened.
“Oh, wait a second.” His thumbs flew over the screen again. He cleared his throat. “What I meant to say was, shablammy!” He gave the screen a firm poke. The car doors released a satisfying clunk. “I’ll ask you to hold your applause. And now the engine—”
“Wait,” said Jason. “Let’s roll it out to the road before we start it.”
Diana raised a brow. He was so dedicated to this falsehood. “Do we really need to roll it? Wouldn’t it be faster and quieter just to…”
A moment later, they had hefted the car above their heads, Diana gripping the front bumper, Jason at the rear.
“Maybe Nim doesn’t need to drive,” Theo said, panting as the others hurried to keep up. “Jason and Diana can just carry us.”
“Don’t make me strap you to the roof,” grunted Jason.
They jogged the car across the field and down the road from the farmhouse, then deposited it on the dirt road.
They waited beside the little vehicle as Nim slid behind the wheel. She wedged the seat up as far as it could go to accommodate her short legs. “Okay, let’s do this.”
“When was the last time you actually drove?” asked Alia.
Nim flexed her fingers. “It’s not the kind of thing you forget.”
“Ready?” said Theo.
“Wait,” said Diana. She placed her hand on his shoulder. She didn’t know what he could accomplish with that little computer, but just in case he was feeling hostile toward Nim, she wanted him as calm as possible. From the sheepish look he cast her, the gesture was warranted.
His thumbs sped over the screen, and a moment later the car roared to life.
Theo broke out in a dance that looked like it might cause lasting damage to his spine and did a victory lap around the car. “Who’s the king?”
Nim cast Alia a meaningful glance and whispered, “You have terrible taste.”
“Whatever,” said Alia. “Shotgun!”
Diana seized Alia and slammed her to the ground, shoving her body beneath the car for cover. She rose with bracelets raised, ready for the onslaught, but the others were just standing there staring.
“Um, Diana,” said Alia, peeking out from beneath the Fiat. “It’s just a saying.”
Diana felt her face heat.
“Of course,” she said, helping Alia up and dusting her off. Jason’s expression was bemused, and Theo’s whole body was shaking with laughter. “Naturally. And it means?”
“When you call shotgun, you get the seat next to the driver.”
“Why?”
“It’s just a rule,” said Alia.
“It’s from the Old West,” said Nim. “On a stagecoach, there was the driver, and the guy who rode next to him carried a shotgun in case they were attacked.”
“Or in case someone started spouting useless trivia and had to be murdered,” said Theo.
“Go stand in front of the car.”
It did take some time to negotiate where everyone would sit. Eventually, Jason took the passenger seat, and Diana squashed in between Alia and Theo in the back, her knees nearly up to her chin—that way she was ready to protect Alia if need be, and Nim and Theo were separated as much as possible.
To preserve the battery life of Theo’s phone for controlling the car, they used the old-fashioned map folded up in the glove compartment and picked out a route that took them south via side roads and narrow byways. It also occasionally trapped them behind a slow-moving cart drawn by mules, or required that they stop to let a herd of bandy-legged goats cross the road.
Despite the need for haste, Diana almost welcomed the pauses from Nim’s reckless pace.
“She has a much different style than Dez,” she murmured to Alia, thinking longingly of the smooth way the black town car had passed through traffic.
Theo moaned as they jolted against a divot, the Fiat’s tires momentarily losing touch with the road.
“Maybe she’s just trying to kill me slowly,” he speculated, looking a bit green.
They turned on the radio, flipping through the channels, until they found something that sounded like the news. Jason and Alia’s Greek wasn’t good enough to follow the rapid-fire conversation, but Diana understood it all. There were reports of more conflicts across the globe, another bloody coup attempt, world leaders issuing angry threats, but eventually the speaker mentioned the crash.
“The wreckage of the plane hasn’t been identified yet,” she translated. “There are reports of several casualties, but the bodies haven’t been identified, either.” Bodies. Again she thought of Ben. She remembered what Jason had said about living on in memory. At least she could do that for the pilot who had stood by her so bravely.
“It’s just a matter of time before they identify the aircraft,” said Jason, his eyes trained on the passing scenery.
“Everyone’s going to think we’re dead,” said Theo.
“Oh God,” said Nim. “My parents must be worried sick. They knew I was at that party with you guys.”
For the first time, Diana wondered what her mother would think when she found her daughter missing from the island. Grief? Anger? Diana might never have a chance to explain what she’d done.
She reached forward and gave Nim’s shoulder a squeeze. “You’ll be back with them soon.”
“Yeah,” said Nim, her voice a little shaky.
“My dad’s going to be so disappointed to find out I’m alive,” said Theo.
“That isn’t true,” Jason said.
“And it’s a crap thing to say,” added Alia, the echo of old grief in her words.
Theo ran a thumb over the shiny knee of his pants. “You’re right.”
“Did anyone even know we were on that jet?” asked Nim, taking another corner so fast she veered into the opposing lane and had to jerk the wheel back.
“I’m not sure,” said Jason, only gradually releasing his death grip on the door handle. “We didn’t exactly file the appropriate papers when we left New York.”
“But they’ll know it’s a Keralis jet,” Alia said.
“So be it,” said Jason.
“But the board—”
“The board will do what it’s going to do,” said Jason, shoulders stiff. “The company will survive. Our parents built Keralis Labs on innovation. If they lock us out, we’ll just keep innovating.” Diana wasn’t sure if Jason believed his own words, but she did. She could hear the iron in his voice.
They saw no police and there were no indications that they were being followed, but Diana remained watchful as they steadily tacked southward. They stopped once to fill the Fiat’s tank with gasoline, the rest of them watching through the window as Jason approached the attendant, whose gestures and angry exclamations made it clear he wouldn’t accept American money. Jason turned away from the attendant, scrunching his fist, frustration radiating in every line of his body, and for a moment Diana thought he might strike the man. Instead, he unslung his watch from his wrist and handed it over.
“That belonged to our dad,” Alia said quietly.
The attendant’s demeanor changed instantly. He disappeared into the little store while Jason filled the tank, then emerged with his arms full of potato chips and bottled soda, and a big plastic jug of water that he shoved through the open window at them. Diana wasn’t sure if the water was for them or the little car’s radiator as they crossed the mountains. A few minutes later they were back on the road.
Jason stared straight ahead, and Diana saw him touch his fingers briefly to his now-bare wrist.
“Jason,” Alia said tentatively.
He gave a short, sharp shake of his head. “Don’t.”
They drove on in silence, but after only a few miles had sped by Nim pulled to a halt by the side of the road where several cars were parked, their drivers somewhere down on the beaches below.
“Why are we stopping?” asked Diana. They still had until sunset the next day to get to the spring, but the farther they could get from their pursuers, the happier she’d be.
“We should switch the plates,” said Nim. “The license plates. That guy at the gas station is going to remember us. We don’t want this car matching up with a missing Fiat.”
“Or we could borrow another car,” Theo suggested.
“No,” said Nim. “We steal a car, it gets reported, we’re back on the grid, and they know which way we’re headed. But no one pays attention to license plates. They won’t notice the change until we’re long gone, if they notice at all.”
Alia leaned forward and gave Nim a tight hug over the back of the seat. “You’re brilliant.”
Nim beamed. “How much do you love me?”
“So much.”
“How much?” hissed Nim.
Diana saw her fingers dig deeply into the flesh of Alia’s arms. They were black talons, her arms corded with muscle. A stench filled the car, the dusty smell of decay. “If you loved me, you would let me kill him. You would let me kill them all.”
“Nim!” Alia cried out, trying to pull away.
“Let go of her!” Jason grabbed Nim’s wrist, then recoiled, his hand seared an angry red.
“I see you, Daughter of Earth,” said Eris. Hollow black eyes deep as wells met Diana’s in the rearview mirror. “You and your sisters have evaded our grasp far too long.”
Diana shifted to launch herself forward, but Theo grabbed her arm.
“Our time draws near,” he said, and Diana saw that he was not Theo. His face was pale as wax, his teeth yellowed points wet with blood. He wore a battered black helm, crowned by the face of a Gorgon.
Diana growled and shoved him from the car, tumbling with him to the ground.
“Get out of here, Alia!” Jason bellowed.
Diana heard the car door open and Alia’s footsteps as she ran.
“Phobos,” Diana said, looking down into the face beneath her. God of panic. A god beneath her.
He was beautiful until he smiled, the points of his teeth like spikes of sharpened bone. “We see you, Amazon. You will never reach the spring. War is coming. We are coming for you all.”
She could feel his power coursing through her, flooding her mind with terror. Her heart pounded a frantic rhythm; cold sweat bloomed on her brow. She had failed. Failed her mother, her sisters, herself. She had doomed them all. A wild, gibbering panic slashed at her chest. She couldn’t breathe. Run, her mind commanded. Hide. All she wanted was to obey, to let her legs carry her as fast and as far as they could, to find somewhere she could bow her head and weep. She wanted to cry out for her mother. Her mother. Through the horror, she held to the image of Hippolyta, warrior and queen, subject to no one.
“We are stronger,” Diana gasped. “Peace is stronger.”
“If only you believed that.” His grin widened. “Can you imagine the pleasures that await? I can already taste your suffering on my tongue….And it is sweet.” He drew the last word out, his tongue waggling obscenely from his mouth.
It isn’t real, she told herself. Nothing terrible has happened. There’s still time to reach the spring. This fear is an illusion.
She needed something real, something indestructible and true, the opposite of the false fear Phobos created. Diana seized the lasso at her hip and pressed its golden coils against Phobos’s throat. He screamed, a sound that seemed to pierce her skull, high and rattling.
“Get out,” she snarled.
“Out of what?” Theo said desperately, batting at her arms. “Just tell me and I’m gone.”
Diana rocked back on her heels. He sat up, looking dazed, his face as sweet and ordinary as it had ever been. She shook her head, eyes blinking furiously, body still trembling from the terror that had washed through her.
She shoved to her feet and rounded the other side of the Fiat. Nim was sobbing, but she was Nim again. The skin of Jason’s hands and forearms looked badly blistered, though she could see they were already starting to heal. Apparently, the blood of kings was powerful stuff. Alia stood a few feet away, arms tight around herself, chest heaving.
Diana could feel the fragility of these mortals, and for the first time, something inside her felt breakable, too.
“We need to go,” said Alia. She kept her arms wrapped around herself, as if trying to keep from flying apart, but her voice was steady, resolute. “Nim, can you drive?” Nim nodded, shakily. “Diana, can you and Theo switch the license plates?”
“Alia—” Jason began.
“We’re getting to that spring. If they didn’t think we were going to make it, they wouldn’t be trying to frighten us.”
Gods don’t work that way, Diana thought but didn’t say. Amazons were immortal. They didn’t think in minutes or hours or even in years, but in centuries. And the gods? They were eternal. Alia’s power had called to them, and like hibernating beasts they’d come awake with empty bellies. She could still hear Phobos crooning, Can you imagine the pleasures that await? The mirth in Eris’s teasing voice when she’d said, You and your sisters have evaded our grasp far too long.
Diana retrieved Theo from where he was lying on his back, panting in the dirt, and set about making herself useful, afraid that if she faced Alia now, Alia would see the truth in her face. Because Diana knew that Phobos and Eris weren’t worried. They’d been sure of themselves, smug. And they’d been hungry. What Alia had sensed in them was not anxiety but anticipation.
Now Diana understood what this war would really mean, and the terrible truth of the vow she’d made settled over her. If they did not reach the spring, she would have to face the horror of killing Alia, or live with the knowledge that she had helped set the gods’ terrible appetite loose upon the world—and offered her own people up for the feast.