As Elena and I made our way back to the encampment, I kept trying to swallow the lump that rose in my throat. The thought of Farrow’s betrayal burned me like the fires of Hades, but I would remember the feeling and use it to my advantage. No male had tempted me before and none ever would again. I would swear it upon my oath to Artemis.

We returned just in time for the archery competition, Lynxia shooting us a look of pure poison as we entered the arena.

Artemis, wearing a crown of spring flowers, stood atop her dais and presided over her warriors. She paid no attention to the two latecomers as she watched the competition.

The arena was lined with a multitude of warrior maidens, many of them dressed for the other competitions and some already wearing black eyes and bruises from the hand-to-hand battle that started every sparring session. They watched eagerly as the archers took their places down the row of targets. I spied Iphi in the crowd, no doubt taking bets on the winner.

The only archer with a hope of beating me, Lynxia, was standing fifty yards from her target, already taking aim with her ebony bow. The thrill of competition warred with the bitter feelings about Farrow that threatened to engulf me. Steadying my nerves, I stepped up to the open spot on the end of the row and summoned my bow. I took aim downfield at my own target, trying to drown out my thoughts while staring down the shaft of my arrow. Breathing deeply, I let my air out slowly and sighted the bullseye.

When the call was given, I let my arrow fly, straight and true to the center. As my bow sang with the release, I chanced a glance at Lynxia, whose chestnut hair was pulled back as tightly as her focus. Lynxia’s arrow would likely have hit the bullseye, but Lynxia had tilted her head slightly, probably to check my shot. Because of her oversight, Lynxia’s arrow erred to the right, barely missing the blackened center of the straw target.

The other archers had much the same luck, none of them managing a perfect shot like mine. Three more arrows yielded no better results. I was by far the best archer, even with Farrow’s betrayal hanging on me like a weight.

I had to admit I was greatly relieved—talk among the sisters was once a warrior maiden gave herself to a male, her powers would be stripped from her. But I still felt Artemis’s strength, and my triumph in the archery competition was proof. Once all the archers had emptied their quivers, Artemis’s voice boomed throughout the granite arena.

“Lilah the Archer has won again.” Many of the spectating maidens cheered while Lynxia gave me a choice finger gesture.

“Come here, my champion. My most beloved warrior maiden.”

I caught the inflection on the last word, as did the rest of the women in the sanctum, which had fallen eerily silent at Artemis’s command.

“My Goddess.” I barely kept the quaver from my voice as I knelt before Artemis’s dais. The goddess was dressed in a vest of deep green that came down to the tops of her thighs and was cinched in at her narrow waist. Her hair flowed like amber down her back, and her eyes were a warm gold—said to be the same shade as Zeus’s. My unease deepened as one of the goddess’s usually friendly guard dogs, akin to a Great Dane, let out a quiet growl.

Artemis put one hand on the dog’s head. “Barnabus tells me you have broken your vow. Is that true, maiden?” Again with the inflection, which was no longer a hint but an accusation.

“I-I remain loyal to you, ever one of your warriors.”

“Yet you’ve been with a male.”

The crowd erupted with chatter until the goddess’s voice cut through the air. “Silence!” She gripped Barnabus’s ear a little too tightly, and he yelped before she began smoothing his hair again. “You dared couple with a male in my forest and thought I wouldn’t know?”

“It was a mistake. One I will never repeat. No male shall ever use me again.”

“Is that right?” Artemis asked, a thoughtful look playing across her features.

“Yes, my Goddess. I am pledged only to you.”

Artemis rose to her full height, speaking to the crowd more than me. “My beloved daughter, the warrior maiden who has pleased me without end and who has taken my knowledge to become the fiercest one of you, has betrayed me. Who here demands judgment on her for these misdeeds?”

My stomach churned, though I kept my position of supplication at Artemis’s feet. I dreaded the censure of my sisters, perhaps even more than that of the goddess. But no one uttered a word, not even Lynxia. Rivalry didn’t erase the bonds of sisterhood, not among Artemis’s warriors.

After several beats of silence, the goddess continued, “No one will answer my call for retribution?” Her hand shot out and pointed at the maidens who had massed before her throne. “No one? Then I will smite Lilah to make an example of her. No male may touch my warriors. You are mine and mine alone.”

She said it matter-of-factly, as if it were nothing to kill one of her own guardians. I well knew the gods were fickle, but it cut me to the quick when Artemis appeared to feel no sting of pain at decreeing my death. The threat was not an idle one. The goddess had immeasurable power, emanating from Olympus and into her as if she were a lightning rod.

Elena’s voice rang out from the crowd, though it was tinged with grief. “Banish her.”

I searched for her from the corner of my eye, but couldn’t see for the maidens crowding around the dais.

How could my friend even suggest such a thing? Death would have been a better choice. “No, my Goddess, I—”

“Speak not to me!” Artemis raged. “My favorite child and my greatest disappointment.” Her voice was now full of sadness, and the words were like an arrow to my heart, piercing and breaking off inside me, never to be removed.

“From this day forth you are banished from my service and the slopes of Olympus. You may depart here carrying only the boon of your bow and arrows. I will give you until nightfall to leave these woods or my hounds will tear you apart. You are no longer Lilah de Artemis. Find your way in the mortal world. I have done with thee.”

Before I could raise a protest, the goddess vanished, taking every maiden with her in a deafening thunderclap.

Alone in the hollow arena, I collapsed onto the stone steps, great sobs racking me as my despair echoed all around. Abandoned and left for dead, belonging nowhere and to no one. My strength ebbed until it was only a shadow of the power I’d wielded just moments before.

The wolf’s betrayal was only an opening salvo for the misery that now enveloped me. Though my tears had not subsided, the darkening sky reminded me of the two choices that lay before me: death or earth.

I settled in to wait for the hounds.