Goddess Unmasked, page 1
Goddess Unmasked
Academy of the Divine, Book 7
Isadora Brown
Contents
Chapter 1
Chapter 2
Chapter 3
Chapter 4
Chapter 5
Chapter 6
Chapter 7
Chapter 8
Chapter 9
Chapter 10
Newsletter Information
Did You Like Goddess Unmasked?
Acknowledgments
Chapter One
Pythia had been raped by Cronus?
As much as I wanted to be surprised by this information, I couldn’t be. My stomach coiled into a tight knot, and I was tempted to keel over and gag. He had been doing this for so long. How many women had he hurt? How many people had he destroyed, simply by taking what he deemed as his and lording his power over others?
And the worst part was, I knew about it. I knew about it and hadn’t done anything. It didn’t matter that no one else had. It didn’t matter that everyone just sort of looked the other way when it came to his behavior because of what a high-ranking official he was and how he transitioned Junior Watchers to full-blown real Watchers. How he was responsible for the future of the Watchers and decided who made the cut and who didn’t.
This was on me.
On all of us.
“Who told you that?” Apollo asked, his voice still surprisingly gentle. It was clear he cared about Pythia, more than I realized. “Who told you opening the Box would stop Cronus?”
“The Box is beholden to its master,” Pythia said. “The Titans are supposed to follow the lead of the one who opened it.”
“But you opened it,” Apollo said.
Pythia shook her head. “I took it,” she replied. “But I didn’t open it.”
“Then, who did?”
Pythia looked away. “I can’t tell you, Apollo,” she said, and there was clear regret in her tone. “I want to, but I promised I wouldn’t. If anyone found out…” She let her voice trail off.
“You subjegate yourself to this torture for the rest of forever?” he asked in disbelief.
“If it means Cronus will be brought to justice, yes,” she said with a swift nod.
“What do you mean, brought to justice?” I asked, stepping forward. I shouldn’t have said anything at all, but the question slipped out before I could stop it. “Was he the one…”
I couldn’t let myself finish that sentence, and I didn’t know why. She didn’t know me. I was nothing to her. And, quite frankly, everything going on between her and Apollo wasn’t any of my business. But I couldn’t help myself. Because there was something in her words, something that made me think, that whatever was going on, Cronus was behind it.
Pythia turned to me, violet eyes piercing me without mercy. I froze but I didn’t pull away. She could look for as long as she needed to. I wasn’t afraid of her, and I understood why she was curious. I was a stranger to her, and, after everything she endured, I could understand why she wouldn’t trust a stranger with anything.
“You know what I’m referring to,” Pythia said, tilting her head to the side in a graceful but unnatural angle. “You’re the one he wants.”
“M-me?” I glanced over at Apollo, hoping he might be able to help with this. The truth of the matter was, I didn’t think Cronus cared about me one way or the other. Why would he? I was nothing, no one. I wasn’t as beautiful as Aphrodite or as intelligent as Athena or as fierce as Artemis. I was just the first daughter of the goddess of spring, and while I did have some harvesting and growth abilities passed down from my mother, I wasn’t Seph, either.
“I’ve seen your face in my dreams before,” Pythia continued.
Apollo gave me no indication he even noticed me looking at him. His jaw was ticked, arms crossed over his chest, dark eyes narrowed at Pythia, as though he was attempting to read her.
“You’re the one he needs,” she continued.
“I don’t understand,” I murmured.
“He’s come to you, hasn’t he?” Pythia continued. “He’s given you those wretched feelings, the ones that imply you are useless, nothing. That you belong to him and can’t do anything about it. He’s made you feel –”
“She doesn’t fucking belong to him,” Apollo said firmly, brokering no room for argument.
Pythia swiveled her head over to Apollo. She opened her mouth to say something, quite possibly to contradict his claim, when she stopped, tilting her head the other way. “You care for her,” she stated.
Apollo said nothing. His face gave no indication of reaction, either. He continued to glare at her, though why he seemed to be upset was beyond me. This wasn’t her fault by any means.
The corner of Pythia’s lips curved up and she looked at Apollo with a sense of renewal, like she noticed something about him that hadn’t been there before. “This isn’t the same,” she murmured, and I couldn’t tell if she spoke to herself or to him. “You feel deeply for her.” Her smile widened. “Just as I told you you would.”
I blinked, trying to keep up, because that definitely wasn’t what I was expecting to hear. “Wait, what?” I asked.
Pythia turned to me once more as though just remembering I was there at all. “I told him he would find his heart,” she said. “When I said this, he didn’t believe me. So morose, this one. So emotional. But he did. He found it in you.” Her eyes shifted back to Apollo, and all traces of humor were gone. “This is why you’re here, isn’t it? Because of Cronus. Because he needs her for his plans.”
“We have no idea what you’re talking about,” Apollo said, taking a step forward. His voice was surprisingly gentle, even if there was an edge to it. “We’re here because we wanted to ask you about opening the Box. But you won’t give us anything.”
“I can’t interfere,” Pythia said. She glanced away, swallowing. Her bottom lip trembled slightly. “I…I interfered once, thinking that by helping, I would be saving lives. I couldn’t read my own destiny. In fact, it’s forbidden. Even still, I tried…” She shook her head. “It doesn’t matter. What’s done is done, and I’ll do my penance for the role I’ve played in this.” She turned back to Apollo. “I can’t help you with the questions you ask. But I will tell you that the same person opened the Box twice. Chaos precludes stability. It is a vicious cycle, Apollo. You know this. But Boxing up the Chaos will only stave it off for so long until the cycle repeats itself. Until you chop off the head of the snake.”
“If you could just say who the snake is –”
“I can’t,” Pythia insisted. “I learned my lesson the hard way, and I will not make that same mistake again. Surely you can understand.”
Apollo heaved a sigh. If Pythia wasn’t going to speak, there was no point in lingering. A crack of lightning flashed overhead and I nearly jumped out of my skin.
Apollo glanced over at me. His eyes flashed with a mix of concern and humor at my jumpiness.
“You’re not a martyr, you know,” I said, the words coming out of my mouth before I could stop them. “You don’t have to subject yourself to this if you don’t want to, if you didn’t do anything wrong.”
“But that’s just it,” Pythia said, her voice gentle rather than insistent. “Don’t you see? I did do something wrong. I trusted the wrong person. I believed the wrong truth. And now, I will pay for it. But that doesn’t mean that you have to.” She tilted her head, her strange, violet eyes shifting over to Apollo. “May I speak plainly, Apollo? Alone?”
I sucked in a breath. I should have known this would happen. Of course, the two would want to reunite in some fashion and I definitely didn’t want to stand awkwardly in the middle, eyes going back and forth between them as I pretended not to listen. A couple of raindrops plopped onto my face and I began to look for somewhere I could scurry off to. The fact that it was raining in the Underworld at all was strange to me. I didn’t think it was possible for anything to change down here, but I was wrong. I wondered what else I could be wrong about.
“I’ll be over here.” Apollo tilted his head to the side.
My eyes widened. Wait. She wanted to talk to me?
I glanced at Pythia, and her lips tilted up.
“You seem surprised,” she said.
“Uh, no offense, it’s just, I’m not sure what you and I have to discuss,” I said.
“Do you know who I am?” Pythia asked as Apollo moved away from us. There was really nowhere for him to go, so the only thing he could do was put distance between us. He wrinkled his nose when more rain began to fall, like the rain had personally attacked him.
“Pythia,” I said, forcing myself to return my gaze to her. “Apollo’s former partner as a Watcher.”
“I also see things,” Pythia finished.
I nodded. “Yes,” I said, because it felt like I needed to acknowledge that in some way, though I wasn’t sure how or why.
“Apollo told you?” she asked.
“You’re…you’re a legend,” I said before I could stop myself. “So is Apollo, but he’s turned into this pathetic alcoholic that no one takes seriously. Well, he was that. He’s better now.”
“Because of you,” Pythia said firmly.
My cheeks started to pinch. “I think it has to do with Zeus forcing him on this mission,” I said. “I think he needed to remember who he was in order to truly understand what he’s capable of. For the longest time, he blamed himself for what happened to you.”
“And his sister,” Pythia put in.
Artemis?
& nbsp; Of course. She was a Watcher, a fearsome Watcher. But if the gatekeepers were the same for her as they were for the current class of female potentials, she wouldn’t have gotten anywhere without…without something happening to her.
“And with what will happen to you,” Pythia finished.
“What…what do you mean?” I asked.
“Currently, you have three suitors, don’t you?” the Oracle asked. “Ares himself has asked for your mother's permission to court you. Cronus has done the same. And Apollo –”
“He’s not –”
“He cares for you,” Pythia said, interrupting me. “And I don’t think you realize just how important that sort of thing is. I was there when he was with Aphrodite and Nyx and the others. And Apollo is the type of god who gives himself completely or not at all. When he was with them, he was all in. But with you…it’s different.”
Right. Because he wasn’t all in. Because he was now in the habit of protecting himself.
Stop. This isn’t the time or place. Apollo’s been hurt. A lot. He’s allowed to hold back. He’s allowed to –
“And you care for him.” She smiled. “I’m glad to see that. Apollo deserves someone who sees him for what he is, not who he could be. Not his reputation. Not his flaws. But for exactly what he is. And you do.” She paused for a moment, tilting her head to the side. “As I’ve said, I’ve seen things. And while I cannot tell you about the Box, what I can say is you have an important part to play in this, Pandora. Your suitors all want you for a reason, and it’s up to you to figure out what that reason is. But…know that ultimately, you have three threads of life connecting you where you are depending on the choice you make. They will lead you down extremely different paths. I can’t say what the right one is for you, but just know it’s within your power to choose.”
I had no idea what she was trying to tell me, and it made me feel stupid. Was this how Oracles were? Or was I supremely ignorant?
“Someone has to stop Cronus,” Pythia said. “You know this. And sometimes, we make decisions about what’s right and not about what’s right for us.”
I swallowed. That was something I did understand.
“Unfortunately, you now bear this responsibility,” Pythia said. “I can only hope that you are much stronger than I was, than Artemis was, than all those who came before and did nothing about it.”
“I don’t understand,” I admitted.
“No,” Pythia agreed. “But you will. Now, leave me. You have much to do. Even when the seven Titans have been Boxed up, things don’t end. If anything, it’s just the beginning.”
Chapter Two
“So,” Apollo said as we made our way out of the Underworld. “What did Pythia want to discuss with you?”
I glanced over at him with wide eyes, surprised he would even ask. The Oracle hadn’t actually said I couldn’t tell anyone, but even so, it felt like the message was just for me and me alone.
“She wanted me to keep an eye on you,” I said, which wasn’t exactly a lie, even if she hadn’t said it in exactly those words.
“Any information on who she opened the Box for?” he asked.
“I doubt she would have shared that with me,” I said. “You and her were partners. I’m sure she wouldn’t trust anyone the way she trusted you.”
Apollo’s lips tugged into a frown. “And yet, I was completely blindsided just like everyone else was when it was discovered she opened the Box in the first place,” he muttered. He clenched his teeth together, sliding his hands into his pockets, and glaring at the black, molten ground underneath his feet.
“Apollo…” I reached out and grabbed his wrist. I wasn’t sure what the hell I was doing or what I was about to say. I wasn’t naive enough to believe that I could make him feel better about this. Now that I met Pythia, now that the pieces of the puzzle that made up Apollo’s shift from legendary Watcher to pathetic drunk, I knew this wasn’t something he could easily get over. But I knew I had to offer him some form of comfort. I just hoped it wasn’t unwelcome.
He stopped and looked at me with his head cocked to the side, dark eyes sculpting my face. He didn’t pull away from me, didn’t change the subject. Instead, he waited. That had to be a good sign.
“I’m not justifying what she did,” I said, “but she seemed to believe that it was the right decision.”
“That’s great,” he said, sarcasm dripping from every word. “As long as she gets to judge her actions then, is that it?”
“Apollo —“
“Why couldn’t she tell me?” he demanded to know. “Something…something happened to her. I’m almost sure of it. And I know that’s why she acted. And I know it ties back to Cronus. But why —?”
“It’s not about you,” I said. I pressed my lips together, trying to find the right words without insulting him. “I…I’ve never had to deal with trauma outside of the way my mother can sometimes — but that doesn’t matter. What I’m trying to say is, from what I know, and, again, it’s not like I have direct experience with this, but it’s not about trusting someone or talking about something to a friend. It’s about trying to figure out what happened and then what to do about it. It’s kind of like having to accept that something bad happened but then not being able to accept it. I don’t know if I’m making sense.” I winced.
“You do go through it.” Without warning, Apollo placed his free hand on my face, extending his thumb so he could trace my jawline. “What Cronus did at that engagement party, what I’m sure he’s done at training sessions and the like, you still go through your own sense of trauma.”
“And maybe Pythia has too,” I pointed out, ignoring the sense of discomfort that Apollo could somehow see through me. “Maybe hers was…was worse. Maybe she felt like this was her way to do something about it.”
“You think that Cronus had her open the Box?” he asked.
“Or maybe she opened the Box as a way to protect herself and others,” I said.
Apollo’s eyes widened slightly, his mouth slack.
“Why would she…?”
“Everyone believes that the person who opens the Box controls the Titans,” I said. “Maybe we need to talk to Zeus and see who the targets were when Pythia opened it.” A beat. “Or target.”
He nodded once. Nothing was said between us, but he didn’t release my face and I didn’t release his hand.
“Tell me something,” he murmured, tilting his head down so his lips nearly grazed my cheek. “Is it true, then? Is Ares courting you?”
I wanted to look away from him. I wanted to sigh and clench my teeth and change the subject. But I was paralyzed. There was nothing I could do except stare into those dark eyes and feel the truth dance on the top of my tongue.
“My mother told me,” I admitted. “Apparently, he heard about the Titans we took down.” I swallowed. “I didn’t know.” I chewed my bottom lip, causing his eyes to drop down to them as well. He did nothing but stare, but move in even closer. “Cronus is courting me as well.”
He blinked. “What?”
“I told my mother —“
“That is…unacceptable,” Apollo said.
I bristled slightly. Apollo hated Ares because of what happened with Aphrodite. But he was okay with Ares courting me?
“It’s not like I wanted him to court me —“
“No one should be courting you at all,” he said, his voice tight. His grip on my cheek tightened but only slightly.
“So, now I’m not allowed to be courted?” He wasn’t making any sense. None of this made any sense.
Apollo’s glare reached my gaze, penetrating me. There was so much in that glare, so much that he couldn’t say. That he didn’t want to say. But I could see it so clearly . He wasn’t hiding anything. Not anymore.
“Is that what you want?” Apollo asked. I was ready to tell him to go fuck himself if he truly thought I wanted Cronus courting me, but he continued before I could. “Ares courting you? Do you see a future with him, then?”
“Ares?” I asked.
