Total pages in book: 102
Estimated words: 95458 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 477(@200wpm)___ 382(@250wpm)___ 318(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 95458 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 477(@200wpm)___ 382(@250wpm)___ 318(@300wpm)
“It’s enough,” Hecate says softly.
More people filter into the room before anyone can say more. These, I recognize. They’re from the upper city. Pan, the owner of the Dryad, who was nearly killed at Minos’s party. Clio Mousa, one of the main writers for MuseWatch. And Bellerophon, Athena’s second-in-command.
Bellerophon catches my eye and peels off from the others to approach. They’re a tall Black person with broad shoulders, warm brown skin, and a head full of curls. “Didn’t expect to see you here, Atalanta.”
“Just making sure everyone is on their best behavior.” There. That’s noncommittal enough.
They raise their brows. “Not at Athena’s behest.” I attempt to fight down my flinch, but they see it all the same. They chuckle. “I’m not explicitly here at her behest, either. I’ve been released from service. All her people have.”
The implications stun me. If Athena is releasing her people, that indicates Zeus is leaving Olympus and she’s following his lead. She wouldn’t flee the city if he stayed…and if he’s leaving, then Ares must be as well. Apollo, too. The dominos continue to topple, but this time in our favor.
Hope unfurls in my chest, displacing dread for the first time in what feels like years. “She’s leaving.”
They nod. “The lower city faction should be here shortly. Hermes—Hecate—gave a good speech, and whatever she did behind the scenes was even more convincing.” They look away. “But it was really Demeter’s death that changed everything.”
“Yeah.” I didn’t really know the woman, and I certainly didn’t like much of what I saw, but I can’t deny she chose well in the end, even knowing the likely outcome. Turning her back on Circe for the sake of the city took bravery I can’t help but admire, no matter what else she was capable of.
The lower city faction arrives then. I recognize some of them from the various reports Athena kept on key players across the River Styx. There’s Charon, Hades’s second-in-command, and Juliette, a designer who was essentially exiled from the upper city but continued to hold sway despite that. Or maybe because of it. I’m surprised to find Calypso and Medusa among the small crowd. I would have assumed they’d use the opportunity to leave the city behind forever.
Hecate lifts her hands, and after a moment of murmuring, silence descends. I study the crowd for any sign of violence, but despite being overtly guarded, every person here appears ready to listen.
“Thank you for coming.” She lowers her hands. “I’ve taken the liberty of preparing some documents for you to look over. It will give us a place to start.”
“Us.” A white woman, her red hair going gray, steps forward. I don’t recognize her, but she came in with the lower city group. “Even if this impossible task manages to succeed, surely you can’t expect us to let you stay in the city.”
Hecate smiles. “I’ll leave the moment the first set of delegates are sworn in—after a fair election process.”
“That will take months to set up properly.”
“Yes,” she says simply. “But we start today with implementing reform through the proposed policies and selecting temporary delegates from every territory.”
Clio shifts, drawing attention to her. She’s a short Black woman with light-brown skin and box braids. “The upper city already picked our temporary delegates. They will be me, Pan, and Bellerophon.”
We’d hoped this would happen. By giving them plenty of time ahead of the meeting, they had the opportunity to meet first and decide on who would lead them—and what they wanted from these reforms. It’s a good sign our hopes seem to have played out.
The older white man who spoke for the countryside nods. “We’ve picked as well.” He names three people who lift their hands, their faces deadly serious.
I glance at Bellerophon, but it’s Juliette who steps forward. She’s a gorgeous Black woman with short hair and dark-brown skin, tall and just as lean as she was during her modeling years. “The lower city chooses Gayle.” She nods at an older Black woman. “Matthew.” A white man in his thirties. “And me.”
It’s well done, across the board. I can’t speak to the country’s choices, though from the way people move around those three, they must be leaders in their community. And the lower city choices are all pillars of their community. Even the upper city has a good range of people who have spent time working among the population. They’re not divorced from the reality of Olympus for its civilians.
The hope inside me gets stronger. This might actually happen. This is happening.
“Perfect.” Hecate motions to the neat stacks of papers placed on the table in front of her. “Let’s move on to the reform.”
And so it begins.
The rest of the day is spent in hot debate as the delegates advocate for their respective territories, with Hecate offering careful friction to guide them to unite against her instead of fighting among each other, but never enough resistance to stall negotiations.