Elias, who had been listening with a preternatural stillness, finally spoke. His voice was quiet, but it sliced through the room’s turmoil. “Why didn’t you tell us, Helena? We’re her fathers. We had a right to know she was carrying this inside her.”
Helena flinched, unable to meet his gaze. “She was so adamant about rejecting the Olympian world,” she stammered, the excuse sounding weak even to her own ears. “I thought… I hoped it would never be an issue. And you…” She looked at Elias, a fresh wave of shame washing over her. “You were House Hermes. It is forbidden to share the secrets of a House’s bloodline with another House. I was bound by an oath.”
Elias’s expression hardened, the excuse of ancient oaths clearly meaning nothing to him. “An oath,” he said, the words clipped and cold. “Is that what you’re hiding behind, Helena? An oath is more important than our daughter’s sanity?”
The confrontation was cut short by the whisper of the chamber doors sliding open. A woman in the simple, grey robes of a Hestia Healer stood in the doorway. Her presence commanded an immediate, respectful silence.
It was Cassandra Reed, the Omega healer who had attended to Cora Ellis after Damon Blackwood’s fall. I wondered if she found any irony in being here, cleaning up another catastrophe caused by House Zeus and House Hera. Then again, perhaps Hestia’s healers were simply immune to such things.
Her calm, empathetic gaze swept over the room, taking in the scene of raw grief and Olympian tension without judgment.
“Andromeda is stable,” she said. “The impact to her head was severe, but we were able to contain the swelling with a combination of Hephaestus-tech and Hestia’s fire. There appears to be no permanent damage. She is resting now and will likely wake within the next few hours.”
A collective, shuddering sigh of relief went through the room. Robert sagged against Elias, the fight finally draining out of him. Even my father’s rigid posture seemed to relax by a fraction. The immediate threat had passed.
But the curse remained.
Cassandra continued to speak, her tone gentle but firm. “While her physical injuries are mending, her nervous system is… chaotic. It’s a pattern consistent with an Omega who has undergone extreme emotional and psychological distress. We can keep her sedated, but we can’t heal the underlying cause.” She looked directly at Helena. “Whatever is happening to her, the source is not physical.”
Her words hung in the air, and it was all the confirmation Helena needed. The matriarch of House Hera, who had been crumbling under the weight of her guilt, seemed to find a new resolve. The indecision and shame were burned away, replaced by the hard certainty of a leader making an impossible choice.
She straightened her spine, and all traces of the distraught mother vanished. “Healer Reed,” Helena said. “You will keep her sedated. Do not let her wake.”
Robert’s head snapped up. “What? Helena, no! I want to see her.”
“You will,” Helena said, turning to him, her expression now unreadable. “But not here. Not now.”
She faced Cassandra Reed again, her voice ringing with the weight of an official edict. “Prepare her for transport. I am taking my daughter to Heraion.”
10
The Heraion
Andie
The first thing that hit me when I awoke was the headache. My head was pounding hard enough to make me scream.Gods, just how much did I drink last night?
No… Something else was wrong here. Hangovers didn’t smell like cypress and oleander.
I forced my eyes open against the stabbing daylight. I was surrounded by white walls decorated with much too familiar-looking carvings. Gauzy curtains drifted in the breeze from an open window. The humidity settled on my skin like a second layer, thick and cloying.
The sheets were pure silk, expensive and soft against my bare arms. I pushed myself upright, ignoring the protest from my skull. My mouth tasted like cotton and copper. The last thing I remembered was the damned Eurydice-themed wedding. The bride’s sister had said something that triggered absolute chaos. The cake had fallen. Then, nothing.
“What the hell happened?” I murmured to myself. “Where am I?”
There was only one way to find out. I threw off the sheets and crossed to the window on unsteady legs. The view stole what little breath I had left. Endless Aegean blue stretched to the horizon, waves catching sunlight like scattered diamonds. White buildings cascaded down the hillside below, their architecture ancient and weathered. Olive and apple trees dotted the landscape, their leaves shimmering in the breeze.
It took me seconds to realize what should’ve been obvious from the start. This was the Heraion in Samos. My mother must have kidnapped me while I was unconscious. Because that’s what Olympians did. They took what they wanted, when they wanted, consequences and consent be damned.
I was once again the captive of my blood. “No. I don’t want this.”
“I know,” a familiar voice said from behind me. “But it’s what you need, anyway.”
I pivoted on my heel and turned toward the door. And there she was, my mother, wearing a pristine white robe that somehowmanaged to look both ancient and expensive. The fabric draped perfectly despite the humidity. Weather-appropriate elegance, because Helena Winters never looked anything less than flawless.
“I’m so glad to see you awake, dearest,” she said, her voice emanating maternal kindness.
I would’ve believed that tone once. When I was six and she’d bandaged my scraped knee, singing Greek lullabies while I cried. When she’d been my whole world, the sophisticated mother who showered me with attention and gifts. Before I’d been old enough to see the rot underneath House Hera’s perfect facade. Before I’d chosen Elias and Robert over her manipulation and control.