Page 31 of Divine Violence
Four could play this game, but she wouldn’t be the winner. I would make sure of it.
This day waswhat The Order of Themis trained me for. This was what I was born for, yet I couldn’t shake off this feeling of loss as if something was taken from me. Something extremely important.
I knew what needed to be done. I knew it ever since one of our messengers came to me with the task, after I alerted them of the package I’d received. But knowing it and doing it were two different things, and I hated myself for everything I said over the mic.
I wanted them broken. We wanted them broken, terrified, lost, just how most of us were lost, but I never thought that saying all those vile things aloud would remind me that this wasn’t what I signed up for. Did I want them to pay for all their sins? Yes, yes I did.
But was this the right way?
My heart broke as I went through those vile things The Order gave me to read. Everything would’ve been fine if I hadn’t had to read the ones for Dominic. Maybe he was a monster, they all were, but killing them would’ve been easier than destroying their public image in front of all their friends.
As soon as I ran out of that room, I alerted Athanasya that the plan was in motion, that we needed to act now, or they would’ve had to pull me off the island. She was ready, just how she always was, but I had no idea that the plan would involve gathering all heir peers around the maze while I spewed all those vicious and dark things they kept hidden from the rest of the world.
I wanted justice, not to humiliate them.
Themis, the Greek Goddess of justice our Order got the name from, often wore a blindfold on pictures and statues that represented her. I wondered now how many times she judged wrongly just because she didn’t see the entire picture?
Was I just like her now, judging these three men when I didn’t have the entire picture in front of me?
But they were vicious. They were cruel. They would’ve killed you just like all those other girls.
Would they? I wasn’t so sure about it anymore, especially not after the way that Alexander cared for me, or the way that Kairos carried me. Even in his madness, Dominic seemed to want me more than he wanted me gone. Did I screw this up?
“They’re almost out of the maze.” Athanasya spoke from behind me, and as I turned around, I could see her in her white toga, standing at the entrance to the old church that was here long before the Adair family bought this island. “You know what you need to do.”
Her blond hair swayed in the wind, and she looked more than ever like a true Goddess, judging others without proof.
“Are you sure we’re doing the right thing?” I dared to ask. Even though I hated the way her eyes blazed toward me and her lips set into a thin line, I had to know.
Were we truly the heroes or were we the villains in this story?
“Echo Selene Selke,” she spoke as she glided toward me. “Are you questioning our methods?”
“No.” I shook my head. “I’m questioning the things we think we know and all the other facts we don’t. Sometimes it’s very easy to mistake good from evil, and what might seem like doing the right thing, might be the complete opposite one.”
“We are doing the right thing,” she answered. “You are doing the right thing by ridding this world of these men. Just remember all the girls who disappeared from here. How did their families feel? Their friends? Do you think that these men cared if they were doing the wrong thing? They just took and took and took until there was nothing else to take. They discarded them, just like that, without thinking about the consequences. You know it as much as I do. I don’t understand why you’re wavering right now.”
Taking a deep breath, I turned toward the maze, waiting for them to emerge. “I just,” I started. “It feels wrong, doing this to them. I don’t know why.”
I could feel her eyes on me, calculating, observing. I hated that she could see how uncertain I was of this whole thing.
I hated even more that those words so callously uttered by me were what made me stop and think about this whole thing. I hated injustice. I hated the people that sat on their golden thrones, having everything they ever wanted, while others had nothing.
I hated the division between people. I hated even more the fact that those three men were connected to the families that ended up destroying mine.
I knew that Dominic’s father and my mother chose each other instead of their spouses. I knew that the Adair family ordered a hit on my father, and my mother was just collateral damage in the conflict. But reading all those other things and knowing that they weren’t having such perfect lives as they made other people think, made me rethink if they were the true villains of this story or if it was me.
But they killed all those girls. They made them disappear.
Did they? Were they the culprits or was it someone else?
“Remember your duty, Echo,” Athanasya reminded me. “Remember who you are and why you are here. Don’t let your heart lead this game. Use your brain.”
I turned around to argue with her, but she was already gone, and I knew what that meant. I knew it with every fiber of my body because I could feel their gazes on my back.
Like the three devils, Kairos, Alexander, and Dominic emerged from the maze. Kairos was limping, and I couldn’t stop myself from smirking at his obvious distress.
Judging from the looks on their faces as they strolled over the clearing, they weren’t coming here to make me their Maiden. They were coming to kill me.
