“Why do they do that?” Marius asked. The firelight flickered on the walls and cast the room in a dim light. It was still better than going to bed as the sun set and relying on it to wake one up.
“They fear to control these abilities,” Janus said. “To draw the powers of other metas freely would be to draw the ire of Jupiter himself upon you. He has forbidden this thing, and now that his brother is dead, no one would stand against him.” Janus landed a hand on Marius’s covered shoulder. “What we do now, should you wish to proceed, will bring with it some risk. Should we be discovered by the others, they will try everything they can to kill you. Your kind has been hated and feared by the rest of metakind since they discovered what power you have over them. ‘Soul stealers,’ they call you, and revile your touch. They cast you out of their cities, out of their company, and kill you when they think they can do it unobserved. I have seen this myself and done all I can to ward against it.”
Marius felt himself swallow again. “Will they ask about my powers eventually? If I continue to show up in your company?”
“Almost certainly,” Janus said, no sense of deception about him. Marius could feel the bracing honesty, the sense of urgency. “Which is why it is of the utmost importance that we acquire for you some power that you can lean on, and as quickly as possible.” Janus stood straight again, his face foreboding. “From there, it will be up to you to learn to entice and enthrall that soul, to make it enough your own that its will is broken to yours and its power is in your own hands.”
“How do I do that?” Marius asked into the silence that followed. He could feel his own fear building on itself—first at the thought of having no power to show the other gods and goddesses if asked, and second at the thought of failing to bend some mind to his will. Failure in either case would be the same, he thought.
“I am not entirely sure,” Janus admitted. “And thus we come to another crucial bend in the plan. I place a burden upon you now that you must decide whether you wish to take up.” He sniffed. “Once we meet with Ares—Mars—and I have spoken to him about what must be done, should he agree with my thinking—and I rather suspect he will, based on the emotions I feel from him—then we are committed to action. Your role and abilities must be a secret up until the very second they are needed. This is for your own sake, and ours. You must decide for yourself whether this is a path you wish to undertake. For once we begin down it, it is thorny and walks the edge of a cliff. There will be no leaving it save for down into the abyss below, and be assured that that is the direction we will go should we make even one misstep along the way.”
Marius turned to look back in the cloudy glass. He could see himself, barely. He had only seen himself in the reflection of a cold, crisp pond on a still morning before. This was new and different and still very foreign, like the candles and hearths.
But he liked it. He liked it all.
And to fail meant having to leave, to hide, to go back to the shadows once more, taking shelter wherever he might find it.
“I will do it,” he said and felt the determination within himself. “Whatever it takes, I will do it. I will bend a will to my own.”
He felt the pressure of Janus’s hand on his shoulder once more. “I am proud this day, Marius. It is one thing for a man to say he will do something that he fears. It is another to make a true commitment in the face of fear. It would be a simple thing for you to have run. It is quite a bit more complex to face your fears in the way you have chosen.” Marius felt the hand leave his shoulder with one more squeeze. “Prepare yourself. Diana will be along shortly, and we should sup together. As a family.”
With that, Janus left, but Marius sat there staring at the mirror for a while longer.
Family.
Home.
With one last breath to give himself courage, he turned and walked toward the door. With each step he felt more certain than the last.
Chapter 39
Sienna
Now
I awoke to a gentle shake, opening my eyes to see Scott kneeling by my side. “You should be more careful waking me up,” I said sleepily, “it could get you killed.”
“If it means a morning kiss, I might be willing to go out that way,” he said.
I ran my tongue over the inside of my mouth. “If you could smell my breath right now, you might change your mind.” I shifted my body, rolling it to sit up on the edge of the couch. “What time is it?”
“Just after five,” Scott said. “Looks like you needed that sleep.”
“Yeah,” I said, and smacked my lips together. “What’s the word?”