“I hear you’ve been terrorizing a young woman,” Athena said. Even her voice had changed, losing power and resonance. She sounded human and reminded him so much of Sophie, it hurt. The two females could be friends. Family. In a way, they were.

“I’ve been trying to get back what’s mine from a thief. Are you a thief, too?” Novalight demanded.

“What’s yours?” Athena laughed, the sound like shattered glass falling from a skyscraper. Her human veneer cracked, hinting at the deity beneath. “You speak awfully boldly for a man who doesn’t know what he’s talking about.”

Color mottled Novalight’s cheeks. “And who are you?”

Athena’s smile turned blade sharp. Maybe she couldn’t fit into the city that easily after all. “I’m the one who knows who that…crystal…really belongs to. It belongs to my father. I’m taking it to him.”

Novalight barked a laugh.

Athena looked far from amused, and Piers drew his sword, flanking her in the now-crowded room. Novalight looked at Piers’s weapon with disdain, maybe thinking it was a fake. Then his breathing changed.

Piers smiled. That’s right. Not a toy. Novalight had scared Sophie. He deserved to know fear in return.

Piers didn’t want him dead, though. Novalight was his alternate solution in this game of bargaining souls.

“If someone must be taken, then why not take him? Maybe you could give him to Ares,” Piers cautiously suggested. “See how well he fares?” That would’ve been Kaia’s fate if Piers hadn’t offered to take her place. Ares had accepted, but then Athena swooped in and snatched Piers for this. Ares was down one soul he should’ve commanded, and Novalight could be it.

Athena pursed her lips. “Unfortunately, that’s not possible. The Moirai have decreed his bloodline too important to future events. He must go on to produce children here on Earth.”

Piers’s heart sank. Not even Zeus could overrule the will of the Fates. So, this was it. It would be him.

Or gods forbid, Sophie.

“Here on Earth? What are you two lunatics talking about?” Novalight’s wary gaze darted over them both, then to Piers’s sword again.

“We’re talking about life and death, the fate of men in the cosmos, and the role of destiny,” Athena said blithely. “And really, this world considers him a genius?” She rolled her eyes.

Piers barely registered her scorn. His gut had turned to stone the moment his bargaining chip got swept off the table. His only concern now was Sophie and her life—making sure she lived it in peace.

Novalight chose that moment to lunge at him. Piers brought the hilt of his sword up whip-fast and cracked him in the face. This journey had begun with a broken nose. It might as well end with one.