It was my turn.

Now I understood why the Sibyl had taken my brother, and the only thing standing in the way of getting him back was the Mark.

That night, I tried not to overthink Bax’s reaction. On one hand, he was right. It was a lot to process. I couldn’t take it personally.

But I didn’t have the luxury of time. I couldn’t wait for Bax to decide whether or not he believed I was a Muse. I had no choice but to believe in the unbelievable, or risk losing Troy forever.

And if Bax didn’t believe me, I’d have to move forward alone.

The Sibyl’s threat rang in my ears the rest of the school day, overpowering everything else. I didn’t hear Daria’s lunchtime chatter and couldn’t recall Nyx’s pettiness on the volleyball court. As I left practice to meet Bax at the front gate, the Sibyl’s words continued to torment me.

I will send everything you love to the Underworld!

Since the day Troy disappeared, I’d thought Pluto had kidnapped him and taken him to the Underworld like my mother. But it was the Sibyl who haunted my dreams, who said I was the only one who could release her.

She had Troy. I knew it in my gut.

That night, my dreams were a jumble of nightmares.

Troy stood behind a wavering hologram of the words of my destiny, flanked by faceless attackers in black robes.

“Read it or they’ll kill me!” he shouted.

Ding!

I squeezed my eyes tighter, waiting for Mercury to grab me, for the weight of my punishment.

“Eden!”

The voice wasn’t as deep and gravelly as Mercury’s, but still I shivered as I opened one eye, shoulders lifted in fear.

In my room, I shoved my homework to the side and stared at the wall.

Calliope’s earrings twitched. Get Notebook 19.

My grandma’s “gift” was starting to feel like a curse. Why had I been condemned to obey the wishes of some ancient jewelry?

I don’t remember how long I stood in front of the faded vision, grasping for my mother’s soul, or how I stopped crying. Eventually, Mercury landed the bus with a bump in front of Franco’s produce stand and reversed the calming spell with a wave of his hand. The other students woke as though from a long nap and lazily gathered their things.

As I stumbled off the bus behind Alessi, my earrings vibrated and I looked back at the messenger of the Gods. With a humble tip of his driver’s cap, Mercury said, It is your destiny, Eden, not your burden.

As the bus soared in and out of clouds on its magic autopilot, Mercury gathered a ball of gold dust in his hands, just as my grandmother had done, and released it into the air.

A vision appeared between us…

My heart was still pounding as I entered the gym and expected a major backlash from Nyx. The team was in the middle of warm-ups and everyone looked up when I jogged to the back. Nyx and I made eye contact, but her ice queen glare held no hint of our locker room confrontation or of the arrow she’d barely missed. Somehow, that made me even angrier. For a split second, I wished that my arrow, gold dust or not, had pierced her heart…