echoed in Helen, her face was pale and empty. She looked away.
?Four Houses in Three Heirs,? the many voices continued to
chant. ?The Star-Crossed Lovers have preserved the bloodlines.
And the Three shall raise Atlantis.?
A strange hush overtook the room, like the pause between a
blinding flash of lightning and the deafening roar of thunder that
inevitably follows.
?Sibyl!? Daphne said suddenly, addressing Cassandra by the
most ancient title of her office. ?I beg you to answer me! How can
the Scions rid themselves of the Furies??
?She can?t control them yet!? Castor gasped at Daphne, whose
face had grown greedy and desperate. Helen?s mind flashed back to
Daphne?s sudden decision to come back to the House of Thebes
with Lucas, and she knew that this was what her mother had
wanted all along.
Castor grabbed Daphne?s arm, pulling her away from his daughter,
but it was too late. The Three Fates had been officially
summoned into the body of the Oracle to answer a direct question,
and they would not be stopped. Cassandra?s mouth glowed, her
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hair writhed, and her head snapped back. Her eyes grew rheumy
with cataracts and her skin wrinkled. An old woman forcibly
pushed her way through a young girl?s shell like she was tearing
through a piece of paper. Convulsing, the old woman turned into
another woman, and then a third, as the many voices chimed out of
her.
?The Descender must go down to those who cannot forgive and
cannot forget. The Descender and her Shield will free the Three
from their suffering as she will free the Houses from the cycle of
blood for blood,? they said, and then went silent.