Sin City Goddess Read Online Free Page B

vibrating in my back with utter frustration.
    Meg said quietly, “Yes, I think someone took her.”
    As Furies, we all had tempers. We’d learned to control them over time, but Alecto—the youngest of us—was the worst of all. Her name actually meant “unceasing anger.” I could not imagine anyone’s trying to kidnap her and getting away with it. In fact, I was willing to bet that whoever had her was sorely regretting his decision.
    “How could this happen? How is it even possible?” I shouted again. “Was it another god? A human?” I rushed forward, shook my sister. “Who?”
    Meg twisted her arms free, stood, and screamed back as smoke billowed from her ears. “I don’t know, Tisiphone! Curb your fury, or, I am warning you, I will curb it for you!”
    We glared at each other.
    Zeus stepped forward then. “That’s enough, ladies. This is not helping.”
    I spun around and kicked the wall. None of this made any sense.
    “Athena,” I asked, remembering something, “did you not invent a device that monitors the gods and goddesses while in the mortal world? Can you not track Alecto through your machine?” Shortly after my crime, thirty-five years earlier, the Fates had insisted on a tool to better watch over us while we performed our duties.
    Athena nodded. “Yes, there are measures in place to track goddesses who travel through portals, but we don’t track them on holiday unless they plan to be gone a full moon cycle. Your sisters planned on being away only two weeks.”
    “So can’t you try?”
    “We have, Tisiphone, but the signal that was trained on Alex has been compromised. Whether by accident or intentionally, we don’t know for certain.” Her eyes softened as she tried to reason with me. “Believe me, we’ve exhausted all the options, run through all the scenarios. We wouldn’t have called on you otherwise.”
    “And we cannot waste time arguing,” Hades said. “You have less than a week to find Alecto and bring her home.”
    “And why is that?” I asked.
    Athena shifted uncomfortably. “Because when the new moon arrives under the earthly cycle, her tether will break. And we may never be able to retrieve her. It’s the law of the Fates, I’m afraid. No unplanned absences.”
    I raised one eyebrow, looked at Meg, and said, “Well, that’s just brilliant.”
    My sister threw her hands in the air and said, “I’m done listening to this.” She started for the door.
    “Oh, no you aren’t.”
    I reeled her toward me, and in a fit of rage her wings snapped open. I unlocked mine as well, and we stared each other down.
    “This is your mistake. You fix it, Meg.” I looked at Hades, pointed to my stubborn sister. “Send her.”
    Hades said firmly, “We can’t. Whoever the kidnapper is knows what she looks like. We cannot risk it.”
    “It has to be you, Tisiphone. You’re Alecto’s only hope,” said Athena.
    I flapped my wings to think, and a gust of wind blew several papers to the floor. Then I had it. “She can inhabit a mortal form.” I looked at Artemis. “Aphrodite did it on one of her quests. What was the name of that mortal?”
    “Norma Jeane Baker, or Marilyn Monroe after Aphrodite’s transformation. But that takes weeks to prepare. And it didn’t have the outcome we had hoped for.”
    “There’s no time, Tisi,” Athena said.
    Meg retracted her wings. “I had every intention of going back myself, Tisiphone.”
    I studied her eyes. She was telling the truth. I flicked my gaze to Hades and tucked my wings away too. “What difference does it make if they recognize Meg? She could be the bait that leads directly to Alex.” It made sense. She had been there only recently. She knew the land. I didn’t. She was versed in the people. I wasn’t. And, most importantly, she could tolerate the mortals. She hadn’t killed a single one.
    I continued, trying to convince them that this was a better plan. “Athena can monitor Meg. Should the kidnappers try to take Meg,