The Secret Fire Read Online Free

friend, but she really didn’t care about us. She wanted to rule the world too!
    I jabbed again and again. “Let me out!”
    â€œFather, please release—”
    â€œSilence!” he bellowed. His eyes flashed as if little lightbulbs had exploded behind his irises.
    Pyrrha stopped pleading. I shrank back against my seat. Panic turned to fear and for a moment I thought I might throw up.
    When he spoke again, his voice was steady, but as intimidating as ever. “Pyrrha, you are free to go if you so choose. I will not stop you from returning to your mother. However, if you stay, I will welcome you as my daughter, and you shall become part of my glorious plan. But I will expect your loyalty to me, and not to the gods .” He cringed as he said those last two words. “Do you understand?”
    She nodded.
    â€œJacqueline, on the other hand, is not free to go until my conditions are met.” He moved his fedora aside and calmly folded his hands on his lap. His frosty gaze settled on me. “I have full confidence that Tyler and Ethan Hoche will be successful. Two urns for the life of their cousin seems a fair price, to be delivered to me by eight a.m. tomorrow morning. But if they are unsuccessful, well, the life of one mortal girl means nothing in the grand scheme of things.”
    I decided that if I did throw up, I’d aim it right at him!
    We were moving quickly now, zipping past other cars. I didn’t know the area so I had no idea where we were.
    â€œI know that you and your cousins possess the urn of Hope. And I highly suspect that you might possess the urn of Love, or at least know where it is. Therefore I am confident that they will deliver both urns to me.” He paused. “What were you doing in the museum?” He was still staring at me. Didn’t he ever blink?
    â€œLooking around,” I said, trying to sound bored. I hadn’t actually looked at anything in the Museum of Fine Arts. I’d spent the whole time in the women’s bathroom, disabling the security system. But I’d been in enough museums to take a good guess. “You know, paintings, statues, stuff like that.” I shrugged. “My cousin Ethan wanted to go there. He’s a total nerd. He loves history. To tell you the truth, I was really bored.” Did he believe me? I couldn’t tell. He seemed to wear one expression—menacing.
    It was starting to get warm in there. I wanted to take off my purple jacket but I was afraid I mightexpose the hidden phone.
    â€œWhy did you leave the museum before your cousins?”
    â€œI was bored,” I repeated. “I told them I’d meet them outside. Jeez, what is this? An interrogation? Can’t a person visit a stupid museum?”
    It seemed like a good lie, but I knew it wouldn’t work. Pyrrha had joined his side. She’d tell him the truth—that we’d gone into the Museum of Fine Arts to find the urn of Love so we could return it to Zeus and have it destroyed. I held my breath, waiting for her to say something.
    â€œIt is true, Father,” she said innocently. “We were going to meet Jax outside. Ethan wanted to see the museum. He said there were many Greek artifacts that might interest me. I was not impressed. I preferred the Egyptian wing.”
    I took a slow breath. What was she doing? Why was she lying to him? She’d said nothing about the urn of Love. Had they found it? Or was it still inside the museum? I had no way of knowing. But she hadn’t told him anything about it. Was she still on our side after all?
    â€œFather,” she said. “I came here to find you. I will not return to our realm without you. We canbeg Zeus for forgiveness. And then we can be a family again.” Her voice began to waver, as if she might cry. “Mother and I have missed you.”
    His jaw clenched. A little vein throbbed at the corner. Then, he erupted. “I will beg no one for