Last Shadow || Deception Book III

Snapshot

Secrets, betrayals, lies, truth.

Some people keep secrets to protect others. Some people lie to do the same. The victims always say they would rather hear the truth, the buried secrets, than be lied to. Because that's betrayal, isn't it?

But what if the reasons for lies and secrets are necessary to protect those from themselves? What if, by telling a truth, one creates room FOR betrayal?

What if the truth hurts more than the lie? 

Clarianna:

I thought the secrets had all been laid out on the table before me that winter night, three years ago, when I had stood in front of the twelve Olympians and said I would be their spy. I was wrong. There was one left, one final, devastating lie that flipped my world upside down. I wasn't who I thought I was. That girl who thought she lived in a simple, straightforward demigod life had vanished with the starlight of the night sky, the green smoke of the Oracle, the sunlight of day. I thought it would have been easy. Infiltrate, gather information, report, rinse and repeat until the war. But I was naive to think life was that straightforward. There are always two sides to every story. Two winners. Two losers. Neither comes out the wiser. And I don't know how this story will end. I don't know where my path will take me. All I know is that this all started with a lie. I fell over the blade's edge. And I'm still falling, with no bottom in sight.

Luke:

I made the right decision. I know I did. You've seen the cruelty of the gods. They don't care about us. They don't care about anything but their egos and power. Under their rule, we suffered for thousands of years, pursued relentlessly for years by monsters we had no prior knowledge of. How many of us have died, prey to monsters, or as pawns of the gods?

The Titans would be better. He has promised me a world where we can live without fear, without glancing over our shoulders in paranoia, without the horror of the darkness, without sleepless, black nights. A world where all of us are safe.

Right?

That was what I believed, with my heart, mind, and soul.

Until I met her. A daughter of the goddess of magic. A girl with sharp, clever green eyes and a streak of cunningness to scare even my pathetic excuse of a father away and a heart of gold that would melt even the iciest, most dead of hearts. That was what she did for me. I told her that we could just run away and leave all this behind us.

But then, she vanished, like the mist in the morning sun. Just like she'd appeared to me, three years ago, on a rainy night in a whirl of smoke. She left me, alone, in the hands of the Titan Lord I'd trapped myself to. She said she would stay. But she didn't. And soon, it would be too late. For me, for her, and the rest of the world. Because Kronos has plans. Plans that are about to be put into motion.