Lela Eder: You are a serendipitous blessing for me. I love that you are such a go-getter and you pick up the slack before I’m even aware of it happening.
To Kelly Hashway: You’re an incredible editor, and my stories are better because of you. Heaps and heaps of thanks!
Krystal Wade: I usually cringe when I get my MS back from you, but by the time we’re done I want to hug you I’m so proud of what you’ve helped me create. XOXO
Jo Michaels: You have artistic-formatting super-powers! And you’re just awesome.
To my Raye-Team: I hear the A-team music when I say that, and you definitely have amazing talents and abilities among you. I’m not kidding about that someday-dream when we all get together!
Mythic Muses: You are the best launch team ever! I recently had another author contact me about my secret, and I had to tell her I just have the most incredible team. Love you all!!
Renegades!! I never knew having a fan group could be so much fun. Thanks for your encouragement and all your enthusiasm!
And a special thank you to Dawn Yacovetta and Janelle Dudley. You’ve both got incredible talent and perspective, and I consider myself blessed that you both had the courage to message me!!
And you . . . the reader of my words. I hope you find power in the stories you read, and pleasure as you read them. Thank you for spending your time with me.
Index of Characters and Mythology Figures
Hope: the Sphinx
Leto: Hope’s mother; also a Sphinx
Priska: Hope’s “aunt,” tasked with protecting Leto and Hope, demigod daughter of Artemis
Charlie Davenport: Priska’s employer
Athan: demigod son of Hermes
Haley: Hope’s friend from school
Mr. Stanley: a butcher who is kind to Hope; Haley’s father
Xan: demigod son of Ares
Dahlia: daughter of Eris, Xan’s cousin, friend of Hope
Ares: god of war, bloodshed, and violence; father of Xan
Aphrodite: goddess of love, beauty, desire, and pleasure
Athena: goddess of wisdom, courage, justice, skill, warfare, battle strategy, and handicrafts
Apollo: god of music, truth, and prophecy; twin brother to Artemis. Fell in love with Phoibe and cursed her daughter, Phaidra, when she refused his advances. Hunts Hope and Hope’s mother, Leto.
Artemis: virgin goddess of the hunt, twin sister to Apollo. Mother to Priska.
Boreas: god of winter and the north wind
Demeter: goddess of grain, agriculture and the harvest, growth, and nourishment
Dionysus: god of wine, parties and festivals, madness, chaos, drunkenness, ecstasy, and drugs
Eros: god of love and desire
Charon: the ferryman who carries souls across the rivers Styx and Acheron
The Fates: three incarnations of destiny, primordial deities who are even more powerful than the Olympians; Atropos (the cutter of life’s thread), Lachesis (the measurer), and Clotho (the spinner) are destiny personified. Collectively known as Moirai.
The Furies: primordial goddesses of vengeance: Tisiphone (avenger or murder), Megaera (the jealous) and Alecto (constant anger). Daughters of Nyx, sisters to the Fates. Collectively known as the Erinyes.
The Graeae: three ancient sea spirits who personified the white foam of the sea; they shared one eye and one tooth among them. By name: Deino, Enyo, and Pemphredo.
Hades: ruler of the Underworld; god of the Earth’s hidden wealth, both agricultural produce and precious metals; married to Persephone.
Hephaestus: god of fire, metalworking, and crafts; father to Mr. Stanley
Hera: queen of the heavens and goddess of marriage and fidelity, childbirth, heirs, kings, and empires.
Hermes: god of commerce, boundaries, travel, thievery, trickery, language, writing, diplomacy, athletics, and animal husbandry; father of Athan
Hestia: goddess of the home, hearth, and chastity; mother of Obelia
Hypnos: god of sleep
Leto: Titan goddess of Motherhood
Persephone: wife of Hades; queen of the Underworld; daughter of Zeus; goddess of spring growth.
Poseidon: god of the sea, rivers, floods, droughts, earthquakes, and the creator of horses.
Skia: immortal creatures from the Underworld
Thanatos: the personification of death, twin brother to Hypnos.
Zeus: king of the gods, ruler of Mount Olympus, and god of the sky, lightning, thunder, weather, law, order, and fate.
About the Author
Raye Wagner grew up in Seattle, the second of eight children, and learned to escape chaos through the pages of fiction. As a youth, she read the likes of David Eddings, Leon Uris, and Jane Austen. As an adult she fell in love with Rick Riordan’s Percy Jackson series (shocker!) and Stephanie Meyer’s Twilight (really!) and was inspired to pursue her dream of writing young adult fiction. Raye enjoys baking, puzzles, Tae Kwon Do, and the sound of waves lapping at the sand. She lives with her husband and three children in Middle Tennessee.
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