"No."

Odalia blinked. "That was…you do realize that was a rhetorical question, don't you?"

Amity would have rolled her eyes if the situation wasn't so dire. She'd gotten so engrossed in romancing Luz and solving Atlantis's immortality problem that she'd completely forgotten about the obviously evil Odalia. For some reason, she'd gone along with Aunt Eda's atypical trust despite the blatantly obvious fact that Odalia was shadier than her own shadow. And now everyone was going to reap the consequences. The Atlanteans may not have been able to die, but they were still able to get hurt, and, of course, Amity herself was quite mortal.

"I don't care," Queen Camila responded. "Guards! Get these interlopers out of my palace at once!"

Odalia nodded at her troops, who peppered the guards with bullets in a thunderous rush of sound and light. None of the guards, all armed with spears or other melee weapons, got anywhere near the armed mercenaries. Though they could not die, they were clearly in excruciating agony, seeming to have more open wounds than visible flesh.

"Let me make this very clear," Odalia said smugly. "I am in control here. You will do whatever I say or suffer the consequences. Men! Bring in the rest of the crew!"

Three of the mercenaries saluted and left. Odalia tried her best to gloat, but Amity tuned most of it out. The truth was obvious anyway. It didn't require a very lengthy villainous monologue, one that seemed almost interminably. Odalia had been playing Aunt Eda all along in an effort to get her hands on the Heart of Kronos. She'd been the one who'd removed the pages from the journal. It was impossible to know what Odalia might do with the Heart, but whatever it was, it would be very bad. At the very least, she could make herself immortal with it. Or maybe sell it to people even eviler than her so they could make themselves immortal.

"CURSE YOUR SUDDEN BUT INEVITABLE BETRAYAL, BLIGHT!" Hunter thundered as he was dragged into the room by the returned mercenaries along with the rest of the crew. Even Hooty, though the monstrosity had clearly put up a good fight, given that the mercenary holding him was missing half his ear.

"What a completely unexpected turn of events!" Aunt Eda said completely sincerely. "Who could have ever seen this coming?"

"Literally anyone!" Amity screamed at her. She was really pissed at her aunt for being such a bad judge of character. She couldn't understand why Aunt Eda had such a blind spot when it came to Odalia, but it was all coming back to haunt them.

"You'll never get away with this, Odalia!" Willow said. She elbowed the mercenary holding her in the solar plexus, only for her elbow to bounce off the armor he was wearing with a clang and a yelp of pain from her.

Odalia smirked. "Oh, I wouldn't be so quick to judge me if I were you, Deamonne. Amity doesn't know that we were working together, does she?!" She threw back her head and laughed maniacally.

Hunter sighed. "Odalia, we explicitly told you our plan was off when we found out there were people living down here." He looked over at Aunt Eda apologetically. "Yeah, we did plan on stealing some of the loot down here for ourselves. But that was back when we thought we'd find a ruin and no one would get hurt."

Aunt Eda gasped. "Who was in on this plan?"

Gus, Willow, Hunter, and Hooty all sheepishly raised their hands. "Sorry?" Gus offered.

"You mean to tell me you were planning on scamming me?" Aunt Eda said. Willow nodded. "I knew there was a reason I liked you guys!"

Odalia fired her gun into the air. "ENOUGH CHATTER! You will lead us to the Heart of Atlantis, Your Majesty, or I will start executing hostages."

Queen Camila drew herself up defiantly, sorrow and resolution both highly visible on her face. "The Heart of Kronos is a gift from the Titan who gave us all life," she said crisply. "It is the essence of our people. I will not hand it over to some blackhearted scoundrel such as yourself."

Odalia shrugged. "All right, then," she said, and shot Hooty in the back of the head. Everyone let out a scream as a substance that appeared to bear a suspicious resemblance to maple syrup splattered all over them. Much to Amity's bewilderment, the wound closed near instantaneously with absolutely no indication he'd been shot.

"Stop tickling me, hoot hoot!" Hooty said irritably.

"What…what just happened?" Willow asked. Gus shrugged and then shuddered.

"Enough trickery!" Odalia snarled and turned to point her gun straight at Amity's head. Amity let out a squeak of fear, but didn't say anything. She wasn't about to give this monster the satisfaction of having Amity beg for mercy. "You have ten seconds before I kill her!"

Tears streamed down Queen Camila's cheek, but she didn't waver for a second. Amity didn't mind, even though it would likely mean her imminent death. It was the right thing to do. But when Odalia reached two, Luz screamed out, "I KNOW WHERE IT IS!"

"Mija, don't!" Queen Camila begged her. "Don't let her win!"

"I'm so sorry, mami," Luz said. "But I have to do this. I can't let Amity die." Amity was torn between wanting to swoon at how romantic the comment was and wanting to shake Luz due to how dumb the comment was. She compromised by giving a disappointed sigh. "Just promise you won't hurt my family."

"Absolutely, dear," Odalia said immediately. Amity didn't believe a single word of it. She'd seen just how untrustworthy Odalia could be firsthand. Anyone who could unhesitatingly try to kill the father of a young child was capable of just about anything.

Odalia had her mercenaries lead them all out of the room at gunpoint. And to think, this evening had started out so lovely. Odalia really knew how to ruin a mood. Now Amity was most likely going to die. At least she'd had a kiss from the most beautiful girl in the world before that could happen. If she was going to die, she'd die with a smile on her lips and a song in her heart. It was the least she could do.

Amity prayed Luz was trying to pull some sort of trick on her captors, but she led them straight to the lake where the Heart was buried. The people of the city didn't help them; the remaining mercenaries had taken control of the city and no one seemed to be willing to lift a finger to rebel. Amity wasn't sure whether it was out of fear, a desire to see Queen Camila defeated, or sheer apathy.

"Luz, do you have something you want to tell me?" Queen Camila demanded, her eyes narrowed in suspicion at just how Luz knew how to find the Heart.

"Nope!" Luz said jauntily, like she was out for a stroll instead of being led to her death.

Odalia whispered something into one of the mercenaries' ears and he left, shortly returning with some sort of machine Amity didn't recognize. At a nod from Odalia, the machine sucked all the water out of the pond. Queen Camila flinched at seeing the blasted open temple door. She appeared to be lost in thought. Amity had no clue what was going on in her head, but she had a hunch none of it was good.

"Luz, stop this now," Queen Camila begged. "You don't understand what the Heart can do! You can't let this homicidal maniac get her hands on the power of the very Titan himself!"

"So, again, everyone else but you has to make the sacrifices, don't they?" Luz said bitterly. "You know, you completely ruined my life. Every time something good happened to me, you took it away from me. All because you saw creativity and imagination as the enemy! You locked us in this stasis, because you were too scared to accept the truth!"

Queen Camila met Luz's glare with an equally fierce one of her own. "And what is that, Luz?"

"That Papi died for nothing!" Luz screamed at her and Queen Camila flinched as if she'd been struck. "You killed him for nothing!"

"I did not kill him," Queen Camila said. It wasn't said in a defiant tone. It was said in a defeated one, almost mumbled.

Luz let out a guttural snarl. "It was your fault!"

Queen Camila looked at the floor. "You're right about that. It was my fault. But I did not kill him. It's about time you knew. I should tell you the truth now, as I should have done thousands of years ago."

No one dared even say a word. Even Odalia seemed invested in the story. But it didn't stop her from having her troops force them into the temple, where the Heart of Kronos continued to beat inexorably at its place above the altar. Tears flowed openly from Queen Camila's cheeks. She sank to her knees. "I'm so sorry, Manny," she whispered. "I'm so, so sorry."

Odalia reached for the heart, only to be thrown across the room with what appeared to be an electric shock the moment her hand came near it. "What is this?!" she screamed, and pointed her gun at Amity's head again. "Tell me how to take the Heart or she dies."

Queen Camila put up a hand, her face now looking eerily composed. "Allow me to tell my story, Odalia, and I will give you the Heart. I swear it upon my husband's grave." Odalia hesitated for a while, then nodded curtly.

The queen, moving slowly and meticulously, sat down on the altar. Though biologically she was still in her sixties, she seemed at that moment almost as old and feeble as her true chronological age. No empire that had existed when she was born now existed in its original form. She had conquered time itself, and it had done her no good at all.

"Everyone knows the story of how Vee was captured and tortured," Queen Camila began. Vee shuddered. "I'm sorry, mija, but this is where the story begins. They know how Manny led a savage campaign of bloody revenge. But they are wrong. It was never Manny. It was me. I was the one who tried to use Kronos's blessing as a tool of conquest. I brought war and death to our neighbors."

Luz opened her mouth, seemingly planning on saying something, but then closed it. Amity could understand why. What words could possibly suffice? "In truth, Manny was adamantly against my campaign from the start. He saw what revenge was doing to me, how it was turning me into a caricature of myself, concerned only with hurting people. So he decided to take away the weapon I used. Our magic.

"He made his way to the chamber. I followed him, unnoticed. He begged Lord Kronos to save me. To save us all. But Kronos refused. He said we deserve our fate. He blamed us – me – for perverting the glorious gift he gave us as a weapon of conquest. But Manny…he wouldn't give up. And he…"

Vee put a hand on her shoulder. "It's okay, mami," she said softly. "Take your time."

"I didn't sacrifice Manny, sweetie," Camila said. She wasn't speaking as a queen anymore. Just as a mother who was consumed with regret. "He sacrificed himself to the Heart. To save me from myself."

"NO!" Luz screamed. "No, you're lying! You have to be! He…he wouldn't do that! He wouldn't leave me like that!"

Camila sighed. "I wish I was, Luz. I dearly wish I was. By his own laws, Kronos was forced to grant Manny's wish, but he had the last laugh. He sank Atlantis and made us immortal. I was left with my own guilt, my own crushing remorse, and I took everything out on my people. I was wrong, Luz. And you were right all along. I hope you'll be a better ruler than I was."

She lay down on the altar. Amity had a sudden feeling something terrible was about to happen. And she was proven right when Camila suddenly pulled a knife out of a hidden sheath and plunged it into her own chest.

"MAMI!" Luz screamed. She tried to run towards Camila, but two mercenaries grabbed her and held her back. She kicked and screamed, but to no avail. "Don't! Mami, please, I'm so sorry! I didn't mean to hurt you! PLEASE!"

Camila didn't hear her or maybe wasn't listening. Either way, Amity could do nothing but watch helplessly as she reached into her own chest and removed her own heart. "Te…" she managed to breathe out, but the Queen of Atlantis died before she could get out the second word. Luz and Vee both let out ear-piercing and heartbreaking cries of pure, endless sorrow.

The Heart pulsating above them shrunk until it was small enough to fit in the empty hole Camila had left behind, then moved into it. As soon as it had entered her body, the wound closed and the body drew itself up. But Camila wasn't behind the driver's seat. Amity could tell. For one thing, Camila's eyes had never glowed with an almost blinding light. And her skin was never cracked with purple lines.

"Odalia Blight," Kronos thundered, his voice echoing in an eerie, discordant harmony as he used the body of his most devoted servant to turn towards Odalia. Amity had to give her credit; there was not a trace of fear on her face. "I have seen who you are. There is nothing but evil within your heart."

"Oh, yes," Odalia agreed. "We both know the queen removed the curse of immortality, which means there is nothing preventing me from blowing this city sky high. You cannot kill us quick enough to save them. Unless you pledge to obey my every command and never, ever act against me."

There was dead silence for twenty seconds. Amity was certain for the entirety of those twenty seconds she was about to die. What sort of god would willingly put himself under the authority of a mortal to save ordinary people?

Well, Kronos, as it turned out, because he nodded. "Very well. But know that you are playing with fire, Blight."

"I have no problem in playing with fire, as long as I can burn other people with it," Odalia sneered. "Now…what shall we do with these insects? Oh, I think I know. Seal them in here. Perhaps the next expedition to show up here will give them a place of honor in a museum."

Amity snarled at her. "You won't get away with this, Odalia! You think you can control a god, but if there's one thing I know, that sort of thing always backfires!"

"Oh, but you're operating under a misapprehension, honey," Odalia said in a faux kindly voice. "You assume I give a damn about anything you say. Teleport us back to the throne room and seal them in here!"

Kronos sighed in sadness, but waved a hand and an instant later, the door was restored and Odalia's party was gone.

"I never liked her," Raine announced.