A rival bloodline led by Wrath, a hunter who slayed Ares and inherited his powers to become a god himself, viciously murdered Lore’s family during the last Agon, and though Lore is a highly skilled fighter, she went into hiding to avoid sharing her family’s fate.īut when the Agon begins again in New York City, Athena, one of the last remaining gods, comes knocking at Lore’s door.

Seventeen-year-old Melora “Lore” Perseous is the descendant of Greek hero Perseus, and as the last of her bloodline, she’s gone to great pains to remove herself from the Agon’s brutality. For example, a god’s healing powers can help create a pharmaceutical company, the powers of war are a boon to a weapons manufacturer, and so on. Once an Agon ends, the family reaps the benefits of their deity’s powers, which they can use to build family-owned business empires. Each heroic bloodline is sworn to protect a god, but these hunters are also eager to slay other families’ gods in order to seize the deities’ divine power and immortality.

After thousands of years, many of the gods haven’t survived, as they’ve been hunted down by the descendants of ancient Greek heroes. Well, they don’t so much walk as fight for their lives. However, if either of the two dies, the other one will too.Readers who love complex, mythology-based fantasies, meet your newest obsession.įor seven days every seven years, Greek gods must walk the earth as mere mortals during a period they call the Agon. She agrees to bind her fate to that of Athena, so giving her extra strength and resources. She also finds the goddess Athena brutally stabbed on her literal doorstep and when the goddess offers her a bargain that will allow her revenge on the man who is responsible, Lore is reluctant at first but realises that she can’t really refuse. She discovers that her old friend Castor didn’t die of leukemia after all, but is in fact not only strong and healthy but has taken on the mantle of Apollo after the last Agon.

Now it seems, her past is determined to catch up with her. Her only friend is Miles, a young man completely unaware of her dangerous background. She’s living in a Brooklyn brownstone left to her by the kindly old man she worked as a caretaker for, who passed away about six months ago. Melora “Lore” Perseus has been trying to stay away from the brutal world she was raised in after her entire family was ruthlessly slaughtered seven years ago just as the previous Agon was about to end.

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