Page 1 of Minas (Dying Gods #4)
Drown the Sea
Adrienne had everything. The friends, the clothes, the college acceptance letter—not to mention a healthy social calendar. Then one stupid mistake has her packing her bags to spend the summer with her estranged mom in Santorini.
Adrienne is determined to make the best out of her forced holiday until the date from hell results in her getting attacked, nearly drowning, then rescued by a bunch of seafaring cosplayers. Because what else could explain the Bronze Age-era boat full of shirtless, loincloth-wearing men?
Adrienne quickly discovers that her rescuers—including the handsome Kitanetos—are not extras hired for a movie set, but that she has traveled back in time to approximately 1,600 BCE, to an era in the Bronze Age Mediterranean when men ruled the sea, women ruled the land—and the gods ruled them all.
Meanwhile, Kitanetos (the son of the Minas Thera) is certain that the mysterious woman he pulled from the sea must be a creature of Astarte, the goddess of war and love. He is also determined to keep her, even though he knows that men can’t own women, and even though he’s betrothed to the Minas Crete.
Kitanetos, being the well-meaning but somewhat self-interested prince that he is, takes Adrienne back to stay with his sister, Britomartis, priestess at Potina’s temple. Britomartis reluctantly takes charge of the taciturn and often whiny Adrienne, teaching her their language, how to use a bow and arrow, and generally how to be less useless at everything.
It’s a slow process.
Meanwhile, Asterion (brother to the Minas Crete) and Jadikira (Asterion’s lover) meet Adrienne. Jadikira is instantly taken with Adrienne. Asterion is instantly jealous. And Kitanetos hates them both (because Adrienne should be his). Luckily for Adrienne, they all go away and do their sailing/trading thing, leaving her to focus on her studies.
A few months later, while Kitanetos and all the men are still at sea, the Acheans attack. Adrienne (who inconveniently faints at the sight of blood) has to help defend Akrotiri along with Britomartis and the rest of the women. Adrienne saves Britomartis’ life (then promptly passes out) just as Kitanetos and the men return to burn the Acheans’ ships.
Adrienne and Kitanetos are reunited and—much to Kitanetos’ delight—Adrienne can now communicate with him. Kitanetos makes the most of this by doing everything in his power to get into Adrienne’s skirt.
Needless to say, when Adrienne finds out he is betrothed to someone else, this does not go down well (cue ominous magical rainstorms).
Kitanetos doesn’t really get why she’s upset (can’t Adrienne and the Minas Crete just be sister-wives or something?) and gets ready to leave to go to Crete. Britomartis (who does not approve of Kit’s behavior) has to come with him as a chaperone. And Adrienne (who is still pissed) decides to come too in the hopes that she can go meet the famed Oracle at Mount Ida and maybe find a way home to the world of smartphones, antibiotics and processed food.
When they arrive at Knossos, Kitanetos asks his betrothed (Xenodice) if he can keep Adrienne as a side piece. At their engagement party. Xenodice is not impressed, and asks her brother (Asterion) to be Adrienne’s guide to the Oracle at Mount Ida— and also tasks him with making sure Adrienne does not return.
Meanwhile, Jadikira is certain that his fate and Adrienne’s are entwined, and begs Asterion to protect her. Asterion agrees (grudgingly) because he loves Jadi.
Burn the Stars
Adrienne quickly discovers she is not a fan of hiking or camping as she and Asterion journey to Mount Ida. Her grumpy guide does nothing to improve the experience—at least until the cold forces Asterion to share his blankets with Adrienne. Their attraction and appreciation for each other slowly grows as they hike toward the cave.
The meeting with the Oracle changes everything: Adrienne learns she is the goddess Astarte born again, and is given a prophesy that Asterion understands more than he would like.
As Asterion carries Adrienne from the Oracle’s cave (she passes out due to the poppy smoke burned there) they are attacked by a large group of Achean soldiers, sent by Xenodice. Asterion tries to fight them off. Adrienne shoots many of them with her bow. But they are overwhelmed.
Just as Adrienne is about to be dragged off into the trees by an Achean, Jadikira arrives. He had been warned of Xenodice’s plan by Kitanetos and comes in, true to his name as the ‘Death Bringer’, to take down the remaining enemies.
Asterion, however, is gravely wounded. Jadikira and Adrienne must help him to a nearby village where they seek the help of one of Asterion’s old friends, Andricia. Adrienne and Jadikira spend the night looking after Asterion.
This night reveals three very important things: that Asterion is the son of Asterion the god of the stars, and Jadikira is the son of Appaliuna the god of the sun. And that Adrienne is falling for them both.
By the time they leave Andricia’s house, Jadi and Asterion have both pledged themselves to Adrienne, and they head to Knossos ready to face Xenodice.
Xenodice is not impressed with Adrienne’s claims that she is a goddess and demands a trial: Adrienne must jump from the cliffs at nearby Amnisos into the sea. If she survives, it is proof that she is a goddess. Asterion and Jadikira are locked up.
Luckily for Adrienne, the spot she jumps from is known to Kitanetos (and to many sea faring men) as an area with a hidden sea cave. Kit passes this secret on to Adrienne, instructing her to swim towards the cliffs and into the cave to hide, promising that he will come and rescue her. However, passing on this secret is not without cost: it is a secret that sea-farers are sworn to keep, lest they break their oath to Poteiden.
In telling Adrienne this secret, Kit has lost all his honor as a man.
When Kit goes to his ships, he finds that Perses (the man already pledged to Xenodice) has commandeered them. Kit is forced to flee for his life, and no longer has the means to save Adrienne from the caves. He swims to shore, dishonored, and without ships. He is, as far as he is concerned, reduced to nothing.
Nerites (the son of Poteiden) arrives on the scene, just in time to see Kit carving out the mark of his oath to Poteiden and cursing that god. Nerites offers to help him rescue Adrienne. Kit has no choice but to agree.
Meanwhile, Britomartis (who has had a small side-tryst with Sira, Xenodice’s younger sister while Adrienne was off hiking on Mount Ida) quickly figures out something is wrong when neither Asterion nor Jadi show up at the trial. She runs back to Potina’s temple to ask Sira where Asterion might be locked up, but Sira has no idea. She also begs Sira to come with her, but Sira refuses.
Distressed and angry, Britomartis rushes into Knossos, finds Asterion and Jadikira (with the help of some guards) and breaks them out. They flee on Asterion’s ship, heading to a secluded beach where a second entrance to the cave system is, with the plan of rescuing Adrienne from there.
But it turns out their planned rescue is unnecessary: Nerites has already rescued Adrienne. When they try to dismiss him, he insists on accompanying them on Asterion’s ship (leaving his own ship to trail after them with the rest of Asterion’s fleet), claiming he was destined for Adrienne since her mortal heart first began to beat.
As they set sail, Britomartis reveals some key intel she has discovered: first, Sira, the younger sister of Asterion and Xenodice, is being kept prisoner in Potina’s temple. Second, Xenodice is responsible for trading copper ore to the Acheans, in breach of a long-standing agreement with the other minases. Third, Xenodice killed her own mother and eldest sister in her hunger to take Knossos’ throne.
They set sail to Thera with the hopes of calling for aid and gathering reinforcements to remove Xenodice from the throne.
Wake the Gods
As they sail, Kitanetos tries to repair things with Adrienne while Nerites follows her around like a lost-puppy. Asterion and Jadikira are not impressed by either man, though Asterion does have a soft-spot for Nerites (cue jealousy from Jadikira).
While the lovers’ drama goes on, a more serious issue arises: the wind has stopped. Becalmed at sea and with fresh water supplies dwindling, the crew are at risk of mutiny or death. As Astarte incarnate, Adrienne should have the power to call up wind and rain, but she cannot. She does not fully believe she is a goddess and has no idea how to use her power.
Everything changes when Adrienne follows Nerites out one night for a midnight swim. Poteiden, who has intentionally becalmed the boats, comes in the form of a ketos. Nerites tries to protect Adrienne from his father but is powerless. Adrienne, fearful for Nerites, finds her power bursting forth, flinging the ketos away. In her anger, she unleashes a storm—enough to fill their sails and fresh water casks.
The exertion also causes Adrienne to pass out, and Britomartis cleverly discovers that the best way to revive the goddess of love and war is for the crew on board to have an orgy. And (once Adrienne is conscious) for her lovers to take a more direct route to restoring her energy.
They arrive at Thera, and the Minas Thera refuses to participate in removing Xenodice from her throne. She is also angry at Kitanetos for leaving the Minas Crete, since she believes it would have been a good match.
Angry at the Minas Thera’s censure, Adrienne asks Kitanetos to pledge himself to her while they are at the mid-winter festival. Kitanetos is elated, the Minas Thera is angry, and the lawagetas are duly impressed.
Meanwhile, Britomartis and her eldest sister, Ariana, decide to take matters into their own hands. Ariana sends messages to all the other minases calling for their aid in deposing Xenodice. Britomartis takes the women trained to fight on Thera and ‘steals’ Asterion’s ships.
When Adrienne and her lovers wake after the mid-winter party, it is to find Asterion’s fleet gone.
Asterion wants to take Nerites’ ship and pursue Britomartis. But Adrienne is starting to suspect that there are bigger problems: the god Velchanos, who resides on the small sacred island in Thera’s bay, is planning to cause a volcanic eruption that will wipe out the entire Minoan civilization.
Velchanos’ aim? To empower the Acheans who worship him as Zeus and raise himself up as king of the gods.
Adrienne and her men decide to make a small side-journey to the sacred island on their way to Crete to assess this risk. Once there, the earth opens and swallows Adrienne whole.
Adrienne is held captive by Velchanos and tortured. Velchanos has chased Astarte for centuries. He wants her gift (the deadly, violent power of love), but she refuses to give it to him. He takes her mortal heart instead.
Meanwhile, Kitanetos, who has always believed he was sired by Velchanos, unleashes his own power on the stone, nearly burning himself to ash as he re-opens the stone entrance to Velchanos’ realm. Only Nerites’ presence saves him, as Nerites wraps him up in an embrace, cooling him with salt water. The four men fall into the underworld.
Injured, exhausted, and cast into darkness, the four men use their powers to find their way to Adrienne and set her free. As they battle Velchanos, Jadikira gives Adrienne an arrow that is dipped in his blood. She fires it on Velchanos, striking him in the heart, and turning him to stone.
The danger Velchanos poses is stopped (for now) and Adrienne and her four men ascend to the world of the living once again, to continue their journey to Crete, where Xenodice (and sweet Sira) are waiting.