The Struggle

by Jennifer L. Armentrout

  band. Wasn’t exactly deep, but it was bruised and raw, and it was healing. At least, I thought it was. The other on my left arm was rougher and fresher. The skin didn’t feel right and it still oozed blood, or maybe some other kind of fluid I didn’t want to think about.

  Could demigods get infections?

  I had no idea.

  Wasn’t like there was anyone I could ask.

  Once Hyperion was done, I’d be left alone for what I guessed was a day, maybe longer, to give my body time to replenish the stolen aether, just like a mortal body replenishes lost fluids and cells. That’s what Hyperion had explained . . . or taunted. It wasn’t like he actually conversed with me. Neither did the female Titan.

  She was as cruel as Hyperion, perhaps even more so, but she was also afraid. That much I could tell, but Hyperion wasn’t. Not at all.

  It felt like a lot of hours had passed since I’d seen Hyperion last, and that meant Hyperion would be returning soon.

  And I knew what would happen.

  He’d order me to follow him, and if I didn’t, he’d drag me from here. Literally. Then he would take me through what had turned out to be a warehouse, out through the loading docks and into the empty parking lot. He didn’t just let me sit out there and soak up the sun.

  Oh no.

  He had to talk.

  And then he’d haul me back inside. I would fight at first, no matter how pointless it was, because I had to. He always won those battles, but I had the bruises to prove I didn’t go softly into the night or whatever.

  I wasn’t sure if I could go through it all again.

  I didn’t want to.

  A raspy moan escaped me, and I lifted my hands, sliding them through the dry, matted hair, tugging it back from my face. My hair felt coarse and gross, as did the clothes I wore.

  I hadn’t showered since I came here. I knew I stunk, and I was okay with that, because I preferred to look as unappealing as possible to Hyperion.

  Lowering my hands, I let them fall to my sides. My body tensed as I thought I heard footsteps. Air catching in my throat, I lifted my head and strained to hear more.

  Hope that someone, anyone, was going to rescue me had fizzled out and died after the second time Hyperion had fed on me, because I . . . I had screamed for my father.

  I’d screamed for Seth.

  Tears of humiliation burned my eyes. I’d screamed for him until my voice gave way, and Hyperion laughed.

  Apollo never came.

  And Seth . . . he never answered.

  He’d left me, and even though I’d planned to find him, to prove that I loved him and to show him that he was worthy of that love, he’d left me and I . . . I was here.

  I knew Seth didn’t know I’d been taken. Every part of my being knew that if he had known, he would’ve come for me. I knew that, but being here was like an open wound in my chest. It festered and rotted, breaking my heart every time I thought of him. Every time that I knew he wasn’t going to swoop in and save me.

  No one was coming.

  It was solely up to me to survive this, to escape.

  The only chance I had was when he took me outside. Hyperion once said that it helped replenish the aether, and I guessed it had to do with my father being the whole god of the sun thing.

  Running was the only chance I had now. Wasn’t the best plan, but it was better than accepting this was my future, my life, until there was nothing left of me to give.

  And there wasn’t just me to think about. There was Mitchell, and if he was still alive, he was here somewhere. He was beyond helping himself. I had to get him out of here before it was too late.

  I rubbed at my eyes, wincing since I was too rough on the raw skin. Resting my cheek against my knee, I closed my eyes. I must’ve dozed off, because the next thing I knew my head was jerking up as the door opened.

  Hyperion filled the doorway. “Good afternoon, Sunshine.”

  “Fuck you,” I spit out, tensing.

  He chuckled as he crossed the short distance. “So elegant. Want to try again?”

  I swallowed hard. “Go fuck yourself?”

  “Not necessary.” He loomed over me. “Get up.”

  Part of me wanted to refuse, but if I didn’t, he’d put his hands on me, and I didn’t want to deal with that, so I rose on weak legs and stepped around him. I started forward on my own, making it halfway across the room before he slammed his hand into the center of my back, shoving me forward.

  I nearly lost my balance, catching myself with a hand thrown out. “That . . . that was rude.”

  “You’re too slow.” His fingers dug into the flesh of my shoulder. “You walk like an overfed cow.”

  I bit the inside of my lip as we entered the narrow stairwell. He all but pushed me the whole way up.

  “You actually remind me of a cow,” he said as we went through a doorway where the double doors had fallen off the hinges. “A fat, spotted cow.”

  “You have such a way with words,” I gritted out as we walked past wooden crates and empty, dust-covered work benches. “My heart is all aflutter.”

  His fingers dug in deeper, causing me to wince. “I’d think you’d have lost some weight by now. Your body must be holding on to the fat for dear life.”

  “Wow,” I muttered. Truth was, I had lost weight. My jeans barely stayed up.

  Hyperion reached around me, opening up the gray door. Sunlight poured in, and I squinted at the brightness. He led me down the ramp. The parking lot was vacant with the exception of two empty delivery trucks that had been there since I’d first been brought outside. They were older models. The words MILL AND SONS INC. were painted in faded red paint on one of the trucks. Weeds poked through the cracked cement. Several yards away, trees crowded the edge of the parking lot.

  There was nothing else around here.

  I knew this, because I had never seen any buildings or heard cars off in the distance, and no one had . . . no one had investigated the screams.

  My knees wobbled as I walked ahead of Hyperion, the cement blistering hot under my bare feet. I had no idea where we were, but I imagined we were somewhere in the south, if we were still in the States.

  “Sit,” he ordered, dropping his hand.

  Drawing in a deep breath, I started to do just as he said, but at the very last second, I sprung forward, forcing my legs to move. I took off.

  “Really?” Hyperion laughed. “You’re going to try to run from me?”

  Legs and arms pumping, I ignored the stiffness and pain, and ran—ran as fast as I could. Tiny rocks dug into the soles of my feet, slicing my skin, but I kept running. I cleared the parking lot, darting through the trees. My lungs burned, and my head thumped. I didn’t know how far I could run, but I would run as—

  Fire erupted in front of me, swallowing a tree in a flash. Shrieking, I skidded and slipped. Arms pinwheeling, I whirled around just as pain erupted along the side of my stomach. My legs gave out, and I crashed into the ground.

  “That was actually kind of fun.” Hyperion reached down, wrapping his fingers in my hair. He jerked my head back. “I was beginning to wonder if the fight had gone out of you already. If I’d broken you that easily.”

  Panting through the pain, I forced my gaze to his all-black, soulless and endless eyes.

  He smiled down at me. “That would’ve disappointed me.”

  “I wouldn’t want that to happen,” I gasped out.

  “No, you wouldn’t.” His grip tightened as he knelt, wrenching my head back. “Guess what I did, Sunshine?”

  I grunted as he tugged on my hair again. “I don’t know. Walked an old lady across the street?”

  Amusement flickered across his face. “I went back to visit your friends.”

  I stopped breathing.

  His lips curved up. “They weren’t there.”

  Air rushed into my lungs. “They’re alive?”

  “For now.” He reached out with his other hand and cupped my jaw. “I tracked the little group all t
he way back to the Covenant. We can’t get in there. Yet.”

  Relief coursed through me. Deacon and Luke, Gable, and Alex and Aiden were all safe for now. That meant something—everything.

  “You know what I’d like to know?”

  “How you’re going to die?” Painful tension built along the nape of my neck.

  “Charming.” He smoothed a thumb over my lower lip, and I resisted the urge to bite his finger. “Where did your little God Killer go off to? He wasn’t with them.”

  I held his gaze as I exhaled roughly. “I don’t know.”

  “And I don’t believe that.” He let go of my hair and I dropped about a foot. Pressure eased off my neck. “Not for one second.”

  I said nothing.

  Hyperion’s thumb made another hard sweep along my lip and then he leaned in. The muscles along my back stiffened painfully. “You know there are many ways I can make you tell me.”

  My heart thumped against my ribs.

  “Ways I haven’t even begun to show you.” His cool breath drifted over my mouth, and I had a horrible idea of what kind of ways he was talking about. His hand slid to my chin and his fingers dug in, bruising the skin. “Where is the—?”

  “Hyperion.”

  A muscle flexed along his jaw, and then he rose, dropping his hand. “What, Tethys?”

  I slumped forward, catching myself with my hands. Unsure if I should be grateful for her interruption or not, I stayed quiet.

  “What are you doing out here with her?” she asked, and I peeked up through the clumps of hair.

  Tethys was gorgeous. Close to six and a half feet tall, she had long sable hair and features that somehow managed to look delicate and fierce all at once. She wore leather pants like Hyperion did, but she didn’t run around topless. A tight, black tank top covered her chest and stomach.

  “Did you seriously interrupt me to ask that question?” Hyperion replied.

  She strode forward. “So what if I did?”

  “I wouldn’t like it, Tet.”

  “Does it look like I care about what you like?”

  A coarse laugh sneaked out before I could stop it.

  Tethys’s eyes narrowed, and Hyperion whipped around and moved so fast, I didn’t have a chance to dodge his blow. His fist caught my jaw, and I went down, hitting the ground on my side. Stunned, I lay there for a moment as my head rung.

  “You and I both know you do,” Hyperion said as he turned back to Tet.

  Anger flashed across her face as she raised her hand. Hyperion was faster, though. He snatched up her arm, yanking her against his chest as he grasped her hair in his other hand. He pulled her head back sharply. The gasp of pain was cut off by his mouth. He kissed her in a way that didn’t really seem like a kiss. More like an act of punishment and brutality, but Tet seemed to enjoy it, because his mouth couldn’t silence her moan or stop her from slipping a muscular arm around his neck.

  Oh man.

  Weren’t they, like, related? Gross. But they were distracted, busy shoving their tongues down each other’s throats, so I pushed myself up and glanced over my shoulder. The fire that had engulfed the tree was out. My heart raced as I took a step back and drew in a deep breath.

  “Don’t even try it,” Tet ordered.

  My head whipped around. They were done making out, and both were focused on me. The chance to escape was gone. Defeat swamped me, giving way to desolation. Hyperion alone was bad enough, but with Tet involved, it would surely get worse. I folded an arm over my waist and waited.

  “Why are you here?” Hyperion asked again.

  Tet raised a dark eyebrow. “You’re really not going to like why.”

  Hyperion sighed as he twisted toward the female Titan. “Get on with it.”

  She smiled tightly. “Cronus is aware of her. He wants to see her. Now.”

  Chapter 12

  Hyperion’s grip on my arm was eventually going to snap the bone. Not that he particularly cared if he did.

  He’d done that god transport thing that I guessed was only reserved for the super-cool gods. One second all three of us were standing in the forest, sweat coursing down the side of my face, stinging in all the raw abrasions, and then the next second, we were standing in cooler air, in front of a massive mansion built into the side of a mountain.

  I was dizzy and off-kilter as Hyperion started dragging me toward a sprawling front porch. I almost didn’t notice them at first. They were just immovable objects on the ground until I got closer.

  They were bodies.

  Horrified, I stumbled and would’ve fallen if he hadn’t had such a grip on me. There were dozens of them, and flies buzzed around their bodies. Bile rose into my throat, but there was nothing in my stomach to throw up. I clamped my jaw shut and focused straight ahead, on the front door of the home. There was a human male leaning against the house, but as we climbed the steps, the scent of decay and dankness grew stronger.

  The male grinned as shadows poured into his eyes, eclipsing his brown irises.

  He was a shade.

  Pushing away from the wall, he opened the front door for us. Tet stalked ahead, and I had no choice but to follow.

  Cronus.

  I was being taken to Cronus.

  Numb with dread and fear, I was barely aware of the walk upstairs or down the narrow hall. Tiny, wheezing breaths left me as double doors opened to a large bedroom. I didn’t want to go in there. Instinct screamed out, but I had no choice.

  Two Titans were standing, one on either side of the bed. They were both males. One was bald and dark-skinned. The other was fairer and had shocking, bright blue hair, and I immediately thought of what Mitchell had told me. It was him—the one who’d done all those horrible things to that girl. Nausea hit me hard, and I had to look away. My gaze landed on the center of the bed, and then I wasn’t thinking of the other two Titans.

  My mouth dropped open.

  He was all white hair and wrinkled skin. A gnarly beard covered half of his face. His shoulders were slim and his chest was sunken in, as was his stomach. Propped up by a mountain of pillows, this man looked like he couldn’t lift his spaghetti arms, but he was Cronus.

  This was the Cronus.

  “Closer,” the old man gasped out. “Bring her closer.”

  Before Hyperion could step forward, the dark-skinned Titan moved. “I will do it,” he said, taking my other arm in a much looser, kinder grip.

  Hyperion didn’t let go. “She belongs to me, Perses.”

  My eyes widened. Perses? Wasn’t he the one that Alex and Aiden and Seth had broken free from Tartarus to fight Ares? He’d escaped afterward and had been responsible for freeing the rest of the Titans.

  Perses chuckled darkly. “You’ve played long enough. For a week, to be exact.”

  A week? It had only been that long? Felt longer. Pain bit into my arm, and I gritted my teeth. For a second I thought Hyperion was going to rip my arm right out of its socket, but then he let go and stepped back, joining Tet.

  I glanced up quickly at Perses, but he wasn’t looking down at me as he walked me around the bed to where he’d stood. As I drew closer, Cronus slowly lifted his chin. His black eyes were dull.

  “Am I not what you expected?” He coughed out a dry, brittle-sounding laugh. “You see only an old, frail man before you?”