Hunt of the Gods

by Amy Braun

  I wanted to believe her. I so desperately did. But he would think about what the Rage did to me. What Ki̱demónas did.

  Liam could forgive a lot. But I didn’t know if he could forgive that.

  Don’t focus on that. Focus on what you have in front of you. Two goddesses and the strongest Farseer in the world. They know the truth, and that’s better than nothing.

  I leaned forward and pressed my forehead against Selena’s. Her strength would be a balm for my soul. I would never lose her again.

  “I love you.”

  The words just slipped from my mouth. I hadn’t intended them. And I never should have said a damn thing.

  Selena went still. I could feel the tension in her. I drew away, not wanting to look in her eyes for fear of what I would find there.

  Pity? Anxiety?

  I wasn’t sure I could deal with any of those emotions in that moment.

  “Sorry, I shouldn’t have said that,” I mumbled. I slid away from her, flicking my eyes around the room. We were in a dark office that didn’t seem to have been used in years. The single light coming from the table lamp on the dusty desk flickered when I looked at it. Photos of old cars were hung on the wall. I’d been lying on an old mattress on the floor of a mechanic’s shop that had likely closed down.

  I didn’t know what Region we were in, any more than I knew where my clothes were. All I was wearing were boxers and scars.

  “Is Athena here?”

  “She’s outside in a conference room.” Selena’s voice was measured. Uncertain. “There are some clothes just behind you. Just some coveralls, but it was all we could find.”

  “Better than walking around mostly naked.”

  Selena smiled. I looked at her lips instead of her eyes. Gods, I needed to get myself together.

  “I’ll meet you out there.” She stood up and started walking to the door.

  I couldn’t let our conversation end like that.

  “Selena.”

  She stopped in the door frame and looked at me.

  “Thank you. For everything. None of this… I wouldn’t be alive if it weren’t for you.”

  Selena smiled, her eyes filling with that warmth and kindness I adored so much. “I chose June for my birthday since I didn’t know my real one. So you better get me one hell of a present.”

  I laughed, and for a moment, everything was all right again.

  When Selena left me to change, I tried to keep telling myself that. I repeated it over and over as I drew the coveralls up over my damaged legs, over my sore and scarred stomach, and pulled my tired arms through the sleeves. I knew there was a way out of our mess. There had to be.

  I zipped the coveralls up, pausing to look at the scar on my hand.

  It seemed I would never be free of them.

  Reluctantly, I thought about Ki̱demónas. The spear hummed and rolled out from the corner behind me. It was back to its smaller size and nestled comfortably in my palm. I rolled the weapon around in my hands, wishing I could abandon it. Knowing I should, now more than ever.

  But, with my luck, it would be the thing that saved me.

  I still had so many questions. Apollo had known things I hadn’t. He knew what I would do as the Bringer of Shadow and Fire.

  Except that didn’t make sense. I checked my magic, and sure enough, aether and fire sprang to life against my skin.

  I closed my hands and sighed. I pushed Apollo’s words aside. I had more problems to focus on, mainly, how in the name of Olympus was I going to explain the truth to my brother without actually telling the truth?

  For the first time, I didn’t dare use the blood bond. Gods only knew how far my brother was from me, and I didn’t know if I could trust him yet.

  Except I did, because of course I did.

  But did he trust me?

  Gods above and below. I’d been awake for fifteen minutes, and already I had a headache.

  I closed my fingers around Ki̱demónas and made my way to the door.

  No matter what happened, I would get us out of our mess. The gods had stepped on my life one too many times.

  I was not about to let them crush me again.

  LIAM

  MY BROTHER IS not a murderer.

  If I kept thinking it, maybe it would be true.

  And maybe I could wish for a unicorn to fly me into outer space to the tune of some epic heavy metal.

  “Speeds, I adore you, but you need to quit bouncing your leg.”

  I glanced to my left. Corey sat on the edge of the marble bench and squeezed his legs together. He dropped his head, blushing because he knew Mason was watching him. “Sorry,” he murmured.

  And started biting his nails.

  Mason sighed. Then he took Corey’s hand in his own and kissed the back of it. They sat together in silence, staring ahead at the pristine white walls.

  Not that I could blame them for being nervous. It was taking everything in me not to shake and rage and scream, “What the fuck just happened?”

  But I remembered it. I’d gone into the Rage, breaking a promise I’d made to myself years ago. Apollo tried to pop my heart like a balloon, tried to choke Derek to death. Thea had returned like a storm. Derek had saved me, and then…

  Then things got hazy. But I saw Derek fight Apollo, turn him to stone with the gorgon head.

  Then use his fire to shatter the god to pieces.

  Then he’d taken up that goddamned spear, marched over to Poseidon, and stabbed him over and over again, making sure he couldn’t come back from the dead.

  Derek Areios. The Godslayer, they were calling him.

  My brother, who promised he would never kill again. Whose mind had shattered the last time he’d killed.

  That didn’t feel like the Derek I knew and loved. I wanted to believe it wasn’t true. But I’d seen him slipping. The way he used Ki̱demónas, the strength of his magic, and the force with which he used it. The secrets he kept from me.

  He was gone. Selena was nowhere to be found, but before we’d been whisked away, we’d heard that Athena had escaped her prison in the Clouds.

  The Clouds… where the gods lived.

  Where Thea was going to live.

  I just didn’t know about the rest of us.

  I turned to my right. Thea was sitting on the edge of the bench. She looked as exhausted, tired, and bloody as the rest of us in that shockingly white hallway. The Trident of Poseidon weighed heavy in her hand.

  She hadn’t said much. Only that Apollo wormed into her mind and forced her to fight Derek. Then she’d been knocked out cold like the rest of us, awake only long enough to see what we’d all seen.

  My big brother destroying two gods.

  What the hell were you thinking, Derek?

  I didn’t try to use the blood bond to ask him. I was too nervous about his answer and wasn’t sure I could take another lie.

  Needing a distraction, I gently nudged Thea with my elbow. “You okay?”

  She didn’t look at me, her beautiful aquamarine eyes distant and sad. “Are you?”

  Distraction fail. “I’m sorry about Poseidon,” I told her. “I… he wasn’t really nice, but he was still your forefather.”

  “Yeah,” she admitted. “And I’m sorry about Derek.”

  I scrubbed a hand down my face. “Me too.”

  Footsteps echoed down the corridor. We all turned toward them.

  Tall, shining figures walked down the white hallway, just as imposing as they had been when they plucked us out of the sand and brought us here, to the skies above Sacramento. To the home of Zeus.

  That was where they’d interrogate us. That was where they’d force Thea to become a goddess.

  That was where they would put a hit out on my big brother.

  We all stood up. Thea shook beside me. Whatever they wanted her to do, she wasn’t ready. Hell, none of us were.

  I slid my fingers into hers. She gripped mine painfully tight. I let myself enjoy the moment because it would be the last I ha
d with her. The last moment of peace before she ascended to immortality and was sent on a mission to capture—or kill—Derek.

  It wasn’t the kind of thing I wanted my dream girl to be doing.

  The Olympians arrived. All of them dressed in slick, fashionable clothes. All of them cast in a strong glow and wrapped in auras that made me regret standing.

  Zeus, Hera, Artemis, Demeter, Dionysus… and Ares.

  Because of course, godsdamn Ares.

  Aside from Hades, who remained in the Underworld, these were all the gods that remained. Athena and Persephone were considered rogue, because they would be helping Derek. His ties to Persephone and his powers had been revealed, thanks to Ares.

  And it sure as hell wasn’t going to win us any favors.

  Zeus stepped forward. The air crackled with power. He didn’t have his Thunderbolt in hand, but he didn’t need it. He was a living power source all his own.

  “We asked a simple task of you,” he said, his voice echoing off the walls, “and it results in two of my family slain by your leader, one going mad, and one becoming a cripple. Tell me how I am supposed to overlook such a transgression.”

  No one said anything. It wasn’t like we could argue with him. They knew Apollo had gone crazy, but Derek… Derek should have just frozen him with the gorgon head. There had been no need to kill him.

  Damn it, Derek, what the hell were you thinking?

  “Why do we waste time talking?” spat Artemis. She was a beautiful goddess, a darker version of her slain twin with black hair and striking silver eyes. A silver bow was looped across her chest, a quiver of arrows peeking up from behind her back. “Forcing Derek Areios out of hiding will be easy.” Her cold eyes narrowed on me. “Bleed his brother, and he shall come.”

  Thea let go of my hand and slid in front of me. She gripped the Trident across her body. Ice-cold power pulsed off of her.

  “Touch him and die,” she growled.

  “I do not obey the commands of a serf, let alone one who led my uncle and brother to their deaths.”

  “Apollo went crazy and fought against all of you,” shouted Thea.

  Cold, strong power radiated off Artemis. “My brother was tricked. He was not himself. If the Eye of Cronus had not been in his head in the first place—”

  A crack of thunder boomed in the hall. I jumped, my heart hammering.

  Everyone fell silent in the face of Zeus’s power. His eyes glowed with barely held rage.

  “It is clear we have many questions and few answers. We shall keep these four witnesses here and extract the necessary truths. Regardless, there will be judgment and punishment for what has transpired.” He looked at his daughter. “You will have your revenge, Artemis, when I decide there is time for it.”

  The Goddess of the Hunt scowled and fixed me with a cold stare that promised two things—I was her enemy, and she would bend every rule in the book to kill Derek.

  Damn it, Derek. Damn it, damn it, damn it.

  I loved my brother. I always had and always would.

  But… I didn’t think I could forgive him anymore.

  “For now,” Zeus carried on, “we shall focus on finding the two remaining Shards, and the Helm of Darkness. Once we have them, we shall use our pawns as bait.”

  My stomach dropped.

  Bait for Derek, Selena, Athena, and Persephone.

  Even if I wanted to help my brother, I couldn’t. The gods would be watching our every move. There was no hiding from them.

  I squeezed Thea’s hand and reached out with the blood bond. I wasn’t expecting a response, didn’t know that I wanted one, but if it was the last time I used it to speak with Derek, I was going to use it to send a prayer.

  To who, I didn’t know. I couldn’t pray to these gods anymore.

 

  TO BE CONTINUED

  The adventure continues in

  Releasing Winter 2019!

  Keep reading for a never-before-released short story featuring Selena Kythian!

  “TRYING TO SNEAK AWAY?”

  I came to halt when I heard Derek’s voice at my back. I should have known I wouldn’t be able to slip away unseen.

  Sighing, I turned and found Derek standing in the middle of the corridor. The pillars of Persephone’s cathedral cast long shadows, even at night. Moonlight filtered through the skylights overhead, bathing the arching towers and stretching halls in a pale glow. Derek stood half in the shadows, and it did nothing to diminish his size.

  He was tall, well over six feet, and as broad as a linebacker. A dark gray shirt hugged the muscles of his shoulders, chest, arms, and stomach. He looked good in the dark jeans and combat boots. His hair was short and dark, a deep contrast to his brilliant blue eyes.

  Derek Areios was devastatingly handsome, but I could see the exhaustion, hurt, and uncertainty clinging to him.

  He seemed a far cry from the gentle, strong warrior I knew he was. I worried he was sliding toward an edge from which I couldn’t save him.

  “You should be resting,” I told him.

  “I couldn’t sleep,” he confessed. He started taking log strides toward me. “I got up to go for a walk and ran into Persephone. She wanted me to know you were trying to slip away.”

  “I’m coming back,” I reassured him. “I just… I wanted some air.”

  Derek stopped in front of me. “Do you want me to come with you?”

  I wanted to say yes. It would have been the smart thing, and we both needed it. Our worlds had been turned upside down just days ago. I had learned that I was Cassandra, cursed with immortality and damaged Sight by Apollo—the same Apollo that had tried to kill me, and one of the Olympians Derek had been framed for murdering.

  Like me, Derek was hexed. Whenever he tried to tell anyone the truth about what happened on that Santa Monica beach––that it was Apollo who killed Poseidon and Ares who killed Apollo––the bones in his left hand shattered. He would recover, but the sudden, sharp pain always threw him off balance, and in a fight, it could cost him his life. He couldn’t even write the words. There was no way to exonerate him. I’d told Athena and Persephone, but even the combined might of our foremothers would do little against the rage of the surviving Olympians.

  In addition to the hex, his younger brother and our friends had disappeared, taken by the surviving Olympians to… we had no idea where.

  Understandably, Derek was stressed. He wasn’t sleeping. He fell into long, quiet periods where it was hard to reach him.

  And, he had told me he loved me.

  Derek was a man of action. He needed a purpose. He needed to move. Staying with his foremother, Persephone, Queen of the Underworld, was driving him a little mad. But it was necessary. The Olympians’ tempers were high, and they were mad at him. We didn’t know how to hide Derek’s overwhelming aura from them, let alone his features. We didn’t have a plan.

  And I intended to walk out of the cathedral without him.

  “I do,” I whispered. “But I also want to be alone.”

  “Can you tell me where you’re going?”

  I grinned slyly. “And risk you following me and causing trouble? I don’t think so, tough guy.”

  Derek tried—and failed—to laugh. I closed the distance between us and laced my fingertips through his.

  I’d never been fond of physical contact—a product of my years as a prisoner when the world knew me as Cassandra—but touching Derek always felt right to me. More than that, it felt good. He smelled like cinnamon and woodsmoke. He was always warm and gentle. I loved the feel of his calluses against my palms.

  He rubbed the pad of his thumb against my hand. I didn’t want to leave this moment.

  “Sorry,” he murmured. “I’m just… restless.”

  He didn’t have to add that he was worried, too.

  Reluctantly, I slid my hand out of his and lightly punched his shoulder. “Get some sleep. I’ll be back before you know it.”

  Derek smiled weakly and stepped back.
He tipped his head, turned, and walked away down the corridor. I watched his broad frame shrink as the distance grew then forced myself to turn away and keep walking.

  In truth, I should have taken him with me. I could’ve used the backup. But the target on his back was too fresh, and there were burdens I didn’t want him to carry for me.

  Sins from my past that had returned in my dreams.

  I had wakened seeing the faces of people I had betrayed before my memories were taken, the dark scions I had enlisted to help me build the spells and traps that hid the Cronus Shards and the Trinity Weapons.

  The dream had been chaotic, but I managed to piece together what I had done.

  I’d hired a group of dark scions who specialized in crafting spells, similar to my own crafting magic. I’d paid them exorbitantly for their silence and discretion. We’d done the work, though I couldn’t remember where the Helm of Hades was or where the final two Cronus Shards were. My hex blurred them whenever I tried to look. I couldn’t fully trust my Sight.

  That was another reason I needed to leave. Overlaying the images of my dream was a whispered voice, repeating the same words over and over.

  Gwen’s Emporium. Midnight. Gwen knows.

  On their own, the words meant nothing to me. But I looked into my future and saw myself speaking to a dark scion in the Hades Region in some kind of occult shop. I didn’t recognize her, but knew she was another Seer. Not a Farseer like I was, capable of looking months or even years into the future and seeing all the possible outcomes, but still someone I might have trusted once.

  Perhaps even with a dangerous task.

  If I brought Derek along, she would know who he was, and only the gods knew what she would do.

  So I lied to him. I made arrangements with Persephone to keep him safe while I confronted my past and the demons within it.

  ***

  Driving from Persephone’s Haven into the heart of the Hades Region was easier than it was in the rest of Néo Vasíleio. Dark scions and sorrow scions were closely knit, thanks to their lineages from Hades and Persephone respectively. While the two Olympians had never conceived together, they chose their descendants based on certain qualities, potential magical skill, and the amount of devotion they were willing to give. Both sorrow scions and dark scions had mutual respect for both the King and Queen of the Underworld, and because of that lax tension, there were few checks that needed to be done at their borders.