Aidan rose from his seat and moved toward Atlas, his eyes never leaving the blinding light coming from the globe. I didn’t have to look at it to know what was inside; it made perfect sense that Zeus’ one true lightning bolt was the key to the heavens, even if it was a bit conspicuous. While Aidan peered wantonly at the bolt inside the globe, he wasn’t the only one enraptured by its power. Gage inched closer to Atlas, his eyes on the site within, as he reached out. As Iapetus grew closer, I watched as the light diminished and the lightning bolt suddenly changed shape. The warped image startled Aidan, who stumbled in his step, staring down at the globe, which now held a thick iron nail like those used on railroads.
In the time it took Aidan to recover from his fumble, Gage grabbed the nail and grinned triumphantly toward the crowd, and no doubt, his leader Montgomery. Aidan looked shocked, then angry, as Atlas turned in wonder to his reincarnated father. I watched as a spark ignited in Aidan’s hand, he was making a lightning bolt. I elbowed the rest of my way through the bodies between us and threw myself into him. As I wrapped my arms around his waist and tossed all my weight against his body, it knocked us both to the ground.
“Griffin!” His voice held notes of surprise and disgust, as he looked up at me, while I pressed my hand into his palm, concentrating on the abundance of raw energy escaping from him. I didn’t want to kill him; I just wanted to exhaust him. My brow furrowed as I concentrated on that single thought, focusing so hard on my own power to hold my real potential back.
From behind us, I could hear screams of chaos erupting. I didn’t know how many Titans there were, and how many Gods. For a moment, I wondered if I had pitted myself on the losing side unknowingly, until I saw Atlas fall at my side, a deep gash on his forehead as his eyes closed. Was he dead?
“Griffin!” Aidan had looped his good arm around my waist, trying to throw me off kilter, but I had him pinned, and my magic was rapidly drawing his from him, making me stronger. I watched his face carefully, concentrating myself on noticing the signs that marked when I had tapped out of his magic and into his life force.
“Trust—me—” I grunted in a halted fashion, glaring down at Aidan, knowing he wouldn’t do as I said. But it was the most I could tell him, without exposing my real
nature to the Titans. His good arm dug the points of his nails into the back of my shirt, gripping and releasing it, to find a hold that would remove me. But it was too late. I watched the boldness of his blue eyes fade to a soft gray and I released his hand, he wouldn’t be making a lightning bolt for a while.
I pulled away from Aidan’s exhausted body and took stock of the damage exploding around me. Magic was flying everywhere, beams of white, purple, red, and green, danced through the air, hitting and missing targets. People ran around calling for friends and shouting warnings to others. It didn’t take long to note that we were winning: Oliver had corralled most of the people who weren’t strong enough to fight, toward the back of the room, while Hanna directed more to him.
A loud boom echoed through the room, making my ears ring and the place around me spin. My knees gave out once more, and I found myself half on top of a passed-out Aidan. I briefly hoped I hadn’t taken too much energy from him, before looking for the source of the noise. Someone had shot a firebomb across the room and detonated the thrones that belonged to Aidan and Savannah.
The chiseled artwork Atlas had slaved over on the walls was destroyed; huge chunks of marble rained from the sconces and showered people in a dust of iridescent white. The Gods were tiring. However, the Titans’ power was far greater than that of the Olympians, and the lesser Gods were beginning to see it. As I turned to survey the other side of the room, I saw that the threshold’s light had turned from a golden color to that of copper or bronze. The satyrs, centaurs, and nymphs were quickly slipping through it. Olympian politics was of no interest to them. They were, as they had ever been, interested only in self-serving purposes. The centaur, who had bowed to me, paused only for a moment, to turn and meet my eye in an uncanny gesture. He appeared to whiny, tossing his long raven hair from side to side, before jutting his chin toward me and walking through the threshold, disappearing.
I turned back to the scene around me, pushing myself off Aidan as Savannah came running toward us. My eyes caught those of Soren, and I caught her arm, pulling her roughly toward me. It was a gesture that was all too familiar from the last time we were this close, and I could tell by how her body stiffened, she thought so too. I pulled her away from Aidan and moved her toward Oliver and Hanna. “You need to cooperate Savannah. For both your sakes,” I said as cryptically as I could, I just hoped she wouldn’t do anything stupid to try and save Aidan. She turned, glaring at me with a hatred only she was capable of, before I shoved her through the silver mist ring that Hanna had conjured to hold everyone within its grasp. She said something to me as she passed through its substance, but the magic swallowed her words and I turned away in shame.
I recovered quickly, knowing I couldn’t let the Titans see my weakness as I watched Gage pick up Aidan from where I’d left him. He held him up with both arms, facing his body toward Soren, who now, I assumed, had the key. Whatever it was, it was buried in the palm of his fist as he smiled winningly at Aidan. Aidan, for all his faults, maintained his bravado, even through heavy-lidded eyes, in the face of defeat.
“Too insecure with the size of your balls to play second fiddle to mine?” He smirked, his mouth tinted pink, and I realized someone must’ve hit him at some point. His arrogant comment didn’t help matters, as I watched Gage hit him again, fist square to the side of his mouth. Aidan coughed as blood filled up his mouth, trickling down his throat, then spat it out in Soren’s face.
“What? You’re so much better than me, you need your lackeys to do your work for you? Pathetic.”
Soren didn’t say anything to Aidan; in fact, he barely even looked at him; he felt Aidan was so below him. His eyes turned to the crowd of scared and defiant Gods encircled by
Oliver’s magic.
He grinned then, finally addressing the crowd, “ironic isn’t it? The God who gave the mortals their first power, has now, finally, come to his senses and seen his error.” He nodded his head at Prometheus, the Titan, who had given man the power of fire. “Everything comes full circle. Which is why you must not be so shocked that this is happening. Titans are the rightful rulers of the heavens and the Earth. We have always belonged on the thrones, which you, meddling Gods, took from us.
“Now, history has corrected itself, and we shall return the Earth to the state in which it was meant. Humans were not created to be given the free will and reign they have. Humans were not meant to rule their world like dictators, kings, and presidents. Those are not real monarchs and leaders. Their rightful place is on their knees at the steps of the temples that will be built for us.
“Only the worthy and the chosen ones, shall survive the wrath of the titans. And those who are too weak to serve, will be eradicated—just like you, Gods. We have no use for a race that only disobeys their orders, a race that debauches themselves in sex and addictions. You are a disgrace to the powers that rush through your veins. Being Gods doesn’t mean you remain hidden away in a castle amongst the clouds, amusing yourself in trifle affairs.
“I am ashamed of those who have come from my loins, whose tragic existence is my fault. But no more will my offspring waste the magic that rightfully belongs to me.”
He nodded his head and Hanna moved through the crowd, pulling two girls by their hair toward the platform on which Soren stood. The one woman, whose name was lost somewhere in the cloudiness of my mind, cried and tugged at Hanna’s hand, trying to be released. Finn and Briar shouted from behind Oliver’s magic, and I looked back at her, recalling now this was Leto, their Godly mother. I wondered if Finn and Briar felt the love their Gods would feel for their mother. If watching this would hurt more than if it were simply Finn, Briar, and this girl; all mortals.
My question was soon answered as Hanna
threw the dirty-blonde haired woman at Soren’s feet. He bent down, grabbing her by the chin and lifting her back onto the tips of her toes. The room was deadly silent, no one even breathed as Soren stared at this purely innocent girl with sheer contempt.
“You are no longer a daughter of mine,” he said. His fingers dug into the supple flesh of her neck, and I could see the magic ripple in his veins as he did what I thought, I could only do. The whiteness of her magic coursed through her heart, illuminating its journey through her body before it coiled into Soren’s hand and turned black and corrupt. The girl gripped his wrist, trying desperately to shove him off, but it curdled my blood to watch the fight slowly slip out of her until her eyes glazed over like that of a blind woman, her strength slipped out, and she hung limply in his arms.
The worst part, was realizing he didn’t have my power; he hadn’t killed her, but had sucked her dry of her power; leaving her as nothing more than a shell. He had literally absorbed the soul of his daughter back into him. A boom shook the throne room as eyes nervously glanced up at the sky where a bolt of lightning dashed across the open ceiling, followed by another deep resounding boom. It was safe to say Aidan was pissed.
“Griffin, do you want to do the honors or shall I?” All the eyes in the room turned to me and I felt myself freeze like a deer in the headlights. This is a test, Hades goaded in my head. But all I could think, was there was nothing left of her for me to take, what I would do to her wouldn’t be comforting but torture. Soren raised his eyebrows at me as if to say, “are you with us or not?” So I nodded, however reluctantly it was, and moved forward slowly.
I wasn’t even close to her, when my hand started shaking, the sweat beaded on my forehead, and my stomach knotted. This was it. This was the moment that I truly accepted myself for what I was. There was nothing good about my magic, it was evil and he was displaying it for everyone in this room to see. In their eyes, I was about to become nothing better than him. And they were all right. Had it been Aidan in my shoes, maybe he would’ve fought and stood up to Soren. But here I was, cowardly making my way toward this girl caught in a vegetative state, whom I was only going to further torment. I could only hope her descent into Hades was a quick one, and there she would find peace. None of this was her doing.
My hand touched her cold, clammy face, and if not for the dribble escaping the corner of her mouth, I would’ve thought she was already dead. But I felt it, a tiny flicker at the base of her heart where her soul was still alive and trying desperately to fight. But it was too late: I had come to her. Death was here.
I focused on the flicker beneath my fingertips and called it to me. I closed my eyes and there she was, nothing more but a greyish-white silhouette behind my eyes. As I suspected, there was nothing much left of her, nothing appealing about her life force. If she made a noise while I killed her, I couldn’t hear it over the pounding, rush of sound in my ears as I worked.
The only thankful thing of the experience, was how fast it took. When I finally pulled my hand away, I didn’t feel better—but worse. I felt the bile crawling up my throat, clawing at my esophagus with its burning talons, and scratching at the back of my tongue. If only I had kept my eyes closed, perhaps I could’ve controlled my reflexes. But as my gray eyes opened and I saw what I had done to this poor girl’s body, it was too much.
She looked like a corpse that had been left out in the desert for weeks. Her skin had shrunk too tight over her bones, allowing them to jut out in horrifying angles where her body had frozen in its contorted shape, as it fought the inevitable pain I’d inflicted. Her skin was a disgusting dark gray and brown color, while her eyes hung limply from their sockets. It was grotesque, and the only person not staring at it in horror, was Soren, who seemed to have a look of fascination and thoughtfulness on his face.
I turned a second too late and half-vomited all over her poor body and myself, before finishing it off on the stairs. I had become, for some, a thankful distraction from the horror in front of them. Gripping my knees, I remained bent over as I wretched a few more times. There was nothing left to come out of me but the alcohol I had consumed hours ago, and it took its time to scald me from the inside out.
Reflecting, as another retch wracked my body, I decided that playing the hero had been an arrogantly foolish thing to do. I should’ve told Val the truth and sent her to Aidan to warn him. I wasn’t a hero: I was a monster.
Straightening up quickly, I wiped my mouth on the back of my sleeve, before stepping away from the mess I’d made. Some lingering eyes still watched me as I crossed to the drinks table and helped myself to a full bottle of gin. The pine taste, though usually repulsive to me, was a welcome distraction from the taste of sick that still lingered on my teeth and through my olfaction. I swigged the gin like mouthwash, gargling it quickly, before spitting it out into a half empty cup left on the table. What a waste of alcohol. I took two deep swigs after that to make up for it.
As I cleared my mouth and nose, the action resumed on the steps, as Hanna tossed the next trembling girl at Soren’s feet. The only difference between this girl and her Godly sister, was this one looked like she had a fight in her. The nauseating smell of her terror wafted off her in waves, but it was tinged with the scent of defiance. She was fearful of her death, but she would fight to the very end if Soren would let her.
“Well, second daughter of mine. Warrioress of the Amazons, you have seen your fate. Will you return your magic willingly to me and live out your days in servitude to your father, or will you suffer the same fate as your sister?”
“Eat shit,” she said, earning a backhand across her face.
“Take me!” Aidan said suddenly, struggling in
Gage’s arms trying to break free. From somewhere in the crowd, Savannah distinctly screamed, “no!” But none of this mattered to Soren, who turned to Aidan with such a look of sheer hatred it could stop a mortal’s blood in its tracks.
“This isn’t about you, King of the ’Gods’. Your punishment is coming, so shut your mouth.” He turned back to the Amazonian and arched his eyebrow as though nothing had transpired between his request and her answer. “Well, very well, then.” He reached out and grabbed her chin as he had with Leto, but she was quicker, anticipating what he would do and drew an enormous sword from thin air and started to drive it toward him.
In the blink of an eye, Soren disappeared, reappearing where she had been, with the sword in his hand and instead, she was standing there with its great length pushed to the hilt in her chest. Her face was painted with an expression of sheer surprise, reflected in the faces of all of those watching. She held the handle of the sword in place, as her knees gave out from under her, and she slipped to the ground. Soren chuckled darkly and reached out, touching the top of her head and while she still had a breath in her, he retrieved what he could of her magic in a ghastly display.
Even after her eyes slipped closed against the heaviness of death, and I felt what was left of her soul escaping to the Underworld, he carried on; trying to pull every drop of magic out of her. She flopped sideways onto the ground and bled into my sickness, mingling it in a pool underneath the first girl’s body.
“So,” Soren said, as he turned around with a bright clap of his hands and a cheerful grin. I didn’t have to close my eyes to see his life force right now, it was practically gushing out of every orifice it could find; he was so filled with the light. I shook my head and looked away in guilt, chugging more of the bottle until it was gone. I’d have to add this to the growing list of things I’d have to live with. I just wasn’t sure if I could. There were some things, even the God of Death couldn’t stomach.
Chapter 8
Soren separated the Gods into groups that only made sense to him. They were split into lines, and each line was held in magical bindings by Oliver. Certain Gods were taken out of line and given to the Titans to drain for power, in more horrific displays of needless killings. Finally, he began directing everyone, one by one, through the threshold and
casting them out of Olympus with flourish.
When he was finished releasing all the minor Gods and other magical deities, he was left with the twelve Olympians. All eleven of them stared up at me from where I stood, as though all of this was my doing; as if I was the one usurping them and not, in fact, the man in question. I couldn’t look at them and comforted myself with another bottle of alcohol, absinthe this time, with the hope that maybe this one would give me alcohol poisoning.
I wanted to tell them that I was on their side, that there was a plan, however unhopeful I was about it now, but instead, I had to play along as Soren announced my contribution to the affair.
“Griffin has happily offered Tartarus for our usage in containing you. As you can understand, we wouldn’t want to put you able to try and take back your thrones. However, as poetic as that justice does sound to myself and my fellow Titans, Prometheus specifically requested that he dole out the punishment for Zeus. Montgomery has suggested that I cast the rest of you out onto Earth, where you might witness the full extent of our intentions for the race you’ve held so dear for so long. Of course, then too, you might succumb to another fate; and I quite like the sounds of that too.” He smirked before waving a hand at Oliver to take the floor.
“I have been waiting so long to do this to you, Zeus, ’Great Father of us all‘.” There was no lack of contempt in his voice as Oliver descended the steps, to close the distance between himself and Aidan. “I cast you out of Olympus and curse you to spend your days on Caucasus, chained there day and night, where an eagle will feast on your liver after each regeneration. Hephaestus, would you like to do the honors?”
He turned to Royce with a smirk, but Royce just pressed himself into the ward of magic, spitting: “go fuck yourself.”
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