Grace of Gods Boxset: Reincarnated Greek Gods YA/NA Series

by Kyleigh Castronaro

  “Cloth is flammable.”

  “I was hoping it would go from flames into something more manageable.”

  “Obviously, you were wrong.”

  “Yes, obviously.” I continued to smirk to myself, as I turned back to the bowl of fire, staring at it for a moment. There had to be safety features to the key that didn’t allow it to be stolen like we were trying to do. But there still had to be a way to trick it. Maybe another safety feature that reverted it back to its original form that would give us the chance to take it.

  Narrowing my eyes in concentration I pulled my magic to my hand and reached out, smothering it with the smoke. If I could make it believe I was trying to destroy it, maybe then, we’d be able to grab it.

  At first, my smoke did nothing but feed the flames; then slowly, suddenly, the flames began to diminish and they softened until there was nothing left but smoldering embers.

  “You’ve put it out!” Aidan hovered beside me, staring down at the pit of the bowl. He had a better vantage than me with the extra three inches

  he had on me.

  “No, I haven’t, touch the embers.”

  “I’m not going to do that.”

  “Do you want your key or not?”

  We stared at each other for a moment, before finally, Aidan huffed, turning back to the bowl and reaching inside.

  He pushed aside the coals and grabbed the biggest chunk. As he pulled it out, I watched it crumble in his hands to reveal a real key in his palm. I grinned, looking up at him in hopes of approval, but he was fascinated with the key. Short-lived victory, that was.

  “How do I turn it into something for myself?”

  “Well, be a king. Command it.”

  There was a long silence as Aidan stared at the key in his hand. I wasn’t entirely sure what he was waiting for, so I walked away, inspecting the room and looking for any hidden traps. There was still something sitting in the pit of my stomach that made me uneasy about how easy all of this was turning out to be. But, I still hadn’t managed to find anything that suggested we were in danger.

  As I waited for Aidan to finish whatever sort of meditation he was attempting on the key, I drew up a screen that connected me to the Underworld. Valentina and Savannah were done talking about whatever had been bothering her, everyone seemed to be wandering around looking nervous. They wanted to be doing something, anything that would help our cause. I understood their restlessness.

  “Val.” I don’t know why I spoke, but there was a pull in my navel and I did. To my surprise she turned and looked at me, she appeared to be seeing me. I smiled to myself, thanking Hades mentally for the tip.

  “You’re okay!” She said, moving closer to, what I assumed, was her side of the screen.

  “Yeah, we think we have the key, but Aidan can’t figure out how to work it.”

  “I’m working on it,” a gruff reply came from behind me.

  “Atlas is working against us, we can’t trust him.”

  “You’re sure?” She frowned, an adorable little crease in her forehead that made my heart swoon.

  Refocusing myself, I nodded, “yeah. But this place is deserted, so if Aidan can get the key working soon—”

  “I said, I’m working on it,” he said again, with more annoyance. I glanced over my shoulder at him before rolling my eyes and looking back at Valentina.

  “Play nice,” she said warningly as if she could read my thoughts.

  “I’m trying, he just makes it hard.”

  “You’re not a ray of sunshine yourself.” She was smiling at me as I looked back at her.

  “Are we okay?” I asked, hushing my voice, so it was just the two of us—or at least as close as I could get.

  She smiled tightly and nodded her head, “yes. I just hope, maybe one day, you’ll tell me what you saw in that room?”

  “You didn’t go to it did you?” I felt a sense of dread and anxiety rise the back of my throat. She shook her head, letting me relax again.

  “No, I didn’t. But Royce did.”

  I nodded my head in understanding, “okay. Promise me, you won’t go in that room.”

  “I’m not sure I want to face my deepest, darkest secrets.”

  “Is that how he described it to you?”

  “Well, sort’ve. He said it was like reliving the worst day of my life and that would be my deepest, darkest secret too.”

  “Worst day,” I said, thinking about my brief experience. It was a culmination of the worst days of my life. I wish I only had one like Royce. I forced a smile, even though I was sure that Valentina could see through it, before I ran a hand through my hair.

  “Okay, well, I just wanted to reach out to you to make sure that you were ready. We should be ready in a few moments, if you want to start working on opening the portal. Are you still sure you’ll be able to do it?”

  “Well, I’ve not exactly tried to do it before, but I can’t imagine it being that difficult compared to some of my other powers. Plus Asher’s been helping me figure it out. We’ve been practicing.” I smiled tightly, wondering why Asher was taking a sudden interest in helping Valentina develop her powers. I could feel my jealousy growing in my chest, however irrational it was, before forcing myself to nod, stepping away from the screen reluctantly. A voice in the back of my mind reminded me the real thing would be here soon, and I knew I still owed her an apology for my rude behavior earlier.

  “Okay, well, see you soon.” When she smiled back at me, it left me breathless, when the screen closed.

  “You’re lucky she loves you back,” Aidan said, stirring me from my desirous thoughts. I turned back around and approached him, staring down at the key shape in his hand still. He hadn’t gotten very far, not that I’d heard him trying my suggestion. Perhaps it was because I suggested it that he was biding his time using it.

  “Why is that?” I crossed my arms defensively, feeling the hot bubble of anger start to rise inside of me.

  “Because some women don’t excuse being blown off that easily. Savannah doesn’t.”

  “I thought Savannah loved you.”

  “She does, but she also is deeply insecure. She needs to be told a lot that she’s alright and I’m not going anywhere.”

  For a moment, I felt like we were bonding, sharing our feelings about our separate women. It was an unexpected thing that left me feeling uncomfortably familiar with Aidan.

  “Alright,” he took a deep breath and stared down at the key in his hand, “you will turn over your power to me, the rightful God of the

  Heavens.” He said, throwing his voice across the room and making it bounce off the walls in an echo. We both stared at the key in his hand, waiting for something to happen. The key remained a key, nothing spectacular occurred and I looked up at Aidan and shrugged. He didn’t seem that disappointed that my suggestion hadn’t worked.

  “What if there’s like a secret code or something?”

  “Damn it!” Aidan shouted, dropping the key suddenly as it turned a bright red color in his palm the metal searing his palm to a bright, angry fleshy layer. The key clanged off the floor before shifting from red to a bright yellow, making both of us stumble back and cover our eyes against the light.

  When I opened my eyes again, there, lying on the floor, was Aidan’s lightning bolt. I looked up at Aidan, hoping to rub in my victory while he actively avoided looking me in the eyes, swooping down to collect it off the ground.

  He balanced it on his fingers, surveying the craftsmanship of the bolt before nodding, “I think this is right.” I nodded in agreement, not sure what to do next.

  “We need to secure the heavens while the Titans aren’t here.”

  “What are we going to do with Atlas?” That was a good question, one I didn’t have the answer to. Even if we arrested him and held him, I knew he would only tell us what he thought we wanted to hear. The more I thought about it, the more I realized that he was probably playing game to ensure his own safety. It didn’t matter to him what side he wa
s on, who got hurt in the process, so long as he made it out unscathed. But that wasn’t going to continue for much longer.

  “You can cast him out, the way Soren did the other Gods. I’m sure it works just as well on Titans as it does Gods.”

  Aidan looked me over before nodding his head, “Alright.” He took a deep breath, “Atlas.” His voice bellowed and I could almost see the command fly through the walls, creating a blanket over the mountain as it sought out the one who was being summoned. It didn’t take him long to push the door of the throne room open and he walked in, head held high like he was still in charge. Aidan and I both stared at him, I was just trying to see what he was up to this time.

  “I, Aidan and Zeus, King of the Gods, hereby cast you from Mount Olympus to wander Earth an outcast of the heavens.” Atlas’ mouth opened, ready to protest, but he didn’t get the chance as the door he entered through blew open. The threshold glowed gold to signify the portal and his body was ripped out of the throne room. My eyebrows rose as I turned to look at Aidan.

  “That... was very formal.”

  “Zeus told me what to say.” He shrugged before shrinking the bolt down in his hand and I watched the light be absorbed into his palm.

  “Good trick.” I nodded to his hand just as the portal shifted, turning from gold to silver and back again, and Valentina stumbled through with Asher right behind her.

  “I, Aidan and Zeus, King of the Gods, hereby reinstate you to Mount Olympus Asher —God of?” Asher shook his head. I wasn’t sure if it was because it wasn’t necessary or what, but Aidan shrugged and finished off there.

  Valentina came up to me and threw her arms happily around my neck, “you did it! I knew you would.” I smiled bashfully and nodded.

  “Not without your encouragement though,” I said, pinching her nose playfully. She grinned at me, giggling before looking around the room slowly.

  “Alright, if we’re going to send the Titans through to the Underworld we need to get them here somehow.”

  “We also need to make sure that Portal is going to go to the right place?”

  “I can handle that. Valentina’s portal making was good.” He held out his hand to her and they high-fived like they were old friends. I could feel my eyebrow arch as another surge of jealousy went through me. It was an uncommon feeling, I didn’t really know how to deal with. I’d never been in such a position before where I felt like I needed to remind someone that this was my woman.

  Asher didn’t seem to notice how I felt, as he moved away from us and back toward the portal. He frowned toward the doorway as he held out his hand and concentrated on the door. After a moment, the gold faded once more, but this time, it came back as black.

  “Is that supposed to happen?” I didn’t seem to be the only one who noticed that the color had gone wrong.

  “Yeah, it just means that the portal is weak.”

  “Weak? Is weak what we want right now, when we’re intending to win a war?” Aidan’s voice was sharp as he towered over Asher. Asher didn’t seem intimidated though as he grinned and nodded.

  “Yeah, you don’t want them to know that you have the key do you? If the portal is weak, that’ll show the Titans that you don’t have much power here, so this is the best you can do.” The three of us looked amongst ourselves, each one searching the other for an answer none of us could supply. We didn’t know the first thing about portal making. How did Asher know so much?

  We had no other choice but to accept what he was saying. He had to know what he was doing if one of his powers was making portals. Maybe he was a God of transportation. Was that a thing? I didn’t know much about other Gods and their powers, I had no idea.

  Finally, Aidan shrugged; it was the signal Valentina and I both needed. We’d just have to trust that what Asher was up to was right.

  It sounded logical enough, and it was a sneaky plan that just might help us trap the Titans even faster.

  “Alright, so now how to we lure them back up here? They seemed pretty happy down on Earth with the humans as their slaves.” Aidan and I looked at each other.

  “There’s got to be a way to alert them to us being here.”

  “We could lure them here?”

  Asher suggested, looking from Valentina to Aidan.

  “What do you mean lure them?”

  “Well, we give them a reason to come back up here.”

  “Like what? Besides bringing everyone back up here and undoing everything Soren did, there’s not much else we can do to lure them. Plus, the longer they’re down there, they’re losing power like we did, aren’t they? Maybe it’s better to just wait it out for them to come back to us.”

  “I don’t think Earth has that kind of time. Maybe Asher is on to something. Why don’t you tell them you’re going to turn yourself back over to them?”

  “Why would they care about me turning myself into them?” Aidan turned sharply to me.

  “Because if you tell Soren you’re going to give him your abilities, he’s too power hungry to resist.”

  The other two were silent as we all stared at Aidan. I liked that he hated how good my idea was. That, of anything, was the one thing that could lure Soren back up here, even if he suspected that we had the key.

  “That might work,” Aidan said, just as I rolled my eyes.

  “Bullshit, you know it would definitely work.”

  “Yes, I know, what I was going to say was, how do we get the message to him?”

  “I can take it,” Asher said with a shrug. Aidan and I stared at each other, slowly getting more and more comfortable with this whole making decisions together silently. Finally we nodded, turning, once more, to Asher.

  “Alright, you go down to Earth again and tell the Titans about the exchange. We’ll stay here and watch you from the screens.” Asher nodded, waving his hand once more at the portal as it shimmered, changing from black to gold once more, before slipping through it. Something still didn’t sit right with me about that black portal and when I looked at Aidan, I could tell he was thinking the same thing.

  Chapter 20

  After opening the screens, we waited as Asher appeared in whatever city Soren was currently occupying. Valentina was standing diligently at my side, squeezing my hand tightly as we all watched the exchange.

  “Was it such a good idea to send someone so… unknown?” She tried to say as gently as she could. But I was thinking the same thing. We were putting a lot of faith in a man who was basically a stranger to us. Before all of this started happening, I had no idea who Asher was, I hadn’t even seen him around Olympus before. But, then again, just because I didn’t know him, didn’t mean much.

  I didn’t exactly go out of my way to befriend people when it was time to party. I kept to myself and whatever bottle company I sought that night. However, Aidan, the social butterfly of us all, didn’t seem to recognize him, and the fact Val knew nothing about him was doubly worrisome.

  “He doesn’t really look unknown, that’s the thing that confuses me.” Aidan pointed to the screen again, and sure enough, Asher and Soren were talking like they were old friends.

  “We should’ve asked more questions in the Underworld,” I said uneasily, a knot settling in my stomach. It was too little, too late, however. Whatever was going to happen, was going to happen —and soon.

  “Retrospectively, I’ve decided this plan is not a good idea.” I looked down at Valentina.

  “Why? What do you mean?”

  “Well, we were definitely ill-prepared when it came to setting the Titans up to get captured in the Underworld, we didn’t question Asher about his loyalties and now look,” I nodded back at the screen. Soren and Asher were making their way toward us, but there were no other Titans coming with him. It was just the two of them.

  “We wanted to capture all of them, not just their leader. Sure, Soren would be better out of the way and maybe make the others easier to catch; but I get the impression —from the time I spent in Olympus with them—that Oliver is ju
st as powerful and passionate as Soren is about this whole takeover thing. So even if we lead Soren on to believe you want to give him your abilities, how are we going to trick the other Titans into coming up here and get them to go through the fake portal that maybe leads to our trap?”

  “You could always try the portal, Mister Pessimistic,” Aidan turned to look at me, his voice dry.

  “I’m good for now, besides, we’re about to have company.”

  Asher and Soren walked through the portal and entered the throne room. Asher made quite a show of stepping away from Soren at the first chance he got, moving over to us and standing on our side.

  “I hear you want to turn yourself over, Aidan.” Soren seemed particularly at ease in front of four people who hated him.

  I still had to question whether Asher was with us or against us. The exchange on the screens hadn’t been one of two enemies negotiating, but more friends conversing lightly. I didn’t know what to expect, and it only made me wish more that I had the ability to read minds and not suck the life out of people.

  Even knowing, I had my smoke back, Soren didn’t seem in the least bit concerned.

  “Maybe,” was Aidan’s reply, staring intently at the portal. “Where’s your backup?”

  Soren arched an eyebrow at him, managing to even feign confusion as he shook his head just slightly, “I don’t know what you mean.”

  “Your backup: Oliver, Gage, the other Titans?”

  “Oh. I’m sure they’re busy on Earth helping to re-establish the hierarchy.”

  “Is that what you call it?” Valentina spoke up, the edge of defiance in her tone, making my hand tighten around hers protectively. Soren was not the kind of guy you messed with, I didn’t want her stepping too hard on his toes, even if he was outnumbered.

  “Yes, the humans needed to be aware of our presence, and now it’s been felt. With time, the balance will return to normal and our rightful place on the altar will be returned. Until then, they need our guidance. Think of them as little puppies, you must grab them by the scruff of the neck and put them back in their place before they go tripping all over themselves around your feet.” He grinned at her, looking at her like she was a little puppy tripping over herself.