by Leia Stone
Rhea dragged me after her, trying to hold on to my arm while still wearing her blue handcuffs. I risked a glance over my shoulder just in time to see Cronus … flying through the air with his fingers wrapped around Zeus’ throat. At least that seemed to be going well.
“What is the plan?” Rhea asked, looking anxiously at the same scene as me. “I’m not sure I can condone killing one of my children, but I know Cronus doesn’t feel the same.”
I nodded. “Hyperion pushed for imprisoning him. We’ll have to wait and see how that goes.”
Rhea managed a lopsided grin. “Of course he did. Hyperion … he has a kind heart. Especially for—” She cut herself off.
I frowned, my legs weaker than ever, so I skidded to a stop. Why the fuck were we running anyway? Hype was a Titan. He’d do fine in the back of a car for a minute.
“Why would Hyperion fight for not killing Zeus? What is Zeus to him?” Explosions of information began to detonate in my head, especially how Cronus always said that Rhea was never faithful to him. And now her shady little stop before she blurted out that last word. “OhmyGod, is Hyperion the real dad?”
Rhea winced. “They’re best friends, closer than that … and we were on a break. You can’t say anything. Hyperion hasn’t touched me since that one night.”
Damn. That was some heavy shit … his best friend. Also, now I was related to that fucking piece of shit, and I’d like to erase that knowledge from my memory.
“I won’t say anything,” I sighed. “I mean, Cronus already knows you were unfaithful, and it would only hurt him to find out about Hyperion.” I shrugged.
One night thousands of years ago? Surely that was better left buried.
We located a green Subaru and I banged on the trunk. “Hype?”
There was nothing at first, so I released a little bit of the sins again, sending them in through the keyhole to try to wake him from whatever they’d hit him with.
A second later, Rhea grabbed my arm and yanked me back.
We dived behind some bushes just as the trunk of the car exploded, releasing one pissed-off Titan. Hyperion rose up, his face awash with rage as he crawled out of the carnage. He was wearing the blue glowing handcuffs too.
“So you guys have no powers or can’t zap away with those on?” Panic rushed through me. I was stuck in a god battle with two fucking humans.
“I have limited powers,” Hyperion said. “They’re not strong enough to render me useless, but it did allow them to hit me with a knockout spell for longer than usual.”
“Maisey, listen.” Rhea cut Hyperion off like the ignorant bitch she was. “I don’t want you to think you’re special or anything, but you might help us out with your Selene power.”
I crossed my arms and glared at her.
#MaybeIShouldHaveLetThemKillHer
“God forbid I go through life thinking I’m special.”
She shook her head. “No, I just mean you’re not as powerful as I am, obviously, but—”
I turned to Hyperion. “Shut her up.”
Hyperion pulled my arm and guided me away from my future murder victim. “Selene’s power was always in her hair and her blood. If you could spare some DNA, it might unlock the cuffs.”
“Just tell me what to do,” I growled. There was another sonic boom, all of us stumbling forward, and I hoped Cronus wasn’t doing any damage to the canyon. I did fancy keeping one of the natural wonders of the world intact.
Chapter 9
“Oww!” I hissed as Rhea sliced into my palm with a jagged piece of glass. “You liked that too much,” I scolded her.
She rolled her eyes. “Come on, half the Greek Pantheon will be coming to Zeus’ aid once he realizes he can’t take Cronus in a fight. Surely you can bleed a little to prevent that from happening.”
“Has he ever been able to take Cronus?”
Rhea snorted. “Never. Not once. That’s the reason Cronus was the only Titan not slaughtered. No one can best him. But that doesn’t stop Zeus from trying over and over, amassing more power and coming back again. It’s a sore spot for him, poor little child.”
Poor child? Was she for real? I mean, I knew parents looked at their children with rose tinted glasses, but that was taking it too far.
“Your child is a psychopath and a mass murderer. At some point you might have to let him pay for his actions.”
She squinted at me, like she wasn’t sure what I was talking about.
My blood sprinkled across her cuffs, and then she carefully selected some strands of my hair that were blond, slicing them off. They wrapped over the blood and cuffs, emitting a white light; the scent of copper hit my nose, a crack rang out and the cuffs fell off.
“Hyperion.” Rhea waved him over. “Hurry or I’ll have to slice her again.”
He’d been keeping watch, but he got to our side in seconds. Rhea repeated the same process on his cuffs, only faster, because she had full use of her powers. When the shiny blue manacles, different to a police-issued cuff, fell to the ground, I knelt down to examine them closer.
“Who made these?” I asked. “How are they powerful enough to stop gods and Titans?”
Hyperion scooped them up and I followed on shaky legs. “They’re from the crone, by the looks of it. She’s the only one I know strong enough to infuse this sort of magic into an object. She uses the blood she collects from powerful beings.”
Ah, right. That explained her little blood fetish. Narida, that bitch.
#ThoughtSheWasIntoBloodPlay #ThisIsWayWorse
“I need to get you out of here, Maisey,” Hyperion said, reaching for me.
I shied away from his touch. “What about Cronus?”
He was more than holding his own from what I had seen, almost like he was toying with Zeus, but we needed to get this moving, because I had no idea how long Okeanos could detain War, and we were wasting valuable time.
“Maybe we should help him get Zeus locked down so we can move on to War together?” I suggested.
Hyperion looked torn—this wasn’t the plan.
“Good idea. We better get these cuffs on Zeus before Cronus kills him.” Rhea turned to me. “You can’t bring a god or demigod back from the dead. Only Titans have that ability.”
So if Zeus died, it would be forever. Sounded good to me.
“Alright, but if things go south, I’m zapping Maisey out of here,” Hyperion stated.
With that, Rhea bent and grabbed the two pairs of cuffs, handing one to Hyperion. “Do you remember the word he muttered when he slapped them on you?” she asked.
Hyperion just nodded.
“Maybe I should know the word too. In case I am the one to cuff Zeus,” I suggested.
They both looked at each other and seemed to be holding in laughter.
I tapped my chest. “Hey, four sins locked in here. Just saved Rhea’s life…”
Rhea rolled her eyes. “Fine. It’s requiem.”
Was that so hard? #Bitch
Just then, a blur passed before our eyes and Cronus came flying down from the sky, standing on Zeus like he was a surfboard. When he slammed down on Zeus’ body, the ground shook.
“Had enough, you little shit?” Cronus snapped. He looked like he was enjoying kicking the god’s ass.
The fury and rage in Zeus’ bloodshot eyes was palatable.
“NOW!” Zeus shouted, and three … creatures … leapt from the sky and landed before us.
“Maisey close your eyes!” Cronus screamed just as I was trying to assess the situation, trying to figure out what the fuck these things possibly were.
I pinched my eyes shut, but I’d already gotten a split-second glimpse of what looked like fucking Medusa. Even I knew about her, that woman with snakes for hair who could turn a being to stone. I’d seen both the snakes and the grayish skin, and the fact that there were three of them before my eyes pinched shut. I started to walk backwards slowly, hoping I could get to a car or something so I could open them. Nothing made me feel more vulnerable
than being surrounded by our enemies and I couldn’t even see them coming.
“Hyperion! Get her out of here!” Cronus shouted; these words were immediately followed by a pounding sound.
“Don’t kill him!” Rhea screamed.
I heard a bark, which sounded like Hound…
Where the fuck had he come from?
A shadow passed before me and I almost opened my eyes, because that was fucking terrifying.
“You think you can freeze me, bitch? I’ll turn you into an ice cube and drop you in Antarctica for eternity!” Rhea wailed as a waft of cold air passed before me.
#Fuck #BeingBlindInAFightSucks #OneTenWouldNotRecommend
I was just wondering if maybe I should take a tiny peek, when the shadow drew closer and a … finger stroked my neck stopping at the necklace.
“Don't. Open. Your. Eyes. Maisey,” Cronus warned. “Fuck you, Ares, you traitor,” he added as I heard more sounds of scrabbling. Ares? Jesus, Zeus had planned this attack well.
The fact that some creepy Medusa chick was possibly standing in front of me, stroking my neck, freaked me the fuck out. It took me a full sixty seconds before the terror unlocked my limbs. I reeled my right fist back and punched where I thought her nose would be. It was a reflex, one that would probably get me killed.
Something slimy, kinda rough, and cold touched my hand.
Snake! I screamed bloody murder and stumbled backwards, falling on my ass.
I punched a fucking snake.
Icy hands wrapped around my arms and I squeezed my eyes tighter. Oh God. I was going to be bitten by hundreds of snakes. I just knew it. My heart pounded against my chest as I tried to work out a good plan of what to do … and failed.
#ThinkYouFuckingUselessBrain
The sins didn’t seem to give two shits that I was pinned down by fucking Medusa; they didn’t come to the surface like they had before. I think I’d used up what energy I had on Athena, and now they were taking an afternoon nap.
When the slither of a snake brushed against my neck, I screamed so loud there was a hope I might have made her deaf. A thump sounded near my head, and then she was seemingly thrown off of me; her grip fell away from my shoulders. A short shriek followed, and then two strong arms went under my legs and back and I was being hauled off the ground.
“Requiem,” Hyperion shouted off in the distance and then there were grunting sounds.
I knew from the familiar arms that held me, the heat igniting in my core, and his earthy scent, that it was Cronus.
“You can open your eyes now, love,” he murmured.
My eyes sprang open and I took in the scene before me with a dropped jaw. Three Medusa-looking bitches were frozen like popsicles, and Zeus was bound by the hands and ankles with those blue glowing cuffs. Hyperion held him under one arm. No other gods could be seen but there was a trail of blood and broken trees to tell a story.
“I need a fucking margarita,” Rhea exclaimed.
Cronus sighed, tucking me in closer to his body. “Are you hurt?”
I shook my head.
“Meet you at the prison entrance,” he told Hyperion and then poof, we were gone from the Grand Canyon, reappearing at the place where I first met Cronus. This cave held some pretty traumatic memories for me—not exactly how I imagined spending my twenty-first birthday. But in hindsight, maybe the best thing that ever happened to me.
Rhea zapped in with Hound, and Hyperion with Zeus. Cronus slowly set me down and walked over to Zeus. He grabbed the god’s chin firmly and forced him to meet his gaze. “It’s out of respect for your mother's wishes that I don’t kill you today.”
Zeus’ chest heaved up and down in anger, but he wisely stayed silent.
“You need time to chisel away your ego and love of power. What do you say, Hype? A thousand years sound good?”
Hyperion nodded. “Seems fair.”
Rhea stepped forward and faced her son. “You always were my most ambitious child. You took it too far this time.”
Zeus frowned. “Don’t do this. Come on, we can work out a—” Without hearing him out, Cronus basically lifted the god and threw him into the opening. Zeus landed hard on what looked like barren land inside the portal, and a bark behind us drew my attention.
Cronus looked down at Hound. “You sure?”
The hellhound walked into the stone opening and growled low at Zeus, who stood and backed away from the creature. Cronus looked pained for a second, but then just grimaced. “Hound is going to keep an eye on Zeus. I’ll be back for him when all of the sins are collected.”
Emotion clogged my throat at the sight of Hound staying back to keep an eye on that asshole. But at least that would hopefully mean the god would stay put and stop getting in our fucking way. We had no time for his power play. War was on the loose. And more sins after him.
Cronus shut the stone over the hole to close it and the Titan of time swiped his hand across the blade he held at his side. Placing his palm on the opening, blood dripped down his wrist and coated the stone. He said something in what sounded like … Latin, maybe.
Finally, he turned to face us. “Alright, that’s one fucked-up job complete. Time for us to get back to Bali.”
Hyperion sighed. “Cronus … War. We need to contain him.”
Cronus leveled a hard stare on his best friend. “No.”
Then he reached out for me and poof, we were gone. Once again standing on a beach. The multiple zapping had made me dizzy and I swayed on my feet as Cronus took my face into his hands. “Tell me. What did Selene really say?”
#OhFuck #Busted
My stomach knotted.
“Nothing much. She thinks I’m strong enough to take on all of the sins. Don’t worry.” I made an effort not to chew my lip in anxiety.
“Lies. Tell me the truth or I’ll be forced to take it from your mind,” he warned.
My mouth popped open as I yanked my head out of his hands. “You wouldn’t dare!”
He shrugged. “If it kept you safe, I would do anything.”
Dammit. #SayingAllTheRightThings #WhileStillBeingAControllingAss
I sighed … in reality, how much longer could I keep this secret from him? “Look, I think I can take one more—”
“Maisey,” he growled.
My bottom lip quivered as tears lined my eyes. “She said Narida could transfer the necklace and sins to you, okay! That you could save the world and in the end you would die after containing Death.”
He was very still. Watching me, unmoving. “Narida can transfer the box to me and spare you?”
I shook my head. “Did you hear what I said? If that happens … you die.”
He reached out and grabbed my arm and we zapped away again. The moment we landed on the white sandy cobblestone path, I recognized it as Narida’s street, but immediately knew something was wrong. The acrid smell of smoke filled my nostrils. Before I could investigate that though, I started to fall backward because that was one too many zaps in a row.
Cronus caught me as nausea and dizziness rolled into me. “Breathe, love. I’m sorry.” He rubbed my back, holding my hair up and out of the way, but his focus was on our surroundings.
“What’s happening?” I asked, straightening and taking a deep cleansing salty-air breath through my nose. In no time, the dizziness and pounding in my head eased. “Was this Zeus as well?”
I mean, the bastard seemed to have plan after plan, and no doubt he wanted to take control of the one being who could transfer the sins to someone else. He’d already told me he wanted to take them … he must have the crone.
Cronus took a long moment to answer, no doubt assessing a lot of shit I couldn’t even see with my non-Titan senses. “This is not Zeus,” he finally told me, voice hard. “This is the sins. They’re manifesting faster, moving up the timeline. They’ve evolved from the last lot, and they’re learning at exponential speed.”
I swallowed roughly. “And all of that means what exactly? What do we do now?”
&
nbsp; “The world is ending,” Cronus said bluntly.
#WTF #WTAF #WTAFF
“Is there a second Earth somewhere?”
I mean, a girl had to ask. Maybe we could just zap everyone to second Earth and relax.
Cronus almost smiled at that. “Not for the humans. For you and me, yes. I can make anything work.”
Not gonna lie, that was pretty freaking tempting. People mostly sucked. I didn’t really care if half of them died, but the animals … I really loved the animals. Plus, the children. There was still hope for them, and since my middle name was Hope, we should at least attempt to save them … right?
“We have to stop the sins,” I told Cronus. His expression didn’t soften at all. “Please…”
His teeth looked like they were cracking under the pressure of his clenched jaw, as we both stared at the crone’s house burning in a heap of flames.
“We need to find Narida,” he said, shaking off whatever dark thoughts plagued his mind.
We really didn’t. I wasn’t transferring this necklace to him, but for now I’d indulge his little expedition. I knew better than to get in his way when he was set on something.
“Well, I don’t think she’s here any longer,” I noted, staring at the burning embers of what remained of her beach house.
Cronus cupped my cheek, rubbing his thumb gently over it, and I recognized a distraction. What was he about to drop on me? “Jessell is the only one who might have a shot at tracking Narida’s location.”
“Areyouforfuckingreal?” I snarled, my words running together in an angry line of “fuck no, not happening.”
Before I could yell some more, he tightened his hold on me.
“Don’t you fucking da—”
I was cut off as we blinked out of existence again. Within seconds we were once again standing in Sin City. #Irony
Cronus didn’t wait for me to berate him, he just hauled me into his arms—over his shoulder actually, and started to run. It spoke a lot of this city that no one gawked at the nearly seven-foot Titan sprinting through the streets with a chick over his shoulder.
“You just gonna prowl the streets and hope to bump into her?” I said sarcastically, not even bothering to fight him because I was conserving my energy for our major argument about the sins.
