Releasing the Gods

by Leia Stone

  My eyes bugged. “The…” I cleared my throat “…gods are here? The ones who imprisoned you? Your family?” I needed to have a little Google session when time permitted.

  He frowned. “They are no family of mine. Not anymore.”

  Considering they’d tried to kill him, that was probably fair.

  I stood, adrenaline pumping through me at the thought of meeting another one of these giant gods.

  “What do we do?”

  He seemed very calm and unafraid for a Titan with limited powers who had just been socked in the stomach by one of his family members from far away.

  “My powers aren’t working right,” he snarled. “Last night, while you slept, I tried to go back in time to before we were bound together and kill you, but it didn’t work. I couldn’t even travel.”

  My eyes bugged. “You what? How dare you! Wait, time? You can … travel time?”

  Cronus nodded. “At full strength I can. Among many other things. Weren't you humans taught of me?”

  I shrugged. “Zeus, Aphrodite, and Ares … that’s all I remember.”

  He scoffed, looking offended. “Well, my powers didn’t work, which means I won’t be able to fight off Zeus as well as I would at full power. So I’ll need a weapon.”

  Okay, this was really happening—I was tethered to a Titan who had some major beef with these gods. A Titan who apparently wanted me dead and would probably follow through when he got enough juice.

  Did I really want to help arm him?

  I guessed he was the lesser of two evils right now.

  “I know where you can get a gun. They sell them at all the stores here now.”

  He stared at me like I was dog shit on his shoe. “A gun? That won’t do anything against Zeus and his army. No. We need to get to Zakynthos Island. There’s an enchanted weapons maker there.”

  “Zaky what? Is that like, in Greece?” Was this dude for real? I had a shift at the Crab Shack at noon. I couldn’t fly to Greece!

  He grabbed me by the underarm and started hauling me to the bathroom. “Yes. Greece. I would normally … there is no word for it in your language, time travel, zap, fly … us there but since my powers—”

  “You can fly too!” Holy shit. I had a vision of riding on his back, my hair whipping in the wind as he flew us across the sea. #QueenOfTheWorld

  “Not fly … travel instantly, and not right now. So we need…” He seemed to search his drunken memory bank of words he’d taken from me last night. “A plane.”

  I laughed. Full-on laughed in his face. “Dude, I make ten bucks an hour. I can’t afford two tickets to Greece.”

  “Money? I have plenty.” Reaching in his pants, he pulled out a massive gold bar.

  My eyes grew to the size of saucers. “Have you had that in there the whole time?”

  #DickGold

  He handed it to me and I could barely wrap my fingers around it. Fuck, it was warm. And heavy. How much was this worth? Thousands for sure.

  My eyes widened at the thought. “I can’t sell this anywhere! We don’t use gold here. I need something smaller.”

  He growled. Reaching into his magical pants pocket, he produced a bunch of solid silver coins.

  Okay, I might be able to work with that. I got lost in thought for a second and growls ripped from his mouth.

  “Do you wish to die? To have your head ripped from your body and ingested by Zeus?”

  “No. Obviously not.”

  He pushed me inside the bathroom. “Then get dressed, we need to leave.”

  My job. My freaking life! “Fine!” I snapped and whipped out my phone. I fired off a text to Shauna and told her I had a raging hangover and asked her to cover my shift at the Crab Shack today. Then I started to brush my blond hair. It was so long it reached my tailbone, and brushing it out after falling asleep with it wet was proving a challenge.

  The god next to me groaned, peering through the crack in the door. “I can cut that off, you know. Make it more manageable?”

  I gasped. “How dare you. This hair is the reason I have almost ten thousand followers.”

  “I’m leaving in sixty seconds whether you’re ready or not.”

  Argh! I slammed the door in his face, quickly brushed my teeth, went pee, and changed into shorts and a t-shirt. I slipped on running shoes just in case. Then I shoved random clothes and toiletries in a backpack because I think he was serious about needing to go to some Greek island.

  When I went to the fridge to grab breakfast, I saw that everything in there had been eaten. Including the condiments.

  Eww, human garbage disposal.

  I gave Cronus an accusatory look and he just shrugged.

  After catching another Uber that Cronus quickly warded, we headed over to the pawn shop. I was hoping the dude who worked there would give me something for these silver coins. “While I’m in here getting cash, you need to go next door and get normal human clothes,” I told the Titan of time, and pointed to the Big and Tall store right next to the pawn shop. My eyes grazed across his mostly bare chest and the metal plating he wore. Dude looked like he’d stepped right off of a movie set.

  Our Uber driver, Minnie, raised an eyebrow at us.

  “I’m a method actor!” Cronus declared, and I tried not to giggle. “But remember the bond? I don’t think this will allow for that.”

  #TheFuckingBond!

  I sighed.

  She pulled up to the pawn shop and we both exited the car.

  “Stick with me! Don’t talk.” I snapped as I waltzed into the pawn shop and he hung by the door fiddling with something.

  As I approached the guy behind the desk, I felt that painful slicing sensation in my gut, and I knew that we were literally on the edge of our tether to each other. I flicked my giant an annoyed look and he shuffled closer to me. When the pain eased, I focused on the task at hand.

  Pawn shop negotiations. #IveSeenThisShow

  Twenty minutes later, I had seven grand cash and Cronus looked like a super tall American basketball player. He wore Nike shoes, dark denim wash jeans, and a pale blue t-shirt that said Life’s a Beach.

  I couldn’t help but grin.

  We were now with Minnie on our way to the airport.

  He held out a beefy hand. “Give me the small computer phone.”

  I unlocked my phone and handed it to him. “Do you even know how to use it?”

  He glared at me and started to button mash, pulling up a ticket purchase website.

  “Damn, I’m impressed.”

  Another glare. “Your limited brain function is barely passable. But I’ve learned enough to adapt.” He somehow managed with his big-ass fingers to checkout with two tickets to Greece, placing them on hold at the airport.

  I reached for the phone. “Whoa … whoa, those are first class seats, buddy. That’s going to take all of our money.”

  He scoffed. “I’m not sleeping with the rest of the humans in economy.”

  Snob!

  But hey, if he was buying … I wasn’t going to complain. Let this idiot figure out that we’d need food and hotel money when we landed in Greece and that they didn’t take gold bars he kept next to his dick as payment.

  #DickBarsAnyone

  We were just getting off the express ramp to the airport when that slicing pain ripped through my stomach. Cronus shifted next to me, his chest rumbling—he was feeling the same.

  “Everything okay back there?” our Uber driver asked.

  “Method. Acting,” Cronus grit out.

  “Mother fudger, that hurts,” I whispered to him. “What the hell is up with this?”

  He looked out the rear-view window as if expecting to see Zeus himself right behind us.

  “Another god is here looking for me. They’re putting out magical beacons to try and find my location. My wards are blocking it but just barely. Once my powers return, this won’t happen.”

  Barely.

  “Why am I feeling it?” Because fuck that. This was his family drama, no
t mine.

  He glanced sideways at me. “Something must have happened when our life debt was created. We’re … bound tighter than normal.”

  Oh, fabulous. “And how do we fix that?”

  He shook his head. “The Fates are the ones who handle life debts, and last time I saw my nieces, they tried to kill me, so I’m not going to ask them.”

  Oh my God. Why was this happening to me?

  “So about last night…” I looked up at the rear-view mirror to see Minnie’s eyes glued on us. “When we were discussing that movie ... and you told me about the end of the world part … please continue.”

  He sighed, rubbing his chest. “As I said, it was the Titans’ job to keep the world safe, but in doing so, we were weakened. Zeus took that moment of weakness and managed to kill my brothers and sisters, but I was too strong. I was imprisoned instead, and I’ve been waiting for my chance to enact revenge. For my family.”

  That was all very cryptic and insane. “What were you keeping the world safe from?” I asked. That was really the only part I gave a shit about. He could keep his soap opera family drama to himself.

  Cronus took a second to answer, and the tension seemed to build in the car. “The nine deadly sins.”

  What the fuck did he just say?

  “What movie is this for?” Minnie piped up from the front. “I want to see it when it’s in theatres.”

  “Sorry, can’t say. We signed an NDA,” I told her, my heart hammering in my chest. I didn’t even know what to respond to the giant god who had just scared the shit out of me, so instead I did a quick search on my phone for Cronus and my mouth popped open. Snapping my head in his direction, I held up my phone. “Dude.” I whispered. “You cut your dad’s dick off? What the hell?”

  He smacked the phone out of my hand and it fell into my lap. “Humans don’t know anything about our history. Zeus slew every historian alive at the time. Then he spun his own tale, making himself the hero.”

  Hmm, sure buddy. #DickMurderer

  I glanced at my phone looking at his family tree. “Zeus is your son?”

  That made this entire story all the more fucked up.

  He paused a moment. “I think so.”

  I scrunched my face up. “What?”

  Cronus shrugged. “My ex-wife Rhea slept around. It’s impossible to know for sure.”

  Jesus. The drama with this guy.

  I glanced at my phone again. “And Rhea was … your sister. Awesome.”

  #Vomit

  He cut me a glare. “As much as Minnie is your sister.” He glanced at our driver.

  Minnie perked up. “Am I making it into the movie?” She sounded elated.

  Poor thing.

  I ignored her. “What do you mean?”

  “I am the son of Earth Mother and Sky Father. The dirt was my womb and the stars were the seed. None of us are genetically related. We’re kin. Family. But not in that way.”

  Whew. That was a frickin' relief, because yuck.

  Minnie pulled up to the terminal and unlocked the doors. “I’ll be keeping an eye out for the movie.” She winked.

  I winked back and slung my backpack over my shoulder.

  I was flying first class to Greece with a god. Happy birthday to me.

  Chapter 4

  It turned out that Cronus might have been all good with the flying thing when he was outside an airplane, but when you strapped a centuries-old god into a metal flying bird, he suddenly developed a phobia.

  “Your memories did not tell me it would be like this!” This was said at a dull roar, causing multiple faces to turn in our direction. “The only benefit of this death trap is that all of the steel is helping my wards, so we shouldn’t be attacked by my enemies. But still … this human-made beast does not feel safe. You’re a fragile human that will die if we hurtle from the sky.”

  One might think he was concerned for my safety because he’d grown so fond of me, but the truth was, if I died, so did he. He was worried about his own super-fine ass.

  The flight attendant leaned over; the seatbelt sign had just switched off and we were free to move about. “Sir, I assure you there is no safer way to travel.” Her smile was broad and overly friendly.

  He lifted his head slowly, leveling a stare at her. She got her first glimpse of his blue and gold eyes and those ancient, hot-as-fuck Viking features, and her voice dropped into something more seductive. “Is there anything I can get you to help make this flight more comfortable?”

  Cronus didn’t look amused as he turned to me. “Prostitutes are plentiful in this time.”

  We both glared at him, and the attendant huffed away, her straight blond hair flying over her shoulder as she stormed off.

  “Stop calling women prostitutes,” I hissed. “Firstly, it’s not cool to slut shame. Secondly, you are reading it all wrong. Women have rights in this time … sort of. We do whatever the fuck we want and if that means sleeping with a hot guy, then so be it. This is not prostitution, it’s sexual freedom.”

  “Uh huh,” he said, not at all sounding convinced. “I’ll reserve judgment on that.”

  Shaking my head, I hit the button to lower the back of my seat. I needed about fifty more hours of sleep to function around this douchehat. “No one cares what you think anyway, dude,” I said with a yawn. “So keep your opinions to yourself.”

  I closed my eyes, only to shoot them open again at a low, rumbling sound. Turning, I gulped at the sight of him. Face like it had been carved from stone, eye color swirling somewhat ominously, and a tic starting high in jaw as fury radiated from him. I swore he was actually throwing off heat—like a furnace.

  Somewhere along the way, with meeting him in a drunken state, and finding myself on a plane to Greece, I’d forgotten that an actual scary-as-fuck god-Titan was attached to me. And while he couldn’t kill me, he could probably kill everyone else on this plane, and I shouldn’t antagonize him.

  “Do you know who I am?” he said with soft menace. “My opinion is the only one that you should care about.”

  “What I meant to say,” I started, swallowing roughly, “was that your opinion, while very important, is not relevant right now. Karen is here to serve us food and drinks and help us in an emergency. She’s someone we need. Let’s be nice to Karen.”

  Something told me Karen was going to spit in our food after the prostitute remark, but I’d deal with that later.

  Some of the fire died from his face and I wondered how scary he was at full power. I leaned over and he seemed a little startled that I’d moved so close. “Why are your powers not at full strength?” I whispered, thankful the loud engines added an extra layer of obscurity to our conversation. “Is it because of me? Is my humanness bringing us down?”

  Cronus’ stare was deadpan, and it was starting to hurt my feelings that he didn’t find me funny. I personally thought I was hilarious. And so did most of my Instagram followers.

  With an annoyed huff, he answered, “It’s because I was stuck in the prison realm for so many years. It’s designed to drain the power of a god, which is the only way they could hold me. It will take some time to rejuvenate my energy.”

  Huh, fancy that.

  “Glad I’m not a burden.”

  Cronus made a disparaging sound. “I never said that, human.”

  I snorted. “Right, right, you’d kill me if you could, blah blah. Wake me when we get to Greece.”

  His glare was back full force. “What is that? When you act like you’re joking but you’re not. You’re really being a bit—”

  “It’s called sarcasm.” I cut him off before he could call me a bitch in public. Karen might be peeing in his apple juice later if she heard that one.

  “I don’t like sarcasm,” he growled.

  I frowned. “Bummer, big guy. That’s my first language. Night, night.”

  Turning over, I gave the big oaf my back and tucked in for a long nap. Flying first class was totally worth it. We’d starve to death the second we landed, b
ut completely worth it to be able to stretch out my legs with this down blanket.

  #Humble #Blessed

  In minutes I was fast asleep.

  After landing in Olympia, we chartered a boat to Agassi, which was some beach on Zakynthos. I might or might not have developed a slight crush on this big asshole the second he started talking to the locals in Greek. Something about a man who knew a foreign language just did it for me. Luckily, this was a tourist town and most everyone spoke some version of broken English, so I wasn’t completely in the dark.

  We were literally using our last hundred dollars to charter this boat. My stomach was rumbling just thinking about our next meal. This mountain of a god next to me ate four times what I did, so our food budget needed to be plentiful. Maybe someone here could give us money for that giant dick ... gold bar … he had.

  As the boat picked up speed, I asked the guy piloting it if he minded me changing below. I had packed my pink and lime green Calvin Klein bikini just in case and I figured this would be a great place for Insta pics. I could take fifty of them on our trip and release five a week to spread them out. I was totally hitting 20K.

  He nodded and gestured to the steps leading down below. This boat was legit. I wondered if I could convince Cronus to take a pic of me spread out on the hull of it. If he said no, the driver definitely would; he seemed cool. Cronus followed me as I made my way through the luxurious interior, thankfully waiting outside as I quickly changed in the bathroom. This whole not able to be more than five feet apart thing was annoying as fuck. I topped the look off with my large white Jackie O glasses—mostly to hide my no-sleep, hangover, travel bags under my eyes.

  Stepping out of the bathroom, my mouth went dry. Cronus had removed his shirt and was standing there in a pair of basketball shorts. It was so hot here that already a bead of sweat dripped down his chest and was just rolling down the v-shaped muscles on his abdomen.

  #BasketballShorts #HideNothing

  I was starting to wonder if he had another gold bar in there, because … damn.

  When he caught sight of me in my swimsuit, something flared to life in his eyes, but then it was gone and replaced with a scowl. “So this is a bathing suit? Not underwear?” he questioned as we made our way back up to the deck.