I nodded.
Adonis grabbed my hand. He had a torch in his other hand and pulled me toward the next walkway.
“Athena,” Iapetos called.
I turned around.
“Trust no one.”
Chapter Sixteen
I didn’t realize how alone I could feel before Iapetos said those words. I shivered. Or maybe I trembled. Either way, Adonis pulled me closer to his side. It was the only comfort I had. The fact or the simple idea that he was, at one point, my everything.
But right now, it felt like I had nothing.
Seth and Icarus were strangely quiet as we went further into the mountain. This time it took only minutes before we were again in a large room. It was beautiful.
Fire lined the walls from ten-foot torches, and in front of me stood ten of the Watchers. Each of them was hooded with red material similar to Iapetos’s. The only difference was they were not in any way paralyzed in place.
Instead, they moved around one another, as if they were floating on a cloud. I couldn’t see their feet; the red cloak took care of that. If I didn’t know any better I would say they were merely spirits of the actual beings, not in full physical form.
I stepped forward. “I am Athena. I’ve been sent—”
“We know who you are,” a deep voice said.
I took my battle stance and waited as one of the hooded figures floated toward me. With swift movements, he removed his hood.
His face was much like Atlas’s. So beautiful to look at that my eyes burned. His skin was perfect — too perfect. I watched as his eyes narrowed, taking in all of me.
“I imagined someone taller,” he said finally.
I laughed. “Yeah, well I imagined someone shorter.”
He smiled, a genuine smile that made my defenses melt just a bit. For some reason I had envisioned terrible demonic-like creatures that would love nothing more than to scrape my face with their claws.
“Shall we sit?” The man held out his hand and immediately two plush chairs appeared in front of us.
“What about—?” I turned around and pointed at Adonis, Seth, and Icarus.
“Apologies, my sweet, but they are not invited into our circle.”
“Oh.”
I nodded toward them as they waited back at the wall. Each of the men seemed ready to pounce at any minute.
“Odd company that you keep, Athena,” the man said, smirking.
“Caught that, did you?”
He nodded. “A Phantom, a Zar, and a fallen brother. Very interesting indeed.”
I ignored his information fishing and cleared my throat. “You seem to have an advantage over me. It seems my reputation precedes itself, yet I have no idea what to call you.”
“I have many names.”
“Oh, cryptic. I like it.” I leaned back and folded my arms across my chest. “Your name, please. Let’s go with the most used, shall we?”
“I like you.”
“I like you too.” I smiled.
He licked his lips then leaned forward. “You may call me Cronus.”
“The one who started it all,” I whispered.
“So you know your history? Impressive.” He nodded his head, and the rest of the figures circled around us. “I wonder though, do you know the correct version?”
“Correct?” I asked intrigued.
“Do you trust me?” He lifted an eyebrow and smirked.
“Of course not.”
“Good.” He clapped his hands once, and the room turned black, and a small light flickered, illuminating his hand as he held it out palm facing up. “I wouldn’t trust me either, but this, my dear girl, is something you must know.”
I nodded, even though he couldn’t see me.
The figures around us offered protection, meaning Adonis and the rest of them couldn’t see or hear anything that was going on. For that, I was semi-grateful. If this was my mission, I was the only one who could be trusted, not them.
“Shall I tell you a story?” Cronus asked.
“Well, I did come down here for something.” I smiled.
“Good girl.” He snapped above the little cloud of light and another light burst forth and another, repeating until there were twelve stars all together. “We watched, for thousands of years we watched. We watched while the selfish human race did nothing but destroy everything El gave them. We stood by and did nothing when women would leave their husbands for each other. When children would slaughter their parents and slander their Creator. We did nothing.”
I felt my lips tremble. I wanted to weep for them, but I couldn’t. I kept listening.
“We were all given free will. Even the angels. For what creator wants to be served out of duty? No, El deserves to be served for the simple fact that El is everything.” Cronus paused. “I admit that I became angry with El.”
“Angry?” I asked. “Why?”
“He saw that the humans were wicked, saw that they were making a mess of things, and He still loved them. He loved them more than us.”
I felt my heart slam in my chest. “You were jealous.”
“Jealous?” he roared. “I was much more than that, my dear. How could He love them? How could He love such an insignificant race? A race that was so dependent on him that they could do nothing, yet had such arrogance that they claimed they didn’t need Him. Yet they ignored the sun and moon, ignored the magnificence of their own bodies. Jealous does not even begin to describe it. How do you become jealous of something so insignificant as an ant? Or a flea?”
Harsh, but okay.
“I fought with myself. I said nothing. Then when Lucifer, my brother, took angels with him, it became harder and harder to keep my silence.”
The lights shifted, and suddenly I saw something I hated. A human girl was sitting by a pond sunbathing. She was naked and beautiful. Her hair fell back against her shoulders, and water droplets seemed to flicker across her golden skin.
“Hello,” a dark figure said over her. He was gorgeous. Bright blue eyes and pale skin framed a perfectly chiseled figure. The woman laughed.
“Are you an angel?”
“Do you want me to be?” the man asked.
“No.”
“Why not?” He knelt down beside her and began rubbing his hand up and down her arm.
“Because, then I could not lie with you.”
“And is that what you want?” He purred in her ear.
She laughed and lay back. “Yes, after all, this is merely a dream. I have just fallen asleep and will wake up in a little while. For I have never seen a man more beautiful in my waking. It must be a dream.”
“Oh, it will be much more than that.”
I watched in horror as the angel who had clearly taken the shape of a normal human laid claim to the woman and quickly left her. She took pleasure in his touch, then as quickly as he appeared, he disappeared. The woman laughed and told herself to wake up.
Only, after a few minutes, she realized she was awake.
It had really happened.
The light changed again. The man took on his normal form as a heavenly being. It was Cronus. Only he seemed aged, different. He slowly appeared back in the sky but wasn’t as bright as his brothers.
“They are wicked creatures,” he said. “And I will prove it to El. I will gain his attention once and for all. Who will follow me?”
His brothers argued with him for twenty years. And in those twenty years, the woman had a child.
His name was Atlas.
Nausea overtook me as I watched the child come into the world. The mother died, and immediately everyone could tell the child was different. Not of this world, they said as they passed him off and finally left him in the desert.
“I went in search of him,” Cronus said. “I could not abandon my flesh and blood. Never have I felt so enraged as when the humans discarded this innocent creature. It was my jealousy, my bitterness that created the half-breed; it was no fault of Atlas. It still is not Atlas’s fault.”
I nodded. “I like Atlas too.”
He smiled. “Most do, my dear. After all, he carries a great many things on his shoulders. It is easier to feel light around the boy.”
I sighed and watched as Cronus again snapped his fingers. The picture in front of me made me want to weep. Cronus walked up to the small innocent child and picked him up in his arms.
“My son,” he said over and over again, weeping over his sin, his foolishness.
“My anger,” Cronus cleared his throat, “clouded my judgment. Anger has a way of turning into hate. I hated the humans for their callousness toward an innocent creature. So, in all my hate, I used my son as leverage. I brought him with me to the stars. I showed him to my brothers, and they were blinded with rage matched only by mine. All of us fell that day. Not because of lust, my dear, though it quickly turned into that. After all, which one of us does not fall prey to sin and lust? We slept with the women, they bore us children, and in the end we hoped those very same children would destroy the women who’d born them. For they did not deserve El’s love or the mark of a Heavenly.”
“But you were caught,” I said as light shed across the big picture of my past. “And my father…”
“He led us,” Cronus said simply. “He gave us leadership when there was no one to turn to.”
“My father was one of the Originals. Some say he and Lucifer…”
“I know,” Cronus said interrupting me. “Believe me when I say I know exactly who your father is.”
“Then you know why I fight so hard for the Seekers.”
Cronus nodded. “My dear, if there is anyone that is more ashamed of their past than I, it has to be you.”
Shame did indeed wash over me as I nodded my head. I hated who my father was, who he represented. I hated it so much.
“Good. Feed the hate, Athena. Feed it, it will make you free.”
“Did you say something?” I asked weakly.
Cronus shook his head. “No, my dear.”
Fear washed over me, as well as that same hatred, and I knew. I knew where my father was.
I took a deep breath, even though I didn’t need it, and pushed away from the chair. I walked a few feet in front of me, the blackness leading the way. My breath suddenly turned ice cold in the air, freezing as I inhaled and exhaled.
I closed my eyes and reached out in front of me.
“Hello, Father.”
“Daughter,” the familiar voice answered. “Welcome home.”
Chapter Seventeen
Surprisingly enough, it wasn’t Adonis whose hand I clenched in that instant, but a Titan’s. Cronus’s hand to be exact. It was instinctual. His skin felt smooth against mine. I held on to him like my life depended on it. I began to tremble as a black-cloaked figure moved effortlessly toward me.
“Brave, you must be brave, Thena,” Cronus said in my ear so only I could hear the words. With that, he released my hand and guided me toward my father.
Staring at Darkness does something to you. The human side of you wants to flee, the angel side of you wants to fight, and the sane part of your brain, the part El created for purposes such as this, freezes. When you are in the presence of ultimate Darkness and sin, you are immobile.
Azazeel, my father, glided toward me and stopped directly in front of me. I held my breath as his hands reached up to his hood and threw it back.
I hated his beauty, hated that looking at his face was like gazing upon a star or the sun. Everything about him was perfect, from the molding of his lips to the arch of his eyebrows. His skin was bronzed like the angels, yet it didn’t shine. Instead a constant dark cloud swirled across the surface of his face as if he was shielded from the very Light that created him.
“You have returned to me.” His voice was deep and hoarse.
I shook my head and looked back toward Adonis.
He had a dagger ready to throw and looked so menacing I would have laughed had there been anything remotely funny about our current situation.
I gave my father a cold stare. “I’m not returning. I’m merely visiting some old friends.”
Cronus laughed. “I believe she just insulted us.”
I shrugged and gave him a wink. I really did like him. I hoped in the end he would choose me over my deceitful father.
“You have grown,” my father stated blandly.
“It’s typically what happens,” I answered sarcastically. “Is there a reason for your little visit? Aren’t you supposed to be preparing for some great battle?”
Azazeel threw his head back and laughed. It echoed off the walls. “My dear girl, the battle was never a physical battle to begin with. After all, I’ve only lifted the veil from the Titans. They still cannot escape this mountain. Not without the help of Raphael.”
“So what are you going to do? Butter up one of El’s best archangels and get him to make a visit.”
“You’re very sarcastic for such an innocent.”
I crossed my arms. “You’re very perceptive.”
Azazeel’s brows furrowed. “I am all things.”
“Only One can say that,” I fired back.
“So you still fight for him? For someone you have never seen? You take Michael’s word over mine? How are you even certain of El’s existence? At least tell me that.”
I had nothing to say. He had me there. Everyone knew the Seekers didn’t have El’s Spirit with them. It was a gift only given to the human race. I was left out of that equation when I was born into Darkness.
“I just know,” I ground out.
“Just like I know you will betray Him.”
“I would never betray Him!” I shouted as I lunged for him.
In a minute Adonis was by my side. I clung to him, needing his energy to keep me sane.
“Oh, but I believe you will, my dear.”
“What makes you so certain?”
“I have something you want.”
“You have nothing I want.”
Azazeel chuckled and removed his cloak. “Thanatus, will you come here, boy?”
Icarus moved toward the circle. If I was a betting woman I would have said Seth was the evil one. Instead Seth looked just as shocked as I. As Icarus moved into the circle, he quickly morphed into a being that matched my father.
“Sold your soul to the devil, did you?” I whispered hoarsely.
Icarus, or apparently Thanatus, grinned and took a step toward me. “Tell me, Thena, have you missed me in your dreams?”
Adonis growled and pulled me back. In an instant Adonis was on his knees, screaming in pain. Thanatus snickered and pulled me flush against him. “Do you dream of me like I dream of you? Tell me, was my song so sweet? My touch, pleasurable?”
His hand ran down the side of my arm. I tried to jerk back, but I couldn’t move against him. His piercing blue and white gaze bore into me. His thick, corded muscles vibrated beneath his black armor.
Thanatus leaned in and sniffed my neck then licked below my ear. “You taste just as I remember. Choose me, Thena. As I choose you. You may be my queen.”
I shook my head. “I want nothing to do with you.”
With a laugh he threw me to the ground. “Very soon, you will change your mind.” He joined my father’s side and yawned. “Shall we, Azazeel?”
A shriek was heard and then a loud rumbling. I was used to odd noises, especially considering my current company. I stayed still, and then two large beasts, that looked exactly like possessed buffalo, pulled a man in chains into the circle.
“Atlas!” I gasped, running to him. A transparent piece of glass shot up from the ground, nearly hitting me in the face and trapping Atlas in the process.
His smile was sad. I felt my eyes well with tears.
“Life, my dear daughter, is all about choices.” Azazeel walked around me slowly. “Imagine if you will, what would have taken place if the Watchers would have chosen to follow El. Yes, they would be in heaven joined with their brothers, but they also would never have known infinite pow
er. Power that only I can give them.”
“You are nothing but a vessel of Lucifer,” I spat.
Azazeel gripped my neck, his face inches from mine as his teeth snapped together. “Watch whom you speak of. He is my god.”
“He is nothing but a fake. A pretender. He is powerless.” As I said the words, I felt lighter, as if saying the words out loud gave me more faith in my mission, removing the hatred I felt and the fear that seemed to swallow me whole.
“You know nothing.” Azazeel dropped me to the ground. I reached up and rubbed my neck. It was tender from his grip.
“I’ll forgive you your ignorance, if you do me this one favor.”
“I’ll never bow to you or your dark god.”
Azazeel laughed. “Oh, my dear, I believe we all know that. You would rather give your precious life for a human than do such a thing.”
Well, that was almost true. I still struggled with the whole sacrificing myself for a weak human, but I was working on it.
“Did you know, my daughter, that everyone has a soft spot for you? Did you never wonder why you had such influence, such wisdom?”
“Clearly I got that from my mom’s side.”
Azazeel laughed. “And that lovely sense of humor. Yes, all of them gifts, supernatural gifts from the angelic race. People are drawn to you. They genuinely like you. It is easy for you to influence others, and even now I can see Cronus itching to rip my head off for even touching you.”
“You imagine correctly,” his irritated voice said behind me.
At least I had one Titan on my side.
“So, this favor, it has to do with something I need from you.”
“I will never do you any sort of favor.”
“I know.”
I exhaled loudly and waited.
“Would you, I wonder, do it to save someone else?”
My eyes flickered to Atlas. He shook his head; his eyes a silent plea to never give in.
Azazeel stepped into the circle near Atlas. “My dear, did you happen to see all the faces of the different beings as you made your way down into the Abyss? Did you see the torture? The pain? Do you realize that for an eternity they will experience everything the Abyss has to offer? Can you begin to imagine the pain you would feel at getting every nail removed from your fingers only to have them grow back again and the process repeated? How about someone pulling your hair out, and then feeding that hair to you? Only to have hair grow from the inside, yet again on your face and other parts of your precious body? How about maggots consuming your flesh until you can no longer scream?”
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