As I walked, thoughts of my uncle, Hades filled my mind. He, too, had fallen victim to the Titans. They'd killed his wife Persephone and replaced her with another in disguise, a human girl named Katrina. He never knew until he'd awoken one morning to find her with his helmet, offering it to Erebos. She'd ended up dying during The Undoing, killed by the very Titan she'd been helping. To this day, I couldn't understand why Hades was still fighting so hard to get her back. Because of his abandoning of his job and locking himself in his castle, things had been that much worse at Tartarus.
He said it was love, that he couldn't live without Katrina, despite her betraying him. I thought it might be cowardice over being fooled by our greatest enemies.
Hades was the epitome of what I imagined would happen to me if I didn't get rid of It. He'd joined with the Titans, in a way, and everything was ruined because of it. He was miserable because he'd betrayed his kin, locked in his own Tartarus as an effect.
It wasn't going to happen to me, too.
I continued to follow It slowly, never losing sight. Arsenio caught up eventually, taking his own time as well. We moved side by side in silence, each lost in our own thoughts until we came to a ridge. In the valley below was another tiny town, bigger than the one we'd left that morning. It stood on the edge of the rim, looking down at the definitely populated village.
"I still need to get supplies," Arsenio said, setting his bag on the ground and rubbing the shoulder he'd been shot in.
"We'll stay here for the night," I said, nodding. "Go into town for dinner and provisions and then come back here to sleep."
"What about her?" he asked, nodding at It. "People will want to know why she's handcuffed."
I frowned, thinking for a moment before speaking again.
"I'll stay here with It. You bring back food and whatever else we need."
"Oh good grief, I have a name," It said, turning to look at me, ridicule in Its eyes. "I'm not going to run away, okay? You can un-cuff me."
"And risk you lighting on fire again? I saw you controlling it earlier, keeping your feet warm. Have any plans to light us up and take off? I don't think so. You're not going anywhere."
"Watch me," It said snottily, turning back around and walking towards the town.
Lurching out, I grabbed It by the collar and yanked back, smiling with satisfaction at the sound of pain It whimpered out.
“You are not going anywhere unless I say so,” I growled.
The hatred in Its eyes almost made me feel bad.
Almost.
Chapter Ten
Avalon
My wrists felt like they were on fire, and not the kind that didn’t hurt me.
Arsenio and Cristos sat a couple hundred feet away from me, cooking whatever it was that had been bought on the supply run. Unfortunately, I had no idea what that was, since I’d spent the majority of Arsenio’s time away being tied to another tree and threatened with death if I tried to burn my way out of it.
Funnily enough, I was so angry I couldn’t even begin to summon whatever I had inside me to help me escape. Everything felt like a jumbled mess, locked tight behind a door that required concentration as its key.
The smell of the cooking meat made my mouth water something fierce. I hadn’t had anything to eat in days. It was a miracle I’d been able to make it this long without anything but the water I’d greedily sucked up during my shower.
For a few moments there, I’d thought I was going to be treated as somewhat human and allowed to take care of myself. It was clear I’d received the wrong impression, though.
Maybe my life would be better if I just gave up now. My wrists were going to get infected, if they weren’t already, and either that would kill me or Cristos would.
He didn’t deserve the satisfaction of knowing he’d ended me.
Despair washed over me as I took in my situation. I’d been kidnapped, starved, hurt, attacked, and insulted beyond imagination. Never in my life had someone told me I wasn’t worth the air I breathed. It shouldn’t have hurt me so badly, but it had. Death, as much as I didn’t want it to be, looked like my only way out.
Hanging my head in sorrow, I finally let the tears I’d been holding back leak out, running over my skin and dropping into the dirt beneath me. For some reason, I couldn’t get the image of Dimitri trapped beneath the beam out of my head.
I was stuck, just as badly as he’d been. The only difference was his death wasn’t his own fault.
I’m a monster. A Titan. My kind destroys everything they touch.
Shoulders shaking, I tried to accept my new reality and the fact that it was one I couldn’t survive in. I didn’t want to be something so horrible.
“You need to eat.”
I looked up at Cristos, surprised to see him holding a plate of food and a bag of something.
“So you can kill me later?” I spat back. “No thanks.”
“If you die before we reach Sicily I wouldn’t care,” he growled back. “But it would put a damper on the rest of my plans.”
“S-Sicily?” I stuttered, somehow comforted to know where we were heading.
“Eat,” he sighed, holding the plate out to me again.
Cautiously, I look a piece of what appeared to be chicken off the plate and bit into it, sighing as the flavor and juices hit my tongue. Within a minute, I’d eaten all he’d brought and started on the bread. It was the most delicious food I’d ever had and most definitely not enough.
“Can I have more?” I croaked out, wondering if he’d brought anything to drink as well.
“No.”
Sitting in front of me, he set the empty plate on the ground and reached out for my hands.
Instinctively, I jerked away, feeling sick to my stomach.
“Fine, you don’t want your wrists taken care of? Sounds good to me.”
He shoved to his feet, taking the bag with him and leaving the plate to taunt me. When he reached Arsenio, he handed the satchel over and kept walking, disappearing from view.
Shaking his head, Arsenio made his way to me, occasionally looking over his shoulder in the direction his comrade had gone.
“May I take care of your wrists?” he asked formally as soon as he was in front of me.
I nodded, feeling much safer with him than I had with Cristos for some reason.
“The next time he offers you help, I wouldn’t refuse it,” he stated, motioning for me to hold my hands out to him. “If he ever offers again.”
“Why should I trust a man who wants nothing other than to spit on my dead body?” I asked grimly.
“He could have done nothing and let you suffer a long, painful death,” he snapped, losing his cool for a moment.
Shocked into silence, I watched as he unlocked the cuffs, removing them for the first time.
“Don’t even think about trying to get away. I know those ropes are tied tight, but if you burn through them, I’ll have to do whatever it takes to stop you.”
“Why are you suddenly on his side?” I asked, tears brimming in my eyes again.
“I’ve always been on his side.”
“You were nicer before,” I stated softly. “You stuck up for me.”
“We’re taking you to Mount Etna,” he sighed, opening the sack that apparently held the medical supplies I needed. “Do you know what that is?”
“A volcano?”
“Yeah,” he nodded, pulling out a jar of something and screwing the lid off. “But it’s more than that. Have you ever heard of Typhon?”
“He’s my father, right?”
“Yes, but he’s more than that, too. He’s a general in the Titan army, and a strong one at that. Eons ago, he and Zeus fought a terrible battle that ended in the King’s insides being ripped from him and Typhon running off with them gleefully. If it weren’t for Hermes getting them back and Zeus defeating the monster in another fight, our world would have fallen apart.
“After his defeat, Typhon was trapped in Mount Etna, the very fires that had
created him. It’s the only place he—and the Titan side of you—can be destroyed.”
“You’re using me as bait,” I said, suddenly catching on. “You think you can lure him there and trap him again.”
“It would appear that is Cristos’s plan, yes,” he said grimly, slathering my wrists in the cool, pain dulling salve.
“I don’t think it’s going to work,” I offered seriously. “I’ve been around for years and he’s never come looking for me. Why would he do it now?”
“I don’t think he knew about you until now,” he muttered, looking over his shoulder again once he’d finished applying the medicine. “I’m pretty sure Cristos didn’t know about you until a few months ago, either. Someone has kept you a secret for a very long time.”
He pulled some bandages from the bag next, unravelling them in preparation to cover my arms.
“I don’t agree with treating you like scum,” he continued, wrapping the cloth around my wrists with ease. “But I won’t stand by and watch while my family is destroyed by the Titans. If there’s a chance we can get them by using you, then that’s what we have to do. I’m sorry.”
“Do you really think he’ll come? Typhon, I mean.”
Pausing in his work, he looked up at me, a sad expression in his eyes.
“I think they will all come. Erebos has already tried to take you. Typhon being your father has given you incredible powers, some of which you’ve already discovered. You are the first, possibly the only, demi-Titan in existence. No one knows what that means for the war. They won’t let you go without a fight.”
“What if they don’t come?” I asked, swallowing hard.
“Then I’ll throw you in the lava myself and be done with you.”
I jumped at the sound of Cristos’s voice, having not seen him approaching from the side.
“Are you done?” he asked Arsenio, nodding at my wrists.
Arsenio stood in reply, stowing away the things he hadn’t used in the bag.
“Great.”
Cristos took the handcuffs from him, snapping them back over my bandages. Thankfully, it didn’t hurt as much as it had been.
“Get some sleep,” he said to the both of us, turning and heading back to the fire they’d cooked dinner over. “We have a lot of walking to do.”
“You want to walk all the way to Sicily?” I shot back incredulously. “Are you insane?”
“We can’t take the normal routes,” he yelled back, turning on me in a sudden fury. “Everyone is looking for you! If we just hop on a plane, the Titans will burn it right out of the sky! Do you want more mortal blood on your hands? Did you get a taste for it when that man and two kids died back in Moscow?”
I shut right up, my mouth snapping closed in shock, a sharp pain like being stabbed with a knife shooting through my heart.
“Everywhere you go, people die. That entire town was empty, probably massacred by the Titans who were waiting to take you. I won’t lose any more innocent lives because you wanted to take the easy way out.”
My eyes were watering again as I looked away, every part of my body aching from his words. People were dying because of me. Everything he said was making sense.
“You would cost us this war,” he continued, obviously not caring that his words were stinging me.
“At least I would have thought of them as people instead of pawns,” I shot back, hating that a tear slid down my face as I looked at him. “They don’t mean anything to you, do they? The people you claim to protect. You’re just looking for another fight. You don’t really care what happens to us.”
Anger sparked in his eyes as he got right down in my face.
“You are a Titan,” he growled slowly.
“I am a human!” I shouted back. “I’m a person with feelings! You are nothing but a monster masquerading as a hero.”
“That’s enough,” Arsenio broke in, putting a hand on Cristos’s shoulder. “Cristos, go to bed. I’ll take the first watch.”
He stared at me for a moment longer, loathing etched into every line of his body, before finally turning and going back to his side of the camp.
“You don’t know the amount of good he’s done, for gods and mortals alike,” Arsenio said softly. “You shouldn’t judge him based on just the few days you’ve known him.
“And I shouldn’t be judged for something I have no control over.”
Without answering, Arsenio followed after his friend, stopping halfway between the two of us and settling down for his watch.
So many emotions tumbled through me as I watched him, his body becoming only a dark spot in the glow from the fire, his features completely washed out.
Fear. Hatred. Pain. Self-loathing. Anger. Everything massed together into what felt like too much to bear. Every time Cristos had spoken, I’d wanted to throw up. How could I so easily believe what he was saying and at the same time know I was so much more—better—than what he made me out to be?
People were dying and it was my fault. If I hadn’t been with Dimitri, he would still be alive and doing the work we’d both loved so much. If I hadn’t run from Erebos, I would have saved that whole town from being run over with Titans. Who else was waiting for me to come and ruin their lives with my presence?
I was bait, practically picked up off the shelf and being carried to my doom. To top it off, I didn’t even know what death would mean for me. If the Greeks had been right about their gods, did that mean there was no heaven? Would I fade into nothing if I died?
Something told me I would find out very soon.
Chapter Eleven
There was something different inside of me. I could feel it there, churning under the surface, waiting for the moment when it might be free again. Hunger exuded from it, yearning for the uninhibited world to accept its power, to let it run wherever it wanted to go.
Now, with my wounds being taken care of and my stomach fed nightly, I could sense what must have been there since I first caught fire and searched for it with the nymphs—the Titan half of me. She was the same in so many ways, familiar and comfortable, but also scary and unknown. Why, after all of the years I’d spent not knowing she was there, did she suddenly decide to reveal herself now? It was as if she’d been waiting for her own kind to show up.
I sighed, still in a not quite awake state, the area around us quiet in the early morning mist. The chill in the air had settled into my bones, the bite taken away by the warming presence of my other half. On the outside, my skin prickled, the tingling from having been mostly outside for the past week never really going away.
With my eyes closed, I could hear the soft movements of the men at their camp, putting things away and packing up for wherever we would be heading today.
I highly doubted we would be getting to Sicily any time soon, especially if Cristos was going to insist we walk the whole way. It’d been four days since his plan had been revealed and we were apparently walking in circles, trying to lose anything on our tail.
As the sounds from the camp started to diminish, I heard footsteps crackling through the snow and branches, heading my way.
“Wake up,” Cristos’s gruff voice ordered.
Eyes fluttering open, I took a deep breath, reluctant to come back into this mystical reality. It was so much easier to think about things and try to work them out when my eyes were closed. Everything didn’t have to be real then, but could be something I’d imagined for myself.
The ropes around me loosened, Cristos having moved to the other side of my tree to undo them. I didn’t even bother asking about the handcuffs, knowing he would refuse to remove them.
He was interesting to me. A jerk and bully as well, but interesting. It had been my experience that when someone acted very meanly towards another person they were either attracted to them or very afraid. I highly doubted he was attracted to me, but if things had been different I could have seen myself finding him attractive. Fear also seemed like a far reach. Up until now, I’d been fortunate to never run into someo
ne who was mean just for the pleasure of it. Cristos definitely seemed like he was one of those people, though.
“Get up,” he commanded as soon as he’d pulled all the ropes away and stowed them in a bag.
Groaning, I hefted my sore body off the ground, stretching the best I could. My back popped some, but my muscles cried to be really stretched out. Until the handcuffs were gone for good, that wasn’t going to happen.
“Good morning to you, too” I said facetiously as he grabbed my arm and started pulling me along next to him.
“Shut up,” he replied grimly.
The Titan side of me sparked at his words and I felt the anger rise inside. Surprisingly, it seemed like a gate had opened up, clearing the way for her to attack. I knew if I were to concentrate and just let it happen, I would light on fire right now. The past few night’s rest and realization of where my powers were actually coming from had cleared the block of emotions I’d felt before.
Surprisingly, I didn’t want to light my captor up. Even more surprisingly, the Titan half of me seemed to agree. We were safer with him than on our own.
It was a scary thought, one I’d reluctantly been accepting since we’d been attacked in that tiny town.
Heeding his words, I remained silent, allowing him to pull me along, away from the camp. Arsenio was nowhere to be found, so I assumed he was either already ahead of us or coming from behind.
We continued on through the trees for a few more moments, the only sounds that of our feet and the birds chirping in the trees. If the circumstances had been any different, I would have enjoyed it. Golden light filtered through the branches, snow sparkling under its happy beam.
Finally, I could see a road up ahead of us, a red sports car parked on the side of it, under the trees. Arsenio leaned up against it, arms folded over his chest as he looked around cautiously.
“We aren’t walking?” I asked in surprise.
“I never said we were,” Cristos answered, a slight chuckle in his tone.
“But you said—”
“I said we couldn’t travel with a large group of people. I never said we were walking the whole way.”
Adrastia (The God Chronicles Book 4) Page 8