by Lazu, Sotia
“But not just yet,” Prometheus said, he and Pherusa materializing beside the group.
Coeus looked around. The whole area was flattened, dirt and soot covering crumbled walls and uprooted trees. Cars—he had to ride one as soon as possible; what Eros showed him of them was fun—were crushed into shapeless piles of metal, and chunks of cracked asphalt were barely visible beneath patches of dirt and grass that had miraculously survived the fight. What wasn’t torn down or burnt was flooded.
“Where do we start?” Coeus asked Hyperion.
Hyperion closed his eyes, and his mind brushed Coeus’ conscious. As Titan brothers, they could establish a mental link. Unlike with their soulmates, this was temporary, but it worked just fine as Epimetheus joined Hyperion in projecting memories they’d gleaned from all living creatures they’d urged to leave the wider area.
Coeus used his bond to Nikoleta to forward the images he saw. Around them, he sensed his other brothers doing the same with their soulmates.
The ten of them worked together to reforge the mountain. Houses, stores, and services took shape beside sidewalks that were recreated to the minutest crack. Glass gave them some trouble, but Prometheus had an idea. Of course Prometheus had an idea. He and Coeus blinked to Vythos, gathered sand by the handful—which would amount to a human truckload or two—and brought it back, so they could all start pressing and heating it into diaphanous slides which they molded at will together with the shards littering the ground.
By the time they were done, everything was restored, down to the last piece of cutlery and the daintiest wildflower. They’d done a great job, if Coeus said so himself, and judging by Nikoleta’s smile, he wasn’t the only one to think so.
Masculine pride puffed his chest at the thought of making his mate happy.
Coeus wiped his hands on the cloud he used as a loincloth. That did nothing to clear the specks of sand from his palms, so he had the air do it for him. “What now?” he asked.
Hyperion shrugged. “Now, you get a life.”
Coeus arched an eyebrow. “Is that a putdown?”
“Someone’s touchy,” said Atlas with a chuckle. “Take it at face value. Eros has provided all of us with back stories, bank accounts, and lodgings.”
But Eros wasn’t here.
Pherusa must have had the same realization. “I’m sure Father will be happy to have you and Nikoleta at the palace until Eros recuperates.”
“If he does,” Coeus muttered under his breath.
A dreamy smile blossomed on Elpida’s face, and her eyes looked somewhere beyond them. “He will. Circe will make sure of it.”
“There’s definitely something going on between those two,” Nikoleta thought at him.
“Good. The little god might be annoying, but he took one for the team.” And Coeus wouldn’t forget that.
“Could I...” Nikoleta cleared her throat and looked at Atlas. “You mentioned bank accounts? Could they maybe cover a post graduate degree?”
Atlas pursed his lips and frowned, as if deep in thought. “They could possibly cover buying a college,” he said solemnly.
Nikoleta let out a whimper that had Coeus laughing. “So are we buying a college?” he asked, and laughed again when she smacked his shoulder. He’d build her a college. Build her a palace. Anything that would make her happy.
“You’re what makes me happy,” she sent him over their mental link. “And my mom and my cats. And maybe a small palace.”
He mock-scowled, and she stifled a giggle. “I love you,” she mouthed.
Chaos, he loved her more than life itself. He wanted to settle down and have a family with her. To be non-godlike with her. To share a life where power games had no part.
He sensed Epimetheus, reaching to him mentally, and allowed him to touch his thoughts. “This is your chance to be anything you want,” Epimetheus sent him. “This world is too fast to retain memories. Humans don’t pay much attention outside what affects them directly. You can live a thousand lives. With her.”
Warmth spread inside at the endless possibilities opening up before them. And he planned to explore each and every one of them.
But first, they ought to return life to this place.
Instead of urging humans to come back, they all blinked to Vythos and let the barrier fade away. They’d figure out what to do about their memories later.
Chapter Nineteen
NIKOLETA WANTED TO crawl into bed and stay there for a week, but the moment she and Coeus set foot in the room they’d shared before, a blue-haired sea daimon—one of those who’d fought on their side—arrived with news the king requested their presence.
A vague sense of dread crawled up Nikoleta’s spine, making her tighten her hold on Coeus’ hand as she saw the other Titans and Titanesses waiting outside the council room. The sea daimon stayed outside, and they entered to find King Nereus alone. The large room was illuminated only by the glow coming in from the windows and the same sphere of water Nikoleta had seen before, though without Circe holding it, it swirled on its own, a meter above the ground.
“Come.” Nereus motioned at the round table beside him. “Sit. You’ve done the world as a whole, and Vythos in particular, a great service. I owe you a life debt, and I am sorry to be delivering sad news instead.”
None of them made a move to sit. Nikoleta couldn’t blame them. She was exhausted, but also too wired to sit still. A fist clenched around her chest, and she exchanged a worried glance with Elpida. “What is it? What’s wrong? Did the mortal world at large find out about us?” she asked Nereus. The words tasted foreign. A day ago, she was part of the mortal world.
“No. My spies have informed me people noticed something was severely wrong with the area surrounding Mount Olympus, but the destruction wasn’t witnessed, thanks to the shield Epimetheus and Hyperion erected.” He nodded at them, and they smiled in unison. “News helicopters circled the area, only to record thick clouds over it. A... morning show claims they have witnesses who can confirm it was an alien invasion. Others speculate that a government experiment in Thessalia went wrong. The Greek prime minister alluded to missile testing.”
In her mind’s eye, Nikoleta could see the PM wearing his trademark sarcastic smirk. The guy was such an ass. She didn’t miss Iphigenia’s eye-roll.
“Luckily, there was no reference in the news—local or international—about ancient deities having it out,” Nereus said. “Unfortunately, though, Thessalia wasn’t the only area affected.”
When Nereus’ gaze landed on Nikoleta, the invisible fist squeezed harder, making it hard to breathe. The sorrow in his eyes made her heart lurch. What he was about to say would break her.
“Before blinking to Olympus, Kottos dug his way out of the Lycabettus Hill—”
Lycabettus? That was smack-dab in the center of Athens
“—where Zeus had buried him. A tourist was trampled to death by the screaming crowds fleeing the Acropolis museum. Four of the surrounding buildings collapsed.” Nerites pinched the bridge of his nose. “Twelve people have been confirmed dead, and at least seven more are unaccounted for.”
“Which buildings?” Elpida asked in a quiet voice.
Nikoleta was glad someone else had asked. She doubted she could form words. Her family home was near Lycabettus. Her mom and her cats were there. Could they—
No. Mom had to be okay. She had to meet Coeus and give Nikoleta her blessing. She had to raise little immortal grandchildren.
“I’ll show you.” Nerites motioned toward the swirling water sphere in the middle of the room, and despite herself, Nikoleta looked inside it.
Her apartment building rippled on the supernatural screen, but it looked nothing like how she’d last seen it. The left side of the building had crumbled, the top apartment she shared with her mom gutted. She tried to make sense of what she saw. What protruded beneath the piece of ceiling that had collapsed was their living room sofa, but it was no longer the vibrant blue she remembered. Like the rest of the image, it looked gray. As
if the color had sapped out of it.
“My mom...” She wheezed the words. How could she finish that sentence?
Coeus squeezed her hand. “It’ll be okay,” he thought at her.
How? How would it ever be okay again? “I need to be there. Please take me there. My mom—” Her voice broke. Her mom was there. Her kitties too. Nikoleta was a freaking Titaness. She’d saved the world. She should be able to save the only family she had left.
Coeus’ eyes were filled with sadness. “It’s too risky. There are reporters on site. If anyone gets footage of us appearing out of thin air and we don’t spot them, people across the globe will know about us.”
He was right. The situation wasn’t the same as with Mount Olympus. They’d been prepared for that.
“My phone. I need to call my mom.” Her voice sounded strange to her ears. Too shrill. Her throat was clogged with unshed tears. “She’ll be fine. She probably wasn’t even home. Have you seen my bag?” She racked her brains. She had her cell phone with her when Eros blinked her to Vythos. “The throne room.”
She didn’t have to say it twice. Coeus was gone and back, her black leather slouch bag in hand. “Here you go.”
She sifted through it, squinting at the shifting images. Firefighters rummaging through the rubble. People yelling. A child crying. Was it Ms. Zenovia’s daughter? The girl was six. She should be playing, not crying in the epicenter of a supernatural earthquake.
The water sphere fizzled out of existence, as her fingertips brushed the sleek screen of her phone. She closed her fingers around it and fished it out.
“I don’t believe this will work here.” Nereus’ voice was gentle.
Of course it wouldn’t. Why would she have reception in the bottom of the sea? “Can you do something about it? Magic it?” she asked.
He shook his head. “I only have power over water. Circe could, but she’s not been heard of since she left the battlefield with Eros.”
“Could Magda—?” Nikoleta cut herself off mid-sentence when she reached for Coeus’ hand and her fingers closed over thin air. Startled, she turned to where he stood moments ago. He was gone.
Her mom was missing, and her man had left her to deal with it on her own?
Chapter Twenty
COEUS COULDN’T JUST stand here and watch her heart break. Not when he might be able to spare her the pain.
He focused on her memories of her mom and the image on the water, and blinked.
He’d lied when he said taking Nikoleta to her apartment would be risky. He’d wanted to spare her the pain of seeing her mother’s body, broken and bloody, if the worst came to pass.
Plaster crumbled beneath his naked feet, adding a new layer of dust to that coating everything in the destroyed apartment. He lifted a square meter of roof from the shattered coffee table. Shards of glass littered the floor. No blood. Good. Only one hundred and ten square meters of apartment to check. Should he be calling Nikoleta’s mom’s name? Nope. Didn’t know it, anyway. Should he be trying, “Here, kitty?”
He could tap into his mental link to Nikoleta and use her memories to restore the apartment, like they did the mountain, but if Nikoleta’s mom and cats were here, they might be injured by the debris flying back in place.
Focus.
He was a Titan. He had powers beyond human grasp. If he concentrated, he should be able to make out the sounds of life—breathing, heartbeats, maybe a meow.
Shielding from the constant onslaught of sound had been ingrained in him since he’d first walked the earth, and that had been before he woke up to this crazy, loud world. He closed his eyes and extended his hearing. Oceanus, this place was chaotic. People yelled. Horns blared. Sirens whooped. He blocked all of it out and homed in on the faint scratching that came from the other room, assuming the pile of bricks to his right used to be a wall.
He moved toward it, one foot in front of the other, careful not to step on anything he might damage. Not that there was much left unscathed in here.
The scratching became more intense, as a large table came into view.
No. This wasn’t a table; it was a door, miraculously intact, though lying flat at about the height of his calf.
And the scratching came from beneath it.
Instead of using air to move the door, he grasped one of its corners and slid it off what turned out to be a bathtub. A woman lay on her back in it, facing away from him. A cat was licking her hand, and another was curled up on her chest. A third, fat cat looked at him demandingly, claws sliding down the side of the tub as she lazily tried to climb out.
“Yes, yes. I’ll take care of you in a minute.” Coeus ducked over the tub and cupped the woman’s cheek, to turn her toward him. Blood was drying on the left side of her face, matting her hair. She had a five-centimeter long gash on her head, but she was warm, and when he shooed the cat aside and looked more closely, he saw her chest rising and falling. Her breathing was even, her heartbeat strong and steady. She was alive. And she looked so much like Nikoleta...
Coeus wedged both hands beneath her and lifted her, ignoring the persistent meowing. Cradling her to his chest with one arm, he held the other out toward the cats. “Hop on.”
They stared at him, yellow eyes unblinking.
Right. They didn’t understand words. He reached for the first one—the plump black one that had been trying to claw its way out—and it swatted at him.
Seriously?
Coeus reached out to the cat mentally, assuring it he only meant to help.
The cat arched its back and hissed.
“Okay. You wait here. I’ll come back for you.” He felt a little silly, talking aloud to the felines, but he didn’t want to disappear without warning. He blinked back to King Nereus’ council room, mere centimeters from Nikoleta.
“Where did you—” She took in the still form of her mother, and her expression went from angry to devastated, her frown melting away, as her eyes squeezed shut, tears escaping from the corners. “Oh God, no.”
“She’s alive,” Coeus blurted. “She’ll be all right. I think she’ll be all right.” He met Nereus’ gaze. “Call a healer?”
The king nodded and tugged on the cord hanging around his neck, to bring a miniature horn to his lips. Coeus’ sensitive hearing made out the low-frequency whistle.
“Someone will be here shortly,” Nereus said. “I’ll try again to summon Circe, but she hasn’t responded to my calls.”
Prometheus clapped Coeus on the shoulder. “Lay her down. Let me see her wound.”
“You’re a doctor now too?” Coeus snorted, but he followed Prometheus to the large table and laid Nikoleta’s mother on it.
Prometheus shrugged. “Eros has shared fifteen seasons of Grey’s Anatomy with me. I know how to check vitals, if not do brain surgery. Besides, I did design her kind, to begin with.”
Nikoleta hovered beside her mom, reaching for her hand while Prometheus lifted the woman’s eyelids and held a ball of light in front of first one and then the other. “Irises responsive,” he said.
Coeus smacked him upside the head. “Is that a good or a bad thing?”
“Good.” Nikoleta gave him a watery smile. “Less chance of brain damage.”
“Her breathing is regular.” Coeus preened. “I checked.”
The woman—Coeus needed to ask her name—groaned and blinked rapidly, before her gaze focused on Nikoleta. “Baby. You’re here.” She looked around wildly, and Coeus was suddenly very aware of his near-nakedness.
“Is this a dream?” the woman asked.
Nikoleta shook her head and helped her sit up. “Not a dream, but you won’t believe me if I tell you what’s happening.”
Her mom pulled her closer, to whisper, “Where are we?”
Every supernatural creature in the room obviously heard the words, but nobody seemed willing to reply.
“Umm...” Nikoleta glared at Coeus.
“What?” he thought at her. Was he supposed to tell the female he’d never seen
before that her daughter was a Titaness and bonded to him?
Nikoleta sighed and opened her mouth to say something, when the doors were thrown open and Magda strode in. “Nerites said you called for a healer, but I can help. I want to help. Where’s the mortal?”
The Titans parted, to reveal the woman who was now cradling her head with both hands, legs dangling from the edge of the table. “Mortal?” she mumbled. “What are the rest of you?”
Nikoleta patted her mom’s shoulder. “It’ll be okay, Mom. Let Magda help you.”
“Magda?” her mother asked.
Magda pointed at herself. “Me.”
“You’re a doctor?”
“An Olympian. Originally went by Aphrodite.”
The mortal’s eyes rolled back in her head, and she fell forward.
“Mom.” Nikoleta managed to keep her from plummeting face first on the ground.
Magda helped her lay her mom back on the table. “I’ve got this,” she said. “Do you want her to know, when she wakes up?”
Nikoleta bit her lip. “Yes? No. Better not?” She looked at Coeus.
He tugged her to his side and pressed a kiss to the crown of her head. “Maybe not yet. You and I will go fix up your place, and then we can return her to her bed and let her believe she dreamed up everything.”
She turned huge eyes up at him. “Including the earthquake? But people will know.”
Atlas crossed his arms over his chest and shook his head. “Not if we all combine our mind-control powers to expand Hyperion and Epimetheus’ mental net to cover the entirety of Greece. We can erase all memories about anything going awry in the area the past twenty-four hours.”
Chapter Twenty-One
THINGS WOULD HAVE BEEN easier with Circe’s assistance, but she was nowhere to be found, and the remote island that held her palace had disappeared too. As had Eros.
Even without them, though, damage control was successful. Any footage of the earthquake that couldn’t be magnetically erased was deemed a hoax, since the buildings were intact, and the unfortunate injuries and deaths were attributed to random accidents. It weighed in Nikoleta’s heart that they had to lie to her mom—to everyone affected by the situation—but the alternative would be much worse. The people weren’t ready for the truth.