by Holly Hook
I sucked in a breath, already drowning in ice. I held up my hand, my graying hand, as Dominique smiled and turned her cheek tattoos upward.
"Kill him!" she shouted, throwing my dagger at me.
Chapter Sixteen
My weapon landed at my feet.
Silence fell as Zeus stepped away from Natalia, who struggled to push herself from the floor.
Enemies surrounded me. I was alone.
"Dominique," Zeus said, squaring off with the Lower Order leader. The lightning had stopped, but the air remained electric. "And Hades. And Prometheus." He spoke the titan's name like a vile swear word.
The titan backpedaled. "I see you've stuck to your...old ways."
How much had they seen?
Dominique took a step back from the doorway and into the night. She could do nothing against the sky god. She glanced at me, smile dropping away as she begged in silence. It served her right after what the Order had done to Percival. After what they might have done to my friends. Ronin. They could be dead.
But Zeus had tried--
I could grab the dagger. Summon the void. Destroy Zeus right now.
But I then I would--
Screaming panic seized my chest. I'd kill Ronin's last parent.
"Destroy him!" Dominique screeched. "Now. I didn't summon you out of Chaos for nothing."
Crushing heaviness fell. Everything slowed. Natalia froze, still crouched. Every seemed to be underwater. I couldn't breathe. "What?"
Zeus glowered at Dominique. "You will be punished for your pride. You may have summoned Giselle, but you will not have her."
"He stole and hid you from us. Put you with the misery goddess. Tried to keep you powerless," Dominique babbled. "When that didn't work he tried to sway you!"
Zeus snapped his hand at the witch, striking her with a blinding bolt. Thunder clapped as Dominique fell back into her son, who caught her. Then the sky god faced me. "Everything I did, I did for your own good, Giselle. I saved you from darkness once. Now I can do it again. I can still keep you from the void." His gaze softened.
Natalia stood.
Dominique took a breath and straightened. She might be old, but she was tough. "Don't listen to him."
"Mother," Alonso said, pulling on her shoulder. "We should go."
"Stay!" Hades ordered, pushing forward with a commanding glare. He could only watch. If Hades interfered, he would break the Oath. Everything was up to me and Natalia, and the oracle couldn't fight. Not in her state.
"Giselle, I may have suppressed your powers, but it was for the safety of you and everyone around you. You can come to the light now. To honor." Zeus took a warm step closer. He'd changed his tune and added that charming smile that made vomit rise in the back of my throat. I'd never seen anything so fake.
I took a sharp breath. My dagger reflected candlelight. Just the sight sent icy shivers up my spine. I had to stall. "Did you really put me with Achlys?" The other questions were too horrifying to ask. But even this one made the low groan mushroom into my head. "How generous."
"You are testing me." He spoke through closed teeth. Another lightning bolt snapped over his head, followed by a thunderous roar. A vase fell from the pillar, shattering as he squared off with me. "Grab that dagger and become oblivion incarnate."
"You can bring this system down!" Dominique pleaded with the frantic waving of hands. "Reverse it all! Save your friends and free the monsters."
My knees threatened to go out. "Shut up!"
The Lower Order had not brought me into the world. They hadn't. The thought was beyond horrific. I stepped away from the pillar, pulse racing in my ringing ears. Dominique was lying. She was evil and blew up buildings and used her werewolves to maul people to death.
I eyed my weapon again.
Zeus held his hand up to it as the air turned to angry prickling.
"Zeus is trying to--"
Zeus whirled on Dominique, holding up his hand. Another lightning bolt snapped out of his palm, striking her and throwing Alonso away from where Hades stood. But instead of electrocuting her, the bolt wrapped around her like a lasso, casting her in blinding light, and Zeus lifted his hand, hauling her into the air. Dominique thrashed, orange light bursting to life around her palms and surrounding her body, but the lasso tightened. Once Zeus was done with her he'd turn on me.
He was distracted.
The dagger waited. Prometheus hung in the doorway, helpless to act. Hades balled both fists.
"Mother!" Alonso shouted. He threw an orange light at the god, but another bolt appeared from thin air, zapping his attack out of existence. The reek of ozone filled the air.
Dominique's pained screams filled the temple.
"Fight back!" Natalia seized my shoulders from behind and offered a squeeze. "It's okay."
Hades stepped closer, glancing at me and then glowering at Zeus, and then he raised his own hands as if heaving something from the floor. Green spirit faces snapped into existence around Dominique, who still floated, and they rotated around her, pushing against the lightning. He was protecting her. And by helping the Lower Order, breaking the Oath.
As I realized, the dark god's eyes bulged open as if someone had stabbed him in the heart.
He fell to his knees.
"No!" Prometheus shouted.
Hades maintained the green magic. The golden flecks dulled as he nodded to the Chaos Dagger. Desperation and sacrifice lived there. "I warned you about my brother!"
He was warning me about Zeus the whole time?
He wasn't threatening me himself?
"It's okay!" Natalia shouted.
Zeus maintained his attack on Dominique as Hades trembled, barely holding it together. The floor below him cracked, ready to haul him to Tartarus. Even the Lord of the Underworld wasn't immune.
I just might get out of here. But I would have to...I would have to...
Ronin would tell me to defend myself.
The dark god collapsed as his magic died.
Hades sank into the crack as Dominique thrashed under the renewed lightning attack. Orange energy lashed out, but the witch's screams weakened.
I seized the Chaos Dagger from the floor.
Icy plasma raged up my arms. Cracks. Gray. I breathed in the cold depths of space. I hadn't felt this way since Achlys. I turned to Zeus, raising my birthright weapon, and he whirled as if sensing the horror. Hatred flashed to fear as Dominique fell to the floor and Alonso seized her shoulders.
I was doing what the Lower Order wanted, but I couldn't stop myself.
Destroy him.
I charged Zeus.
Fierce rain fell and lightning flashed outside as he backed off.
"Giselle!" he shouted, jaw dropping.
I closed the distance as the sky god hit another pillar. Purplish-black sparks danced around my dagger and shot towards Zeus, turning to alien tendrils that seized his sleeves and pant legs. The low groan filled my head, threatening explosion. The tendrils wrapped around the sky god, pulling him towards me.
I was black ice.
A round void opened before the sky god, and the dark tendrils attached to it, pulling him to his doom as he dug his shoes into the marble. Zeus's eyes widened. A storm of bolts raged around me, scattering in terror.
Rain intensified to hail, battering the Temple, drowning out the whine of the void. Wind blasted. Zeus stopped as the void slowly grew, sucking in broken pieces of pottery. Leaves from the fountain. Even water droplets. He was resisting.
"Giselle!" he shouted, training his wide pupils on me. Dark hopelessness and defeat flashed, but he turned his terror to anger as more bolts flashed around me. But he remained still as the tendrils tried to pull him into destruction.
My heart raced, giving what felt like its last gasp, before the horrific groan and the ice reached a suffocating peak.
And stopped, leaving everything more clear than I'd ever seen it. Colors popped. My hearing elevated. Every raindrop pattered and every breath from my foes took on its
own life. A curtain had lifted. I sensed control over darkness as I never had.
Bolts snapped and raged around me as I continued to hold the dagger, shaking. The odd silence in my head continued even as the storm blasted outside. Something crashed against the side of the Sorting Temple. Zeus trembled before the baseball-sized void and the alien tendrils trying to pull him in, but held his position. He wasn't going as easily as Achlys. And the void wasn't growing any larger under his gaze.
"It's too late for you," Zeus said through grit teeth, hair blasting against his face. "Too late!"
My arm.
Gray. Like slate. With cracks leading straight into the void. And this time they weren't receding.
I backpedaled. Zeus might have an entire storm raging outside and in, but his words were his fiercest weapon. A nasty, bitter smile exploded on the god's face. He couldn't have victory, but he could have revenge.
"Giselle. Defend yourself," Prometheus shouted, pushing into the doorway and out of the storm.
"Don't listen to the thief," Zeus shouted. "His humans unleashed evil on the world! They need the gods' guidance."
"You set them up!" Prometheus balled his fists as fire raged around them.
"Finish him!" Alonso shouted. "Mother. Stand up!"
My hand trembled. Though the low groan and the uncomfortable cold had vanished, I sensed it just over the horizon, waiting to surge forward at my command. For the first time, I had real control. "K...kill him!"
My voice boomed around me, filling the whole temple and cutting over the storm.
"Giselle! No!"
I turned my head.
Ronin, soaked in rain and bloody from the assaults of glass and hail, gripped the doorway of the Sorting Temple. Behind him stood Wendy. Maria. Mikey. Cal. Ronin's gaze swept from me to Zeus. Me. Zeus. He began to hyperventilate and the sparkle in his eyes died as his whole world collapsed.
I trembled. "I can explain--"
"Son! Save yourself! Get out of here!" Zeus shouted.
Ronin mouthed my name, let his face sink to his hands, turned away before I could finish, his knees going out from under him.
"Save yourself!" Zeus shouted.
Ronin ran into the night.
And I let down my guard as I died inside. The tendrils released Zeus, and he backed away from the void, resisting its pull.
A smile spread across his face as the void closed.
Horrendous wind snapped into the Sorting Temple. People screamed, falling over the now-closing cracks that had swallowed Hades. The wind blasted me to the side, into the fountain, and I almost lost grip of my weapon as the storm escalated into that of five trains speeding overhead. I waited for Ronin to throw himself over me, but he was already gone. Loud crashes sounded from outside. The whole world sounded as if it were coming down. Going black. Candles snuffed out one by one.
And as darkness fell, the world collapsed around me.
Chapter Seventeen
The roar seemed to last forever, when it was actually just seconds. I took a breath, aware of a massive weight over me. The smell of wet bark. Calming rain that turned to a sprinkle. I opened my eyes. A single candle remained lit on a shelf of marble, but I could see parting clouds and the moon above it. Dripping leaves hung over where I lay. Every droplet shone. My senses remained heightened.
Part of the Temple's roof had gone. A tree had fallen on me.
And I had chosen destruction.
It was done.
I opened my hand, letting my weapon fall to the floor with a faint clatter. But that made no difference now. I sensed that if I wanted, I could just shove this full-sized tree off me. There was no way I had to lie here, pinned. Zeus had merely caused a distraction to get away.
"Natalia!" Somewhere, Celestus shouted. Wolves howled. Distant thunder rolled.
"In here!" Maria yelled. "I need help. She's buried. Natalia, stay with me. I don't think anything vital got punctured. Just your arm."
"Oh," Natalia said.
"Mikey. Your help," Maria yelled. "I'm strong but not that strong."
My friends weren't even mentioning me.
Leaves parted and crashed. "I'll help free Natalia. But I can't help Alonso and Dominique," Prometheus said in panic. "Giselle. Where are you?"
"I don't care about them," Maria snapped, grunting as she lifted.
My friends.
And I didn't hear Ronin.
A heavy weight settled over my chest. He had run before the disaster before I could defend myself.
I couldn't lie here no matter what I looked like. Strength flowed through me as I hooked my hand under the branch and shoved it off. I crawled out from underneath as the candle wavered.
Maria let out a squeak.
"Shit," Wendy said.
My eyes adjusted to the night, to the dark figures standing in the now roofless Temple and among the fallen trees. Maria. Mikey. Prometheus stood beside them as Maria maintained her grasp on Natalia's hand.
Natalia straightened and the scent of her blood seemed to fill what remained of the Temple. "Don't panic. It's just Giselle." But she didn't sound sure.
Everyone looked at me.
Despite the new strength in my limbs, I wanted to melt into the ground.
Ronin could no longer stand the sight of me. And he'd never forgive me for what I tried to do. Now I couldn't even tell him Zeus was a sexual predator. In his mind I was the monster.
Mikey grabbed Maria's arm and pulled her back. Her dress was ripped at the shoulder. Mikey's suit was plastered in wet leaves.
"It's okay," Prometheus said to them. "Giselle. Dominique and Alonso won't harm your friends if you don't wish it. I don't wish it. We can attack them if they try, and the Oath won't stop me."
"I'm not freeing Dominique and Alonso!" I shouted in disgust. My voice echoed as if thrown back from the bottom of the universe. I couldn't take it. I looked around for an escape, but the strong stone walls of the Temple still stood. To leave, I'd have to step through everyone else.
"Help," Alonso shouted from somewhere in the tangle of branches. "Mother's got a gash."
Where was Ronin?
"She attacked Zeus. We saw it," Mikey said, eyeing the door. "Ronin ran."
He ran.
I couldn't deny that, so I stepped forward instead. "You killed Percival!" I shouted down at Alonso when I spotted his dark form crouching under another fallen tree. I had to take the attention off me and put it where it belonged, on the real killers. "You killed a lot of people!"
"Percival was sent to fight the Lower Order by Zeus, probably with the promise of a transfer. They had to defend themselves," Prometheus said quickly. "Zeus knew he wouldn't survive. That coins he gave to Percival and Wendy sent out a magical wave that attracted the Lower Order." He held up something I'd seen before--a gold coin with a golden eagle, Wendy's coin--before stuffing it in his pocket. "Hades found another on Percival. I never wish for the death of my students."
Wendy backed off sheepishly. A bit of blood ran down her temple. "I didn't know Zeus had trapped the coin. The Lower Order surrounded us. Prometheus came in and stopped the fight."
Vomit rose in my throat. I could still throw up. That was one mortal trait I'd retained.
Prometheus continued, leaning close and lowering his voice so only I could hear. "Why did you sympathize with a god who chains his adversaries to boulders and lets an eagle peck out their liver every day?" Fire blasted around his palms. Light fell on the surroundings.
I held up a hand--a gray, cracked hand--to stop Prometheus from getting closer. "What?"
He glowered at me and I fought an urge to hide. Everyone could see me like this. Everyone. Except Ronin. He was gone. He'd seen all he needed to know. I struggled to hold back tears and a tortured scream.
The titan and I stared at each other as the fire continued to burn. The air heated. I had...I had...I was on the titan's level now. He couldn't kill me.
He went to a whisper. "Why side with a tyrant who doles out such punishme
nt? All I did was give the fire from Mount Olympus to humanity. I helped guide them from the mud. Zeus wants humans obedient. He was angry at how they had progressed, without him, during the Awakening. And then he and some of the gods tried to haul them back to the stone age. But humans today are too numerous and too advanced, so they had to pull back and find another way to bring them down."
I felt my jaw drop.
"Why didn't you tell me this?"
The tortured man in the painting that Zeus had in his office had been Prometheus?
He raised his voice again and motioned to Alonso, who still crouched over his mother. "The gods made some of us swear to never reveal their dark secrets to mortals. Now help before he comes back! Don't make Hades's sacrifice in vain. He was among those of us who didn't attack humanity." The titan turned away, letting the fire remain around his palms.
Was this true?
Then the Lower Order--
I stepped after Prometheus, not sure what I was doing. Maria backed off, wide-eyed, as I approached. What kind of atmosphere did I give off now? I thought of apologizing, but held back, because that would make this real. A part of me could still believe this was just a nightmare. Other than sensing control of my power and the cosmetic disaster, I felt like just Giselle. I could even still manage tears.
For now.
But what would follow?
Alonso looked up at me, one arm bent at a horrible angle. Broken. Dominique lay on her back with a wicked gash on her head. Both were stuck under a tent of fallen trees. Her eyes, unfocused at first, trained on me in the firelight despite being under two fallen trees. "Giselle," she rasped. "You can destroy Zeus. Save us before he ruins the world. Reverse my horrible mistake."
No. No, I wasn't thinking of--
She tried to kill Ronin.
She had killed others who were in the way. "Your mistake?" Once again my words echoed back up from the bottom of the universe, and even Alonso jumped. Did this witch and her followers really haul me into existence?
"I used to love the gods. Worshipped them. Then my cult woke them and it was nothing like I imagined," Dominique said. "I won't rest until the world is back to the way it should be."