by Amy Braun
Apollo and Ares turned to me, and I knew I was on thin ice. But after what I’d just Seen, I wasn’t in the mood to be humble and meek.
“What is the point of showing all of us? Torturing an innocent woman isn’t enough?”
Apollo growled. “She is far from innocent.”
My anger rode right over his words. “You want to use us to break the spell and find the Eye of Cronus? What good is that possibly going to do you? You’re both insane if you think Zeus will let you wake the Titans, especially Cronus.”
“They couldn’t do it anyway,” Liam said, and I was glad to hear his voice. “The Trinity Weapons will be with their owners.” I could hear his grin. “If want to fight Zeus, I’ll pay to watch him beat you both into red paste.”
Liam grunted in pain when Ares’s aura hit him. He gritted his teeth, and sweat poured out of him in buckets, but he didn’t scream or beg forgiveness. The magic relented, and my brother collapsed to the floor, gasping for breath.
“You humans are truly fools,” Apollo said. “Do you think we have been idle? I have Seen every possible outcome that will lead to the Prophecy. Believe me when I say that everything is unfolding exactly the way it ought to be.”
Apollo strode closer to me. His eyes cut to the center of the cavern, and he nodded to Alexi.
The Cetea sliced open Thea’s wrists with the icy dagger.
“No!” Liam screamed then yelped when burning magic struck him again.
Alexi stood up and backed away. Kallis frowned at his son, obviously wishing he would have murdered Thea where she lay. But Alexi must have had lingering feelings for his ex.
I tried to focus on that one positive outcome, but Apollo was getting too near to me.
“The heirs will bleed into the runes laid centuries ago by Cassandra. Once enough blood is spilled, the Eye will reveal itself. And you, Derek Areios, shall take it.”
I almost laughed. “It’ll kill me.”
“Not if you use your magic,” Ares said.
I turned to my forefather. He wasn’t talking about my fire.
Aether… could aether hold on to the Eye? How much power would it take? Would I be able to hold it long enough to bring it to Zeus and the other gods?
Ares’s hand clamped on my shoulder. He dug his fingers in, bruising the muscle.
“This is your purpose, my son. Once you obtain the Eye for us, we shall take the Mind and the Sickle. You shall gather and lead our army.” Ares’s smile was cold and ruthless, his eyes excited and deadly. “The Olympians will not be able to stand against us because Apollo will ensure they never see us coming. Once we have the keys to Tartarus and the pieces of Cronus, we shall reconstruct the Titans. We shall revoke the order of Olympus as it stands now, slay non-believers, take revenge on our enemies, and be restored to our rightful glory.”
I scowled. “That makes no sense. Killing your followers will ultimately kill you. You can’t live without their worship.”
Ares cocked his head. “What worship is greater than fear?”
I stared at him then looked at Apollo. Neither god did anything to dispel my confusion and horror at their ultimately shallow goal. Surely there had to be more to it than simply conquering the world.
Except… I knew there wasn’t.
That was what had made the Olympians who and what they were. That was why Ares was always attacking Liam to punish me. That was why Apollo had allowed Selena to endure so much suffering.
They were shallow.
They didn’t care that they would destroy the world getting what they wanted. They simply wanted it. There was no deeper reasoning, no great conspiracy, no negotiation, because these Olympians only cared about power and gaining more of it. They were children playing King of the Mountain.
Only their mountain was made of corpses.
This is why the Olympians should never have been woken. This world belongs to more than them, and they can’t understand that. They don’t want to.
I took a breath, ready to refuse.
“We’ll do it.”
My gaze snapped to Selena. She didn’t look at me. She was still slumped on the floor, her cheeks covered in dry tears and her voice filled with sorrow.
“Selena—”
“They’re right, Derek. We can’t win against them. I’ve already Seen the end.” She raised her head and looked at me. She looked exhausted, like all the life and joy had been stripped away from her. “The most we can do now is keep our friends alive. Liam, Corey… they’re only going to stay that way if we cooperate.” She brushed her fingers along the floor. “I know how to unweave the trap. With the blood. I… I can open the vault and bring up the Eye of Cronus.”
Apollo left my side and stalked back to Selena. He cupped her chin in his hand and lifted her off her feet. Her motions were mechanical and non-resistant, a far cry from the rage and fear that burned in her eyes.
“What can you offer me that I do not have already? The blood of innocents? The blood of heirs? I have all those things. The trap is unweaving as we speak. When the heir of Zeus dies, it shall be unlocked. I have Seen it.”
Selena looked into his eyes. I saw the challenge written there.
“Have you?”
Those two words silenced the entire room. I could see Selena’s heart pounding against her ribcage.
What are you doing, what are you doing?
“Your Sight is blocked here, isn’t it? Even yours… you Saw where you needed to go. You Saw what had to be done. But you didn’t See the end. You didn’t See yourself taking the Eye of Cronus. Because this island is hexed. I know because I hexed it. I buried a curse deep in the soil to block all kinds of Sight. Even that of a god.”
I thought back to the strange feeling I’d sensed on the island when we first arrived. The wrongness. I’d imagined everything but the truth—that it was hexed by Cassandra. By Selena.
She had cursed the island because she knew what would happen. As Cassandra, she knew we would end up here. She knew that hexing any Seer who tried to find the Eye of Cronus might buy us a little more time.
And because of Apollo’s cruelty, she was beginning to remember it.
“Is this true, Apollo?” Ares’s anger was seeping into his words. The cavern felt hotter as his magic poured into it.
Apollo’s golden eyes never left Selena’s. “How do I know you are speaking the truth? Your talent for lying is unrivaled.”
“Does it matter?” she replied. “I’m going to give you what you want. I don’t want my friends to die. I’ll give up whatever I have to if it means keeping them safe.”
Apollo tilted his head. “Truly? Let’s see about that.”
Gold light flickered from his fingertips and seeped into Selena’s face. She gasped and cringed. A bright glow pulsed at her temples. She gritted her teeth in pain. Apollo did not let go.
I clenched my fists. My heart thudded against my ribs. I was desperate to move, to do something to save her, but there was no way I could stop a god. All I could do was watch as Apollo tortured his answers out of her.
Fight it, Selena. Fight him. You’re stronger than Apollo. You always have been. You survived him for two thousand years. You can do this.
Apollo released her and stepped back. Selena slumped onto her hands and knees. She gasped and trembled. Blood dripped from her nose.
“She is speaking the truth,” stated Apollo. “There is a final step that she has kept from us through her clever hex.” He looked down on her. “And she will reveal it now, lest she wants her beloved friends to die slowly.”
Selena shook her head, still staring at the ground. “I am at your mercy, my lord.”
My heart broke to hear those words from her.
Selena slipped onto her knees and dragged her head up. “I need Derek’s help. I designed the trap with a dark scion, and he…”
“Dark scion?” Liam sputtered. He looked at me. “What is she talking about?”
His eyes narrowed. He was not going to like what happened next.
Ares gripped my shackles and unbound me from them. Magic rushed back into my blood. I wasn’t at full strength, but I felt better knowing I would have at least a bit of a fighting chance.
The god pushed me forward. Selena rose to her feet, shying away from Apollo, who made no effort to give her the distance she wanted.
When I reached her, she stepped back to stand next to me and farther away from Apollo. She turned to look at me.
“Aether will move the rings. Once… once the blood reaches the second one, I’ll need you to move the rings to unlock the vault. The lock is the only thing protecting the Eye. This took… this took me a while to create.”
I didn’t answer her at first, worried at how she was holding together. I wanted to say something to comfort her, or even to touch her, but after what I’d seen…
“When do I start?” I asked.
Selena glanced at Thea and Mason, biting her lower lip and blinking quickly. “Soon. It’ll take two rings.”
Meaning we would have to watch our friends bleed to death. Thea’s hands were coated in blood, her skin paper white and her eyes fluttering closed. I hadn’t seen Mason’s chest move in far too long.
Selena glanced between her friends with distraught eyes. Her fingers curled into her palms. It seemed to take all her self-control to keep from healing both Thea and Mason with her magic.
I felt the same, but the Olympians weren’t going to take any chances. If there was even a chance we could fight back, they would do everything in their power to stop us.
After an agonizing number of minutes, Selena sulked over to me. I pushed myself up and looked in her eyes.
“They’ve given enough blood. You can use the aether now. Turn the ring to the right. Start in the middle, below… below where the sacrifices lay.”
I held out my hands. They were steady, even though my heart and mind weren’t. I could feel Liam’s eyes on me, uncertain what I was about to do.
I couldn’t give him any clues, couldn’t even find the will to look at him. I took a breath and lowered my hands to the first ring. Then I pulled aether out of my skin.
Alarmed gasps echoed through the cavern from Corey and Liam. I heard Catalina and Alexi mutter under their breath. Apollo and Ares said nothing. They had known about the aether a long, long time.
The dark smoke curled down my fingers and skimmed the surface of the gold ring, which was slick and glistening with blood. Selena whispered in Ancient Greek. Her fingers slipped into the floor and curled under the bloody ring. At her nod, my aether followed her fingertips and hooked under the ring.
Her next command was to turn the rings to the right with aether. I did, feeling a slight tug on my magic. Her warm aura pressed against the cold aether as we worked together. The locks hidden under the ring jolted and clicked open. When we pulled our hands away, the ring automatically slipped deeper into the floor. I looked at Selena, worried about what we could be unleashing. She wouldn’t return my gaze.
We completed the first ring, shuffled to the second, and repeated the process. Blood dripped from Selena’s fingertips. My knees were soaked in it.
Liam’s question came midway through our work on the second ring. It had been so quiet in the cavern. The lock’s quiet clicks, Selena’s mutterings, and Corey’s nervous breathing had been the only sounds. I continued with my task, but all I could think about was how to explain my secret to my brother.
Ultimately, I did what I should have done months ago.
I told him the truth.
I’m in the Prophecy. I’m the one who makes an army. The Bringer.
Selena and I finished the second circle. We stepped back and moved on to the third and final ring. I looked at my scarred knuckles and callused hands, at the black smoke that wrapped around each digit.
Because they would have. I knew exactly how it would look to them—like I was the man in the Prophecy, like more power meant more recklessness and more of a chance I would be kidnapped, tortured, or killed. I would be the target of the gods, even assuming we could succeed at returning the Trinity Weapons and destroying the Cronus Shards. And if two of our opponents were a merciless war god and his all-Seeing brother, I couldn’t risk Liam or Selena trying to take something so valuable from me.
There was a difference between safety and accountability, and I had always leaned in one direction over the other. My safety wouldn’t matter if the world burned down.
I risked a glance at Liam. He stared at me with a tight jaw and wounded eyes. I couldn’t feel anything from the blood bond to tell me what he was thinking.
I wasn’t sure I wanted to know.
“It’s done.”
I turned away from my brother and looked at Selena. She stood up and stared at the blood-smeared rings. She clenched her fists, but I had seen them shaking.
“Nothing is happening,” growled Ares.
“The bodies need to be moved,” she replied. “Derek and Liam can help.”
I recognized Ki̱demónas’s hum in the air. The blade stopped right at the base of Selena’s throat.
“Do you think us fools?” snarled Ares.
She slumped. “Apologies, Lord Ares. But the greatest amount of blood needs to flow in the center circle. Its gaps should be filled now, and the bodies are acting as pressure to keep the Eye in its prison. I can’t open it if I don’t move them.”
Ares looked at Apollo. The god’s eyes flared white, as if he were burning from within. The light faded, and his gold irises returned.
“She speaks the truth. Yet her plan is to put her allies in a tight group, then she will free the wayfare scion, and he shall create a portal that will transport them away.”
Selena went pale. Ares glared at Corey, who seemed to grow ten times smaller.
“Does she attempt to take the Eye with them?” Ares asked.
“No.” A bitter smile curled Apollo’s lips. “She has at least learned not to stand in the way of a god’s wishes.”
Ares grunted. Then he moved.
I saw the glimmer of his blades, but they moved so fast there was nothing I could do to stop them. When I blinked again, Corey had a dagger buried in his shoulder, and Selena had crumpled with a blade sunk deep into her thigh.
Their screams cut me in half. I was closest to Selena, so I raced to her.
Searing pain stabbed my shoulder. I twisted and found a knife stuck in it. The blade was enchanted, its shaft and hilt melting and pressing into my skin. The spell would keep me from pulling the weapon out and healing and would cut into my internal muscles and tendons every time I moved. The same had been done to Selena and Corey. If left untreated, their wounds would prove fatal.
The Rage surged to life in me. If looks could have killed, Ares and Apollo would have been paste under my boots.
Ares looked at me and shrugged.
“She has yet to atone for her grievances against my brother. And the wayfare scion could use some more scars. Now, since you have a lame arm, your brother and the eldest Cetea shall move the bodies. Cast the storm scion to the side next to the wayfare scion and take the water scion to her Cetea lords. The Farseer s
hall return to Apollo.” Ares’s gaze pierced mine. “Most of you shall be leaving with your masters, anyway.”
I was so angry I was shaking. The Rage bashed against my chest, begging me to free it, to save my brother and my friends, to recall Ki̱demónas and make Ares eat steel instead of words.
Fire exploded in my neck, and my feet began moving against my will. I stomped over to the God of War and stopped at his side. Arm aching with every heartbeat, I watched as Liam was freed from his bonds and escorted to the center of the floor with Alexi. The Cetea was far from gentle when he moved Mason and hauled Selena away, but both young men were careful when they helped Thea up. She leaned more on Liam than on Alexi.
All of us stood against the wall, peering at the center of the bloody floor. Selena, her back to Apollo’s feet, leaned over her wounded leg. She hissed in pain but pressed her palm to the nearest rune and muttered, “Ánoixe.”
Open.
The three bloody rings clicked and depressed into the floor. More clicking, and a dim blue glow emerged from the gaps in the floor. The runes glowed bright and ethereal, and the stony prison under our feet began to tremble. Dark, contagious power rippled into the air and slammed into our auras. Only Ares and Apollo seemed to revel in it, both gods smiling as though they’d been granted their greatest wishes.
The center spiral began to rise again, and with every second, I felt the monstrous power, the devastating pull that reminded me too much of the Heart.
Cronus’s Heart could have sucked out all the magic and life of the person unlucky enough to hold it. What would the Eye of Cronus be capable of?
I was about to find out. The Shard emerged from its prison.
The sphere was gigantic, as tall as I was and just as wide. There was no pupil and no iris, and its edges weren’t round and smooth. They writhed with aether, like mist reeling away from a black sun. Yet that darkness wasn’t darkness as I knew it. Instead, the Eye was a galaxy, a dark expanse filled with swirling clusters of pink, blue, green, and purple, spotted with stars. The stars shifted in size and brightness, blinking to life and flaring out just as quick. It was a literal galaxy plucked from the sky and formed in front of us.