Hunt of the Gods

by Amy Braun

  I blinked. “What are you talking about? I was only in the Underworld for…” I hedged a bet. “Five minutes, tops, right?”

  Liam stared at me like I had grown another head.

  “Derek,” he said in a quiet, even voice that made me nervous, “you were dead for five hours.”

  I stared at him, his words jolting me in the worst possible way. I whirled to look at Persephone. She remained unreadable and cool.

  “Time works differently in the Underworld,” she explained. “A minute there is an hour here.”

  “Why didn’t you mention that?” Selena crushed my hand in hers and made no attempt to hide her fury. “Liam came to get me just after noon, and I ran out here to see Derek lying on the ground, completely still, and…” She turned away, fighting her angry tears. “You should have said something.”

  “He gave his life to ensure he would not cause your death. Does your pride matter so much that you shall condemn such a sacrifice?”

  Both Selena and Liam flinched. I jumped in quickly.

  “Guys, this was my choice, and it’s done. It worked. I know it wasn’t something either of you wanted.” I turned to Selena, gently wiping away her tears. “And I’m sorry I didn’t say anything to you. But I couldn’t see any other way out.”

  She shivered. More tears escaped, and she was quick to wipe them away. “Don’t do that again. Never, ever do that again.”

  I stroked her hair. “I don’t intend to.”

  I didn’t remember much from my brief time in the Underworld. I had vague images of gray fog, black waters, voices, ember eyes, and a dark, rainbow rivers, but nothing concise. Which was probably a good thing.

  Liam shuffled forward. I gripped the back of his neck and butted heads with him gently. He relaxed and sighed, then drew away.

  “We’ll have to remake the bond,” he muttered. “It broke the second you… the second you died.”

  Which meant he’d been looking at my dead body for nearly five hours, leaving only to find Selena and tell her what was happening.

  It would take a while for him to erase that image from his mind. But he was strong. He would get past it. So would she.

  “Not a problem. We need to go back inside and tell Thea, Corey, and Mason what happened.” I sighed and pinched the bridge of my nose. “Then we need to figure out a plan.”

  “I’m afraid a plan will need to wait.”

  We all looked at Persephone, whose eyes had turned dark and grim. “Apollo has… done something awful.”

  “How can you know?” Selena asked earnestly.

  “The Olympians… we can sense when a large supply of magic is used. Even within my borders, I am aware of other Olympians using massive amounts of energy and magic.”

  “Do you know what he did?” Liam asked. He sounded as if he was already regretting the question.

  Persephone turned to him sadly and shook her head. “No. But whatever it is, it will not be good.”

  IT WASN’T. IT absolutely wasn’t.

  The moment we walked back into the shrine, Mason and Corey tracked us down and told us they’d been watching the news in the basement where all their technology was stored in the basement so worshippers had a more authentic feel of the cathedral.

  Apollo had made his appearance in a big, big way. We watched the footage, barely hearing what the reporters were saying, too stunned by the images on screen.

  He arrived at the Union of Seas in a beam of light. His magic collided against the shore, sea and sand kicking up around him. Dozens of terrified revelers were sprinting for their lives.

  Apollo merely stormed after them, wielding his light blades like scythes and cutting down anything in his path.

  Sea Guards raced forward, nervously shouting at Apollo to stand down. Their ice lingered in their hands, but they were hesitant to use it against the god.

  That hesitance didn’t stop Apollo from slicing clean through them.

  He blinked in and out of frame, blasting light and cutting down every mortal he could reach. Bodies collapsed like discarded mannequins. There didn’t seem to be any sense to his actions. He merely reacted with aggression and force.

  This is happening now. This is what happened when I decided to be dead. Yes, I was free from Ares now. But if this had been the cost…

  I pushed the thought from my mind.

  “Where are the other gods? Where’s Poseidon?” I asked, my voice a whisper as another beam of light cut down a trio of mortals. “Why aren’t they stopping him? If Persephone could feel what he was doing…”

  I trailed off when I saw them arrive.

  Lightning flashed and a spiral of water formed out of the air. They struck the beach, kicking up sand. Zeus and Poseidon stepped out of their elements. More flashes of rising earth, speeding wind, and pillars of fire emerged as Artemis, Hermes, and Hephaestus arrived. Mortal survivors screamed and backed away, desperate to escape from the Olympians.

  The gods stalked forward. The helicopter shooting the footage was too high up to make out what they were saying to one another, but they were hardly exchanging pleasantries. Artemis had nocked an arrow in her silver bow as she faced her twin. The winged sandals on Hermes’s feet pulsed with light, filled with blink-fast magic. Hephaestus gripped his blacksmith hammer, his scarred forearms glowed red hot, swollen with fire magic. Storm clouds whipped overhead, evidence of Poseidon’s fury.

  Zeus held his Thunderbolt at his side. He was the closest to Apollo, and the one who was doing the speaking. He was probably trying to reason with his son, to understand what had happened to Apollo, to get him to stop.

  But Apollo wasn’t going to listen.

  Apollo moved. A quick twist of his torso and a shove of his hands, and blinding streams of light shot out from his palms. The light was so bright it erased everything the helicopter crew picked up, forcing the newscasters to cut away and refer to technical difficulties.

  We fell silent and let the horrible truth sink into us.

  Apollo had waged open war with the most powerful warriors of the pantheon. He wouldn’t have done that if he hadn’t expected to win.

  Which means he knows how to stop five gods. That entire beach is going to be destroyed, and everyone on it.

  “We need to do something,” I stated. “Now.”

  “Like what?” Mason asked. “We don’t have a plan, and he’s a freaking god.”

  “Ares, his ally, couldn’t even stop him,” Thea pointed out, “and Ares is the God of War.”

  “While he bears the Eye of Cronus…” Selena’s voice trailed off briefly. “He knows how to counter all of those gods. I… I don’t know that they’ll be able to stop him.”

  And if warrior-gods couldn’t stop Apollo, what hope did we mortals have?

  Yet there had to be a way. Olympians had been fooled before. Hell, Ares got himself trapped in a jar for years because he was stupid enough to get caught in Aphrodite’s bed. Sure, it hadn’t been truly detrimental to the god, and it had merely wounded his pride, but it had stopped him, kept the stupid bastard in one place.

  I stopped, letting the idea form in my mind, one I had touched on earlier but forgotten while I was planning to die. “Gorgons,” I said. The group looked at me. “We get gorgon eyes and turn him to stone, just like Perseus did with the Leviathan.”

  My friends looked at each other nervously.

  “That is a catastrophically bad idea,” Liam argued. “First off, where are we going to find a gorgon?”

  “We caught some a few years ago and put them in the Santa Monica stockade, remember? They’re not uncommon, and they prefer being near water.”

  “And how are we supposed to steal one? Even assuming we don’t get our own asses frozen in concrete, how are we supposed to take them from armed Polemistés guards? Ares will have our faces posted all over the damn place.”

  “There’s somewhere else you can go,” Thea added. When we looked at her, she sighed and said, “Poseidon has a small menagerie at his mansion.”
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  “But… doesn’t that turn the other animals into stone?” Corey hedged.

  Thea nodded. “He likes collecting statues.”

  “Well, that’s…” Liam paused, then went no holds barred. “Honestly, that is completely fucked up.”

  “But possible,” I reasoned. I flicked my eyes to the screen. “He’s a little preoccupied right now.”

  “Are you seriously suggesting we rob the God of the Sea?” Liam burst.

  “It’s not a suggestion,” Thea countered. “I can do it.” She looked at Corey. “I might need some help though.”

  He blinked. “Uhh…”

  Thea walked toward him. “All you have to do is get us in and out fast. I’ve seen photos of his menagerie. It’s in a massive greenhouse in his garden. I’ll use my magic to counteract his wards. I’m his heir. His spells should open for me.”

  Liam stepped over to Thea, shaking his head. “It’s a huge risk. What if something goes wrong and you both get trapped? We have no other plan?”

  The heir of Poseidon looked at Selena. “Will it work?”

  Selena closed her eyes. After a quiet moment of thought, she opened them again. “It’ll work. You’re going to be chased and get a little bruised, but it will work.”

  Selena sounded completely confident. It was a tone we all needed to hear in that moment. But it didn’t ease Liam’s worry.

  He curled a hand around her arm. “Thea…”

  She looked up at him, surprised, and stared into his desperate blue eyes. “I failed to bring back the Trident, we were tricked out of getting the Eye, and Apollo is destroying hundreds of lives. Poseidon will not forget any of that. He’ll make sure I pay for it, even if we win.” Thea sighed and nudged Liam’s hand off her arm. “This might be a way to ease some of that punishment.”

  Liam looked ready to scream, ready to beg. Anything to protect the girl he was falling for.

  “Then remind Poseidon that you know me.”

  Mason’s voice surprised us all.

  He just shrugged. “Face it, Thea. You only have one shop, and unless you want to be his concubine, you have little else to offer him other than an apology.” She winced, but his eyes were fierce. “I’m not going to see him use you like that. He doesn’t see the strength in you that we all see.

  “I have a lot more I can give him. I own a multi-million-dollar business that hasn’t moved into the Poseidon Region yet. I come from a family that will bend over backward for the gods. I know half the celebrities in this state and can get the rest with a couple of quick phone calls. I’m the heir to Zeus, so Poseidon can’t actually kill me if I screw up.”

  “Won’t Zeus protest that?” Corey asked worriedly.

  “Maybe,” agreed Mason. “But all those failures you listed, those aren’t just on you, Thea. They’re on all of us.” He glanced at Corey, Selena, Liam, and me. “Some people can’t pay the price or have paid too much. I can pay the rest.”

  Corey stared at Mason, his green eyes shining with awe and concern. And love. “But… Mason, that… that’s so much to lose.”

  “And you already paid,” Liam reminded. “Your hands…”

  Mason glanced down at his hands, once again wrapped in black leather gloves that must have been gifted from Persephone or the sorrow scions. He looked at them for a long, solemn moment. Then he shrugged again. “I can recover from it, and let’s be honest, if the gods want to take from someone, they’ll want to take from someone who has lots to give.”

  He was right… except that there were things I could offer too.

  I was the heir of Ares, and I controlled two elements. I had slain monsters and other warriors for a living. I was a gladiator, a bodyguard, and a hunter. I’d been bound to a god before. It wouldn’t be anything new to me to be bound to another one.

  Except I would be betraying my brother. I would be taking a goddess’s kindness for granted. I would be a traitor. I would be banished from my mission and have an even larger target on my back.

  My conscious told me to speak up and say these things. Sacrifice and suffering were things I was innately familiar with.

  But when Mason looked at me, I felt my resolve crumble. Even if I could speak up, the grim determination in his eyes would have stopped me.

  Don’t even think about it, that look said. This is for me to do, not you.

  Thea stared at Mason in shock. “Mason, I… I don’t know what to say.”

  The storm scion grinned at Thea. “Give me free boat rentals for life, and we’re even.”

  She laughed, and while I doubted Mason would actually take advantage of her bargain, I had no doubt Thea would make sure he got at least one free weekend on a yacht.

  “That still leaves us with another problem,” Selena reminded us in a quiet voice. “Apollo will know we’re coming. As long as he uses the Eye, he’ll have planned for any scenario we come up with. Even I can’t See as far as he can.”

  “But… you’ve Seen the Prophecy.”

  Corey made his point gently, as though he was nervous about prodding an agitated tigress. But his point was a solid one. Five years ago, when she was Cassandra, she had made the Prophecy about the Titans returning. It was nearly impossible for any Seer, Farseer or not, to do that. People changed their minds constantly, circumstances and priorities shifted. With the Eye, we had to assume that Apollo could See all those changes and shifts.

  “I have, and it will still happen. Whatever choice we make here against Apollo could very well lead us to the Prophecy.” Selena held her breath, then added, “and I can’t See how many of us will make it.”

  She didn’t look at me, but I felt her words like daggers. She knew that I would be there because I was leading Ares’s shadowfire army. But that was all she had Seen. There was no proof that my friends or my brother had made it that far.

  They could all die if we faced Apollo. He would know the best way to defeat us would be to kill us. All except me, because if Selena knew that I was the Bringer of Shadow and Fire, he would know that I had to stay alive.

  Everyone else was expendable.

  “So, what do we do?” Mason asked.

  “Throw him off balance as best as we can,” answered Selena. “That would be where I come in.” She lifted her eyes and looked at each of us. “Apollo won’t have forgiven me for humiliating him. He’ll want revenge against me. It might blind him.”

  “That’s a big if.” I said.

  Selena was having none of it. “There are no good options, Derek. I can only See so far, and Apollo will be ten steps ahead anyway. If this is the risk I have to take, it’s the one I will take.”

  My heart twisted. So this is what it is like to have someone you love risk their life because they know it is the only way.

  “If I’m distracting him,” Selena went on, “you’ll have a better chance of using the gorgon head against him.”

  Liam whipped his head at me. I raised my eyebrows because I hadn’t said anything about confronting Apollo.

  But it was going to be your plan. You fight better than you negotiate.

  “Of all the stupid plans you’ve ever had, this is by far the worst.”

  “You’re not wrong, ace. But we don’t need to beat him. We just need to make sure he’s distracted long enough to look in the gorgon’s eyes. After that, we’re in the clear.”

  “Assuming we don’t get charred first.”

  I grimaced. “Assuming.”

  Liam cringed and scrubbed a hand down his face. He fell into thought for a moment, then tilted his head back and sighed. “When do we leave?”

  Even Persephone wasn’t happy with our half-assed plan. But based on everything we were telling her, everything happening, she knew we couldn’t wait.

  She also knew of Apollo’s long, tumultuous history with Cassandra, and that if anyone could throw him off balance for even a single, crucial moment, it would be her.

  Still, she had insisted that we each don armor she provided. Even Mason, Corey, and Thea, who
had teleported to Poseidon’s mansion, had been kitted out with thick black body armor complete with boots, gauntlets, greaves, and a breastplate. Even our weapons had been replaced. Selena had been given a new set of kukris, and Liam settled on a pair of kopis, his preferred forward-curving swords.

  Sorrow scions were hardly renowned for their combat abilities, but they weren’t pushovers, either.

  The breastplates’ surfaces were scratched up since we’d scraped away Persephone’s sigil—a halved pomegranate—to lessen our connection to her. I wasn’t sure what would happen if it was revealed that Liam and I were her descendants, but I didn’t imagine the results would be good.

  Persephone had given us some time to prepare while she readied our transport. The three of us sat in the empty nave of the chapel, idly checking our weapons and thinking of all the things we should have been saying.

 

  Before we’d armored up, Liam and I had used some of the sorrow scions’ herbs and potions to recreate the blood bond. It relaxed us both to have the spell reconnect us. We could almost pretend things were normal again.

  Liam leaned back against the pew near mine and drummed his fingers against his knees.

 

  Liam’s gaze was sharp.

  I couldn’t reply to that. Couldn’t even argue. The words cut, and yet… he was right. I’d always promised to keep my friends from harm, and even though I fought for them, they were still hurt in some way. How many promises did I have to make until I just became a liar?

  Liam scrubbed a hand down his face and sighed.