Fury of the Gods (Areios Brothers Book 3)

by Amy Braun

  There were a lot of things I shouldn’t do. A lot of things I should do. Pushing away blame never struck me as easy.

  “Yeah,” I sighed. “Yeah, okay. Sorry, I just got distracted. Are you ready?”

  “Almost.”

  Curious about what she wanted to wait for, I turned. And moved straight into her kiss.

  It surprised me in all the best ways. Her lips were soft, her hands roaming my shoulders and neck. I wrapped my fingers around her waist and tangled another hand into her hair, kissing her deeper. The Shift made her cool to the touch, and she smelled like the ocean.

  I didn’t know what this meant for us, whether we were kissing because we wanted comfort or maybe it was something more. But I knew she lifted my heart. I knew that I wanted to make her happy however I could. I knew that when I held her, I felt whole.

  This was the kind of moment I could have happily lost myself in. I might have.

  But I heard the sound.

  I pulled away from Thea, lifting my eyes and going still. She took a breath, then heard it too.

  Footsteps on the deck.

  Someone else was on the boat.

  We looked at each other, our faces mirrored with grim determination. Pulling on my magic, I Adapted my weight to lighten my footsteps. I scurried to the shadows, staying away from the windows and ducking behind the bar. I balled my fists. My fingers itched for a weapon, and the Omega Knife hummed, but I ignored its call for now. Thea settled beside me, keeping her fingers low to the floor. Water sluiced from her fingertips and spiraled into the gold Trident.

  The footsteps stopped creaking along the dock and reached the staircase. They descended. Not heavy, so this likely wasn’t a man, but there was power to them.

  Power I could feel. A pressure in my mind. Whoever had shown up uninvited, they were strong.

  I peered around the edge of the bar, keeping much of my face in shadow. From this vantage, tucked against the wall, I could only see her back. Thick black armour… a pale blond braid resting against her spine.

  My heart went utterly still.

  A heavy breath escaped her. “I know you’re here. I wish to the gods you weren’t, but you’re here.”

  Rockets didn’t move as fast as we did in that moment. Thea and I practically tripped over each other to get to her. If we’d reached her, we surely would have all collapsed in a tangle of limbs and awkward laughs.

  But Selena turned, and we skidded to a halt.

  The blond hair remained, but her skin glowed. Brilliant blue veins pressed against her skin. Her eyes sparked with purple energy. Selena looked exhausted, on the verge of collapse.

  A choked cry escaped Thea. She rushed forward and opened her arms to reach her friend. Selena stepped back with her hand outstretched.

  Flame uncurled from her palm.

  “Selena? What are you…?”

  “No matter what I See, it all ends in death. But I will change this reality. You will be in it again.”

  Her voice echoed, as if she spoke through a tunnel.

  I grabbed Thea and yanked her aside, just as the flames launched from Selena’s palm.

  Leather and carpet ignited in fire. Heat swelled through the boat. Thea called on her Trident and pushed three tendrils of water out from the prongs. Smoke billowed up from the doused fires.

  “Selena, what the hell are you doing?”

  Another whip of flame lashed at Thea. Another shot toward me. I jumped back, the lash striking the carpet at my feet and trailing a line of fire in its wake.

  I heard blades unsheathe. She had her kukris out.

  “Mason and Corey are being held,” Selena yelled wildly, leaping over the flames and rushing me. Her purple-tinted eyes filled with madness and intent. “The Olympians will draw you to them, to rescue them, but you can’t. I’ve Seen that future, and it ends in blood.”

  She screamed and slashed at me. I ducked, Adapting to make myself quicker. But she knew my steps, having Seen them in whatever deadly vision had pushed her to… this.

  Because this wasn’t her. This was whatever magic had infected her.

  I grabbed her wrists, stopping the curved blades before they dug into my shoulder and ribs. Fire burst from her hands, singeing my palms and forcing me to let go. I staggered back, and she kicked me in the chest, knocking me into the bar and leaping for me––

  Thea’s Trident hooked the kurkis between their prongs and shoved them away. She kicked Selena in the stomach. The air became so icy that I breathed out mist.

  “Snap the fuck out of it,” barked Thea.

  Selena’s eyes burned as she hurled a kukri at Thea’s head. Thea ducked, and I watched Selena twist her free fingers in the air.

  The energy in the room snapped and twisted, the edges of my sight muddying together. Shapes blurred and reformed, and suddenly I was on another boat. A smaller, simpler one, filled with new gear and cartons of food.

  At first, I thought we’d teleported.

  Then Thea sucked in a breath, her eyes wide with pain and terror.

  Wherever we were now, she knew it. And she’d become frozen by it.

  Selena pounced and raised her second kukri. I jumped, aiming to catch Selena. She twisted in midair and I hardened my skin. We still collided, my body crushing hers into the burning floor and her blade digging into my ribs. I winced and pushed up. Her hips bucked against me, throwing me off. She leaped onto me, legs straddling my stomach, kukri poised over my chest.

  She shoved down, and I clasped the bade just before it dug into me.

  “Sel,” I gasped, Adapting my strength to fight her off, “listen to me, you don’t want to do this.”

  I flicked my eyes up from the blade and looked at her. Tears welled in her distorted gaze and dripped onto me. “No,” she wept. “I don’t want to. But this is the way it ends, Liam. The only way it ends where the world survives.”

  She clasped the edge of the hilt and pushed down, using her full weight to bury the kukri blade into my chest. I wrenched my shoulder at the last second, feeling it cut along the ridge of my shoulder and drive into the carpet. Selena hissed and clamped a hand around my neck, her palm heating––

  I twisted my hips and threw her off. She landed on her front and I tapped the back of her skull, as Derek had done to me when I turned on him. The sleeping spell hit Selena and dropped her into unconsciousness.

  I panted, tasting smoke and shaking from adrenaline.

  Thea shuffled closer to me, her eyes wide and scared.

  The veins under Selena’s skin continued to glow. The sleeping spell held her for now, but I worried she would break out of it soon. And when she did, she would try to kill us again.

  “What just happened?” Thea’s voice trembled.

  “I don’t know, but if that was compulsion, I’ve never seen anything like this. She wanted to hurt us.”

  Thea shifted on her feet, awkwardly rolling the Trident in her hands. “We can’t leave her here.”

  “No, but if we take her with us, we’re painting an even bigger target on our backs. The Olympians would do anything to get their hands on Selena. And if she goes missing, Derek will look for her.”

  “I know that, but… she needs help, Liam. We can’t help her with this.”

  I stood up. “You can’t seriously think Zeus is the guiding light here.”

  “No, but Athena and Persephone can do something.”

  I winced. I hated that she was right, because while I had a little more trust toward Persephone, my trust in Athena had been shaken.

  She’d lied to Selena for years by withholding memories that could have saved us a whole load of time and pain.

  But this was also a situation so far beyond my wheelhouse—it was practically on another continent.

  And then I realized something else she had said. “She said Mason and Corey are missing.”

  Thea blinked, her eyes widening as she recalled Selena’s crazed words. “She also told us not to find them.”

  “Doesn’t m
atter.” I walked to Selena, took her kukris and handed them to Thea. Bending down and holding my breath, I scooped Selena up and carried her in my arms, making sure her hands were far from my belt. The last thing I needed was for her to wake up and stab me in the stomach.

  “How are we going to find them?”

  Involuntarily, I looked at Selena, sleeping in my arms, her veins glowing and her eyes shifting beneath her closed eyelids. Gods only knew what she dreamed of.

  Then I looked at the Knife hanging on my belt. I thought about the god who explained what it really did to me.

  “I don’t know,” I admitted, already regretting my choice, but seeing no other option. “But there might be someone who can tell us.”

  DEREK

  SHE USED IT. That was the sole thought that lingered in my mind as I stared at the marble pedestal where the Timeweaver used to rest.

  In this dark, secluded room on top of the pedestal was a glass oval the size of a football. Inside it were clouds of magic. Purple and blue spots flickered within the cloud, as if a tiny storm had been contained in this simple glass shell. Its power didn’t seem so intimidating right now.

  Because most of its power has moved.

  If I’d known that Selena would do this, run to the Timeweaver, and use it as a distraction so I could help Liam and Thea…

  Would I still have done it? I wanted to say no. That I would have helped the woman I’d just confessed my love to.

  But Liam had been hurt. Surrounded by gods. I trusted Selena to be fine.

  There were no good choices. So, I let my friends pay the price.

  “She got what she wanted,” Athena snarled from the door. “A way to escape me and the power to change the future.”

  I kept my back to her, staring uselessly at the glass which once held the Mind of Cronus. As if it would bring Selena back.

  “And this is all your fault,” the goddess spat. “How could you have been so reckless? You risked death and capture for people in open rebellion against the gods.”

  “They didn’t deserve––”

  Athena grasped my shoulder and yanked me away from the pedestal. She slammed me into the wall. Flames rolled off her arm and curled around my throat. I went completely rigid. The fire didn’t burn me, but its ends licked against my neck, and the spike in heat served as warning enough.

  “You do not get to speak. Not until I am finished.”

  I relaxed as much as I dared.

  “The only reason I am allowing you to live is because you have unparalleled power that will keep my heir alive. You are the Bringer of Shadow and Fire, and thus you are safer under my watch than on your own. But if it weren’t for those reasons, I would have let the Furies kill you.”

  A crush of heat slammed into me, wrapping around my back and squeezing my chest.

  “You are a liability, Derek Areios. A ticking time bomb, as your kind say. And the last thing I will have is your chaos destroying the very world I am trying to save.”

  I couldn’t think of a single thing to say in defense of myself and wasn’t sure that I should at this point.

  I had made a huge mistake.

  “You have brought an enemy into your foremother’s home. The woman you claim to love is now in greater danger than ever before.”

  I blinked. “Why? What will the Timeweaver do to her?”

  Athena scowled, so Persephone spoke instead. I’d forgotten she stood in the shadows behind Athena, watching and saying nothing to defend me, because I couldn’t be defended here.

  “The Eye allowed its users to see endless realities. To react to each one. But the Timeweaver…”

  When she didn’t elaborate, I prompted, “It showed us visions of the past. Made me think I was there again. I could almost feel the rain around me. Is that what it does?”

  “No. That is a defense.” Athena grumbled. “When you captured it, what did you see?”

  I shrugged. “Just light. A blinding light filled with voices. I nearly lost myself in them.”

  “Then you merely saw its protections. Not the actual Mind itself,” Athena sighed. “The Mind of my grandfather is not so simple or base, so much as I wish to believe. The Heart connected to Cronus’s will. It allowed him to adapt his magic to absorb his children and their powers. The Eye let him See all possible futures. But his Mind allowed him to shape reality. He could change any future he Saw. If he did not like them, he used his Sickle to cut away that future and craft a new one.”

  My jaw dropped. I’d known Cronus was powerful, but to cut through reality and reform it… I could barely comprehend what that would mean for the universe, let alone the world.

  “But a Mind like that is prone to insanity,” the goddess continued. “For every reality Cronus Saw and cut away, he Saw another right after it. And another and another. He lost his senses the reality he wanted. And he did not believe the reality that a young baby raised by a nymph and a goat would be the one to slay him.”

  My mind whirled. Cronus’s own Mind drove him mad. So mad that he didn’t believe the reality that would come true—that Zeus would cause the reality which he died in.

  But it was.

  “Selena is a Seer…”

  Athena nodded. “The most powerful living Seer there ever was or will be. And she connected with the Timeweaver without knowing the consequences. Her mind will likely break before she can reshape reality. And if she did begin to reshape it…”

  Then she was out there now, alone, distraught, driven by a power she couldn’t control…

  I shook my head. “No. Selena wouldn’t do that.”

  Athena stared at me. “After what you have done and the chaos you have caused, do you truly believe she is not capable of great and terrible things to save you?”

  I winced.

  My reaction to the attack in Sacramento had been swift and instinctive. Consequences are going to the back of my mind, a way for me to keep focus.

  This time I had overstepped.

  I’d saved my brother and Thea, at the cost of Selena’s sanity.

  “How do we find her?” I asked.

  “You do nothing,” snapped Athena. “I believed bringing you to my side would aid my cause and help the humans I have so wronged. But I made the wrong choice. You have done nothing but wreak havoc and madness. You truly are your forefather’s son.”

  I didn’t argue with her. Didn’t justify what I’d done and what it cost. I thought about my brother, and the light that sparked in his eyes when he looked at Thea. The way she smiled at him when he knew she was looking.

  I thought about Mason, whose quick wit and sharp actions in a fight had quickly earned my respect and friendship, and Corey, who in spite of his nerves and shyness, had been one of my most loyal friends.

  I thought about Selena, the way she’d looked in the dawn’s light after visiting me in the forge just days ago.

  Did they see me differently? Did their friendship give them a blind eye to how I reacted and the things I did?

  If I knew that, would I change?

  Of course, I hoped. How they saw me made all the difference, and I never forgot their panic when I made a reckless choice or fought without them. And I just kept repeating the same mistake.

  Because I couldn’t let this go. I couldn’t stand back and do nothing. As much as I disagreed with them, the gods had granted me and my ancestors incredible power. What was the point of having it, if not to help people? When I’d worked for Ares, I hadn’t felt that way. All I’d cared about was Liam. Things had changed since then. My brother’s safety and happiness was still the goal I kept fighting for, but I wanted it for my new friends. For the woman I loved. Maybe even for myself, if there were energy left in me.

  The things I wanted weren’t more than what the rest of the mortals trapped in Néo Vasíleio deserved.

  Athena was right. Since discovering Ki̱demónas and embracing my powers and rebelling against the gods, I’d become a wrecking ball. But I’d never hurt an innocent person, and I nev
er backed away from a fight. That counted for something.

  Didn’t it?

  “I’m sorry, Athena,” I finally said, hopelessness overtaking my voice. “But I need to help. I need to––”

  “You need to stay here so I can fix what you have destroyed.” She glanced over my shoulder to Persephone. “I will not have him running wild around your Haven, Persephone. Regardless of what he means to you, get him out of my sight.”

  She walked around me, regret having her hazel blue gaze.

  “I am sorry, my son.”

  When Athena asked for me to be removed from her sight, I didn’t think she meant imprisoned.

  But Persephone didn’t argue the fact, which meant she agreed with her sister’s choice.

  I would stay in the dungeons until Selena was returned and the Timeweaver safely removed from her body.

  If such a thing were possible.

  Persephone tried to make my imprisonment as comfortable as possible. Unlike Artemis, whose cell resided down the hall about seventy feet away from mine, I was given a bed, linen, a toilet, food, water, and a collection of books. She even allowed me my weapons and armor.

  But I couldn’t break free.

  I paced anxiously, my body a riot of nerves and bleak emotions.

  “Athena will protect her, Derek. This will not be permanent.”

  Maybe it should be.

  “You are lost, aren’t you, my son?”

  I glanced at Persephone through the glass, peering past the wards and staring into her troubled eyes.

  I leaned against the wall and folded my arms. “That’s one way of putting it.”

  “This is for the best. I know you do not want to see it that way, but we are simply trying to contain the damage as best we can.” She looked down. “This has gotten out of hand. Not even Athena could have known what would occur.”

  “Then she probably should not have asked us to find the Weapons and Shards in the first place.”

  An immature line of thought, maybe, but I didn’t speak it without merit. If the Olympians had dealt with their own problems and found their own solutions, we wouldn’t be here now. I wouldn’t be locked up. Liam wouldn’t be missing. Mason wouldn’t have met Corey. I wouldn’t have fallen in love with Selena. Thea wouldn’t be a goddess.