Oh fuck. I really should have grabbed my axes before coming over to Cerberus.
The god’s expression twitches with a sort of thwarted fury, but that’s not what makes me backpedal. It’s that, with my eyes still filled with Eos’ tears, I’m seeing things now. And what I see is a shimmering veil of mesh over Zeus’ face. In the odd rendering of the tears, it’s all sorts of colors, like looking through a prism, and fitted to his features like it’s been painted on.
What the hells is that?
Cold, heavy dread takes over my limbs, and I can’t move, can’t speak. I really wish freeze wasn’t one of my trauma responses.
Incredulity ripples over Zeus’ features. “I’ll be damned,” he mutters, then points an accusing finger at me. “You are the baby I cursed in my temple? The unlovable one?”
Shit. Now he remembers?
I lift my hands in the air in surrender, turning to face the god more fully.
He laughs, the sound a little out of control. Then he starts muttering and pacing. Something about, “If he knew all along, then he planned to become king.”
While he’s distracted, I roll my last pearl between my fingers, inching closer to Cerberus. I’ll take him with me. To Styx, obviously. Maybe Charon can help him.
I slowly stretch my fingers toward Cer’s head.
“No—” Zeus rounds on me, and his brows snap down in a scowl so dark, so wrathful, it transforms a face that is almost boyish in its handsomeness to twisted and terrifying. “I can’t let him win.”
So fast I barely register the movement, Zeus throws out his arms, and he is covered in head-to-toe armor. My mortal mind and body are too slow to react as lightning flashes from his hands and hits me right in the belly.
When the colossal boom and scorching flash of light recede, I’m not dead.
Not yet.
I’m on the ground, coughing up blood. The metallic taste of it in my mouth is the only thing that seems real. I don’t even feel the pain yet.
Vaguely, I’m aware that the blast knocked me into Cerberus. My constricting throat makes every tortured breath an agony. I don’t have to look at my stomach to know it’s bad. Hands over my belly, I can feel the wide gash, the blood surging out of me with every pump of my heart—too fast. I’m losing too much blood. Weakness and heaviness invade my limbs and slow my mind.
Hades. Where are you?
“Lyra…”
Cerberus.
“I’m…still…here,” I manage to whisper. I think I do. I’m not sure if my voice is working.
I’m still clutching the pearl. I close my eyes, scrunching them hard. I’m dead. I already know it, but maybe I can help him before I go. Even the Styx can’t heal me from this one. Not fast enough. Not without more of Hades’ blood first, and we don’t have time for that.
Cer noses at me weakly, then falls back. And that’s when I shove the pearl in his mouth, my hand coming away covered in thick, sticky drool. “Think of the Styx.”
“No—”
But he’s already gone.
I go limp on the ground. That took everything I had left. Now…I’m just going to lie here and die. At least I did something good with my last precious seconds of time. I stare up into the brightening sky and picture the Underworld. I’ll be there soon enough.
Hades.
He’s going to blame himself for this when he finds out. A tear squeezes from the corner of my eye.
Then Zeus’ feet come into view directly in front of me. Probably to finish the job.
Honestly, I’d rather go fast than sit here and bleed anyway.
I smile. “Bring it, asshole.”
109
The God Of Death
Maybe I’m a coward, despite my bravado, because I close my eyes as I wait for the final blow.
“Don’t. Fucking. Move.”
My already struggling heart stutters. I know that voice. That sinful voice of darkness and soot.
Hades.
I’m in love with him.
Persephone isn’t dead. I’m about to be. And I’m in love with Hades.
What a stupid, horrible, gods-awful time to figure that shit out.
