Chapter 15 Nyssa
Nyssa
“Back so soon?” Poseidon drawled from his cot.
Half his leering face was lit from the torches someone had seen fit to light around the otherwise empty prison, the other half lay quenched in obscurity — shadows concealing all but his piercing blue eyes.
“And here I thought you’d have me locked away for a hundred years before deigning to bless me with your presence again. ”
He faced me fully then, the lines of his sun-tanned skin etching out the map of his discontent.
“But here you are, assaulting my eyes twice in as many days. Which means you either need something…” His face split into a malicious grin. “Or things have gone terribly wrong.”
I clenched my teeth, refusing to be baited; delaying the inevitable shitstorm old seadick was about to throw down.
“Well?” he snapped. “Which is it, girl?”
Caelus shot forward with a growl, halted just as fast by the featherlight weight of my hand on his arm. Only the fact that he was acutely aware of my touch — and my will — kept him from throttling Poseidon through the bars. Likely, without ever having laid a hand on the captive god.
“Neros has fallen,” I announced. My voice came out hard and low, enunciating each syllable with precision. I made sure to leave no room for misunderstanding, nor did I make any attempt to soften the blow.
Poseidon shot to his feet, the clang of his shackled hands striking the bars reverberating around the open space. I watched as every possible emotion crossed his face — surprise to confusion, disbelief to hilarity, contemplation to horror — finally settling on fury.
“You lie!” he roared, slamming his fists against the steel once more.
I stepped up to his cage, eyeing him severely; daring him to so much as spit in my direction.
“I swear upon the River Styx,” I intoned, voice lethally soft. “Thaldon’s capital was attacked this night by an assailant as yet unknown. Almost all of its people died in the blaze that struck them. Men, women, and children — all gone.”
Poseidon paled, staggering backwards.
“Nothing remains of the city but charred ruins. We collected their bones and cast them into the ocean, as is their mortal custom. Nothing else could be done for them.”
“No,” he whispered, spearing a hand through his long, matted locks, the other shackled arm following awkwardly. “No… I’ve failed them…” He paced his cell in small circles, growing increasingly agitated with every step.
Suddenly, his marching stopped and he speared me with his gaze.
“You failed them. Mortal lives now fall under your care, too — not just their deaths. Or is that why you let them burn? To claim their souls for the bloodthirsty demon that lives within you? To increase your own disturbing power with every one that you took?”
Holy fuck.
I forced a scoff out, masking the horror that now surged within my veins. Caelus’ head snapped around to mine, his eyes on the verge of luminescence as he sensed the emotion roiling within me.
Poseidon’s words had thrown me. Not because he had spat them with ill intent, but because I had overlooked something monumental.
Where did all their souls go?
No Nerosian shade had approached me, save the one screaming about burning seas and bleeding skies.
None had fled to the Isle, that was for certain — Thanatos would have called for aid.
Did they succumb to the River?
Where do souls go when there are no afterlives to be sentenced to?
“Is that what you would believe of us? Of Hades, and Thanatos, and every other Underworld creature? That we devour souls to sate our own power-hungry appetites?”
Poseidon snarled wordlessly in response.
“If that was the case, you spineless, dickless, old sea bastard, my father would have killed you eons ago and consumed what little sustenance you could have given him then.”
He threw himself at the bars again, no doubt imagining strangling me with the links between his cuffed wrists.
I had done what needed to be done.
I knew grief was what drove his madness, knew that he would come to realise vengeance was still within his grasp — but that moment was not this one.
I tossed my braid over my shoulder, whirling toward the exit. Caelus met me at the base of the stairs just as Poseidon dared to get the last word in.
“Mark my words, Hades,” he spat. “You will pay for their lives with your own before this war is through. And the seas shall not be your ally while you fight against the futility that is defeating Kronos.”
Just as my foot hit the top step, one last chilling declaration followed me up the staircase:
“Even death cannot defeat him.”
“So we stand without Poseidon and Hermes?” Hestia asked, doubt creeping into her tone.
“Hephaestus, too,” Haras offered with a shrug. “He has more pressing matters to attend to.”
“Indeed.” She dipped her head in acknowledgement. “So we are all that stands between Kronos and his desire to conquer all?”
I looked around the room, meeting the eyes of my council members. Each of them stared back at me, waiting for my answer. Waiting for whatever comes next.
“Yes. But I believe I know where we can get more warriors for our cause.”
Athena was the first to understand. The goddess of wisdom sat straighter in her throne, her keen intellect imploring me to finish explaining. Her mind was already moving the chess pieces into place while I took a steadying breath.
“Ephemeron.”
She grinned savagely. “Kronos has taken his war to the mortal realm, thinking them weak and easily trodden on.”
Erato chuckled viciously.
“He has underestimated them grievously,” Athena continued.
“Though their lives may be short, they live them to their fullest extent and abilities.” She leaned forward, meeting my gaze across the open space of the Parthenon.
“Let us show the Titan lord what mortals are truly capable of. And I know just where to start.”