Chapter 10 Cas
CAS
Twenty-five years ago
It took a hundred years to get me here. Zeus kept them locked up, inaccessible to even his most trusted advisors. But the king of heaven was nothing if not arrogant. He just couldn’t help himself: he had to show off.
His menagerie of prisoners included the most beautiful men and women, frozen in time at the age that he wanted them to remain at, his enemies, friends who’d displeased him, rare creatures, erased from the nine worlds, and the prize of his collection.
The three maidens, often portrayed as old and decrepit crones—likely by men displeased by their lot. In fact the Norse were closer in their descriptions of the Norns: they were eerie beauties, tall and pale as specters.
He held games today, just like he had a century ago. The two prizes were the power of a river god, and his dead daughter Artemis. The crowd that had gathered to watch came from every corner of the cosmos. Gods, of course, but also dwarves and giants, titans and nymphs.
It was inevitable that he would be distracted. Not so much by the games, but by the pleasures that so many visitors assembled. All I had to do was bide my time.
The opportunity came when Hera left to speak to an old friend. In a flash, Zeus was gone from his box, soaring as an eagle, his piercing eye seeking his next target. He’d fuck and impregnate a dozen women by the time it took for his queen to blink.
I changed myself into the smallest thing I could think of—an ant—to sneak into the imperial box.
The Moirai were not surprised to see me appear before their cage when I changed myself back into flesh.
“At last,” one said.
“Didn’t I choose well, Clotho?” the other crone.
“The perfect traitor,” Atropos agreed.
“And suddenly I get why he locked you up,” I grunted, annoyed at their unbearable smugness.
They acted like my actions were not my choice but theirs—not only predictable but also preordained by their edict. I didn’t like that one bit. By this logic, they were all responsible for what I’d suffered.
The first to have spoken smiled, reading my thoughts as easily as if I’d spoken them out loud. “Your mother and brother would have died by now without our intervention, child. The only difference is, you would have been a corpse like them, taken by the black plague and starvation.”
“The only thing we did was give your thread to the Styx. Theirs was already cut.”
I decided I hated the lot of them. Luckily for them, I hated Zeus far more. “We don’t have time for a chat. Can you help me take him down?” I demanded.
“We already have,” Lachesis stated.
I was half tempted to change back into an ant and leave them. Instead, I made myself grunt, “How?”
The sisters looked at each other.
“You can’t kill him.” The first shrugged.
“Too weak.”
“Too obvious.”
Back into an ant, then.
“Unless…” they all said at once.
I breathed out slowly and waited.
“You’re willing to play the long game.”
The air crackled as I gritted between my teeth, “I waited a hundred years for this enlightening chat.”
“You won’t need another hundred years,” Lachesis assured me.
“Mere decades will do, really.”
Zeus could be dead in decades? They had my attention.
“How?”
Now
I woke to a vaguely familiar space. Red walls, a comfortable bed. There was a very large snake slithering on top of the highest furniture, hissing his appreciation when I sat up.
I was back in The Royal Manor, half of my mind firmly where it had been in my dream.
No, not dream. That had been a clear memory.
I remembered my purpose. I remembered the schemes upon schemes, and the reasons that had led to my exile to the mortal realm.
An exile Zeus believed was his doing, when it had been the work of three very annoying, very dead sisters.
Most of all, I remembered my names. All of them. Over the eons, I’d been called so many things.
And more importantly, I remembered what I was doing here.
“Knock, knock!” The redhead politely stood at the entrance, a tray full of delicacies in her hand.
“Freya,” I said, before catching myself. “Kleos.”
“That’s me. Twice.” She walked in, to place the tray on the bedside table. “You gave us a bit of a fright. Do you mind if I check your vitals?”
I let her, though I could tell what she’d find.
Her hand stilled over my head. “The wall’s almost down.”
I inclined my head.
“Do you remember who you are?”
Again, a nod as I took my time to decide the best course of action. “Regardless of how long you’ve been in this flesh, your soul is bound by the laws of the immortals. I can answer your question if you’ll swear you’ll keep it a secret, on the river Styx.”
Kleos grimaced. “Not that I’m not dying of curiosity, but I don’t keep secrets from Lucian. So long as you’re not here at Zeus’s bidding, or an enemy of Highvale, that’s all I need to know.”
There were two problems.
Technically, I was here at Zeus’s bidding.
Which meant that I was an enemy of Highvale.
I felt for the sphere in my pocket and pressed it, letting out a jolt of power through my focal stone. Pain immediately coursed through my veins, pulsing, burning, but while acute, the punishment for using my core power didn’t last long.
Kleos blinked, eyes full of lightning.
Then she smiled pleasantly. “You gave us a bit of a fright. Do you mind if I check your vitals?”
I smiled back, getting to my feet. “I’m all good actually, thank you.”