Chapter 10
Meet The Titans
LYRA
In unison, Boone and I slowly turn to find the Titans surrounding us in a semicircle, having apparently crept closer while we were distracted. We’re like lobsters in a pot slowly being brought to a boil.
Tension ratcheting through my body, threatening to pull a muscle with each breath I take, I lower my arm slowly, switching my axe to my other hand.
I take a quick look around, trying to get my bearings.
We’re in a massive, high-ceilinged cavern running in both directions past where I can see around a bend.
Best guess, it circles the cylinder that makes up the abyss—bridge and gates at the top, Lock or Locks at the bottom, and where we stand outside is separate.
In here, across the opposite rockface that’s more like a craggy mountainside, offshoots of multiple human-size tunnels appear to lead away from here and from the abyss.
Switching my focus to the Titans, I count, then frown and count again. We’re missing a few.
Because they are no longer worshipped, likenesses aren’t exactly thick on the ground in the Overworld, but their appearances help. Iapetus and Mnemosyne, I think I already got. But the others…
I count. Five Titanesses and four Titans, rather than six of each. I don’t see Cronos, and…
“Oceanus isn’t here,” I whisper to myself.
“Curse that traitor,” Mnemosyne snaps, though quietly.
Not too surprising. Oceanus is missing because he was never imprisoned. He’s the only Titan who refused to fight in the war against the gods, or, for that matter, against their father, Uranus, and the other Primordials in the war before that one.
“Where is Cronos?” I ask next. It’s a bad idea not to be aware of where all my enemies are. Especially the most dangerous one. “I have a bone to pick with him.”
“He saved you from the Pandemonium.” Iapetus’ smile sends a slither of dread over my skin.
At a guess, the Pandemonium is the thing that sound wakes up. Doesn’t take a genius to figure that out. But Cronos dumped me somewhere worse.
“He almost killed us, dickhead,” I snap.
If it’s possible, his scowl gets so deep, shadows crease his face, like storm clouds rolling. “Watch it. I’m not a patient Titan, and we can always start over.”
“What?”
“Shut up, Iapetus,” Mnemosyne says. “She’s not ready for that yet.”
Is this what Alice felt like when she landed in Wonderland and nothing made sense? I was never a huge fan of that story for that reason. It always made me feel…adrift.
Boone whistles the signal for me to ease up, inching so he’s standing more between me and them. He does that a lot. We need to have a chat about that later.
Iapetus points an accusing finger at Boone. “That’s new, too.”
“Shut up, Iapetus,” more of them snap in unison—it’s clearly a catchphrase for the Titans. Only made weirder because of all the whispering.
Beside me, I can hear the way Boone’s hands ball into tight fits, knuckles cracking. I don’t blame him.
“Indeed, he is new,” a different Titaness says.
This one, I know for sure. I’d have guessed based on her eyes alone.
The mercurial swirling silver, just like Hades’, are a dead giveaway, contrasting with her rosy-cheeked ebony skin.
The small diadem nestled in her tight, black curls is another clue, marking her as Rhea. Cronos’ queen. Hades’ mother.
The same as with Hestia earlier, her smile invites me to relax, to trust.
I straighten my spine, determined not to give in.
“Anything new is bad,” Iapetus insists. I have to say, he’s even more dour than Ber, Cerberus’ grumpy head. I didn’t know that was possible.
I’m also kind of proud of myself for keeping all these thoughts inside today.
“No,” Rhea says. Her voice is like her smile. Serene. “Anything new is good. Otherwise, we’re just spinning our wheels.”
How in the name of the Underworld does she know a modern phrase like that after being stuck down here all this time? Same with Iapetus’ clothes.
Focus on the problem, Lyra.
“Maybe we should throw her in the next Lock now,” Iapetus says.
The next Lock? As in more than one? Hestia said this Lock, implying one. But there’s another? Fuck me.
Mnemosyne raises her hands. “Agreed.”
In unison, he and the others drop into threatening crouches, like they’re preparing to attack.
The move is so in sync, they make a collective sound, like soldiers clicking their heels when standing at attention.
Power crackles over every single one of them like electricity zigzagging from spark to spark.
Rhea, however, in a blur of speed, suddenly stands before us. Between us and them. She doesn’t crackle. No power on display.
The Titaness of generations and all things that flow as a woman—blood, birth waters, milk, and time—stands between us. I’m not sure what she can do against all of them, but she doesn’t seem remotely worried. She merely raises her hands like that’ll be enough to fend them off.
I don’t know why she’s helping me. I don’t care. Right now, survival is top of my priority list, followed by escape. Maybe between the three of us we can—
Wait. Where’s Boone?
A quick, panicked glance around reveals he isn’t here anymore. The Titans don’t seem to have noticed, all focused on Rhea and me. My heart is already crashing in my chest, but realizing he’s gone puts me into a gear that might cause a stroke. Dots start to dance across my vision.
“Don’t make us go through you, Rhea,” Iapetus warns in a low snarl.
Damn that Titan and the horse that brought him here.
Any trace of her tranquil smile melts away, leaving Rhea scary-intense, the way Hades can sometimes get. “Throwing her in the second Lock now is too soon,” she murmurs calmly. “Listen to her. She’s hyperventilating.”
No shit. I close my eyes and focus on controlling my breathing. Another Lock. Another Labor. Another catch. Always with death on the line. It’s never enough with gods, is it?
And Rhea is just as much a part of the problem, but I’ll take any port in a storm, it seems. Leaning around where she stands between us, I open my eyes, point to her, and wheeze, “Voice of reason.”
“Shhhh…” they all warn me. More than one glances back toward one particular tunnel. Does the doorway at the top of the bridge Cronos kept looking at lead all the way down here to that entrance?
“That attitude and that mouth are part of the problem.” Something ripples across Iapetus’ skin, dark but also fiery, reminding me of peeks of lava under a cooled blackened crust. “Getting her to do anything we want is like watching glaciers move.”
Dickhead.
“I don’t think I’m the one with the attitude problem here,” I whisper through clenched teeth, mostly to keep them from chattering. Fear is rising with every extra-rapid pump of my heart, the taste like heavy metal coating my mouth.
Boone. Where are you?
The others don’t do anything new, but Rhea slowly ushers me behind her. I take a jerking step sideways and raise my axe overhead, gripping it with two hands, ready to hurl it. There’s no way I can beat them all, even with her help, but I can take at least one out before they get me.
“Don’t react.” Boone’s low voice is right by my ear, and I jump a little at the sound. “I’m here. I have a plan.”