Chapter 13
Both Options Suck
LYRA
I heave forward, hands on my knees.
The wild swing from Olympus in Hades’ arms to being trapped in Tartarus again is like running full tilt into a wall of cement. It steals any remaining air from my lungs.
Yet I still manage to mouth his name.
The bitter chocolate scent of him is abandoning me, even in this place, and I want to trap even that much of him down here with me.
Just a piece to hold on to while I try to get back to him.
Rhea is in my face, forcing me upright with a firm grip on my shoulders. “Hades? What did you tell him?”
I blink at the Queen of the Titans, who, up until a few seconds ago, seemed to be my ally. Now her face looks like she’s ready to kill me with the rest of them.
With a scowl, I try to shrug off her hold, but she doesn’t budge.
“What the hell was that?” I demand. Bravado is all I have left.
Where is Boone? A quick glance tells me he’s still invisible… I don’t think he would have abandoned me. Or did he get sucked into the past, too?
I look at Rhea. “What did that crystal-looking thing do to me?”
Just like her oldest son, Rhea’s silvery eyes turn dagger sharp, and I want to cry at the similarity. I was with him. A heartbeat ago. Yelling at him. Blaming him. Kissing him.
I still want to kiss him. And yeah, yell at him some more.
Instead, I’m here. Back here. Trapped. Probably about to die. Or lose myself in this place where reality has clearly unraveled.
Maybe the only answer is to let Hades unleash on this world that can be so cruel. But I can’t make myself wish that on him, even as that stolen moment is feeling more and more like a dream.
I’m staring my nightmare in the eyes.
“Answer me,” Rhea urges.
“It’s okay,” Mnemosyne says from behind Rhea. “We’re still here. Nothing changed, thank the cosmos.”
I’m not thanking the cosmos that I’m still here. “Someone explain what the hells is going on.” I need a real answer. “Did I just time travel?”
Rhea passes a hand over her eyes, then glances back at the others.
“She’s not ready for more,” Mnemosyne says with a pinched face—or the lower half under her mask is pinched, anyway. “Look at her. She’s close to snapping.”
Oh my gods. I force myself to straighten. “That’s it. I did. I fucking time traveled.”
I’m not sure if that’s better or worse than being glamoured. Both still make sense. They could be lying to me now, but all those moments in the three times I’ve been taken away so far are adding up.
“Shit,” Iapetus mutters.
Rhea reaches for me, but I jerk away, so she brings her hands up. “Easy.”
“Screw easy. Start talking.”
“See,” Iapetus says. “I told you she could handle it.”
“Shut up, Iapetus,” all of them hiss.
All except Rhea, who is studying me, brows puckered and what looks like motherly concern in her eyes. “Those cracks are broken time. Cronos broke it long ago trying to get us out of here. They take you to the past.”
To the past. To right after Athena’s Labor. Right after I survived Poseidon’s Labor, too.
I think I’m going to be sick.
That’s where Hades went?
After the Labor was over, he said he had something to take care of. I’d just been devastated by Isabel’s death, the first champion we lost, and he left me to go talk to future me.
Iapetus, oblivious to the thoughts trying to suck me into a whirlpool and drown me, gives me a sarcastic bow. “You, Lyra Keres…are prophesied to be our savior someday.” Then that asshole grins. “Personally, I’d like for that to be sooner rather than later. Which means you go in the next Lock. Now.”
I don’t have time for a “what the fuck?” before the Titan rushes me, and the only thing that stops him is Rhea. One second, he’s a blur of speed. The next, he’s flying across the room to slam into the door of Hestia’s Lock, then dropping to the ground with a dull, thudding bounce.
The others take that as a signal to come at me, too, blurring in a blink.
Which is when I feel a hand on my shoulder gripping tight, and my vision goes wonky, like everything is in black and white.
Everything except me…and Boone.
A gasp spills from my lips, but before I can ask questions, he slams a hand over my mouth, muffling the sound.
Iapetus pulls up sharply from a second charge but still bounds past Rhea to wave his hand through where we were standing. Where we are still standing. But his arm passes right through us. “I’ll be damned!”
He sounds as clear as a bell, despite how I’m currently feeling like I’m watching an old black-and-white TV show. Then the Titan they used to call the Piercer, thanks to his legendary, deadly spear, stares directly into my eyes but doesn’t seem to see me. “Wait. Where’s the other one?”
I don’t move to check, but I’m pretty sure Boone has a grin on his face.
Iapetus straightens abruptly with a scowl so deep it’s gouging lines around his mouth. “There’re only so many places they could go in this amount of time.”
“Split up,” Rhea says, still so utterly calm it’s unnerving. “Find them.”
“Kill the man if you have to,” Iapetus tacks on.
Rhea shoots him a cold look. “That is—”
The chime of a bell—the same one from earlier—cuts her off.
And every single Titan I can see goes as pale as if death sucked them dry.
“Run,” Rhea orders them.
A Titaness—the one holding on to one of her sisters all this time—becomes water so fast, she splashes as she hits the floor, becoming a puddle.
In a dizzying swirl of speed, they scatter, taking different tunnels. Any except the one they kept checking. Only Rhea remains. “If you’re still here, Lyra, follow me.”
Boone doesn’t so much as twitch, and I know he’s thinking the same thing I am. Like hells we will.
She glances around as if hoping we’ll reveal ourselves.
“Otherwise, I hope whatever you did to hide is enough to protect you from the Pandemonium. You won’t be able to see them, but whatever you do, don’t let them touch you.”
Then she blurs away in an instant bolt of speed.