Chapter 57
Bombshell
LYRA
“You’re okay?” I ask as I let go of Cronos to face Hades’ copy.
He puts a finger to his lips, but the dimple on his left cheek flirts with me. “As you can see.”
I give him an unamused look but do keep my voice down. “Playing it cool is not the right move here. You scared the shit out of me.”
A scowl descends over his features. “I scared you? You were ready to die in there. You gave up.” He flings an arm in the direction of Demeter’s open Lock, barely visible around the bend.
My breath leaves me in a harsh burst because he’s right. “I—”
“Don’t ever do that again.”
I tip my head, taking in his features, the way his face is pinched, brows puckered, eyes swirling. Is Hades’ apparition…worried? “Thank you for saving me.”
He grunts. Which I guess is pissed-off copy-god for you’re welcome.
“Why did you?” I ask.
Hades’ face does something super subtle, but the tension is real and tells me he’s as confused as I am. “I’m not entirely sure.”
He glances away only to look back just as fast, almost as if he can’t stand not to look at me when I’m right here in front of him. “Perhaps the Fates have bound us together, and even separated by time and a corporeal form, I can feel that.”
I swing around at a high-pitched whistle to see Boone crossing the chamber.
A soaking wet Boone, trailing water from the tunnel that leads to the pillars and our practice obstacle course all the way across this cavern.
When he reaches me, he steps between me and the open Lock, blocking my view of Hades.
“What a load of bullshit,” he snaps at the copy of my god.
Then Boone gives me a look that is an awful blend of accusing and worried. “Listening to ghosts is never a good idea, Keres.”
“Oh my gods.” For the second time in minutes, I’m hugging someone, and I am not a hugger. But the relief is too much. “You’re back,” I mumble into his shoulder. “Thank Olympus.”
He pulls me back so I can see his answering grin. One that’s gone too soon before he goes solemn, his eyes darkening with a kind of abandoned-puppy-dog hurt. “You opened Demeter’s Lock? I thought you would at least wait for me.”
“It’s been days.” I try to say it mildly, but the shock that hits his eyes makes me wince.
“Days.” He says this more to himself than me.
“Where did you go? Or when?” I ask.
Boone blinks himself out of his thoughts, then shrugs. But it’s too fast, like he’s been waiting for the question and had a response planned, but his gaze seeks out Persephone. Only a quick glance. “I was just sort of stuck in a random place.”
I peer at him closer, not buying it. “That’s it?”
A nod. “What about you?”
I know he means when broken time took me when it grabbed him, but I’ve had a more recent trip since then. I haven’t had even two seconds to process what just happened with the real Hades while I was in the middle of surviving Demeter’s Lock.
The way I left Hades hanging on the possibility that someone glamoured him…
Gods, he must’ve been in a panic after I disappeared.
Of course, the Lyra going through the Crucible at that time was locked up in Olympus jail—to keep me safe from Athena’s wrath after I called her a monster—and that Lyra was not allowed to see Hades at the time.
So I have no clue how he handled the glamouring information.
I glance around Boone toward Hades’ replica, who is watching me with intent, bright eyes from inside his still-open Lock.
“I guess we have a lot to catch up on,” Boone says.
I open my mouth to say something like “later” or “not here,” but a rumbling starts all around us. Soft at first.
Another earthquake.
They happen often enough that I’ve started tuning them out. Except the rumbling gets louder and moves closer, and suddenly the ground itself is shaking.
“Should we get in the doorway?” I’m looking overhead for any rocks that look like they might shake loose from high above. Too high for me to really see in here.
“We’re immortal now,” Boone reminds me. “Not sure the doorway matters.”
On the last word, the shaking stops. “That was a bigger one,” I say.
“Too big.” Cronos’ hushed voice does not match the direness edging the words.
I picture the cracks where the pillars of the cosmos feed into the earth itself. Someone should go check them.
“What does it mean?” I hear Mnemosyne murmur, and I look back over my shoulder in time to see Hyperion wrap his hand around Theia’s even as she’s holding Tethys’ hand with her other.
“It means we’re running out of time.” Koios is the one to say it.
Oh gods. My stomach twists. What is it about a ticking clock that sucks so hard?
“Should we reset?” Eurybia asks, quietly dour.
Instead of dismissing her, they all look to Cronos and Rhea, but the King and Queen of the Titans are focused on Phoebe.
Phoebe, who turns her head and catches sight of us.
A tiny, choked sound escapes her, and—like what happened that day when I watched the gods attack the Titans—her entire body goes eerily rigid, head thrown back, and her face spasms into that contorted mask of what I’m pretty sure is pain.
Her body lifts off the ground until only the tips of her toes touch.
Koios is quick to move behind her. He has to jump to reach her, wrapping around her and clamping a hand around her mouth to muffle the sounds of distress coming from her.
And almost as fast as it started, her feet drop back to the ground and her dazed eyes clear.
“Oh my heavens,” she whispers, the blood draining from her face, leaving her visibly pale and shaken as she stares from me…to Boone.
“What?” Cronos asks. “What do you see?”
And I am expecting her to say that Boone is their savior. That I’m right about that and it’s finally become clear.
But instead, she opens her mouth, and very different words come out.
“Lyra and Boone are bound by a fated line.”