Chapter 83
A Snake In The Grass
LYRA
The Titans trickle out of the room over the course of the next hour or two. I’m not really sure how long, because it’s not like I’m able to tell time down here.
The first out is Mnemosyne, who crouches down in front of me. “You should get some rest. I’m sure you’ve been dealing with…things.”
It says something that I’ve gotten used to her owl mask mouthing along with her, I guess.
She’s trying to be kind, but the way she said that, I know she thinks the same thing as Persephone.
That I’ve been wasting my time hopping around the past—first trying to save Isabel and then doing anything at all with Hades.
Other than Cronos, the others aren’t exactly convinced of my puppet master theory.
“I’m comfortable here,” I say.
I’m not leaving Boone. Not when I have the choice to stay.
Even if it looks like too little, too late to them, he’s my friend.
I have similar conversations with the others as they emerge.
Iapetus tells me that sitting around outside Boone’s door isn’t going to solve anything.
When that doesn’t budge me, he asks what I’m going to do if the Pandemonium are unleashed.
I point to the door. “I’m pretty sure Persephone’s not going to keep her rule up if it means I go wild and hurt somebody else.”
He gives me a closed-lipped stare, visibly debating the worth of arguing with someone so stubborn. Then shrugs and leaves me there.
Phoebe, meanwhile, can’t even bring herself to look at me. Koios is with her, and he glances between us. At least he offers me a nod before they leave me alone without a word. Eventually, the only ones left with Persephone and Boone are Rhea and Cronos.
Given that they weren’t exactly fans of Boone’s when he first arrived with me, I’m surprised they linger as long as they do.
At the same time, though, with me having disappeared for chunks of time and Boone using that time to work toward and fight for releasing us all, I guess I get it.
Besides which, Boone is just that guy. The guy everybody likes.
He wins over even the hardest of hearts when he wants to.
The door squeaks on its hinges, and I raise my head to find Rhea and Cronos finally coming out together. I get the briefest glimpse of Boone, still wrapped up on the bed, white cloths soaked with his blood, and Persephone with her back to me, holding his hand.
The Titans both stop once the door is closed behind them, and I drag my gaze from the door to their faces.
“Are you unharmed?” Rhea asks.
The outer edges of the emotional walls I’ve been sitting here rebuilding around my heart, familiar from all my cursed days, develop cracks. She’s the first one to ask me that. Forcing back a chin wobble, I nod. “Thank you for asking.”
She nods in turn. Then glances at Cronos when he takes her hand.
“I’m going to stay with Lyra,” he tells his wife. “What do you want to do?”
She doesn’t even blink. “I think I’ll go with the others.”
He kisses her cheek, and the two share a soft smile of understanding before she squeezes his hand and walks away.
After he watches Rhea disappear around the bend in the tunnel, Cronos proceeds to sit next to me against the wall. He sticks his feet out in front of him, leather-sandalled. I don’t know why I have to fight down the sudden urge to laugh at the sight of a Titan’s toes.
We stay here in silence for some time, and I don’t know if he’s expecting me to start a conversation. There’s a lot I could tell him right now, but the quiet between us feels…easy. I don’t want to break it.
The longer we sit here like this, the more I can feel my shoulders coming down from where they’ve hiked up around my ears without my even noticing.
As if by just sitting here with me, Cronos is telling me that he’s here for me, that he’s not going to abandon me or keep me on the outside, no matter how badly I fuck up.
At the same time, he leaves enough space between us so that I can fill it with words if I want to.
“I’ve been thinking about Oceanus,” I finally say.
I’m not sure why that is the thing I choose to discuss first. It just came out. Cronos already knows about my visit with his brother. I told him before the first time we went to Hera’s Lock, but I’ve had a little more time to think since then.
I glance over to find his eyebrows rising slowly. “What about him?”
“I should have mentioned this before, but I was too focused on getting us out of here sooner. I told him that you miss him—”
Cronos cuts me off with a sharp bark of a laugh. “That bloody traitor? I curse his name.”
Exactly what I expected to hear.
“That’s the thing. He knew that all of you curse his name every time it’s mentioned.” I let out a long sigh. “But how could he know that?”
Cronos’ lips purse as he stares at the door across the way, gaze going distant. “I assume you asked him.”
I nod. “He said he has his sources.”
Cronos makes a thoughtful humming in the back of his throat. “You’re thinking he might be the one who glamoured all our children?”
“It makes sense.” I shrug. “He’s a Titan, more powerful than the gods, and the only one of you not to be locked away in here, and it seems to me that the only way to keep glamours of that magnitude going this long is for someone to be out there feeding the power that keeps them in place.
Maybe even checking the fence lines and repairing any holes so the cows don’t get out. ”
“You lost me with cows.”
“Forget the cows.” I wave a hand. “After all this time, and for that many gods… The more I think about it, Boone was right when we talked about this. They had to glamour other pantheons of gods as well. You were friends with Odin, right? And Osiris.”
“We were never friends,” he says slowly. “But yes. We know each other.”
“Wouldn’t they have spoken up, though? The reasons for imprisoning you are widely shared and believed all over the world. If those gods remembered you correctly, they would have challenged those stories.”
Cronos sighs. “I’ve had much longer to think about this then you have,” he muses.
“The only conclusion I’ve reached is that it would take multiple people banding together against us to accomplish what they have with the glamours you saw.
Unless Oceanus—curse that traitor’s name—has a much greater power than I know him to possess—in which case I think he would have used it to protect my father from me—then he doesn’t have enough power to do what you’re talking of. Not on his own.”
I drop my head back against the rock. “But he knew things. I’m getting very tired of never having the full picture.”
Cronos chuckles. “You have many millennia of history to catch up on, Alani. Millennia of knowledge I have at my fingertips, and yet I still don’t have the answers to the riddles you pose.”
“You’re right. You should be much better at this than I am.” I shake my head in mock disgust. “I feel so disappointed with my Titan experience down here in Tartarus.”
“I’m afraid we don’t offer refunds.”
“I demand to speak to management.” I pound a fist on my knee.
We share a grin, though they quickly fade from our faces, and we sit in silence again. Without consciously realizing what I’m doing, I lay my head on Cronos’ shoulder. He tenses a little at the contact but then eases on a soft huff that might be a laugh.
I think that maybe he pats the top of my head before resting his cheek on it. “Don’t worry, Alani. We will find the answers together.”
“If there are answers,” I mutter.