Chapter 99 It All Comes Tumbling Down
It All Comes Tumbling Down
LYRA
Hades is the one to break the silence. “I’m going to find this person or people who did this to my parents.”
His voice is so dark, so cold, I glance around, expecting shadows to form from him like dark angel wings, expecting him to return to the dark king of fury that I only just pulled him out of. But no fire or smoke is visible anywhere.
“I’m going to put them in a new Tartarus.” His words are a vow, a dark promise.
Still no fire forms, and I don’t hide my sigh of relief.
His arms tighten around me as he jerks his gaze to mine, realization turning the gray of his irises to a swirling thunderstorm. “I’m fine.” He presses a kiss to my temple. “As long as you’re with me, no one has to worry.”
I see the instant what he did sinks in.
The full weight of his actions strikes, and he goes as still and cold as a glacier. Then his eyes go almost black. “Fuck,” he snarls. “Fuck.”
He’s out of bed in a rush and snaps his fingers to be clothed instantly. Not in the cloak and chains from earlier, but in the black suit that he chooses only when he has business with the other gods to deal with.
And he will have to deal with them.
“I have to fix it.”
“Don’t go without me.” I crawl out of bed and hurry over to my drawers. I haven’t mastered the snap-and-dress quite yet.
A snick sounds behind me, and I’m instantly dressed and, I suspect, made up. I’m wearing a similar suit to his, more feminine, with a peplum jacket and heels that will bring the top of my head up to his chin. I raise a hand to my hair, which is arranged in some kind of updo.
I turn to him, not caring what I look like at all, except he clearly expects me to be at his side. “Can you fix it?”
His frown isn’t about taking exception to my words. He’s genuinely confused. “The smoke is already gone. I only affected Tartarus—”
Oh gods. He still doesn’t know everything he did.
There’s no gentle way to say it. “You…leveled Olympus.” I don’t say again.
I don’t need to.
I can see it in the way he tenses hard, as if I just slapped him. He spears a hand through his hair, his eyes darting around the room as if he can hunt down those memories, too. “That’s not possible—”
“I saw it with my own eyes. You were defending yourself from the gods who were trying to stop you while you kept the gods of death from burying me alive. Tartarus is…rubble. I don’t know about the rest of the Underworld, but I don’t imagine it escaped unscathed. But there’s something worse.”
“Worse.” The word is a dark, low growl.
“You killed…”
He stares back at me in stony silence.
It goes on long enough that I cross the room to take his hands, which are ice-cold in mine. “Who?” he asks.
“Zeus. When he was trying to stop you.”
“I am a monster,” he whispers. “Just like my grandfather said. My father should have let Uranus kill me—”
“No!”
My protest doesn’t seem to penetrate the numb haze he’s in. But the knock at the door does. Especially when, without waiting to be called, Charon bursts inside.
“I’m fucking elated to see you both, but we have a big problem.”
“Report,” Hades snaps.
“The fire and smoke disappeared, but the tentacles that tunneled into the Underworld left holes up to the Overworld. The oceans are pouring into Tartarus.”
What? No. They went through the river from Olympus down to the Styx. Then it hits me. Three tentacles were down there. I thought one had split, but there must’ve been more.
Hades shudders as a fresh wave of guilt passes through him, but he pulls back his shoulders, determined. “With me,” he orders Charon. “Now.”
I start after them. “What about—”
Hades spins on his heel and crosses the room to grab me by the arms. “Stay in here—”
“No.”
“I can’t fix this if—”
“The Titans,” I rush to say. “I left them down there. I guarantee they’re already working to fix it.”
I see him take that in, realize the implications, then take a step back.
I step toward him. “Take me down to them. I can help.”
He gives his head a sharp shake. “I only just got you back—”
“You did all this to protect me until I could get out. Let me help fix it.”
He searches my face. I stare steadily back. “No more doing this apart,” I say. “Please.”
“Fuck.”
Then he looks at Charon. “Get to Olympus. Tell Poseidon to do what he can.”
Hades and I blink out. Getting down to Tartarus with him is impossibly fast.
The sight that greets my eyes when my vision returns is straight from a nightmare.
With a violent roar, water pours into the chamber and down into a hole that used to be Tartarus.
Hyperion, Koios, Crius, and Iapetus are standing around it, each at a corner.
The four Titan pillars that once held up the skies now contain the waters.
Their powers spread out from each individual Titan to blur and mesh together, forming a container of sorts, keeping the water directed.
Then I see the figure inside the deluge. Eurybia. Titaness of the seas. Though her arms raised, it’s impossible to tell what the quiet Titaness is doing, but I think she’s trying to stop it or redirect it back up.
Before I can blink or take in more, Rhea is standing before us.
“Mother—” Hades’ voice breaks.
The look she gives her son… For a second, I think she means to hug him, to hold on to her baby and never let go again. But just as fast, she looks to me. “You removed his glamour?”
I nod.
She swallows. “I wish we had time,” she says to Hades. “But you need to be somewhere else. We’ll take it down here. You coordinate with your brothers and sisters in Olympus and in the upper levels of the Underworld. Stem the flow if you can.”
“Understood.”
He reaches for my hand, but Rhea beats him to it, tugging me out of his reach. “I need Lyra.”
Immediately, he shakes his head. “I’m not leaving her ever again—”
“We don’t have time,” Rhea says. How is she still calm in the face of world-collapsing chaos? “I’ll keep her safe,” she promises Hades.
“It’s okay,” I say. “Still together in this with you.”
The indecision that racks his features is torture to watch. Not that I’m not feeling every horrible thing he is. Every fear that we only just found each other and that the Fates seem determined to make sure we don’t get happiness together for long.
“Fuck.” That single word from him contains every second of the ages he’s had to wait for me. Then he kisses me, hard and fast. “Don’t fucking die.”
He looks at his mother, the two exchanging a silent moment that makes my heart crack and crumble.
In an instant, he’s gone again.
Rhea wastes no time, grabbing me by the shoulders. “You need to use Cronos’ power,” she says. “Now.”