21. The Battle of Olympus #2
Alex collars Daphne by the back of her neck. Dancing in front of her, he positions her head just where he wants it to give her a kiss. Then, when she clutches his sides to draw him closer, he grins against her mouth.
“Oh, I am very full of myself, wife. Watch and see why I’m the god of archery.”
Daphne hides her nerves with a snort. “If you say so. Just don’t mess up your aim and shoot us while we’re cheering you on from the sidelines.”
“I told you I was shooting at the other trees to give you light with my golden arrows!”
“Yeah, yeah.” Daphne grabs his tunic, pulling him close for another anxious good luck kiss. When she’s done, she shoves him in the chest before throwing her hand out to point. “Now go. We gotta stop him before he gets too far up the mountain.”
I follow the direction of her point. Crap. I didn’t want to think we were too late, but I can see hundreds and hundreds of uniformed soldiers marching toward Olympus already. Even more of them are already charging up the mountain.
Pity for them because the mountain fights back.
An explosion erupts halfway up the slope. Then another. Entire sections of stone simply… drop.
Walls rise from nowhere before collapsing beneath advancing soldiers. Bronze gears larger than houses grind beneath the mountainside, tilting cliffs until entire companies lose their footing and tumble screaming as they fall.
“Is that...”
“Hephaestus,” Alex answers.
What the… “As the god of the forge, I thought he made armor and weapons.”
“He does.”
Another explosion sends boulders the size of cottages crashing down the mountainside.
“He also gets bored.”
Well. I’m feeling a lot better about our odds now—at least, I am… until the moment I notice three behemoth creatures making their way up a different part of the mountain.
They’re huge. No less than ten feet tall for each of them, they look like old marble statues brought to life.
They have no color, no definite shape from this distance apart from a head, two arms, and two legs, but the power…
oh, the power. It pours off of them, reaching me where I’m hiding with Daphne, Aiden, and Alex.
I shiver, and I almost clutch my husband’s sleeve when he starts to step out from the illusion of safety among the trees.
I don’t, but he catches my fingers anyway. “Stay here,” he says again, and then he’s gone.
Grabbing a golden arrow from his quiver, notching it against his bow, Alex lopes off after him.
My heart goes with them.
“They’ll be safe,” I assure Daphne.
She doesn’t look like she believes me. “Uh-huh.”
“The two of us just have to—”
Daphne blinks. For a second, she looks confused, and then her eyes go wide. “Shit. I almost forgot.” She turns around so quickly, she nearly whips herself in the face with the tail end of her braid. “Jolie? Where did you go, girl? You here?”
Jolie? Who the heck is Jolie?
A moment later, I find out.
Oh. Wow.
Okay. I trust my husband implicitly. I know that there is no one for Aiden other than me. Still… when I get my first glimpse of Jolie, I admit if only to myself that I’m glad he left before she stepped out from behind another tree.
She’s freaking gorgeous. Seriously. I’ve seen so many beautiful people in the Other, but there’s something about this one. She’s… ethereal. Yeah. That’s the word for it. From her white-blonde hair to her soft blue eyes, her flawless features and a perfect body… she almost doesn’t look real.
However, she does look as nervous as the rest of us.
Swallowing roughly as she approaches, hugging an arm around the middle of her light pink chiton, she pleads with Daphne as she says, “Is it over yet? Are the mountains safe?”
Daphne shakes her head. “Not yet. We got Hades, though… Will, have you met Jolie yet?”
If I had, I would’ve remembered. “No.”
She gestures at the beauty. “This is Jolie. You might know her better as Psyche.”
Wait. Psyche? I know Psyche. At least her shockingly good looks make sense now, but if she’s Psyche… I inch out toward the tree line, peering up in the sky. Just like I thought, there’s a male shape flying up high on a pair of fluffy white wings.
“Is that Eros?” I ask in ill-disguised wonder.
The tiniest smile breaks through her obvious worry. “He’ll be so pleased someone recognized his Greek name. Gods know I love him, but he gets so offended when someone calls him ‘Cupid’.”
Daphne arches an eyebrow. “Then he shouldn’t have shot me with a lead arrow, Jol. Then maybe my soulmate would show yours a little more grace, yeah?”
When Jolie lowers her eyes to the dirt, Daphne bumps her lightly in the shoulder with her fist. “I’m just fucking with you.
You know that. Now say ‘hi’ to my cousin.
This is Willow, better known as Persephone.
She finally convinced Hades to get off his ass and get off his metal throne so he can finally help us out here. ”
Unlike Jolie, I know better than to rise to Daphne’s bait.
Instead, I just smile at the blonde. “It’s nice to meet you.
I mean, maybe not under these circumstances—” Boom.
I have no idea what just happened behind me because I have my back to the mountain, but it doesn’t sound good.
I let out a weak chuckle. “But, yeah. You know what I mean.”
When Daphne and Jolie both agree with that sentiment, my cousin turns to me.
“Okay. I’ve been dying to ask, but I knew we had no time when we were in the Underworld.
Real quick. What the hell happened down there?
With Kronos? We only had any clue that something happened because Delphi reported that Sparta was on the move.
On Alex’s orders, Marcus sent some sentries out, so we figured they were planning to attack Olympus today, but it wasn’t until Ares announced to his men that Kronos was in place in the Underworld that they started to move.
Marcus reported to Alex, and the two of us used my ruby to tell you that he was down there and that we needed you for the fight, but then you guys said you captured him. What the hell? How?”
I know Daphne. She’s both trying to be nosy and get information from me at the same time as she’s distracting both of us from the reality that our husbands are preparing to fight against the vicious god of war, three titans, and a freaking army.
If I wasn’t so worried about what was happening to my husband, I might humor her and give her all the deets. As it is, all I can manage is, “He arrived as a shade. I thought he was Theseus, and then he tried to kidnap me,” before both women gasp.
Daph, I get. I figured she would lose it if she found out I was in danger. But Jolie? Her sudden reaction is more of a surprise.
Her head whips around. “Theseus?” she echoes. “Did you say ‘Theseus’?”
I nod. “That’s how he made it to the Underworld without getting caught. He claimed he was Theseus, and as Theseus, he was killed trying to keep the minotaur from attacking his wife.” I think of poor Aria. “I hope she’s okay. I didn’t see her shade in the Underworld alongside his.”
“That’s because she isn’t dead,” says Jolie.
I’m glad to hear it. I’m also confused how Jolie knows that. “She isn’t?”
“No. I… I know Aria. She’s like a sister to me.
She thought Theseus was her soulmate. Even tried her best to make it work, but he was so bogus.
Do you know what that loser did? He gave her to the minotaur.
Claiming he couldn’t understand why their story wouldn’t end, he brought her to the hidden labyrinth, and he left her there.
I don’t know what happened to him after that, but I’ll say one thing: Aria is much better off without that jerk in her life. ”
I don’t think it’s the right time to explain that the real Theseus probably was never in her life at all.