“No, you wouldn’t.” His grip tightened as he knelt, wrenching my head back. “Guess what I did, Sunshine?”
I grunted as he tugged on my hair again. “I don’t know. Walked an old lady across the street?”
Amusement flickered across his face. “I went back to visit your friends.”
I stopped breathing.
His lips curved up. “They weren’t there.”
Air rushed into my lungs. “They’re alive?”
“For now.” He reached out with his other hand and cupped my jaw. “I tracked the little group all the way back to the Covenant. We can’t get in there. Yet.”
Relief coursed through me. Deacon and Luke, Gable, and Alex and Aiden were all safe for now. That meant something—everything.
“You know what I’d like to know?”
“How you’re going to die?” Painful tension built along the nape of my neck.
“Charming.” He smoothed a thumb over my lower lip, and I resisted the urge to bite his finger. “Where did your little God Killer go off to? He wasn’t with them.”
I held his gaze as I exhaled roughly. “I don’t know.”
“And I don’t believe that.” He let go of my hair and I dropped about a foot. Pressure eased off my neck. “Not for one second.”
I said nothing.
Hyperion’s thumb made another hard sweep along my lip and then he leaned in. The muscles along my back stiffened painfully. “You know there are many ways I can make you tell me.”
My heart thumped against my ribs.
“Ways I haven’t even begun to show you.” His cool breath drifted over my mouth, and I had a horrible idea of what kind of ways he was talking about. His hand slid to my chin and his fingers dug in, bruising the skin. “Where is the—?”
“Hyperion.”
A muscle flexed along his jaw, and then he rose, dropping his hand. “What, Tethys?”
I slumped forward, catching myself with my hands. Unsure if I should be grateful for her interruption or not, I stayed quiet.
“What are you doing out here with her?” she asked, and I peeked up through the clumps of hair.
Tethys was gorgeous. Close to six and a half feet tall, she had long sable hair and features that somehow managed to look delicate and fierce all at once. She wore leather pants like Hyperion did, but she didn’t run around topless. A tight, black tank top covered her chest and stomach.
“Did you seriously interrupt me to ask that question?” Hyperion replied.
She strode forward. “So what if I did?”
“I wouldn’t like it, Tet.”
“Does it look like I care about what you like?”
A coarse laugh sneaked out before I could stop it.
Tethys’s eyes narrowed, and Hyperion whipped around and moved so fast, I didn’t have a chance to dodge his blow. His fist caught my jaw, and I went down, hitting the ground on my side. Stunned, I lay there for a moment as my head rung.
“You and I both know you do,” Hyperion said as he turned back to Tet.
Anger flashed across her face as she raised her hand. Hyperion was faster, though. He snatched up her arm, yanking her against his chest as he grasped her hair in his other hand. He pulled her head back sharply. The gasp of pain was cut off by his mouth. He kissed her in a way that didn’t really seem like a kiss. More like an act of punishment and brutality, but Tet seemed to enjoy it, because his mouth couldn’t silence her moan or stop her from slipping a muscular arm around his neck.
Oh man.
Weren’t they, like, related? Gross. But they were distracted, busy shoving their tongues down each other’s throats, so I pushed myself up and glanced over my shoulder. The fire that had engulfed the tree was out. My heart raced as I took a step back and drew in a deep breath.
“Don’t even try it,” Tet ordered.
My head whipped around. They were done making out, and both were focused on me. The chance to escape was gone. Defeat swamped me, giving way to desolation. Hyperion alone was bad enough, but with Tet involved, it would surely get worse. I folded an arm over my waist and waited.
“Why are you here?” Hyperion asked again.
Tet raised a dark eyebrow. “You’re really not going to like why.”
Hyperion sighed as he twisted toward the female Titan. “Get on with it.”
She smiled tightly. “Cronus is aware of her. He wants to see her. Now.”
Chapter 12
Hyperion’s grip on my arm was eventually going to snap the bone. Not that he particularly cared if he did.
He’d done that god transport thing that I guessed was only reserved for the super-cool gods. One second all three of us were standing in the forest, sweat coursing down the side of my face, stinging in all the raw abrasions, and then the next second, we were standing in cooler air, in front of a massive mansion built into the side of a mountain.