I was dizzy and off-kilter as Hyperion started dragging me toward a sprawling front porch. I almost didn’t notice them at first. They were just immovable objects on the ground until I got closer.
They were bodies.
Horrified, I stumbled and would’ve fallen if he hadn’t had such a grip on me. There were dozens of them, and flies buzzed around their bodies. Bile rose into my throat, but there was nothing in my stomach to throw up. I clamped my jaw shut and focused straight ahead, on the front door of the home. There was a human male leaning against the house, but as we climbed the steps, the scent of decay and dankness grew stronger.
The male grinned as shadows poured into his eyes, eclipsing his brown irises.
He was a shade.
Pushing away from the wall, he opened the front door for us. Tet stalked ahead, and I had no choice but to follow.
Cronus.
I was being taken to Cronus.
Numb with dread and fear, I was barely aware of the walk upstairs or down the narrow hall. Tiny, wheezing breaths left me as double doors opened to a large bedroom. I didn’t want to go in there. Instinct screamed out, but I had no choice.
Two Titans were standing, one on either side of the bed. They were both males. One was bald and dark-skinned. The other was fairer and had shocking, bright blue hair, and I immediately thought of what Mitchell had told me. It was him—the one who’d done all those horrible things to that girl. Nausea hit me hard, and I had to look away. My gaze landed on the center of the bed, and then I wasn’t thinking of the other two Titans.
My mouth dropped open.
He was all white hair and wrinkled skin. A gnarly beard covered half of his face. His shoulders were slim and his chest was sunken in, as was his stomach. Propped up by a mountain of pillows, this man looked like he couldn’t lift his spaghetti arms, but he was Cronus.
This was the Cronus.
“Closer,” the old man gasped out. “Bring her closer.”
Before Hyperion could step forward, the dark-skinned Titan moved. “I will do it,” he said, taking my other arm in a much looser, kinder grip.
Hyperion didn’t let go. “She belongs to me, Perses.”
My eyes widened. Perses? Wasn’t he the one that Alex and Aiden and Seth had broken free from Tartarus to fight Ares? He’d escaped afterward and had been responsible for freeing the rest of the Titans.
Perses chuckled darkly. “You’ve played long enough. For a week, to be exact.”
A week? It had only been that long? Felt longer. Pain bit into my arm, and I gritted my teeth. For a second I thought Hyperion was going to rip my arm right out of its socket, but then he let go and stepped back, joining Tet.
I glanced up quickly at Perses, but he wasn’t looking down at me as he walked me around the bed to where he’d stood. As I drew closer, Cronus slowly lifted his chin. His black eyes were dull.
“Am I not what you expected?” He coughed out a dry, brittle-sounding laugh. “You see only an old, frail man before you?”
I didn’t know what to say.
Cronus’s fingers twitched against the duvet. “I’m not like them.” His pale lips peeled back, revealing surprisingly white teeth. “It takes more than a few pure-bloods and a bound demigod to feed me. I’m older and more powerful. I need more.” Pausing, he exhaled heavily. “A few days with a demigod should . . . it should do it.”
Oh no, no, no.
My skin began to crawl. I thought about all those bodies outside and realized they weren’t mortals. They’d been pures. He’d drained them dry and they’d been tossed aside as if they were nothing more than trash. I thought about Mitchell. Was he now tossed aside like Lauren, the girl, and those pures?
Would I eventually become one of them?
“We need to be careful,” the other Titan spoke, the one with the blue, spiked hair. “She cannot stay here for long periods. It will not be safe for you. Not until you are fully restored.”
“That is why I have not brought her here until now, Oceanus,” Hyperion said.
The blue-haired Titan smirked. “And we’re supposed to believe that? We know who she is. We know what you’re about. All you concern yourself with is a personal vendetta.”
Hyperion said nothing.
“He thinks she will draw Apollo out,” Perses stated, still holding my arm like I was going to run. I wanted to, but I wasn’t stupid. There was no place for me to go. “The only thing he will succeed in doing is bringing the God Killer to his door.”
Air whooshed out of my lungs at the mention of Seth.
“He will not find her,” Hyperion argued. “We are warded.”
“Wards are not permanent,” Perses retorted. “And you do not know him. I do. He will get through the wards. He will find a way.”