Akasha obliterated the tree in a second.
This couldn’t be happening.
I was a god—I was the God Killer, and according to Ewan the nymph, Basil, and Karina, I was the Appointed God of Death and Life.
I was fucking absolute.
And I was standing here, blowing up trees, and I could do nothing to help Josie.
Lightning cracked overhead and the air sizzled as dark, tumultuous clouds rolled in, blotting out the sun. Turbulent emotions thundered inside me and into the environment around me.
Pacing, I dragged a hand through my hair, clasping the back of my neck. I had to find her. Now. Coming to a halt, I searched the skies. I’d been out here for hours, trying to hone in on Josie’s whereabouts, and when that hadn’t worked, I tried calling out to Apollo and he did not answer me. How could her father not have known?
How could I love her and have not known she’d been captured?
How was I any better than Apollo?
I wasn’t.
That was a damn, sad truth. I’d lied to her. I’d put her in danger. I’d left her. I hadn’t protected her. In a way, I was worse than her father, because at least he never got close to her, he never evoked a second of faith from Josie. She hadn’t been planning to storm into Olympus to reconnect with her father. Josie had been planning to cross oceans to stand beside me, and I had fucking left her. It didn’t matter now that it had been the right thing to do.
Stopping, I turned to the ocean and exhaled raggedly. Fear and anger battled with guilt. A streak of lightning lit up the sky once more.
I sensed Basil’s presence. “You shouldn’t be near me right now.”
Basil, of course, didn’t hightail his ass away from me. “Everyone is concerned. They fear something is wrong.”
“Something is wrong.” I turned around, finding Basil standing on the platform just above the sand, at the bottom of the stairs that led up the face of the cliff. “Hyperion has Josie.”
His eyes widened. “I . . . I don’t know what to say.”
“I can’t find her. I can’t feel her at all.”
Sympathy and concern flashed across his face. “There must be something we can do, Kýrios.”
What I could’ve done was what I should’ve already done. That was the problem.
A priestess appeared at the edge of the cliff, her long blonde hair blowing around her in the increasing winds. It was the one I’d kicked out of my bedroom. She kept her chin and gaze down as she spoke, “A vehicle approaches the northern gate, Kýrios.”
Having a pretty good idea of who was in the vehicle, I willed myself off the shore and outside the impenetrable, titanium gates that blocked the entrance to the house.
A sleek black Mercedes with tinted windows jerked to a sudden halt several feet in front of me. The purr of the engine quieted, and a moment later, the passenger and driver’s doors opened.
Damn.
Alex and Aiden were here.
Josie
Cold water dripped and tiptoed down my brow. Water. Water. Blinking my eyes open, I blindly turned my head. Water glanced off my dry lips. I opened my mouth and then immediately gagged. The water tasted like spoiled eggs, but my throat was burning. I was so thirsty. I took in the tiny drops of disgusting liquid until my stomach churned.
Drawing in a shallow breath, I rolled onto my side. I was back in the cellar, and I had no idea how much time passed since Cronus had fed. I tensed as an aftershock of pain flared through my body, scorching bone and tissue.
I think . . . I think he took too much.
My hands and arms trembled uncontrollably as I stared into the shadowy cellar. Faint light trickled in front the small window. In the corner, near the door, I thought I saw something scurry across the floor.
I felt no fear or distress as I lay there. Before, the mere idea of being in the same room as a mouse had me seconds away from screaming. Now? I just . . . I just couldn’t rally up the energy to be afraid.
I didn’t feel much of anything.
Nothing.
Everything . . . everything had been stripped away. This was it. I understood that now. This was how it was going to end for me, because I really, really didn’t think I’d survive another feeding with Cronus.
Or another one on one with Hyperion.
Hope . . . hope that I would find a way out of this had petered out toward the end of Cronus’s feeding. The will to keep fighting, to keep existing, had plummeted out the window. It was weak—I was weak, but I . . . I couldn’t do this anymore, and I . . . I just wanted to see my mom and my grandparents. That was all I wanted.
Footsteps sounded outside, drawing my weary gaze. A second passed and the door creaked open. It wasn’t Hyperion or Cronus.
It was Perses.
A dull, distant part of me wondered what he was doing here. He’d never come before as far as I knew.