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Chapter 23
Elyse
I didn’t know what the hell was going on between Zeus and Ares, and I didn’t care. Zeus seemed to be on his own mission, stirring up shit with all the gods, as far as I could tell. And he wasn’t exactly in my good books, either. I was supposed to fear the guy or something. But I just couldn’t find it within me to be afraid of him. In fact, I was pissed off I’d ended up in this situation, that he’d taken Apollo from me and allowed X to run amok and kill innocents.
X seemed to be frozen in time, unmoving, terrifying to look at with his red eyes, held in place I presumed by Zeus for this little interlude. And I somehow suspected if I rushed X, Zeus would unleash him from the hold, but curiosity dug through me to understand what the hell the king of the gods wanted.
“Look, if you’re not going to help us then get out of our way.” My tone wasn’t even respectful.
Zeus noticed it, and he looked surprised, his brows rising, his stare burrowing into me. “You dare to tell me off?”
“You’re not exactly in the business of helping, are you? And I can’t afford you getting in the way.”
He barked a laugh, short and sharp. I had to admit, I was a little surprised about how I’d acted toward him, too. But I supposed after dying three times—three and a half if you included my encounter with the darkness before I’d returned—not a hell of a lot scared me anymore. Besides, Zeus had thoroughly fucked up one of my relationships, and I hated him for that.
“So, do you have something to get off your chest?” Zeus asked calmly, cocking one eyebrow. He talked to me like he was my dad, reprimanding me nonchalantly as if the world wasn’t coming to an end right behind him.
“Oh, I don’t know,” I said sarcastically. I really was toeing a fine line here, but I was furious. Zeus couldn’t expect me to bow down and be reverent. “Maybe it’s because you let all this happen without jumping in. Because you let your own brother do something like this and you haven’t even bothered to step in. And what’s worse, you took Apollo away from me.”
“Apollo broke a rule. He knew what he was doing.” He studied me intently, most likely attempting to intimidate me, but it wasn’t working.
“Don’t tell me you haven’t broken the rules,” I retorted, well aware of the numerous tales of Zeus stirring up trouble everywhere he went.
He stared at me as though considering my words. He’d broken many rules, too. He allowed Heracles to cheat, giving him guidance, even though Heracles had to fight his way back to Mount Olympus on his own.
“I guess it’s different when it’s your own son, isn’t it?” I said. “Then suddenly, it’s okay. But this? This has nothing to do with you. Oh, except for the fact this is your own brother’s doing.”
He shook his head, his white hair fluttering around his strong face. “Why can’t you understand what I’m trying to teach you?” He spoke as if he were a teacher, and I the child, who had no clue what she was doing.
“Oh, so I’m supposed to find a lesson in all of this? I’m sorry. I was too distracted by the big devil eating the city to get out my textbooks.” I moved my arms in sweeping gestures to the city around us.
Zeus’s face tightening as he crossed his arms. “All of this is supposed to teach you that you’re the key. You’re the one who will end it all.”
I rolled my eyes. “I’m so sick of hearing that. Everyone keeps telling me the same thing, but I’m sure you’ve noticed it’s not true. I can’t do it.”
“But you can. You’re a Lowe. You’re destined to look after the humans and you will find your calling.”
“It’s not enough, Zeus. You’ve been watching, haven’t you? The only thing I’m good at is dying, and even that is running out. I don’t have much luck left, and I obviously don’t have any skill to pull me through. Once this is finished—and I have a feeling it will be soon—there’ll be no one left to take care of this little problem. What are you going to do then? Create a new bloodline?” I drew in a shaky breath as I threw my hands up.
Zeus shook his head and stared out over the city as if thinking. How did he not notice the crumbling buildings, the fire, the way X devoured one soul after the other as if he were at an all-you-can-eat buffet?
It didn’t matter that Zeus couldn’t see all the destruction and the chaos, that he seemed to think I was some kind of hero when I was just a human. One who hadn’t died a couple of times when I should have. The only thing that counted to me was the fact it was almost the end. My stomach hardened at the memory of it all.
I wasn’t here because I believed I could do something about X. I was here because Ares had fought, and we were in this together. He had my back, so it was the right thing to go out there for him.
And we all stood together, Poseidon, Ares, Hades, and I. We were sticking our necks out for each other, no matter what.
Only Zeus didn’t seem to understand what it meant to be this dedicated, this committed. Everyone else—even Hades—understood. Even though he’d been a little slow on the uptake and very late to join the party, it was better than Zeus, who sat removed from everything, watching the world come to an end without doing anything about it.
“Elyse, look around you,” Zeus barked, his voice suddenly hard and loud. “Look at what you are, and what you’ve done.”
I did what he’d asked and studied at my surroundings, staring at the destruction, the hell that had come to Earth as a result of my failures. And there was so little I could do about it. I was just a Lowe, a human with divine powers. Nothing more.
My father came to mind, and I remembered he once told me to never forget my roots, to never let the power get to my head. My father was the man who’d believed in me, who always told me I was going to save the world.
And even though I’d failed at that, even though the world was going under and I was nothing more than a human fighting a battle I’d never win, he’d told me that he was proud of me.
What more could a daughter want to hear? I wished he could be here so I could ask him what to do.
