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I sucked in a breath, trying and failing to fight the tremor in my hands, not wanting my mate to feel it.
We’d run out of time. Verena would be killed. A fuckingkidslaughtered so pointlessly, all to fuel a madman’s appetite for power.
Or … was thismytrial? Would I be sentenced by a crooked goddess and murdered for doing absolutely nothing.
Either way, Emlyn was right. Cronus was here.
CHAPTER26
KAI
Hera wasn'tcompletelyinsane, just three quarters of the way there. She hadn't slept since we left the castle, when she’d stormed across Olympus to a villa on the edge of the mountain that was worth more money than I'd ever seen in my life. Not that Mount Olympus had estate agents; if you wanted a house, you could probably kill the current occupants and take it.
We'd stayed up all night coming up with plan after plan for how to maximise her challenge at dawn, throwing out idea after idea until we had something that might work. It certainly helped that the only other people in the city were Aphrodite and her guards. Hera was fuming at the absence of her people, but we had more immediate problems.
"She'll be focused on me," Hera said for the sixtieth time since we'd settled on a plan of action. She reminded me eerily of Haley when she buckled on vambraces, sword sheaths, and settled tough leather armour over her dress. Were my mate and this god related? I could see it; both disarming but hot-headed, deadly, and full of magic. "She won't be looking at you. While I fight her, you need to—"
Hera erupted into a blaze of light and wrath when someone kicked in the front door to her house. Shit. We were under attack.
I drew a long dagger, calling up my snakes until the air shimmered with them. But when their tongues flicked out to taste the air, one of the scents was familiar. I reached out and grabbed Harvey's shoulder before he could shift.
"It's Renna," I said, squinting through the vicious light filling the atrium, Hera’s godly glow at full power. "And the killer panda."
Tali bared her sharp teeth at me and snapped her jaws. That sound made my skin itch, the instinctive urge to fight, to kill crushing my chest, my gut.You're not in the arena now, get your shit together Malakai.
"What are you doing here?" I asked, keeping as much bite out of my words as possible.
These are Haley's friends. They'll help us get her, Wane, and Em back.
"And how did you find us?" Hera pressed, dialling down her grace so we could stand to look at her.
Renna grinned, her teeth white against dark purple lips. "I can find anyone I've met."
I narrowed my eyes. She better not have made a tracking stone for me, too. She flicked her eyes to Hera and smirked. Ah. She'd tracked Hera.
Tali rumbled a growl, shoving Renna with her big head.
"Alright, keep your fur on," Renna huffed. "So what's the plan? We're on a bit of a deadline."
"Because Hera challenged Aphrodite in a fight to the death," Harvey muttered.
Renna's mouth fell open. "No. Not that, but … fuck. We’re all panicking because Poseidon's daughter is missing and he's losing his absolute shit. We've got about twenty minutes of Luc and Lili stalling him before he marches on Olympus and turns it to rubble in revenge. He's a little protective."
Tali made a low sound.
"Yeah,overprotective," Renna agreed. "So can we hurry this thing along?"
"Remember what I told you," Hera said sombrely, her stare heavy on me and Harvey.
The guards were bespelled, in love with Aphrodite even if they were terrified of her. There wasn't much they wouldn't do if she asked. We had to make sure she didn't get a chance to ask, and take out the guards while the goddess was fighting Hera. I didn't let myself think about what we'd do if Aphrodite killed Hera and ordered all her guards to capture us. Or kill us.
I didn't know if I was strong enough to take down a god's guards, but I was crazy enough to try.
None of us brought up what we'd do if Cronus showed his ugly face. We all knew we were fucked.
A loud, low horn blast cut off whatever Hera had been about to say next, and a hiss built in the back of my throat, instinct warning me torunwhen the horn was echoed by a deep tremor of magic.
"It's time," Hera proclaimed with unnecessary dramatics.
