Thirteen of us.
Eight of them.
There was a heavy aura surrounding the leaders on both sides.
Power tingled across my tongue.
No one looked physically old, but they allfeltancient—it was something I couldn’t put my finger on—a sixth sense was screaming at me to run for my life. It was an innate terror.
These were the leviathans of this dark age.
The Olympian leaders focused on Kharon, their eyebrows rising. Athena leaned up to Poseidon and I read her lips, “He really did give her his ear. How … romantic.”
Poseidon scowled down at her. “It’s deranged.”
He’s not wrong.
Athena shook her head in disagreement.
Kharon reached up and rested his hand once again on the back of my neck, his thumb shifting my necklace so the blue diamonds caught the light.
Territorial and overly possessive, the action would have been demeaning coming from any other man, but there was something about Kharon—an animalistic energy that matched his hellhounds—that was intrinsic to his being.
I couldn’t stop myself from leaning into his touch.
Demeter’s scowl deepened.
Meemaw’s not happy.I fought the urge to wave at her.
Hostility radiated between the two groups.
Suddenly, I wasn’t sure the great war of Sparta had ever ended—it felt like we were standing in the middle of a ceasefire, both sides waiting for the other to take the first shot.
There was no love lost, no empathy, no …anything.
Just open hatred, and barely concealed violence.
Tension stretched, energy mounting, as Chthonic and Olympian House leaders sized each other up, waiting for someone to make the first move, so they could slaughter each other freely.
“Never give up, never surrender.” The stadium clapped and stomped, clumps of dried bloody sand shaking.
Zeus walked up to the altar—he raised both his hands up in the air, electricity sizzling on his skin—the stadium fell dead silent.
No one moved.
“Let us begin.” Zeus made eye contact with me, sparks leaping from his gaze.
The scar on my sternum prickled.
Fate smiled.
It didn’t take the power of premonition to know that things were about to getextremelyunpleasant, for me.
29
OPENING CEREMONIES & GORE
ALEXIS
