Click.
Cli—
The unholy noise stopped as Agatha’s skin remolded into the features of a woman. She shook her head no, like she couldn’t go through with it, as she stared at Hermos with wide, agonized eyes.
Hermos said something to her.
Agatha nodded in agreement.
They both turned and faced Zeus with mutinous expressions.They’re refusing to fight each other.
Their courage was shocking.
“IF YOU WANT WAR, WE’LL GIVE IT TO YOU,” Hades bellowed at Zeus, backing them, his terrifying fog now filling three-quarters of the stadium.
Zeus’s face was disturbingly emotionless as he stared down at the two rebelling Chthonics.
He lifted his scepter, the eagle rising with its wings spread wide.
Electricity blazed across his skin.
CRACK.
The world flashed white, and fiery heat scorched the air. My teeth stung, jaw aching as ozone filled my nose.
My vision cleared.
All around, people’s hair stood up with static electricity, defying gravity, as fog curled around them.
Zeus was pointing his smoking scepter down at the arena.
Sand protruded in a jagged, alien sculpture, mere inches from where Agatha stood.
I blinked rapidly, brain struggling to process—lightning had struck Zeus’s scepter, and he’d redirected it into the coliseum.
BOOM.
Thunder clapped deafeningly, directly overhead.
The electric dome sizzled.
Agatha and Hermos stood unnaturally still, their lips parted, paralyzed with fear.
Zeus turned on his podium, staring up at Hades. “I donotwant war, old friend,” he shouted. “The games coalition of the federation has assigned each labor based on the abilities andmightof the competitors. This is a test of HONOR!”
Wind whipped Hades’s black toga as he scowled down at him.
The arena was dead silent.
Mutually assured destruction, Helen’s warning echoed.
“No one needs to die,” Zeus called out, his white toga lit with sparks. “I donotwant war.” He pointed down at the petrified sand. “I spared them.”
Hades tilted his head to the side, straining like he was struggling for control. He slowly lowered his hand—fog retreated to him, rushing from the stands, curling around his feet.
Lightning struck off in the distance and the crowd flinched, myself included.
Hades nodded sharply. “On your honor—no one dies!”
