Chapter Six
Tristan
I was pissed. Not only did I have to have that asshole Orion around Thalia again, but the gods had transported us to an arena.A fucking arena!
“What is this?” I yelled up to the dais in front of us, where both Osiris and Zeus were sitting.
“We called the divine together to talk about the issue at hand.” Zeus talked and I growled. My children were not anissueto be solved
“There is noissuehere. You’ve punished us long enough. It is our time to be,” I yelled back, fuming.
I could tell Isis wasn’t happy about this, along with a few of the other gods looking down at us. But no one said anything to stop this madness. All around us, the arena of gold rose, with lesser gods and demigods lining the walls to watch us and see what the big bosses would say. We weren’t just summoned here for a discussion—something else was happening. I looked back at Zeus, and he looked older, and worried. I hated this. I felt Thalia’s blossoming anxiety inside me and I reached out for her. She grasped my hand, but stood her ground next to me, letting the angry mob around us see we were a united front.
“The child within your wife’s womb cannot live. A union between Greek and Egyptian can never be. Something like that is not done. We are sorry for your pain, but we cannot allow this to happen.” Zeus’s voice bellowed throughout the air, and I felt his words fall over us like a promise.
“ Then you will have to kill us both, because there is no way in hell we’re letting you hurt our child.” I spat at them. Some of the lesser gods had a look of surprise on their face. Did they think we were just going to lie down and let them hurt our children? Fuck that.
“So be it.” He waved his hand and a wooden gate appeared on the wall below them, and then started to open. White stallions pulling golden chariots rushed out of the gate and started galloping around us. We were fighting as gladiators of old.
This was a fight to the death. My brain started running through ways I could get Thalia out of here.
“Stay together. Backs to backs.” Orion spoke up, catching me off guard. I had forgotten he was here for a moment. Knowing this was a good plan, I moved, and we all had our backs together, facing our opponents.
“I can’t have you fight, love,” I whispered to Thalia.
“We don’t have a choice right now. You figure out a way to get us out. Orion and I will handle the others.” I spared a glance at her, to see she had disguised her belly to look like she wasn’t as big as she was, and she had determination written on her face. She could do this, she was strong enough. I gathered my energy from the dead that I figured had fallen in this arena and started to build an escape for us…I just needed some time.
“Three minutes,” I said telepathically to both Orion and Thalia. I felt their readiness to fight and started focusing on our escape.
One of the chariots started coming in our direction with a net. They were going to try to capture Thalia. In the blink of an eye, Orion pulled at small knife from his boot and threw it into the chest of the driver. The man holding the net grabbed for the reins but missed them as the driver slumped down into the chariot, dead.
For the first time in over two thousand years, I was thankful for that man.
Closing my eyes and trusting that if Thalia needed my help that she would show me, I pulled at the dead beneath our feet. Their anger, their sadness, and their hopelessness.
I heard the clanging of swords but felt no fear in Thalia’s soul so I kept going. I only needed one more minute, and then I could open a portal up inside a shadow for us to escape. It would lead us to the underworld, but there we could hide and figure out our next move.
Feeling the portal start to build, I opened my eyes and found the shadow that aided my power.
“Run as fast as you can to the shadow of that fallen chariot!” I told them and they took off. I was impressed they had taken down a chariot so quickly. I was right behind them when I spared one last glance at the gods on the dais behind us.
Giving them a solid fuck you finger, I told my love and Orion to jump, leaving that horrid arena behind.
As my feet touched the ground, I lit the torches.
“Where are we?” Thalia was squinting, trying to adjust to the darkness.
“In my home,” I answered, and started looking around for any traces of other energies. I found none. Good. I whispered into the air, putting up a protection charm in the walls. No one was getting in unless I permitted it.
“We should stay here for the night, figure out our plan,” Orion piped up, and I stopped to look at him. A truce had been sealed between us. I gave him the look and he nodded in understanding. If he does anything to hurt her or the children, I would end him. Painfully. There was nothing stopping me this time. No tricks, no schemes on his part, and now he understood that Thalia was mine. I could tell he had accepted that.
I looked around the open foyer to my home and felt some peace. It had been a while since I had been here. My home was large, mostly because I just liked my space. I had brought in some features from the modern world, but for the most part, I kept everything like ancient times. Thalia started walking around, observing everything, thinking to herself.
She needed that time in her mind, I could feel it. Orion slowly moved closer to me and started a whispering conversation.
“They won’t wait too long before they try another strategy.” I sighed. “I know. Next will be assassins.” It was the way the gods worked. First they had their little chat, then assassins, trickery, and then if it came to it, a battle. That was the last thing I would want. Making gods choose sides against each other, especially in a situation like this. Killing children was hard on everyone, but right now they were driven by fear.
“Are we safe here?” He looked around, trying to find ways that someone might get it.
