I licked my dry lips and told the story of where Ryder and I had gone last night and how we’d come to meet up with Hades. I left out the parts about trying to save my mother and my purposeful meeting with the Fates. Instinct whispered that any deal made with those three creatures would not do anything good for us.
“He wanted to take me to the Underworld,” I told them sincerely. “He wanted to use my powers for himself, to enslave the entire world to him. When he attacked, we fought back. Both Ryder and Hades fell over the veil. They both died.”
“And yet the musician lives.” Ares stepped next to Hera’s throne and cast a baleful glance at both of us.
The sickening part of this was that I knew,I just knew, that Ares would have done the exact same thing if he had been given the opportunity.
“Persephone gave him mercy,” I said in a smaller voice than I intended.
A cruel smile lit his face, when he said, “I bet she did. A favor for a favor. She’s been waiting to sink her claws into Hades for centuries.”
“Can’t blame her,” Hera snickered. “He would never have survived two days if he’d imprisoned me that way.”
Hope blossomed in my chest. Maybe this trial was just for show.
“Nevertheless,” Hera’s voice resounded through the columned building. “You are directly responsible for the assault and murder of a god. This is an unforgivable crime. It is in my power to punish you to the full extent of our law.”
“What is that?” I took a step forward. “What’s the extent of your law?”
A passive look of disgust flashed over her face and she said, “Death.”
“And my other options?”
Her slender nose wrinkled and she said, “Or you will be put in the charge of one of the other gods to work off your deeds until the time of their choosing.”
“Those are my choices? Slavery or death?” Chills racked my body and I suddenly saw clearly why Nix was so excited about this trial. This was the opportunity he had been waiting for.
“They are not choices, Siren,” Hera sneered. “I will decide how to punish you. You do not get a say.”
“Fine,” I huffed. “Just as long as you choose death. I will kill myself if I have to.”
“Ivy, you don’t mean that,” Nix chuckled from behind me. “My queen, she doesn’t mean that.”
“I suppose you want her, Poseidon?” Hera’s face relaxed into cold indifference. She seemed glad Nix was willing to take me off her hands. I wanted to chain her to the bottom of the ocean too.
If I could have eliminated the entire Pantheon in one sweep, I would have.
I would have drowned them all.
They were despicable and disgusting. Humanity, with all of our faults and mortality, was so much better than these self-righteous sadists.
“I would like that very much, my Queen.” Nix’s large hand landed on my shoulder. I tried to shrug him off, but his fingers dug into my flesh until I winced beneath his punishing grip. Ryder moved to take me from him, but other gods stepped forward and pulled him into an unbreakable stronghold.
A few minutes of struggle followed, as Ryder and I fought to find our freedom. Bright streaks of lightning flashed overhead in the suddenly midnight sky. The power of the gods warred against us, proving how frail and weak we were in comparison.
My stomach churned with fear and despair. But something else pulsed with my wild emotions, something like fury. Power undulated beneath my skin, screaming in protest against the unfairness of the situation.
Nix coughed behind me, gurgling a sound that surprised me. I gave into the power; I let the energy of this anger take over. I pushed aside my weak feelings of impotency and gave into the strange electricity that charged my blood and rushed through my spirit.
My bare shoulder was suddenly cold and wet. I looked back at Nix to see water pouring from his mouth, dripping down his chin to the front of his robe. The pristine white cloth became translucent with the deluge of water. It came from every part of him. Not just his mouth, nose and other orifices, but seeping from his skin too. He looked like a sponge that had been submerged in water and then rung tightly.
I took a step away from him and he didn’t try to stop me. His hand fell to his side in a limp bounce against his thigh. He swayed on his feet and for a moment I thought I had hurt him... I thought I had killed him. His eyes rolled into the back of his head, before they snapped forward again and locked onto me.
He stepped forward, coughing at the same time he shook his shoulders, flinging water off him in a wave of release. He opened his mouth to say something, but no sound came out.
Instead, his strong hand swept the air with renewed energy and I felt the water bubble up in my lungs like a geyser. I sucked in a quick breath just before I drowned in the power of Poseidon.
I didn’t have his strength or his experience. I fell to my knees in the next second, unable to support my own weight. My eyes bulged as I choked on the water, suffocating in the sea that Nix could produce with the fling of his fingers.
