Just like that the water whooshed down the street. I fell to my knees, bloodying them and ripping my dress. Ryder collapsed on the wet ground, coughing up the remaining water and sucking air into his raw lungs.
I crawled toward him. I was exhausted and my body ached, but I did not stop moving until I grasped his outstretched hands.
“You have gone against my orders!” Zeus continued to bellow. “You have attacked those that I offered to protect. You have violated our laws!”
Nix’s maniacal laughter answered Zeus’ accusations. I pulled myself to my knees again so that I could watch the exchange.
When Nix stood on unsteady legs, he smiled at Zeus and inclined his head toward me. “There will be new laws,” he said with a raspy voice. His grin stretched wide and sinister promise danced in his dark eyes. “And while we’re at it, there will also be a new order.”
Zeus reached the bottom step and level ground with Nix. “What are you implying, Poseidon?”
“I think you’re smart enough to figure that out,Zeus. Or should I call you Smith like the child.”
Smith stepped forward. “You were out of control. I had to step in.”
“You mean step on? You took what’s mine. Where are the laws against that?” Nix’s golden face flushed with fury. His robes were dripping wet like Ryder’s and mine, but the sodden garments only made him look more savage… more primal with his hatred and determination. “You interfered in my realm. You went behind my back to sire a child that should have been mine. You mingled in business that didn’t concern you. You have broken every rule that you have ever established. Now you will be the one that is persecuted.”
“I did what I had to in order to save this Pantheon. You want to destroy it. You won’t even win the mountain. You’ll use power you don’t understand and obliterate everything that we are.”
“You’re damn right,” Nix growled. “I’ll take what is mine and then I will take everything else.”
“It didn’t matter what I did. As soon as you found out what she is, who she is, you planned to take control. I did nothing wrong except react to your treachery.”
Nix rocked back on his heels and surprised everyone with a smile. His ancient accent thickened as he casually smiled and admitted, “Fine, Zeus. Let’s have it your way. We’ll call a stone a stone. Or in this case, a coup a coup. The Siren is the key to all of it. Patrons, the mountains… control. Control of the entire world. She is everything I need to assume the throne.”
“How?” Hera demanded. She didn’t look as desperate as Smith did. Her long gown billowed out behind her and her voluminous hair whipped in the wind. If anything she looked as though she were weighing her options and deciding which god to side with.
“Her father is Pontus, her mother is Ava. She is the true Siren. If she opened her lovely mouth and sang for us, she could enslave the entire world with just a few notes. You my friends, have no choice but to follow me willingly. But make no mistake that you will follow me. She will make certain that you do.”
“No,” Smith disagreed. “We’ve taken steps. She can be controlled.”
I bristled. I didn’t need to be controlled. I needed to be set free so I could make my own decisions and decidenotto enslave the entire world.
It wasn’t much of a discussion for me. I knew what I would and wouldn’t do.
But nobody bothered to ask my opinion.
“By your bastard? Not likely,” Nix scoffed. “She’s barely old enough to tie her own shoe laces. She won’t be able to match my Siren’s power. And by the time the little girl is old enough, it will be too late.”
“Orpheus,” Hera stated, but it sounded more like she was testing the waters than anything else.
“You heard him testify,” Nix laughed. “He won’t hurt her. He won’t be able to do what is necessary to stop her.” He lifted his chin regally and stared down his brothers and sisters. Gigantes filled in the road behind me, empowering him to be bolder. “Brothers and sisters, it is time to make a choice. You may join me and forego the death I plan to rain down on anyone that does not abide with me or you may meet your end this morn. I will have the throne by the end of the day. And then I will have this world.”
Fear and shame slithered through me. I hated that I was the one that could make this possible for him. I hated that I enabled someone so sickly corrupt.
I took a step forward, suddenly seeing everything from a different perspective. I did give Nix access to powers he could only dream of before I came along. But at the same time, if I had been normal, er, normal for a Siren, then Nix would have stayed evil, just on a smaller scale. He would have still bought and sold women. He still would have spread his disease across the earth; it just wouldn’t have been so obvious.
And nobody, not even Zeus, would have bothered to stop him.
I brought it to light. I forced him to try for bigger things. I made him come out of the dark holes he hid in and aim higher.
And because he was now out in the open, declaring his plans and setting up his world regime, I had the opportunity to end him.
He would not become the most powerful god on earth because of me. He would not get a world filled with patrons worshipping at the feet of Poseidon. He would not cover the planet with water and drown out all of those that opposed him.
Instead, he would die. Instead, I would make him pay for every sin he had ever committed against women. I would feed him the same poison he used to kill us slowly. I would make him suffer in the way that we had for our lifetimes… in the way that my mother had all of her days… in the way that I had since the moment I was born.
I would take my vengeance for Eva and Anaxandra. I would get justice for Exie and Sloane.
