Cronus gave him his full attention. “Find me a patch of vacant land to hold the competition at. We need a lot of space and no chance of being spied on. Maisey and I will visit Narida and get her to agree to oversee the match. Then we send out invitations to Zeus and tell him to pick eleven gods.”
Hyperion nodded, not looking worried.
“Meet back here in an hour,” Cronus told everyone else, and then reached out to grasp my hand.
We popped away and landed in a place I recognized: Narida’s beach in Greece.
Her last beachside hut burned down at Zeus’ hand, so she had a new abode, this one impressively beautiful, even from the outside. The last one hadn’t been attractive at all until you made it into her inner sanctum. Guess she was done hiding now.
“I thought we were on good terms?” Narida called out from behind us. She was walking up from the beach, damp after an ocean swim, and …damnher body was perfect.
How old was she? I rubbed my belly a little, upset that I was months away from looking like that in a bikini. Narida’s eyes followed my hands and bugged out.
“You’re knocked up? Of course you are. Is something wrong with the child? I’ll help if I can. Just don’t kill me.”
Judging on that babbling, I think our last altercation left her rightfully scared of Cronus.
“The baby is fine. I need a favor,” Cronus demanded.
#ReallyNeedToWorkOnHisPeopleSkills
Narida sighed, pulling a towel off a chair and wrapping it around herself. “What is it?”
Cronus quickly caught her up on his idea and the need for someone to monitor the match and do the blood oath. Her face grew grimmer with each minute. “If I do this and you don’t kill Zeus in the end,” she said with bite, “he’ll kill me for siding with you.”
Cronus’ gaze bore into hers. “Technically, you’ve sided with no one. This is a legitimate competition. You’re just there to oversee it. And…” he paused.#DramaticEffect“If you don’t do this, I might just kill you right here.”
She gulped. “Alright. Well, those are lovely options. I guess I’ll do it.”
The Titan smiled. “Good choice.”
Ten minutes later, Narida was dressed and ready to go, clutching her backpack tightly in her arms. Apparently, she needed blood and other bits and pieces of animals—where were the vegan spells?—for this blood oath. I half expected Cronus to ask her about the ring that crone in the underworld had mentioned, but he must have been saving that bomb drop for later. Probably wanted to get her locked in first, and then when she was lulled into a false sense of security, he would bend her to his will.
Pretty much how sex last night and this morning went.
Cronus grabbed both of our arms, zapping us back to Bali. Most of the Titans were there, standing in a circle on a remote part of the beach, talking.
Hyperion grinned when he noticed our return. “I scoured the Earth, but I think with the current technology and satellites, the only place truly off-grid is … well, off-world.”
Narida nodded. “These competitions have been known to destroy worlds before, so that’s the smartest option.”
Destroy. Worlds?
#ExcuseMe #BackUp #ThisWasDefinitelyNoRunningRace
Cronus nodded. “Once we win, Zeus will no doubt lose what’s left of his mind with rage.”
Oh gods. Cronus had better be okay; I couldn’t go through that again.
The baby kicked and I rubbed my belly.
Daddy’s fine.
#StopReadingMommysThoughts #TheyAreRiddledWithCussWords
“I’ll get word of the invite to Zeus. Meet you off-world,” Hyperion stated and then blinked out.
For fuck’s sake. I barely just got on world and now we were heading off again. I didn’t have the right passport for this.
