“Glitch in the Matrix,” I whispered.
Everyone else was confused now, but my explanation made sense to me. The lack of energy was actually what they'd use to find it. All of the Titans zapped out; Cronus took my arm so we could follow, and then we were in the middle of a very dense forest.
This world was so similar to Earth that it was obvious someone had modeled the landscape directly from our world. They didn’t quite get everything right, but maybe that was more to do with the fundamental building blocks that made up this world. The trees were super green, almost unnaturally so, and yet they felt and smelled so real. The air felt lighter, and there was an ease of breathing I’d never had back home. Maybe it was more oxygen or maybe it was different. Either way, I felt like I had a ton of get-up-and-go.
“Okay, let us all calm our own energy,” Hyperion said, taking lead. “Don’t let on what we’re doing. The gods are close, I can feel them.”
Of course they’d be close. They had coordinates no doubt very similar to ours.
The Titans spanned out, all of them a few feet apart, snaking through the trees to cover as much of the perimeter as possible. Cronus stayed close to me, and I held his hand as they did their power thing. I felt it like a swift breeze through the trees; it even lifted my hair—or maybe my hair was responding to the power. It did weird shit like that.
“We’re expanding our power to find the dead spot in this ecosystem,” Cronus murmured, like he thought I might have forgotten. Or maybe he figured my Matrix comment meant I didn’t understand.
#AddingThatOneToMovieNight #KeanuReevesIsHusbandMaterial #AfterCronus
Rhea, who paused to our right, turned and met Cronus’ gaze. She nodded once, and he returned that gesture, no doubt telling her to move her ass.
She sprinted silently toward a tree, just as Zeus and Ares appeared through a thicket of dense bushes. Zeus snarled at his mother, and in return she sent a wall of frigid wind at her son. It was two seconds from slamming into him when everything stopped. Everything except Rhea, Cronus, and me.
“Where is it?” Cronus asked Rhea. Meanwhile I was giving Zeus a “fuck you” sort of smile.No rules, assface. Try to beat the god of time, I dare you.
Rhea nodded. “There’s a dead spot at the top of that tree.” She pointed to a trunk that was huge, gnarled and twisted like the thing was a hundred years old.
Cronus took a deep breath and then let it out, the top of the tree’s leaves whistling in the wind. “Yes, you’re—”
“Uh, babe…?” I tapped his shoulder and pointed to Zeus. Black inky swirls were dancing off of his body as his fingers twitched. Shit, maybe I shouldn’t have mentally challenged him.
Cronus growled. The sins were clearly helping Zeus fight the time freeze.
“Cover me, Rhea.”
Cronus leapt for the treetop, jumping like a fucking monkey and hanging on to the branches halfway up. One of them snapped and my heart leapt into my throat, but Cronus saved himself by leaping to another branch. Rhea stepped before her son, building up a wall of ice around him, starting at the ground like an igloo and branching upward to encase him inside.
The Titans around me started to move and wiggle, and I could tell Cronus’ hold on time was slipping.
“Maisey!”
I ran under the tree, looking up through all the branches to find him.
Something red and shiny dropped from his palm, and by instinct I reached out and caught it. Cronus must have used magic, because I never would have managed that move otherwise. Glancing down at the gem, I shook my head. Fuck, that would have been near impossible to find without Phoebe’s energy realization.
“Hide it!” Cronus shouted, before he disappeared from sight, no doubt getting back down the tree.
I did what any woman would do when she needed to hide something quickly … shoved it in my bra. My arms fell to my sides just as everyone started moving again.
Zeus bellowed in fury as the icy igloo that contained him shattered into hundreds of pieces, but before I had time to stress about his temper, Cronus grabbed my hand, blinking us away.
We landed back near where my tent had been, a few yards from where Narida sat on a high-backed chair, the trunk of sins beside her. I was reaching into my bra when I felt Cronus’ hand yanked away from mine.
I spun to find Zeus had wrapped a black noose of sins around Cronus’ neck.
“You froze time!” he roared. “That’s not fair!”
Cronus reached up and placed his hands around the black slithering snake of power, slowly ripping it from his neck. “No … rules.” He loosened it more. “Anything goes. It’s not my fault you were born with weak powers.”
The god of thunder’s eyes went completely black.
He was really pissed, but the stupid fuck had forgotten one important fact. Cronus was not the only badass here. Reaching into my bra, I yanked the red jewel free, keeping it hidden in my hand. It took me five steps to get to Narida, who was watching me with a grin. Reaching out my hand, I dropped the jewel on her lap. “I got it. For team Titan.”
