The voice didn't come from Athena. It came from the shadows stretching long and unnatural across the ruined valley floor.
The temperature plummeted. In a heartbeat, the scorching, chemical heat coming off Kaelen and Elias vanished, replaced by a deep, bone-chilling cold. The air grew heavy and still, smelling of pomegranate, wet graveyard soil, and expensive, musky cologne.
The shadow of a broken pillar lengthened, pooling like spilled ink on the ground. From that darkness, a man stepped out.
He wore a suit tailored from midnight, cut sharp and modern, his cufflinks gleaming like captured souls trapped in silver. His eyes were dark, amused, and terrifyingly old, older than the trees Thane was crushing, older than the stone Kaelen was melting. He adjusted his lapel, looking at the catastrophic scene, the massive Dragon, the burning Phoenix, the dissolving landscape, with the casual air of a landlord inspecting a particularly rowdy tenant's apartment.
"Uncle," Athena breathed, her knuckles turning white as she tightened her grip on her spear.
Hades smiled. It was a sharp, geometric expression that didn't reach his eyes. "Niece. You look terrible. War does not suit you when you’re losing."
Kaelen roared, a blast of challenge and sound that should have flattened the remaining trees. But Hades simply raised a hand, palm open, fingers relaxed.
The sound died instantly. It was swallowed by the silence of the grave, absolute and suffocating.
"Down, boy," Hades chided smoothly, lowering his hand. "You're damaging the real estate."
He walked toward me, ignoring the monsters flanking my sides, ignoring the lethal radiation of magic pouring off them. He looked at my metal arm, at the violet light pulsing in my veins, and nodded appreciatively.
"So," he drawled, stopping a few feet away, the aura of death around him acting as a shield against the heat. "You crushed the seed. I felt the wake-up call in the basement. Very loud. Very... tectonic."
"You gave it to me," I rasped, my voice metallic and echoing, sounding strange to my own ears. "You knew I would use it."
"I hoped," he corrected, a glint of satisfaction in his dark eyes. He gestured grandly to the guys. "And look what you've achieved. You didn't just wake the Titan; you drank him."
"What are you talking about?" Flynn growled. His voice was distorted by his current form and his restless, frantic pacing, his claws tearing deep ruts into the stone with every step.
"Why do you think you can't shift back?" Hades asked, turning his gaze to the Wolf. "Why do you think the ground is vomiting whenever you take a step? You aren't just Olympians anymore, little wolf. You absorbed the Old Magic. You are Titan-blooded now. Heavy. Primal. You have mass that belongs to the foundation of the world, not the surface."
“Why not Aria?” Flynn’s voice was rough and I knew it was taking a lot for him to try and talk in his wolf form which was probably why his question was so short and barely made sense.
"You absorbed the spillover," Hades said, gesturing to Flynn's massive form. "You drank the runoff of creation, but you possess the same souls you started with. You are overfilled cups spilling onto the table."
He glanced at Aria. "She, however, was Reforged. Hephaestus built her a bigger cup. She holds the weight because she was remade to carry it. You just... got wet."
He turned back to me, his expression hardening into something clinical.
"You cannot go back to Olympus, Aria. Not just because Hera locked the door, but because you are incompatible. Olympian magic is refined, airy, arrogant. You are now raw earth and magma. If you tried to cross the boundary into the High Seat, the purity of that plane would reject you. You would explode."
"So we’re stuck," I said, the weight of his words settling on my shoulders like lead. I looked at Elias, whose flames were flickering with exhaustion, and Thane, who was fighting to keep still. "We stay here, we break the mortal world. We try to leave, we explode. Can't we give the energy back to the Titan or something?"
"Stuck? No." Hades began to circle me, his presence acting as a buffer against the chaotic energies radiating from the Princes. "You are simply too big for the container. The mortal realm is fragile. It wasn't built for Titans. As for giving the energy back? I'm sure that the magic of Olympus is slowly destroying the Titan as we speak. It was fine while it was sleeping, but to be awake and without its heart? That's just a recipe for death."
The ground beneath Thane gave a sickening, liquified lurch. A hairline fracture raced away from his paws, tearing through the soil and splitting a farmhouse in the distance cleanly in two.
Aria,Thane’s thought was jagged with panic, sending a spike of adrenaline through me.I am sinking. I can feel the mantle below me. I’m going to fall through the crust!
THIRTY
Aria
“Stop stalling," I snapped at the Lord of the Dead, stepping into his personal space.
It was a bold move, perhaps a stupid one, considering the man radiated a cold so absolute it made the air inside my lungs feel like shattered glass. But the scent of death, cloying lilies, turned earth, and the sickly-sweet rot of pomegranates, was overwhelming, choking out the clean ozone of my own magic.
"They are hurting. The world is hurting," I hissed, gesturing vaguely to the apocalyptic landscape around us. "If you have a point, make it."
"Always so direct," Hades sighed, adjusting the lapels of his immaculately tailored suit, which somehow remained pristine amidst the falling ash. "Fine. There are two ways to save this pathetic ball of dirt and water. Do try to pay attention; I hate repeating myself."
