Page 173 of A Touch of Chaos

Cronos stared back, not a hint of feeling in his face.

“On your feet, Daughter. Are you not queen ofthis world?” He reached for her and drew her up by her shoulders as if she were nothing more than a doll.

“Do not touch me!” she scowled. If she had the ability to move, Theseus imagined she would have jerked away from him. Instead, her eyes flashed with a familiar fury.

Cronos chuckled, a gravelly, unsettling sound. “A queen indeed,” he said. “Demanding, even with no real power.”

Theseus lifted the scythe he had been holding, letting the blade rest in his palm.

Cronos eyed it but did not take it.

“How dare you,” Hera hissed, her eyes narrowed at Theseus in visceral hate. “You would be nothing without me!”

“Do not take this to mean I am ungrateful,” said Theseus.

Cronos stared at Theseus. “You have given me a gift, blood of my blood,” he said. “I will choose to see this as a favor and grant you one in return.”

Theseus’s jaw clenched. It was not an alliance like he wanted, but for now, it would suffice.

The Titan took the scythe and gazed at Hera.

The goddess, who was usually cloaked in a facade of cold grace, looked stricken, her eyes wide and haunted. “Father,” she said again, her voice trembling.

Cronos’s lip curled. “All things end, Daughter,” he said, but instead of using his weapon, he took her by the throat and lifted her off her feet.

His hand spanned the entire circumference of her neck, and because she was draped in the net, she did not even fight. She just hung there, choking until she was silent. It was then he plunged the curved blade of his scythe into her.

Behind Theseus, Helen gasped, but Hera—she did not react.

She was already dead.

Cronos jerked the blade free and let her crumple to the ground before turning to Theseus.

“Until next time, blood of my blood,” he said with a nod, his blade dripping with Hera’s blood.

Then he vanished.

Theseus stared at the space where the Titan had been, his jaw tense. Their first interaction had not gone according to plan, but a favor was a favor. He would just have to ensure that by the time he collected it, Cronos had a reason to join his side.

Theseus caught movement from the corner of his eye, but when he turned, he found that it was only Hera’s dark blood pooling on the stone.

His gaze shifted to the two waiting demigods. One was Damian, and the other was a new recruit named Markos.

“Have you recovered my son?” Theseus asked.

“He waits for you inside along with his mother,” said Damian.

There was a pause.

“And Ariadne?” Her name felt thick on his tongue.

“She waits for you as well.”

Theseus tried to control his reaction to the news, but a warm heat had already ignited low in his belly.

When his father’s earthquake had ravaged New Athens and the resulting tsunami had cut it loose from the continent, Dionysus’s tunnels had flooded too.

Flushing out the vermin, he’d thought. A much-needed cleanse of the world.

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