Page 215 of A Touch of Chaos

Persephone summoned vines from the ground and Hades his shadows. They wrapped around the monster’s legs and waist. Typhon roared as he buckled beneath their pull. With him restrained, he was suddenly surrounded, both by gods and mortals, stabbing him in every part of his body.

“Well, this,” Hermes said, jabbing his blade into the creature’s belly, “was far easier than when Zeus did it!”

Typhon roared. Hades’s shadows quivered and Persephone’s vines snapped as the monster managed to rise to his feet.

“Why did you have to open your fucking mouth?” Aphrodite snapped at Hermes over Typhon’s bellow of anger. He took a great step, and the ground shook and split. Hundreds of mortals were crushed or drowned as huge drops of his blood fell to the ground.

“Hear me out,” said Hermes. “We trip him and try that again.”

“It didn’t work the first time, Hermes. Why would it work a second?” Persephone pointed out

“You can’t argue that he isn’t weaker now,” said Artemis.

It was true and evident by how much blood covered the giant’s scaly body. If they failed to kill him, it was likely the Hydra venom would, but it was impossible to say how long that would take in a body so large. By then, he might destroy the entire world.

“Now might be a really great time to use those balls you have been going on about, Hecate,” Hermes said.

But they all knew it was a dangerous option. They did not know what Zeus’s organ would create—worse, how much more destruction it might cause.

Before Hecate could consider it, Hephaestus appeared in the sky and shot molten spears into Typhon from his palm. The giant staggered but did not fall. Again he screamed, but this time, something shot out of the dark wreathed in fire.

Prometheus, Persephone realized as he slammed into Typhon with such force, he went straight through the monster.

The giant groaned and swayed on his feet before falling to the ground again. His impact was so great, the earth buckled beneath him, moving like waves beneath the gods’ feet. While the gods were able to rise into the air and avoid falling, it sent both armies to the ground.

Prometheus hovered in the air, dripping with the giant’s blood.

“Fuck yes!” Hermes shouted.

But the victory was short-lived as Cronos appeared behind the Titan God of Fire, taking his head between his hands and twisting it free. Prometheus’s body fell from the sky, landing like a fiery meteor.

“Fucking Fates,” said Hades.

It had all happened so fast. Persephone shook with fury and terror as she watched Cronos toss the Titan’s head to the side as if it were nothing.

Beside her, Hecate vanished and appeared to surround Cronos in her triple form, black fire in her hands that she released on the god in a flaming stream.Cronos vanished, but then so did Hecate. When they appeared again, they slammed into each other, and the sound was like thunder. As much as Persephone wanted to look away—to focus on the war raging around her—she couldn’t tear her eyes from the sky.

She watched in horror as Cronos snatched Hecate and slammed her over his knee. She seemed to break in half.

Persephone did not recognize the sound that came out of her mouth. She wailed. She thought she would be sick, and then she was. She bent over and vomited.

“No, no, no!”

Each word was uttered louder and louder until she was screaming at the top of her lungs.

She fell to her knees, her arms spread wide.

Instead of power flowing from her, it flowed to her.

It coursed through her blood, feeling like lightning in her veins, gathering in her hands, and as the power came to her, the world around her changed. The horror that Cronos had painted disintegrated, and suddenly the god was standing before her, his horrible face contorted into a scowl.

He reared back, his scythe in hand, and aimed for Persephone’s head.

She screamed, her hands coming together, and in them she held Cronos’s power. Her body vibrated with it, a power she’d never experienced before, and with it, she wove a world for the Titan that was filled with his greatest fears.

As she did, she used her own power to call to the earth. From it, roots sprouted, and they wrapped around the God of Time until he was completely consumedwithin the trunk of a tree, its branches reaching toward the sky before blooming in a waterfall of pink blossoms.

It was magnificent.

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