Page 90 of The Queen & the King

Athena laughs. “He is awful at keeping secrets, but I was not talking about the markings.”

I tense slightly, shifting under her gaze. “You weren’t?”

“No.” She smiles. Her every expression is designed to lure me into a sense of security. “The markings were simply a physical manifestation of what you were experiencing emotionally.”

“They were a result of me attempting to absorb power that did not belong to me,” I volley back. What is she getting at?

Athena tilts her head, her gray eyes seeing through me. “Yet the markings did not appear when your wife’s bond to the Underworld was first broken.”

I open my mouth to respond before closing it. She’s right. The vines didn’t start appearing until that fight with Krios.

“And if it was truly just you absorbing power that was not yours, why was my father able to burn it off the first time?” she asks, crossing one leg over the other.

My brow furrows, and my mind races as I work through what Athena is implying. Why was Zeus able to break it the first time? I lower my arm, shadows dancing around my fingers.

“You think there was more to it?” I whisper, watching the shadows slide around my hand.

“Do you think there was more to it?” Athena responds.

I watch the shadows playing. Could there be more to it? The first time the markings grew was when I stopped repressingeverything and unleashed during a fight. It was when I allowed myself to feed my powers with the dark emotions inside me, the ones I’ve spent millennia pretending didn’t exist.

“Perhaps your powers have been hampered by unhealthy coping mechanisms?” she jibes. My eyes snap to hers, and I growl.

The house shakes suddenly, and I jump to my feet, ignoring Athena as I race outside. Night has fallen… very, very early, and when I gaze up at the sky, the constellations whirl, mimicking the Primordial’s emotions.

I glance at Athena as she joins me. “Looks like you’re not the only member of our pantheon whose powers are tied too tightly to their emotions.”

My jaw ticks, and I vanish back to the palace, leaving Athena behind. Something’s changed, and I need to know what. Athena can attempt to psychoanalyze me another time… or never.

Fifty-Two

Persephone

ILOOK AROUND THE DARK CAVE, TRYING TO ORIENTATE MYSELF.Fuck, I could be in another realm as far as I know. Where would Kronos have taken me? What is he hoping to achieve?

Kronos unwraps his arms from around me and pushes me to the ground. I fall forward, trying to catch myself, but it doesn’t help, and I feel the sharp sting as a stone slices my cheek. I growl. Why the fuck do these assholes keep cutting up my face? Dicks.

Kronos steps over me, moving deeper into the dank space. He kneels in front of a pit filled with driftwood and deftly lights a fire.

Light fills the space, and it becomes clear he’s been living here. A fairly large pallet of rotting wood sits in the far corner, various furs strewn over it haphazardly. Dirty clothes litter the ground, along with various empty liquor bottles. I wrinkle my nose. He could at least clean up a little for a guest.

When Kronos is satisfied that his fire is substantial enough, he stands and leans against the cave wall, looking at his handiwork, his expression unreadable.

I shift, sitting up and watching him somewhat warily. I’m not stupid enough to underestimate Kronos, but I’m betting he’s underestimating me.

Kronos’s eyes reflect the fire, and he tilts his head, staring into the flames. “I don’t know who will come for you first, your mother or my son.” His voice is quiet, with an air of threat.

I stretch my leg out in front of me, inspecting another laceration from the jagged floor of the cave. “My husband is unable to leave the Underworld.” I lift my gaze to look at Kronos, finding him looking back at me. “We both know that, but it’s not him you’re hoping for, is it?”

Kronos narrows his eyes at me. “You are supposed to be inconsequential,” he says. “In the weaving of time, the Goddess of Spring should be nothing.”

While his words are meant to knock me down, to wound me, they make me proud because he’s right. If my mother had her way, that’s exactly what I would be. Inconsequential. But I worked my ass off to become who I am. I am who I am because of me, because of Hades, and because of my family and friends.

My lips twitch. “Having people underestimate me and reduce my title and power will never get old.”

“I said that’s what you should be, yet you’re not.” Kronos tilts his head at me, trying to read me like I’m the best-kept secret, but I know I’m giving nothing away. “In every other timeline, you are simply part of a story, but in this one… you are different.”

I try to stop myself from reacting, but I feel my brows draw a little.

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