Page 94 of Until the End of Ever
“You don’t need to hold your tongue down here, boy. You can say my brother’s name. He might be all-powerful up in his world, but this is mine.” Poseidon spun his trident before standing. “Zeus wants you gone because he’s sensed what you are. Whose power you’ve reclaimed.”
I thought I heard an echo of thunder, but it was far away, the sounds of the waves overtaking it.
Zeus.
We had our answer.
The worst possible answer we could think of. I would have taken Hades any day.
“I don’t understand,” Kleos said. “I mean, I can’t be that relevant. Why is he targeting me like this?”
He chuckled. “A little history lesson, kid. Zeus stayed on top because he murdered or controlled all those who could defy him. Me? He bound to the sea. I don’t mind the gig, don’t get me wrong. But mostly, it keeps me out of his way. And Hades, he sent to the underworld. The thing inside you? She doesn’t like to do what she’s told. He murdered her in cold blood, twice, so far.”
“Lucian said when a god dies, their energy stays, and can link itself to someone. That’s what’s happening to me?” She bit her lip. “Would I disappear when she emerges?”
“Sounds like your boy knows a thing or two.” The god tapped his trident, and a tridimensional image of the Milky Way appears. “This is our known universe—our cosmos, our galaxy. And this is chaos.” Thousands,millionsof other stars and planets joined the first hologram, filling the entire room. “A bloody mess, if you ask me. When something stopsbeing, it becomes part of chaos again, to be cut into tiny pieces and remade.”
“Now, a tree, a human being, a cat? That gets digested back into chaos pretty easily. A god? We’re made of stronger stuff. Think of us as nasty batteries. Very hard to recycle. You can break the shell, but it’ll leave a trace.”
That god might hate my guts, but he was very, very good at explaining things. I was familiar with the concept myself but it had never been clearer. I wanted to take notes. I wanted to ask him a million questions.
But Kleos came first. “So where does she fit in?”
He kept his attention on Kleos. “When I rebuilt your flesh, I kept your soul intact. You are the same kid you were before I put you back together. And that kid had some things in common with one specific entity. One that was even more probable to attach herself to you because I was the one who built her the first time around.”
“Who?” Kleos asked.
Poseidon winked. “Can’t give you all the answers. Telling you what you are is risking messing up your own growth. You should work that part out yourself. What I can assure you is that that goddess would have no intention of erasing you.”
I frowned. “Isn’t that what the old gods do? Take over their host, like Apollo?”
“Apollo is a young god, and he has reasons to stay attached to this world. His sister, for one. So long as there’s a trace of Artemis in this world, you can be certain he’ll never let go. Theone you claimed, Kleos—she’s been trying to let go for a long time. Gifting her power is the one way she can achieve oblivion.”
He said oblivion like one would say peace. With some longing.
“So, I’m not in danger from the power inside me. But Zeus?—”
“None of us Olympians can undo what has been made by another god. Zeus couldn’t return you to your mortal shell. He could, and likely would, kill you, if necessary. But my brother doesn’t like to piss me off when he doesn’t have to. The next best thing, therefore, is to control you.”
“Through aforcedhusband,” Kleos scoffed.
“A husband of his choosing, under his thumb, obeying his every edict—and you, enslaved to him.” Never mind. Poseidon’s eyes could be twice as terrifying as Apollo’s. Blue wasn’t supposed to be able toburn.
“That’s barbaric.”
“Yes. Some of us evolve, the others remain what we were thousands of years ago. Zeus never put much value on what women wanted.”
“And you?” I asked. “Can you help?”
He laughed, showing canines a little serrated and sharper than a shark’s. “You’re here, rather than holding your breath in the belly of Charybdis. Now, if you’re asking me to go to war with my brother for you? I am fond of my daughter, but no thank you.”
Daughter. That was why he was looking at her like she was a gift—and why I received a warning glance. The god saw Kleos as his.
“You’d let her get enslaved?” I pressed.
Poseidon shrugged. “You have all the tools to prevent that. In fact, aren’t you wearing a ring that would ensure there’s no need for further conversation right this moment?”
I glanced toward the signet ring on my hand, jaw tight.
