Page 133 of Aïdes the Unseen
But Iwas ready.
They had come in full form. Not avatars. Not projections. No polite illusions for the sake of mortal eyes. This was the pantheon as they had been in the old wars—divine, terrible, and unyielding. A violent punishment for her remaining mortality.
I would break both of them if I had to.
“Step aside, brother,” Zeus said without preamble. His voice was thunder contained in bone.
“No,” I said.
“This isn’t yours to guard.”
“She isn’t yours tocommand,” I returned. “She never was.”
Poseidon’s sneer was slick and cold. “Then you admit it. You claim her.”
“Istandwith her.”
Zeus raised a hand, sparks crackling along his knuckles.
Irina stepped forward. Barefoot. Robes stained with dust and memory. Her breath shallow, her body visibly faltering. But herspine? Unbending. She looked at the King of Olympus and said, quietly: “You are not my father.”
That stopped even the sky for a moment.
“Youdare—” Zeus began, but Poseidon raised his trident in warning.
“Sheremembers,” he murmured. He wasn’t mocking. He was... wary.
Zeus’s brow furrowed. “What does she remember?”
“Everything,” Irina said. Her voice trembled—but not with fear. With exhaustion. With pain. And still, with defiance.
The dog pressed against her leg. A guardian, a friend, a sentinel of souls.
“I know what you did,” she said to them both. “To me. To her. To all of us.”
She swayed slightly. I reached for her, but her hand lifted—not to stop me, but to squeeze my fingers once. A silentI’m still here.Not for much longer. Not like this.
Her mortal shell, this body, this borrowed flesh, was almost done. It had carried too many truths, held too many burdens. The cost was etched in her skin, her bones, her breath. But her soul?—
Her soul was radiant. Complete. Andtheirs no longer.
“I am not your vessel,” she whispered. “I am not your pawn. And I will not kneel.”
The dog growled. The earth responded. The very air shimmered.
When Zeus raised his hand again, I stepped between them. Power burned through me like molten silver. “Try it,” I said, low and dark and final. “Idareyou to try.”
Poseidon tilted his head. “You’d go to war over her?”
“I’d go toruin,” I said. “And take you with me.”
For a moment, everything balanced on a blade’s edge. The old gods were far from sentimental, but most of the time they were not unforgivably stupid.
She stood behind me, shaking. Her heart barely held in her chest. But she was whole. She washerself. The whole of the universe, Olympus included, needed to understand I wouldburn the skyto keep her.
My brothers stared at me. Never had we been unified, not even when Zeus freed us from Cronus. Then he had declared himself king of heavens and Poseiden claimed the seas. I had no interest in battling either of them nor bowing to them.
None saw the value in the Underworld, save for me. Maybe they still didn’t. I didn’t care. But I had never offered to battle them before and they must have finally understood I meant exactly what I said. I would set fire to Olympus and cast it down and boil the seas until their kingdoms were barren. For while their power diminished,everythingdied. Even gods.
