I nodded, reaching down and, ahhh, unbuttoned my jeans. “Baby is kicking, I think my pants were too tight.”
Cronus grinned, placing a hand on my now mini swollen belly.
“How the hell am I feeding this baby without eating down here?” My mind was ready to explode thinking about all this. “She just keeps growing.”
Cronus chuckled. “First of all, you’re a demi-god, you don’t really need food that often. Especially not down here.”
#Lies #TouchMyFoodAndDie
“Secondly, our baby is half Titan. She grows with energy, which is why her power is growing too.” He looked back at Rhea and her burned-off hair.
I nodded. “But for the record I do need six small meals a day. I mean, if we’re going to be living together, you should know that about me.”
He chuckled. “I really missed you.”
“Cronus?” a mysterious female voice called from behind us.
I spun, ready to blast some heads off, when Cronus cracked a smile. “Maikea! You old crone! I haven’t seen you in ages.” He stepped forward and hugged the old woman. Her ghostly spectral form looked about fifty years old, but he’d referred to her as crone, so who knew what her real age was.
Cronus called me forward and introduced me; the crone seemed to already know Hyperion, giving him a warm smile. To Rhea she threw an angry glare, and I liked her already.
“Remember what I told you,” Maikea said. “Don’t want to see you down here.”
Cronus shot her a broad smile and it was clear he was very fond of her. “Walk us to the portal,” he suggested, and the old woman nodded.
We set off in the direction of the portal, and as we neared the spot, I saw a group of ghostly souls standing around it. “Thanks for saying goodbye,” Cronus said to the ghost woman. “Hopefully next time we catch up, it’s under different circumstances.”
She nodded slowly, her eyes ablaze with an otherworldly light. “Kill that rat bastard Zeus,” she said out of nowhere. “He’s rotten, just like his mother.”
She glared at Rhea, who lunged forward. Hyperion scooped the Titaness up mid-air and walked away with her, not at all bothered by her struggling and swearing.
“You know I would resurrect you if possible,” Cronus told the crone, sounding sad.
She patted his hand. “I know that, dear.” Her eyes roamed over me and I squirmed. “Are you the one who released the sins?”
#GuiltyAsCharged
I opened my mouth, but before I could say a word she continued. “You should see Narida about the ring. Might help you with them.”
Cronus frowned. “Ring?”
Maikea shot him a look like she couldn’t believe he was this stupid. I already loved this old mean lady. “Remember that artifact your parents hid on Earth?”
Light seemed to dance behind Cronus’ eyes. “Uh, you mean the burst of original energy that I searched a thousand years for? Yeah, I’ve heard of it.”
My most glorious achievement was teaching him sarcasm.
Maikea did not appear to agree as she again hit him with a deadpan look. “Narida has it. Secretly keeping it as an insurance policy against you all. Powerful thing it is, but you could probably handle it. I heard it can cut through any form, living or dead.”
Cronus was silent a full minute, seeming to comprehend far more than me about what she was implying, and when he finally spoke, the only tone in his voice was reverence. “Thank you, friend. I will send the finest flowers to adorn your grave. I owe you for that tip.”
She smiled, waving him off. “Anything to piss off Narida and get Zeus murdered. I’m happy to share the knowledge.” With that she glided away, as if she hadn’t just told him something he really wanted to hear.
“Was that a big deal?” The information she’d given him seemed really important.
He nodded. “Very. Come on, the portal is up here.”
We stepped closer to a thicket of trees and I heard crunching twigs behind. Looking over my shoulder, Hyperion and Rhea were heading toward us. She looked grumpier than ever, which brought me great joy.
A hissing noise pulled my attention forward and snapped my neck to the front to see a dozen ghoulish souls, arms out, reaching for the portal.
“What are they doing?” I whispered.
Cronus frowned. “They’ll have sensed the Erynomus’ death. They’ll be trying to get back to the upper levels as well.”
Sad. “Will they be able to now?”
Cronus shook his head. “Not by portal. They’ll have to walk, or Thanatos may be able to come and get them now that the Ery is gone. From now on, all new souls will go straight to level one as it was designed, except for those murderous assholes that deserve level seven.”
Made sense since the levels apparently got increasingly worse the lower you went. Zeus would definitely go to level seven, but most everyone else probably went to level one or two. That was kind of cool.
Done with waiting, Cronus clapped his hands and a bolt of lightning singed the ground a few feet away from the souls. They scampered, hissing and running away from the swirling energy in the middle of the air.
“Alright, love. I need you to go with Hyperion. I’m going to take Rhea. I should be able to manipulate time and energy enough to trick the portal into thinking we’re one person using one coin.”
My eyes bulged. Was there any limit to what this man could do?
“Are you sure? I don’t want to leave you behind. What if it doesn’t work?”
“It’ll work,” he said, supremely confident.
Deciding to trust him, I leaned over for one last kiss, before hurrying to join Hyperion at the portal. We each held a coin, and as I stepped up, I had a wild thought. What if my one coin wasn’t enough for me and baby? Technically, we were two souls in one body. Just as I was about to voice my concern, Hyperion sucked me into the energy vortex and we were spit out onto level six.
#AnsweredThatQuestion
The coin heated in my hand but didn’t disappear. “Why are we only in level six?” I asked, looking around at the familiar landscape. “Aren’t the coins supposed to take us back to one?”
“We have to go through each level,” Hyperion said. “The coin will fade with each portal but we’ll make it to one, don’t worry.”
Sure, because being told not to worry about something was exactly the way to stop it.
We stood there for a good five minutes waiting for the others, but nothing happened.
“Think they’re stuck?” I asked Hype. I would murder Cronus if he’d overestimated his abilities and was still stuck in level seven.
He raised his eyebrows at me. “Stop stressing.”
Again with that useless advice. We waited longer, and I was really growing nervous, when Cronus blinked in front of us and I opened my mouth to tell him how relieved I was.
Then he blipped back out.
I turned on Hyperion, alarmed, but he looked unfazed. “Time bending. It’s fine.”
After more agonizing minutes of standing there, both Cronus and Rhea appeared before us, Rhea’s face pulled taut in pain. “That hurt,” she growled.
Cronus looked like he didn’t care. He went straight for me, holding me as he had done pretty much from the first moment we’d found each other down here.