Page 39 of Releasing the Gods
After entering a stone doorway, we were immediately plunged into darkness.
“This way!” the boy whisper-yelled.
Up ahead, a faint glow from a lantern lit our path.
Dust kicked up with the giant god’s footsteps and I was regretting the Gucci loafers.
After five minutes of traversing these dark tunnels, we stood at an open stone entrance that led to a cave of some sort. The boy held a finger to his lips. Some men were talking just inside the cave, so we waited for them to clear out.
“This is where my father laid Rhea to rest,” the boy whispered.
“We don’t have time for this,” Cronus growled, charging past the boy and into the cave.
My eyes widened as I was pulled with him, our bond dragging me where his dumb ass went, even if it was straight into a fight.
“You’re on your own!” the boy shouted and ran back the way he came.
Smart boy.
Hound burst from behind me and charged one of the Egyptian guards. Who I now saw had freaking machine guns! Cronus was locked in battle with the other one. One hard smack to the side of the head and the guard went down.
Hound bit into the other guard’s leg and he collapsed to the ground.
“Is he dead!” I gasped.
Cronus waved me off. “Hellhounds’ saliva is paralytic. He’ll be fine. Mostly.”
Mostly.
Note to self: don’t piss off Hound.
“Good boy,” I told the beast, just in case he was still deciding to like me or not.
Cronus bent to one knee and rubbed behind Hound’s ear. “Hound. Find Rhea!”
The moment he gave the command, the beast took off sniffing all the corners of the cave.
Cronus turned to me. “The first sin has probably already finished manifesting. We will be hearing about it on the news soon. Only Rhea can slow it, giving us time to awaken the others.”
Great.
“And … what’s the first sin?”
I didn’t want to know but I had to.
“Sickness. The world will manifest a virus, or something of that nature, and it will spread like wildfire.”
Fuck.
“That’sthe first one? I thought the first one would be a bit milder, like envy or something…”
Cronus eyed the necklace at my throat. “There is nothing mild about the nine deadly sins. Not a single one of them. They actually get worse as they go on.”
I swallowed hard. “Noted.”
As Hound started to dig in one corner, Cronus took a step closer to me. “I want you to know that I don’t blame you. Not completely. If Thanatos would have told me Pandora’s Box was in that cave, I never would have taken the daughter of Selene there. You can’t help that your hair sheds like a dog.”
There was a nice sentiment in there somewhere … maybe.
