dived for the cover of the low boulders and crouched behind them. They were low enough that Zeus couldn’t crack one with his lightning and crush me as he’d tried before.
Because that had definitely been Zeus. I’d thought I’d seen worry in Hades’ eyes back there, and I’d been right.
Zeus had been stalking us on this mountain.
I peeked out from behind the rock. Hades stood in the middle of the plateau. The wind whipped his dark cloak back and his arms were spread to the sky. He gripped a massive, two-pronged metal staff in his hand.
A bident.
He was power and strength personified, a dark god calling another to war.
He looked magnificent.
He’d positioned himself between me and danger, and I recalled the worry in his eyes.
Fear for me, not as a person, but as a pawn.
It hardened me against his deadly beauty. Against the things I’d been starting to feel. Terrible, stupid things.
I was a game piece in a deadly competition I didn’t understand.
The air vibrated, the sense of danger increasing. Nervous, I dug my hands into the cold dirt at my side. Something fragile crunched in my palm, and I looked down.
Dead vines that were twisted and hollow.
The first sign of plant life since we’d started climbing the mountain. Did life linger in the vines? Could I use them?
Another crack of lightning drew my attention upward, and I peered over the boulder, vision whited out. The glare faded, and I spotted a figure standing in front of Hades. Power rolled from him, magic of nearly impossible proportions.
I gasped.
Zeus.
If I hadn’t already met Hades, he’d be the strongest supernatural I’d ever encountered. His magic would have sent me to my knees if I weren’t already on them. It rolled like thunder through my chest, vibrating my lungs. Smelled like ozone and tasted like rain. His aura was a blinding, brilliant blue that burned my eyes the same way his lightning had. And it felt like a punch to the gut.
I gasped, clutching my stomach.
“Brother.” Zeus stepped forward. His navy three-piece suit was perfectly tailored, and his brilliant gold hair closely cropped.
This was not the man I’d seen in statues in museums. Did the Greeks know they’d gotten it all wrong?
Then again, Hades—a fallen angel if I’d ever seen one—also looked nothing like the statues.
The two of them squared off, two sides of a coin. Hades dark and Zeus light. Brothers, yet not. The enmity between them sparked—literal, physical sparks lighting up the darkness, as if their hatred could only be expressed through a violent, impossible reaction between the molecules in the air.
Zeus gripped a gleaming lightning bolt in his hand. It was such a contrast to the Saville Row suit that he wore. Apparently, the gods could walk among modern mortals. Zeus certainly did, if he dressed like that.
Hades, on the other hand, looked like an ancient god, a man stepped out of time. He was pure shadow, his bident radiating a darkness that curled out from the base, the same dark mist that had poisoned Mac.
My gaze riveted to it.
I could get my sample now.
If I were willing to creep out from the safety of my rock.
Quickly, I removed the glass vial from my pocket. I was counting on the potion from the apothecary to work, but just in case it didn't, I wanted a sample for Eve.
“You approach the Temple of Shadows,” Zeus said, drawing my attention up to him. His voice rolled like thunder, and it was more statement than question.
“This is none of your concern, brother.”
“It is entirely my concern.”
“Perhaps.” Hades sounded bored. “But it is inevitable. So leave, before I make you. Before things turn against you.”
Something flickered in Zeus’s eyes. Something almost like worry.
The myths had him as the dominant brother, but watching the two of them square off . . .
If Hades wasn’t the more powerful one, then they were equals.
And Zeus was on Hades’ land.
My money was on the dark god.
I eyed the mist again. It rolled closer to me.
Come on.
I could lunge out now, but that would draw Zeus’s eye. If anything, I wanted them to keep fighting. A distraction.
“Do not do this, brother,” Zeus said.
“You know I must.” Hades pointed his bident at Zeus. “It is the inevitable end of all things. Necessary for me.”
“You won’t succeed.” His eyes flashed, and I squinted, trying to make out the emotion there.
Fear?
Just the slightest bit.
This god—Zeus of Mount Olympus—feared Hades and what he wanted to do.