The Iron Queen (Daughters of Zeus) - By Kaitlin Bevis Page 0,61
face with a satisfying crunch. The powers of over a dozen deities were at my disposal, but I ignored them, too blind with rage to want to do much more than hit something. So I did. I hit him over and over again, unable to stop myself. Zeus’ face lost its amused expression. He reached up and blocked my next hit, hands wrapping around my wrists with a painful jolt of electricity.
I broke his grip and lashed out with a wave of power, throwing up a shield and inverting it around him, pinning him to the ground. “Where is he?”
“Neat trick. Thanks for showing it to me. It came in handy against your friends.”
I narrowed my eyes at him and wrapped a hand around his throat, breaking my own shield. Hades’ powers came to me unbidden. Black energy spread from my hands, turning Zeus’ veins black.
“Okay, that’s enough.” Zeus threw up a shield, binding me against him, then rolled over on top of me, hip bones digging painfully into my flesh. “I may not be able to kill you.” His breath was hot in my ear. “But that doesn’t mean I can’t make you scream.”
Electricity coursed from him to me, and I arched my back, crying out in pain. His hands wrapped around my neck. Straddling me, he looked straight in my eyes. “You can still end this.” He wasn’t talking to me. “You know what I want. And I’m willing to do anything to get it.”
Oh Gods, the lightning hadn’t stopped. It flowed from his hands around my neck, down my spine to every nerve ending. My vision wavered. Lifting a hand, I tried to push him off me, but he moved one hand off my neck and pinned my arms above my head. I couldn’t seem to call on any power while his coursed through me. He’d pinned me so tight I couldn’t move my arms or legs. His face was inches from mine. Zeus’ attention was on my hands as he struggled to keep them together. Lifting my head, I clamped my teeth into the skin of his neck, tearing them free when he let out a startled yelp.
Zeus swore and knocked my head into the floor with enough force to plant stars in my vision. “You stupid bitch!” He wrapped his hands around my throat. I pushed at them weakly, but his grip was iron tight.
“Where?” I gasped, drawing on as much power as I could.
“Dead, all right? I killed him.”
My mind went blank with shock. I stopped struggling. Went limp beneath him.
Zeus’ hands loosened a fraction. “A couple days before I captured you.” He smirked. “Stupid kid didn’t last an entire hour.”
Days before Zeus captured me? “How? I was just with him!”
“He gave me everything, his power, access to his realm, thoughts, memories, dreamscapes, everything. Everything he was is up here.” Zeus tapped his head. “I drained it all before I sent his empty shell of a soul to the Underworld.”
I felt a start of surprise from Hades and caught a glimpse of a mental image. Triton in the throne room, face blank with shock before Cassandra whisked him away.
He was dead. He was really dead. I thought of his smile. His voice cracking, face turning bright red with embarrassment.
“It’s all my fault. I shouldn’t have left the circle. But I wanted to know what it was like out there.” A sob broke through Triton’s voice. “It hurt. It hurt so bad.”
“You bastard!” I shrieked, lashing out with a wave of crackling energy encased in flame. “He was just a kid!”
Zeus deflected the blow, but his face tightened with pain. “You’ll be joining him soon enough.”
“I can’t swear fealty to you! My promise—”
“To never act with intent of harming Hades?” Zeus laughed and drew his hand back. “Kind of depends on you being sane enough to understand intent.” With that he slammed his fist into my gut, releasing wave after wave of lightning.
Chapter XLIV
Persephone
“Persephone…”
Stirring, my eyes fluttered open. “What?” I looked around, confused at finding myself curled up on the grass beneath a weeping willow.
Mom sat against the trunk, fingers combing through my hair. “Wake up, sweetie.”
“How did I get here?” I sat up, looking around the picturesque landscape. Flowers bloomed everywhere. The sun shone bright in the sky, filtering through the green leaves of the weeping willow. Its trunk was just a little wider than Mom. That bugged me for some reason I couldn’t put my finger on.