“Are you still sick? You don’t look well. Maybe we shouldn’t wake Hyperion just yet ... give you a chance to recover from the last.”
I shook myself. “No, if he’s powerful, let’s wake him. Then I’ll rest.”
Cronus nodded, reaching out to grasp my fingers. He frowned. “You’re warm.”
“I’m fine. I think Rhea just poisoned my mushrooms,” I confessed. Joking. Or not.
His eyes widened a little as if he wondered if Rhea was capable of such a thing. I was half human, and even with the bond, I would probably die first and he might not even get ill until well after me, if at all.
“No … she wouldn’t.” But there was some alarm on his face.
I was about to retort when Hound started barking like crazy.
Pulling me along, fingers interlaced, we entered the cave, crossing to the dog.
“No!” Cronus let my hand go and made a fist, punching it right into the recently upturned earth.
“What is it?” It looked like someone had already been here.
Cronus fell to his knees, digging through the rocks. “Jealousy … he must have known where Hyperion was laid to rest. The sins are faster and smarter this time.”
Shit, that didn’t sound good, I really wanted to help but my brain wasn’t thinking right. I was burning up. “Umm, Cronus … can you go back in time and get me some Tylenol?”
Maybe I should hit up urgent care, make sure Rhea hadn’t poisoned me. #NotJokingNow
When the god of time looked up at me, his eyes went wide.
“No,” he bit out. “No! Fuck!”
He was staring at my chest, so I looked down. Skin that used to be pale and flawless was now covered in a red speckly rash. The visible veins below were black, spanning out across my body like a fancy new tattoo.
“I don’t think this is poison,” I said faintly. Poison didn’t give you rashes and black blood, right?
Cronus stood, very carefully, and walked over to me. He cupped my face and forced me to look up at him. With his thumbs, he pulled my eyelids up and the dizziness got worse.
“Fuck.” He swore. “Maisey … did Sickness … touch you?”
My mind jolted. I mean, technically ... I think his fingers brushed my arm back in Egypt, but it was only very light, for a second.
“Barely,” I squeaked.
Cronus let my face go and started to pace the cave. I just stood there, hot, sick, and dizzy, watching him wear footprints into the dirt.
“What is it?” I begged.
“I’m a Titan, so it doesn’t affect me, but you’re half human.”
“WHAT is it?” I asked again, with as much force as my feverish body could manage.
He stopped and faced me. “The plague. Sickness gave you the plague.”
Oh fuck.
#ThisWasNotGoingOnInsta
Chapter 14
Like it had been waiting for the acknowledgement of its ferocity, the plague suddenly sent me into a massive coughing fit, and by the time I wheezed for air, I wasn’t sure my lungs were even functioning.
“The plague! As in the same one that killed millions?”
Cronus had been holding me while I coughed up a lung, and he didn’t release me, but he did move back a little to see my face again. “Sickness loved the plague … so that’s his first line of attack. He’s probably modified it a bit, had some fun with this strain.”
Fun. Right. Everything hurt so badly I wanted to sob, but I was too parched to spare the tears. “How are they so strong?” I whispered. “How do they have the power to do this?”
Cronus’ face shuttered as his lips thinned. He opened his mouth and shut it, before shaking his head. “I’ve mentioned that the sins were gods. Originally.”
I nodded. That I did already know, but I hadn’t learned anything else about how they turned from gods to sins.
Cronus propped me up as I started to slide to the ground—my legs were weak bastards.
“The nine gods were lesser deities who discovered that evil was more powerful to them than whatever they were before. Sickness … he used to be vitality, the god of vitality, but he figured out how to reverse his gifts, and in doing so it powered him to astronomical levels. All of the other sins were the same, and eventually they grew so strong that the human race was on the brink of extinction, so the Titans had to combine our powers and lock them away. We did this over and over until eventually, with the help of Selene and some others, we formed the final box. They should never