Releasing The Gods (The Titan's Saga #1)- Leia Stone Page 0,51

then his eyes darkened. “I believe that,” he murmured, breaking the eye contact to turn back to Hound, checking him over.

Meanwhile I was standing there wondering if maybe I’d be the one to beg, because Cronus was killing me. Slowly. Piece by piece, he was taking my soul, and soon he’d own all of me.

#Fuck.

Chapter 16

Turned out we were in the Himalayan Mountains. Cronus was wandering around, and I remained positioned near a rock outcrop, trying to figure out how to stay warm.

“There’s definitely something from Hyperion here,” he said as he strode back, snow and ice crunching under his boots, the hard winds blowing snow through his dark hair. A few flakes even rested on his eyelashes.

With a sigh, Cronus pulled his own backpack off his shoulder and pulled out a giant hoodie he’d gotten from the concierge. “Wear this.” He tossed it to me and I caught it midair.

“Fine, if you insist.”

#PleaseInsist

I tossed the hoodie over my small form. It hung to my knees, bringing delicious warmth with it. A guy didn’t give you his hoodie unless he wanted to fuck you.

#Fact

The wind picked up and I realized I had vastly underestimated how cold it actually was. Something told me if I wasn’t half god, I would have been frozen in minutes. As it was, I barely managed to follow Cronus for the first few steps. Hound, who must have noticed me lagging, fell back to walk beside me, and I could have moaned at the heat his body was throwing off. The delicious tendrils traced up my side, and I all but climbed on his back.

“Hound, you’re so hot,” I murmured, pressing my frozen fingers to his side.

Cronus, who’d stopped to wait for us, snorted. “He’s a hellhound. What did you expect?”

I glared. “Right now, he’s ten times more useful than you are, so quiet down and do what you’re good at…”

He stilled, watching me with predator eyes. “And what is that?”

Releasing Hound, I took a few steps forward, before patting him condescendingly on the chest. “Looking pretty, of course. That’s why I keep you around.”

Take that, asshole. No one rejects my sexual advances without getting some shade thrown.

I waited for him to get angry … offended. But he didn’t. He just stared me down with hooded eyes and a neutral expression, but I could see his mind turning with plenty of thoughts.

Against my will, I shivered, and he noted that before straightening to resume his march across the snow. Hound was guiding us, his nose to the ground, and I wondered if the cold interfered since he was clearly bred to live in the heat. When he made a rumbling sound, our pace picked up, and so did the wind apparently. I could barely see anything in front of us, and I hoped we weren’t about to stumble off a cliff.

“Is this a new piece of Hyperion?” I asked, gasping in the icy air that hurt my throat and my face. “Or the same one from the previous location?”

Cronus was in front of me; I couldn’t see his face. I could barely hear his voice as he shouted back: “The same. Jealousy cannot destroy a piece of a Titan, but he can place it in one of the least accessible places on Earth. He wouldn’t have held on to it for long, because our energy is painful to the sins. It makes sense that he just dumped it somewhere here.”

I swallowed hard. “How are the sins doing this when they’re not fully released yet? Like … Sickness was the only one spreading his filth around the world. Then Turmoil would be next. So how is Jealousy smuggling body parts to the Himalayas?”

Cronus took a second to answer because Hound had paused near a large cave. A cave that had not been visible until we were basically right at the mouth of it. Stepping into the dark entrance gave us a moment’s reprieve from the high winds.

“The first part of the sins manifesting is forming a body, and the second part is their powers. This is slower … it takes time,” Cronus murmured, staring around the rocky area in front of us. “They’ll all have limited access to the same powers the gods and Titans have, like speed, strength, and the ability to teleport from one location to another. Their sins though, will not appear until the full manifestation of their power.”

Awesome. #CantWait

Hound made another sound, and Cronus turned his attention to the beast, the pair of