the background. “Your mother had a kind heart as well,” he said. “The sins will try to corrupt you, and the longer you hold them, the stronger the corruption will be. Your heart … you need to keep it pure.”
I swallowed roughly. “And how do I keep it pure?”
He shrugged. “I’m not sure, but the seer should have some answers.”
The rage again, tempered this time because I was ready for it. “Nope. Let’s just go after the next sin.”
“No,” Cronus rumbled. “You need to rest and let Turmoil and Strife settle. We don’t know the side effects of taking on each sin.”
Hyperion cleared his throat. “Want me to talk with Thanatos and see if I can organize a meeting with Selene’s essence? I know he has his strict rules, but any information she could give us about what Maisey is going through would help.”
My throat went dry at the mention of my mother and her essence.
Cronus nodded. “Yes. Do that. Use more than a little persuasion to convince Thanatos that it’s time to bend his rules.” He spun to the other two. “Can you pick up Rhea and make sure she’s recovered? We need to go after Jealousy before he crumbles cities in his quest to make the world succumb to their base instincts.”
The pair nodded. “We’re going to need our last two brothers,” Crius added. “I know you’re not on speaking terms with Oceanus, but we can’t do this without him.”
So far it had seemed like each sin had a god that was adept at fighting them, and they were asking for the next to be returned to life. I couldn’t imagine having the strength to bring more back, not yet.
“We don’t need them yet,” Hyperion said gruffly. “I can handle Jealousy and Famine. Those two have always been my favorites to destroy.”
Famine? Well, great. Just what we needed. A bunch of angry jealous people that were also starving. #BringBackStrifeAndTurmoil #Kidding
“We also need to send Zeus a very strong message,” Cronus added, his voice nothing more than a rumble of pissed-off. “He took Maisey from me, he caused her pain, and I can’t let that go unanswered.”
That voice did something to my lady parts, because they were all tingling. And this time it had nothing to do with the sin energy I was carrying around like a pack animal. Nope, it was all Cronus.
“Zeus will get what’s coming to him,” Hyperion said, and he smiled in a way that caused all the sexy feelings to dry up and dread to form in my gut. If that smile was directed at me, I’d be running and screaming. I didn’t like Zeus, like at all, and I almost felt sorry for the poor bastard. He’d taken this vendetta against the Titans too far this time. The only thing saving him was the fact that we were kind of busy trapping sins. Otherwise, he’d already be suffering.
“Let’s rain check on Zeus,” Cronus agreed, a similar scary smile playing across his lips. “For now, we finish our tasks, and then we meet up again to take down the next two sins.”
Everyone agreed and Hyperion asked to take Hound with him. Then they did their zapping away thing, Hyperion stopping briefly to give me a hug before he vanished. I felt a little better knowing he was out there in the world, keeping an eye on everything.
“How are you feeling?” Cronus asked, his gaze running down my face before settling on my necklace. “Are you adjusting?”
Automatically, my head nodded. I hadn’t really stopped to think about it or check, and I wondered if that had been a reflex reaction, or if somehow the sins controlled that response. Either way, it was scary.
“I’m feeling slightly angrier and more annoyed than usual,” I admitted, forcing the words out. “But the necklace isn’t heavy like last time, and I’m finding that odd.”
Cronus grimaced. “Now that we’ve realized the necklace carries no real burden, your brain no longer expects it to be heavy.”
“I am tired,” I said softly, wanting to drop to the ground and sleep for a dozen years. “So, it’s my body with the heavy load now.”
His expression went hard as he opened and closed his hands at his side. Cronus didn’t like to feel helpless. I could tell he’d never really felt that way, outside of being a prisoner, but even then, he’d still controlled what he could.
In this situation, there was very little he could do to help me.
I had to carry this burden