Furious

Chapter Thirty-Five

Zeus looked down at us: he was not only tall, but disdainful and arrogant as well, the same dominance that oozed off of Alecto burst out of his form. He clearly thought there were better ways to waste his time than waging war against all of the Underworld, but hey, even the king of the gods has to do things he doesn't want to, right?

Piercing blue eyes glared out over the gathered forces, both in favor of and against him; all those who congregated on the riverbank were recipients of his ire.

He held a large staff in his right hand, one end resting on the soil of the riverbank. "Where is Hector, the pretender on the throne of my brother?" his voice thundered over our heads and was met with complete silence.

No one said a word. Not the army of Hades who had, just a moment ago, roared its enthusiasm for bloodshed. There once stood an army of beast and man to inspire nightmares, ready to take on an omnipotent enemy with infinite power. Zeus so quickly shattered that illusion.

I wondered where Ares, the replacement Ares, was. Did the Olympians exclude him as they had Hector, the replacement Hades? Did they despise Ares' new body as much as they did Hades' or were the Olympians simply prone to loathe Hades, as was their terrible habit?

Suddenly the world dropped away from my feet. No; Alecto had flung her powerful wings into the air and pushed off of the ground. She hovered majestically over the armies of both sides, assessing the enemy.

At least I think she was majestic. I wouldn't know: my worldview was a bit skewed from the limited vision I was privy to. I rather imagined her small and weak, hovering above the giants in her borrowed body.

Hold your tongue.

I grinned an invisible grin. Getting under her skin was easier than I thought. No pun intended.

When Alecto peered down at the ground and the armies below her, she was greeted with a fortuitous sight: Zeus and the Olympians had not brought an army half as large as that of the Underworld. They were outmatched; if numbers alone would win wars, the Underworld would revel in victory.

There was the River Styx and just on the opposite bank stood the army of Olympus. On our side was a mammoth gathering of misfits and beasts, some with multiple heads, some with wings, others looking ordinary and human, standing in the shadow of the fortress. It rose so far into the air that it touched the rocky ceiling of the realm, hundreds of feet above our heads. The only thing separating the ragtag bunch of creatures from the Olympians was the River, bubbling along, thick and ominous. It flowed excitedly, a living entity, like it knew we would be feeding it our dead to carry on to their next journey.

"You don't need him, Zeus. We are here, ready, why does it matter where he hides?" Alecto called out to Zeus. Until she spoke, he had made a show of not noticing her. Once she dared to open her mouth against him, he would never forget her face.

My face.

"He is the traitor here, at best he should have courage enough to face me," Zeus gripped his great staff and raised it to plunge the end deeply into the ground. A wall of light burst from the soil where the staff punctured it, starting at the point of perforation, creating a line across the ground between the two armies. It stood, a solid wall of light that rippled through the air, and then it was gone at quickly as it had come into being.

"There is no need for theatrics, Zeus," Hector's voice boomed out over the riverbank. "I have no need to hide from you, now or ever."

Alecto whipped my head around so quickly it nearly twisted away from my neck. Hector launched himself off of a balcony on one of the levels of the fortress behind us. I never knew there were balconies—or windows to get to the balconies for that matter—in the fortress of the Underworld. Apparently there was a lot I didn't know. It bothered me.