Greek Blood

Chapter IX: Cronus

When the light around us fades, I am met with the piercing cry of a man. My eyes fly open to see that we are standing at the top of a hill covered in grass. Apollo's hand is still warm in mine, but I feel him tense up just before he pushes me behind him and let’s go.

Hera grabs me and pulls me back a few feet, and Apollo, Artemis, Hades and Dionysus form a circle around us.

"Slow down time, Dana" Hera hisses in my ear, standing back to back with me.

I nod and on instinct close my eyes, focusing on everything around her and I and imagining it slowing down. I’ve never done this before, but it feels right. A tugging in my gut follows, along with a roiling sensation. Opening my eyes, I can see that the ring around us, in between us and the circle of gods around us slows down and almost looks like I'm looking out through a windowpane.

I smile a bit before something an invisible impact hits me, sending me bumping back into Hera. I catch myself before I fall, but my throat closes up and the ground rushes up to meet my face. My hands shoot out, catching my body before the ground can do any damage. The scorching anguish of an invisible roaring fire crashes into my chest, forcing my back into an arc in an attempt to escape it, disappearing after a moment’s agony. Gasping, I slowly stand up with the help of Hera’s hands grasping my elbows. Pushing her away, I try to peer past the ring of gods and warped time around us, but the dark hides the secret. What the hell? "What was that?"

"A god has fallen. That was the pain that they felt with their last breath, allowing their power to enter you. Must have been someone from the first group" Hera answers me softly. She closes her eyes, focusing on something internally. I pray for it not to be him, since he was in the first group, but Hera says the one name I didn't want to hear. "Poseidon is the first dead. Prometheus killed him. Poseidon did manage to stop him from killing Hermes though. It's a shame he's the first to die." Though her words come easy, the tightness in her voice doesn’t escape me.

I bow my head to hide the moisture building in my eyes, not asking how she knows this. She has a connection to her family, I'm sure they have ways to communicate. But Poseidon. Oh Poseidon. Why did you have to die first? You stupid man. Who will have faith in me now? Apollo? He's not you!

'I know he's not me, but even now I still have faith in you' Poseidon's voice echoes in my head before the feeling of the sea washes through me, the smell of salty waters calming the irritated nerves within me. He fades into the background, my feel for the time loop around me winning out over it, but I swear he’s still here.

Turning to face Hera, a tear slips down my cheek as the overwhelming crushing sense of losing Poseidon hits me and I chew my bottom lip, feeling slightly insane. "I heard him."

Hera nods but keeps her eyes on Hades' back. "Of course you did. You inherited his power, a part of his essence. He would have had a window of about twenty seconds to say something before his essence settled into you."

Twenty seconds. Enough to hear me rant about him. Enough time to answer me and then settle. "So we just wait here until the Titans break through the first group?"

"Yes. There will probably not be many, and the rest of us will get rid of them. Cronus will kill whoever is left other than you and I." Hera says it like it's the most obvious thing in the world, but I can tell she's suffering. "All of my family. And out of them, you chose me even though I treated you badly. Why?"

I purse my lips and step into the time loop, ignoring Hera's question and her hiss of alarm as I walk through it whipping my tears away, not affected. I walk over to Apollo and place my hand on his lower back while stepping up beside him. "Apollo."

His muscles are tense underneath my touch, aware and ready, and he holds his bow, arrow strung, waiting for something to jump out of the darkness. Feeling my touch, he looks down at me in alarm before relaxing a bit. "Dana. Go back into the circle."