Page 7 of Immortal Sun (Dark Olympus)

CHAPTER 7

CYRUS

“Empty words are evil.” -Homer, The Odyssey

I ’m annoyed.

Well, irritated is more like it. The very fact that Bast just clung to her when he hasn’t so much as looked at me in the last decade—don’t even get me started on Rat and his inability to hand over any sort of food to anyone he deems unworthy.

I don’t see Cleo for the next hour—that is until I’m getting ready to go feed the animals that refuse to leave the alleyway.

They may not be the same as they used to be, but they’re still living breathing beings that need familiarity, which means I try as damn hard as possible to make sure I visit each and every one of them, even if they don’t recognize me anymore or know what I am, what they are. It’s been years since any of them have been called on, so there they sit. If I think about it too much it makes me feel like even more of a failure than I already am. The gods gave me time and what did that do? Nearly ruin the help they gave me in order to get my task done. I went through so many immortals, using their help along the way that they even forgot what their purpose was below the mountain.

It’s hopeless anyway, and to return them to whatever state they started in without just cause would pretty much be the biggest party fail. After all, even if they could still help it’s almost over.

It’s unfortunate that when I look into their eyes it’s so very different from before.

The air even tastes different now. I wonder if it’s me, if it’s the universe knowing that I’m done, or if it’s just boredom and sorrow.

One last sacrifice.

One day at a time.

I can do this one more time.

All I need to do is focus on the next step and focus on the end.

Naturally, Enki chooses the worst moment to send me a text when I’m headed outside to see a visual reminder of all my failures.

Enki

So I heard she’s pretty.

Me

Let me guess, word of my fun weekly dinner party got out and dick face Daggon opened his mouth again.

Enki

To be fair he never really closes it.

Me

I loathe him.

Enki

And yet you feed him.

Me

I have to feed everyone. It’s kind of in my nature and it’s not like I sacrifice an animal anymore. I let the cook do that.

Enki

You do realize that’s why Rat refuses to make eye contact—he thinks he’s next.

I mentally roll my eyes.

Me

I don’t eat squirrel.

Enki

And yet, they would.

Me

Because they’ve lost their grip on reality and only want one thing from me, the same thing everyone wants, even you. Did you have a point to this text other than to tell me she’s pretty? I mean they all are. It means nothing.

Enki

Feels different.

Me

You haven’t met her.

Enki

Has Cow?

I literally want to crush my phone in my hand and then toss it into the ocean to get fed on. Of course he’d bring that up.

Me

Cow hates everyone, even you and you know there’s a certain type of magic with her, she exists in the shadows and no, she hasn’t met the cow, the cow doesn’t like strangers.

Enki

Interesting. Should I stop by and say “hi”?

The idea of Enki trying to seduce Cleo has my blood boiling for the first time in a very long time—the guy doesn’t know when to stop and has zero self-control when he sees something pretty—it doesn’t matter if it’s food, a guy, a girl, a random tree branch—he’ll seduce the shit out of it, trick it, then cry foul when bad things happen because he’s using his powers for evil. The guy’s a hot mess.

I type back finally.

Me

Do you want to die?

Enki

You can’t kill me, it’s against your weird moral compass.

Me

What’s weird is you think I have one…

Enki

Even weirder—she believes you do.

I don’t respond to that; I don’t really want to go there. Instead, I ignore his next text. After failing his challenge as a god, he lives to annoy the shit out of me. Every god that fails is trapped for their entire immortal existence, they’ll never ascend to Olympus; they’ll simply wither away, and become a human that never dies with minimal power.

All I have is today, then tomorrow, then the next day, and the one after that until she’s gone.

How pathetically depressing for both of us.

Enki is one of the worst of them, kind of like the friend your parents warn you about, the one that tells you just one sip, just one shot, just one time. And every time you hear “just” fall from their lips you throw caution to the wind and enjoy it, but only until you reap the consequences.

Quite honestly, it’s shocking we’re friends and not mortal enemies.

That and alarming to every other person who lives in Deer Harbor and has a vested interest in our friendship.

He’s technically my exact opposite, I loathe his father, in theory it shouldn’t work, and yet it does.

We even holiday together—it makes zero sense to me and to everyone else, hell he even has a guest room in my home.

He asked if he could paint it black like my soul just to piss me off.

And I let him.

With a curse, I start walking out toward the pasture.

“Wait!” Cleo’s voice interrupts my irritated thoughts. Her footsteps follow as she tries to keep up. “One of the house keepers said you have cows! Can I come?”

Cows. Plural. But only one remains near Styx for a reason.

Only one matters, I need more cows to hide the one that stands out, though to the naked eye, all three look the same, except this one with its black and brown coloring that seems to shimmer in the moonlight.

Cow’s really the worst for attention during the night because she only survives off people praising her beauty—and that includes her fellow cows fawning over her. That specific goddess was asked to take care of all the animals in the Western Hemisphere for a hundred years. An entire town lost all of their cows to a fire when she was busy spending time with Constantine. Within seconds he had a cow on his lap rather than a goddess of beauty.

I let out a sigh without realizing it. Did all of my pets lose their minds over the last few hours? The whole point is to stay hidden at all times.

Maybe they’re just as bored and annoyed as I am, I wouldn’t blame them even if they have gone feral and decided to go back into their original state, it doesn’t mean that a spark of something else isn’t still existing in their blood, in their consciousness.

Hope , something says to me.

I bat the word right out of the sky.

Hope is a sad, pathetic word used for humans who have no clue who controls the cosmos. Hope is like love; it’s something offered for manipulation. When have I ever felt both of those and actually understood their meanings?

I almost feel sad for Cleo as she stands next to me, that despite her demise, she’ll have one, maybe both, and think… “I’m the outlier.”

Never.

“She’s not exactly friendly,” I mutter under my breath nothing belonging to our world truly is especially after losing so much.

“What?” Cleo catches up despite my long strides. Her dark hair bounces against her shoulders, and her blue and green eyes stare up at me in curiosity.

Funny, how people always assume it’s either a curse from birth or a miracle.

I wonder how they never understood that differing eyes is a sign of something so much greater and yet darker than their wildest imaginations. Chaos, after all, never plays fair, it never chooses until the end.

I force a polite smile. “It’s just a pasture full of beef cattle. Shouldn’t you be getting ready for training?”

“And miss all the animals and exploring? Plus I did sign an NDA.” She shrugs. “ I’m excited to see what Jake discovered while he was roaming around here.

being a complete idiot.”

I can’t tell if she’s trying to goad me or if she’s genuinely curious if her brother really is that big of a fuck up. Either way, I can’t help but smile back which is irritating in and of itself. “You should at least be prepared.” I sigh. “He had a wild imagination and did end up discovering a lot of things. He became obsessed with the hidden artifacts.”

I’m baiting her.

And she has no idea.

She’ll be curious by nature just like him.

I look deep into her eyes, my own getting strangely lost in the storm of hers. “It really can get dangerous here and some of the things your brother was looking into can be quite…dark.”

The absence of light. How pathetic.

She waves me off. “He has a hobby, he’s flightly like that, plus he’s always been interested in our family heritage and mythology of all kinds.”

I smile. “Life is dangerous, remember, you just never know.”

She stares off at the small gate in the alley way enclosure, and I know what she’s seeing. To the naked eye it looks like a small stable holding what would be a petting zoo but suddenly it shifts into something larger than life making you think you’ve lost your mind, but I allow her to really drink it in, I whisper the words under my breath. “Believe.”

She goes very still. She probably see’s the original mountainside that used to be here in this place with it’s tall green grass, a perfect black fence that holds at least a hundred head in, and a bright burning sun shining down on the land.

“What’s that?” She points a pale pink finger toward the only cow out of the three not eating, the one that Inti is convinced would eat him in his sleep just to prove a point about her friends and family getting butchered. “That cow looks different.”

Because she is different she used to be a goddess now look at her. “She prefers cheese.”

Cleo bursts out laughing, then stops when I don’t join in. “Wait, are you serious?”

“I think of it as a weird form of cow cannibalism, she provides the milk to the cheese we make here locally, and then eats it only to provide it again, weird as hell.”

“I miss cheese.”

I do a double take. “That’s your take away?”

“It’s not like the cow knows she’s eating cheese made from her own milk, that’s even weirder than the cannibalism.”

“And what about the fact that we have cows behind the pub?” I lift an eyebrow and grunt. “Plus she’s been alive a little long, refuses to give up, seems to be a running theme, hmm?”

Cleo looks up at me from the corner of her eye. “It’s probably the fumes of alcohol from the bar.”

It’s probably something else entirely, but I still nod and say, “Nature is immensely powerful, don’t forget that.”

“So…” She ignores me, but I can see what I said makes her a bit uncomfortable, I need to be more careful. “Before training can I at least know her story, the cheese eater?”

I almost laugh, then quickly change gears. “She’s old. She hates people. And you aren’t cheese. Not much more to say about that.” I turn around, ready to lead the way back to the bar.

Cleo doesn’t follow though, instead she holds out her hand to Cow. Bad idea. She’s just as stupid as her brother. Warnings do nothing.

Once Cow is close enough to touch her, she gives a warning bite against Cleo’s hand and then presents her back and starts kicking up dirt.

The horrific scream of terror that comes out of Cleo might be the most amusing thing I’ve ever seen.

I can barely hold back my smile. So Cow is jealous of others’ beauty, interesting.

Cow just looks between us then turns back around and abandons us to her food while Cleo looks traumatized. The last thing I need is for her to develop fear instead of faith me—us, the immortals.

So I lie.

It will be the first of many.

“She likes you,” I find myself wanting to convince her, wanting to see her smile again. “Promise.”

“Sounds…like a total fabrication. I almost feel like every animal and thing on your property either likes or hates me.”

I freeze. The others revealed themselves? That’s new. What the hell are they thinking? “What other animals have you met other than Bast, Rat, and Cow?”

She laughs and crosses her arms. “You have more?”

She has no idea. “Ha, yeah well, we love animals here.” Lie, total lie. “Are you hungry? For breakfast? Then I can show you the ropes.

Her smile’s wide and pretty again. “Sure, I’d love that, but, I mean you don’t have to. Do you even have time for that? I mean you don’t have to train me I’m sure there’s someone else that can. I mean eating with me is enough.” Her eyes go wide. “Not that I assumed you’d be eating with me, I just?—"

I wave her off. “I train every employee and we’ve already had dinner together, why not breakfast? Plus, it will give me time to show you around the bar.”

“Ah, all it’s hidden secrets.” She nods.

“Not all of them.” I say with a smirk. We do after all, leave the best for last.

She pauses. I can tell she’s trying to figure me out, but can’t help but want to be near me. I’m her sun after all. She craves me., the darkness of her chaos calls for the light. “Do you think at some point I could stop by the police station too? Get an update on Jake? Or at least remind them that he’s been flaking out on me and unreachable?”

“You worry too much but if it makes you feel better, absolutely.” It falls easy from my lips. They’ll find nothing on him. They’re on my side in this .

She nods, then tucks her thick jet-black hair behind her ears. “Then that sounds really good.” The way she swallows and looks up at me like she needs to be vigilant with me invigorates and improves my mood immensely.

She doesn’t realize what she senses; it’s so innocent and beautiful to someone so jaded.

“Anyway.” I clap my hands together. She instantly jumps a foot and presses a hand to her chest. “Let’s meet downstairs in twenty?”

“Sounds good.” Her smile wavers a bit. “Thanks, Cyrus.”

She said my name.

My name.

But not.

It’s not my real name.

But it will do.

For now.