Page 42 of Until the End of Ever (To the Cruel Gods #2)

LUCIAN

T o be entirely honest, I was reasonably certain we were going to die. I figured letting go together, at peace, rather than losing our strength after days of swimming without a safe shore in sight wasn’t the worst prognosis, so I followed Kleos’s lead.

And then we slammed onto cool, crystal floor, hard enough to bruise. I coughed up half a pool's worth of water, out of my mouth and nostrils, my eyes burning, but I didn’t even care.

“Kleos!” My screams echoed around the translucent blue walls surrounding us.

Her hand was still in mine, wet and cold, but solid.

She didn’t seem in a much better state than I was, equally drenched, her nose and eyes red.

None of that mattered. We were alive.

I brought my lips to hers, needing to feel her more than I needed air, my hands greedily palming every inch of skin I could get to. I would have taken her right there and then if it hadn’t been for an interruption: a slow, steady clap.

We both turned, suddenly more aware of our surroundings.

The walls weren’t blue, they were transparent. We were seeing the deep sea beyond.

We were underwater.

The vast hall we’d landed in was empty, except for a man, calmly lounging on a throne shaped like a wave, a white and gold trident lying across his lap.

He was young, and quite beautiful, with wavy white hair falling to his knees, and sea-blue eyes, not unlike Kleos's and yet infinitely colder, the very violence of the crashing waves reflected in their depths.

How foolish I was to have dismissed it all.

I didn’t want to jump to any conclusions. Her eyes could very well have been sky blue. But with insight—duh. She even smelled like the sea.

Poseidon appeared the picture of affable relaxation, holding himself not unlike my father when he received guests. But his very presence was enough to crush my courage, my will, my hope. I knew he could destroy us with a fleeting thought.

And by the looks he shot me? He just might.

The divine monster grinned. It was not pleasant. “Man, Apollo was not kidding. You guys are entertaining .”

I moved first, bowing respectfully, though Kleos and I were both already on our knees, so I couldn’t properly prostrate myself.

Instead of kneeling before him, Kleos stood, taking three steps toward him. I had to restrain myself from grabbing her and shoving her behind me, where she’d be safe. Safer. He could go through me, easily.

She seemed to think better of it once she was closer, pausing a few feet away from his throne, and allowing me to breathe again.

“You were the old man, that day,” she murmured. “You saved me. Then and now.”

As the god didn’t seem to care one way or another, I got to my feet, too.

Poseidon’s face seemed to blur, and the next moment he was decades older, before returning to his wrinkle-free version.

“I attract less attention in the other form,” he told her with a smile. “And yeah, I guess. You were a cute kid, you know? Plus, technically, the whole thing was my fault for leaving my books out.”

He shrugged indifferently, as though recreating her had been an afterthought, an easy feat.

And perhaps it had been.

“Thank you,” Kleos blurted. “I looked for you—for years. To say thank you.”

“I know. I had to stop hanging out in the Hall after that. Relentless little thing. And curious. Far too curious for your own good.”

He said all that with a kind smile, which was…strange? I still retained an air of absolute danger whenever I could bring myself to stare at him directly, rather than look at Kleos, desperate to keep her safe when I knew my power would mean nothing.

Helplessness wasn’t a state I was used to. Even before Apollo, I hadn’t felt this inept.

Poseidon didn’t even have to kill us. He could just dissolve this water bubble full of air, and let us drown, if we weren’t torn apart by the creatures of the deep first.

“Why?” she asked, perfectly comfortable with holding a conversation now.

That made one of us.

“I was trying to avoid this.” He waved towards her. “Or delay it as much as possible. One little interaction could have gone unnoticed. If you’d seen me again, it was likely that your existence would have been spotted sooner.”

“And that’s a problem?” I made myself ask.

Those sea blue eyes were not particularly kind when directed towards me. At least they didn’t turn to fire like Apollo’s.

“I don’t know, you tell me. Does it feel like our Kleos is having a nice, peaceful life since she’s been noticed?”

I felt stupid, understanding his meaning. “Now someone knows you’d made a new goddess, they fear what she could be when she comes of age.”

Apollo had already told us as much, of course, but I had problems computing the concept of fear with the thing sitting before us.

What would he have to be wary of?

But of course, there was an answer to that too.

“You don’t need to hold your tongue down here, boy. You can say my brother’s name. He might be all-powerful up in his world, but this is mine.” Poseidon spun his trident before standing. “Zeus wants you gone because he’s sensed what you are. Whose power you’ve reclaimed.”

I thought I heard an echo of thunder, but it was far away, the sounds of the waves overtaking it.

Zeus.

We had our answer.

The worst possible answer we could think of. I would have taken Hades any day.

“I don’t understand,” Kleos said. “I mean, I can’t be that relevant. Why is he targeting me like this?”

He chuckled. “A little history lesson, kid. Zeus stayed on top because he murdered or controlled all those who could defy him. Me? He bound to the sea. I don’t mind the gig, don’t get me wrong.

But mostly, it keeps me out of his way. And Hades, he sent to the underworld.

The thing inside you? She doesn’t like to do what she’s told.

He murdered her in cold blood, twice, so far. ”

“Lucian said when a god dies, their energy stays, and can link itself to someone. That’s what’s happening to me?” She bit her lip. “Would I disappear when she emerges?”

“Sounds like your boy knows a thing or two.” The god tapped his trident, and a tridimensional image of the Milky Way appears.

“This is our known universe—our cosmos, our galaxy. And this is chaos.” Thousands, millions of other stars and planets joined the first hologram, filling the entire room.

“A bloody mess, if you ask me. When something stops being , it becomes part of chaos again, to be cut into tiny pieces and remade.”

“Now, a tree, a human being, a cat? That gets digested back into chaos pretty easily. A god? We’re made of stronger stuff. Think of us as nasty batteries. Very hard to recycle. You can break the shell, but it’ll leave a trace.”

That god might hate my guts, but he was very, very good at explaining things. I was familiar with the concept myself but it had never been clearer. I wanted to take notes. I wanted to ask him a million questions.

But Kleos came first. “So where does she fit in?”

He kept his attention on Kleos. “When I rebuilt your flesh, I kept your soul intact. You are the same kid you were before I put you back together. And that kid had some things in common with one specific entity. One that was even more probable to attach herself to you because I was the one who built her the first time around.”

“Who?” Kleos asked.

Poseidon winked. “Can’t give you all the answers. Telling you what you are is risking messing up your own growth. You should work that part out yourself. What I can assure you is that that goddess would have no intention of erasing you.”

I frowned. “Isn’t that what the old gods do? Take over their host, like Apollo?”

“Apollo is a young god, and he has reasons to stay attached to this world. His sister, for one. So long as there’s a trace of Artemis in this world, you can be certain he’ll never let go.

The one you claimed, Kleos—she’s been trying to let go for a long time.

Gifting her power is the one way she can achieve oblivion. ”

He said oblivion like one would say peace. With some longing.

“So, I’m not in danger from the power inside me. But Zeus?—”

“None of us Olympians can undo what has been made by another god. Zeus couldn’t return you to your mortal shell. He could, and likely would, kill you, if necessary. But my brother doesn’t like to piss me off when he doesn’t have to. The next best thing, therefore, is to control you.”

“Through a forced husband ,” Kleos scoffed.

“A husband of his choosing, under his thumb, obeying his every edict—and you, enslaved to him.” Never mind. Poseidon’s eyes could be twice as terrifying as Apollo’s. Blue wasn’t supposed to be able to burn .

“That’s barbaric.”

“Yes. Some of us evolve, the others remain what we were thousands of years ago. Zeus never put much value on what women wanted.”

“And you?” I asked. “Can you help?”

He laughed, showing canines a little serrated and sharper than a shark’s. “You’re here, rather than holding your breath in the belly of Charybdis. Now, if you’re asking me to go to war with my brother for you? I am fond of my daughter, but no thank you.”

Daughter. That was why he was looking at her like she was a gift—and why I received a warning glance. The god saw Kleos as his.

“You’d let her get enslaved?” I pressed.

Poseidon shrugged. “You have all the tools to prevent that. In fact, aren’t you wearing a ring that would ensure there’s no need for further conversation right this moment?”

I glanced toward the signet ring on my hand, jaw tight.

How could I share that I didn’t want Kleos bound to me out of necessity? Not when I wanted her to choose this, choose us.

He was right. I was wearing it because if the situation called for it, I wanted to be prepared to do what it took to keep her safe. So far, the runes I’d carved into her seemed to have worked. We had time.

But that was before knowing that Zeus wanted her either enslaved or dead.

“And say we bond. What’s to stop your brother from killing us both?”

The god leaned back on his seat, tilting his head. “What sort of creatures would you say you want to control or kill, hm?”

I killed those who were a danger to my community. I didn’t particularly want to control anyone.

“Never mind. I can see I’m asking the wrong person.” His eyes focused on Kleos next. “Any ideas, dear?”

“Something…something we’re afraid of.”

“Precisely. The one thing that can stop Zeus from killing Kleos is Kleos.”

We exchanged a glance.

I knew she was powerful to the extreme. Her energy practically had no limit. But Kleos was no warrior.

Except…she had been, against Python. She could be, when the situation called for it.

“Come on,” she drawled, with a pout and puppy dog eyes worthy of Phobos. “One little hint?”

The god tsked. “Now, that’s not fair. I’ve given you plenty. Begone, the pair of you. And Kleos? I will expect you to keep your end of the bargain. Every month .”