“You look refreshed,” Erika comments when I appear at her camp to retrieve her for our next task. She’s seated under the command canopy with a stainless steel travel mug in one hand and the first half of the key in the other. On the table in front of her is a notebook with a detailed pencil sketch of the complete key and several notes jotted around it. It looks old, though, not recent.
“Mm,” I say noncommittally. “Research notes?”
“Private research notes.” She snaps the notebook shut and stands. “Shall we?”
I glance around, noting the camp is empty. “Where is everyone else? Down at the dig site?”
“Gabby won’t leave her father’s side. It’s a muddy mess after the rains, but my team is building some platforms so we can move camp down there at least until this is over. You know the key itself isn’t enough, right? The key requires a drop of blood from one of the residents of Olympus.” She holds the jagged-edged semicircle up as she threads a chain through one of its holes, then drapes it over her neck. It hangs like a heavy medallion against her breastbone.
“That won’t be an issue.”
She studies me for a beat. “You mean your guard Alcides, right? But he wasn’t here in the flesh. I’m guessing if we pricked his finger the next time he showed up, it would be your blood that came out. Am I wrong? And if I’m not mistaken, you’re too old to be a descendant of one of the twelve gods who lived here.”
I take a calming breath. “You’re not wrong. But he will come in the flesh if I ask.”
“And how goes it with your secret weapon? Nemea, was it? You look like you relieved some of that tension you were carrying yesterday.” She gives me a subtle smirk.
I narrow my eyes and shake my head. “We’re not talking about her.”
I take hold of her upper arm when she reaches me, then teleport us to the Pandemonium. She wrenches out of my grip as soon as she lands and rounds on me. “I want to meet her in person.”
“No.”
I push past her to the door to the room I landed us in. I have my own small apartment in the resort, which gives me a location to come and go to avoid notice.
“Does she know you’ve imprisoned her?”
“She’s safer there. No one can get to her.”
“Safer? In a prison? Where the absolute worst dregs of the supernatural get sent to remain for eternity—unless they break out, of course? It’s your fault we’re in this fucking position. You should be using every goddamn tool you can to get us out of it.”
We exit, and I stalk down the hallway with Erika on my heels. When we reach the elevators, I spin and face her, glowering.
“She. Is. Safer. Here.” I tap my temple, acutely aware of Nemea’s presence within me. It only takes a sliver of my awareness to find her in Asterius’ library, listening to him talk as he hunts down the tomes that can answer all her questions.
“Safer from what? The Titans you plan to aim her at the second she can fight? Safer from your fucking control?”
“We need to go.” I step into the elevator and swipe my keycard, then press the button for the penthouse.
“If you care one iota about this woman, don’t fucking lie to her, and don’t isolate her, or you’ll regret it,” she mutters, and I can feel her piercing glare burrowing into the back of my head.
I tilt my head back and sigh at the ceiling. “She wouldn’t have come if I told her she couldn’t leave again. And it’s the only way I can keep him away from her.”
“Him?” she asks, frowning. “Him who?”
I twist to look back at her. The key-half glimmers against her chest, and I glance down at it meaningfully. She looks down too, then presses her lips into a tight line, recognition filling her gaze when she returns it to me.
“But you agreed to give Fate access to Tartarus in exchange for this. How is that keeping her safe from him? Plus, Fate’s not a he…” She trails off and glances at the rising elevator numbers. “You don’t mean Fate, do you?”
I shake my head. “Fate’s damage is already done. They’re the reason we found her to begin with.” I hate the way emotion tightens my throat as I think about how she became ours. I don’t get overwhelmed this way about anything. “Now I need to keep her safe until she’s ready to fight with us. Fair warning that bargaining for the other half of that is going to be tricky, though.” I point at the key-half, and she looks down at it, hefting it gently in her palm.
“We’ll just have to be clever, I guess.”
The elevator doors slide open then, and I nod in thanks before I step out into the lobby of Chaos’ penthouse. It’s a wide corridor with a couple potted plants and a narrow table beneath a mirror, but no other furniture. His office doors are to the right, the apartment he resides in to the left. I go right, stepping through the door to the reception area where his assistant, Sergio, stands behind a sleek ebony desk, glowering at a printer.
“He’s waiting for you and Ms. Rosencrans,” he says in a tense, harried tone, barely shifting his attention away from the machine. He doesn’t even blink at the fact that I have a companion today. Of course Chaos is already aware of our visit, despite me not sending word.
“How does he know we’re coming?” Erika whispers before we reach the inner door.
“His mate is an oracle. She can see the future.”
I push the door open, gritting my teeth in anticipation of this meeting. I’m greeted by a smiling man in a chef’s jacket standing behind a counter stacked with bowls and spoons and…waffle cones?
“Ice cream?” he asks, holding up a scoop and an empty cone.
Erika stops and looks at me, eyebrows raised.
“He has a sweet tooth,” I explain.
“You’ve arrived just in time!” A booming voice says from across the room. We both turn toward the big desk at the far end to find Chaos rising from it. He’s dressed in his usual dark suit with the most obnoxious necktie that looks like a prismatic dragon puked all over it. He comes around to greet us, smiling his crooked smile at Erika as he takes her hand between both of his and squeezes.
“Ms. Rosencrans, I’ve heard so much about you! You are a legend among the higher races and gods alike. We have our eye on you, young lady.” His eyes sparkle with amusement, but Erika doesn’t smile back.
“I’m not sure whether I should be honored or terrified,” she quips. Chaos just chuckles and pats her arm.
His smile fades to a more serious tilt of his mouth when he greets me.
“It’s been too long, Vesh. Too long.”
“I literally saw you less than a week ago. You know I’ve been busy.”
“Under the circumstances, I would expect a report.” He turns dismissively and returns to Erika, hooking an arm around her waist and pulling her toward the ice cream bar. “You must have an ice cream sundae while we chat. We have gourmet gelato with freshly made Belgian chocolate sprinkles and caramel sauce, along with a myriad other toppings—ice cream in any flavor your heart desires.”
Erika’s shoulders tighten and she darts an alarmed look back at me. I give a slight, apologetic shake of my head, and she rolls her eyes.
“I’m actually good, thank you.”
Without missing a beat, he steers her toward the arrangement of sofas on the other side of the room, then returns to the ice cream to order himself a large bowl. I don’t miss the fact that he doesn’t offer any to me, not that I’d have taken him up on it. That thought is accompanied by a palpable sense of disappointment from within.
“Get back to work, Chrysaor,” I mentally chide.
“If I can’t have her, the least you can give me is a taste of something almost as sweet.”
“Give her time,” I say, throwing him a bone despite my possessive nature making me itch to say it. “She’s going to need all of us before long.”
Mollified for now, he fades back into the recesses of my mind, returning to whatever duties he was distracted from by the prospect of sweets.
I sit in an armchair near the sofa Erika is perched on. She leans over and whispers, “Is he always like this?”
“Perpetually. Makes it difficult to read his moods. Be careful about meeting his gaze—he’s tricky.”
I keep my eyes on Chaos while I speak in a low tone, sitting back when he turns to stride over to us, already spooning a large bite of fudge and sprinkle-covered ice cream into his mouth.
“We need the other half of the key to Olympus,” Erika says as he’s taking his seat. He halts halfway, lifting his eyes to her, before easing down the rest of the way. But he says nothing. He merely digs into the bowl, savoring several more bites while we wait for him to respond.
“I presume when you say other half that means you’ve already secured the first half from Fate?” He eyes us both as he licks his lips, then inserts another big spoonful into his mouth.
Erika tugs at the chain around her neck, pulling the half-moon disc out from beneath her shirt.
Chaos hums and shifts his gaze to me. “That must have cost you.”
“No more than I’ve already paid.”
He narrows his eyes. “It was Fate after all, wasn’t it? I had a feeling the old bastard would sink their threads into what’s mine before too long.”
I ignore the possessive comment and glance out the window where Sybil is yet again floating in the pool. He narrows his eyes at me, daring me to accuse him of benefiting from fate magic again, but I learned my lesson the last time.
He waves a hand and sighs. “I behaved rashly before. I know what you think about how Sybil and I found each other, but Deva’s hounds aren’t beholden to Fate; they merely connected two primordials who otherwise may not have found each other. It was as straightforward a match as there ever was. Yours is more complex, more intricate, considering all the pieces involved. It has the marks of Fate all over it, right down to the shattering of your doors.
“Let me guess… Fate wanted access, didn’t they? That’s what you traded. But did you consider why they want access? It isn’t to ensure proper security is observed. They need souls. They are weaving a new tapestry and need more souls to fill in the details. What are they scheming, do you think?”
“I honestly don’t care at this stage. My job is to capture four escaped Titans. That’s it.”
“Hmm, single-minded as always.” He smirks at me as if he’s made a joke. Beside me, Erika chuckles.
“The dick actually has a sense of humor,” Campe comments.
“You should care very much,” Chaos continues. “If Fate has their way, you may be out of a job before long.”
“I hardly see why that should bother me.” It does, in fact, bother me, but I don’t have the luxury of examining the ramifications of the bargain I made with Fate yet. I figure I’ll cross that bridge when I get there. Fate may have succeeded in breaking down my doors, but that was only a temporary breach. No one will be able to leave the prison without my permission, regardless of how much access Fate has.
“What do you intend to do once you gain access to Olympus? Tell me your plan and I’ll consider whether to give you the other half of the key.”
I take a breath and glance at Erika, who sits forward and says, “We want to use the key as bait. I told the Titans I knew how to get it. They are returning in a few more days to make the trade—releasing my mate and the other dragons from their curse in exchange. But we plan to open the temple before they come back, to find whatever power is inside that we can use to beat them. The power that was taken from them when they were incarcerated should be sufficient to use against them.”
Chaos lifts his brows and looks at me again. “And who would wield this power? Not many are capable of harnessing the power of a Titan. Vesh and his brothers might be, but there are four Titans and only three of them. Who would wield the power of the fourth one, hmm?”
He lifts an eyebrow at me before returning his gaze to Erika, who is giving me a pointed look now.
“Just say what you want,” I snap.
He chuckles, the sound grating against my very bones. “You already know what I want, dear boy. I want her even more now that Sybil has told me what she is—a chimera who can harness the power of chaos is a rare creature indeed, and the perfect balance to even the odds against Fate. You also know you have no choice but to give her to me. If you want her to be strong enough to take down the Titans, she’ll need my help. No one else is capable of controlling her power if it goes awry. Not even you.”
“My brothers and I will manage just fine,” I say. “You can’t have her.”
He tuts as he takes another bite of mostly melted ice cream, scraping the bowl with his spoon to finish off his treat. The bowl vanishes from his hand once he’s finished. “Are you sure you really want to test your luck? Without proper safeguards, she can destroy you, Tartarus. Are you really willing to risk your carefully constructed walls crumbling and releasing all the horrors that lurk within? Some may not be all that bad, sure, but you can’t deny most of the residents earned their place there. I’m offering you the best solution.”
“The Titans were the strongest. I’m confident I can contain any of the others if something happens.”
“I never knew you to be so reckless. My request is simple: the key for the girl.”
“And I said your request is denied. Name another price because you’re never getting her.”
He just stares at me without blinking, his gaze shifting disconcertingly. Before he can infiltrate my head and get to my guards, I stand, averting my gaze.
“We’re done here. Let’s go.” I stalk to the door. When Erika doesn’t immediately follow, I turn back, careful to look only at her. “Are you coming?”
Erika remains seated, her arms crossed, glaring daggers at both me and Chaos in turn. “Is that really the only bargain that can be struck here?”
I can’t see the look he gives her, but her deepening scowl suggests he isn’t budging with her any more than he did with me. “She will come to me. When she does, the key is yours.”
“You’re wrong,” I snap. “I will never let you get your hands on her. Never.”
But Erika’s nod suggests she actually believes the fucker. She rises and strides toward me, pacified by their exchange, which rankles. She can’t believe him, can she?
When she reaches me, I don’t waste any time. I grip her arm and send us back to her camp.
She pulls away and stalks to her command tent, turning to me at the step up onto the wooden platform. “Why can’t you just let him help? My daughter is starting to display her dragon abilities, so she needs a strong role model to show her how they work. If… What’s her name?”
“Nemea,” I say, pacing away and scrubbing my hands over my face. I’m barely hearing her, too desperate to think of some other leverage to get Chaos to give us the temple key.
“If Nemea needs someone that powerful to help her understand her power, which will help us beat the Titans, why won’t you let him help her?”
“Because he has no regard for humanity. He has no regard for anything but his own agenda. He’ll use her. The only thing he’s ever cared about is his incessant feud with Fate. He might help her, sure, but if he gets his hands on her, I don’t know if we’ll ever get her back. I can’t risk it.”
For once all the voices in my head are in agreement, which gives me a strange sense of stability.
Erika is frowning at me, though, and I can’t interpret her steady, assessing look.
“You need to give her the choice. Leaving her in the dark about all this, when she is at the very core of it isn’t fair.”
I clench my jaw, my voice going rough when I sense a couple of my guards wavering in the wake of Erika’s point-blank argument. “I can’t risk losing her.”
“Don’t you think it’s a risk you’re going to have to take, for her sake?”