Ode to the Queen (24 page)

All I could picture was dragons and chimeras; all sorts of mythological creatures that shouldn’t exist but just might if Gods and Titans did.

“Where is this place?” Another voice suddenly reached me, the Irish lilt immediately telling me who it was.

“Val! Val! Valentina! Down here!” I shrugged harder against the chair, shifting and rocking. I shouted until my voice started to get hoarse but she didn’t respond.

“I don’t know… Where did she say she was going again, Jailbait?”

“I told you, don’t call me that. And she didn’t specify, she just told me to stall for her.”

“Well done on that.”

“Hey, it’s not my fault you didn’t have the… you know… to stand up to Charlotte. You’re just as much to blame as I am. But I feel more guilty than you do.”

Aidan didn’t reply to her. This meant he had come for me after all, the thought sent my heart into a series of flutters as a small pleased grin appearing on my face. It didn’t last long as another growl made it’s way to me through the darkness, this time a lot closer than before.

“Valentina! Aidan!” I shook and wriggled so much in the seat the chair began to tip from one way to the next. This seemed to me, at the time, to be a good thing. So I kept it up, rocking hard from one side to the next until the chair was doing a little dance across the floor.

I was trying to turn myself around in the direction of the growling but in the midst of my three point turn the chair completely flipped. Next thing I knew I was laying face down on the ground, the chair still firmly attached to my body.

The wind in my lungs gushed out and I gasped for air, clinging to the little puffs I managed to get in to them.

“I do feel guilty, okay? I’m a bad person, I make mistakes and usually I don’t regret them but Savannah is the only mistake I’ve ever made that I regret with every ounce of my being.”

“Do you love her?” The words echoed back to me, my stomach knotting in anticipation. I held my breath waiting for his response to come but there was nothing but silence for a good minute.

And then…

Laughter filled the chamber. Cold, evil laughter echoing from every corner, against every surface and it wrapped itself around me.

“Oh Savannah. Isn’t that nice to here? You’re his only regret. Perhaps he means meeting you in the first place, or sleeping with you? You two have slept together, haven’t you?”

That wasn’t what he meant though; I squeezed my eyes shut trying to trap Cronos out of my mind. But his laughter had seemed to permeate my skin and crawled just underneath it like an itch that couldn’t be reached.

“Now now. You wouldn’t be trying to escape would you?” He must have reached out and righted me because I felt myself tossed about like a rag doll until the chair was upright once again. “It’s not possible. Surely you must realise that, you’re a smart woman.”

“Is that even them, or is this just a mind game to cure boredom?”

“Perhaps the boredom, perhaps it is them… How could you know? Besides, if I were you, I would focus on what’s coming for you that
isn
’
t
friendly.” He reached out, cupping my chin in his hand.

His thumb ran tenderly down the softness of my cheek before he grinned, sending another bout of shivers through me. Before I even knew what he was doing sharpness from his hand slid along the flesh, cutting it. I could feel the blood trickling from the cut, crying out of the wound and landing on my beautiful dress. He swiped again, this time along my bare and exposed shoulder and the smell of blood seemed to double around me almost instantaneously. I felt sick and dizzy once more as I felt the blood slowly crawling down my skin. I twisted uncomfortably in my seat, wanting so back to reach out and mop it up. I was so helpless and powerless then only thing I could do instead was cry and soon enough I began to feel my tears mingle with the blood on my cheek.

“Thank you, Savannah… for being so helpful in my plans. If not for you, well, things might not have worked out so beautifully.” He leaned down, forcing his lips on mine once more before pulling away with a smirk. He didn’t say anything else before turning away from me and heading back into the darkness, this time with a tone of finality lingering in his wake.

“Let me go! Help! Aidan! Valentina! Help! I’m down here!” A new form of panic filled me. This was suddenly a real matter of survival. If I didn’t get out of this chair, I wasn’t entirely sure I would be able to defend myself from the owner of that gut-wrenching growl.

I wanted to believe he didn’t have the power to mimic other people’s voices and really my friends were looking for me. Surely Valentina would have come for me after my mysterious disappearing act.

She wouldn’t just leave it at that and not think something strange of my leaving so quickly with the promise of returning.

It was hard to stay focused on my friends for much longer as another snarl resonated through the cavern; this time it’s source sounding like it had come from just behind me. I didn’t want to see it, I was too afraid it would be the thing of nightmares and yet another part of me wanted to look the creature, that would kill me, in the eye.

Summoning the last of my strength I turned around slowly and unwaveringly met the three pairs of eyes staring back.

“W-WH… WHAT THE HELL!” If I had seemed lacklustre in my attempts to free myself before, now I was the Olympic champion of trying to break free. I flailed as much as my limbs would allow me, rocking back and forth trying to move the chair as quickly away from the monster behind me as I could.

Three heads upon the broadest set of shoulders I’d ever seen and a body large enough to frighten even the world’s courageous man was what greeted me.

I knew what, who, it was, it was hard to forget the descriptions of this creature in mythology but reading it in a book and seeing it over your shoulder was two very different things.

Cerberus snarled at me, large globs of saliva splattering on the ground like waves on the beach. One of those heads could easily eat me alive but I could only imagine what it would feel like to have three of them ripping and competing over my limbs. Would it be fast or would the pain be drawn out so I suffered? How had Cronos managed to find this thing? Had it been down in this pit all this time without anyone knowing?

One head barked at me as I continued to tug at the chair and before long a chorus of replies answered me with the two others joining and the noise echoing around me.

“Up ahead!” I heard someone shouting but how far away were the voices? Would they make it in time?

“I’M HERE! I’M HERE, HELP ME. AIDAN! VALENTINA!” Cerberus made his first move, launching one of his heads at me and I barely managed to duck in time. The snap of the chair echoed and splinters showered me. My chest contracted; if the dog made another snap at me I had nothing to protect me this time. Maybe I would die of a heart attack first…

Aidan and Valentina’s voices were getting closer though. I could hear their footsteps echoing as they ran toward me but I feared it would be too late. There was a chunk of wood in my lap and I strained to grab it, maybe it would play fetch? Focusing on the task at hand proved to be a lot harder than I wanted it to be. My fingers brushed the very edge of it but couldn’t wrap around to throw it.

“Savannah!” Valentina ran into the room first but stopped short when she saw the dog behind me. “Oh my God.” Aidan ran right into her, nearly knocking her over if not his quick reflexes.

“Holy…” He breathed out, staring at it. Valentina managed to pull her eyes away from the dog long enough to look at me, her eyes no doubt taking in the blood that Cronos had drawn.

“Savannah, get up slowly…” She said quietly, holding her hands out for me to grab.

“Val, if I could, don’t you think I would have by now…” I said back steadily. I didn’t mean to make her feel stupid but this situation was beyond rational thought.

Aidan was still in trouble and if this was at all apart of Cronos’ plan Aidan being here was bad.

“Aidan, you need to leave. Right now, go back and find someone else. Find lots of people and then bring them back but you can’t be here alone.”

“He’s not alone. I’m here. You get Savannah; you have the magic to free her… I’ll… distract the dog.” Valentina said uneasily, glancing up at the three-headed beast. I watched her swallow her fear before moving sideways into the room, trying to get closer to it without upsetting it. But Aidan didn’t move, neither of us did. We were both too mesmerised by the fearlessness Valentina, for someone so small, possessed.

She licked her lips and whistled softly at the dog to take its attention away from its meal. It snarled menacingly and turned to face her, his gigantic faces contorted with hatred and anger. But then it looked at her, and just like the impression she had on humans, it calmed down.

Val moved forward tentatively and kept her hands out for it to sniff as she did. Aidan took this moment to move toward me as well but the dog immediately sensed him and turned, snarling and snapping at him.

Aidan threw his hands up defensively and froze again before turning to Val, “you need to get it out of here so I can get to Savannah…”

She nodded and looked back at the dog.

“Good boy. That’s a good boy,” she continued to move toward him in tentative, slow steps waiting to see if he would snap at her but the dog didn’t. He sat down softly, and began to pant like a dog waiting for a ball to be thrown or a trick demanded of him.

Val closed the distance between her and the monster and reached out, softly running her fingers through his fur. He whined softly and leaned down, all three heads attempting to nuzzle her. She laughed, being bounced around between them before trying to sedate all three with appropriate rubs and pats.

“Good boy…” She said gently turning and walking past him into the darkness behind me. She whistled and called for him, leading him away from me. I listened to their retreating footsteps until Aidan made toward me in several quick bounds.

“You need to go.” I said to him, as he came up in front of me, reaching for the binds that he wouldn’t find.

“Not without you.”

“What does that matter Aidan?” I said bitterly before shaking my head, “You need to go because this is a trap. He’s trying to kill you.”

“I don’t care, even more reason for me to get you out of here. This is my fault. Everything is my fault… I just, I didn’t want to hurt you and look what I’ve done.” He shook his head, stepping back to survey me and trying to figure out how he could free me from Cronos’ magic.

“You didn’t want to hurt me and yet you slept with Charlotte, again, after you promised to try and be faithful.”

He shook his head, “I didn’t sleep with her. I just wanted you to think that I had. I didn’t trust myself to not mess us up and I couldn’t trust Zeus’ power. I didn’t want to risk your life because he was power hungry.”

“How sweet.” Cronos said coldly as he appeared, throwing Aidan magically into the wall. “I didn’t anticipate that you’d bring
her
with you, so I guess I won’t get to see Savannah torn limb from limb in front of you but there are other things I could do that are just as affective.” His attention returned to me, Aidan still held firmly on the wall as Cronos made his way toward me slowly.

Each step was calculated and the smirk on his face only made me fight harder against the chair. Whatever that mind was churning over right now was not something Aidan or I wanted.

“Stay away from me!” I shouted, struggling and fighting. I knew it was futile but I couldn’t just sit there and let him terrorise me like this.

“Oh, come now dear. What did we talk about before?” He said cryptically, no doubt for Aidan’s benefit. Cronos reached out, looping one hand in the blonde curls I’d styled only for the purpose of the evening’s party and he pulled my face forward to his.

It felt like being in the Styx bathroom all over again. But this time I wasn’t going to be some helpless victim. This time I was going to take some control over.

His lips slipped down against mine, working them like they would a lovers. While he fell into the idea that I was submitting I waited until he was completely lost in the moment to open my mouth for him, biting down hard enough on his tongue to draw blood. Ungracefully I spat it back in his face.

“You…” He smacked me again, my jaw stinging this time. I didn’t stop though; it was a matter of life or death if I did. I rocked the chair and managed to lift one of its legs up before coming back down, hard on Cronos’ foot. Raged rippled through him and he grabbed me, tossing me across the room like a rag doll.

The chair smashed up against the wall and I could feel the magic give way as the chair was destroyed. But the wood also didn’t break my fall as I slumped to the ground feeling shattered myself.

“Savannah! Savvy, are you okay?” Aidan shouted at me from where he hung. Through half-lidded eyes I could see him fighting his own restraints and then something changed.

The power levy snapped and Aidan dropped to the ground.

Before Cronos even had the chance to get to me, or do something else, Aidan was at his side gripping his throat and squeezing with every intention of drawing out the last drop of life in the Titan’s body.

But having it so easy, for Aidan, wasn’t enough. He tossed Cronos away from him as Cronos had done me and followed after him. Despite the fact there were no windows or even any indication of a sky visible in this place there was a loud rumble of thunder.

The menacing sound of it echoed throughout the room as Aidan drew closer to his target. It wasn’t Aidan anymore, in fact it wasn’t just Zeus. Before my eyes I watched as the man I loved united with his God over a shared hatred and a protective instinct for the woman he loved – me.

Aidan’s features didn’t change, his eyes never turned to that coldness I was so used to now when Zeus took over. There was something different about his stance, the way he held himself. There was no doubting the aura suddenly around him that had never been there before – this was the King of the Gods.

In his hand he called upon the power that flowed through him and I watched as before our eyes he created his first lightning bolt.

My eyes rushed to adjust to the sudden brightness, longing to see it in its full glory but the bolt shone so bright I soon had to turn my eyes away. Aidan, though, seemed unfazed by the light and held it so effortlessly he didn’t even seem to realise he had lit up the entire room.

“You should have left it, you should have submitted to your fate and accepted that you will never be King again. No one could ever believe in a self-righteous, self-obsessed, power-hungry God like yourself, and no one will ever have to.”

“We shall see Son, for your downfall is at hand... It might not be by me but it has been written.”

Smite, up until this point in my life, had always been a meaningless threat people used as a metaphor for the ultimate punishment. But once having seen someone be smitten I knew now that it was not a term one could use lightly.

The power of Aidan’s blow forced Cronos deep under the surface of the ground. The lightning carved a pit so deep it reflected the original prison that the Titans had been condemned to. He turned to me finally; content that Cronos would no longer be a bother to us and made his way over quickly.

“Queenie, are you okay?” Falling to his knees Aidan drew me into his lap, cradling my head in his arms. I murmured something unintelligible to tell him I was alive but not much else.

My body was still screaming in pain, surely bones had to be broken or at least had started out broken. It felt like my immortal self was trying to help them all but whatever it was she was doing, it
hurt
.

“Savannah say something, please!” He pulled me up higher into his arms, his face closer now to mine. I felt frustrated that he hadn’t heard me the first time so I repeated it back to him: my nonsensical mutterings. But he didn’t seem to hear me still, as he shook me and I groaned in pain.

“Savannah… come on… don’t do this…” Were those tears? Why was Aidan Cartwright crying? He didn’t cry. He was emotionless; he couldn’t even tell me he loved me. He definitely didn’t cry.

“Savannah, Goddamn it, wake up!” He bowed his head, hanging over me and I could feel the warm tears streaming from his cheeks and hitting me on the face.

It was frightening. I would have never thought that the day would come when I would find myself in a situation like this with Aidan where he was so capable of being so bare. He’d tried before but that had been nothing compared to the heart wrenching misery I could feel emulating from him. So this is what he meant when he said he had felt my fear...

I opened my mouth to try and comfort him but before I could Aidan was launched from beneath me and my head smacked hard on the ground. A bout of nausea and dizziness rushed through me again. It took a moment but I forced my eyes open, straining to see Aidan. He was pinned on the ground beneath Cronos who had somehow managed to survive the first lightning bolt. His hands were wrapped around Aidan’s neck and I could see the darkness flooding Cronos’ body from the source of dark power Cronos was drawing from.

It filled him completely like an atomic bomb and I knew he was channeling it toward Aidan. He was still going to try and kill Aidan but Aidan didn’t have the strength for a second lightning bolt.

He’d never made one before and the effort of the first one had exhausted his power. I remembered Atlas telling us it was like a battery that needed to be recharged after a huge use of power and dread filled me. Aidan wouldn’t be able to defend himself; he might die. I tried to move myself, get up and grab Cronos but my limbs weren’t working, the bones were still broken.

So I did the only thing I could thing of. I willed my hand to move the fraction of an inch between Aidan’s and mine, desperately trying to grab his hand.

No matter how hard I concentrated or how hard I willed my magic to work now it wouldn’t. My hand refused to budge.

Aidan, sensing his impending failure, did what I couldn’t and grabbed my hand tightly.

“I l-love you… S-Savannah.” He whispered huskily, struggling to get the words out through his closing windpipe. But it was all I needed.

I focused on the warmth, what was left of it, inside of me and willed it toward him. If he could use my power, maybe I could recharge him enough to use another lightning bolt. That would do it; it was all he needed…

A tingling sensation rose from my toes, building up through my limbs and into my core. It tickled and after a while became uncomfortable. I wanted to move, to shift away from it but I couldn’t.

Soon the tingling gave way to a coldness that settled first on my skin and before long sunk deep into my bones. I felt like I was dying. My limbs were stiff and useless, my body finally gone cold. This was it; it was the end.

I wanted my last moments to mean something. I wanted to save Aidan or at least know I had died trying. But nothing happened. It seemed I had senselessly drained myself of every last ounce of magic in my core.

Aidan didn’t seem to realise what I had done; he simply soldiered on, fighting the urge to give into the lack of air. Aidan, and Zeus, were both too great to be killed by suffocation. I wouldn’t believe it. They were too strong and too mighty.

Then suddenly, that light filled the room again.