Paxton remained by my side to guard me, his arm holding me steady, lending the strength I needed, while I staggered under the onslaught of the gods’ forces. His other hand thrust his blade before us to dare anyone to come closer.
Battle roars raged and echoed in the dome, and the caged Titans’ bloodthirsty yowls joined the fray.
“Die, Zeus, Poseidon, and Hades!” my father screamed. “I curse you to die. Eat dicks and die!!!”
“Tartarus!” Zeus commanded. “Send them to the black dome!”
“But, my Lord—” Tartarus hesitated.
“Now!” the gods all shouted.
“You dare!” I roared.
Tartarus gave me an apologetic look before he pounded his hammer into the platform.
A wind that burned like unholy fire seized my mates and all four Marigolds, then we were falling amid cold, dying stars. The four of me merged into one under the unbearable pressure of the current. I fought against the gravity as I screamed and stretched my hands toward my mates. They screamed my name, trying to reach me in the eye of the tornado.
We kept falling in nightmares.
“Ta sun sumac drain rain flame.” Hyperion’s last whispers dropped like the last trace of a meteor shower.
CHAPTER 14
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Walls and iron bars spun around us, and the cold stone ground loomed up to meet my face.
Héctor grabbed me in the air and shouted. “Cushion for my Lamb!”
Paxton fell on his back, arms stretching to catch me.
I was the strongest amid them in the Void, yet my mates remained overprotective of me. They couldn’t change that, no matter what.
Despite my mates’ best intentions to slow my fall, I didn’t land in Paxton’s arms. A force tore me from a roaring Héctor. While my mates still shouted my name in panic, I fell on my ass in a cell next to Paxton’s.
Héctor landed in a crouch, one hand planted on the ground, in a cell across from mine, separated by the vast space. Then Zak and Axel also landed in separate cells on either side of Héctor’s. A dark abyss extended forever beneath our feet, while above us the ceiling stretched to the endless gray sky.
We’d been sent to the pit of the black dome.
“Hello? Anyone here?” Zak called.
“Answer me!” Axel demanded.
Tartarus had mentioned that the black dome held the criminals who sinned against the gods and listed quite a few infamous inhabitants, such as King Sisyphus, who murdered travelers, Ixion, who slept with Zeus’s wife, and Tityos, who tried to rape Zeus’s mistress.
My enemy’s enemies could be our source of intel.
We needed tocrack the prison system and find a way out. Though Tartarus had said that only his hammer could open the doors, we wouldn’t just sit on our hands.
We’d always found a way out of any situation we landed in. Unfortunately, we had a habit of getting into trouble again soon.
“Ixion?” I tried. “Tityos? Dudes?”
No one answered.
“King Sisyphus?” I tried again.
Silence graced us.