Awakened (Eternal Guardians Book 8) (12 page)

“Now, girls,” Lachesis said, holding up her hands to calm her sisters. “We already discussed this and agreed that death is off the table. There’s still much for him to do.”

“See?” Clotho glared at Atropos. “You just put your abhorred shears away. No one likes you anyway.”

Atropos crossed her arms over her chest with a huff. “Stupid mortal lover.”

Clotho gasped, then glared again. “Pathetic death monger.”

Zagreus bit the inside of his cheek so he wouldn’t be tempted to add his own sharp-tongued comment to the grumbling, wrinkled biddies and refilled the next cup.

Oh yeah, this was total hell. His father had fucked him royally on this one. Instead of sending Zagreus to the Underworld as punishment for betraying him, Hades had sentenced Zagreus to this. To the Kingdom of Moira, the realm of the Three Fates, the diaphanously robed incarnations of destiny who determined all life and death in the cosmos and who always managed to meddle in the gods’ fucking affairs. His included.

Zagreus scowled as he shoved the coffeepot back on the burner and brought the cream and sugar to the table. Hades was probably getting a good laugh out of this. Imagining his son in servitude to the three old hags, cutting the Fates’ gnarled toenails and cleaning the wax from their ears—all jobs Zagreus had been forced to do over the last twenty-five years, even when he’d been on the verge of vomiting.

But that wasn’t the worst part. No, the worst part about this hell was that he couldn’t escape. The Kingdom of the Moira was worse than any maximum security penitentiary. Hades had handed Zagreus over to the Fates with no stipulation on his sentence. And since the Fates determined all destiny, even that of the gods, Zagreus had no choice but to suck it up and keep picking out earwax.

“No one’s dying,” Lachesis said louder. “What we need to decide is at what point to intercede.”

Atropos rolled her eyes. “Always with the interceding. If they can’t figure it out themselves, I say they get what they deserve.”

“No shit,” Zagreus muttered as he moved around the table. On this, he agreed with the white-haired Grim Reaper. Couldn’t those dumbfucks see they were being moved around like chess pieces? Zeus and Athena were orchestrating the entire fucking situation.

Clotho looked up sharply. “What was that, Ziggy?”

The sound of that bloody nickname made Zagreus see red, but he bit down hard to keep from backhanding the old hag and muttered, “I said ‘oh, chips.’ I was getting chips for your afternoon snack. I almost forgot.”

He moved quickly back to the kitchen before any of them could stop him.

“Low sodium for me!” Clotho called. “You know I have to watch my salt intake!”

“Low sodium, my ass,” Zagreus muttered as he opened and slammed cabinets in the kitchen. Clotho ate anything and everything she wanted. She was just trying to make his life a living hell by requesting random shit…
and she’s succeeding
.

“I don’t believe it’s time to intercede,” Lachesis went on from the other room. “There are too many variables still up in the air. Much will depend on her reaction to seeing him when he emerges from the pit.”

“
She
is the problem,” Atropos said. “If the wonder-spinner over there hadn’t put
that
soul into the princess’s body, none of this would be an issue.”

“They’re soul mates,” Clotho said in a sing-songy voice. “Even your cynical old heart can’t deny true love.”

“Oh holy hell,” Atropos responded. “They barely know each other. It’s not even close to true love. And considering what Zeus has planned for the male, I’ve a feeling it will never get that far.”

Zagreus leaned back and peeked through the doorway toward the table where the three wrinkled Fates sat. Just what was Zeus planning? Zagreus hadn’t been subject to the Fates’ torment twenty-five years ago when the male Damon had first been brought to Olympus. Hades had decided to torture Zagreus for a while in the Underworld before realizing Zagreus was immune to his cruelty. It wasn’t until six months later that Hades had tossed his son here and Zagreus had been forced to listen to the Fates’ monotonous conversations.

Usually, those conversations were boring as hell, and Zagreus tuned them out. He always perked up when their discussions involved the gods, though. This time, from what little he’d been able to glean, he was sure Zeus was scheming for something. Though what that something was, Zagreus didn’t know. Considering Zeus was involving the princess of Argolea in his plan, though, Zagreus had a feeling it had to be something big.

“We shall see,” Lachesis said, lifting her mug and taking a sip. With a frown, she glanced back toward the kitchen.

Zagreus ducked behind the doorjamb just before she spotted him.

“Ziggy! This coffee is cold.” Then more quietly, Lachesis said, “After twenty-five years, don’t you think that male would finally get it right?”

“I’m telling you,” Atropos muttered, “Ziggy’s a few nuggets short of a Happy Meal, if you know what I mean. I could easily put him out of his misery, as well.”

“Oh hush, you,” Clotho whispered. “We already decided against that too. I like our Ziggy.”

For one swift second, Zagreus pictured himself picking up the hot coffeepot and hurling it toward the Fates. Then common sense kicked in, and he realized if he did that, he’d never get out of this realm. And that was his only goal. To find a way to escape. Fuck true love and destiny and whatever the hell Zeus had planned. All Zagreus cared about was freedom.

That and all the vile, malicious ways he was going to make his father pay for sending him to this hellhole when he finally got free.

“L
et’s go, Highness,” a female voice rang out from ahead. “You’re sucking up the tail end.”

Elysia clawed her way out of the bog, grappling at reeds and grass and anything she could hold on to for leverage, and pulled. Gasping in a breath, she dragged herself up onto the grass, then fumbled her way to her feet.

“Better put some muscle into it,” the Siren yelled louder, “or you’re gonna be last
again
.”

Elysia gulped in another breath, eyed the other recruits running away from her, and pushed her legs forward. Every muscle in her body ached, and mud slid down her face to mess with her vision, but she was determined not to be last. Last on the training course meant she was the last to eat, and that meant she had to sit on the floor like a dog because all the chairs would already be taken. Last meant she had to stick around the mess hall for cleanup duty. And last meant she’d be working her fingers to the bone until midnight and would miss out on the sleep she desperately needed before she had to get up and do it all again.

She’d been on Olympus for only a month, but she’d already learned a very valuable lesson: whatever you’d done to complete the seven labors on Pandora didn’t count. You either excelled on the Siren training field now, or you failed and were cast out of Olympus.

She wasn’t entirely sure what that meant. No one had answered her question when she’d asked where Zeus sent the recruits who didn’t make the cut. And part of her was afraid to know the truth. Because just knowing no one would talk about it meant wherever those females went couldn’t be good.

An image of white towers shimmering in the late-afternoon sunlight flickered behind her eyes, and a sense of longing filled her chest. Over the last month, the images had sharpened. She saw faces now. Heard voices. Knew the memories were of her home and family far away, but she still didn’t know where. Common sense told her not to let anyone know. Damon had made it more than clear that recruits weren’t supposed to remember their pasts. She wasn’t sure why she could, but none of the other recruits had any recollection of their lives prior to being dropped on Pandora. If she ever hoped to see her family again, she needed to stay quiet about what she knew. And remembered. And, more importantly, felt.

Her mind shifted from home to Damon, but instead of longing, a bitter anger filled her chest. One that gave her the energy she needed to keep going.

She rounded the last corner on the track and spotted the giant oak a hundred yards away that marked the end of the course. The other recruits were only twenty yards ahead, caked mud covering their shorts and tanks and every bit of bare skin. She clenched her jaw and pushed her legs harder, using all the rage and humiliation she felt for the male and how he’d tricked her. Her arms pumped faster, her steps grew longer…

She drew up alongside a nymph from some island off Greece. The recruit glanced her way with wide eyes. Muddy tangles of hair slapped Elysia in the face, but she forced herself to run faster. The nymph grunted and lurched ahead. Grinding her teeth, Elysia quickened her steps, leaned forward…

And watched in disbelief as the nymph swept past her to cross the finish line a tenth of a second before her.

Elysia tripped and stumbled to her knees in the dirt. Laughter rang out around her—from the other recruits, from the three Sirens running this training segment, from everyone
but
Elysia.

“Last again, Highness.” Khloe rested her hands on her hips and shook her head. “That’s not an improvement.”

“Considering she’s related to an Argonaut,” the Siren Allegra said, “you’d think she’d be an asset, not a liability.”

“A life of luxury has obviously done nothing but make her soft.” The third Siren—Maia—looked down at Elysia with an air of disgust “Don’t worry. We’ll break her of it before long.”

“Head back to the compound to shower before dinner,” Maia told the rest of the group. With one more disgusted look in Elysia’s direction, she signaled the other two Sirens and moved into the trees.

The recruits spoke in hushed whispers as they followed the Sirens and disappeared from view. With her hands braced on the ground in front of her, Elysia dropped her head and drew in a deep breath that did little to settle her still-racing heart.

She was fooling herself. She was never going to cut it as a Siren. She couldn’t even make it through a simple obstacle course without wanting to fall over and die.

“Come on.” The nymph who’d just beat Elysia across the finish line tucked a hand under Elysia’s arm and tugged her to her feet. “You’ll feel better once you’ve had a shower and hot food.”

Skeptical, Elysia looked up at the blonde, whose hair and face and body were as coated in mud as her own. “Why are you being nice to me?”

“Because something tells me you could use a friend.” The nymph let go of Elysia and grinned. “Sorry I didn’t let you win. I have this ultracompetitive nature that kicks into gear sometimes. I’m not always good at controlling it.”

Elysia didn’t need a friend, she needed a miracle. And she wasn’t ready to trust anyone on Olympus just yet, especially another recruit. She stepped around the nymph. “I don’t want anyone to
let
me win. I can do this on my own.”

The nymph skipped to catch up to her. “I know you can. You’re already faster than you were just a few days ago. In no time, you’ll be blowing past all of us.”

Elysia huffed as she picked her way around vines and tree limbs and moved up the hillside.

“I’m Sera, by the way. Well, Seraphine, but that’s a mouthful, and not in a good way. You’re related to an Argonaut?”

That’s right. She was. A kickass Argonaut who could grind these Sirens into dust. Not only that, Khloe had called her “Highness.” Which meant…

Holy
skata
. That meant she was the daughter of Argolean royalty.

Elysia’s thoughts spun out of control as the realization set in. If she was royalty, there was no way her parents would have given her up to the Sirens willingly. And if that were true, it meant someone could be searching for a way to rescue her from Olympus right this very minute.

“Elysia?”

Elysia blinked several times only to realize the muddy nymph was staring at her. “What?”

“I asked what an Argonaut is.”

Crap.
Their minds were supposed to be wiped. She needed to pretend she was as clueless as the girl at her side. “I don’t know. An astronaut, maybe?”

Elysia began walking and told herself not to get excited just yet.
Could be searching for her
was the catch. And even if someone
was
looking for her, the chances they could make it into Olympus were slim to none.

“That would be cool,” Sera said. “Astronauts are people who read the stars in the human realm and give out fortunes, right?”