Page 153 of Blood of Olympus

Death rushed him. Ensnared him. Curled her black-stained fingers around his peach-sized soul, glowing with barely enough light to illuminate even a rabbit’s warren. She was ready. All I needed now was physical touch.

“What are you doing?” he hissed, fish breath reaching my nostrils. “Why is your face doing that?”

Now.

I snapped a hand out, wrapping my fingers around his ankle, before he had a chance to figure out where he’d seen this trick before. I yanked on my power and the tiny soul Death grasped so fiercely.

And nothing happened.

Not one tiny budge, nor suggestion of movement. I reefed again and Hyperion laughed.

“You think the power of Hades is enough to defeat me?” He laughed again, even as I fought desperately to dislodge his soul from his body and end him permanently. “I am the Titan of Light! You cannot destroy me for I am light. I fathered your sun, your moon, and your dawn. I am one of the four pillars of the world. Everything you know and understand would cease to exist, and therefore I am unconquerable.

“None exist who can oppose me. None exist to take my place. A little death-trickery will never defeat a Titan, and you had best heed my warning now. I know you thirst for my brother’s soul, too, just as I know that in this endeavour, you will also fail.”

I offered up a silent prayer to any who could hear it, who could help.

Golden? I could use your help now.

We’re on our way. Don’t give up, he pleaded.

But Life answered where Death could not. My hopeful little friend rushed to the surface, flitting all the way down to my fingertips. As if she were silently saying ‘one last time.’

Perhaps futilely, I pulled once more.

Hyperion hissed. He bent down to grab a fistful of my braid and dragged me away so that I had no choice but to release his ankle lest he tear the skin from my scalp. Without even allowing me a second to struggle, he had me pinned against the ashen dirt with his own body.

I writhed beneath him, using every trick Charon had taught me to dislodge an assailant from below, but his one piece of advice remained useless to me: don’t get caught here in the first place.

Too late, Char.

I shifted again, trying to manoeuvre my legs in a way that would allow me to throw him off, and Hyperion grunted. Something twitched against my thigh and suddenly the reek of olives overpowered his halitosis.

I stilled, realising there were far worse outcomes here than a knee to the eye-socket.

He huffed a foul breath, sneering, “I do not have to resort to force in that regard, little Hades. There are more than enough willing participants in Othryx, including your once-queen whore.”

“Gross,” I muttered.

He chuckled. “She did not seem to think it gross when Kronos and I shared her holes. She rather enjoyed it actually.” His cock twitched again and bile burned my throat in response.

“Funny, I never pictured Kronos as a sharer.”

Hyperion ignored the dig. “No,” he mused. “What I have planned for you is far less enjoyable than a turn on my Titanic cock.”

I grinned. “You forget that I can feel it, even now, pressed against my leg. And it’s rather an obscene overexaggeration to refer to it as titanic.”

Hyperion snarled, then shifted so that his legs straddled mine, leaving his diminutive cock, beneath the scrap of a periskelis I’d glimpsed earlier, wedged firmly against my core — which I could have sworn shrivelled and dried up like a wilted flower at his touch. Next, he dragged my arms above my head, ensnaring them both in one meaty fist, leaving the other free to do… whatever it was he intended on doing.

Golden? I’m so sorry.

Almost there, don’t you dare give up.

“Clever, dainty, little Hades — keeping your eyes clamped shut this whole time.”

One thick, hot finger trailed down my left cheek. I fought the impulse to peek — but failed in fighting the impulse to bite said finger.

Hyperion hissed, snatching his hand away from my ichor-stained teeth. His blood, as sweet and thick as syrup, trickled down the back of my throat, sickening me. Bile rose again as I jerked my head sideways and retched.