Page 197 of Blood of Olympus

—and dragged the fingertips of his free hand across my cheek until only one rested there, the nail pressing in hard enough to draw blood. “And possessors of more power in our pinky fingers than any one of them.”

I froze, heady in the knowledge that I’d once said something similar.

“You know it as well as I: we both have darkness in our souls. And that darkness longs to rip this world apart.” He broke the torturous string of physical contact, and began pacing the length of the room.

My shoulders drooped — even that battle had worn me down.

“We could rebuild it, you and I,” he mused. “We could create something better… something greater. Something more worthy of us as its rulers.”

I couldn’t help the scoff that parted my lips — he was psychotic.

But what else would someone be after spending eons in the coldest, darkest pit conjurable?

Kronos stopped.

“You wish to decline? No matter. I’ll just take it from you, instead.”

Ares — never one to ignore an opportunity for bloodshed — rushed me, jamming me against the rough stone of the wall. A quiet snick — the unmistakable sound of a blade unsheathed — came a moment before he slashed it right across my cheek.

I sucked a hissing breath through my teeth and glared into the endless white and Kronos laughed again.

“You will pay for that.” I dropped the words like a promise at his feet.

He snarled — but if I wasn’t mistaken, also flinched minutely.

Even Ares knew Death was not to be trifled with. But apparently for now, my shackled and weakened state convinced him otherwise. He struck out again, opening a second wound on my left bicep.

“Is that the best you can do?” I whispered.

He raised the dagger just as I’d raised his temper — but Kronos captured his wrist before he could bring it down on me.

“No,” the Titan said. “The best we can do is crush you. To leave you so broken, you lose the will to live. You’d rather die than keep fighting.”

“You’ll never manage that,” I croaked out.

He waited a painfully long time before delivering his verbal blow.

“Your soul-bonded seeks you, even now.”

No.

“He is conspiring on the Isle of Gods, devising some plan to pluck you from my grip.”

No.

“And when he launches that lone ship, when he seeks these shores, I will annihilate it.”

“No!”

“The oceans can have him.”

Hera, spurred into action by the threat to her son’s life, jumped forward. “My love, perhaps there is another way⁠—”

“There is no other way!” Kronos roared, slapping her away. I hoped it was her stupid face. “He is the key to breaking her. And I will break her.”

“As you wish, my lord.”

She dropped her tone and backed away. Giving up. Refusing to do more than lift an arm to save him, her own flesh and blood — the child she bore.