Zeus (The God Chronicles #1)

Chapter Nineteen

"Tell me what?" I repeated.

Jessie was standing on the front porch, just out of the rain's reach. Zeus stood next to the open door, looking like a kid who'd been caught with his hand in a cookie jar.

"Karly," he said hesitantly. "I thought you were sleeping."

"I was." I folded my arms and walked to them. This was so peculiar.

"I didn't mean to wake you up," he stammered. "Please go back to bed. We can talk in the morning."

"No, you can't!" Jessie glared at him before turning to me. "There's something you need to know, right now. Zeus is—"

"Shut up," he growled at her in a deadly whisper.

Something was very wrong.

"I mean it. You tell her or I will."

He slammed the door in her face, grabbed my hand, and pulled me down the hall to his room.

"Zeus, you're hurting me," I said softly. He released his iron grip, and I sat down on the bed. "What's going on?"

"This wasn't supposed to happen now," he said mostly to himself, pacing in front of me.

"Just tell me," I said, exasperated. "You're scaring me."

He stopped moving and stood right in front of me, still dressed in his clothes from earlier. The only difference was the look on his face—like he was ready to be sick.

"Kronos," he started.

"Your uncle!" I said in alarm.

"No, my dad."

There was silence. Why would he tell me his dad was his uncle? And what was their family's obsession with Greek Gods?

"He's attacked. Everything has fallen. I wasn't there to help. We would have won if I was there, like last time." His eyes never left mine.

"So . . . I'm confused. He took over the resort?"

"No. He took over Mount Olympus."

"He took over the fake mountain in the middle of the casino?" I said slowly. He was talking crazy though his exterior was calm. His eyes displayed plain desperation, though.

"No! Why is this so hard to say?" He started pacing again, running his hands through his hair.

"I'm not who I said I was," he started again.

"What?!" I stood up so fast I almost fell over. A sinking feeling filled me. "Are you still married?" I whispered.

"No, I'm not! This is coming out wrong. I need you to understand, though." He walked over to me and grabbed my shoulders, pulling me into a hug I didn't return.

"Who are you then?" He pushed me back and held my gaze. I fought the tears begging to be released. Everything I'd realized today was crumbling if he wasn't the person I thought he was.

"I'm Zeus." He hesitated before continuing. "I'm your boyfriend, the owner of Tartarus, divorced, and . . . King."

Whatever I'd been expecting him to say, that was not it.

"King of what?" I asked incredulously.

"King of the Gods." He didn't smile like he usually did when he was joking. His face was a complete mask of honesty, but the lie burned into me like a brand.

I couldn't help it—the tears I'd been holding back started to fall. How could he be so cruel? What did he gain by playing a joke like this on me? This was not the man I'd fallen for. If anything, he was the jerk I'd first met.