Lightning crackled in my eyes and jumped around my fists. ❝Zeus is fallen. I am Hercules. I stand in his place.❞
The giantess snorted, leering down at me, yellow teeth like bricks. ❝Another dead hero.❞
❝Yes. But not today.❞
...
On the mantle above the fireplace, candles flickered in their votives.
Head bowed, I closed my prayer to the goddess.
Days had passed since Marty's disappearance, and I still had no idea how to tell Meagan that I couldn't save him. Marty was her most important lead, the only surviving victim of the military kidnappings, and I had lost him.
"Marty was an infection living among the human race." Eros leaned in the living room doorway, one hand stuffed in the pocket of his dark, tailored suit, the other gripping an ice-cold beer. Eros had no more love for The Lost Children than he did the Titans. "Why do you grieve?"
"Because Meagan cared for him." I blew out the candles. "There is one good thing to come from his misfortune," I said, making my way to Eros. "Now I know that it is non-humans Kreon wants. He's targeting Supernaturals. And we're next."
"Why didn't Kreon take you?"
"They wanted to, but they couldn't--something about Kreon needing a serum first."
Eros shrugged, frowning. "What's that about?"
"I don't want to know."
"Or you don't want to know because this involves Meagan. It concerns me how much you are willing to risk for her."
"And yet I say nothing about your visits to Psyche. You look disappointed." I folded my arms, grinning. "Did she not desire the god of desire?"
"Psyche has been... busy." Eros glanced absently away, twisting his ring. "What news?"
"Only my own crushing defeat." I breathed out, letting go the instinct to find Meagan, to see for myself that she was okay. Every day I tried to tell myself that Kreon wasn't Zeus, that he wouldn't hurt his own daughter. The task grew harder with each day.
"Stopping the general is the path to Olympus. But if I kill Meagan's father she won't forgive me."
"Global warming is ruining the planet and the sun will eventually explode." Eros issued a friendly knock on the shoulder. "For one night, let your meddlesome conscience rest, brother. If we don't find Kreon, we'll have bigger problems."
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According to Eros, the Internet was an invisible, but not impenetrable, vehicle of information– the history and mysteries of the world all debunked at one's fingertips. His furniture was stiff and uptight, his bedroom reeked of kale chips and cologne, but I joined him at the computer desk. Bending at his side, I watched the screen as Eros navigated some of man's latest technological wonders.
"Really?" I banged the top of the monitor, peering closely. "It's magic! How does it do that?" I banged it again.
"Stop doing that! It's not magic, it's science. Any question you can imagine, even those concerning our world, you can look up right here with this search engine." Eros pointed. "Humans no longer worship the gods. But the information is their, right under their noses."
