Gods Save the Princess (Grace of Gods Book 2) (26 page)

“Valentina.” He said firmly, pushing me away from him. “You need to leave. Please.”

I shook my head, “no, because so long as Aidan thinks you’ve betrayed him he won’t let you help him. I’m the only option we have anymore to get Aidan out of here. He needs to get the key back and we still need to find the other Gods that are dispersed on Earth...” I frowned. There was a lot to do and not many of us left to see it all done. There also wasn’t any guarantee that my planning would do the trick. “You just need to keep the Titans on your good side, you need to keep them believing you’re on their side and let me do what I need to do.”

“It’s dangerous, I won’t-“

“Stop arguing. You wouldn’t have set me free if you didn’t believe in some way that I can do this.”

“He set you free because she got through to him. He’s trying to be better for both of you, but siding with the Titans...“ He took a deep breath and looked down at his feet shamefully.

I held up my hand and shook my head, “If you’re going to tell me it really was self-preservation, just save it. Don’t tell me. I want to pretend you were doing the right thing.”

His face screwed up slightly and he nodded, “fine.”  I had to admit though, I was a little curious to know what his reasons were for the things he and Hades had done. In my head, and my heart, I wanted to believe it was for wholly good reasons. But that was because I couldn’t fathom how I’d feel if it were for purely bad reasons and I was eternally an optimist.

I knew I had to keep believing Griffin was a good guy until he believed it of himself. Otherwise he would give in and lose faith just like I had seen him do all his life. He needed someone in his corner, acting like a cheerleader and helping him through. That was exactly what I intended to do.

I pulled away from him completely, mentally preparing myself for my mission. However much I wanted to talk to Griffin, now that I knew it was Griffin and Hades there, now wasn't the time. Our pasts and our futures would have to wait until another time when it would be okay to be selfish.

“Alright, where are they keeping Aidan?”

Griffin reached out and tenderly moved a piece of hair from my face to behind my ear before speaking, “Well, they were talking about a chair that Lincoln used-”

“Savannah broke it when Aidan rescued her.”

“Yeah, they mentioned that and then one of them came up with a back up plan – something about a rock and an eagle.”

I frowned, trying to think of what they could mean. Biting down on my lip I walked away from Griffin, recalling everything I had ever read about the Gods and Goddesses. I might’ve come from a strict Catholic background but the last month of researching and trying to learn everything I could about Greek mythology had to come in handy now, even if it had failed me in the Underworld.

“Prometheus.” I finally said, turning around to look at him. “Zeus tied Prometheus to a rock and punished him by having an eagle fly to him during the day, tear his liver out and then at night it would grow back.”

Griffin looked sick at the idea before shaking his head, “sounds about right. They seem to be all for punishing the Olympians for the wrongs committed against the Titans.”

“What about Atlas, he’s a Titan.”

Griffin frowned sadly, “Val, I don’t think they...” He didn’t finish his sentence, he didn’t need to.

My heart flipped and sunk but I refused to believe it. “No. He told me himself it’s nearly impossible to kill him unless someone really wants him dead. I can’t imagine they would’ve bothered to put that much thought into him. They must have him somewhere like they do Aidan.”

“I can look for you. As for Aidan, how are you going to find the rock?”

“The same way I find everything else around here, I’m going to summon it to me.”

“I don’t think it’s that easy.”

“It wouldn’t be if I asked the mountain to take me to Zeus, but instead I’m going to ask it to take me to Prometheus.”

“How is that going to help? He’s probably here in Olympus.”

“No, not the person. In the library there are thousands of tomes that hold the histories of the Gods and Titans. If I ask to see Prometheus’s, the tome should be able to tell me where the rock was located.”

“And what if it doesn’t?” Griffin, understandably, was a little skeptical. I shrugged; I hadn’t really thought about it that far and frankly I was just hoping that this plan would work. “Val.”

Apparently I needed to have a plan B in order to make him happy.

I shrugged, “I don’t know, I never really thought about it. Why wouldn’t the tomes hold geographical information? I mean, they’ve told me everything else I need to know.” Griffin definitely wasn’t convinced.

“Alright, well if your tomes can’t give you the information you need then-“

“The computers!” I said with a bright grin, “I don’t even need to go to the library. I’ll just go back to my apartment and use the Internet. Atlas said everything I’d ever need would be on there, so why wouldn’t this? I have to change anyways...” I said with a frown, looking down at the dirtied and tattered dress lamely hanging off me.

“I wasn’t watching you, you know.”

“Huh?”

“In the apartment, if you had changed we weren’t watching. We were preserving your dignity in that way.”

“How very thoughtful of you.”

“I know.” He grimaced, it was still a touchy subject then. I laughed to ease the tension, reaching out and touching his arm gently to reassure him. We would talk about it later, but for now I wouldn’t let myself focus on anything that didn’t have to do with saving the Olympians.

“And if I can’t find it on the computer I’ll go to the library.”

“And then what?”

“Then I go and find Aidan, and we’ll go back down to Earth.”

“What about the key?”

“The Erinyes told me that the key changes form, it might take me forever to find out what the key actually is and we don’t have that kind of time. You do reconnaissance and see what you can find. Then you can meet me on Earth.”

“Where?”

He was from England, London presumably from anything his history had told me. I was from the middle of nowhere Ireland; I’d never even left my county. Chewing down on my bottom lip I tried to think of somewhere I could meet him. Buckingham Palace, being the only thing I could think of, was not appropriate.

“Stonehenge.” Persephone spoke for me, knowingly choosing such an ancient, magical location.

“Really?”

“Yes.” I grinned, unable to hide my excitement that my Goddess and I were working together. It was a welcome aid.

“Okay, Stonehenge. I’ll meet you there.” I nodded, leaning in to hug him again quickly before pulling away and starting for the door.

“Val.” He said my name softly, a hint of vulnerability lacing his tone. I turned back around slowly just as Griffin moved toward me, pulling me against him and kissing me again. It was far different from the other chaste kisses we had exchanged.  I felt my cheeks burn with desire and embarrassment before I finally, gently, nudged him away. “Be safe. Please.” He whispered, his lips brushing against mine with every syllable while his eyes remained firmly shut. I nodded my head, licked my lips and pulled back reluctantly.

“I’ll do my best.”

“I mean it.”

“So do I.” I kissed him again quickly before turning away, still feeling flushed from the sensation of his lips against mine, as I hurried for the door. I could sense Persephone’s disapproval inside of me and I understood where she was coming from, but resisting her husband all this time hadn’t worked either. So, it was time she try my tactics. And so far they were working, Hades hadn’t tried to overpower Griffin yet.

I crossed the destroyed throne room and pushed the door open, thinking hard about my apartment. It wasn’t hard to channel myself to get there, I had been longing for it in the two weeks I had been trapped in the Underworld.

Crossing through the threshold I came out on the other side, breathing a sigh of relief as I saw my apartment door exactly how I had left it. I hurried over to it and the door opened in greeting, an exuberant Cerberus on the other side jumping at the thrill of seeing me.

“Hey buddy!” I ran my hand through his fur and kissed the top of his head, “how did you get back?” I wondered out loud before straightening up and turning to quickly shut the door behind me. I didn’t want any of the Titans to know I was here, even if I hadn’t seen any of them yet. Whatever they were up to, it was giving me enough time to move around freely.

Hurrying into my bedroom I opened my closet imagining the simplest outfit I could: jeans, t-shirt and running shoes. On second thought I conjured a jacket just in case it was raining when I got to Stonehenge.

As I sat down at my computer I suddenly remembered I didn’t exactly have a plan in place to figure out where everyone was on Earth. I suspected that the Titans weren’t stupid enough to just place them all down in the same place; that was just asking for trouble.

With the early formation of a plan rolling around in my head I logged onto the browser and pulled up a search engine. I was quite proud of how efficient I was getting with the Internet. Typing in Prometheus’ rock into the bar I hit search. I wasn’t entirely sure if those were the keywords I needed to use but it was as close to the point as I was going to get in a world that otherwise believed all these stories were fake. Scrolling through meta descriptions I found it: “Caucasus Mountains”. I managed to copy the name into a map generator and watched it pull up a large range of mountains between Georgia and Russia. I frowned to myself, so they had cast Zeus out of Olympus.

Standing up I grabbed a piece of paper and quickly copied down the name in case I would need it before sticking it in my jacket pocket. Staring at the map on the screen I remembered the map that Atlas had on his desk that he’d used to track all the Gods down. It had shown him all the various Olympians and where they were in the world so he could watch them. If I could get back to Atlas’ office I could use that map to find the others.

I turned to Cerberus who was a lot smarter than the average dog, “Can you take me to Atlas’ office?” Having a three-headed dog as your guard dog would be my safest bet against any Titans I might run into.

Cerberus tilted his head to one side thoughtfully as he stared at me for a moment. Then when I thought maybe I was a little crazy for thinking I could just talk to a dog and he would understand, Cerberus’ three heads barked, his tail wagged and he turned to the door, flouncing out.

I followed after him quickly, tugging on my jacket as I walked and grabbed the door, slowly opening it so I could check the hallway to make sure no one was out there.

“Okay, the coast is clear.” Cerberus led the way, heading into the hallway and taking a sharp left turn. I followed where he went, opening doors where he needed me to and in a matter of moments he had led me to exactly where I wanted to be.

“You’re such a good dog.” I said with a grin, rubbing between his ears, "now go back to the Underworld and meet me there. The Gods will be arriving soon." Cerberus eyed me with uncertainty before barking reluctantly, turning and heading off as I'd told him. I steeled myself before walking further into the office. It was a lot messier than I remembered it had been. Things were thrown about the same way they had been done in the throne room and the desk was nowhere to be seen.

“No.” I said breathlessly, feeling my heart and hopes sink.

Chapter Twenty Two

I moved through the mess, picking up what I could as I looked for the map - or anything that might help - but it was just a disaster. I was lifting up a chair when I heard a soft cough from behind me. I felt my blood go cold and I immediately imagined that I was going to turn around and face Coeus. But as I turned around slowly no one was there. Another soft cough came through again and I realised it was coming from under me. I quickly bent and started sifting through the papers and strewn furniture, revealing Atlas’ battered body underneath it all.

“What are you doing!” I exclaimed, pushing everything off him and holding out my hand to help him up.

He shook his head, “I can’t move, they’ve bound me with invisible chains.”

“Oh.” I felt foolish, bending down and trying to levy his weight so I could pick him up against myself. Groaning with effort I managed to only pull his head into my lap.

“Valentina, why are you still here? Why didn’t they cast you down to Earth with the rest?”

“I was in the Underworld when the Titans mutinied.”

“How lucky...” He said softly, coughing again, this time letting some blood out from between his lips.

“What’s wrong?”

“I’ll be fine once the chains are removed. But they squeeze my lungs periodically, bursting them and forcing them to heal themselves again.”

“That’s horrible!”

“That’s the punishment of the Titans.”

“What are they going to do to the rest of the world Atlas? Are we doomed?”

“I don’t know, long ago I lost touch with my brethren. Where I evolved, they didn’t. They live in the past where I have always lived in the future.”

I shook my head, wiping his mouth gently, “I’m going to find Aidan and gather the Gods again. We’re going to take back Olympus and fix all this.”