Prison of Hope (35 page)

The helicopter began hovering in place, and I sat down, my legs dangling over the precipice. Far below I saw the fighting that was happening around Stonehenge.

“Do not launch up,” the agent said and pointed to the rotors not too far above my head.

“I’ll try to remember,” I said with as much sarcasm as I could manage, and wondered if it were possible to tie a werewolf to one of the rotors and fly up in the air.

The agent placed his hands on my back. “One.”

I pitched forward slightly, ready for the drop that was c
oming.

“Two.”

I released my hands from the strap on the side of the door.

“Three.” And he pushed with just enough force for me to move forward, out of the helicopter. And then I was falling very fast, from a great height, toward a fight with a god. When this was done, if I survived, I was going to get so fucking drunk.

CHAPTER
34

I
t’s impossible to realize how fast a person falls until you’re actually the one falling. I kept my eye on the illuminated
altimeter
, and the moment it hit the required height, I released the ch
ute an
d began gliding toward the towering green light.

It was temping to use my magic to make me move faster toward my target, but I was by no means an expert parachutist, and if I used magic while concentrating on not crashing into the green light, there was a pretty good chance that was where I’d end up. Hitting the ground from a few hundred feet in the air might not outright kill me, but it would damn well hurt, and I didn’t really have time to sit around and heal.

The closer I got to the ground, the louder the gunfire from below became. One of the cars being used as a barrier by the
Vanguard
was on fire, and another was smoking away. A few
bodies
lay on the ground. Although I couldn’t tell if any real damage had been done to the LOA forces, it appeared that the
Vanguard
were the ones having a harder time of the situation.

I was two hundred feet above the ground, and coming in to a landing just outside the light, when the first bullet hit the canopy. I pulled hard to the side and tried to pick out my assailant from below, when a second bullet hit the strap above my hand,
tearing
through it and causing me to dangle, like a fish on a hook, as I began to fall at an increased speed.

I pulled hard on the remaining cord and swung myself toward the green light as hard as I could before using magic to cut through the last strap and a little more magic to propel me into the light as more and more bullets tore into the now empty chute.

I hit the light and felt an enormous tug on my chest and shoulders as the remains of the parachute were ripped from me and remained outside the light. Bullets tore at the well, but I had other concerns—namely, the hundred or so foot drop onto very large rocks.

I spotted Cronus kneeling in the center of the henge and was incredibly grateful when he didn’t budge as I threw huge amounts of air magic in front of me in an effort to slow down. When I was thirty feet above the ground, I whipped a tendril of air around one of the giant stone lintels and let my momentum carry me down and under it, my feet almost brushing against the grass, before I released the tendril and flew toward Cronus.

When I was several feet away, he catapulted himself backward, using the earth to throw himself away from my trajectory. I hit the ground pretty hard, using air to help slow and stop any injuries, but I managed to tear a massive crevice in the ground as I did so.

“I did wonder how long it would take for someone to get here,” Cronus said as I glanced up at him. He was naked from the waist up. On his muscular chest and arms were several large runes.

“I assume those are for activating the well.” I got back to my feet and brushed myself down. “You’re not going to just shut this thing off and come with me, are you?”

“What do you think?” He stared at me for a moment. “I remember you . . . Nathan, that’s your name. You knew
my son.”

“We met a few times.”

“He spoke highly of you—both he and Hades. They seem to think big things are in your future. If you stay here, I’ll make sure your future is very short. Leave.”

“Can’t,” I said. “I can’t let you go after Hera. I can’t let you get your power back. You killed Sarah.”

“She had a Kituri dagger,” he said. “She was going to bring me here, let me get my power back, and then murder me. Couldn’t let that happen. Zeus needs justice.”

“This isn’t justice—you know that.”

“Vengeance then; if the stories I heard about you are right, you’re not going to tell me vengeance is wrong.”

“No, it has its place. I’ve killed my share of people who have wronged me or someone I love. Can’t say I didn’t. But this—this will hurt countless more than just Hera. That’s why I can’t let you go. I can’t let the people I care about down. I won’t.”

“Then you’re going to die here.”

I shrugged. “Then I die fighting.”

Cronus darted toward me and struck out with a plume of fire from his open palm. I stepped aside and responded with my own plume, which he stopped by pushing my arm away. We went on like that for a few seconds, punches and palm strikes powered by magic, each one deflected or blocked as we each tried to gain the upper hand.

I struck out at Cronus’s head with a jet of fire, but he moved at the last moment and tried for my ribs. I stepped into the attack and changed the jet of fire into a whip, bringing it down toward Cronus with incredible force. Cronus blocked the strike with a magically created rock above him, his glyphs turning green as he used his earth magic, before throwing himself back, putting distance between us.

The combat had been fast and brutal. I’d been burned on my arms and ribs, but so had Cronus, and he looked really angry about it. Although, whether that was due to the pain I’d inflicted or his inability to beat me quickly, I was unsure.

“You’re not at full strength,” I said. “This isn’t a fight you can win easily.”

“I won’t be beaten by a child.” He spat the final word, as if the notion that someone as young as sixteen hundred years could possibly better him was unthinkable. I aimed to prove
him wrong.

He grabbed a huge rock, which probably weighed several tons, and threw it at my head. I stopped it by pushing up with a massive gust of air, giving Cronus the chance to throw a second rock at me from the opposite direction. I released my magic and aimed more at my feet, propelling me up and over the rock. When I was halfway past, Cronus changed the direction and flung it up toward me. I brought down a whip of air, which cracked the rock, but didn’t break it. Instead, the rock plowed into me, knocking me to the ground and then rolling to turn me in a squishy mess.

I drew in a portion of the krampus’s soul that I’d taken in
Germany
and used it on my air magic, pushing a column of air up at the rock, which exploded from the impact. The fact that Cronus managed to keep the magic together and turn the remaining rock pieces into tiny missiles was a testament to how powerful he was. A blast of air in his chest robbed him of his concentration, and the small chunks hit the ground harmlessly.

I got back to my feet. My continued existence and refusal to just lie down and die had etched an expression on Cronus’s face that was similar to the one on the face of someone who’d found their trash bins knocked over, spilling rubbish everywhere. I wondered how much longer I could keep pissing him off before he went nuclear—probably not long. Cronus wasn’t known for his ability to keep his temper in check.

Cronus walked over to one of the massive vertical stones that littered the Stonehenge circle we were inside and, with a crunch, grabbed hold of it, his fingers digging into the rock. He picked it off the ground as if it weighed nothing, and threw it at me. A little air magic to make me quicker allowed me to dodge the block as the rock struck the ground and tore a lengthy trench into the earth. Earth magic allows its users to increase their strength, much in the same way that air magic allows me to increase my speed and agility.

The second the massive stone came to a stop it was joined by a second one, forcing me to use my air magic to deflect its trajectory, taking it straight into a third rock. The noise was
deafening
as little pieces of rock began to pepper the hastily assembled shield of air I’d created. Stonehenge had stood for thousands of years, and Cronus had destroyed a sizeable portion of it in less than a few minutes of fighting me.

I wrapped air around Cronus’s feet and yanked back, forcing him to drop yet another stone. He used his earth magic to shield himself before part of Stonehenge connected with his skull, but a second yank back on my air magic forced his head to smash into part of the stone anyway.

He threw a ball of fire at me, which turned, slowed, and changed direction when I avoided its first pass. Trying to control any magic in such a way is hard work, but doing it during a fight meant Cronus had to put his attention elsewhere, which let me sprint toward him and tackle him to the ground. It wasn’t pretty, or particularly impressive, but it made him lose his concentration, equally so when I slammed my air covered fist into his jaw a few times, drawing blood.

The ground around us sprung to life as Cronus drew on his earth magic, smashing into me and throwing me off him with enough force to knock the wind out of me, despite my air shield. I dove behind a stone pillar and waited for my breath to return. I kept an eye on Cronus, who’d gotten back to his feet and shouted something in Latin that I didn’t pick up. I guessed it wasn’t anything nice when a boulder the size of a hatchback was hurled at me with enormous force. It crashed into the stones I’d been using as a shield, tearing my makeshift cover to pieces, but I was already on the move, using my air ma
gic to
sprint toward Cronus faster than any Olympic runner could have managed.

I threw a ball of flame at him. He stopped it with a shield of earth, which appeared across his arm. But with my power still increased by the soul of the krampus, the whip of fire tore through Cronus’s shield with ease. He threw himself aside and countered with a jet of almost white-hot flame. But I’d moved beyond where he’d expected me to be. Dodging more jets of flame, I raced within striking distance and drove a blade of fire up through his side, twisting it slightly before tearing it free through his back.

Blood cascaded from the wound, but I couldn’t follow up as four huge slabs of earth shot up around him, protecting him from further harm.

I released my magic and stopped my use of the krampus soul. I’d been traveling at much higher speeds than I’d ever have been capable of without it, but I doubted that Cronus was finished. I didn’t want to be without one of my most powerful weapons when he rallied.

I threw a ball of fire at Cronus’s earthen shield, which
simply
absorbed it, the wet muck moving as if to take the flame for
Cronus to
consume.

I wasn’t sure if Cronus could still absorb magic while practically encased in mud and rock, but it wasn’t a risk I was willing to take. I created a sphere of air in my palm and began rotating it, faster and faster until it was almost a blur, and then I ran at the rock and drove the sphere into it before releasing the magic. An entire side of the shield vanished from the impact, but the cloud of dust that was thrown up allowed Cronus to crash into me, taking me off my feet and driving me into the ground, where more of his earth magic leapt around my hands and throat, keeping me pinned down.

“You’re stubborn and strong, but not strong enough,” he said, slightly out of breath.

He got up, and I kicked him in the knee, hitting it just right to dislocate the joint and force his magic to vanish. I was up and on him in an instant, raining blows down with fist and elbow across his body, but he would not go down. He used his earth magic to ensure he stayed rigid and upright as he blocked a blow to his jaw before slamming a pillar of solid earth up into my face.

I didn’t move in time to shield myself. The best I could do was move enough to take it on the shoulder. The impact was
sufficient
to lift me off my feet and dump me several meters away from Cronus. Pain wracked my shoulder, and I knew it was, at the very least, dislocated. I touched the limb and found the arm free of the socket. I smashed my shoulder into a nearby stone, which caused me to cry out.

“I’m done playing now,” Cronus said, and when I looked up at him, his fire and earth glyphs had merged over his arms.

I scrambled to my feet as lava flowed over Cronus’s hands and up to his forearms, a constant stream of molten heat that he was preparing to use. I didn’t have to wait long as a stream of lava headed toward me at an astonishing rate. I didn’t even try to use my magic to counter it, but just ran, the lava incinerating everything it touched as Cronus followed me in an attempt to turn me into a barbecued version of myself.

I’d made a whole lap of Stonehenge before Cronus realized he couldn’t keep up and just decided to destroy everything. Huge stones and boulders hurtled at me with every step, and it was all I could do to keep moving, to keep the krampus soul burning inside of me to ensure I was quick enough. But I couldn’t do it forever. The soul would extinguish at some point, and then I was as good as dead.

I threw a jet of flame at Cronus, who created another block of earth in front of him to stop it, but by the time the flame was extinguished, I was already on my way toward him. A huge rock appeared in front of me, but with some air assistance, I leapt up onto it and onto a second rock that appeared as if out of nowhere. Every time I cleared a rock, a new one appeared, forcing me to go higher and higher above Cronus and the battlefield below. After the fourth rock, I created a sphere of air in my hand and poured part of the krampus’s soul into it, creating an orb of incredible power. I cleared yet another rock, but there was nothing below me but dozens of feet of space.

Cronus must have seen the sphere, because a massive column of rock tore out from in front of him and up toward me. Just before it hit me, I activated my fire magic, merging it with the air and forcing lightning into the sphere. Electricity crackled from within it as I put my arm out before me, the sphere now containing traces of yellow and red.

The sphere hit the top of the column like a bomb, destroying the first ten feet of solid rock as if it were paper. It took me through the next ten feet with barely any resistance, although the sound it created as the rock was torn asunder was deafening. Just releasing the magic wouldn’t have worked; it would have destroyed the rock, but left Cronus standing. Instead, I focused the hand-sized sphere into something smaller and smaller, un
til it
was the size of a golf ball. When it was the exact size I wanted
it, I pus
hed it into the rock and then released it.