Holy shit. I peered back to see Okeanos, red-faced and grunting in concentration. Following Cronus’ lead, I stepped out onto the water and found a solid platform beneath me. Liquid pooled around my boots, but whatever power Okeanos had was holding us. Cronus and I climbed higher and higher, right into the wave itself.
I quickly sent up a little prayer. #TooYoungToDie
As Cronus and I climbed into the split wave, I felt the sins thrashing about within me. Cronus grimaced and I knew he must have felt them warring inside of him too. When we were directly in the middle of the wave, we turned around and faced the boat. Okeanos was shaking, arms raised as he held the wave at bay. Rhea, Koios and the others fanned out behind him, lending their power.
“Ready?” Cronus asked.
I nodded. This was it, the moment we’d been building to since the first Sin was released. This was my time to right that wrong.
Reaching out, I dug my fingers into the water, gasping when I felt a frigid cold seep into my bones. I knew without needing to be told that it was Death. The sins inside of me thrashed harder as an inky energy poured from my fingertips. It’s like they were … helping me. Or maybe they were trying to escape? It was hard to tell. A thick black tentacle lashed out at my wrist and I grabbed hold of it.
It burned. Like fire.
Gotcha, you fucker.
Luckily, it didn’t matter the order of these three, so I didn’t hesitate to yank it closer. The black Sin energy on my hands protected me from getting burned as I pulled Fire from the water.
“I got you,” Cronus called behind me.
The tentacle snapped out and wrapped around my throat, but just as quickly there was a burst of blue light and it eased, melting onto my arms. My entire body heated, feeling like I had a fever as the Sin seeped into my skin.
“It’s going into the necklace!” Cronus shouted.
#ThankFuck
I burned, my vision blurry, but it only lasted a few more minutes before the heat was gone. Spinning, I looked at Cronus; his face was red, teeth clamped down.
“You o—?” I was cut off by two tentacles wrapping around my waist, yanking me into the black sea.
Icy water surrounded me. I’d barely managed to take a breath, and I held it tightly as my body flopped like a ragdoll, the tentacle dragging me deeper and deeper into the dark depths.
Panic did its best to overwhelm me, even as I tried not to freak out. All around me blue bursts of magic shot down into the water, to no avail. I’m going to die. I’m going to drown and Famine, Frost and Death will encompass the Earth.
Cronus couldn’t do this without me.
Even worse, if I died now, while still housing three sins, they’d be released back into the world. I kicked my feet like crazy, reaching out and grabbing hold of the tentacles. Bending forward, I opened my mouth, releasing what precious oxygen I had left, and chomped down on that black fucker like it was a well-done steak.
It was surprisingly solid and fleshy. A hiss carried through the water as I ripped a piece of the Sin away with my mouth.
Then I was falling.
It had let me go.
I had about two seconds to celebrate that victory until I realized I was sinking with no air left and a chunk of Sin in my mouth. Spitting the disgusting shit out, I kicked with all my might, but the urge to gasp had become overwhelming. Dizziness overtook me as sparkles of light danced across my vision and I knew it was too late for me.
Stupid human. Why couldn’t I breathe underwater?
Just as my eyelids started to close and I felt myself losing consciousness, two strong hands grabbed my shoulders, a pair of warm lips pressing over mine.
Precious oxygen filled my mouth and lungs and I gulped it greedily as Cronus shot us up and out of the water like there was a rocket on his back. We sailed fifty feet into the air and then he landed hard on the boat deck with me in his arms.
“Maisey!” Cronus set me down as I gasped and sputtered.
“I’m okay.” I coughed, horrified at the sight of my blue-tinged skin. How close had I been to dying?
“Another wave!” Okeanos called.
Cronus threw himself over me, bracing my body underneath his so I didn’t go flying off the boat.
“We need to get back out there! There’s three more left,” I screamed over the creaking boat.
Cronus shook his head. “It’s too dangerous! You almost drowned.”
He’d moved back enough that I could reach over and grasp his face in my hands. “They just took me by surprise. We can’t give up now. We’re almost there. We can do this.”
Cronus looked torn, his eyes weary. He glanced around the boat, which had settled its rocking, and then got to his feet, pulling me with him.
Striding across to a small storage cabinet, he opened it, leaning in and emerging with a thick rope.
“What are you doing?” I asked as he hurried back to me, one end of the dark rope in his hands.
“In this together, right?” he said as he started to tie it around my waist.
“Always.”
Okeanos and Hyperion approached us, each holding one half of the box.
“I’m going to make a water raft. It’s going to take all of us to defeat this,” the Titan of the sea said.
Ares, Apollo, and Athena were surprisingly all still here, wet and battle worn, but with faces of determination.
Hepatitis was nowhere to be seen.
#BigShocker
Okeanos, his hair plastered to one side with water, raised his arms and once again the ocean parted. “I’m … my power is drained … this is our last shot.”
Hyperion hefted the huge box over his shoulder and walked out onto a twenty-foot-square platform of solid black water. Cronus and I were
