Read Online Adrastia (The God Chronicles Book 4) by Kamery Solomon - Free Book Online Page B

could see a few of the other trees had changed as well, one of them an evergreen that was now holding what appeared to be a blanket made from her foliage.
    Immediate gratitude filled me and I collapsed into the arms of the woman who'd spoken, sighing contently as they wrapped around me.
    "You were not long for this earth," the one with the blanket said, her voice flowing like a song as she wrapped me in the green warmth.
    "We had to wait for Adrastia and his companion to be in a deep enough sleep that we could come to you without waking them," the third, a man, said. "I slipped a draft into their dinner, but was worried it wouldn’t be enough. Luckily, they kept you so far from themselves."
    "But that is also a great danger to you," the first said again, rubbing her hands up and down my arms for me. "The Titans are closer than they think. The beasts could have snatched her away from them and they wouldn't have known till first light."
    "I'm sorry," I chattered, interrupting whatever the man had been about to say. "Who is Adrastia? I know Arsenio and Cristos, but no Adrastia."
    "Adrastia and Cristos are one and the same," the man said, adding his own warm embrace to the circle. "The son of Zeus."
    "Wait, Zeus?"
    It felt like it should be so simple, understanding what they were saying to me. At the same time, the information was hitting a brick wall in my head.
    "The King of the gods," the evergreen woman said, nodding her head.
    "What do they want with me?" I asked incredulously. "I'm just a regular girl . . . Who can catch on fire and be fine, apparently."
    "You are much more than that," the man chuckled, his voice rumbling in his chest against my back. "You are a demi-Titan."
    "The only demi-Titan," the first woman said.
    "And quite possibly the last," the evergreen added.
    "Is that important?"
    "The Titans want you for themselves, to use you in their crusade against the Olympians and all of mankind. The Olympians want you destroyed, at least Adrastia does. He is the only one who knows of your existence at this moment in time."
    "How do you know all of this?" I asked, befuddled. "You're a bunch of trees in the forest."
    Their laughter tinkled softly on the breeze, still quiet enough to not wake the sleeping gods.
    "Adrastia has been searching for you. Capturing Titans and questioning them. Word travels quickly when it is news such as this," the man answered.
    "We are not confined to the two forms you've seen us in," the first woman said. "We can appear human if we like. We thought it best to remain blended in while we helped."
    "Why are you helping me?" I asked, feeling the mountain of questions I had growing. "If I'm a Titan, aren't I a . . . Monster?"
    "Beings are not born evil," the evergreen said forcefully. "They choose that path for themselves. Being half Titan does not make you like them."
    "But I could be."
    The almost silent statement surprised even me, like a confession I'd always known was inside me and was just discovering.
    "We see goodness in you," the first woman said kindly. "That is why we came to help. Adrastia is being blinded by something else, something that made him come searching for you in the first place. We don't know who told him about you, but I imagine they were probably very important people to know about you at all."
    "The sun will be rising soon," the man said, breaking away from the group. "I need to teach you how to warm yourself now."
    "I know how," I laughed. "I just can't do it tied up."
    "I meant how to do it with your powers," he said, smiling widely. "You have fire within you, but lack the ability to call it forward."
    "How do you know how to do it?"
    His face fell then, a look of shame flashing through his eyes.
    "I didn't always choose the path of good. It saddens me to say I have walked with Titans. I served many of them, among them your father, Typhon."
    He paused, looking up at the sky as he took a deep breath, his bark skin rustling against itself.
    "If I can use those dark times