Read Online The Cult of Kronos by Amy Leigh Strickland - Free Book Online

Hera curled up at his side,
tucked under the crook of his arm. Her hair, normally worn in an
intricate knot at the top of her head, fanned out around her as she
slept. They did not hear the creaking of the palace gate; Zeus slept
too heavily with the scent of honey wine on his breath.
    The indigo sky beyond the
columns of the master bedroom turned inky black and all of the stars
seemed to extinguish like candles. The blackness took the torches and
hid the light of the moon, blanketing the sleeping gods in its cloak.
Zeus shot up in bed. With no light, they were blind.
    “ What's happening,” his
queen asked, her hands gripping his arm to make sure she knew where
he was.
    Zeus held up his hand and
generated a fistful of crackling electricity, but that too was
quickly absorbed by darkness. “Erebos,” he hissed.
    He grabbed his wife's hand and
pulled her up from the bed, afraid to lose her in the dark.
    “ We need to sound the
alarm,” she said. As the final word passed over her lips, massive
hands, invisible in the darkness, clamped over her mouth. Zeus felt
her slender fingers slip out of his own.
    “ Hera!”
    Silence.
    He roared with fury, swinging
wildly in each direction, hoping to catch the infiltrator. “Come
out, you coward!” he shouted. Below, in the homes of the council,
Zeus heard a distant bellowing and the clanging of swords; Ares was
not going down without a fight. “I am king of the Olympians, fight
me!”
    The darkness receded. Three
gods—two of them Titans—stood before Zeus. One, Epimetheus, held
Hera, his hand clamped over her mouth, the other looped through her
arms, pinning them behind her back. He stood five feet taller than
the Queen of the Gods. She was no match for his strength. His
brother, Prometheus, held a torch.
    “ What is this betrayal?”
Zeus growled.
    “ I, Prometheus, son of
Iapetus, by order of the Titans of Mount Othrys, charge Zeus, King of
Olympus, and his council of twelve with abuse of his station as
governor of mankind. He, his council, and the court of Hades, King of
the Underworld shall hereby serve an eternity in the pit of Tartarus
for their crimes against humanity.”
    “ Speak to me in your own
words, you coward!”
    “ I'm sorry,” Prometheus
said, the sadness evident in his eyes. “But you're out of control.
You’ve lost site of your duties.”
    “ So you turn back to Kronos?
You fought alongside me in the rebellion. You were on my side!”
    The slapping of leather
sandals on marble floor filled the hallway. Perses approached, a
Titan as large as his cousins. He was covered in dirt and blood,
though none of it was his own. “Ares is subdued,” he said.
Indeed, the shouting had died out. “That was the last of them. We
have them all.”
    “ How did you get in?” Zeus
growled. His hands sparked.
    “ We had a little help,”
Prometheus said. “Come, Perses. Bind the king before he gets any
bright ideas. Any…surges of inspiration.”
    “ Someone let you in?”
    “ Even your own people don't
want you in charge, Zeus.” Prometheus watched as Perses drew a pair
of golden manacles from his belt. He crossed to Zeus.
    “ Don't touch me!” he
shouted. His hand surged with energy and he swung at the Titan.
Perses ducked the blow and backed off.
    “ Keep fighting and I'll snap
her neck,” Epimetheus said. He moved his massive hand from Hera's
mouth and gripped her jaw. He pushed her head back, showing her
throat to Zeus. “It'll be easy.”
    “ And impermanent,” Zeus
said.
    “ But this,” Epimetheus
said, removing his hand from her jaw to reach for a dagger at his
belt, “is more permanent. Dipped in the Styx.”
    “ You wouldn't.”
    “ I would,” Epimetheus
said. “She's got my wife's eyes, or rather my wife has hers, but I
could still do it.”
    “ You were our ally,” Hera
pleaded, her eyes trained on Prometheus. “You will go down in
history as a traitor.”
    “ Like
I was a traitor for a harmless prank? It was a bad cut of meat,