From Titans (Book 4) (30 page)

The thunder boomed and lightning flashed
across the darkened sky. Rain poured like a bucket of water from
the belly of the clouds. Drenched from the sudden outpour, we had
no choice but to take cover. Mason held my hand, guiding me to a
dry-cleaner store still intact. Everyone followed behind. Hades and
Zeus stayed to hold their ground next to my mom. With our backs to
the wall, we waited.

“
What do we do now?”
Amanda shivered. The temperature dropped drastically.

“
If we
don
’
t stop her, the town will flood,” Nick stated the
obvious.

“
Is there anything else we
can do?” Colin fidgeted with his sword and shield.

“
I
don’
t think we can.” Sarah wrung her hair
into a twist, allowing the water to drip.

Aaron rubbed water from his eyes. “There are
too many giants.”

Tara and Hermes stood
beside us. I was just about to ask where Zara was when she
appeared. She took off Hades
’
s helm to make her visible again.
They looked like they had taken a shower with their clothes on. I
guessed in a way we all had.

“
Where are the Cyclopes?”
I asked when none were to be seen.

“
We sent them back to
Tartarus as planned through a portal I created. They knew they were
going back there,” Tara answered. “They were satisfied with the
agreement, not to be behind bars, but to have the freedom to roam
in Tartarus as before. They helped us with the human giants, but I
can
’
t have them creating more damage. We already have enough
giants to deal with. Besides, I don
’
t want Cronus to have a chance to
make a deal with Polyphemus. He would be stupid enough to take the
offer Cronus would never keep.”

“
You made the right
decision, Tara. But don
’
t worry. Everything is going to
be fine.”
Zara smiled.
I
’
d
never seen her smile so big before.

“
What do you mean?” I
asked.

She
didn
’
t answer. The rain stopped, and the sun peeked through the
layers of the clearing sky.

“
Impossible?
”
Eris sneered.
“Who
dares to stop the chaos?” She didn
’
t wait for an answer. “Let the
land split in two and swallow everything in its path.”

The earth rumbled, and
like an endless spider
’
s long leg that seemed to have no
end, the ground cracked open so fast, the houses, trees, the cars,
commercial building, debris, and everything near the opening
dropped into the hole.

“
What do we do?” I
panicked, watching the ground dividing toward us.

Mason gripped my hand, ready to bolt out of
there.

“
Wait.
” Zara stuck out her hand,
gesturing for us to stay put. “She will fix it.”

Who was she talking about?

Sure enough Zara was right. The ground
knitted back together as if someone had pushed a rewind button. Who
had done this?

“
What the hell is going
on?” Nick rubbed the back of his neck.

“
I
’
d like to know the same.”
Everett
’
s jaw dropped, mimicking our stunned expression.

“
Who are you talking
about?” Noah asked.

Zara kept quiet.

Eris stomped on
Cronus
’
s shoulder like a spoiled brat who didn
’
t get her toy.
“Impossible. Who is undermining my authority? I am goddess of
chaos. Show yourself coward.”

When no one answered, Eris
opened up her arms and twirled them once. “Let there be wind that
will devour everything in the monster
’
s path.”

We held onto the nearby pole for dear life
as the wind picked up top speed. It happened so fast I had no idea
where the tornado came from. It sucked debris inside the wind storm
first and then the cars, building structures, lampposts. Everything
nearby zapped into the tunnel of wind like a magnet to its pole.
Then like before, whatever Eris caused, it was quickly tamed. The
wind died, dropping whatever it swallowed. I wished she had stopped
it before it even began.

“
No, no, no,”
Eris huffed.
“Show yourself. Are you afraid to confront me?” She pounded
her foot. Then her eyes shifted lower to my mom
’
s right
jacket
pocket. Her eyes narrowed, her body shuddered.
“Harmonia!”

Chapter
27

Skylar

“
Hello there Eris,”
Harmonia
’
s sweet, angelic voice sang.

Mom held Harmonia on the
palm of her hand. Harmonia
’
s long golden hair and her long
purple dress fluttered with the soft breeze like
angel
’
s wings.

“
Why are you here? You
have no business here,” Eris snapped. “Go away.”

“
Wherever there is chaos,
I follow to bring harmony. No matter what you do, I will fix it.
Your glory is over. Surrender and your punishment will be
lessened.”

Eris snarled. “You will surrender, not I.”
She swung her arm across her chest. Blue light flashed from her
hand. Energy darted across. Harmonia ducked. The light hit Mom and
pushed her back. Harmonia fired the same type of energy back, but
hers was violet. It missed and pushed Cronus back. Blue and violet
lights zapped across space, causing electric sparks. The energy
swung back and forth.

The clouds rumbled and darkened, and then
Harmonia caused the sun to appear through the clouds. The wind
would pick up speed and then die. The ground shook, and then the
next second it stilled. Whatever chaos Eris created, Harmonia
stopped it before it got worse.

“
Harmonia, of course. Your
mom is a genius,” Zara exclaimed, snapping us back to focus on the
conversation. We were mesmerized by what was happening between the
two goddesses. “Harmonia is the goddess of harmony. She is the
daughter of Aphrodite and Ares. She will bring order to chaos.
Quickly, we must shrink the other Titans while we have this
chance.”

“
We
’
ll keep them
distracted. You and Tara do your thing.” Ares banged his sword on
the shield.

“
We need to pick teams,”
Mason suggested. “Each team is responsible for distracting a
specific titan, or we
’
ll end up confused.”

Noah stopped Amanda from taking off. “Good
idea, Mason. I agree.”

“
Me too.” Colin placed his
shield in front.

“
I
’
m with Colin and Aaron,”
Sarah stated. “We
’
ll take Phoebe. She pissed me
off.”

“
Fine,” Everett said.
“I
’
m
going with Nick. We
’
ve got Themis. He pissed me off
to.”

“
Skylar, Victor, and I
will take care of Oceanus,” Mason added.

“
How about Theia and
Coeus?” Nick asked.

“
Ares and Athena can take
Theia, and Amanda, Noah, and Hades can take Coeus,” Mason
replied.

“
I
’
ve got this.” Hermes took
the helm from Hades. “Don
’
t worry.
I
’
ll
bring it back to you.” Then he took a handful of Monkshead from
Tara. Then he placed the helm on his head to become
invisible.

A light breeze tickled my
cheeks. I know it was from Hermes
’
s wings flapping to take flight.
As Eris and Harmonia continued to argue and battle with chaos and
the calm, we scurried to the Titans, who seemed confused and
oblivious we were below.

“
That
’
s enough!” Cronus
roared. He swatted Eris off his shoulder and pounced on my
mom.

Dad pushed me out of the
way. “She
’
s strong. We can help her by doing our part
quickly.”

I nodded and headed to Oceanus, while the
others headed to the other titans. Hopefully Hermes fluttered
nearby and Oceanus would be his first target.

“
Down here, you giant
shit.”

While Mason got our
target
’
s attention verbally, I lit fire to his feet. Oceanus sniffed
and then gazed down. His eyes turned the darkest of the ocean blue
and growled. He lifted his leg to crush us and also to put out the
fire traveling up his leg. I didn
’
t want to hurt him anymore than
necessary, even though he deserved to be killed. I
wasn
’
t a killer, so I put out the fire. I knew Hermes did his job
when Oceanus started to shrink. Zara picked him up and placed him
in a special magic pouch. I couldn
’
t help but laugh to hear
Oceanus
’
s squeaky voice. He threw a tantrum on his way inside
Zara
’
s bag.

Zara moved onward to the next titan. She
caught Theia, Coeus, and Themis. All went according to our plan. We
had Phoebe left and then finally Cronus. Mom and Cronus were still
at each other. I worried for the baby, but there was nothing I
could do about it at that point.

Phoebe seemed the most difficult. She was
practically bald from her hair catching fire at the arena. She had
anticipated the attack as she witnessed her siblings go down. She
was the smarter one. Instead of attacking us, she blew us out of
her path, avoiding combat. We stumbled and rolled in different
directions. With a fierce look in her eyes, she came for us.

What the heck was Hermes doing? My question
was answered when I spotted him getting up, supporting his hand on
the tree. He must have taken a hit from Phoebe somehow. When Hermes
put on the helm, I assumed he was back on track.

Phoebe
’
s hands twirled like an automatic
fan, moving in a circular formation, swatting anything in her path.
She didn
’
t care what she smacked. Then she tried to crush us with her
feet. We ran in circles around her and to the nearby shelter, but
she came for us in a rage.

“
Get back here you little
piece of shit,” Phoebe roared. Then she started to stomp her feet
in a crushing action.

“
No!” Sarah bellowed,
tumbling. Colin had pushed her out of the way.

“
Watch
out!
” I shouted, but it was too late. I
gasped in horror.

Phoebe slammed her foot on
top of Colin and Aaron. Just then she began to shrink, giving us a
clear path to help Colin and Aaron. Zara grabbed Phoebe and placed
her in safekeeping while Tara felt for a pulse. Shaking her head,
she peered up at Zara. “We need to take them to New Olympus and
heal them quickly. We can
’
t help them here.”

Sarah dropped down to her
knees. It was the first time I
’
d seen tears in her eyes. “Colin
shoved me out of the way. He saved me.”

Though thankfully Colin and Aaron were not
dead, their bodies took a tremendous beating.

“
Go take care of Cronus.
I
’
ll
take them back with me,” Tara said, waving her magical hands around
them.

I didn
’
t have a chance to
watch them disappear. Something wrapped around my body and yanked
me up.

“
Sky!”

Mason became smaller and
smaller. Everyone
’
s eyes grew as round as saucers
in concern. Cronus had me. I sent shock waves through
Cronus
’
s hand, but it didn
’
t do any good. Too busy attending
to Colin and Aaron, we had our guards down. I assumed Mom had him
in control.

“
Put my daughter down,
Cronus,” Mom ordered.

“
I
’
ve never eaten a demi-god
before. I wonder what she
’
ll taste like?” Cronus raised his
other hand, gesturing for Mom to stop. “I wouldn
’
t come any closer if I
were you.”