The Cult of Kronos (9 page)

“
I'm leaving this room,”
Jason said. “Until you're all done going super-nova. Try not to
burn down my house.”

“
Prometheus,” Zach panted.
Jason stopped in his retreat, interested to hear what Zach had to
say. “I saw Prometheus. He was in charge the night we were taken.”

“
You saw that?” Lewis
asked.

“
I remember hands in the
darkness,” Celene said, hugging herself as if a chill had just
entered the room. “A darkness so complete that we were blind.”

“
They burst in to Hades with
an army. They brought their own boats,” said Peter. “They caught
Cerberus in a net of chains. They stabbed my guards with blades
dipped in the Styx.”

“
They arrested us for crimes
against humanity,” Zeus said. “They threw us in Tartarus. I
remember…thousands of years in that pit, fighting off men we had
condemned to torture.”

“
I don't know if I want to
remember that,” Devon said. Xander had begun to fuss at Zach's
sudden outburst of shouting and lightning. She patted his back now,
and she bounced him gently in her arms.

Zach pushed himself to his
feet. Somehow he seemed taller, and everyone in the room looked
startled at this change. Seeing that Zach was alright, Jason turned
to leave the room. “Wait,” Zach said. “There's more. Kronos
wasn't supposed to be in charge.”

“
Who was?” Jason asked.

“
People. Even Prometheus
knew that Kronos was a bad leader. If he's out now, stomping around…”

“
Then Prometheus' plan has
gone terribly wrong,” Peter said. “The Olympians were not
supposed to be in charge, but Kronos really shouldn't be either. He's
cruel and he's lethal.”

Celene touched the back of her
head where her spine met her skull. “And if what we've seen of him
so far is any indication of how he'll rule…”

“
Damn,” Lewis said. “Shit
just got heavy.”

They all nodded quietly.
Xander stopped fussing and went back to sleep, resting against his
mother's breast. The Pantheon exchanged worried glances.

“
One more thing,” Zach
said. “I asked Prometheus who let him into the palace.”

“
And?” Teddy asked.

“
I don't know. But he said
it was one of us. Someone here betrayed us.”

“
Because of our crimes
against humanity?” Valerie asked.

“
Because they're a slimy
traitor,” Nick said. “Whoever they are, joke is on them. They got
shoved into Tartarus, too.”

The room fell silent again.
Zach trained his eyes on Nick, and each present member of The
Pantheon looked at their allies, wondering who could be trusted.

“
Menoetius said something,”
Peter said, “on the roof that night. About a traitor.”

“
I heard it,” Frank
grunted.

“
Tends to lend credibility
to what Zach remembers,” Astin said. “Doesn't it?”

They all nodded.

“
Well,” Lewis said,
springing to his feet and snatching the water skin up from the floor.
“Let's all take turns drinking and see who remembers being a rat
fink, eh?”

Jason waved his hand and
turned toward the hall. “Yep. I'll be in my room. Someone get me
when the shiny awakenings are over. ”

Zach nodded, “Yeah. That
could get messy.”

“
Why?” Penny asked, “What
happens?”

“
Let's just say I—well,
Zeus—blew up Dionysus' mother by showing her my true form. We don’t
want to do that to Jason.”

“
Blew up?” Teddy asked.

Zach nodded. “Mortals can't
see what we really look like. It's too much for their minds.”

“
Yeah, Doc,” Teddy said,
nodding in vigorous agreement. “Get out of here. We'll call you
when we're done.”

“
It
is easy to be brave at a safe distance.”

-Aesop

X.

Zach felt energized as he made
the drive back to Gainesville. He had spent the night in Olympia
Heights, going to an end-of-summer party with Lewis and checking in
with June before bed. He couldn't tell her anything that had happened
at the meeting. Paranoia was growing. Nobody wanted to risk exposing
the group of gods to a government wiretap or a private snoop like
Julius Spade. Instead he told her that he had news to share when he
made it back the next day. Until then, she would just have to trust
that the news was mostly good.

Zach didn't drink at the
party. He had to keep a clean record for the football team, and he
didn't want to be caught off guard if Kronos decided to pick up where
he left off with Celene. He wouldn't let Lewis, drink, either. “We
have to be on guard,” Zach had murmured as he'd taken the red Solo
cup from Lewis' hand.

“
I'll be fine. My metabolism
is through the roof.”

“
No,” Zach said. “I need
you at a hundred percent if something goes down.”

“
Here? In front of all of
these witnesses?” Lewis asked.

Lewis had been right after
all. Nothing eventful had happened at the party. A drunk junior girl
had tried to pounce Zach, but Zach was trying fidelity now and wanted
no part of it. A couple of guys from the football team, bros who had
just been promoted from JV, had gotten into a fight that had ended
pretty quickly. After the fight, Zach went home, called June, and
went to bed. He had to set out early.

Now Zach drove the turnpike
between Miami and Gainesville, but he had to make a stop. His father
hadn't sent the check to pay for Zach's schoolbooks, and he couldn't
wait on the money. Zach suffered through the Disney traffic to make a
stop in Orlando where his father lived and worked.

The glass tower caught the
blues and greens of palm trees and sunny skies. Zach hurried to cross
six lanes of traffic before the blinking white walk sign turned into
an orange stop. His polarized aviator sunglasses blocked the
reflected light from the building and warped the colors of his iPhone
screen as he checked to make sure he had the correct address.

The
last time Zach had visited his father at work, Zach had been in
elementary school. His teacher had gotten the idea to assign a paper
for Take Your Daughter to Work Day: all of the students, boys and
girls, were required to visit a parent at work and write a one-page
essay on the experience. Zach's mother had been between jobs, so Zach
had gone to visit his father back when Mr. Jacobs still lived and
worked in Miami. The day had started great; Zach's father had gifted
him with a brand new Game Boy Advance SP (the kind that folded up)
and a copy of
Mario
Kart Super Circuit
.
The rest of the day had gone downhill from there. Instead of spending
time with his father, learning about what he did for a living, Zach
had sat in the office and played Game Boy all day while his father
bounced around between meetings. His lunch, which had come nearly
three hours after it was normally served at school, was ordered for
him: edamame and cold lettuce wraps. He didn't know what it was and
he didn't know how to eat it. After chewing fruitlessly on the
edamame pods (and at one point choking on the stringy result), Zach
had given up and picked the water chestnuts out of the lettuce wraps
to nibble on. He remembered going home and crying to his mother that
his day was awful. Zach still wasn't sure what his father actually
did
for
a living.

His
whole being, however, surged with confidence today. After everyone at
the meeting had taken a sip of the Mnemosyne, all sorts of memories
had come back. Lewis was the first to figure out how to shape-shift,
and the others had followed closely behind. Zach had focused on his
memories and taken his truest human form. As Zeus, he stood seven
feet tall and had a glorious beard. His body, as a god, made him look
like one of the guys from
300
on
steroids, and his blue eyes crackled with electricity. June's goddess
form had dark hair and large, green eyes. Even with a new face and
new figure, Zach remembered her. The best part was that the innate
form of Hera, in comparison to June Herald, had huge breasts. He
couldn't wait to get home and give her the little bottle of Mnemosyne
that Peter had packaged-up to help her recall her greater form.

As he strode through the front
doors of the office building, Zach held his head high and his
shoulders back. He was wearing his Zach form a little taller,
standing at six-foot-four, and he flashed a brilliant smile to the
security guard at the desk. “I'm here to see Caleb Jacobs. He works
on the thirty-seventh floor.”

“
Do you have an
appointment?”

“
He's my father,” Zach
said.

The guard picked up her phone
and dialed a number. “I have a kid here saying his father is Mr.
Jacobs. Can I send him up? Mmhmm. Alright, thank you.” She hung up
the phone and looked back at Zach. “Take the elevator to your
right. His office is 37B.”

“
Thanks,” Zach said.

The interior of the spacious
elevator was plated in mirrors. Zach saw himself from every angle. He
stepped inside and pressed the button for the thirty-fourth floor,
then turned to check out his reflection.

The elevator stopped on floor
seventeen to let a woman on. She was an older woman, tall and slim,
wearing a pair of killer high heels and a no-nonsense pants suit. As
she reached for the buttons, she saw that thirty-seven was already
lit up and smiled at Zach. “A or B?”

“
Huh? Oh. B.”

“
You new?” she asked.

“
No,” Zach shook his head.
“My Da—my father works up there.”

She looked Zach over and
nodded. “You look like him,” she said. “Caleb Jacobs, right?”

Zach nodded. He remembered his
manners and extended a hand. “Zach Jacobs.” She shook it.

“
I didn't know Caleb had any
kids,” she said, turning back to look at the door. “He's never
mentioned it.”

“
I live in Miami,” Zach
said. “Olympia Heights…well, I did. I'm moving to Gainesville.”

“
College?”

Zach nodded. “Yeah. Gonna be
QB for the Gators.”

The woman looked back at him.
“I bet on the Gators,” she said. The door chimed and began to
open. “Don't lose me any money this season.”

“
I'll try not to.”

She exited the elevator ahead
of Zach and disappeared around a corner. Zach stopped at the
receptionist, who stayed on the phone, loudly chomping at gum, as she
pointed towards a pair of double doors. Zach said, “Thanks,” but
she waved him on, clearly bothered by his interruption.

Zach pushed open the double
doors and stood in a large, spacious office. The office was larger
than most of the classrooms at Olympia Heights Senior High. It had
high ceilings, and the opposite wall was completely composed of
windows. The windows looked down over Orlando and the bright blue
waters of Lake Eola as they reflected the cloudless sky. Caleb
Jacobs, a tall, broad-shouldered man, stood with his back to the
door. His desk, a glass slab with a stainless steel frame, was
practically bare. It stood in the center of the large room. A
high-backed leather chair was tucked under it and two, smaller black
chairs were placed in front for guests. There was nothing on the desk
aside from a pen, a hardcover book, a MacBook Air, and an empty
takeout container with chopsticks balanced on the edge.

“
Dad,” Zach said, his
voice sounding alarmingly large in the expansive office. He lowered
his voice, “Hey.”

Caleb Jacobs spun around. He
was middle-aged man with graying brown hair and a long, cleft chin.
His face was covered in a very neatly cropped beard, just long enough
to not be considered stubble. He flashed a smile, the same smile Zach
had used to charm his way through life. “Zach,” he said. “It's
good to see you, son. Come, sit down.” Caleb Jacobs crossed to his
desk and pulled out a drawer. Zach saw the phone tucked away inside.
He pressed a button. “Ashley, could you bring a glass of water for
my guest?”

“
Yes sir,” a squeaky voice
replied. Caleb closed the drawer. “I like to keep my workspace
clutter-free.”

“
I see that,” Zach said,
sitting down and bracing his hands on the arm of the chair.

A young woman with long black
hair rushed in, holding a tall, thin glass of ice water. There was
even a lemon wedged onto the rim. Zach took the water and thanked
her. Ashley grabbed Caleb's empty takeout container and swept out of
the office without saying a word.

“
So, my son the college
quarterback,” Caleb said. “That's exciting.”

“
That's actually why I'm
here,” Zach said. “I never got a check for my schoolbooks.”

“
Sorry about that. I've been
swamped with the Miller account closing. I forgot that you're going
to learn, not just play football.” Caleb laughed.