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them,” I said, realizing. Zeus had kept them busy in the spotlight so he could always keep an eye on them without getting too close.
    Cassandra gave me an odd look. “Of course he is. The Titans killed your parents, and then you all killed the Titans with him leading the way. History repeats itself. He’s next.”

Chapter IX
     
    Persephone
     
    “You know what I like about you?” Zeus’ breath was hot in my ear as he stroked my scorched jawline. I’d lost count of how many times he’d dragged me to my feet and propped me against this wall. He seemed to enjoy watching me fall into a crumpled heap of agony. “You never stop fighting. Even now you’re scanning the room looking for something, a way out, a weapon, even though you know the truth. There is nothing here but me, you, and that.” His eyes scanned my face for a reaction as he motioned over his shoulder at the bed.
    I shuddered. He hadn’t gone there , yet. Though what was stopping him I couldn’t imagine. It wasn’t as if I could put up much in the way of a fight, though gods knew I’d tried.
    And tried, and tried.
    My head lolled against the cool misty wall behind me, shoulders slumping in defeat. Zeus was right about me. I’d spent the last several unimaginably painful… hours? Days? Years? I didn’t even know anymore, searching and fighting and trying to escape, convinced there was a way out of this. I just had to try hard enough to find it.
    And I’d tried so hard.
    Tears sizzled as they ran down my cheeks, tracing painful paths across my face before they dripped to the floor. What if there wasn’t a— No! I wouldn’t think that, I couldn’t let myself, or I’d give in to him. Clenching my blackened knuckles, I made a fist and swung at Zeus’ face. He fell for it, catching my arm with ease, and pinning it above my head with a grimace as the goo that had once been my flesh stuck to him. My other hand shot out, not at his face where he would see it coming, but at his kidney with as much force as I could muster.
    He grunted, moving back just enough for me to break free of his grasp and make a beeline for the door. Lightning flashed, scorching the floor in front of me, and I scurried to the side. Zeus tackled me.
    “You stupid bitch!” He grabbed me by the neck of my shirt, dragging my charred body across the misty floor until he reached that oh so familiar wall. Yanking me up so high my tiptoes barely brushed the surface of the floor, he pinned my arms above my head. I felt a flash of power and gasped as my hands passed through the wall. The frigid mist swirled, solidifying into a wall around my wrists.
    I yanked against the bindings and lost my tenuous tiptoe hold against the ground. My feet slid out from under me, and I slammed against the wall, supported only by my wrists. Zeus stabilized me, hand turning bright with the blinding light of electricity, and he put it to my throat.
    The human body was never meant to survive prolonged exposure to lightning. While Zeus held me under a steady stream of electricity, a myriad of things happened at once. In the last several however-long-it-had-beens, I’d gotten past the intense and stunning pain enough to dissect each phase of agony.
    First my muscles contracted, going rigid and stopping my heart while freezing me into place. Then I started to sweat. Sweat fueled the electrical current, causing more heat to build up in my body. Until I cooked. Heat built up, setting my blood boiling until any liquid within me became so pressurized that it burst free. That bit was excruciating, but it wasn’t the worst part. No, that came later. Meanwhile, the electrical impulses that controlled my nervous system short circuited, sending conflicting and of course painful messages to my brain.
    For a while it seemed as if life were pain. Like nothing else had ever existed or would ever exist, making hope feel like a distant memory. Then came that blessed moment when I stopped feeling altogether, no pain, no