Everyone in the underworld heard the screeching sound, felt the vibration that left ruin in its wake. Those who weren’t in the ballroom with the gods when the destruction struck were radioing into dispatch for answers. Dispatch had nothing to share, however, because no one understood what it was, even as it spelled disaster for half the houses in hell. No one except Hades. Now Poseidon, Ares, and Zeus knew, too.

The tension between those gods was liable to snap at any moment and prove just as deadly as the quake.

So much had happened in the last few weeks that it was difficult for any of them to be surprised by anything. And yet, Hades yelling that the gates of Tartarus were open had done just that. Somehow, just when they thought the greatest threat was Asteria, the gods were facing yet another enemy. Perhaps an army of them. An army they were woefully unprepared for.

Ares' training machines had been meant for a distant future…not one that threatened to descend upon them now. And not one meant to train for a conflict with Asteria and the Titans at the same time.

There was no time to discuss it, but Hades’ angry brothers seemed hellbent on doing it, anyway.

"You knew there was a likelihood of the Titans escaping?" Poseidon tugged his ruined suit jacket off, tossing it into the fray as he unbuttoned his sleeves methodically, like he had all the time in the world. "This entire time there was a possibility…a genuine possibility…of this happening? Tell me you didn't know, Hades."

His calm tone belied the raging fury and disbelief he had for his idiot of an older brother. There was tension between them all, and it wasn’t unusual. Competition. Pride. Spite. It all kept them in an uncomfortable standoff with each other most of the time. And yet…even for them, this was too far. They would not be successful in taking Asteria down if he kept secrets like that to himself. Secrets that had the potential to destroy them all…Anger be damned. So, what if Poseidon had kissed Angel? Was that reason enough to risk their species' very survival? If the world could be wiped of ancient monsters…and elemental deities…and powerful Titans, what was to say it could not be wiped of the gods?

Even Asteria, a fucking fate, looked worse for wear after fighting Angel. If the fates could die, then anyone could.

"Not exactly. I mean, yes, but I didn't—" Hades tried to say, snapping Poseidon out of his own thoughts.

"Why the hell would you have kept that information to yourself?" Ares raged before Poseidon said anything. He unleashed his war god form, towering above them all by at least half the height of another human. The shock of it stunned Hades into silence. Ares was the largest of them all, built for eternal carnage and destruction—awe-inspiring in his brute strength—with gold flecked skin, and thick, corded muscles pulled taut. Gold-plated armor and leather pants replaced his destroyed suit as he summoned his power.

"Why wouldn’t you say you knew where the Titans were?!" His voice took on a roughened quality in that state, revealing just how angry he really was.

"I wasn’t sure who to trust with that information!" Hades ripped off the rest of his own suit jacket in frustration, pushing up his shirt sleeves as fire licked up the length of his legs. He was on the edge of his composure. Did they think he didn't regret it now? Did they think he had intended to be surprised like this? "I followed Asteria to their prison in Tartarus once when I was younger. When she caught me, she swore me to secrecy so no one would try to free them."

Zeus made a disbelieving sound. Half-insulted, half-angry. His brother was implying he couldn’t trust them and the disrespect of it made Zeus want to fight.

"So, how the hell did you know what was happening when the ground shook?" Zeus wondered aloud, his skin electrifying over his dress shirt until it was only ashes. He might have found it hard to believe his brother was a traitor himself, but he wasn't taking any more blind chances. While he waited for an answer, Zeus surveyed the room, still shadowed in the smoke from the earthquake.

"It's a feeling. It’s hard to explain. This is my realm, so I can instinctually tell when something is changing without my permission. Maybe Asteria was initially shielding their energy from me, or all the distractions kept me too busy." He cast a careful glance in Angel's direction. She was wobbly, but uninjured. The quake hadn't hit her with any falling debris. He couldn't get a read on where Asteria had gone in the room's smokiness.

"I’m not sure," Hades continued, "but what I can tell you for sure is that they’re free. And they're likely headed straight here. The power is surging toward us," Hades insisted.

"But to not at least tell us about it when we were actively discussing the possibility of war?!" what remained of Ares' shirt fell in tatters around him as he brought forth a gilded sword the size of a man's arm out of thin air. He was fully prepared for battle. Hades twitched towards Alicia, Angel's human friend and Ares'…whatever she was to him. He wanted to tell her to back up. Hell, he wanted her out of here before everything went further to hell than it already was. He was already so far in the doghouse that he was willing to take any brownie points where he could.

Ares moved in front of Hades' view of Alicia, a menacing look in his eyes.

"All this time I thought they needed to be freed," Hades admitted in defeat, his eyes now shading into a dark, lethal color. "I didn’t think they had a timer on their cage! And I didn’t think that eventually, I would come to consider Asteria as an enemy?! When Asteria said war with the Titans was coming, I assumed it meant someone was trying to free them! Hence, me keeping my mouth shut even more ardently!!" Hades fumed, fire and darkness gathering around him like a cloak.

"We'll deal with this later, brother," Zeus bit back, studying the gods slowly picking themselves up. "Prepare to fight." Zeus had just turned to go for Hera when the boom sounded. Half a second before the explosion.

The sound of glass shattering reverberated across the room. One minute, the men argued, the next minute, someone blew a hole in the balcony door. Shards of the demolished wood and glass flew in every direction. It flung gods wide—those who had just gotten back to their feet. But Angel wasn't paying attention to the confusion behind her as she should have been, even as the force of the blast sent wind and debris around her body. Instead, the sight before her held her attention.

She stared at the bloody, ravaged body of Asteria as it slowly healed and stitched back together the wounds she'd inflicted. The quake had momentarily distracted Angel's powers, causing her to drop the destructive void around Asteria. And because she didn't how she'd done it in the first place, she did not know how to replicate it. It's not like she really controlled herself and her powers. Sometimes it felt like the power just welled from inside, a mind of its own. Everything she’d ever done was fury and instinct—dark and twisted with rage.

So many raw emotions raged through her at once, she could hardly keep track of her mental state. But it seemed like all the control she once had left her mind completely, and in its place was a new sensation.

It felt like falling. Nothing but darkness around her. And silent knowledge that there would be no end if she let go. Angel had cursed the lack of control when a severely wounded Asteria dropped from the void, still alive. She'd been so close to death before the quake gave the fate time to recover.

Angel looked down at the leaking cracks covering her chest and arms. Her own body wasn't recovering nearly as fast. Healing was an aspect of her power that wasn’t instinctual, and she did not know how to tap into it.

Blood trickled and pooled around her as the gashes continued to leak. Angel wasn't sure if it was the power itself being too strong and unwieldy or if it was the chaos of her mind being unable to absorb Asteria’s attacks. Either way, every blow she dealt to Asteria ripped through her own body with equal force and ferocity. Like the kickback of a gun. The more power she gave, the higher the cost of her own flesh.

She looked to Hades, thankful that the smokiness had covered her injuries. The last thing she needed was for him to come trying to save her. She didn't care about living or dying as long as Asteria went too. Angel took a painful breath, feeling the cracks flow harder with her movement.

Their fight wasn't over. Even as her blood swamped the floor. Angel slipped away. Consciousness became harder and harder to hold on to. If only she could sink her teeth into something. What she needed was to recharge. The acrid taste of her own blood filled the back of her throat and she swallowed it away. It was useless right now. There had to be some blood behind the bar, but it was too far. Angel would have to go through Asteria first to get to it.

A sudden wave of electricity sent Angel barreling into the wall nearest the balcony. Asteria had taken advantage of her weakened, distracted state to shove an attack into her.

She coughed up the sweet taste of blood as she buckled to the ground. Her legs couldn't keep her stable any longer as the cracks spread down to her calves—to her toes. She gritted her teeth and pushed beyond the pain of it, steadying herself with her hands. Angel would not break. She had not broken in her torture loop. She had not broken in her memories. So, Angel would not break now.

Asteria grinned, a violent smile, across the room. That smile. That terrible lack of remorse she had for what she'd inflicted upon Angel. A flash of her mother's cold, lifeless eyes slammed into Angel's brain, knocking every other thought out of her.

Angel felt the twist and pull of something under her skin. It lived inside of her, with the memories of her parents' murders and the aching hole that was Tantalus. There was something more, below the pain, below the control, something quiet and terrifying. That cold sensation leaked into her mind, but she didn't have the time to figure out what it was.

She'd only just caught Hades' worried eyes when several armored figures appeared in the broken doorway. The frightened gods who'd been thrown around the room on impact were just getting their bearings again when their heads snapped up in fear. Everyone could sense the raw power that entered the room. The scent of fire, of molten rock, of blood.

Several lower-tiered gods jumped straight into portals, running for their lives.

Angel caught sight of Ares from across the room, tall as a statue, flanked by the three strongest brothers of the entire pantheon. Her heart wobbled at the sight of Hades. His wild eyes were wrath and death, fire covering him everywhere. His skin turned paler, his eyes the color of ink. Dark tendrils swirled around his arms with the fire like old friends, and she wondered what he could do. His fists tightened as his eyes flicked to hers.

Circe, Thia, Tantalus, and Hera were all too close to the blasted door and flew to the other side of the room with the force. They were scrambling to collect themselves. Ares, Hades, Poseidon, and Zeus were all standing near the ruins of the bar, moving their focus from Angel to Asteria to the open doorway. All hell was about to break loose.

Alicia shakily stood alongside them, and Angel's heart froze. Ares quickly whispered something to her, though, before he used one hand to shove her into a portal. Alicia's surprised yelp was the last sound she made, and Angel took some comfort in knowing her friend was safe.

As soon as he stepped through the doorway and laid eyes on Angel leaning against the wall, the Titan Hyperion braced his golden bow again. After having blown through the balcony door, he readied another arrow and pointed at her slight frame. No hesitation, he told himself. He had to be prepared to act. It was her or them. And he had grown incredibly sick of watching his brethren die in the loop. He would not do it again.

Coeus and Oceanus followed him, stepping through the doorway while pointing their long swords in her direction. None of them breathed, waiting for the attack from the unstable goddess.

But to their surprise, Angel didn't attack. She didn't notice them. Or if she did, she didn't acknowledge them at all. Blood poured down her body towards the floor, and she looked weaker than they'd ever seen her. She probably couldn't do much without feeding because from where they stood, she looked wrecked.

And yet, they watched her steel her body against the pain of her wounds, pushing herself up to stand against the wall. Blood trailed a dark path behind her. Angel's focus remained elsewhere as she seemed to glow with darkness, vines of dark mist unspooling around her. This was the power they recognized, with as many times as they'd re-lived this loop of events.

As her mind unraveled, so did her power, becoming unpredictable and violent. But this iteration was already so different. She was already weakened, her power pulsing and rippling around her without direction or strength. And she hadn't attacked yet, which was the biggest change of all. Usually, by the time they laid eyes on her, she was feral with rage. No matter what. They had learned long ago never to hesitate in her presence. This time, however, Angel directed her hatred at another, and it was jarring to them. What should they make of it?

Darkness oscillated around Angel, coming from inside her as she dug deeper into the chaos of her mind for more. She needed more to finish Asteria. More power. More energy. From across the room, Hades sensed her aura shifting darker. He needed to get to her, push her into a portal and let the dust here settle. But he couldn't take on three Titans alone. Shit. He should have gone for her instead of arguing with his fucking brothers.

He now tracked the thick flow of blood that seemed to come from everywhere. She couldn't beat Asteria in this state, and definitely not the Titans. She needed to feed. He motioned over to Ares, who had readied himself for battle, beaming light from his golden armor. His energy swelled.

Angel, on the other hand, could feel her energy draining quickly and she knew what it meant. Soon she'd be unconscious—maybe even dead if she couldn't heal herself and that would give Asteria time to escape. No, she screamed in her head. Angel hardly felt the wispy vines of mist that came from her. She leaned forward with the force of one mission: to cause Asteria pain before she ran out of power.

In a flash, the vines of pain whipped towards Asteria's throat. They snapped at her with brutal strength, but they also leveled every table nearby and sliced into several gods who were standing too close. Wracked cries of pain came from those she wounded, but the sounds did nothing to her resolve.

The fate dodged and weaved away from the lethal whips, but she was slowing down in a labored, pained way as several slashed at her body, slicking blood across the floor. Angel smiled at being able to use Asteria's pain power against her.

Angel unleashed more whips, sending even her friends, ducking for cover. The darkness seemed volatile and not easily sated. It wanted as much blood as it could get. Power drained from her like a sieve until she could not keep up the attack. Exhausted beyond measure.

Asteria's face flashed with awareness between Angel and the figures in the doorway, fear lining every inch of her. She measured her chances, trying to work out a new plan of attack. Outnumbered against those who would kill her and at a severe disadvantage, Asteria had burned through her stores of energy. It had never played out this way before. She needed a new strategy.

"Brothers and Sisters!" Asteria boomed into Angel's mind. From the way every god clutched at their heads, she was broadcasting to everyone, "The one called Angel has turned against us. She has tried to kill me, just after I graciously gave our gifts to her. Even now, she stands with the Titans!"

Angel looked to her left, finally taking a moment to notice the armored men in the doorway. She was standing closer to them than she had realized. And to the onlookers, it must have appeared that she was standing between Asteria and the Titans. As if she were protecting them. But this was a lie. All Asteria did was lie. Angel took advantage of Asteria's distracted soapboxing as she raced across the room with lightning speed, letting loose a startling battle cry before she crashed into the shocked body of her enemy.