Are you ready for Exoria? Check out this teaser now!
No release date yet (more on that coming in the next couple weeks!), but here's a teaser from Exoria, the finale of The God Chronicles!
Stay tuned for the official cover and blurb, most likely being shared when the release date is announced!
**This teaser is a first draft, unedited look, and is therefore subject to change**
“Do you have any idea what you have done?” Zeus shouted, his voice echoing off the bookshelves around me. “We have lost this battle, brother! The Titans roam free in the mortal realm because you fled the fight when we need you most.”
“Don’t act like you wouldn’t have done the same thing if Karly were the one who’d been killed,” I replied sourly, refusing to turn away from the script in my hands. The Underworld had a copy of every book that had ever been created, by god or otherwise. There had to be something here that could bring Katrina back.
“Karly is my wife and a goddess. She is more than capable of handling herself and if she’d been injured she would have expected me to continue on leading our people.” He was growling now, his voice dangerously low. “You up and left for a mortal who had no chance of surviving. Who was in league with the Titans. You might as well have joined with them to.”
“Zeus.” Poseidon’s voice held a soft warning, despite the sour look on his face.
“No,” Zeus shot back. “He’s been locked in this library for a week. The woman is dead and her soul is a Lost One. Leave her be and come help your family while they need you!”
“Enough!” I shouted, finally turning to look at the two of them. They still wore their golden and silver battle armor, as they would whenever leaving Olympus in a time of war. Together, they put up the united front I’d seen my entire life. “You say that my family needs me. Where were they when I needed them? You have never once been interested in what I’m doing or have to say unless it involves you directly. The only times you’ve ever come here to the Underworld were to do inspection. Unless you need me for something, you couldn’t care less what was happening in my life. I’ve always come to your aid when you called, but not this time. For once, I am doing what I need to do, not something you require of me.”
“You’re refusing an order from your king?” Thunder rumbled somewhere overhead as Zeus continued to stare at me, practically daring me to tell him I was defying a direct order again.
“I am.”
It was a simple enough answer, but the consequences were painful. Thunder clapped so loudly outside that the walls shook, and before I could blink, Zeus’s fist had connected with the side of my face. Poseidon quickly pulled him back, his own anger showing on his face.
“How could you be so selfish, Hades?” he asked, his grip tight around Zeus’s forearm. “Zeus and Karly are going to have a child soon. Audrey and I are getting married and want to have children of our own. Would you really leave our world in such a state for all of that?”
“So you and Zeus get what you want and a happy life while I suffer? No, thank you. That’s been the story of my entire existence and I’m done with it. My birthright was stolen, I was forced to live underground, I was reviled by mankind, feared instead of loved, and I never had the joy of knowing that the woman I loved would be with me and mine forever. You two have gotten everything you ever wanted, sometimes at my own expense. For once, I am going to do something for myself—for Katrina—and you two can deal with the mess on your own.”
“The Fates will hear of your betrayal,” Zeus spat out. “That you’ve broken your vow to always protect the family and fight with them. You’ll be banished if you don’t help us now.”
“So banish me,” I replied, shrugging. “Then I won’t have to deal with either of you for a few years.”
Turning back to the books I’d taken off the shelf, I picked up the one I’d been studying and went back to the pages, reading the information they held. It wouldn’t matter if they brought hell fire down around me for it; I’d lived in the fire for almost my entire life.
