The Underworld (The Atlas Series Book 3) (2 page)

Being at home gave her a sense of comfort. Unlike before, Kala knew she could defend it now. Consuming Atlas, a Titan, had made her immortal. And finding out she had within her a part of Gaia, the mother of all gods meant she could consume any god she wanted. It was an advantage that kept her enemies at bay for the moment. Even Cronus was scared she’d vacuum-up his soul. Not that she would. Why add yet another life’s experiences when having Atlas’s memories bounce around in her head felt schizophrenic, to say the least. Talan had at least fixed Kala’s brain so she wouldn’t black out every time she flashed back to some crazy moment in Atlas’s life. If she added any others to the mix, Kala doubted she’d be able to stay conscious.

Her favorite plushy green armchair greeted her like an old friend. Walking over to the ratty monstrosity, Kala plopped down into its soft goodness. For once in a really long time she actually smiled in happiness. She missed that chair.

Not bothering to turn on the flat screen resting on crates in front of her, Kala tried to ignore that the TV even existed. She knew that once she turned it on her new mission would play repeatedly. That was another “perk” of her new job as Atlas: all screens showed her a vision of what she was meant to do to prevent the world from ending, except computer screens apparently. So at least she could numb her mind Internet surfing if she so pleased. But her days of binge watching television were over.

The reason the green chair was so comfortable was because of all the time she’d spent in it between her Special Forces missions, planting her butt right in this chair either watching TV or playing a lot of video games. Part of her wanted to get rid of the Atlas curse just so she could play Mass Effect one more time.

Kala closed her eyes and took in the silence, feeling the peace of the moment. She knew it wouldn’t last long but was determined to enjoy it as long as possible. Sounds of her neighbor clanking dishes, a car starting in the carport, a siren blaring in the distance… They made Kala feel normal. As if all she had to do was open her eyes and everything she’d experienced in the last week would be a dream.

But when Kala opened her eyes…

It was still only the blank screen of the television that greeted her.

And the overwhelming sense of foreboding seizing her chest. Things weren’t the way they used to be. They never would be again. No more Jack, the love of her life. She was forced to kill him as her first Atlas mission. No more human life. She was Atlas now and she needed to complete her missions. The faster she accepted this reality, the better.

Kala had felt an inner calm when finally deciding to complete her last Atlas task. She wanted – no,
needed
– Jack’s death to have some meaning.

So the sooner she turned on that TV, the sooner she’d know what to do next.

Yeah.

Not yet.

Kala listened to the everyday noises of life happening around her a little longer. Life that was able to continue because of her. Because she did what needed to be done. Still a soldier. Still with a purpose in life.

Besides, Kala knew, this moment of respite wouldn’t last long. At any moment she fully expected some form of visitor, spouting “End of days,” or “We can only do this with your help,” or “Please help me kill my (insert relative here).” As for the coming war between the Titans, the Olympian gods and the Grigori, Kala wasn’t sure if she even wanted to take sides. Now that she knew the mother of them all, Gaia, was inside of her somehow, a part of her wanted to let the
children
figure it out on their own.

Taking a deep breath, Kala decided to rip off the emotional Band-Aid, feel the pain, get it over with, and face it all without help. She’d rather watch her vision alone than have someone like her adoptive father, Owen, who (it turned out) was a powerful Grigori angel, standing over her shoulder supportively. Or Talan, another Grigori (with his gentle, caring eyes) asking how he could help. It was painful having such loyal, sympathetic people in her life. Kala didn’t want to justify her actions; they were too atrocious. So to have her loved ones encourage her actions “For the greater good,” made doing the unthinkable worse.

Nope. At this point, Cronus would be a better companion by her side. He’d simply tell her to ignore the whole task and let the world burn. At least she could beat the Titan senseless and feel good about it. Kala had to admit, she’d loved seeing Cronus squirm when he thought she was going to consume him.

Grabbing the remote, Kala turned on the television before she could chicken out.

The vision played on the screen in front of her, but she wasn’t quite sure what she was seeing.

It was a dark place, like some sort of cave or underground cavern. A grotto. Every surface was made of craggy rocks soaked with moisture. Constant dripping sounded all around, convincing Kala that this place must be under a body of water or waterfall.

Vision/Kala stepped into view and placed her hand on a large stone lying in the center of the grotto.

The scene was peaceful and calm. Almost as if the world wasn’t about to end like it had in her other visions.

Vision/Kala took a deep breath and almost appeared sad, but determined. Her hand began to glow on the stone.

And it moved.

Kala watched the television more closely and realized that it was a man lying at Vision/Kala’s feet, not a rock at all. He coughed and sputtered, until his eyes met Vision/Kala’s.

“Hades.” Vision/Kala nodded in solemn greeting.

“Who are you?” Hades asked.

“Atlas. My mission is to wake you,” Vision/Kala replied calmly.

“That’s unfortunate,” Hades sighed. “For you, anyway.”

Hades reached up and touched Vision/Kala’s forehead.

Kala watched in horror as Vision/Kala dropped to the cavern floor with a small thud and she knew with certainty…

She was dead.

Chapter Two

Kala turned off the television. She didn’t need to see her own death on repeat.

Dead.

As in, what?

If Kala died, did that mean Hades became Atlas? Kala tried to rationalize what she had just witnessed. No it couldn’t mean that, because when Kala consumed Atlas she had destroyed the Titan’s ability to trick humans into doing his job. Essentially, the way it worked before was that whoever killed the acting-Atlas
became
the acting-Atlas.

It was how Kala snagged the gig in the first place. The Atlas surrogate had been the President of the United States and Kala had been forced to shoot him. Her commanding officer (and aforementioned love of her life) Jack, unbeknownst to her, had been training his entire life to be the next Atlas, so the kill should have been his. But Kala was the sniper of the team and she had a clear shot…

But…death?

How could that be?

What would that mean for the planet?

Would the curse end? Zeus had been the god who created the curse. He had ripped the balance of the universe and placed it inside Atlas, making Atlas responsible for committing one act of atrocity every four days in order to keep the world stable and safe.

So would this mean that balance might go back into the fabric of the universe where it belonged?

The next time you complete the cycle, you will be stripped of all your protections, and we’ll see how you fare against everyone you’ve wronged.

It was from one of her flashbacks from Atlas’s memory, when Cronus had announced that after Atlas’s next mission, he’d strip the curse of all its protections. She had already completed that mission. It had been to destroy Fortski’s cure for cancer.

So, apparently, by taking away her protections, Kala was going to die?

But what about the prophecy? She was some sort of
Fated One
or to be exact
the
Fated One. According to Zeus some girl three hundred years from now was going to break the Atlas curse for her. If Kala died performing this next task, then the prophecy meant nothing. It didn’t make any sense.
All
sides: Titans, Grigori, Malaks, Demons and gods, believed this prophecy was real.

The Fated One will be the last
and
The Fated One is the first.
Those two lines always seemed to conflict with each other in Kala’s mind. Which one was she: last or first? Could this prophecy be spelling out her death?

The only way Kala was willing to risk death was if it meant the curse would be gone for good and that the world would be safe.

But she’d have to complete her mission regardless, wouldn’t she? If she didn’t wake Hades, then the world would end anyway. It was looking like her death was inevitable no matter which way her mind went.

And Hades!?

Hades!?

From Kala’s recent research on her family tree, Hades was the Olympian god of the Underworld. There was really an
Underworld
? She guessed so. It wasn’t that far out of the realm of reality considering her father and Talan were Grigori angels who had been imprisoned in the
5
^th
Heaven
. And Cronus had been hiding out in the
5
^th
level of Hell.
It was starting to look like every mythos actually existed. Either that or Kala was in some sort of psychiatric ward living in a delusional dream-state.

Shrugging, Kala figured if that was the case, maybe when she died after waking Hades, she’d be brought back to sanity. Jack would still be alive. She’d just be a soldier. And Kala could go back to getting into bar fights like a normal human being. It sounded so perfect she almost wished it was true.

But she knew it wasn’t.

Kala was Atlas and she needed to wake Hades. No matter what the cost.

The only problem was, she had no clue as to where the cave in the Vision was located. And what was worse, she didn’t know how to find out. Four days seemed like a minuscule amount of time!

With her last two missions, she recognized both locations as at least being on Earth! Kala was soon realizing that a location involving a supernatural being, especially a sleeping one, meant the cave could be anywhere. As in, not on this planet.

There was just no way to be sure.

Four days had felt like four years trying to stall on completing her missions. And she had managed to wait to the very last second for both. But now? Now she didn’t know if it would be enough time to a) locate the place and b) figure out how the hell to get there! Kala hated to admit it, but she needed help.

Maybe Talan would know something.

“What do you need?”

Kala jumped out of her chair, seeing Talan standing in her living room. “How the…”

“I heard you ask for me, so I came right away.” He seemed genuinely concerned.

And completely unaffected by the fact that he had read Kala’s mind!

It was hard not to see the beauty in Talan. The guy was an angel, so being stunning came with the territory. With his short, cropped hair, chiseled face and body, Kala found it hard to rein back her hormones. She wanted what she wanted and in the past Kala would have simply taken the guy. But after falling in love with Jack, then having to kill him for her Atlas mission… It kind of took the thrill out of any kind of romantic connection she might have been considering.

In one of her darkest moments, Kala had turned to Talan to help her forget. It had been Talan who pushed her away, not wanting to take advantage of her emotional state. What could she say? The Grigori was a gentleman through and through. Kala genuinely cared about him; she didn’t want to jeopardize their friendship. Even though Talan believed the two of them were soul mates, Kala reserved that title for herself and Jack. Dead or not, she didn’t think she’d ever love anyone again.

“I don’t like you poking around in my head. If I need you I’ll call you,” Kala said defensively.

Talan was used to Kala’s behavior toward him though. “You
did
call me. Which is why I came.”

Did she
? After thinking about it a moment or two, she guessed that, in the supernatural world, she
had
actually called him. Telepathy, teleportation and telekinesis, all the tele’s came wrapped-up in the Titan package. Kala just wasn’t used to them yet.

“Well, I didn’t know I was calling you. There’s a difference.” When Talan stood there patiently waiting for her to continue, Kala finally caved, “I saw my next mission.”

Talan took a small step toward her, cautious of her boundaries. “Whatever it is, Kala, I’ll help you through it.”

Hearing Talan be so supportive made her defensive. “Didn’t all the Grigori return like twenty minutes ago? Shouldn’t you be with them?”

The quiet of her apartment had made Kala momentarily forget that she had just come from the epic confrontation between Zeus and his father, Cronus. Cronus couldn’t stop his son from opening the portal that freed all of the Grigori angels from their prison. Kala wasn’t even sure how many Grigori there were. Before she had left to destroy Fortski’s cure, it had looked as if there had been hundreds, maybe even thousands of Grigori pouring through the gateway.