A Seer for the Titan: TITANS, #4

By Sotia Lazu

Earth fills Epimetheus' mouth. Covers his eyes. Clings to his body.

His brother buried him alive? Epimetheus will have his vengeance. Destroy everyone who takes Kronos' side.

Like the mortal female gawking at Epimetheus while he digs his way out of the ground.

She's a tasty-looking morsel, but the voice in his head says she's his enemy.

Not his voice, not his problem. He'll make her his, and save the world in the process. Because that's how this Titan rolls.

*

A naked guy literally crawls out of a hole in front of Elpida, and if she isn't mistaken, tells her in Ancient Greek that he's Prometheus' brother, Epimetheus. Her precognition gift—curse?—could at least warn her when things like this are about to happen.

Oh wait. She's getting something now. A vision of loving Epimetheus and dying. Is it a glimpse of a future she can't change, or a past hidden from her?

With the fate of the universe in the balance, can Elpida resist a Titan set on claiming her? More importantly, does she want to?

• Language: English
• Publisher: Acelette Press
• Release date: Dec 6, 2018
• ISBN: 9798201039875

Sotia Lazu

Sotia loves romances with a twist and urban fantasy novels, always with vivid erotic elements. Her favorite characters to write are not conventional hero-material at first glance, and she enjoys making them fight for their happiness. Sotia shares her life and living quarters with her husband, their son, and two rescue dogs, one of which may be part-pony. Sappy movies make her bawl like a baby, and she wishes she could take in all the stray dogs in the world. Also, she hates mornings!

Book preview

ONE

Elpida squinted out the windshield at the vast darkness stretching around her full beams. Yup, still in the middle of nowhere.

Hey AVA, where am I? she asked. Third time was the charm, right?

Wrong. I’m sorry, I’m having trouble with the connection, came the reply of her phone’s Automated Virtual Assistant.

Fuck you, AVA. Elpida tossed the phone onto the passenger seat, ignoring the automated voice’s protest that she didn’t know how to respond to that.

You’d think Elpida’s precognition would have warned her that her car’s navigation system would die mid-trip, or at least that her phone’s GPS wouldn’t be able to lock onto her current location. Then again, the damned more-curse-than-gift she’d grown up with never gave her premonitions on demand, and the visions she did have were always about insignificant annoyances. Like, she’d know which pack of flour at the supermarket would end up leaving white puffs of powder all over her trunk on the drive home, but she wouldn’t know to avoid a call from her boss that would drag her to Pelion—four and a half freaking hours from Athens—on a Saturday evening, without GPS.

"And did Daphne say please? Noooo. Will she say thank you? Elpida snorted. Fat chance. And she’ll probably be an ass when I ask for a day off to go see my brother and nieces this weekend. Ugh." Talking to herself wasn’t a common occurrence, but it helped ground her against her fear of the dark. Especially since it was getting darker by the minute.

The moon and a handful of stars above made a rare appearance between the clouds, illuminating the road up ahead and the olive trees framing her Ford Fiesta on both sides. There was a sign five hundred meters ahead—a real sign, not the kind only she saw—though it could be a light year away, the way she barely touched her foot to the accelerator. What? She didn’t know the area. What if she sped past the right turn, or—God forbid—run over a… baby sheep? Or something. What was Pelion’s fauna like?

The sign pointed to the right, but the lettering on it was faded. Wasn’t this where her GPS said her next turn should be, before the screen croaked?

Thank God. She sighed and hooked a right. A horn blared behind her, and a blur that could have been a truck sped down the road she’d just left. Guy must have had a lead foot. There had been no lights behind her for at least the past half hour.

And it was sexist to assume only guys could drive trucks. She scolded herself, her attention on the road ahead. After the first few meters, it angled upward and wasn’t wide enough for two cars, but she doubted anyone else was nuts enough to be coming through here at—she checked her phone—midnight.

Midnight? Daphne would kill her.

I’ll only be an hour late. Only. That would never fly with her bitch of a boss, but honestly? Elpida shouldn’t have to get out of her fluffy pajamas and drive all this way at seven o’clock on a Saturday evening, just to pick Daphne up. "Nikos is lovely," she told the empty car in her best Daphne voice. "He’s taking me to his parents’ place this weekend. I’m sure he’ll pop the question." And of course Daphne considered that perfectly normal after only a month of dating. Elpida could have told her boss this weekend wasn’t a proposal excursion, but she wasn’t asked, and she’d learned the hard way not to offer Daphne unsolicited advice.

Elpida could picture her boss now, waiting out in the cold—because of course Daphne would have made a scene of leaving Nikos’ parents’ place—lighting one cigarette after the other, while coming up with ways to torture everyone who crossed her path the next couple weeks.

As if she wasn’t enough of a pain in the ass without recovering from a breakup.

Why don’t I just quit? Elpida asked herself, not for the first time. She should, really. She had her Master’s degree, spoke three languages fluently, and after working for Daphne for two years, she could PA for the devil himself. But Daphne was the top event planner in Athens, and with the current economic climate, finding another Personal Assistant job that paid two thousand euro a month plus overtime was right up there with meeting Prince Charming in this godforsaken place—next to impossible.

The car rocked, and the sensation of gliding smoothly along the road was replaced by the jerky crunching of gravel.

Shit. While she was lost in her Daphne-shaped problems, she’d missed the part where asphalt gave way to dirt. And things weren’t going to get better any time soon. There was a field up ahead. As in, it was the only thing she could see. The road ended with it. The rocky slope to her right and the drop to her left ruled out even the thought of making a U-turn.

Elpida was lost, and Daphne would kill her.

As soon as she turned around, in the field up ahead, Elpida would call her. Tell her the truth. After confirming she was on her way, she hadn’t answered Daphne’s subsequent calls, because she didn’t want to deal with more yelling while driving. Now, she had to bite the bullet.

The car half-drove, half-climbed onto the bank, and Elpida killed the engine, leaving the lights on. She reached for her phone, but it had slid off the seat. She undid her belt and dove into the leg room of the passenger seat, blindly pawing at the floor. Her fingers finally closed around the sleek casing, and she started to sit up, when the ground shook. Had the engine somehow turned back on? No, the rumbling continued, and it came from outside.

Earthquake?

Only thing Elpida feared more than the dark. She tried to sit back up, but in her panic, bumped her head hard on the underside of the glove compartment. Ouch. Another hard tremor had the car swaying from side to side. Fuck. At least she was safe out in the open. Nothing to topple on top of her.

When the shaking stopped for more than a couple heartbeats, she tapped on the screen. Five more unanswered calls. Awesome. She was in for the yelling of the century. Good thing Daphne needed her help, to get back to Athens, or she’d fire her on the spot.

Aaaaand that was still a possibility, because Elpida had no signal. "Ugh. What ass-backwards place has no cell-phone coverage in 2019? For fuck’s sake." She resisted the urge to slam the phone into the steering wheel, and tried again. And again. And once more.

Yeah, she had to get out of the car. Find better reception. She’d stay on the strip of land lit by her headlights, and she’d be safe. Not like any psycho killers would be out here, waiting for her. There hadn’t been any unsolved murders in the Magnesia region lately, had there?

God, she’d seen way too many horror films for this.

The car radio had gone the way of the GPS—dead—but she pressed the Off button anyway, before opening the car door and gingerly stepping out. Thank God she’d worn sneakers. The high heels she’d trained herself to balance on at the office couldn’t have negotiated this terrain. The earth was moist under her sneakers, and the smell of rain enveloped her. The weather report mentioned a thunderstorm in the early morning hours, but for now, the night was warm, despite the humidity.

And she still had no signal. She huffed a fuck you to her phone, tossed it back into the car, and closed the door. She should be reversing and speeding back to civilization, but she needed a moment.

For one heartbeat, Elpida allowed herself to forget Daphne, forget why she was out here at this hour, forget that she was fucking terrified, and breathe in the fresh air. Enjoy the stillness. Her life was too busy, too perfectly planned, for moments like this, but mostly, it was loud. Noisy.

Here, now, there was perfect quiet.

Which made it easier for her to hear the sound of the earth cracking open a few feet away.

TWO

Wake up.

Epimetheus knew the voice. Rhea. Kronos’ soulmate.

His thoughts muddled, he tried to open his eyes, but wet pressure against his eyelids made him stop. Where was he? His last memory was of fighting Kronos. And the bastard won. Had he thought Epimetheus dead and buried him?

There was something after that. Like he was awake, and then…

Wake up and kill the girl. It’s easy. Snap her neck, and you’ll be free. Rhea’s tone was emotionless. As if she were talking about snapping a twig, not ending a life.

But whose life? Was the girl Rhea referred to here with him? Why was his head so fuzzy?

Where am I? he tried to ask, but dirt filled his mouth. So he was buried. He wasn’t worried—Titans didn’t need to breathe—but it tasted like ash and blood and soured his mood. Sputtering made things worse, and trapped at his sides, his hands wouldn’t obey him to wipe his mouth. If he was at his full strength, he could rip his way through the earth, but he’d rather not test his power when Rhea was nearby. Her loyalties were questionable. He bit back his annoyance and repeated his question mentally, aiming it at her.

In the ground of Pelion, where Kronos put you. Don’t blame yourself for losing. Madness made him stronger.

Stronger or not, Kronos might have lost if he hadn’t cheated. Epimetheus hadn’t realized his older brother’s invitation was a trap, until it was too