Cursed [malexmale]

Chapter Seven

"If Zeus controls the Khalian, he controls you and Xenon too." He pointed out. I nodded grimly and Apollo's eyes flashed angrily.

"Zeus can go fuck himself before he thinks I'm handing Callias over." He said angrily. Arikos sighed, wiping a hand down his face before drumming his fingers on the table, jaw flexing in irritation.

"This is bad," Arikos said, eyes searching the table as if he hoped it had all the answers, "Really bad. And here I was thinking Zeus isn't that bad." Menoetius made a noise that made everyone look at him and he just stared back innocently until a cell phone ring went off, playing Fall Out Boy's Immortals.

Menoetius gave us a finger and stood up, taking a cell phone out of his pocket and walking out of the room, speaking in a hushed tone. Arikos looked mildly amused by that and Apollo shook his head before looking at Arikos.

"The Titan has a point," He paused, made a face as if he couldn't believe he just said that before he continued, "Zeus is all about appearance. He's just trying to make it seem like everything's going to be okay. He did this during the last Titan war when Hades and Lucifer approached him for help and Zeus shot them down, only allowing them to choose ten gods to take into battle with them. We barely won that war if it hadn't been for Hades. Everyone knows it too, but no one would dare correct Zeus about it. Trust me, pointing out his flaws is grounds for immediate torture."

A flash of anger and hurt went through his eyes, then vanished. I frowned, feeling that strange painful urge to comfort him again. I had thought that this morning's good vibe was just an afterglow from the sex last night, from his hangover, but my protective instincts were still there and a streak of self-loathing went through me at that.

Now was not the time to let myself get carried away with soft, warm fuzzy feelings. I needed to hang onto the darkness just a little while longer, and maybe afterwards, maybe, I'd be willing to soften up a little. However, I wouldn't be able to fight Atlan if I let myself sink into that mindset, the mindset of a protection god.

"Question," Arikos said, making Apollo raise an eyebrow as Arikos leaned back in his chair, "Has anyone even tried to take the throne from Zeus? You know, aside from the Titans." Apollo snorted.

"No one wants to be king of the Greek pantheon, except Zeus. Not even Hades, and Hades has quite a power load in comparison. When Demeter asked Hades to try and take the throne, he'd laughed in her face and said something along the lines of do I look like I want to spend every fucking day with you people. Suffice it to say, no one wants the throne, but Zeus is constantly convinced someone's going to take it from him." He drawled. Arikos didn't look too surprised. He sighed.

"Well, from the looks of it, we have two problems to deal with. Atlan and Zeus. Both of them are pretty fucking awful. Even worse, we can't just tell him to ignore the Khalian. He'll know we're onto him and put guards on us. We need to pretend we have no idea what he's up to. In the mean time, I'll be the fly on the wall since he wants me to work with Ares and Athena. Ares, I trust. Not sure about Athena." He admitted. Apollo nodded in agreement and I frowned, but said nothing.

I personally held a lot of trust with Athena, but Arikos did have a point. Athena was loyal to the Greek pantheon and, unfortunately, that included Zeus, therefore by default she'd feel obligated to tell Zeus everything discussed at the meetings.

"Then what about Atlan?" I asked instead. Arikos worried at his bottom lip, rubbing at the back of his neck. His brows were furrowed in a deep frown that told me he was considering the situation. He knew a lot more about Atlan than even I did. Arikos had been forced to suffer Atlan for far too many years, in even worse ways than the rest of us had. My stomach churned to think what could've been done to him during his time with Atlan.