The Underworld Crown (Series)

Chapter 13

"Nox was the tallest, wasn't he?" I asked.

"Yes," she confirmed.

I'd only asked because Nox had been a spitting image of Marnix from when I'd met him. Nox had been as equally slim as Marnix and had looked as though he had just finished from a corporate business meeting. The only difference between the two had been Nox's hair, which had been so long that, when left out from a ponytail, sleekly trailed all the way to the base of his spine. He had a keen glint of intelligence in his eyes, and when I remembered Marnix's powers – how he made me feel and see things that didn't exist – it definitely made my imagination wander. A shiver ran down my spine, and I fought the instinct to curl up into a ball, and instead curled up into another rep. My abdominal muscles cried out.

"What are his powers?"

"Nox can wield light and darkness, making you see things that aren't necessarily real. You've seen the dark shadows swirling around Hades, haven't you?"

"Yes," I replied carefully, unsure where this was going.

"Nox has the exact same power, though it's not quite as visible. Nox can become ephemeral and morph into shadows. It uses a lot of his energy to do this, but if he wanted to, he could actually move through walls and space."

In any other situation, I would have thought that power was cool.

"Then there's Thanos," Persephone continued. The memory of a fearsome, shaggy bearded man with pale skin and eager gleaming eyes came to mind. His outfit had done nothing to hide his muscular body. "I'd say he's Alek's primary competition."

I frowned. It was difficult to imagine anyone defeating Alek in a fight. But where Thanos had a muscular advantage on Alek, Alek had speed, stealth and height.

"Does Thanos usually fight hand to hand combat?"

"A sword is his favourite form of execution," Persephone stated, finally growing weary. "Though his fists are enough to kill someone with one punch."

"Fantastic," I said drily.

"It gets worse."

"How could it get worse?" I exclaimed, throwing my hands up in the air and finally giving up on completing my crunches. "Nox is literally untouchable, and it is impossible to not be touched by Thanos."

Persephone ignored my fit of outrage. "Their brother, Keros, is possibly the worst of them all. He is the true personification of cruelty and wields it as easily as Thanos does his sword."

"What do you mean?" I suddenly felt the urge to look over my shoulder and check that we were alone. We were still the only ones in the gym, though I didn't know for how much longer. We'd been exercising for over an hour and were yet to be walked in on.

"Keros controls pain. He can lessen it just as easily as he heightens it. I'm not entirely sure how his powers work, but I believe someone needs to have a pre-existing mental or physical ailment in order for him to increase their pain."

My mind worked to keep up. "So, if I had a papercut..."

"...Then he could make you feel like you'd just been stabbed," she finished.

"What about the mental ailment stuff? If I had depression, for example, does that mean he could worsen it?"

Persephone released a pent-up sigh. "I believe so."

I rocked back onto the palm of my hands, steadying myself. "So, according to what you're saying, the three of them together are pretty much unstoppable," I said glumly.

"Uh-huh. Nox blinds their victim so they don't see anything at all and Keros makes them feel a pain greater than anything they've ever experienced. Then, while the victim is incapacitated, Thanos goes in for the final kill–a beheading."