Shadows Of Devotion

Chapter One

The war room of Mount Olympus was a cavern of polished obsidian and gold, suffocating under the weight of an impending slaughter. Across the massive, circular marble table lay the sprawling parchment maps of the lower realms, heavily weighed down by carved iron markers that represented the encroaching vanguard of the enemy forces.
Lord Lukkai stood at the head of the table, his knuckles bone-white as he braced his formidable weight against the stone. The heavy, gold-trimmed black himation draped over his broad shoulders seemed to absorb the flickering torchlight. A localized, volatile current of air-a manifestation of his escalating fury-swirled dust and loose parchment edges violently around his heavy leather boots. He fixed a glare of pure, unadulterated disdain across the table at the young god sprawling carelessly in a high-backed cedar chair.
Zeus was a portrait of divine apathy. He idly tossed a crackling sphere of raw, blue-white electricity between his hands, the erratic flashes illuminating the sharp, pristine lines of his jaw and his effortlessly draped sapphire sash.
"You fail to grasp the gravity of our precipice," Lukkai growled, the gravel in his deep voice echoing sharply against the vaulted ceiling. "The southern phalanxes have already been completely decimated. They are marching on the mountain as we speak, and your strategic contributions thus far have been absolutely fucking abysmal."
Zeus caught the orb of lightning and let it dissipate into his palm with a quiet, sizzling hiss. He offered the mortal lord a patronizing, infuriatingly slow smile. "Your mortal anxieties are exhausting, Lukkai. You fret over infantry and supply lines like a terrified shepherd counting sheep. When they finally reach the base of Olympus, I will shatter their ranks with a single storm. Let them march."
"Let them march?" Lukkai slammed a heavy, ring-adorned fist onto the table. The marble fractured beneath his knuckles as a surge of his earth magic rippled outward, knocking several iron markers to the floor. "Do you have any goddamn conception of the bloodshed they bring? This isn't a petty tavern brawl for you to stroke your own ego. It is a systematic siege. If they breach the lower wards, the blood of my people-and my daughter-will be on your hands."
Zeus's eyes narrowed, a flash of genuine, electric irritation finally piercing his arrogant veneer. He sat forward, the air in the room suddenly tasting sharp with ozone. "Do not presume to lecture me on warfare, old man. You sit on a throne you merely borrow. The sky belongs to me, and so does the ultimate defense of this realm. My power is absolute."
"Your power is raw and dangerously undisciplined," Lukkai spat back, stepping away from the table, his salt-and-pepper beard bristling with hostility. "You are an arrogant bastard, utterly intoxicated by your own myth. If you stride onto that battlefield blinded by your own insufferable hubris, you will fall. And I will not allow your monumental fuck-ups to drag Luna into the abyss."
Zeus stood, his towering frame casting a long, imposing shadow over the maps. "Luna knows exactly who she is devoted to. She understands my strength better than you ever will."
Lord Lukkai's jaw tightened, the wind in the room howling into a sudden, suffocating silence. If only the foolish boy knew the catastrophic price of that devotion.