A Nereid for the Titan – cover reveal and teaser!

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And here’s the prologue for you:

Prologue

Where was Pherusa?

She promised to meet him here at dusk. They couldn’t hide from Zeus on land, but her father had Poseidon’s ear and convinced him to offer them asylum underwater.

Zeus was closing in. Prometheus heard the thunderstorm that carried the chariot of the self-professed Father of Gods. They had to go now. Why wasn’t she here?

Something glimmered in the distance, making the moon ripple on the still, dark waters.

“Pherusa?” Prometheus tried to keep his voice low, but hope and relief made it waver. He waded into the sea, toward her. He couldn’t blink to her, since using his powers would catch Zeus’ attention, but he didn’t have to swim there, either; the motion he’d seen wasn’t that far out. He wasn’t at his full height, but even like this, he was easily as tall as two human males.

Thinking of humans wrapped him in a veil of sadness. He’d had such hopes for his creation. He’d teach them love and trust and honor and empathy. Zeus had promised to care for them, but had instead used them first to feed his power and then as easy targets in his fight against the Titans.

Some of the Titans. Prometheus never supported Cronus, and neither did most of his brothers and sisters, yet with his father defeated, Zeus turned against them all. Prometheus had run from the Olympian for thousands of years, until he met a Nereid as beautiful as Aphrodite herself. Now he didn’t want to run anymore. He ached to build a life with her. A life that would begin tonight.

Where was his love? The water reached his waist now, but her head hadn’t broken the surface.

“Pherusa?” he called out, a little more loudly this time.

Her tail sliced the water ahead of him. His little nymph wanted to play, and despite the direness of their situation, he found himself smiling. She was perfect, and would be all his tonight. Forever. Poseidon was known for being territorial; even Zeus wouldn’t dare attack someone his brother had granted asylum to. With the approval of the god of the sea, he and Pherusa would be happy and safe. Together.

Bubbles fizzled in front of him, and Prometheus plunged both hands in the water, hoping to close his palms around his Nereid’s supple curves.

Something burned his wrists, and he pulled his hands up with a wince, to see a golden rope wound around them, searing the skin it touched. Zeus’ lightning whip.

Prometheus tried to separate his wrists, to break free of his bonds. All he got for his troubles was the smell of charred flesh, as the binds dug deeper. He lifted his arms over his head and roared his frustration—not that he’d been caught, but for Pherusa’s betrayal. She was supposed to take him under, tonight. Bring him to her father’s hidden kingdom, Vythos, and mate with him. Instead…

Pain speared his chest, and a bright blue light blinded him.

He didn’t have to see, to know—Zeus had pierced him with his lightning.

Prometheus’ arms were free now, but he couldn’t move them. Or his legs. Or even his lips, to give Zeus a piece of his mind, when Zeus floated in front of him.

He was frozen in place, and to add to his plight, his mind wasn’t affected by the curse disabling his body.

“I’d take you to Olympus, to decorate my halls, next to Atlas and Hyperion, but I have enough statues there,” Zeus said with a smug smirk. “Besides, I heard you wished to live out your long life in the sea, so I’ll be magnanimous.” His shrewd expression belied his words even before his snapped his fingers and sent Prometheus tumbling into the dark, cold waters.

It felt like an eternity before Prometheus’ back hit the bottom of the sea, but his fall didn’t end there. The ground shifted, sucking him into a crater, and earth covered his still form.

He was buried alive, while inside he raged against the god who trapped him and the Nereid who betrayed him.