The Goddess Queen. Aimee Carter

      In all the years I’d existed, I’d never expected to be free.

      I was the daughter of Titans, and as such, I’d always accepted it as fact that they would rule. They were without question the most powerful beings in the universe, after all. They controlled everything and everyone. They were our makers. They were our gods.

      But after ten years of rebellion and war in an effort to protect humanity from our father’s twisted games, we were the gods now. Still in our infancy compared to our creators, my siblings and I now ruled over the world and all her inhabitants. And as I stared out across the great expanse that was our domain only minutes after our battle had ended, I felt something I thought would end with the war: I felt fear.

      It was unnatural. What did we, the captors of Titans, the new generation of gods, have to be afraid of? But the more I tried to picture the future, the clearer it became to me. We hadn’t inherited just the Titans’ thrones. We’d inherited their responsibilities, as well. And whether or not we were ready for it, the world was waiting for us. Humanity was depending on us to get it right.

      Lightning lit up the sky, followed by a symphony of thunder, and I snapped out of my reverie. My youngest brother let out a giant whoop that echoed for miles. “Try to beat that,” said Zeus, elbowing my middle brother, Poseidon.

      Poseidon scoffed. “That’s nothing. Watch this.” And with a wave of his hand, the sea below us roared to life, swirling ominously and creating shapes and shadows that danced across the water. Rushing forward, the waves crashed against the cliff we stood on, shaking the very earth.

      “Not bad,” said Zeus. “But I’ve seen better.”

      Before I could blink, Poseidon tackled him to the ground, and the pair of them proceeded to spend the next several minutes trying to pin each other down. If humanity was depending on us to get it right, they were in for several eons of disappointment.

      “Don’t look so sour, Hera,” said Demeter, my sister. She stood beside me, a smile playing on her lips as she watched our brothers wrestle. How she could find amusement in their lack of maturity baffled me.

      “Humanity’s going to crumble in a matter of weeks at this point,” I said. “They need guidance. Protection. Order and help in establishing a life without the Titans’ tyranny. Our brothers are not fit to rule.”

      “We are,” said Hestia from the other side of Demeter. Both of my sisters watched them with their heads held high, and they looked every inch the queens the world needed. “As is Hades. Zeus and Poseidon will grow up soon enough, I suspect.”

      “Never!” cried Zeus, and his booming laughter echoed across the ocean as he managed to gain the upper hand in their wrestling match.

      “See?” I gave my sisters a pointed look. “We’re doomed.”

      “I wouldn’t go quite that far yet.” Our eldest brother, Hades, stepped beside me, his dark hair whipping across his face in the wind. He offered me a small smile, and his eyes glittered with intelligence. Something our other brothers sorely lacked. “You did well, sister. If it hadn’t been for you, we would’ve never succeeded.”

      My cheeks grew warm. “You’re too kind,” I said with false humility. I knew as well as he did that by breaking the bonds of the Titans’ loyalty to one another, I’d cinched our victory. But the war was over now, and the six of us were a unit that not even I could break. United we had proven to be stronger than even our father, and if we were to have any chance of success, we had to remain that way.

      “Hardly.

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