Suddenly, I felt a pulling sensation and was ripped away from the dream.
Zeus had woken her up.
I bolted upright with a gasp and found myself facing an angry-looking Melissa.
Though let’s face it. It’s not like she ever looked happy.
“What were you doing?” she demanded.
I frowned. “Taking a nap.”
“The truth. Tell me everything.” Her steely gaze made it clear I wasn’t leaving this room until I complied.
So I did.
Chapter XX
Hades
“There?” I pointed to a spot on the map in the middle of nowheresville Alabama. “You’re sure?”
“As sure as I can be,” Apollo replied. “She moves around a lot.” He drummed his fingers against Demeter’s teak dining room table. “You really think she’ll be any help?”
More than you. I smirked, but didn’t allow the thought to pass through my lips.
A knock on the half-open door brought my head up. Melissa peeked into the dining room. “Can I speak with you?” She gave Apollo a pointed look. “Alone.”
Raising an eyebrow, Apollo shot me a questioning look. I inclined my head, granting him permission to leave the room. When he passed Melissa, he turned back, eyes roaming over her in an appreciative once-over.
I caught his eye with my best over my dead body look. Persephone wouldn’t thank me if I let Apollo take advantage of her best friend.
Melissa shut the door on Apollo’s face, hard. “Can you shield us?”
Intrigued, I nodded and dropped a shield around the room so we couldn’t be overheard. “Something wrong?”
“Aphrodite told me what you have planned.”
I sighed and shoved my hair out of my face. “Of course she did. Look, Melissa. I appreciate your concern, but—”
“Don’t talk down to me. I’m every bit as old as your wife and a great deal smarter. Aphrodite said if you screwed up you’d be risking everything. Everyone. Is that true?”
Well…that was to the point. “I don’t intend to mess up.”
“You can promise you won’t?”
I opened my mouth. Closed it. No, I couldn’t. There was always a risk.
Her dark eyes locked to mine. “Yeah, I thought so. Why not give Aphrodite’s plan a shot? Have Persephone kill Zeus.”
“She’s not strong enough.”
Melissa snorted. “Yeah, you’ve known her for like five minutes. I’ve known her my whole life. She’ll kill him if she has to. If for no other reason than to keep us safe. She doesn’t like confrontation, but she’s pretty hardcore if she gets caught in a corner.”
“I know,” I assured her. “Persephone’s stronger than she thinks. But she doesn’t have enough power to defeat Zeus. And if we follow Aphrodite’s plan and convince everyone to swear over to her, she’ll die.”
Melissa chewed on her bottom lip. “She can get out of this. And she doesn’t need anyone else’s powers to do it.”
It was obvious by the troubled look in her eyes that she didn’t believe herself, but I wasn’t going to shatter whatever lies she told herself to sleep at night. “It’s good you have so much faith in her.”
Melissa shrugged. “It’s my job. Look, Hades, I love Persephone. And I love you for caring enough to risk everything to save her. Seriously. But she wouldn’t want you to do this, and you know it.”
I pulled out a chair and motioned for her to sit down. “Did you know Zeus’ realm used to be populated?”
She shook her head. I sat across from her and looked her straight in the eye. “Sentient creatures. As large a population as there ever was in this realm or Poseidon’s.”
“What happened to them?”
“Zeus. You don’t want him to win this, Melissa. He uses people up and then they die. I have entire sub-realms in the Underworld full of his victims. They deserve better than to be at his mercy again, and so does everyone in your realm. As much as I love Persephone, this isn’t just about her. It’s about every living being in creation. I can’t let Zeus happen to them.”
She swallowed hard and nodded. “I appreciate that. But as one of those living beings you’re protecting, can I give you some feedback?”
I smiled, amused. “Why not?”
“You’re overstepping. We don’t need you to protect us from Zeus. We don’t need you at all. If Zeus thinks he can take down the human race, he’s going to have another thing coming.”
Chapter XXI
Hades
I was still mulling over my conversation with Melissa when I left Demeter’s to track down Artemis. Demeter had finally granted me teleportation rights. Far too late to help Persephone, of course, but it could come in handy in the future.
A twig snapped beneath my foot. Swearing, I slapped at a mosquito. I didn’t care for forests, but this was where Artemis spent most of her time during hunting season. Apollo said she had a cabin out here…somewhere. I just needed to find it.
Another twig snapped. I frowned at my feet, but didn’t see any broken branches.
Something cold touched the base of my neck.
“Don’t move,” a gruff voice instructed.
I turned with a sigh, grabbing the gun out of the hunter’s hand before he could fire off a shot. Not that it would have hurt me more than that mosquito bite, but it could be damned uncomfortable, which made it at least as annoying.
The gun crumbled to dust in my hand, and I gave the stranger my least friendly smile. The blood drained from his face. Before I could comment on his predicament, a cry rang through the clearing.
“Diana!” The hunter spun on his heel and tore through the forest.
Diana? When Artemis’ pseudonym clicked, I swore and followed him, casting a shield as far ahead of us as I could see so our progress through the forest couldn’t be seen or heard. Before we reached a small clearing with a cabin, I threw a second shield at the hunter, freezing him in place.
I walked to the edge of the clearing. Beyond the shield, Zeus held a struggling woman just above his head by the throat. She pried at his fingers with both hands, legs kicking uselessly at the ground but finding no purchase.
“I can make this easy for you, or I can make it fun for me.” A grin spread across Zeus’ face. “Swear fealty now, and your death will be less interesting, but infinitely less painful.”
“No,” she gasped. Her body stiffened, muscles going rigid, and the smell of burnt flesh and ozone wafted through the clearing. Behind me, the hunter yelled, straining against the shield. Maybe I could sneak up behind Zeus and…no, shit, if he teleported with her, all bets were off. I closed my eyes, concentrating, and crafted a shield just above his head that took in the whole clearing, then dropped the shield between myself and Zeus out of necessity, but kept the one around the hunter. The last thing I needed to do was give Zeus more leverage.
Zeus started. “Hades. What a nice surprise.”
He lowered Artemis to the ground, spinning her to face me, looping his left arm around her neck, and gripping his right bicep. His right hand shoved her head forward. Grinning, he brought his elbows together in a tight chokehold. Sweat glistened against her caramel skin, plastering the dark wisps of hair that had escaped her ponytail to her face. Get me out of this, her eyes seemed to beg. I’ll owe you.
Shit.
“You’ve gone ten seconds.” Zeus gave me an expectant look. “When she drops, I’m gone.”
I inclined my head to the shield around him. “Unlikely.”
Zeus’ face twisted in a scowl. “We’ll see. Are you here to surrender your realm?”
“No.” My mind raced to find a way to trap him without Artemis getting caught in the crossfire. I could create an entrance to the Underworld and pull enough of my realm through to trap him in the same type of prison that held the Titans, but she’d be stuck with him.
It might be worth it.
“Then we have nothing to discuss.” Zeus tightened his grip around Artemis’ throat, and she slump
ed in his arms. “Except, I’ve been meaning to get this to you.” He took advantage of Artemis’ lapse in consciousness long enough to reach in his pocket and toss something to me across the clearing in a blur of pink. Artemis regained consciousness, sputtering for breath. She lurched forward, but he had her back in the chokehold in seconds.
I caught Persephone’s phone out of reflex. It took me a second to place the picture of the mangled mass of flesh on the screen as something humanoid, much less recognize it as my wife. My stomach lurched.
“There’s some great videos on there too,” Zeus informed me. “In case you need some incentive to change your mind.” As if on cue, Persephone’s screams burst from the phone’s tiny speakers.
I yanked on the power of the Underworld, ripping it through the earth in my rage. Artemis’ eyes widened as she realized what I was doing. “I swear fealty!” she cried as the ground split beneath her. Her dark eyes met mine, and before I could say anything to stop her she added, “To Hades.”
Her power flashed through me, knocking me off balance just long enough for the shield above Zeus to flicker. He growled and threw her to the ground.
“No!” I shouted as Zeus leapt into the air and vanished.
Artemis stood and faced me, movements slow and deliberate. “You were going to trap me with him?”
I pocketed Persephone’s phone and dropped the shield around Artemis’ boyfriend.
Artemis’ gaze didn’t even flicker in his direction. “Answer me!”
“You wouldn’t like what I have to say.”
“Diana!” The hunter ran to her, but she held out a hand, keeping him at arm’s length.
“I wouldn’t like what you have to say? You were going to trap me in Tartarus with that sadistic son of a bitch, and all you can say for yourself is that I wouldn’t like what you have to say!” Her dark eyes blazed with fury. “What the hell is wrong with you, Hades? We go back, way back. I thought we were friends, but you were willing to abandon me, for what, some slip of a girl you just met?” She held her chin up, using every inch of her five feet to try to make me feel small, but I wasn’t having it.
“You could have teleported!” I threw my hands in the air. “You could have escaped before he so much as touched you. What the hell were you still doing here?” Her gaze flickered to the hunter then back to me, the movement almost imperceptible and probably unintentional. I let out a dark laugh. “Protecting your latest human pet? I kept him out of the line of fire for you, but since you were so determined to swear away your sanity, I sure as hell wasn’t going to put my wife on the line to stop you. Here—” I stepped forward, grabbing her shoulder and shoving her powers back into her before breaking the bond of fealty with a snap.
She stumbled and suddenly a hand yanked on my shoulder. “Don’t touch her!” The hunter shouted, fist flying toward my face.
I caught it in a bone-crunching grip.
“Stop!” Artemis darted between us. “Oh, Ryan—” She took his hand, and I felt a pinprick of power flow between them as she healed him. He stared at her, wide-eyed.
“What the hell is going on?”
“It’s a long story.” Her shoulders slumped, and she returned her attention to me.
“He comes with us.”
“Like hell!”
“I’m not stupid, Hades. Zeus has your wife, and you want him dead. I’m one of the few people who can make that happen.” She tilted her chin up, eyes glittering with defiance. “If you want my help. He comes too.”
Chapter XXII
Persephone
“I’m impressed.” Zeus still looked like Hades as he stroked my cheek. “I didn’t expect you to hold out this long.”
Thinking of the pearl Aphrodite offered me, I realized she’d been right all along.
Death could be a mercy. The torture blended together in such a painful haze that I’d lost the ability to distinguish between the waking world and dreamscapes. Propped up against that familiar wall of mist, my hand clutched my necklace. I was crushing the poor plant, but I couldn’t seem to loosen my grip.
I’d been prepared for pain when Zeus stormed into the room, but he seemed even more agitated than usual. And he’d taken it out on me.
Gods, I was in so much pain. It was probably a dream. If he wasn’t electrocuting me anymore, I was most likely dreaming.
“The question is how are you still refusing me? You’re not this strong.”
Sometimes he looked like Hades when I was awake though. It was hard to tell. Was I awake, or was I sleeping?
Did it matter?
He was still talking. As he launched into his insulting tirade, I smiled to myself. Zeus was losing ground. The list of insults grew shorter by the day. He could no longer call me weak because of what I’d survived, he couldn’t call me common because he couldn’t figure me out, and he’d even lost stupid because he knew I would have broken by now if I hadn’t found some way around swearing fealty.
Sure, he could still say hurtful things. Terrible things if I allowed myself to focus on them. But the shock of hearing insults from Hades’ voice had long since worn off. Besides, I was in high school. I’d heard way worse.
I couldn’t allow myself to look too comfortable. When Zeus saw something wasn’t working, he found some new hell to put me through. Each of his ideas was worse than the last.
Was I dreaming? I’d figured out how to tell once, but I’d forgotten when I came to. It was something important. Something I might be able to do next time I was under.
Zeus’ face rippled, twisting back to his own features. “They’re building an army down on the surface. Just to find you. Every remaining god under one roof, driven together for a common purpose.” He grinned, like that made him happy for some reason. “What makes you so special?” He looked at me like he wanted to slice me open and see what made me tick. “What does he see in you?”
There was a way to tell. The memory slid around my brain like water, but I couldn’t grab hold of a thought long enough to think it. He’d broken my mind, shattered it into a thousand pieces. Meh, who needed recall abilities? Something in my mind was whole and present, otherwise I wouldn’t still be walking and talking. The longer I sat here, the more it healed. “Their common purpose isn’t me. It’s you. Everyone hates you enough to want you dead. Can you blame them?”
“I was their hero once.” He almost sounded sad.
I snorted and rolled my eyes, letting my head loll against the wall of mist. This was as close to rest as I got. I was going to take advantage of it. “And now you’re psychotic.” I shrugged. “It happens.”
His eyes narrowed. “Your mother didn’t seem to mind.”
Oh, he had not just gone there. “I’ve never had to ask what her biggest regret was.”
“You?”
I laughed. “Hardly. She loves me more than anything. But I guess you wouldn’t know what that’s like. Your parents thought you were an abomination—”
“Shut up.”
In a flash, I remembered. Most of my powers didn’t work in his realm, but I could set the rules in my own head. “My mom hates you, you know. But I guess that shouldn’t surprise you. I can’t think of a single person or deity who doesn’t.” When I was sure his attention was fully on me, I concentrated on using my powers. A small red poppy grew in the corner of the room behind Zeus.
A dream, perfect. Fractured pieces of the plan I put together during the rare times I was conscious enough to think came to me. I drew in a deep breath. I’d never tried anything like this before, so there was a big chance my plan wouldn’t work. But at this point I’d take any chance, no matter how slim. “You created Aphrodite to be loyal to you, and even she can’t stand you.”
Rage reddened his face. “You’re going to want to be very careful what you say to me.”
I concentrated hard enough to make vines shoot around his legs, holding him in place.
“You’re in my head, remember.” I was probably going to regret this when I came to. But r
eally, he already tortured me all day. What did I have to lose? Stepping outside of my dream, I called “Adios.”
My mind closed to all visitors, locking down my dreamscape without me in it. I didn’t know how that worked or how soon Zeus would be able to get out, but if I could keep Zeus occupied even for a few minutes…
My eyes shot open, and I sprang out of bed. Throwing open the door to the bedroom, I looked up and down the misty hallway. Which way led to the exit?
Turning right, I sprinted down the hall until I came to a huge room filled with sunlight and a massive door of mist. I pulled it open and gaped at the endless sky that spread in all directions. If there was land beneath me, I couldn’t see it. I swallowed hard. This was probably going to hurt.
Chapter XXIII
Aphrodite
I yawned and inspected my nails. Divine meetings were boring as hell.
Hades stood in the front of the room, his dark clothes sucking in the cheery brightness of Demeter’s home like a black hole. “Who are we missing?” Hades paused, deep in thought, gaze fixed on Demeter’s white couch. “Is anyone else still around?”
“Hebe?” Ares suggested. He hadn’t shed the jacket, despite the stifling heat of the overcrowded home.
I winced, expecting an onslaught of information and images to rush over me, but there wasn’t much to know about Hebe. She was the goddess of youth, and apparently—
“Dead,” Hades confirmed.
I would have thought a goddess of youth would be safe. This culture seemed to worship it enough.
“Eileithyia?” one of the muses asked, referring to the goddess of the pain of childbirth.
Wait, seriously? I racked my brain and came up with hundreds upon thousands of useless gods of mists and doorways and clouds. No wonder so many of the gods were dead. What a waste of worship.
“She didn’t last very long after they invented the epidural.” Demeter sat on her couch, feet tucked under her, drinking a cup of steaming tea. If having so many deities running freely through her home bothered her, she didn’t show it.