Chapter 40
To Cheat Death
HADES
“What do you think you are doing, Hades?”
I straighten on my uncomfortable throne.
“Fuck,” Charon mutters beside me. Because he recognizes that voice, too.
Sure enough, out of the shadows of the pillars, a figure emerges. The god of death who once so patiently shared his teachings with me when I was younger and out of control.
Anubis.
The Egyptian god walks toward me, dressed in a simple linen, kilt-like schenti, his onyx-skinned human chest, ridged with muscles, bare. His head is that of a jackal with inky black fur, his long, pointed ears twitching, and his brown-and-gold eyes are narrowed on me.
One of my siblings must have summoned him.
At least he isn’t holding his crook, the infamous staff with its curved end. I take it as a sign that he’s here to negotiate, not go to war with the King of the Greek Gods.
“This isn’t your fight, old friend,” I tell him.
His jackal lips pull back, only slightly showing his teeth. A warning. “It is my fight if you unleash what’s down there.”
Fuck.
I can’t fight my siblings, any other gods their deaths will bring down on me, and Anubis, too.
My skin prickles a heartbeat before another figure emerges from the shadows.
Hecate.
“Not you, too,” I whisper. She is both goddess and chthonic being, part of the balance of the Underworld. And she’s supposed to be standing in for Charon while he’s here with me.
She flinches, but she stands her ground. “I can’t let you let them out.”
Anubis moves forward, pulling my attention. “If you don’t let this idea go, then you leave us no choice. We will have to destroy Tartarus and all the souls within it.”
No. Fuck no. He can’t do that. “You don’t have that power.”
“Not alone, I don’t,” he agrees softly.
Then another figure arrives, and another, and another. They show up in numbers. All the gods who touch or wield death throughout the world position themselves around my throne in a semicircle meant to trap me.
What the fuck do I do now?
My gaze narrows on Zeus, who can’t hold back a hint of a smile. He did this. Somehow, while standing before me, he called them here.
“If it’s a fight you want, brother,” I say, “then you’ve got it.”