Chapter 24 Hades #2
I inhale sharply, feeling mine return.
The fight is over. Our powers are back, and the cultists are dead.
Silence settles over the destroyed penthouse, broken only by labored breathing and the drip of blood on marble.
"What the fuck was that?" Poseidon wipes blood from his split lip, expression dark. "Coordinated assault with our powers blocked? That's not mortal planning."
He's right.
This was too precise. Too well-timed.
The attack started seconds after the bond flickered back to life. Seconds after I felt Ophelia being drained.
Not a coincidence.
A distraction.
Fuck.
Fuck.
Fuck.
"Where's Zeus?" Poseidon asks.
I turn toward the door where he went to "make calls." He wouldn't have been taken by the mortals, so the fact that he isn't in here gives everyone pause.
Hecate's eyes widen. "He left before the attack."
"How convenient." Poseidon's voice is cold.
I shake my head. "Too convenient. Zeus loves a fight."
I stride to the door, throw it open. The deck is empty. There's no sign of Zeus. Leaning down, I grab his phone.
Hecate looks at me with wide eyes. "You don't think—"
"What?" Poseidon asks.
"It was a distraction," I mutter. "They blocked our power…."
Understanding crashes over all of us like ice water.
Zeus was taken.
The King of the Gods was bested by a cult.
I press my hand against my chest, reaching for the bond.
It flickers.
On.
Off.
On.
Each moment of connection shows me less of Ophelia. Her presence growing fainter. Her life force dimming.
She's still fading.
And Zeus is gone.
"It's not just the cult." I turn to face Hecate and Poseidon, shadows rising around me despite my depleted power. "Someone else is involved. Someone who could block our powers. Who knew exactly when to strike. Mortals couldn't do that, even if they have some divine power. This is more than that."
"A god." Hecate's voice is grim. "It has to be."
"But which one?" Poseidon frowns. "Zeus is the obvious suspect, but—"
"It doesn't matter." I cut him off, cold fury settling into my bones. "Whoever it is, they made a mistake."
"What mistake?" Hecate asks.
"They let me feel her." I press harder against my chest, willing the bond to stabilize. To stay. "For just a moment, I felt exactly what's happening to Ophelia. Someone is draining her divine essence. Pulling her power out of her."
"Demeter." Hecate's eyes widen. "It has to be. She's the only one who would—"
"Who would need Ophelia's power to restore herself." The pieces snap together with terrible clarity. "Zeus said that Demeter is more than an echo now. She's using Persephone's divinity to sustain herself, but she can't do it for long."
The bond flickers again.
This time, I'm ready. I grab onto the connection with everything I have, following it back to its source, searching desperately for any hint of location.
Cold. Dark. The smell of earth and growing things.
Then nothing.
Gone again.
But I felt something. A direction. A pull.
Not enough to pinpoint her location. But enough to know she's still in the city. Still close.
Still alive.
Barely.
"We need to move." I head for the door, stepping over cultist bodies. "Now."
"Where?" Poseidon follows. "You said you couldn't locate her."
"I can't." I grab my phone, already pulling up contacts. "But someone helped coordinate this attack. Someone with enough power to block three gods simultaneously. That's not minor magic, and it's not Demeter, which means we've got another player on the board."
"It has to be one of the majors," Hecate says.
"We need to find out who. Aphrodite, Hermes, and Ares are still in town. Find them."
"Why would they help Demeter?" Hecate shakes her head. "Aphrodite hates her. They've been enemies since—"
"I don't care why." Shadows pulse around me, responding to the rage and fear churning in my chest. "I only care that they did. And when I find them—"
The bond flickers.
Weaker this time. So weak I almost miss it.
Ophelia's presence is barely a whisper. A candle flame in a hurricane.
Dying.
"She doesn't have much time." My voice comes out rough, desperate. "Whatever Demeter is doing to her, it's killing her. We need to find her now."
"Then we search every temple, every cult compound, every place Demeter might—" Hecate starts.
"No." I cut her off, something cold and certain settling in my chest. "They have Zeus, which means time is up. We find them now."
The prophecy. The child Zeus is supposed to father on Ophelia.
I feel sick.
"They have them both." The realization makes my blood run cold. "Ophelia and Zeus. The prophecy requires both of them. Demeter isn't going to wait."
The bond flickers one last time.
And then, just like my powers were, it's gone.
"Whoever is helping them has the power to block us. They are a threat, which means they are no longer family. We find them, they die."
Poseidon and Hecate exchange a glance. I expect them to argue. After all, we made promises years ago. But after a beat, they simply nod.
"Let's end this," Hecate says.
I nod, and then I do something I haven't done in a millennia.
I pray, actually pray, that I'm not too late.
That there's still enough of Ophelia left to save.
Because the alternative is unthinkable.
The alternative is losing her forever.
And I can't survive that.
Not again.