Chapter 27 Hades
Hades
Controlled chaos. That's what I would call this situation.
We've been mobilizing since we realized Zeus had been taken, but in truth, none of us know what the fuck we are doing, and we all know it. We can feel it.
Athena storms in, the last of us to mobilize. Her long hair is pulled back, and she's wearing her ridiculous glasses. But even she is not unaffected, and I can see the worry between her eyes and the wrinkles in her shirt.
"Status?" I ask.
"Ares has an alibi," she says without preamble. "Ironclad. He was in Dubai starting a war between two rival arms dealers. Dozens of witnesses who can confirm."
I release a heavy breath. Fuck. He was my most likely suspect.
"He also laughed in my face when I suggested he'd help Demeter." Athena's expression is cold. "Called her a 'desperate has-been clinging to relevance.' His words, not mine."
Accurate, but I don't appreciate the snark in this situation.
"I don't suppose he offered to help?" Poseidon asks.
Athena snorts. "When has he ever?"
I pace to the window, staring out at the Strip below. The neon lights blur together, meaningless noise while Ophelia is somewhere out there, trapped and hurting. I try not to think about what could be happening with Zeus.
It won't matter.
If I have to go to the ends of the Earth to bring her back to life, just like I did before, I will. I've proven that already.
"What about Hermes?" Poseidon asks from where he's sprawled on what's left of my furniture. We've been at this for hours, calling in every favor, tracking down every lead. "Any sign of the messenger?"
"None." Athena frowns. "He's been conspicuously absent lately. No one has seen him since—"
The air in the room shifts.
Darkness pools in the corner, deeper than shadow, older than night itself. When Nyx steps through, the temperature drops twenty degrees before things snap back into place.
"Nyx." I turn to face her, surprised. "What are you doing here?
" Nyx almost never involves herself in the affairs of the Pantheon gods.
She prefers to keep to herself, coming around only upon occasion, and normally showing herself only to me or Hecate: the two gods who most likely relate to her and her ancient power.
"I felt it." Her voice is soft, dangerous, and her violet eyes scan the room, taking in the other gods. Her mouth turns down. "Ancient magic has come alive. The kind that hasn't been used in millennia. It summoned me." She locks in on me. "What has happened?"
"Someone attacked us. Blocked our powers. Took Ophelia—" She raises a brow, and I remember that despite everything, she is not all-knowing. "Persephone," I say. "She's been reborn. They took her and Zeus because of Demeter's prophecy." Frustration bleeds into my voice. "And I can't find her."
Nyx moves through the destroyed penthouse. She pauses at the broken windows where the cultists entered, running her fingers along the frame. "Reborn?"
"Yes."
"Perhaps that is what you felt," Athena says. "Her power?"
Nyx shakes her head. "This was not the Fates. This magic was different. Old, but not quite as ancient." She turns to face us, and I see something flicker across her face. "I need to trace it. See where it's coming from. I don't like when there is power floating around that I'm not aware of."
"Can you combat it?" Hecate asks. "It's affecting our powers."
"Better yet," Athena says, "can you trace it? Whoever is blocking us clearly works with Demeter, and my guess is that she's keeping them close."
I nod. "It's what I would do."
Nyx is still looking out of the window. "Perhaps," she says, expression unreadable. "But I need time."
"We don't have time," I snap.
Before anyone can respond, Hecate reappears in the doorway, dragging a struggling Hermes by the collar of his expensive suit.
"Look who I found trying to flee the city." She throws him to the floor at my feet. He tries to get up, but Hecate keeps a heeled boot on his hand, digging in hard enough to draw blood, but not hard enough to pin him. "Seems very guilty to me."
"Hades, listen—"
"Explain."
He pales, and I know immediately. Hermes is the weak link.
"Demeter blocked my powers. She wouldn't let up unless I helped—"
I'm on him before he can finish, hand wrapped around his throat, lifting him off the ground.
"I didn't have a choice!" The words come out strangled as I press against his windpipe.
"How long?"
He gurgles, but I'm not ready to let up. I need an outlet for my rage, and he allows it.
"Did you help her coordinate the attack on my business? On my home?"
His eyes bulge and he tries to shake his head. If he were mortal, he'd be dead by now, but instead he's just turning lovely shades of red and purple.
"Hades." Nyx's soft voice penetrates my anger. "He cannot speak if he cannot take in air."
I sneer and drop him. He lands at my feet, but I allow him only a moment of peace before my shadows wrap around him, hauling him to his feet.
"Demeter promised to bring everyone back," he says, gasping for air. "The entire pantheon. She's got power. You've seen it. She could do it."
Hecate scoffs. "Demeter has never been the most powerful of us. Why do you think she'd be able to bring back what has been lost for so long?"
Hermes shivers, and I can see grief in his eyes. It does little to soften me. "She's been able to stop our powers—"
"That, dear Hermes, is not Demeter's doing," Nyx says.
"You would give all of us up to bring back the rest?" My shadows leak out further.
His hands go to his throat where I'm using divine power to choke him. "Do you not miss our brothers and sisters, our children, our family!"
"Fucking hell," Poseidon groans. "This is a mess."
Hermes's laugh is bitter, manic. "She has found a way. Ancient magic. A ritual. All she needed was Persephone's essence and Zeus's seed and she could anchor herself permanently. Use that power to bring the others back."
Athena's voice is sharp with disgust. "You sold us out for a group of gods who couldn't be bothered to help themselves?"
"She showed me!" Hermes is shaking now. "She showed me visions. Apollo's light. Artemis's silver arrows. She said they were waiting. That she just needed the right catalyst."
"Her daughter's death," Hecate sneers. "The murder and rape of another god."
Hermes shakes his head. "She said that she would be able to bring Persephone back. That we could all pool our powers—"
"Enough!" I howl. "Where is she?" My voice is dead calm now, all the rage crystallized into cold purpose. "Where is Demeter holding them?"
Hermes hesitates, and I am ready to pull his limbs from his body. Nyx is the one who saves him. She glides toward him, caressing a bony hand down his face. "Dear Hermes. You must let go of the past. Demeter cannot bring back anyone but herself. She is cruel to promise you what she cannot deliver."
Hermes sobs. "She promised—"
Nyx coos to him as though he is a child, and the sight sickens me.
But it works, and after a moment Hermes sniffs. "A temple. It's outside the city. She's been rebuilding it for years, using her cult."
I drop him. He crumples to the floor, gasping. "Let's go. Now."
"You can't." Hermes looks up at me, genuine fear in his eyes. "The temple is fortified. Military-grade weapons. Cultists everywhere. And she has a way to block divine powers: some kind of artifact. The moment you get close, you'll be as vulnerable as mortals."
"Then we fight as mortals," Poseidon says, cracking his knuckles.
"Against automatic weapons?" Hermes shakes his head. "You'll be dead before you reach the door. Without your divinity, you won't heal. You'll be more vulnerable than ever."
I crouch down to his level. "Isn't that what you want? To let her keep them?"
Hermes looks at me with wide eyes. "She could bring back our family, Hades. The pantheon could be whole."
I step forward, ready to end this, end him.
Nyx stops me. "The gods who faded are gone, Hermes. Truly over. Their power and divinity has moved on. Demeter is able to return because she did not fade. She became a parasite, latching on to a host, using her daughter's divinity to sustain herself."
"You can join them wherever they've ended up."
I move forward, but Hermes holds up his hands.
"I can get you in," he shouts. "She doesn't know you know I've turned. She'll let me through, and I can bring you with me, hide you somehow."
"She'll kill you the moment she realizes you betrayed her," Hecate points out. "And she'll be able to, since you won't have any powers."
"Probably." Hermes's smile is hollow. "But I'm dead anyway if I don't help. At least this way, maybe I can—" He swallows hard. "Stop her." He looks at Nyx. "If what you say is true—"
"It is."
"Then she played me, used me, and she deserves to get her ass handed to her for that."
I study him for a long moment, looking for the lie, the angle, the betrayal waiting to happen.
All I see is a desperate god who made a terrible choice and is trying to find a way out. Doesn't mean he's getting out of this without consequence, but he's the only one who can get me to Ophelia, and that saves him.
"If you're lying," I say softly, "if this is a trap, I will make your death last centuries. I will pull you into the Underworld and you will pray for mercy that won't come. Do you understand?"
"Yes."
"And after we get them out, you answer for what you've done. Every god you helped betray. Every life you put at risk. We will all want a pound of flesh."
"I know."
I stand, offering my hand. He stares at it for a long moment, then takes it.
"How long to get to the temple?" I ask.
"An hour by car. Maybe less if we push it."
An hour.
Ophelia has been gone for hours already. Hours I can't account for. Hours where anything could have happened.
I reach for the bond one more time, desperate for any sign of her.
Nothing.
Just that terrible, aching emptiness where she should be.
"Then we leave now." I head for the door. "Hecate, Poseidon, Athena, you're with me. Nyx—"
"I'll keep tracing the magic," she says. "See if I can find its source. But Hades—" She catches my arm. "Be careful. Whatever power is at work here, it's beyond anything I've felt in millennia."
"I don't care what power she has." I pull free of her grip. "Nothing is going to stop me from getting her back."
Nyx's expression is unreadable. "That's what I'm afraid of."
But I'm already moving, already planning.
Hermes leads us out of the penthouse, toward the parking garage. As we walk, I go over every detail, every possible complication.
The fortifications. The power-blocking artifact. The cultists with modern weapons.
We'll be walking in, mortal-level and vulnerable, against an army.
But I've fought wars before.
And I've never had more to lose.
We pile into the SUV: Hermes driving because he knows the way, me in the passenger seat, the others in back. The engine roars to life, and we peel out of the garage into the neon-soaked night.
Las Vegas blurs past us as Hermes pushes the speed limit, racing toward the desert beyond the city lights.
Toward Demeter's temple.
Toward Ophelia.