25. Hades
HADES
S omething akin to guilt pricks me as I sit in my private office and turn on my computer.
Leaving Hercules and Meg in my bed was harder than I anticipated.
They fit there, just like I suspected they would.
We fit. The knowledge still sits strangely with me.
Hercules may give himself freely and without reservation, but that’s not the man I am.
I know my Meg cares deeply for him. Despite herself, perhaps, but it’s there all the same.
My feelings are a bit more complicated.
It takes the space of a few moments to cut the video down to size, a thirty-second clip that sends the message I require.
I attach it to the email and hesitate. Hercules all but gave permission for this.
He wants to cause his father pain, and he’s willing to play whipping boy to ensure it happens.
Meg and I have our own reputations, and this video will do nothing to damage them, even if it’s shared widely.
And I highly doubt it will be shared. That’s not what this is about.
It’s simply to reinforce my message to Zeus.
Your son belongs to me .
He does, albeit in a way I never could have anticipated.
Becoming entangled in Hercules, allowing him to attach himself to the one relationship I value above all others…
I only meant for it to be temporary. A fix to bind Meg and I together until we could find our footing again.
I never expected for him to fit in a way that could work in the long term.
I can’t say I’m sorry it’s happened. Because he does fit.
He softens our sharp edges and makes us stronger as a unit.
I care about him.
Perhaps that is what’s causing this strange hesitation.
I protect what’s mine, regardless of the reason it came under my influence.
I should have anticipated my instincts fighting against my actions.
Hercules knows what he signed on for. Even if he doesn’t, there is no turning back now.
I’ve gone too far, come too close. It’s not a true balancing of the scales, but it’s close enough.
Fifteen years ago, I would have killed Hercules at the beginning and been done with it.
I’m not sure I’ve changed for the better, regardless of how much I enjoy the ultimate outcome.
My body moves before my mind can alter course. I click to send the email. My careful exhale doesn’t make me feel better about what I’ve done. I have no use for guilt. I don’t torment myself with it the same way my two lovers do. What’s done is done and that’s the end of it. At least for now.
My phone rings. I know who it is even before I answer. “Yes?”
Zeus doesn’t make me wait long. “Release him.”
Satisfaction curls through me, the perfect counterpoint to the tension in his tone. I smile and lean back in my chair. “I don’t think I will. He so enjoys being trapped by me.”
“That is my son’s throat you have your cock shoved down in this video.” He pauses and, when he speaks again, a false calm bleeds into his words. “He’s a good boy, Hades.”
“Yes, he’s a very good boy.”
He growls at the innuendo. “You have a problem with me, you come at me .”
I could laugh. I wrap up the urge and tuck it away. “You know better. An eye for an eye. You should be grateful I’m not planning to kill him the same way you murdered my son.”
“Better he be fucking murdered than in your bed.”? 2 His volume increases with every word. “I won’t stand for this, Hades. You have twelve fucking hours to return him to me or you’ll pay the price.”
“I’ve already paid the price, old friend.” I hang up.
The expected jubilation never arrives. Instead, Zeus’s words play back to me.
You’ll pay the price . A threat, and I’m not fool enough to ignore it.
Neither am I inclined to return Hercules to him.
The man made his choice, for better or worse, and now we’re all going to live with it.
He chose us, not his family, not Olympus.
This is exactly what I wanted when I set out on this path: Zeus enraged enough to come for me.
Still…it may be prudent to make security aware of a possible threat to our people.
I send a quick text to Allecto. She’ll ensure all precautions are covered.
There have been a few missteps in recent months, but none of those involved allowing people into the building who aren’t supposed to be there.
Several guests have abused my hospitality—an altogether different problem.
We’re a fortress in the form of a skyscraper. Zeus cannot touch us here.
I push back from my desk, a nervous energy zinging through my old bones.
Even knowing better, I can’t shake the feeling that I’ve made a mistake somewhere along the way.
That perhaps I should have turned my back on this final vengeance, no matter how tempered.
I walk to the closest bookshelf and pull out an old copy of Aesop’s Fables .
? 3 It’s weathered and aged and holding it in my hands brings a dull ache to my chest even after all this time.
It’s a reminder of another life. I flip open the cover and there they are. My lost ones.
I hear her behind me, her footsteps as familiar as my own. “I used to read this book to my son every night. He was too young to understand, but it calmed him.”
Meg stops. “I still can’t believe you never told me about them.” She can’t quite keep the accusation out of her voice.
“It still hurts to talk about them. It’s easier to force forgetfulness.”
She takes another step, moving around the desk to stand at my shoulder. “But you didn’t really forget them, Hades. Not if you’ve been spinning out this plan for revenge.”
She’s not wrong. “Would you believe that I wanted to spare us both pain?”
“Yes, but that doesn’t make it right.” She wraps her arms around herself. “Don’t you think the time for that has long since passed?”
I shift to include her in this painful walk down memory lane.
Meg moves until her arm presses against mine.
I tilt the book. “This is one of the few pictures I have of them. The others were lost.” I mourned that loss for a long time, but perhaps it’s for the best. Better to let their ghosts rest, to let the memory fade.
It doesn’t cease to cause pain, but it’s not a constant, low hum in the back of my mind.
“May I?”
I hand her the picture. As she studies the photo, I study her face.
What does she see? A pretty, young blond woman with a dark-haired baby boy in her arms. They’re wearing white, which only adds to the surreal nature of the entire thing.
Meg finally looks at me, her blue eyes shining. “They’re beautiful.”
“They were, yes.”
She carefully passes back the picture, and I replace it inside the book.
Meg is obviously working up to something, so I slide the book back onto the shelf and give her a moment to find her voice.
This is a conversation we should have had long ago, and it’s only my reluctance to open old wounds that delayed it. A mistake. I see that now.
Finally, she sighs. “You told me you didn’t want kids.”
“I don’t.”
“Hades, look at me.”
I turn to face her. Meg’s dressed in the same robe she wore for the trip from Hercules’s bedroom to mine. Another time, I would take that as a clear invitation. Not this morning.
She’s right. This subject deserves my full attention.
She deserves my full attention. Instinct demands I change this topic, avoid this old pain.
I ignore it. “When I was young, I thought I was invincible. I married Amber in a whirlwind romance because it seemed the most natural thing in the world, and she was pregnant within a few months.” I lift my hands but let them fall without touching her.
“I was a different man before Zeus killed them. I wanted different things. When I crawled out of the pit their deaths put me in, I promised myself I wouldn’t repeat the same mistake.
No innocents to depend on me. Especially no children.
” I finally meet her gaze and she’s looking at me with her battered heart in her eyes.
“I didn’t lie, Meg. I withheld the reasons I felt the way I did, but I didn’t lie. ”
“You should have told me,” she whispers.
“I see that now.” I’m not used to making missteps. Not on this scale. “I’m sorry, love. It still hurts at times, and in my attempt to avoid that pain, I didn’t think about the harm it would cause you.”
She leans against my desk and crosses her arms over her chest. “Hades…your plan sucks. It will piss Zeus off knowing that you have his son, but from all you and Hercules have said, you’re out of your mind if you think he won’t retaliate.”
“I have it covered.”
“No.” She shakes her head. “No, we’re not doing that again.
If you meant what you said last night, then you’re going to loop me and Hercules in on the plan, and we’re going to discuss it.
We can play submissive at your feet when we actually play, but this is too serious for you to try to shield us.
We made our choice. We’re in this with you, for better or worse. ”
There’s no point in arguing. I cannot effectively protect them if they actively fight against the precautions I put into place.
The only way to ensure they work with me is to include them in the conversation.
No matter how much I’d like to shield them.
I finally nod. “I’ll arrange a meeting with Allecto to go over things this afternoon before the club opens. ”
“Thank you.”
We stare at each other for a long moment before I sigh. “I’ve made a mess of this.”? 4
“We both have.” She pushes off the desk and steps into my arms. “We just need a little course correcting.” Meg gives a faint laugh. “A lot of course correcting.”
I think of the man we left in my bed and can’t help the wry smile that pulls at my lips. “Somehow, I think Hercules will single-handedly bully us back onto the path.”
“I think you’re right.” She smiles up at me. It’s far more tentative than it would have been even a year ago, and I mourn the lost time. I know better than anyone not to take things for granted, but I’ve done exactly that with this woman.
I brush her hair back from her face. “I don’t deserve you.”
“I think we can both agree that if any two people deserve each other, it’s us.” She turns her head and kisses my wrist. “Don’t shut me out again. I can’t bear it.”
“I won’t.” A promise I likely have no business making, but one wrong word could send this fragile balance between us shattering into a million pieces.
I won’t willingly break it. The thought of losing her…
“You are everything I never knew I needed, love. A partner in every way. An equal in every way. You don’t shy from my less savory traits. One could argue that you relish them.”
“I do. Sometimes it’s despite myself, but I do.” She leans into my touch. “What happens now?”
That was the question, wasn’t it? “We wait to see how Zeus reacts. Then we adjust from there.”
Meg smiles, though sadness still lingers in her eyes. “Hades, that’s a horrible plan.”
“He can’t penetrate the Underworld’s defenses. I’ve spent all my time here ensuring that this place is a fortress.”
“Yes. But even a fortress can’t provide for every need. We have to leave eventually. To stay trapped here is to let him win.”
She’s right. “I simply need the appropriate leverage.”
“You figure that out.” She takes my hand. “In the meantime, come back to bed.”
1 ? Bro is really out here contemplating releasing a sex tape without Hercules’s consent, and it seems very reasonable. Hades, SMH.
2 ? Zeus, in a nutshell.
3 ? This book is kind of fucked up if you start digging into the fables, the same way so many old children’s tales are seriously messed up.
4 ? DO YOU THINK SO, HADES? (I love him.)