Chapter 16
Hades
“Will you put a fucking toga on, this is a formal meeting!” Zeus snapped as I appeared on top of his mountain, at the edge of his sky-high throne room.
“Will you learn to do what you're fucking supposed to, for once?” I barked back. Hera stood up from a long oval table and gave me a pointed stare. I clenched my jaw and changed my clothes to a black toga.
“Thank you, Hades,” Hera said and sat down again, gesturing for me to do the same. It looked like I was the last one to arrive. “I do not want this meeting to degenerate into an argument,” she said, looking between Zeus and I as I yanked a chair back from the table and sat down, arms folded.
“So, I suppose as usual we are going to pretend that Zeus has done nothing wrong?” I asked. My brother bared his teeth at me but said nothing.
“Zeus acknowledges that Eurynomos was stronger than he first thought.”
“Nobody listens to me,” I spat. “I've been telling you all for the last hundred years, each Eurynomos gets stronger than the last. It's the same with all the infernal fucking creatures in Virgo!”
“Are you saying you are worried about keeping them under control?” asked Athena.
“No. Absolutely not,” I lied.
“Then what are you saying?”
“That there is a reason they grow in strength. We should be trying to deal with it.”
“We have had this conversation before, it is an Underworld problem, not ours,” said Apollo dismissively.
“I assure you, it is not caused by anything in Virgo. Every sinner who crosses my path fuels the demons, and the number of sinners grows every damned minute. Olympus is filling people with greed and hate, and that is not my doing!”
Frustration was coursing through me. How many times did I have to tell them? How could I make them see what they were turning our world into, what the consequences of that would be, without admitting to them how much of my soul I had already lost to the darkness?
“If you become unfit to rule the Underworld, someone must take your place,” said Zeus quietly. Every pair of eyes fell on him.
“Are you volunteering to swap?” I asked him sarcastically.
I knew he would never relieve me of this duty. And it was too late anyway. Virgo was a part of me, I was bound to the realm too deeply to ever be severed. If I fell, it would be to the dead. I would become a part of the Underworld itself.
“You would be a poor ruler of the skies, brother,” Zeus said, still not meeting my eyes. “But I believe I owe you an apology.”
“What?” I wasn't the only one who looked shocked.
“The demons you preside over require more strength than I realized and we failed to heed your warnings. But do not take my admission of your strength as a compliment.”
His eyes finally settled on mine, and they were sparking with electrifying purple energy. Every instinct in my body fired a warning, and power surged through my veins.
“The darkness in that creature was pure destruction. And you must be full of it to have such dominion over him. You are more dangerous than I thought you were.”
I could feel myself growing, the monster awake and ready. If Zeus wanted to know just how dangerous I was, I would show him. Too long he had dismissed me, bullied me. And now he had experienced just a taste of what I dealt with daily, he sought to use it against me?
“You chose one of the strongest demons in my realm for Persephone to face because you wanted to torment me, because you wanted to watch me lose her, and now you are shocked when you discover how strong it is?” I laughed, long and loud, and Zeus's expression darkened further as he grew to match me.
“Brother, you have no idea what I am capable of. What I have always been capable of.” Blue light was rolling from my huge body, forming an army of souls that began lining up around me.
“You made me a king, Zeus. A King of the Dead. And I have all the power that entails.”
“And it will never match mine,” Zeus hissed. “Just because I can't control your fucking demons does not mean you are stronger than me. You would not be able to control my lightning!”
“Nor could I control Poseidon's waves, but I'm not the one fucking trying to! You behave like a spoiled child who wants to play with everyone else's toys and it will end us all!”
“You started this when you deliberately broke our rules and created the thirteenth realm. This is your doing, not mine.”
“Stop fighting like children!” bellowed Hera suddenly, standing up again.
“Zeus, you have tormented Hades by bringing Persephone back, and now you must deal with that. Hades, your feelings for Persephone are clouding your ability to perform your duties, and you must deal with that. Now sit down, both of you.” Her voice rang out so loudly it actually made my head hurt, and the blue army of the dead shimmered and vanished.
Slowly, we both began to shrink back down. I caught the amused look on Dionysus' face and resisted the urge to lash out at him.
“It is extremely important that we do not have a repeat of what happened before. I am referring to when Persephone was sent to Tartarus,” Hera said.
“I agree,” I ground out.
“Then you will understand that you must not watch the last Trial with us, but guard the entrance to Tartarus instead.”
“What? No! If Zeus loses control of the hell-hounds they could rip her to shreds!”
“Then at least you won't have to watch,” Zeus said with a cruel smile. Before I could leap from my chair at him, Athena stood, thirty feet tall before my ass could leave the seat.
“Enough! Olympus is more important than anything else, and Persephone has the ability to cause the end of it, or plunge us into another endless bloody war. Cronos killed how many immortals before we defeated him last time? And many strong Titan allies who helped before are now gone, and we do not know where. We must not risk his being freed for anything, or anyone.”
“Brother, you can't put one mortal above the safety of the whole of Olympus,” added Poseidon quietly.
My insides churned as I stared between them, my muscles so tense they throbbed. I couldn't argue. What they were saying was true, and if all eleven of them were in agreement...
“What if the one who sent her to Tartarus last time is an Olympian?” I said, playing my last card. Athena visibly flinched and Hera made a scoffing sound. “It's the only thing that makes sense, who else would know about Cronos? About what happened before?”
Every pair of eyes around the table bore into mine.
“You are so desperate you would accuse us?” asked Apollo, his voice hard. “Why would any of us want a war after building this place so perfectly?”
Perfect? Was he not listening every time I told them how twisted the souls entering my realm were becoming? Frustration welled through me, teetering on the edge of rage. I had to make them understand. But before I could say anything, Zeus spoke.
“Even if it is one of us, you need to guard Tartarus. You are Cronos' keeper, and you must be there if anything happens.”
“I can flash there in an instant if needed,” I spat.
“An instant might be all Cronos needs. The decision is final.”