Page 138 of A Touch of Chaos

“I am well aware that cell phones exist. I have one, yet who have I always relied on to deliver my messages? You.”

“Don’t make me feel guilty. I am powerless!”

Hades narrowed his eyes. “There is more to being a god than power, Hermes.”

“That is easy for you to say. When were you last without power?”

“In the labyrinth,” Hades replied.

Hermes’s face fell, and he paled. “Hades, I’m sorry. I—” He paused and then scrubbed his face with both hands. “Fine, I’ll summon Ilias and Apollo, but can you at least teleport me? I have no interest in trekking across the Underworld again.”

“Of course,” Hades said, his magic rising to meet the god’s demand.

“Wait! Let me get dress—”

But before Hermes could finish speaking, he vanished.

Hades had sent him to the mortal world completely naked.

Perhaps, Hades thought, it would give the media something else to talk about in the midst of the scandal Dionysus had caused.

Hades sighed.

Suddenly, his headhurt.

Hermes was fucking exhausting.

Hades returned to his chambers where he showered and shaved. Once he was dressed, he waited in his office for his allies to arrive. He had even poured a glass of whiskey, though it sat on his desk, untouched. While he might look like himself, he had never felt more different. It was hard to say exactly how he had changed. He only knew that in the coming days, weeks, and months, he would come to understand the full impact of his imprisonment, the same way he had when he’d been freed from his father.

He dreaded how it would manifest and mostly how it would affect Persephone, who was already dealing with her own trauma from her experiences with Theseus and Demeter. Now she was going to have to deal with what had happened in the labyrinth too.

He knew she was not well.

He could see it in her face and feel it in her energy, but mostly, he knew because of the things she’d said when she’d dissolved into tears in his arms. As he held her, he was acutely aware of how he had not managed to chase away her grief, how he’d left her vulnerable, how he had failed her.

He had brought her into this world, and he had not prepared her, believing that he could protect her from every evil thing, but in the end, he had saved her from nothing.

In the end,shehad savedhimfrom everything.

As he worried over what he had done, the mistakes he had made, he looked down at the glass on his desk, noticing a ripple in the amber liquid.

He frowned and then looked up just as the door burst open.

Ilias stood there, wide-eyed and wheezing. He had been running. When he saw Hades, he froze for a moment and then let out an odd, breathy laugh.

“You’re back.”

Hades hesitated. He did not know how to respond. He had not expected Ilias to seem so…relieved by his return. It made his chest feel tight.

Hades’s smile was brief and sincere.

“I am,” he said with a small nod. “What news?”

“Nothing good,” said Ilias. “Theseus made a public appeal for mortals to withdraw worship. He claims a god is responsible for the abduction of his wife and child.”

Ilias spoke as if he did not believe the demigod.

“Did he release the name?” Hades asked.

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